As Peter broaches the subject of humility I think it is instructive for us to listen to some of the buzzwords of our culture that we may ourselves picked up, unconsciously perhaps? I want to read an excerpt from Ray Ortlund’s book, “When God Comes to Church” to help us realize that we might be a little less humble than we think. He says this: “Self is the great idol standing at the center of our conceptual world, to which we all bow low. We even have a duty to self-ethic, as if self-denial were harmful, immoral, and deviant. ‘I owe it myself to be happy, to grow as a person, to discover myself, to fulfill my potential, to caress my victimhood, to get in touch with my feelings, even if it hurts you. I’m drowning in my duties. If I don’t break free, I’ll die.’ For the Christian, whatever happened to the all-sufficiency of Christ?
Thanks to selfism, we now labor under a cruel tyranny; an ideal of physical beauty, youthful health, effortless wealth, and autonomous personal control, all quite impossible to realize. But the pursuit of the ideal is [really very] destructive. We may thank the beloved idol Self for today’s neglected children, divorces, broken hearts, our widespread cynicism and disillusionment and sense of emptiness.” What we have to realize is that under the idol of Self, the wages of sin isn’t death, it’s middle age.
The key idea that Peter writes in this passage is that humility is an absolutely indispensable characteristic of our Christian life. And apart from it we would do well not to call ourselves Christians at all. In this passage Peter outlines three truths concerning our great need for humility.
1. Our Call to Humility
First, Peter expresses our call to humility. Each one of us needs to reflect humility in our lives. Perhaps the most important reason that we should reflect humility in our lives is because it was evidenced by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In Philippians 2, the apostle Paul says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation and was made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Humility, as we see in Philippians 2, the opposite of seeking self. The desire for our will and our wishes above God’s desires is the opposite of humility. Before we delve into our text, I want to look at four characteristics of humility. As we look at these characteristics don’t get the cart before the horse and say, if these are characteristics of humility all I have to do is put these into my life and “bingo” I’ll be humble. It doesn’t work that way. If you are humble you will exhibit these qualities.
A. Humility is expressed by:
i. a teachable spirit
First, humility is expressed by a teachable spirit. The person who is truly humble before God, that person as Peter says, has clothed themselves with humility recognizes that they do not have all the answers. They realize that they can and need to be taught by others. When we come to a place where we do not think that we can learn something from others we have put off humility and returned to our pride. We may think of ourselves as teachable and may very well give lip service to it. But I want to tell you that not one of you sitting here is humble. Now that last statement was a test of whether you really are teachable. If, when I made that statement, “Not one of you sitting here is humble,” you became indignant at the thought that I would doubt your humility then in that area you are not teachable. If you thought, “Where does he get off saying that?” you have a problem with being teachable. But if you thought, “Maybe he’s right” or “I know I’m not humble” or “I wonder how he might show us this,” then chances are you are teachable.
You see the problem with us is that we are like concrete. We set too fast and then become immovable. We love to hold onto our ideas about ourselves and become so fond of what we think we are that we have difficulty listening to others who can see us much better than we can see ourselves. The Scripture says, “Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon my head.” Too often we receive the instruction of the world so that we slouch toward it but are loath to receive that which would cause us to put off our sinful ways and conform to Christlikeness.
ii. a flexibility
Secondly, humility is expressed by a certain flexibility. It is a flexibility that recognizes God may have me serve Him in a way that I didn’t quite expect at first. We will discover we lack this quality if we find ourselves saying, “God, don’t change my schedule. I am comfortable just the way it is.” The problem with that is that God doesn’t necessarily see comfort as our greatest need. He sees that being satisfied in Him is our greatest need as a Christian. The problem with this flexibility is that God doesn’t come down and say, “I’m changing your schedule.” Often God’s changes to our schedule come as last minute plans, emergencies or illnesses. I can remember a time when I was in college. I was perhaps a little bit more flexible at that time than now. In the midst of the semester I was laid up with a severe flu for a few days. If you understand the pressure of a full load of school work and other extra-curricular responsibilities then being flexible is not usually much of an option. But I had no choice. So I saw it as an opportunity from the Lord to retreat from my normally frenetic pace. And during those two days I was able to meditate on the Lord’s goodness and had quite an awesome time of prayer and praise.
