There are some things that come very easily to me, while others I struggle to achieve. I do some things quite naturally and instinctively. I almost never have to think about them. They just happen. They feel normal. Like breathing. No one had to teach me how to inhale and exhale. I never took a course in breathing during my many years of higher education. I’ve never given a second thought to growing hair or crying or eating. They don’t feel like choices. They just feel human.
It’s the same with pride, at least it is with me. I never have to sit down and strategize how I’m going to feel proud during the course of a day. I’ve never read a book that taught the art and science of human arrogance. It comes as naturally to me as does the blinking of my eyes and the secretion of bile from my liver. I am by nature and choice a prideful and arrogant man. If I didn’t know that from personal experience, the Bible makes it very clear. Case closed.
There is, of course, a huge difference between pride and breathing, or between pride and the impulse to eat. Pride is a sin. Unlike these physical activities, I’m morally accountable for the presence of pride in my heart and it takes everything God can do in his grace and power to overcome my tendency to let it rule my life.
But it’s a different story when it comes to humility, the opposite of pride. I’m not by nature or choice a humble man. And neither are any of you! “But I’m so quiet, Sam. I’m an introvert. I don’t talk very much. I rarely voice my opinion. Most often I will defer to others and yield to their wishes.” Yep. And deep down inside you’re probably incredibly proud of it too!
Don’t think that I’m singling out anyone for special treatment or criticism today. We are all by nature and choice, proud and arrogant people. To the degree that your pride is less prominent than others is due to the grace of God in your life. But in the case of all human beings, pride runs with the grain of our souls while humility runs contrary to it.
You don’t hear much about humility these days, or for that matter at any time in human history. Oprah doesn’t say much if anything about it (not that I tune in to listen to what Oprah has to say!). It is rarely, if ever, the central theme in valedictorian speeches or heard among politicians running for office. There’s no such thing as the Nobel Prize for Humility. Humility is never awarded an Oscar or a Golden Globe. Humility is hard to find. It isn’t lurking around the corner, waiting to pounce on you unannounced. It probably won’t be found in your office or school, and it’s often in short supply even in the church. Don’t bother checking out the self-help section at Barnes & Noble. I’ve actually read only one book on humility during the course of my life (this one, by C. J. Mahaney; I highly recommend it!).
The bottom line is that the world, flesh, and the devil have conspired to conceal humility from us and to mock it should it ever appear. Our hearts do not and will not produce humility except insofar as Jesus Christ is supreme in every aspect of our lives. Only to the degree that the supremacy of Jesus Christ is our pre-eminent value and his glory our all-consuming pursuit will humility ever find its proper place in our souls.
The apostle Peter knew this. It wasn’t any different in his day. Human nature was the same then as it is now. Peter knew the potential for pride and arrogance and self-importance in the human heart and how utterly destructive it is to life in Jesus and for the health of the local church. That’s why he wrote what he did in these three verses in chapter five.
Three times he exhorts us to be humble: (1) First, he focuses on the young people in the church and says: “you who are younger, be subject to the elders”, or humble yourselves under their leadership (v. 5a). He probably singles out the youth here because they are slightly more inclined to rebellion and insubordination to church leadership than those who are older and perhaps a bit more mature. Sorry young people, but that’s what he says. (2) Second, he then turns to everyone in the church, to all Christians, and says: “clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another” (v. 5b). (3) Finally, he does it a third time in v. 6 – “Humble yourselves . . . under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”
So, clearly this is an important issue for Peter. We find this same emphasis all through Scripture. We need to hear this exhortation more than three times. We need to hear it daily, repeatedly, over and over again. Why? Because nothing is more at odds with the orientation and inclination of our hearts and souls than humility. Nothing runs more across the grain of the human spirit than humility. Pride is so much easier. Humility is very, very hard work.
So what, precisely, does Peter mean by “humility”? What does it look like? Why is it so important?
My approach today is two-fold. First, I want to answer the question: “What is humility?” What does it mean? Second, I want to answer the question: “Why should we care? What’s the big deal?” Peter will actually provide us with four answers to the second question. But let’s start with trying to understand what humility is. And the best way to do that is by contrasting it with its mortal enemy: pride.
What is Pride?
7 characteristics of pride or of the proud heart. I’m going to do this rather quickly. As you will see, everything having to do with pride is focused on our centered around the self. Me. You. Us. The proud person, in a nutshell, is self-satisfied, self-sufficient, self-congratulatory, self-referential, self-reliant, self-defensive, and self-righteous. Pride is all about self!
