Virtue Signals – Humility

Series Review

Today we finish our series on Virtue Signals – those ways we demonstrate to the world around us that we live differently.

• In our first week we talked about Faith. Everything that makes Christians live differently begins with faith in Christ and our salvation. Why would our lives be different from the world’s unless we affirm our belief in God and choose to live as He desires?
• In our second week we looked at Hope. In a world that watches the news and believes everything is going to hell in a handbasket, we Christians know how this whole thing will really end – with our eternity spent with God! The GOOD NEWS of that hope should change our attitude about how we interact with the world around us.
• Next, we tied together Paul’s teachings about Faith, Hope, and Love when we looked at Love – the greatest of these three virtues. We saw how Jesus taught us to love God, others, one another, and even our enemies. Love is the application of our faith.
• In our fourth week we considered the Grace and Truth that are found in Jesus Christ. We saw in Ephesians 2 how Grace is the free gift of salvation given to all who believe in Jesus. While we can’t offer saving Grace to others, we can live gracious lives of kindness and forgiveness toward others rather than displaying judgment and anger toward those who believe differently than we do.
• Last week we turned our attention to Truth and saw how God is the source of Truth; He gives us His Word and His Son. While people may look to the internet for what they want to believe, finding it there doesn’t make it true! God defines Truth. Our job is to look to Jesus and study the Word of God faithfully to uncover God’s Truth and live by it.

If you missed any of those messages, I encourage you to watch or listen to them. You can find every one of our messages in video, audio, or readable version on the church website: firstbaptistchariton.com. Additionally, they are all posted to Facebook, YouTube, and Google or Apple Podcast. We try to make it really easy for everyone to keep up with our messages or to share them with others who might benefit from them.

Humility

Today, we will wrap up our series by looking at a little-talked-about yet massively important virtue – and one deeply lived out by Jesus: the virtue of humility.

We don’t find much humility in our culture. Instead, we live in the era of celebrity. Taylor Swift attends a football game, and BOOM, the entire broadcast of the game is “Taylored” to her Swifties. Politicians make more money from book deals after they finish their terms than they ever made while in office. Musicians fill football stadiums. Children garner millions of views on YouTube as they make unboxing videos. Even pastors become celebrities, drawing attention from Christians across the nation.

We live in a world where fame is currency, and it seems everyone wants more of it!

Likely no one listening to this message struggles with wanting to be famous, but many of us do want to be seen as important or significant in some small way. That’s why so many middle-aged men relive their glory days of high school sports to their bored kids who have already heard the stories a thousand times. It’s why grandmas brag on their grandkids to their friends, sharing all the great achievements of their families. It’s why pastors tell other pastors, when we gather at an event, how many people attend our churches – to let them know how successful we are.

Our care and concern for how others view us is the opposite of what Jesus wants for our lives. When we put too much emphasis on what people think of us, it leads us to become proud if we are happy with what they think, or to feel ashamed if they are unimpressed. Neither of those is a healthy attitude! Instead, Jesus wants us to follow His lead and live a life of humility.

Humility as a Virtue in the Bible

We’ve probably all heard at some time that humility is a virtue; and when we turn to the Bible we see clearly that humility is praised and encouraged.

In Matthew 23:12 Jesus says, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 

The Apostle Paul says more than once that humility is to be a way of life for those following King Jesus.In Philippians 2:3 we read, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,” 

And in Colossians 3:12 Paul writes, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with… humility…”

Even the Apostle Peter chimes in on this when he writes in 1 Peter 5:5-6 – ⁵All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”  ⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

And there are many other verses we could have mentioned as well.

In Matthew 11, Jesus is dealing with rejection in several towns and cities in which He has performed miracles. He talks about how bad it is for them that they have rejected Him. Then He talks about how it can be problematic for those who consider themselves wise to see and accept Him and His kingdom. At the end of this moment, He makes this statement: ^28”Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Since this is a rare moment in the Gospels when Jesus says “learn from Me,” we should all take notice. He wants all of us to learn how to be gentle and humble in heart. The good news is, humility is something we can learn. It is something we can choose to put on.

However, the problem with trying to follow Jesus’s words and learn to be humble is that many people don’t know how to be humble. They think “humility” just means the opposite of “proud,” and so with a misunderstanding of what Jesus wants from His followers, they go in the wrong direction.

Wrong Responses to Humility

For Jesus to make a statement about humility would have been extremely counter-cultural in His day, much like it is for us now. No one talked about humility because no one valued humility. In fact, in the ancient world humility was seen as weakness and was spoken against. Nothing was more important than your family’s honor and your own status and reputation. (If you aren’t looking out for Number One, who is?)

This virtue of humility which Jesus taught answers the problem of pride. Pride is usually easy for us to identify. We see it when people puff themselves up, exalt themselves, and think more highly of themselves than they should. It is an attitude that says, “I am great just as I am.” We’ve all met that person, and most of us can’t stand that person!

With this attitude comes the desire to make sure everyone else knows just how great you are. You view yourself as better than others. You may not say it, but you think it, and you show it by how you interact with other people. You think, “I am great and you are not”; so you view others as beneath you. You diminish the success of others. You can’t celebrate another’s wins because they threaten your success. Your goal is to always achieve, always produce, always promote, always prove yourself. How exhausting that sounds!

In Jesus’s day, this took the form of religious leaders putting all sorts of burdens on people to perform and achieve for God. The leaders felt great about themselves because they could perform better than the commoners. The religious elites felt proud, and everyone else felt put down and not good enough. To the “everyone else,” Jesus’s words about being gentle and humble were a salve. It felt achievable. It addressed the people’s overwhelming feeling that was the opposite of the leaders’ pride.

