HUMILITY

Philippians 2:1-11

“Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? ² Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor and gave Him the Name above all other names, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

True humility is demonstrated when the greater lowers itself to care for the lesser. When I state that Eric Clapton plays guitar better than me, that it not humility; that is honesty.

God is infinitely more perfect, more complete, more good, more just, more kind, more righteous, more holy than any human being. Yet God, Who is infinitely greater, demonstrated true humility by choosing to become fully human while still being fully God. Jesus Christ, Eternal God the Son, Incarnate Word of God, wrapped Himself in the finite, limited reality of a singular human being.

The One Whom the universe cannot contain, emptied Himself of His divine prerogatives and showed us Who God is and what He is like. To see Jesus Christ is to see the Father. That is why it is utterly vital to steep oneself in the eye-witness accounts of the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to see what God is like. There was nothing false in the humility of Jesus Christ. He genuinely humbled Himself to rescue the crown of His creation from the brokenness of sin and its ultimate “wage” of eternal separation from all the Goodness of God.

Now, there is a false humility and we see on display every day in our world. It is a thinly veiled pride that does what it does for the accolades of others. It always takes a camera to record “acts of mercy and kindness” photo ops to show how kind and humble one is as they feeds the poor. Jesus never did what He did for the sake of putting on a show. Often, when He healed broken people, He pulled them aside to do the miraculous so that it didn’t become some sort of side-show. In fact, He often told those He healed to tell no one about it.

Jesus Christ came to serve, not to be served. He came to give up His life, to lay it down in order that we might be restored to God. He died that we might live and receive Eternal Life. True humility doesn’t care if anyone notices what it does. Humility does what it does for the sake of those who need what it has.