As we travel through life, we can be proud or we can be humble. We are taught to be clothed with humility. 1 Peter 5:5-7 “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” To be clothed with humility would mean that just as others can readily see your clothes, they can readily see your humility. Being humble means not thinking of yourself as better than others and having a modest view of your own importance. It can also mean that you make an honest assessment of who you are and what you have done.
Humility and pride are attitudes of the heart. I encourage you to evaluate yourself as to whether you are humble or proud. My experience is that pride can manifest itself in our lives and we may be ignorant of its existence. There may be some areas in our lives where we are proud and other areas where we are humble. For example, we may be humble before God and proud toward our neighbor. Let’s look at living our lives with humility.
As long as we are on this earth, we are not perfect. We each have our faults. These faults may be weaknesses in our character or they may be sins that we commit. When we discover our faults, or someone points them out to us, how do we deal with this information? In pride, we do not want to admit our faults; perhaps the thinking is that we are less important or less valuable or not as good when we have faults and our proud hearts want to think the best of ourselves. In pride, we want to deny our faults, ignore our faults, pretend that they don’t exist, or provide excuses for why the faults are there. Maybe we compare ourselves to others and conclude that we are not as bad as they are.
We must not be proud before God. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” God knows everything about us. We cannot hide anything from God. If we are proud before God, we might think that we are good enough on our own merit. But we are not. We are all guilty before God. How can we receive the forgiveness of our sins unless we are willing to admit our sinfulness and humbly ask for His forgiveness? 1 John 1:8-10 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” Honestly confessing our sins is an act of humility. We must be humble and admit our sins and acknowledge our need for the mercy of our God.
But what about admitting our faults to others and asking for their forgiveness? I suppose that there are few things more frustrating than to see a person doing something wrong and then to see him refuse to accept responsibility for his actions. The proud person does not want to admit his fault. The humble person readily admits his fault and says that he is sorry for what he has done wrong. James 5:16 “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” In humility we confess our faults; in pride we hide our faults. In humility we listen to the criticism from others and honestly consider the validity of the criticism. In pride, we ignore the criticism from others and discount what they say.
A humble person does not boast. James 4:16 “But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” It is good to be thankful and enjoy what God has given us and allowed us to accomplish in our lives. Praise Him for His wonderful grace! But to think that our abilities, blessings and accomplishments are due to our own goodness is pride. The humble person may have accomplished much and have received great blessings, but he doesn’t take the glory. He gives the glory to God. 1 Corinthians 4:7 “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” Everything we have comes from God. In humility, thank and glorify Him.
The proud person thinks he is better than another person. Maybe he is proud because he has more wealth, or more ability, or has accomplished more, or has better physical characteristics or even maybe because he has been a Christian longer. There are many possible excuses for him to think that he is better than someone else. The humble person realizes that we are all valuable to God. “Who makes you differ from another?” God is the one who gives to each of us to make us what we are. James wrote against partiality in James 2:1-4 “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or, ‘Sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?” The humble person treats everyone without partiality or pride.
And finally, the proud person looks only for his own interests, but the humble person looks to serve others and fulfill their needs. Philippians 2:3-4 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
I encourage you to live a humble live before God and your fellow man.