If we are to be humble we must recognize that changes in our schedule can either be a time to gripe and complain or a time to recognize that God wants to do something other than what we had planned.
iii. an ability to admit wrong
Next, humility is expressed by an ability to admit wrong. How many times have you been in a situation where you’ve done something you shouldn’t have and needed to ask someone’s forgiveness? If you are like me then there are scores of opportunities to mess up on this one. Our pride gets in the way. We begin to rationalize what we did and then seek to make excuses. “Well they always do that to me” or “They really did deserve that.” If we are humble before the Lord we are going to realize that because we are sinners, like everyone else, there are going to be many opportunities for us to have to say we have been wrong. And if we are humble we will admit it.
iv. an ability to relinquish control
Fourthly, humility is expressed by an ability to relinquish control. Too often we see the converse characteristic of this in our lives. We’d rather drive than be driven. We’d rather set our schedules than have them set for us. We don’t want people to tell us what to do or where to park or how to dress. We are like the young man who told his parents, “I’m leaving home and joining the Army because I don’t want you to tell me what to do anymore.” We would hate to admit it but we are control freaks.
Humility is the opposite of this. It is an ability to relinquish control. It is the quality that says to God and to others, “I will be your servant. I will lay down my rights to be considerate of your plans.”
Do you find yourself saying in the midst of difficulties, “Maybe Christ could suffer because He knew why He was suffering, but I don’t see any point in it in my life and I question your purposes for it, God. This is why I want to be in control of my life. So I won’t mess it up like you have.” Oh perhaps we wouldn’t be so crass as to express it this way but this thought, this idea of refusing to give control of our lives up to God shows just how little we realize that in essence we are the ones ruining our lives.
We want to say, “I will gladly give up control of my life to God if He would only show me the purpose in my suffering,” but we are getting it backwards. We have to recognize that His Word is true and trustworthy. When we acknowledge that and say, “Whatever your Word says I will do, even if I don’t understand how it could work in my life. I will relinquish control of my life over to you and obey you.”
B. Humility is found in:
Next we see that humility is found in our attitude in two areas.
i. our attitude toward one another
First, humility is found in our attitude toward one another. In verse 5, Peter says, “all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” The command to clothe ourselves with, or put on, humility toward one another describes our attitude. This is similar to Paul’s statement in Philippians that we are to regard one another as more important than ourselves. This is the essence of humility. Regarding one another as more important than ourselves. If we can’t look around at each other and see them as important or more important than ourselves then what Paul is saying is that you have too high an opinion of yourself. How often do we despise someone in our minds because they are not as smart as we are or as good looking or you fill in the blank? God calls us to be humble in our attitude toward one another. When we begin on this very slippery slope of me-ism, which is the opposite of humility, we become the measure by which everyone else is to judged. Peter says, clothe yourself with humility toward one another.
ii. our attitude toward God
Secondly, humility is found in our attitude toward God. Peter in verse 6 says, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.” When we understand that we must center our lives around God and not have God center Himself around our lifestyle we are humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God. When we humble ourselves under God we see that we are underneath. He is calling the shots. We don’t tell Him what we will and will not do. We obey. It is precisely at this point that many people have a problem with God. They will not humble themselves as a little child and obey God. They have their stipulations and God will not cross them. Instead of obedient children these people are acting like little spoiled brats who think that they can pick and choose what parts of God’s Word they will obey and which parts they will dismiss with a wave of their hand as if their declaration will somehow alleviate them of their responsibility before their Creator.
One author stated it well when he noted, “The Old Testament called it Baal, we call it self.” Will you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God? Will you submit to His Word regardless of whether it meshes with your life or not? If you will not, God will oppose you. I think Jesus said it best as He declared, “whoever shall fall upon that stone (speaking of God) he shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder.” What Jesus meant by that statement is that whoever will humble themselves and fall upon God’s mercy, they will be broken, but only so that they can be healed and be put together into a whole person. But whoever will not humble themselves and fall onto God’s mercy shall surely be ground to powder by the judgment and wrath of Almighty God.
