Pride v. Humility

1 Peter 5:5-7

"[5] All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

[6] Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, [7] casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you."

So let’s start with pride. What do we know about pride? Well, that pride keeps us at a distance from God and man. In verse 5 it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Now, why does God oppose the proud? Before we can answer that, we first need to know some things about pride. C. S. Lewis writes a lot about different characteristics of pride in his book, Mere Christianity. There are three that I would like to point out today, but before I do there are two rules you have to know:

1. If at any point you think, “Oh I don’t have that” or “that’s not me,” then you have it or it is you.

2. The more you notice it and dislike it in others, the more you have it in yourself.

So if your sitting here and you’re thinking about someone else who carries these qualities, and you dislike it, then just know that it is in you even more. Those are the rules of pride.

So anyways, back to the characteristics... The first characteristic of pride is that it’s competitive. When we say that "pride is competitive" it is not competitive in the sense that athletic competition is wrong. Going out on the field or the court and performing your best to beat another team or player gives God glory. But prideful competition works like this: You always have to have more money, more power, and more recognition than the person next to you. And this of course becomes a problem when it comes to God. Because in God you come up against someone which is in every way better than you. Pride means enmity between both man and God. The second characteristic of pride is that it’s controlling. Pride tries to control others’ perceptions of you and outcomes of situations. Have you ever found yourself changing your behavior to get others to like you? After a breakup or embarrassing moment, have you ever tried to go back and “fix” the situation? Or better yet, after messing up or making a mistake, do you try to explain away as to why you're not at fault? That’s pride. Pride does not acknowledge that things are out of its control. It hardly admits that it is in a state of helplessness, even to God. That’s why we don’t pray as much as we ought to. We think we can do everything ourselves. Lastly, pride is centered on self. Pride is self-centered. Pride only thinks about self needs, distinctions, and its own attention. Proud people try to maintain a certain image while in the presence of others. You either speak up to get people to notice you a certain way, or don’t say anything at all to keep people from viewing you a certain way. Either way, you're thinking of yourself, and that’s pride.

All of these together help explain why pride keeps us at a distance from God and others. Again, in 1 Peter 5:5, it says that “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” And it’s not until we understand the nature of pride that we realize this is an explanation by Peter, not a statement of fact. This is not a picture of God sitting on his throne looking down on the proud with his arms crossed across his chest saying, “You better humble yourselves right now! How dare you come into my presence with pride?” Instead, it’s more of a picture where Peter is saying, “Look, if you have pride you can’t get close to God, it’s just a fact. The reason being is that pride is competitive, controlling, and self-centered. As a result, you can’t approach someone whom you think you’re better than. And neither can you receive help from someone when you think you can do it yourself. In addition, you cannot respond to someone you think about less than you think about your own self.” The same is true for people. One instance where pride has worked its way in me was when I was taking a class call “Sanctification and Ecclesiology” while I was in seminary. After writing a research paper that I thought for sure I got an A on, I ended up getting a C+. See, that’s what pride does. It removes God and others from the picture. I never asked the Lord for help. I never asked others to proofread my paper. The whole time I thought that what I produced was a flawless work of art. However, I found out very quickly that that was not the case. That’s how pride works its way in our lives. For some of you, maybe it wasn’t a paper or grade this happened to, but it was a relationship that had gone wrong, or a performance gone bad. The reality is that we all suffer from pride, and it distances us from God and people.

So if pride distances us, and humility is the opposite of pride, then naturally, humility brings us closer to God and man. And just as we did before, we have to learn three characteristics of humility before we can understand why this is true. The first thing you have to know about humility is that it’s set free. Humility is so free from any bias in one’s own favor that the person can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor’s talents. Truly humble people could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it's the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if someone else did it. Second, humility sees everything as a gift. The truly humble hold to the doctrine that they did not create themselves, that their talents and everything else in this world were given to them. Humble people have this immense sense of gratitude, because they view everything as a gift from God. All their talents and other giftings are purely given to them from God. Whether it’s athleticism, musical talent, or whatever else, humble people know it’s all a gift. Lastly, humility is self-less. This is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking about yourself less. For instance, have you ever met someone who was a brilliant musician or incredible athlete, and when you complimented them they said, “Oh you’re too kind, I’m not that good of a player?” Did you ever think that person was humble? No, you thought he was flat out lying and even more of a jerk for pretending he had no gifting. Humble people don’t have a problem acknowledging their gifts and talents, they just don’t think about themselves very much. C. S. Lewis writes,

“Do not image that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all” (quoted from Mere Christianity).

That’s true humility. Which makes sense when we consider the results of humility. To go back to the Scriptures, Peter says in verses 5-7, “‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves… because he cares for you.” So he says that those who are humble receive grace from God, are exalted in due time, and have all their anxious needs met. If opposition means distance from God, then grace means nearness to him. Being exalted from God in due time is made possible only by those who recognize their helpless state and depend on him. When God sees that, he’s able to lift you up from wherever you are to a higher place in the future. And to say that “he cares about you,” means that he’ll take care of you. So all of your anxious needs will be met.

Recently, I was in a conversation with an athlete who experience a leg injury on the soccer field. The humility that he learned from this broken leg experience really impressed me and I was more drawn to him. What’s more is that he is now experiencing a nearness to God that he hadn’t felt before. This is why humility is so important. It brings us closer not just to God, but also to man. So this week, if you’re here and you want to get close to God and you want to get close to others, it begins with humility. You have to humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.

So how do we obtain humility in our lives? We said that it was important to grow close to people and God, but how do we get there? There are three ways this passage teaches us on how to become humble: First, we have to consider others. We have to consider others as more important (significant) than ourselves. In verse 5 we read that we must clothe ourselves with humility. The noun, humility, is used four other times in the New Testament. In each case, it seems that the understanding of this word is that it views others and their needs as more important than your own to the point that it moves you to action. It’s a voluntary attitude of care and valuing other people and their needs as more important, so much so that you act in ways to help and support them. You are not out to get your own way, you are equally, if not more, concerned about them and what they want. C. S. Lewis writes, “[The truly humble man] will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.” Second, we have to conform. We have to conform (or submit) to God and his will. Verse 6 tells us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. The humble man not only sees God as superior in every way, acknowledging his importance, greatness, and might, but also submitting to God’s wisdom. The one who humbles himself under God’s mighty hand also obeys his commands, accepts the twists and turns of his providence, entrusts his concerns to him, and submitting to what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants you to do it. Lastly, we must cast our anxieties on Him. Verse 7 says that the reason we ought to cast our anxieties on him is because he cares for us. How this might work in our lives today is like this: When I remember that God is the one who has my deepest cares and concerns in mind, has the power (might) to meet them, and the wisdom to give them, I become less concerned about myself and my outcome. Instead, I become confident that I will be cared for not only needs wise, but also given the very best of provisions. As a result, I am able to humble myself and think about, indeed act on, the needs of others more than my own. So how can we practice this this week? We can serve others this week in accordance with God’s will.

In conclusion, a humble attitude and submission towards others and God is the key to experiencing God’s presence and exaltation.

Note: Many of what is written here is either a direct quote or paraphrase of things written by C. S. Lewis on his chapter, the Great Sin, in his book Mere Christianity.