Many of you may have thought, “Isn’t humility the opposite of pride?” Maybe not.

The opposite extreme of pride that some Christians go to isn’t humility, but shame. Pride says “I am the best.” Shame says, “I am the worst.” Pride says “There is no one better than me.” Shame says, “Everyone is better than me.” And often Christians who know they shouldn’t puff themselves up run to this opposite extreme. You’ve heard it before: “I’m just a sinner saved by grace; there’s nothing good within me.” The hymn “Alas and Did My Saviour Bleed” includes the lyrics “Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die. Would he devote that sacred for such a worm as I?”

Somewhere along the way, Christians bought into the idea that lowliness is holiness. Yes, Jesus went after the arrogance and pride of people in His day, but He also elevated the lowly. He recognized their dignity and lifted them up. We think that when we are called to humility like Jesus it means putting ourselves down. But when you look at the life of Jesus, you see that is not what He did. He didn’t walk around saying, “I’m a worthless nobody.” Think about this during the coming week: toward which of these two extremes do you more naturally lean – thinking more of yourself or less?

We think that when we are called to humility like Jesus it means putting ourselves down. But when you look at the life of Jesus, you see that is not what He did.

Real Humility

What are we called to? What does the humility of Jesus look like?

It begins with an understanding of who you are based on who God says you are.

If you feel like you are pretty good – better than most – you can fall into the trap of trusting your own achievements and capabilities rather than trusting Jesus. It leads you to pride.

If you feel you are not good enough, you may settle for being at the bottom of the barrel – letting people walk all over you because you are being “humble” when in fact you are really feeling shame.

In either situation, because you base your value and worth on how others perceive you, you care way too much about yourself. That, in turn, causes you to act in ways that are harmful to your relationships.

Humility says, “I know who I am. I know God loves me and made me the way I am... I don’t have to defend myself. I don’t have to show how awesome I am.
God made me ME, and I just have to try to be the best man or woman God made me to be. No more and no less.”

Humility Like Jesus: Confident Humility

When we see ourselves as God see us, we don’t have to puff ourselves up. Neither do we have to beat ourselves down. We can live with confidence. As one author put it, we can have a “confident humility.”

Jesus is a perfect model of humility. Notice that we never see Him boasting about who He is, but he also never beats Himself up. He is confident when challenging the Pharisees, but gentle and humble when encountering outcasts of society. Our world today needs Christians to show people a different way of living.

He is confident when challenging the Pharisees, but gentle and humble when encountering outcasts of society.

Confident humility helps you love your neighbor as yourself because you don’t see yourself as too good to love them. Nor are you jealous of them because you think they are already better off than you. Confident humility helps you show grace to sinners who have done really bad stuff because you recognize that you, too, are a sinner saved by grace. You see that you are both in the same boat. You can’t gloat like the Pharisees of Jesus’s day, thinking you are so holy because you have the right view of God’s grace for your own salvation.

Confident humility allows you to have challenging yet truth-filled conversations with people who hold beliefs different from yours. It challenges you to listen to their different positions and viewpoints without feeling superior. Knowing who you are in Jesus, you have the courage to speak the truth in love even if they might not want to hear it.

We aren’t threatened by others, and submitting to and serving others doesn’t change our status or position in life or with God. Humility is what allowed Jesus Christ – the One who spoke the worlds into existence and holds them together – to pick up a towel and a basin, go to each of His disciples (even Judas) and wash their filthy, nasty feet. Jesus took the position of the lowliest servant, and it didn’t change who He was at all. In fact, He was able to do it because He knew exactly who He was.

If we ever hope to be like Jesus, to empty ourselves and be able to serve others, the only way it will ever happen is if we have a true understanding of who and whose we are. We are children of God, made in His image, worth enough for Jesus to die for.

Different Relationships – Different Levels of Humility

Everyone’s life is a complex mosaic of different relationships with various people. Humility in one relationship does not preclude your feeling pride or shame in another. We need to evaluate our lives through the lens of various relationships.

Are you humble and servant-hearted at work but demanding of your spouse without realizing that your pride leaves you with unrealistic expectations? Or maybe you are humble with your family, but when you walk into the office you put on you “Boss” hat and demand special treatment from everyone.

Your most important relationship is with God. Are you proud of all you do for Him? Or do you still wrestle with the shame of not measuring up? Neither of these positions honors God. He wants you to see yourself the way He sees you, as a child who is constantly striving to mature and be like our older brother Jesus.

Conclusion

I realize this message pushes against everything we see in our current culture, from the highest levels of leadership in our country to celebrities and our workplaces. Everyone seems to be fighting to prove their worth. That, however, is not what Christians need to be doing.

At the same time, we don’t just lie down and become doormats to the secularism of our culture. Jesus wasn’t anyone’s doormat. We engage the world around us knowing that God wants to do something in every person’s life – to save all the earth. And as we engage, we are to take an attitude of love, grace, truth and confident humility in offering God’s saving grace and His righteous rule to those the Spirit leads us to speak to.

As Jesus said, learn humility from Him. It can be learned, but it isn’t easy. Pride and shame are difficult extremes pulling you to one side or the other, but the invitation to enter the kingdom of God – to submit yourself to King Jesus – can be accepted only from a position of humility. We must take our eyes off ourselves and, instead, put them on Him.