2. God’s Response to Humility
Next we see God’s response to humility. We see that if we are willing to become like a little child and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and before each other God will respond to us favorably. And here Peter mentions three ways in which God responds to our humility.
A. He gives grace to the humble
The first way in which God responds to our humility is that He gives grace to the humble. This is what Peter says in verse 5. “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” God loves to lavish His grace upon us. But too often we are unwilling to receive. He wants to give us direction to live our lives. He wants to intervene in difficult situations for our good and His glory (He even wants to intervene in the easy situations). But too often we harden ourselves against God’s grace. Too often we say, “That work is too easy to ask for God’s help.” When we do neglect to ask for God’s help sometimes He turns easy situations into difficult ones (Have you ever had that happen? Something that should have taken 15 minutes takes 4 hours because you refused to ask for God’s help.) He tells us to ask, seek and knock and He will answer us with His grace but we are too prideful to ask. Why should I bother God for this simple thing when I can just as easily do it myself without His help? This kind of thinking has two faults associated with it. The first fault disparages God’s omnipotence. His power to accomplish everything that He wants. It says, “God is too busy to take care of this” as if our asking Him for something will take away from Him being able to help someone else. The second fault exalts man’s ability. When we think that there is something we can do apart from God’s help we are truly mistaken. We do not believe Jesus’ words when he said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Unless God enables us we could not take our next breath. And God simply wants us to humble ourselves and acknowledge it. And when we do, the Scripture says, He pours (not dribble) out His grace upon us. And He wants to do this. Jesus said in Matthew 7, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”
When you believe Him and humble yourself He will do amazing things through you. You will be awed at His power. And you will say, “What took me so long to believe it.” Would you simply tell God that you need His grace? Oh how we miss out on so many things because we neglect to ask.
B. He exalts the humble
The second way that God responds to our humility is that He exalts the humble. This is what Peter notes in verse 6, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you at the proper time.” What we have to recognize is that we need to be exalted in God’s time, in God’s way, and for God’s glory. I think that we have all seen examples in our own lives that have backfired. We try exalting ourselves and end up humbled.
Mark Mittelberg tells a story about a newly promoted colonel in the first Gulf War. He had just moved into a makeshift office and was getting unpacked when he noticed a private with a toolbox coming his way. Wanting to seem important, he grabbed the phone: “Yes, General Schwarzkopf. Of course, I think that’s an excellent plan. You’ve got my support on it. Thanks for checking with me. Good-bye sir.” He then turned to the private and said, “What can I do for you?” The private replied, “Uhhh, I’m just here to hook up your phone.”
Luke 1:52 says this very thing. God brings down rulers from their thrones and He exalts the humble. If you want to exalt yourself you will find yourself humbled. But if you humble yourself before God and seek His will He will exalt you. And the truth is that at the right time God will exalt us in ways greater than we can imagine.
C. He cares for the humble
The third way that God responds to our humility is that He cares for the humble. Verse 7 says, “Casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you.” When we humble ourselves before God we have the assurance that God will certainly work out all the details of our lives. Literally we are not to be worried or disturbed in our trials because when we humble ourselves under Him in the midst of these difficulties He concerns Himself to meet our needs. Jesus showed us in living form how much God cared for the humble. Anyone who humbled himself in coming to Christ He healed. When our faith trusts God enough to give our problems over to Him He cares for them Himself. Will you not realize that God is a loving heavenly Father who concerns Himself with our needs? Regardless of what your father was like, if you are a Christian, God is now your Father and will care for you as a child.
Peter Marshall, in a sermon on God’s care for us said, “It is in times of calamity, in days and nights of sorrow and trouble that the presence, the sufficiency and the sympathy of God grow very sure and very wonderful. Then we find out that the grace of God is sufficient for all our needs, for every problem and for every difficulty, for every broken heart, and for every human sorrow.”
Let us trust Him enough to cast all our anxiety upon Him. Sometimes we will need to cast it upon Him again and again. Our anxiety over situations can seem to overwhelm us like so many ocean waves pounding upon the beach. And our only recourse is to continue to throw our anxiety back into the hands of God. For if we humble ourselves and admit that no one else but God can really meet our needs then God will show His concern for us and reach down and help us. Cast your cares into the lap of Jesus Christ and let Him care for you.
