Tag: humility

Humility & Meekness

Col. 3:12-13 (ESV)  Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

I’ve asked myself about the words humility and meekness: “What exactly do they mean?  Are we to be shy as Christians?  Does it mean we should crawl under our desks or be taken advantage of?  Is that what it means to be humble or meek?”  Those descriptions of the words don’t seem to match with the heroes of the Bible.  Even when God did use shy people like Gideon, He gave him strength to fulfill his call.

In looking at the words in the above passage, I’ve found they do not mean what I thought.  They mean something much more.  For one thing, a humble person is someone who puts the needs of others above himself.  James defines it well for us:

James 4:10-12 (ESV)  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. ¹¹ Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Look at the qualifications for an elder of the church:  1 Tim. 3:1-7  (ESV)  The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. ² Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, ³ not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. ⁴ He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, ⁵ for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? ⁶ He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. ⁷ Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

As an example to the church and community at large, elders are to be humble and have all the traits listed above, and yet it is humble to seek the office itself.  Elders are to stand against false teachers, to discipline those in the church who are causing disruption, in short, to hold people accountable.  These men aren’t shy.  They are men who must do these things while loving God’s people, acting in love and in humility.  Humility, then, is to know your status as a Christian and as a member of the church and fulfill that – no more and no less.

I think misunderstanding this causes problems in the church.  We concentrate so much on “humbling” ourselves we do nothing.  We see ourselves as unworthy to be used by God, so those jobs God wants us to do don’t get done.

Humility, then, is not to think better or less of yourself than you actually are.  Do not take positions you do not deserve or shrink from positions to which you are called.  We must seek a balanced life as a child of God.

Meekness, much like humility, is power under control.  Moses was the meekest man in the Old Testament:

Num. 12:3 (ESV)  Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.

The meaning of the Hebrew word for meek here is this:  “An adjective meaning poor, oppressed, afflicted, humble. It is used of persons who put themselves after others in importance; persons who are not proud, haughty, supercilious, self-assertive, low in rank or position. Moses in the Old Testament is the prototype of the humble man before God and other human beings (Num. 12:3), but he was not poor or low in rank.” (The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament)

Moses stood before Pharaoh, the most powerful man in Egypt, and delivered God’s commands.  Moses knew who he was and who God saw him to be.  He knew his mission and that God had his back. 

Why is this important?

I think we spend too much time trying to be unimportant in God’s kingdom.  We have a difficult balance to keep, and most of us don’t keep it well.  We stray toward the “I’ll do nothing” side for fear others may expect too much of us or see us as prideful.  We’re safe there, just sitting in the pew and resisting our call to serve. 

When we look at Biblical examples such as David, Paul, Deborah, Stephen, we see those who stood for something, who were willing and happy to serve God once the call was recognized.  These people weren’t always humble.  Moses was punished for becoming prideful.  But, humble people get things done in God’s kingdom.  Those who ignore the call on their lives and abilities do not.