The longer I live as a follower of Jesus Christ the more I realise that one of the greatest enemies to my following of Jesus closely is my pride, and one of the greatest friends to my improved discipleship is my humility. It seems clear to me that the bible shows us that pride is a great vice and humility is a great virtue. If our aim in life is to follow Jesus then in Philippians 2 we are told that one of the main qualities of Jesus was humility. Jesus humbled himself, he humbled himself to take human form and to walk amongst sinful imperfect humanity and he humbled himself to the degradation of death upon a cross and being treated like a criminal. The Lord of the universe and the most perfect person who ever lived submitted himself to the indignity of being nailed to a tree that we might be saved, that our sin might be effectively dealt with. Paul writing in that chapter says to us “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. You attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus.” (2:3-5)

Sin has so saturated our lives and so influenced us that we are by nature self centred and proud creatures. With the help of God’s Spirit we can crucify pride and self-centredness but so ingrained is sin that this crucifying needs to happen on a daily basis. Pride is strong. John Stott says “Pride is more than the first of the deadly sins, it is itself the essence of all sin.” Jonathan Edwards called pride “the worst viper that is in the heart and the greatest disturber of the soul’s peace and communion with Christ and the most difficult sin to root out”. John Blanchard says “pride is the oldest sin in the universe and shows no signs of growing weaker with age”.  Humility is the answer to pride.

The verse around which Peter bases his thoughts on humility is taken from proverbs – “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”. This should be enough for us to sit up and take notice. God actively opposes the proud. He says also in Proverbs 8:13“I hate pride and arrogance”, in 16:5 “The Lord detests the proud of heart, be sure of this, they will not go unpunished.”  When we come to the cross we take a huge step in defeating pride. When we come to the cross we recognise that we are sinners, we recognise that we cannot save ourselves, we recognise that we need outside help. All of these involve humility.

Humility, or attitudes of humility, are referred to about 900 times in the Bible. True humility comes from true wisdom which begins with a right fear of the Lord. Peter knew this. Peter knew that if we are to live a cross centred and a fruitful life of following Jesus then we need to develop a spirit of humility. I want to look today at how we can show humility in three key relationships – humility before our spiritual leaders (v.5a), humility in our dealings with each other in the church (v.5b) and humility in our trust of God (v.6-7). John Calvin said “If you ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, first, second, and third, and always I would answer, ‘Humility.’”  This needs to be a priority for us.

1.Humility in our relationships with our leaders (v.5a) Although v.5a refers to young men submitting to those who are older I think we can say that in the context of what has just been said Peter is probably mainly thinking of submission to elders as in the office of elder. The word for “older” he uses is the same as that in v.1 for “elder” (presbuteroi). As a general principle it is of course good for those who are younger to respect and honour those who are older than us, but Peter here is asking for more than respect – he is encouraging an attitude of submission. It is especially important to be submissive to those who are in authority over us and so I think he is referring primarily to how we relate to our spiritual leaders.

Again while he mentions young men I do not think this principle just applies to them. He mentions young men perhaps because they were the most likely to be unruly, or getting ahead of themselves or showing independent spirits. But an attitude of submission to authority should mark all of us. Submission has been a key theme in this letter. Here it is specifically submission to our spiritual leaders. The Bible teaches us that this is part and parcel of what it means to be a Christian. In 1 Cor.16:15-16 Paul refers to leaders of one of the house churches in Corinth called Stephanus, Fortunatus and Achaicus and he says “submit to such as these”. In Hebrews 13:17 the writer says “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you.”   Just as the shepherds, the elders, submit to the Chief Shepherd Jesus (v.4) so the flock, the congregation, must submit to the shepherds, the elders, the overseers. The elders are there to help us to grow spiritually, to guard us from error and to keep us from falling away.

Now there are a number of implications here. The elders themselves must be people of wisdom and spiritual maturity and we looked at this last time. But also the people in a church must make themselves accountable to the leadership. This will involve formally joining a church. To become fully accountable a person needs to join a church. High Kirk has a number of people who attend but who have not joined officially. Now there will always be a measure of this, people who are trying out churches, people who have been hurt in past experiences with church, people who are searching spiritually. But if a person is a Christian there is only a certain amount of casual drifting that should be allowed. If a person claims to be a believer and has been attending for months, even years, but not joining they should do so.

You see if we do not join then we are saying I will not be held accountable to anyone, I will not submit to leadership but will just stay on the fringes and do my own thing. This is sin and pride at work. It is a refusal to submit to leadership, it is also a refusal to be involved in service in the church which speaks of immaturity – an attitude of I will take but I will not give. This is wrong and those of you who have tasted High Kirk for months or even years as Christians need to sign up, you need to be fully part of a church and accountable. This is for your own spiritual wellbeing. We are living increasingly in days where people will not commit, where they want the freedom to do their own thing, where there is a suspicion of institutions – but at root of all this is actually pride, it is an unwillingness to submit to spiritual leadership.

