Humility

If you were to go online right now and survey YouTube, or Instagram, or TikTok you would find a world that is marked by pride. It is an endless litany of people pointing to their own achievements, their own moral virtue, their own good looks, or whatever else they might possess which can be utilized to gain “followers”. Perhaps we even fall into the snare of pride when it comes to our own social media accounts. Selfies, long poetic manifestos on our Instagram captions, endless stories of various things from making sourdough to talking about mental health. While many of these things might be honest thoughtful reflections there can be no doubt that some (or many) are nothing more than subtle ways of having people look at us. Those likes, comments, and shares sure stroke our egos in a way that doesn’t speak to genuineness. Pride, an inflated view of ourselves, is one of those acceptable sins in our time. 

However, it was not always an acceptable sin. Tim Keller, in his excellent little book The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness writes, “Up until the twentieth century, traditional cultures (and this is still true of most cultures in the world) always believed that too high a view of yourself was the root cause of all the evil in the world. What is the reason for crime and violence in the world? Why are people abused? Why are people cruel? Why do people do the bad things they do? Traditionally, the answer was hubris—the Greek word meaning pride or too high a view of yourself” (9). In other words, our high view of ourselves is an anomaly, a strange aberration, and not the norm. 

So what is the Christian response to all of this? How does the Bible say we should act toward one another in a world that is so full of pride? 1 Peter 5:5, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” The answer to our self-interested, self-indulgent, self-focused pride is “humility toward one another.”

But what does this look like? Interestingly enough, the Greek word Peter uses for “clothe yourselves” references a servant’s garment or apron that would be tied around oneself. Commentators have noticed that this language is likely related to Peter’s remembrance of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet in John 13. There Jesus takes off his outer garment, ties a towel around his waist, and begins to wash the disciple’s feet. This task was one reserved for slaves and would have been a demeaning task for someone like Jesus. However, Jesus concludes by saying that the disciples are to do likewise. He says that he has given them an example to follow.

Now, this doesn’t mean we are to literally wash one another’s feet. What Jesus is trying to communicate here is that we are to humble ourselves like he humbled himself and serve one another. He even says, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14) In other words, if you have seen me, Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, do this demeaning task for you, then go out and serve like this amongst your brothers and sisters. Do not think something like this is below you as you serve one another. That is Jesus’s point here and that is Peter’s point too. 

This, quite obviously, has big implications for us. If we are to truly live into what Jesus is teaching here and if we are to take seriously Peter’s injunction to show humility towards one another, then this has some very practical implications for how we as church members are to conduct ourselves with one another. Let’s look at some of these implications now.

1) No Service Opportunity is Beneath Us

Back when I lived in Canada I worked at a church for a couple of years in the heart of downtown Vancouver. About twice a year Vancouver would get a good dump of snow that would cause all sorts of mayhem around the city. One time it snowed on a Saturday night and into Sunday morning. As we arrived at the church to set up for Sunday one of our tasks was to shovel the snow on the sidewalks leading up to the church. Now, you would expect interns—like I was—to be out there shoveling away. You might even expect some members of the staff to be out there. However, at a church of 1500 people you don’t expect to see the Lead Pastor out there, but he came, he shoveled, and then 30 minutes later he preached. Norm understood that this was not a job beneath him. This is a direct application of the words of Jesus. Just as we see our Lord and Master stopping down to serve his disciples by washing their feet, so too should we be willing to serve where we are needed.

Many times in the church people think that particular tasks are “holier” while other tasks are “less holy”. Sometimes this manifests in outright jealousy and envy over the simple fact that some people get to do things like preach, teach, and lead worship. It is “unfair” that some people are given the responsibility of tasks such as that while others are given the task of say teaching in children’s ministry. It is “unfair” that some get to be upfront and seen while others work behind the scenes ushering, welcoming, making coffee, doing security, and more. Brothers and sisters let us humble ourselves and repent of this attitude. If our Lord and Savior was willing to wash feet, then we should gladly serve in children’s ministry. To think otherwise is to think too highly of ourselves, to not exercise humility towards one another, and the correct response is repentance.

2) We Are Not as Smart as We Think We Are

One of the ways divisiveness enters into the church is when someone has an overinflated view of their own intellectual aptitudes. This problem is exacerbated with the abundance or resources available online that can confirm any opinion that you form about any topic you like. If you want to believe that the government is made up of shapeshifting lizard people from another planet hell bent on subjugating the human race you can quite easily find some blog, or YouTuber, or influencer to confirm your beliefs. This is true with a variety of issues in the church as well from beliefs about the age of the earth, baptism, end times, you name it. We can dig our heels in on something so trivial and make a mountain out of a molehill so much so that we can do great harm to the bride of Christ.

Humility in this context does not necessarily mean giving up the opinion you hold to be true—some though you may have to if they are simply unbiblical—rather it means not thinking that your opinion is the one all people need to hold. Humility towards one another in this context is a willingness to not evangelize something that is not evidently Gospel truth. If you would like to believe that the dinosaurs did not really exist that is completely fine, but don’t use small group time as an opportunity to convince everyone of the cause that Tyrannosaurus is a hoax. It is prideful to believe that what you think to be true on certain issues needs to be thought by all people. Humility towards one another here looks like dying to your selfish need to justify yourself before others. 

This is especially true during this upcoming election cycle. It is not an inherently sinful thing to care about political issues, but it is sinful to be so prideful in your own political opinion that you think all democrats are liberal snowflakes who are ruining the country and that all republicans are bigoted racists who are turning the clock of progress backwards. Humility towards one another in this context means recognizing that just maybe you are not the one person, out of the 340 million people in America, who knows what is best for the country. It is recognizing that brothers and sisters in Christ will inevitably think differently than you on a variety of political issues and choosing not to create division as a result of that. 

Conclusion

In our text from 1 Peter today we are called to clothe ourselves with humility. We are called to not think too highly of ourselves. To be willing to serve like Jesus served. To humble ourselves like Jesus humbled himself as the Lord of the universe who washed the disciples’ feet. Yet, Peter doesn’t just give us an imperative, but he also gives us a warning. Quoting from Proverbs 3:34 Peter writes that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Why would Peter say such a thing? Simple: it is impossible to fully accept the Gospel when one is full of pride. Pride puffs us up. It makes us think we are better than we are, more important than we are, and smarter than we are. But in order to receive the grace of God available to us in Jesus Christ we need to recognize the exact opposite about ourselves; we need to see that we are sinners, we need to see that we are not the center of the universe, we need to acknowledge that we need help. And this is not a work that we can do alone, but it is a work that the Holy Spirit must accomplish in our hearts. Let us ask that the Spirit would humble us and help us recognize our need for Jesus.