Christian Humility as a Means of Unity

In Ephesians 4, Paul lists four key traits that characterize a life that is worthy of God’s calling; these traits are the true and only means of church unity. We are instructed to “Be completely humble and gentle; to be patient, bearing with one another in love. [and to] make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”.

It is of course no accident that humility is the first trait listed since it is the foundational Christian virtue and is the starting point of the Christian life. It is, after all, an affront to pride when we admit to the evil that resides in our hearts and when we admit our complete impotence to overcome it. John MacArthur notes that “Although humility is the basis of Christian virtue, it seems to be a completely foreign concept to the world at large. The word humility is a compound word in Greek that literally means to think or judge with lowliness, and hence to have lowliness of mind. Neither the Romans nor the Greeks even had a word for humility. The very concept was so foreign and abhorrent to their way of thinking that they had no term to describe it. Apparently this Greek term was coined by Christians, probably by Paul himself, to describe a quality for which no other word was available. To the proud Greeks and Romans, their terms for ignoble, cowardly, and other such characteristics were sufficient to describe the “unnatural” person who did not think of himself with pride and self-satisfaction. When, during the first several centuries of Christianity, pagan writers borrowed the term, they always used it derogatorily – frequently of Christians because to them humility was a pitiable weakness.”

I peformed a biblical word study on "pride" and "humility" and I was really struck by how often the terms humility and unity are mentioned in the same passage: humility being the way of obtaining unity. Humility is described in scriptures as an attitude that “considers others better than yourself” and an attitude that “doesn’t think too highly of oneself” but I’m afraid that John MacArthur is right. We live in a culture of self-esteem where we are taught to think very highly of ourselves and to consider ourselves to be at least as good as everyone else. We are taught to be strong-willed and independent; to demand that others treat us as the all-knowing and perfectly-righteous people that we believe ourselves to be.

None of us is immune to pride – it is one of the cardinal vices of the fallen human heart and it lurks just below the surface of our skin. As Christians we get pretty good at masking our conceit but doesn’t it all too often flare up uncontrollably in a glance of irritation; a quick and furtive look of contempt; or in a smug curling of the lips. How many of us are after all proud of our jobs, our house, our spouse, our children, our intelligence, our beauty, our skill, our wisdom or, perhaps the worst of all, our own righteousness, piety, or humility? And how often do we react badly when these things don’t receive the praise we think they deserve?

It seems to me that true humility is a very difficult virtue to obtain. We can’t really become humble by thinking to ourselves something like “Today I’m going to be humble. I’m going to think lots of bad things about myself and lots of good things about everyone else and finally my pride will die.” It seems to me that the best way to combat pride is to not think about yourself at all but to keep our eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of our faith. The best way to eliminate pride is to walk in the Spirit, to be so filled with the humility of Christ that we give no room to the flesh. And let’s not forget that we are called to “complete” humility. We are to consider everyone else better than ourselves at all times and in all situations. Only then will our lives be in balance with our calling.

Philippians chapter 2 describes the perfect humility of Christ. Notice also in this passage the emphasis on the unity that flows from humility. “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Of course we are all inclined to a self-righteous false humility. False humility seems based on a man-made and legalistic notion of righteousness and is usually based on things that we don’t do. Colossians 2 teaches that “while human commands and teachings indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, they nonetheless lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence”. Jonathan Edwards comments on the danger of false humility. “It may be observed that the more excellent anything is, the more it will be counterfeited. Thus there are many more counterfeits of silver and gold, than of iron and copper: there are many false diamonds and rubies, but who goes around counterfeiting pebbles? The more excellent things are, the more difficult it is to make anything like them; the more prevalent will the counterfeits be, and the more skill and subtlety be displayed, in an exact imitation of the outward appearance.

So it is with Christian virtues and graces; the subtlety of Satan, and men's deceitful hearts, are inclined towards counterfeiting those things that are in highest repute. So there are perhaps no graces that have more counterfeits than love and humility; these being virtues wherein the beauty of a true Christian does especially appear.”

How do we know whether we have the attitude of Christ? How can we gauge whether we have truly adopted the nature of a servant? That question may be best answered by how we react when we are treated like a servant. If you react as a servant when others treat you as a servant then and only then do you have the heart of a servant and an attitude of true humility.