Blog
“Humility”
Categories: Bulletin Articles, M. W. Bassford
Humility is everybody’s favorite virtue. . . for everybody else. Everywhere we go, we are struck by how highly everyone else thinks of their own thoughts and conclusions. My elders are stuck in the past, but they’re so sure of themselves that they don’t realize it! My friend thinks they’ve got it all figured out, and they keep on telling me how I need to do my business! My spouse thinks they’re God’s gift to marriage! And so on.
Of course, something else is lurking underneath all this, and it becomes clearer once we focus on our solution to all these perceived problems. How can the elders become savvier? By listening to me. How can my friend become less overbearing? By acknowledging that I understand things better than they do. How can my spouse stop being so arrogant? By admitting that I am the truly wonderful partner in the marriage.
That reveals a pride problem, all right. However, it’s probably not the pride problem that we think it is. If we are honest, to our lists of all those we think are arrogant, we probably should add our own.
Really, that’s just as well. We’re not called to make anybody else be humble, so whatever pride problems they have aren’t our problems anyway. We’re called to humble ourselves. In 1 Peter 5:5, Peter is quite clear. Humility is an outfit that all of us are expected to put on.
This means first of all not being quite so certain of ourselves. The fate of the congregation probably does not hinge on the elders doing things our way. Our friends probably will not end up dead in a ditch if they don’t listen to us. Our vision for our marriages probably is not the only godly way for them to be.
Second, we need to engage in some soul-searching. Why is it that it is sooo important to me to get my way in everything? Sometimes, the answer is that we’re simply that confident. More often, though, it is that we aren’t. The words and actions of others bother us because they make us doubt ourselves even more, and we want them to stop so we can feel better about ourselves.
Just as God calls on us to rein in our pride, so too He helps us to conquer our fears. As Peter observes just a chapter earlier, if we are devoted to what is good, who will harm us? Indeed, who can harm us? Not the people who ignore us. Not the people who call our judgment into question. Our security is not based on ourselves. It is based on Christ.
Once we recognize that, rather than sweating everything, we don’t have to sweat anything. No one can diminish us; no one can tarnish the eternal glory that soon will be ours. When we have put on the gentle and quiet spirit of 1 Peter 3:4, it doesn’t matter what storms rage outside because Christ is inside.
