God hates pride. Pride makes us think much about ourselves and little about others. Especially God. No wonder humility is an essential element of Christian holiness.
How, then, do we as Christians guard against pride? How can we foster the growth of genuine humility in our lives? One thing is for sure. We’ll never embrace humility if we don’t understand what biblical humility is. The apostle Paul helps us here. In his example we learn that biblical humility isn’t the absence of confidence. Rather, biblical humility is the possession of confidence rooted in its proper source. This is the humility Paul demonstrated when he defended his apostolic ministry in 2 Corinthians 3:4-6. Refuting the attacks of false teachers, Paul writes “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant…”
I’ll be honest. When I first read Paul’s letters as a young Christian he struck me as arrogant. I immediately understood that lack of confidence was not his issue. However, in spite of my first impression, I now know Paul’s confidence never reflected a lack of humility. In his letters Paul sincerely calls himself “the least of the apostles, less than the least of all God’s people, and the worst of sinners.” Which raises the question, “How is it possible for us to be genuinely humble and supremely confident at one and the same time? For Paul, the answer was found in the source of his confidence.
In 2 Corinthians 3:4-6, we see that Paul’s confidence in life and ministry was not self-confidence. The irony is that, humanly speaking, Paul had every reason to be self-confident. He possessed more outward righteousness, more zeal, a better education, and a more impressive religious heritage than any of his apostolic contemporaries. In spite of this, Paul chose to anchor his confidence in God rather than self. Understanding the weight of his calling, Paul acknowledged his inability and personal incompetence in order to embrace the competence that can only be found in God.
Biblical humility, then, is not the absence of all confidence. It is the rejection of self-confidence rooted in the pursuit of self-glory. Genuine humility is confidence not in what we think ourselves capable of. It is confidence in what we know God is capable of in us and through us.
In light of this we must remember that biblical humility is not an exercise in self-depreciation. Paul speaks freely of the competence he possesses in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:6), the weight of his personal sufferings (2 Corinthians 11:24-29), and the significance of his labor for Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:10). In short, biblical humility never means denying the value of what we do for Jesus. It does mean maintaining a proper perspective.
In the end, genuine humility means acknowledging that all we are in Christ and all we do for Christ is done in his strength and by his grace! In the end, we are not the heroes of our own stories. God is. As Paul himself says, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
Almost two hundred years ago Robert Murray M’Cheyne wrote, “Pray for more knowledge of your own heart—of the total depravity of it—of the awful depths of corruption that are there.” This is not a morbid plea. Nor is it a plea to deny the value of your own labor for Christ. Rather, it is a call to remember what we are apart from God’s grace. It is a call to pursue humility because, left to ourselves, we have no reason to be proud.