James 4:10
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you" (James 4:10).
There are no greater issues we wrestle with on a daily basis than pride and humility. Both themes are interwoven throughout Scripture both in theory and experiential examples. They represent perhaps man's greatest manifestation of sin (pride) and the character quality that most aligns our will with the Father (humility).
Yet with all the Bible teaches and all man has to say in response to God's Word, born-again followers of Christ continue to struggle resisting pride and applying humility. We are plagued with the Spirit's conviction but distracted by the schemes of the devil that bind us from making efforts toward positive change. Our desire for righteousness is honest and pure, but our application falls significantly short of achieving our objective. Why?
Simply stated, pride is an indirect form of self-flattery which elevates oneself above others. It is conceited and self-absorbed, arrogant and rude. It represents the complete antithesis of who Jesus Christ is and all He represents because self is worshiped above God and self-protection is its objective.
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).
In comparison, humility elevates others above self. It does not seek one's best interest but that which serves and blesses others.
"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3).
Humility maintains a low and reverent posture before God, for it recognizes the chasm that exists between the holiness of God and wretchedness of sinful man. The interesting fact about pride and humility is that both exist at the heart level. They represent a choice man must repeatedly make throughout his faith walk with Christ, and they help monitor the spiritual maturity with which he identifies himself.
What we must keep in mind as we examine verse 10 is that James has already provided concrete examples of the types of behavior needed in order to humble ourselves. He began in verse 7 by reinforcing submission and the imperative need to resist the devil's schemes, emphasized in verse 8 the importance of relational proximity to the Lord and His Word through practical application of cleansing and purification, and finished in verse 9 with a command to mourn and weep over our sin.
In all these verses, James has woven a thread of humility that provides foundational structure to our theological application. He has not compartmentalized humility into a box independent of spiritual affinities. Rather, he has reinforced how critical humility is to resisting the temptations of the world within spiritual warfare.
Humility is not a commodity we can purchase, but it is something we can manufacture. For man cannot go and simply be humble; He must achieve humility through selfless acts of service. Humility is produced through application, and specifically by seeking opportunities to swallow our pride and serve others unconditionally.
Jesus best demonstrated humility when He embraced the position and duties of a servant and washed His disciples' feet the night before he was unjustly beaten and executed (John 13:1-20). Consider the enormity of that teaching moment!
Never before had such an extreme spiritual dichotomy been made between theory and application. For it would have been easy for Jesus to simply proclaim, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12), but He knew that faith alone was void if not evidenced by works.
He knew that we needed to see humility in action if we were to fully grasp and understand how radical His message of love truly was. Moreover, Jesus exhibited the ultimate example of humility by accepting the role of sin-bearer and willingly being sacrificed for the sins of mankind when He was completely blameless and innocent of wrongdoing.
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6-8).
It is hard to grasp the reality of Christ's humble sacrifice on our behalf, but we are called to emulate His example in all we say and do, and that must be blanketed in a spirit of humility and self-sacrifice.
For if we refuse to die to our love of self, we will remain held captive by our pride and of little use to the kingdom of heaven. But if we choose to submit and obey the truth of Scripture which commands us to humble ourselves, we will be exalted.
Keep in mind, our exaltation may not come as we anticipate, hope for, or expect, (i.e. monetary value, exemption of suffering, public praise or adoration, etc.) but God's promise is true regardless of whether we physically experience it this side of heaven.
So let us encourage one another to keep proper perspective as it relates to this truth. For we are assured that our efforts to cast pride away from our hearts by embracing humility will identify us Christ-followers even in the midst of persecution.
And we can pray that by removing the log in our own eyes, we will see clearly to remove the speck in others through humble hearts and selfless acts of love and servitude, which will open up opportunities for the Good News of Jesus Christ to be shared and lost souls won for the kingdom of heaven.
