Humility is an aspect of the Christian walk that I feel isn’t addressed enough. We hear about it in Sunday school, and we know the definitions we have been taught. If asked, all of us could say, “Humility is putting others before yourself”, but do we really know what it means to display humbleness? Humility is a difficult subject to speak on because we all struggle with pridefulness, but I believe that this can make us more qualified to talk about it because we all have firsthand experience. I can personally say that pride is one of the biggest battles in my life, but I hope that this paper will encourage anyone who reads it to continue to fight pride with God’s help. Instead of defining humility, I’m going to show how it is influential in every step of the Christian life.
Humility is critical for Salvation.
Romans 10:9 says, “because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” This verse as a whole is clearly essential to our salvation, but I want to focus on one part in particular, the part where it says, “Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord”. Lord means one who has power, authority, or influence. Confessing Jesus as Lord is saying that Jesus has power and authority, not just over some things, but all things, including your life. It is the act of placing yourself under God’s authority. It should be pointed out that nobody can confess Jesus as Lord out of their own will. They are compelled and aided by the Holy Spirit, but it is still in the very act of humbling yourself that you are saying your life is God’s to control. In today’s culture, this is a very backward idea, especially in the States. Modern society pushes for you to control your own life and be who you feel you should be, but the Bible tells us that in order to be saved, we need to humble ourselves, let God control our lives, and be his child.
Humility is the cornerstone of all our relationships.
The two greatest commandments in Scripture are to love God with all your heart, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:29-31) In our Christian walk, we have two types of relationships, our relationship with God and our relationship with man. And we are called to love in both these relationships, not just love, but love more than we love ourselves. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” This verse is found in a passage where Christ calls His disciples to love as He has loved and then says there is no greater love than laying down your life. The humility that it takes to truly understand your life has no purpose other than glorifying God is astounding. I am currently in college and I often feel that I am there to study to get a job and earn money, but that is not true. Our life is a means to a greater end. That end is to bring God glory. As a Christian, if you are living for your glory, you are living in sin and need to humble yourself and live for God. I often think of Jim Elliot and Nate Saint. Two men who truly humbled themselves and played down their lives to glorify God and bring the gospel to a group of people they would have considered to be their friends. Humility is shown in love and love is shown in giving your life to serve God and others.
Humility is a constant spiritual growth.
This means two things. Firstly, we are told to put on humility in Colossians 3:12, “Put on then as God’s chosen God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” Secondly, humility is key because it plays a part in repentance. As Christians, we all still sin, but to grow in our walk, we have to confess our sins and repent. Although the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, it still takes humility to repent. Because we sin every day, we have to repent every day. This means that walking with God is humbling ourselves daily.
Essentially the Christian walk is a walk of humility. Every day we submit our lives to God’s will to serve him and honor Him, and every day we come before Him humbly to confess our sins.