Things that Make Christians different: Humility
As I continue with the series on what makes Christians different from the world, I want to talk to you all about humility. What exactly does the word humility mean? The dictionary defines humility like this: the quality or state of being humble. This is a very simplistic definition because the word humility or humbleness has very deep meanings scripturally.
As Christians, we have to know and realize that while we are supposed to work very hard at all that we do, and in so doing we honor God, we also have to acknowledge and understand that all the gifts and talents that we have been blessed by God with are not from us but are given to us directly from God. And when we understand this fact that is the first step in truly knowing and understanding what true and real humility is all about.
It’s humbling to recognize that God is more responsible for the achievements of our lives than we are and that we are all people who have been given our abilities, time and opportunities by God. These things are not our possession; they are gifts from God and we will ultimately give an account for what we do with what we have been given.
Everything in us strains against this notion, because to accept this as fact is to be humbled. And humility naturally leads to submission. That’s really the issue, isn’t it? We don’t want to admit that God is the giver of every good gift, because that would mean that we have to yield to his agenda. Humility, submission and obedience go together.
This doesn’t come easily, and it is certainly not natural; we need help to learn how to live this way. This is one reason why we have the Bible. In the pages of Scripture we find many examples of humility. From them we can gain insight and assistance as we strive to be the kind of leaders God desires and our world so desperately needs.
Humbleness and humility are fragile virtues because as soon as you are humble and you know it then you are prone to want to shout out loud “LOOK AT ME, I’M HUMBLE!” Saying you’re humble or thinking of yourself as a modest man is actually a perverted form of pride. The key to humility is to get your eyes off yourself and onto the One from whom all that we have is given and that person is God. We need help staying focused not on ourselves and what we can do but rather on God and all that He has done for us and is continuing to do through us.
Where does our help come from? Our help ALWAYS comes from the Lord! In Philippians chapter 2 verses 1-4 Paul wrote this for us today:
1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Here we see that Paul understood who Jesus was in His heart; Jesus was a servant, a humble servant. Jesus did nothing with the expectation that someone would do something for Him to “repay” Him for His service to them. Jesus ALWAYS regarded others as more important than Himself. He always looked out for the interests of others no matter what it may have cost Him.
Jesus gave us many examples of His humility and humbleness but there is one that I want to highlight for us today and this example is found in the Gospel of John chapter 13 verses 1-8:
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. 5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter." 8 Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
There are a couple of very interesting points in this passage of Scripture. The first one is that this passage begins with us reading that Jesus knew that He was about to be handed over to the authorities to face trial and eventual crucifixion. So, knowing this I find it interesting that one of the last lessons that Jesus taught His disciples was one on humility, being humble, and serving others.
The second point is found in verse 3 and it says: Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God… Jesus never had an identity crisis, He always knew exactly who He was and He was God in the flesh and yet here he was not only telling His disciples about humility but He was showing them what humbleness and humility looked like. We need to show the world today what Jesus showed His disciples back then.
Jesus girded Himself and filled a basin with water and washed the feet of His disciples. This act was usually done by the lowliest servant in a household. And I don’t know about yall but washing feet wouldn’t be the highest thing on my priority list when it comes to serving yall! This is why Peter was so surprised by the actions of Jesus. But as usual, Peter spoke first and thought second.
Peter shouted out that there was no way that Jesus was going to wash HIS feet! Jesus quickly corrected Peter and told Him that if he didn’t allow Him to wash his feet then Peter would have no part with Jesus. This is just how serious Jesus regarded servant hood and humility.
Why would Jesus say this to Peter? Because Jesus was doing His best to show not only Peter but us as well that being humble and letting God give us the gift of humility and serving others is really what being a Christian is all about.
Now that we have a better understanding of just how important being humble and serving others is to Jesus, how does being humble and having a servant heart make Christians different from the world?
Well, for one thing the world likes to be served; there is no doubt about that in my mind. In our society at large, people have no problem wanting and even expecting that people serve them. On one hand they want to be served but on the other hand they look at the ones who serve them as weak or inferior people.
The world looks at servants as weak and tends to treat them as doormats. Jesus shattered this misconception because as God in the flesh there was no one stronger on the face of the earth and yet He was a willing and humble servant and made no excuses for His behavior instead He commanded that we as Christians follow His example to the letter and do it with gladness and joy.
Which brings me to another key difference between Christians and the world at large and that is that the world for the most part doesn’t get excited about serving others. Serving others is a chore for most people. Sometimes people are guilted into doing some volunteer work or sometimes they are even forced to do as in court ordered “community service”. Jesus doesn’t want us to serve others while grumbling and complaining about it, He wants us to do it like He did, with joy and gladness.
When we became Christians, God re-made our hearts and He transformed them into hearts that want to serve not only Him but those around us as well. You want to help bring someone into the kingdom of God? Then serve them with a glad heart and serve them with humility and humbleness and serve them with no expectation of getting something from them in return. Trust me the Lord will reward you handsomely when you get to heaven and that reward will be eternal rather than temporal or earthly.
We need to tap into that servant heart and begin to show the world that we are indeed different because we see things differently and we do things differently and for different reasons.
Not only do we have the heart of Christ but we also have the mind of Christ. Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 says this: 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus… In other words, have and use the mind of Christ in all that you do for God and for others.
And also in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verses 14-16 we read this:
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
The world doesn’t understand what we understand because we have a great advantage over them because we have the heart of Jesus, the attitude of Jesus and the mind of Jesus. And because we have this great advantage we should not look down on others who do not have what we have but rather we should be using the advantage that we have through Christ to serve them with all possible humility and help them have what we have which is an intimate relationship with Jesus.
Humbleness and humility are indeed fragile virtues. We have to be both without letting the fact that we are both cause us to want the spotlight on us and in so doing destroy the very things that we are trying achieve through those very godly attributes.
We must discipline ourselves to serve others even when we don’t want to. We must serve others with gladness and joy. We must serve others they way Jesus served others with no expectation of reward or reciprocation. We just have to serve. God has placed it in our hearts to serve others and that is just one more way I feel that makes us different from the world.
Will you begin to examine the way you serve others? I would ask you these questions: How much pleasure do you get from serving others?
How does it make you feel when someone does something nice for you in a serving capacity?
If we want to make a difference in this world for the better then we had better get to serving others like Jesus did! Amen!?
