Develop a right view of who you are in front of God and humility comes naturally

Humility is a particularly tricky virtue. Those who have mastered it do not instruct in it — and those who instruct in humility are rarely worth listening to. Something just rings false in a claim like, "I'm the humblest man I know!"

To be clear, I make no claims to be humble here, only to proclaim and explain what the Bible says.

Paul ends Chapter 5 of Galatians with the encouragement to "not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another" (Galatians 5:26).

Boasting, challenging one another and envy are either the result or source of a prideful attitude. In any case, pride is the cancer Paul describes. Pride is the obvious opposite of humility, the latter of which author and psychologist Henry Cloud describes as, "not having a need to be more than you are." Pride, then, would conversely be "the need to be more than you are." And isn't that what boasting, challenging and envy belies?

So what is the cure for pride? How can humility be accomplished? How can I stop feeling a need that I already feel so strongly?

John Dickson, author of Humilitas, offers another definition, "Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself." (You can tell by the number of books I quote on a subject how much I struggle with it.)

Though I like Cloud's definition a lot, I like Dickson's much better. The Christian life is about rising above feelings and making often contrary right choices. Thank God it doesn't depend on my fickle, selfish feelings!

And I think scripture would back him up.

After Paul exhorts the Galatians against pride, he goes on to ask them to give up of themselves for the benefit of each other.

The easiest people to elevate yourself above so you can look good are people who are caught in some kind of taboo sin. Have you ever been in a church where certain sins are opposed with a certain passion and verbosity though no one there seems to struggle with them (except maybe two or three)? Look at the very next verse in Galatians. "Even if anyone is caught in any trespass ... restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1). So instead of setting ourselves against each other in some kind of competition, we ought to join in the struggle with those who struggle with sin. Paul goes on to say, "Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." Somehow, without succumbing to the same sin, we are to help each other get stronger as we become spiritually stronger ourselves. We should each make "the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself."

Next, Paul goes on to encourage the Galatians to examine their own works as a basis for their attitudes toward themselves and each other. I think Paul's invitation to boasting in Verse 4 is offered a little sarcastically, especially as I examined my own work.

I began reading Romans in my daily devotional reading, and I came to a rather humbling passage. Romans 1:28-32 says this, "Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." If you didn't know me before I was saved, you do now.

If those were really my works before I was saved, and I can't take credit for the good things I've done since I was saved since "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20, remember?), then what do I have to boast in? In Edwin Starr's immortal words, "Absolutely nothing!"

So if we have nothing to be proud of, Verse 3 makes a lot of sense: "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

Verse 5, on the other hand, is one of the great mysteries of Galatians. Why would Paul talk about how we all need help and have no place for the "look at me" attitude, then assure us that "each one will bear his own load?"

In the answer lies an unexpected motive for becoming humble. Notice that Paul doesn't say, "should," but "will." If we are all sin-sick and we all help each other be well, then we will all get stronger as we develop and exercise humility. If buoying someone else's weakness seems unpleasant to you, the most permanent way out of doing so is to be humble and actually help them. As they get stronger, they won't need you as much. As a bonus, you get the benefit of growing through their struggle vicariously without suffering the consequences of their failure and become stronger yourself.

Even if humility seems unimportant as a virtue, it is at least valuable practically. If you want to develop humility, develop a right view of who you are in front of God and what you actually have to be proud of, then begin to help others who are in just as pitiful a state as we are.

Paul ends Chapter 5 of Galatians with the encouragement to "not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another" (Galatians 5:26).

Boasting, challenging one another and envy are either the result or source of a prideful attitude. In any case, pride is the cancer Paul describes. Pride is the obvious opposite of humility, the latter of which author and psychologist Henry Cloud describes as, "not having a need to be more than you are." Pride, then, would conversely be "the need to be more than you are." And isn't that what boasting, challenging and envy belies?

So what is the cure for pride? How can humility be accomplished? How can I stop feeling a need that I already feel so strongly?

John Dickson, author of Humilitas, offers another definition, "Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself." (You can tell by the number of books I quote on a subject how much I struggle with it.)

Though I like Cloud's definition a lot, I like Dickson's much better. The Christian life is about rising above feelings and making often contrary right choices. Thank God it doesn't depend on my fickle, selfish feelings!

And I think scripture would back him up.

After Paul exhorts the Galatians against pride, he goes on to ask them to give up of themselves for the benefit of each other.

The easiest people to elevate yourself above so you can look good are people who are caught in some kind of taboo sin. Have you ever been in a church where certain sins are opposed with a certain passion and verbosity though no one there seems to struggle with them (except maybe two or three)? Look at the very next verse in Galatians. "Even if anyone is caught in any trespass ... restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1). So instead of setting ourselves against each other in some kind of competition, we ought to join in the struggle with those who struggle with sin. Paul goes on to say, "Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." Somehow, without succumbing to the same sin, we are to help each other get stronger as we become spiritually stronger ourselves. We should each make "the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself."

Next, Paul goes on to encourage the Galatians to examine their own works as a basis for their attitudes toward themselves and each other. I think Paul's invitation to boasting in Verse 4 is offered a little sarcastically, especially as I examined my own work.

I began reading Romans in my daily devotional reading, and I came to a rather humbling passage. Romans 1:28-32 says this, "Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." If you didn't know me before I was saved, you do now.

If those were really my works before I was saved, and I can't take credit for the good things I've done since I was saved since "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20, remember?), then what do I have to boast in? In Edwin Starr's immortal words, "Absolutely nothing!"

So if we have nothing to be proud of, Verse 3 makes a lot of sense: "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

Verse 5, on the other hand, is one of the great mysteries of Galatians. Why would Paul talk about how we all need help and have no place for the "look at me" attitude, then assure us that "each one will bear his own load?"

In the answer lies an unexpected motive for becoming humble. Notice that Paul doesn't say, "should," but "will." If we are all sin-sick and we all help each other be well, then we will all get stronger as we develop and exercise humility. If buoying someone else's weakness seems unpleasant to you, the most permanent way out of doing so is to be humble and actually help them. As they get stronger, they won't need you as much. As a bonus, you get the benefit of growing through their struggle vicariously without suffering the consequences of their failure and become stronger yourself.

Even if humility seems unimportant as a virtue, it is at least valuable practically. If you want to develop humility, develop a right view of who you are in front of God and what you actually have to be proud of, then begin to help others who are in just as pitiful a state as we are.

What do you think?