3. The Importance of Humility in Our Fight against the Devil
Finally, we see the importance of humility in our fight against the devil. In verses 8 and 9 Peter gives us some insight into how humility allows us to fight our spiritual battle in which find ourselves. Humility, in a sense, gives us spiritual eyes to see our true spiritual condition. Humility shows us the neediness of our condition. It is the first step to overcoming God’s way. And so in these last 2 verses Peter shows us three aspects in which humility is important in our fight against the devil.
A. Humility allows us to be sensible
The first aspect in which humility is important in our fight against the devil is that humility allows us to be sensible. In describing the need for humility Peter says in verse 8, “Be of sober spirit. Or be sensible, serious or calm. In humility we recognize how easy it is for us to fall. We recognize that apart from the grace of God there go I. We accept at face value the Proverb that says, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” and it keeps us from becoming overconfident. And because we have humbled ourselves before God we can be serious in our walk with the Lord.
B. Humility allows us to be watchful
The second aspect in which humility is important in our fight against the devil is that humility allows us to be watchful. Peter next says, “be on the alert.” When we have walked the same path again and again, often we become careless. And if someone placed something in that path we may very well trip. This is how Satan works. He doesn’t necessarily tempt us where we have our defenses highest but in those places in which we have become familiar, even careless. He knows that in the paths we walk victoriously again and again we will become sloppy and trip more easily. This is how humility helps us. Humility doesn’t look at the sins of others and say, “I could never fall into that trap.” It looks at the sins of others and asks God for help to keep from going there. In the letter to the Galatians, Paul says that we should help those who have been trapped in sin yet looking to ourselves so that we too will not be tempted.
Have you looked at the hypocrisy of others and said, “I’ll never be like that.” What you don’t understand is that you have just become like that. Because in judging the faults of others you neglect the fact that you too have sin in your life. Sorry to bust your bubble, hypocrite. When we look at and judge the sins of others we are ceasing to be watchful and setting up ourselves to fall. Have you ever seen a person laugh at someone who fell and while they were laughing they bang their head on a post? That is what we do when we focus on the sins of others and fail to be alert.
Peter says be watchful, be alert because our adversary the devil is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He and his minions never cease watching for opportunities to snatch us up. Which brings us to the third aspect in which humility is important in our fight against the devil.
C. Humility allows us to resist him by our faith
The third aspect in which humility is important in our fight against the devil is that humility allows us to resist him by our faith. This is what the beginning of verse 9 says, “Resist him, firm (or strong) in your faith.” The apostle Paul says that it is our faith (or trust in God’s Word) that allows us to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. It is our shield against him. This is why from the very beginning Satan has been attempting to destroy mankind by causing people to doubt God’s Word. Before the Word of God had passed between two people, Satan begins to plant doubt. God tells Adam, Adam tells Eve and Satan asks Eve, “Did God really say?” Can you trust the translation of God’s Word that Adam gave to you? After all he’s a man. He might not even have been listening when God spoke to him. Satan has used the very same tactics throughout the ages. The stories are so old and must therefore be so corrupt. But God keeps showing us in various ways how trustworthy His Word is. Yet people keep speaking up casting doubt on God’s Word and destroy the faith of some. They are merely emissaries of Satan.
But unless we humble ourselves to accept God’s Word and obey it, we will not be strong in our faith to oppose Satan. And he will rend us to pieces. But God promises us that if we remain humble before Him then He will grant us the strength to resist Satan’s attacks and overcome.
I have here a humility self-test. Let me ask you a few questions that you might answer and grade yourself.
1. Is there some act of service that you are above doing? Is there something you won’t stoop to accomplish?
2. Do you regularly & daily confess your sin to God and to others?
3. Must you always have your way like a spoiled child or are you able to bend with changing circumstances?
4. Do you consistently ask God for help with the little things as well as the big?
5. Are you regularly casting your cares on God or seeking to take care of them yourself?
This isn’t an exhaustive list but will hopefully help you to think of your need for humbling yourself before the Lord. There is the need for the ultimate humbling . . . admitting your need for the Savior.