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Why Pride Is Not the Opposite of Humility—And What Is

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Philippians 2:3-4

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

CONSIDER THIS

In Mark Twain’s short story “The Esquimaux Maiden’s Romance,” Lasca, the maiden, quipped, “There’s a breed of humility which is itself a species of showing off.”

Humility is tricky. As sure as you consider yourself a humble person, you can be sure you are not. What is humility? It often gets defined in ways that defy its very character. Most definitions come at humility in reference to oneself—something like self-abnegation.

Sometimes to get at a word’s meaning it helps to consider its opposite. What do you think is the opposite of humility? The knee-jerk reaction answer: pride. I used to think of humility as thinking less of oneself. Later I thought of it as thinking of oneself less.

This is not how the Bible gets at humility. Today’s text transports us into a whole new approach to how we think about humility. Check it out:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

According to Scripture, the opposite of humility is not pride but selfishness. And therein lies the problem with our definitions. They are all self-referential. We can’t even talk about humility without somehow referencing the self. Here’s what I’m slowly learning. Humility is not about self at all. Humility is all about others. Humility is not putting yourself down; that’s false humility. Humility is about lifting others up.

If I am about me, I am selfish. If I am about you, I am humble. I really do think it’s that simple. However, there is a broken way of being all about others that is actually very selfish. It’s called codependency. That’s where most of us get stuck.

The journey of becoming a real person is the pathway of being set free from the prison of self and liberated into the God-given capacity to love others. It’s the way of the cross, the journey from  being a “me” person to becoming a “you” person.

This is the mind of Christ. 

THE PRAYER

Abba Father, we thank you for your son, Jesus, the humble one. Set us free from the prison of our own selfishness that we might learn the way of holy love for others. Only you can do this Jesus. We pray in your name, amen.

THE QUESTIONS

  1. How do you define humility?
  2. Do you see how false humility works?
  3. What will it take for you to become truly humble? What is a step in that direction?

For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

11 Responses

  1. Great article. Humility seems to be one our society’s forgotten words. For me, humility is an attitude of willingness to subdue one’s pride. But unfortunately, our society and in fact the world in general has bought Satan’s lie. For the last few hundred years or so, he has convinced the world that the very thing that he fell from can actually be a good thing. So people speak of taking pride in this or that and many no longer even consider pride to be evil. And when pride can be good, people no longer see just how evil it is and hence humility is no longer so important.

  2. Awesome piece of writing! Forgive me, because I do not claim a Christian faith, but in my learnings about the world the one clear fact I find is that humility is the key to happiness, in my eyes through the dynamic of karma. When you practice humility, the Universe rewards you.

    And one easy problem with comparing humility and pride is that pride is a feeling, where humility is an action, even if sometimes its a thought-action, or process/series of thoughts. It might be even better to think of humility as not only an action, but a reaction, to some experience.

    And yes, being humble, as an action, is putting your own interests last, for the benefit of others. But humility can be drawn out of yourself in a multitude of ways, ranging from how you react to “humbling” experiences, the more negative ones, to how you react to very positive things, like an unexpected gift. Or, just as much, how you react to the ordinary, the mundane, the every-day experiences. You can practice humility in each of these spheres of experiences, and all impact your “karma”.

    The other improper idea of modern society relating to karma is that its a system of punishments and rewards, which in one respect it is, but that’s not the primary dynamic of how karma works. In reality, those punishments and rewards are better viewed as tests, tests about who you are, what you are made of, how you draw on your character to respond to each experience in the best way possible. The very hard, yet very simple answer to each of these tests is humility. Like Jesus also preached, humility is the answer, and with it the Universe will gift you more than you (as a humble person) can/will dream of.

  3. Lovely article. Thank you.
    True repentance comes from humility and is God’s gateway into eternal life.

  4. Pride and selfishness go hand in hand.
    Likewise the fullness of Christ and humility.

    An Employé is not able to serve his Boss properly , if he is not one of mind, one of heart with his Boss. A good Boss will send out a invitation to see who is willing. A wise Boss already knows that the one for the job, is the one who will follow him everywhere, learn from him, spend as much time with him as possible, and will lovingly serve the same most high Boss, he serves!

  5. Pride and selfishness go hand in hand.
    Likewise the fullness of Christ and humility.

    An Employé is not able to serve his Boss properly , if he is not one of mind, one of heart with his Boss. A good Boss will send out a invitation to see who is willing. A wise Boss already knows that the one for the job, is the one who will follow him everywhere, learn from him, spend as much time with him as possible, and will lovingly serve the same most high Boss, he serves!

  6. I believe true humility is best understood by the example that Christ Jesus gave us. As Paul would go on to say, “Who in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather , he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death-even death on a cross. “ Philippians 2:6-8. In other words he emptied himself of his divine prerogative to do for us what only God incarnate could do. We owed a debt we could not pay; he paid a debt he did not owe. The only way for us to replicate this type of Godly humility is to die to oneself. Paul tells us this happens when we are baptized into Christ’s death. We just need to embrace that. Satan, the world and our own flesh would have us deny this truth.

  7. Thank you for the wise words. Humility and wisdom can not be seperated the way we can’t seperate sweetness fom sugar

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