(1) The proud person is self-satisfied (Hosea 13:4-6). “But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.” Smug and content with what they think they’ve accomplished for themselves, proud people soon forget God, or simply ignore him. They are convinced they don’t need him. Oh, they’d never let anyone hear them say that, but that’s what they believe within.
(2) The proud person is self-sufficient (Deut. 8:11-17).
This second feature builds upon the first. Why shouldn’t I be self-satisfied, says the proud heart. After all, I’ve done it all on my own. I depended on no one but myself and look at what I’ve achieve.
"Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, . . . Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'”
(3) The proud person is self-congratulatory. Pride takes credit for what only God can do.
“’Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?’ While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will’” (Daniel 4:30-32).
“On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, ‘The voice of a god, and not of a man!’ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last” (Acts 12:21-23).
(4) The proud person is self-referential. That is to say, the proud person loves being praised, loves it when the attention is pointed in his/her direction, loves to be the topic of everyone’s conversation.
Be very careful and cautious around people who make much of their humility! Such folk loudly proclaim their lowliness and then expect others to praise them for it! They are quick to make known their failures and their humility but react with strong protest if someone in private should suggest that their claims to humility are feigned and superficial.
(5) The proud person is self-reliant. Pride cannot trust God. Trust feels too weak. It feels too dependent. It redirects too much attention away from oneself and to the strength and wisdom of another. Trusting God is the heartbeat of humility, the opposite of pride.
(6) The proud person is self-defensive, especially when it is suggested he might be proud! When persecuted or crossed or slandered or attacked, the proud person is angrily defensive of his actions and largely oblivious to all personal failures.
(7) The proud person is self-righteous. Self-righteousness reveals itself in any number of ways.
First of all, the self-righteous person is a theological know-it-all who can’t be taught.
“Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing” (Jer. 13:9-10).
What constituted the “great pride” of Jerusalem? What made them an “evil” people? They “refused to hear” God’s words! They were beyond instruction from anyone but themselves.
Self-righteousness also shows itself in a quickness to judge and to speak cynically of the sins and shortcomings of others, often with levity or flippancy. The humble Christian will either be silent about the sins of others or speak of them with grief, pity, and a “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”
The self-righteous or prideful person is obsessed with comparisons, always measuring himself/herself against others.
"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14).
The Pharisee found his identity in relation to someone he thought of as less than himself. The tax-collector, as an expression of genuine humility, could only see himself in comparison with God and thus cried out: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
Self-righteous pride leads to separatism. It’s not insignificant that the Pharisee was standing off “by himself.” The tax-collector was beneath my dignity and unworthy of his time or attention.
What is Humility?
The easy answer to this question would simply be to embrace the opposite of each of the seven characteristics of pride. Yes, by all means do that! But let me put a bit more substance to the concept of humility. Again, let me mention 7 features of true humility.
(1) An essential element in humility is the willingness to allow others to say about me in public the very things I readily acknowledge before God in private.
(2) The key to humility is a sincere and passionate acknowledgement of and submission to the sovereign grace of God. In 1 Cor. 4:7, Paul writes: “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” Humility should always be in direct proportion to one’s grasp of grace. Pride is the fruit of the lie that what I have I didn’t receive. Humility is the fruit of the truth that everything is of God (see also John 3:22-30, esp. vv. 27 and 30).
(3) Perhaps most of all, humility is being like Jesus: “I am gentle and lowly [or humble] in heart” (Mt. 11:29; Phil. 2:5-11). The measure of Christ’s humility was his “compassion” (Col. 3:12a). Proud people don’t love the unlovely very well. The measure of your humility is the degree to which you happily embrace the unembraceable, touch the untouchable, and love the unlovable. Humility is measured by how you treat those who can do nothing to advance your cause.
(4) The truly humble person is devastated by the smallest expression of depravity but nearly oblivious to great progress in goodness and obedience.
The truly humble person is always looking not at what he/she has attained, even if it be by divine grace, but at the goal for which his/her soul is striving. The truly humble person does not evaluate himself by what he has already achieved, but by what he is still aiming for. Therefore his holiness and maturity will always appear small because it is compared with where he’s going, not where he’s been.
What stuns his soul is not that he loves God much but that one who is truly a child of God does not love God more. And if he does compare himself with others in this regard, he is gracious toward them and hard on himself. It’s as if he can only see what they are like outwardly all the while he sees what he himself is inwardly.