When we become a full member in a church we become accountable and we give the minister, staff and elders the right to come alongside us if we are involved in sinful practice, or if we are drifting away from meeting with our fellow Christians. We give the leadership the right to speak into our lives and to encourage, exhort and rebuke if necessary but always in love. Earlier we saw Peter talking about leaders leading and serving out of love, not lording it over others but loving them and wanting the best for them (v.3). If correction is given it must be given out of love and grace – not to make someone feel small but because we love them. So do not resent such exhortation but gladly receive it and you will find it will help you to defeat the pride that so easily grows within our hearts and to grow in this lovely virtue of humility. If we are to live the cross centred life this involves submitting to our spiritual leaders. And this also means that those of us who are younger,   younger in years but also in the faith, must be patient and appreciate that there are others older and wiser in the faith and we must trust their wisdom and experience.

2.  Humility in our dealings with each other in the church (v.5b) There is not only a vertical accountability and humility but within church there is an horizontal accountability as well. Peter says All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. The word for clothe here is literally tie around oneself. So it is the idea of tying around you an apron of service, or a towel as we think of Jesus again and him washing the disciple’s feet. It is a  picture of servant-hood, of humble service. We are here to serve one another and to listen to one another. We are servants. Going back to that passage in Philippians 2 Paul says “do nothing out of selfish ambition but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

a) Have a listening spirit. In other words let’s not be preoccupied with ourselves. Let us think of others, other people’s preferences, other people’s interests and we will find this will develop in us a humble spirit. Let’s not always insist on our way, our way may be the right way or it may not be. Or it may be a neither right or wrong, just one of a number of options but listen to others and what they say, develop a humble spirit.

b) Have a learning spirit.  Being humble with each other means developing not only a spirit of listening but a spirit of learning and being open to correction and even rebuke. One of the hardest things that us proud adults can take is correction. Yet Prov.12:1 “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid”.

c) Have a teachable spirit. Children take correction but when we are an adult don’t correct us. But correction brings humility. Sometimes we need to be corrected in a wrong belief, or a bad habit or bad behaviour. This is a good sign of where we are spiritually – how do we take correction or constructive criticism. They are few things that better show us how humble we are. How teachable are we? How willing are we to wear the L plate into our adult years. As Christians we need to do this if we are to be good disciples.

We all need encouragement and sometimes we need exhortation, and sometimes we even need rebuke but they should be in that order and in that frequency. Hebrews says in 3:13 “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness”. Encourage. But also we need to exhort and admonish sometimes but we should do it in grace and with grace and using God’s word. 2 Timothy 3:16 says “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…” It is better of course if we let the word of God rebuke us or God rebuke us without someone else having to do it! 1 Timothy 5:1 says “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father”. So do it graciously and gently and with respect. It is easy to rebuke but not so easy to do it in the right way.

3.  Humility in our trust of God (v.6-7).  Finally Peter says “Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” It is not the will of God to keep us depressed and oppressed and down. He actually wants to exalt us. But the way up, according to scripture, is the way down. Those who humble themselves will be exalted, but those who exalt themselves proudly and look down on everyone else, will be humbled by God. The first will be last and the last will be first in God’s economy.

Going back again to Philippians 2:8 Paul says of Jesus “he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…”   This is the pattern, humbling and then exalting. This is the God honouring and best way to live, the way of the cross, humbling ourselves, dying to sin, crucifying pride daily, and then God will lift us up. And so Peter exhorts us to cast all our anxieties and cares upon the Lord in humble trust. This thought follows on from the previous phrase and this passage as a whole yet and some may be wondering how humility and casting our anxieties on God are related. But they are. Peter recognises that a great barrier to putting others first and thinking of them as more important is the legitimate human concern “who then will care for me”? The answer is that God himself will care for you. We need to trust him that he is aware of our life and its problems.

Wayne Grudem says “Casting all your anxieties on him is the path to humility, freeing a person from constant concern for him or herself and enabling them truly to be concerned for the needs of others.” So as we cast our burdens on the Lord, we will look out more for others, we will be less self obsessed, and through this God will actually exalt us.  Not only this but CJ Mahaney says “When we humble ourselves each morning and cast our cares on the Lord we will start the day free of care. The humble are genuinely care free. For where there’s worry, where there’s anxiousness, pride is at the root of it. When I ma experiencing anxiety, the root issue is that I’m trying to be self sufficient. I’m acting independently of God”  

What’s the solution? Humble yourself. “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.”  James 4:10

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