My dear friend Emily Ng pointed me to this quote not to long ago, and it got me thinking on the church's struggling representation of true humility.

“Humility is nothing else but a true knowledge and awareness of oneself as one really is... Two things cause humility. One is the degradation, wretchedness and weakness of man to which by sin he has fallen...The other is the superabundant love and worth of God himself: gazing on which all nature trembles, all scholars are fools, all saints and angels blind” (“The Cloud of Unknowing” by an anonymous monk in the Middle Ages).

In my experience of witnessing the church's embodiment of humility, I have seen a general sway towards two extremes: self-degradation and narcissism. Those of the former tend to forget our adoption as sons, and the latter tend to forget life prior to our adoption, and that our sanctification will be a process until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:16). C.S. Lewis states, “The saddest condition to exist in is to reject God’s love or to live like it does not matter”. If we are commanded to clothe ourselves with humility, then it is essential that we wear it appropriately (Col. 3:12).

Biblical humility is essential because of it's purpose in the church. Consider these Scripture verses:

“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited” (Romans 12:16).

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom” (James 3:13).

Humility comes before honor (Proverbs 15:33, 18:12, 22:4, 29:23: 1 Peter 5:6, James 4:10).

Upon personal reflection on these verses, it became evident to me that humility has at least these three purposes: unity, wise service of others, and honor.

Unity is clearly precious to the heart of God, for it is present throughout Scripture as a whole. In speaking to Abraham, God states in Genesis 22:18, “and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” Nations, transliterated “gowy” from Hebrew, often refers to a non-Hebrew people. Therefore pre-Christ, God desired the grafting in of Gentiles to the people of God, revealing the heart of God that is concerned with the unity of his creation. In the New Testament, Peter adresses the church specifically saying, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” Through acquiring biblical humility, the church is better united as the bride of Christ, and the church is a more effective witness of the heart of God that “all men may be saved”(1 Peter 2:4).

Humility necessarily leads to a wise service of others. Mark 10:44 states that, “Whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all.” Reflecting on the aforementioned quote by the anonymous monk, humility stems from a depth of knowledge of our brokenness as well as being consumed by the unfathomable love of God. These two realities necessarily lead one to a service of others, for as we gain deeper insight and knowledge of these two realities through the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, we become more humble. This depth of humility will thus show itself through good works done in wisdom, for the sake of the body of Christ.

At first, the thought of humility leading to honor seems self-seeking and a form of idolatry. That may be because you misunderstood the biblical honoring of believers. What is the "honor" Scripture speaks of? I understand this honoring spoken of in Scripture as God's exaltation of us because we are in Christ. Ephesians 1:20-21 declares, “He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Through Christ's obedient submission to God in everything, he was glorified. Ephesians 2 shows that Christ made us alive and raised us in him. Humility leads to honor because of Christ. We are a new creation, adopted as sons, raised with Christ and co-heirs with him. Christ's perfection to God allowed us to be raised up with him, for the purpose of enjoying Him forever.

These purposes reject the unbiblical presence of assuming humility is a degradation of self, or a misinterpretation of God's exaltation of His children. Humility is truly seeing ourselves as we truly are, and it necessarily affects the unity and service of the Christian church.