A Slice of Humble Pie

“Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.” [Zephaniah 2:3 ESV]

“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” [1 Peter 5:5 ESV]

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” [Philippians 2:3-8 ESV]

“For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns [crowns] the humble with salvation [victory].” [Psalm 149:4 ESV, NIV]

“But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” [Isaiah 66:2 ESV]

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” [Matthew 18:1-4 NKJV]

You would have to had nipped the strong drink of propaganda and then fallen sound asleep like Rip Van Winkle to not notice the lack of humility here in the United States, especially in the last six years or so. I mean, do the scriptures on humility above reflect our culture at all? We have politicians on both sides parading their supposed superiority to their opponents through brag fest TV commercials. We have far right-leaning Republicans who pull stunts to make a political point or to garner media attention without thought of the people they are using to do so. We have far left-leaning Democrats so pro-abortion that a woman’s rights are hallowed to the point of offering no mercy to the child at all. Both sides have supporters peddling obscene T-shirts and bumper stickers. I recently saw a picture of a man wearing a T-shirt that said, “Size Matters” that depicted several different types of ammunition arranged from handgun bullets to assault weapon NATO ammo that can penetrate up to twenty inches into the soft tissue of our body. What boggles my mind is that people think this type of thing is clever when in fact it is lewd and unloving. We have people who believe that their sexual perversion is a source of pride and a cause to celebrate with parades, drag pageants, and various meet-ups. We have Facebook posts and chat room convos filled with vitriol by people who claim Christ as Lord but fail to imitate His humility. We have two political parties in a struggle for power who will not work together for good but would rather pander to their own personal aspirations and agendas. Many are playing follow the leader and we are reaping the fruit of division as each group fights for their own “rights” instead of “humbling themselves like a little child.” What does the Lord say about trusting in anyone other than Him? “This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD. … “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” [Jeremiah 17:5, 7 NIV] Those who pull up a chair to the table of pride may want to order a slice of humble pie.

To eat humble pie was a pun first coined in 1830 by adding an “h” to umble pie, an inferior meat pie often served to lower-class people in medieval times. It was made up of the offal of animals, especially deer, and does indeed sound awful! I’d like to point out we would not be serving a slice of this pie “a la mode,” which in the original sense means “fashionable or stylish.” Walking in humility is definitely not a hot trend here–it is abhorred in this country. Showing kindness to an enemy is made to look like weakness, speaking the truth is made to look like moral snobbery or a phobia, and obeying our omniscient and all-powerful God is made to look like utter foolishness, not faith. The panoramic view of U.S. society shows few who “are humble and contrite in spirit” and tremble at God’s word! [Isaiah 66:2 ESV]

Should we be surprised? No! The bible says this:

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” [2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV]

And because of this, we are instructed and encouraged:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life–is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” [1 John 2:15-17 ESV]

Now, we can see that the sin of pride is also completely bound up in original sin. Eve was tempted to think she could be like God! Satan told her: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” [Genesis 3:5 ESV] As usual, the original liar suggests that a mere mortal can be like the only holy God whose righteousness is so overpowering to our base humanity that a person can not physically see Him and live. The enemy is always contradicting God: “for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me….” [Isaiah 46:9] Adam was with Eve and knowingly joined in her disobedience, for Paul says that “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” [1 Timothy 2:14 ESV] Can you see the pride in all this, brothers and sisters? It is clear throughout scripture that disobedience is yoked with pride, and obedience is yoked with humility. Pride becomes evident when we fail to act in faith. For example, walking by faith requires one to know truth so that his or her actions can attest to sincere and godly belief. An unbeliever rejects truth, and because they reject truth they mirror their own belief system and act accordingly. Often times they do not act in alignment with their personal beliefs, and hypocrisy results. For example, it is popular to believe in phrases like, “let’s go along to get along,” or popular bumper stickers like, “coexist” with its many religious symbols representing a desire to “live and let live.” However, a person can believe these things yet be the cause of discord in their homes or workplace. It’s a grand idea, but the carry through is often not seen.

Christians, even though they know truth, often fail as well. We see this in many internet forums where conflicting views arise. The Word of God teaches us:

“Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” [1 Peter 3:14-16 ESV]

I remember one forum where I sensed the woman was a Universalist and believed that “hell is what you make it.” Another fellow, a Christian, began to call her dumb and silly and, even though what he was saying regarding the biblical view of hell was correct, his rudeness offended her, and the truth was lost in the delivery. Brothers and sisters, please let me encourage you to be humble with others in your presenting of truth. Our goal is to speak the truth in love. That does not mean you do not call homosexuality or other vices a sin when speaking with someone. It means that you do not call the person something derogatory because you consider yourself enlightened. I mean, what do we know that we have not been taught by God? Were we not at one time just as unlearned? The bible calls those who are unbelievers spiritually dead. Were we not once dead in our trespasses? How would we like to be revived? With insults, or loving and truthful correction? I read a quote recently that said something to the effect that the gospel message can and will be offensive to some people, but we ourselves should never be.

As Christians, we especially need to be on guard against a lack of humility in this area, where the root cause is many times studying the bible for just the sake of pursuing knowledge. We are rather instructed to pursue love. [1 Corinthians 14:1; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:22] The bible warns us that, “This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. [1 Corinthians 8:1 ESV] We can see this in Eve’s example. She knew God’s command: “And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” [Genesis 3:2-3 ESV] She knew the truth, quoted God, but disobeyed anyway. This is pride, beloved. If we profess to know God, we should not deny him by our works. [Titus 1:16 ESV] I often pray that my knowledge never stretches beyond my ability to love, because Paul said, “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” [1 Corinthians 13:2 ESV] In fact, Paul says, “Let all that you do be done in love.” [1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV]

There seems to be a theme in the Bible, one that says that humility and love go hand in hand with faith and obedience. Jesus himself said, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” [John 14:21 NIV] Do you consider yourself humble? You cannot claim to be humble without being obedient to God, and you can not be obedient to God without being humble. To two are intrinsically tied. I would like to challenge you all to seek humility from the Lord, for He is ready to instruct the teachable. Do you struggle with a besetting sin? I have noted in my own life when I ask the Lord for help to overcome a certain sin that as soon as my heart takes up a humble posture and my motive is love for Him and others, He is faithful. “For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.” [Psalm 149:4 NIV]

Do not lose heart if you feel convicted by this discussion of humility. Simply repent and turn from pride. Repentance IS an act of humility, and our Abba always corrects those He loves: “My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” [Proverbs 3:11-12 NIV] So, do not say in your heart, “I am a worthless so and so” or “I will never get this right.” Believe the truth: your Heavenly Father loves you and DELIGHTS in you! He desires your spiritual growth, just like you would desire and delight to see the growth in character of your own child. Amen!

“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” [1 Peter 2:1-3 NIV]

“…Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” [Ephesians 4:13-15 NIV]

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez via Unsplash