(5) The truly humble person does indeed make great progress in the knowledge of God, but with that spiritual growth comes an increase in our knowledge of our sin and how vast is the discrepancy between what we know and what we ought to know, between what we love and ought to love.
The point is that as we grow in grace and knowledge and love of God it simply serves to shine an even brighter light on our corruption and failure to properly honor God. When the humble person does recognize progress and purity in his life, he’s truly stunned by it.
(6) The truly humble person will never consider any act to be beneath his dignity. Even if the act brings him lower than he has ever experienced before, he will always regard it as higher than he deserves. Russ: “How you doing Russ?” “Better than I deserve!” Knowing who and what we are apart from divine, saving grace, and knowing that the only thing God owes us is death and condemnation, is the soil in which the flower of genuine humility successfully grows.
(7) True humility is never noisy, especially about itself. If you are inclined to say, "No one is as sinful and depraved as I am," be careful that you don't think yourself better than others on this very account. Be careful lest you develop a high opinion of your humility. In essence, if you find yourself thinking often of your humility, it is likely that you have little of it.
Such is pride. Such is humility. But why should we care? Why is it so important to Peter and the other biblical authors? And why should it be important to us? Peter now provides four reasons. Let’s look at each of them in turn.
Why is Humility important?
(1) Clothe yourselves with humility because “God opposes the proud” (v. 5b).
Consider this statement in Isaiah 57:15 –
“For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell in a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15).
This passage is simultaneously one of the most encouraging verses and one of the most terrifying. This verse is good news to some and terrifying to others. Here is why.
Who is this God of whom Isaiah speaks? What is he like? He is exalted! Transcendent! Eternal! Holy! Where does he live? In a high and holy place. But he also lives with the contrite and lowly of spirit, in other words, with the humble. The humble heart is God’s home. He dwells with, blesses, speaks to, heals, encourages, upholds, and grants power to the humble of heart. That is why this is one of the most encouraging verses in all of Scripture.
But it is also one of the most terrifying verses in all of Scripture. For if God dwells with the humble, he departs from the proud. If God draws near to the lowly in spirit, he withdraws from the haughty and arrogant. If he blesses those who go low, his disfavor rests on those who lift themselves up. God will have nothing to do with proud, self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-promoting, self-congratulatory, self-aggrandizing men and women. If he is present and intimate with the humble, he is absent from the proud. Try to envision your most powerful enemies, the most aggressive opposition you’ve faced, the most imposing obstacles you’ve had to confront . . . they are nothing in comparison with the infinite energy and power of God! You do not want God to be in opposition to you.
If that isn’t clear enough, listen to the wisdom of Solomon in Proverbs 16:5 – “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly he will not be unpunished.” We have no greater enemy than pride. It is the mortal enemy of our souls. It will deafen our ears to the voice of God. It will harden our hearts to his loving presence. If we coddle it, toy with it, nourish it, it will eat us alive. It is the mortal enemy of all that God promises to us in his word. The sure and certain way to go down in God’s eyes is to go up in your own.
(2) Clothe yourselves with humility because God “gives grace to the humble” (v. 5c).
God gives grace to the humble. Now, this is not the grace that saves. If you are truly humble, you’ve already received that. But many times in the NT the “grace” of God refers to the sanctifying and empowering presence of the Spirit. This grace is his special kindness, his extraordinary blessing, his unique empowerment and enabling presence.
But don’t think that humility earns grace or merits its bestowal. Humility is the confession of weakness and emptiness that receives grace. God gives grace to the humble because they are so empty of themselves they can more readily receive it and be trusted with it than can the proud who are full of themselves.
(3) “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the appropriate time he may exalt you” (v. 6).
That’s the point of my title: “If you want to get high, go low!” By “get high”, of course, I don’t mean on alcohol or drugs. I’m talking about spiritual elevation. I’m talking about what will happen on the day of final judgment when the humble will be rewarded and the proud will be put down.
Humility can be very costly in the present. Humility requires that you openly and honestly acknowledge your mistakes, your shortcomings, and your sins. It means being willing to do tasks that others regard as beneath them. It means serving without expectation of acknowledgment or praise or reward or even being noticed. It means living in such a way that you are always exposed to the possibility of being looked down upon. As someone has said, in all its forms “the truly humble person always runs the risk of losing face.”
So why do it? What possible reason or motive do I have for cultivating humility? The answer is here: God will exalt you! You will receive praise and reward from the only One who matters!
(4) “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God”, rather than be filled with anxiety, because he will use his power to care for you (v. 7).
I hope you’re still with me, because we need to look closely at this verse.
Some translations end v. 6 with a period. They treat v. 7 as if it were an independent statement, standing on its own. But it isn’t. It is actually a subordinate clause. V. 7 continues the thought of v. 6 by telling us how we are to humble ourselves. “Humble yourselves . . . by casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” It’s not “humble yourselves” and “cast your anxieties on him.” It is “humble yourselves by casting your anxieties on him.”
“Be compassionate by feeding the hungry,” or “Be generous by giving sacrificially” or “Be hospitable by inviting someone over for Thanksgiving dinner.” So too, here: “Be humble by casting all your anxieties and worries upon God.”
So Peter is saying: Humble yourself by turning over to the God who cares for you all your worries and anxieties. Not to give them over to him is to be prideful and arrogant. It is to say that you believe you can do what God can’t. It is to say that you believe that you care more for yourself and your situation than God does. It is to deny his power and his passion. It is to say, “God, I’m better at handling this situation than you are. I know it better than you do. I can see all its complexities and its eventual outcome better than you can. I have the wisdom and skill and resources to resolve my problems in a way that you don’t.”
Humility, on the other hand, is saying: “God, I can’t do this on my own. I can’t do it at all. I can’t see my way out of this mess. I can’t understand why it happened or how to make it go away. I can’t control all the people who are involved. I can’t make them do what needs to be done. Only you can. Only you are wise and good and powerful and you really do care about my life.”
He cares for you. He cares deeply about what is troubling your soul and creating anxiety. It matters to him! He cares about how you are feeling in every circumstance. He cares about how it affects your physical and emotional health. He cares about what you think and say in response to the situation. He cares about how sad it makes you. He cares about the way it is damaging relationships and causing you heartache. He cares about the way it is affecting your ability to get up in the morning and go to work. He cares about your inability to sleep at night because the anxieties are eating away at your soul. He cares about how it is hindering your spiritual growth. He cares about every tear you cry and every word you speak and every prayer you’ve prayed. It matters to him! It deeply touches his heart that yours is breaking. He cares for you. He cares so much that he asks you to relinquish your control over the situation.
Acknowledge your pride. Admit you have tried to do what only God can do. Confess your failure to trust God to be good enough and powerful enough to be worthy of taking over. Promise to him that every time the issue comes up or pops into your mind you will immediately stop and say, “Lord, this is your problem. You said you would deal with it. You said that I should act and think in such a way that the burden is lifted off me and placed on you.”
The point is that casting your anxiety on God is to humble yourself. Casting your anxiety on God is not simply a separate thing that you do after you humble yourself. Trusting God is the essence of humility!
Of course, none of this makes sense unless God is both powerful and loving. Hence the reference to his “mighty hand” and his “caring” for us. Why entrust yourself to someone who lacks the power to help or assist? Why entrust yourself to someone who doesn’t care or is indifferent or cold-hearted? Why trust someone, even yourself, who is impotent?
So how do I actually cast my anxieties on him? What do I do to make this happen? The first thing is that you begin by trusting his promise that he cares for you! Cast all your anxieties upon him BECAUSE he cares for you! Believe that he cares. Trust his love. Lay hold of his promise and remind yourself every moment of every day that he really and truly is good and will uphold and sustain you through the worst of circumstances.
Can you believe that today? Can you take hold in your heart of the truth that his mighty hand is over you to cover, not to crush; to provide, not to pressure; to give, not to get?
You have heard me say before that God loves to glorify himself by serving you. You don’t glorify God by pretending to serve him as if he were needy. He is the benefactor and you are the beneficiary. He is philanthropist and you are the poor and needy beggar. "From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him (Isaiah 64:4).
When God bears the burden, he gets the glory. When God supplies the strength, he is praised. When God carries the worries, he is exalted. Wow! What a God who would gladly do this for people like us!
When it says that he cares, it means he will not stand at a distance and simply let circumstances unfold apart from his loving influence. It means he will act. He will work. Not always the way we would. He's God and sees the end from the beginning in a way we can’t. But what it does mean is that we can rest assured that, as Paul said in Romans 8:28, he will “work all things together for good for those who love him and are the called according to his purpose.”
The first thing, then, that you can do to cast your anxieties on God is to believe him when he says he cares for you and to trust him to do so. The second practical way of casting your anxieties on God is to pray. Philippians 4:6 says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
Casting your anxieties on God means trusting the promise that he cares for you and has the power and the wisdom to put that care to work in the most glorious way and praying regularly for him to do the very thing he has promised!