Tag: Humility

On Living a New Life in Christ

Colossians 1:11-14  PHILLIPS As you live this new life, we pray that you will be strengthened from God’s boundless resources, so that you will find yourselves able to pass through any experience and endure it with courage. You will even be able to thank God in the midst of pain and distress because you are privileged to share the lot of those who are living in the light. For we must never forget that he rescued us from the power of darkness and re-established us in the kingdom of his beloved Son, that is, in the kingdom of light. For it is by his Son alone that we have been redeemed and have had our sins forgiven.

“He has not been anything like long enough with the Enemy to have any real humility yet. What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favourable credit-balance in the Enemy’s ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these ‘smug’, commonplace neighbours at all. Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can.”  (The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis; https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/).  FYI – This book was written to give insight into demon strategy to disrupt the growth in Christ of a new believer.  Therefore, the Enemy in this context is God.

Observation

Our culture has conditioned us to rate a person’s value by his/her accomplishment, status, possessions, appearance, physical prowess, performance – the visible fruit of our own efforts.  This is only a problem when we begin to believe that any of these visible fruits make us more valuable in God’s sight. No matter what talent, ability, possessions, or other human accomplishment we brought with us when we entered into Christ, He got no bargain, no bonus, and owed us no credit for what we contributed to the cause.  “For we must never forget that he rescued us from the power of darkness, and re-established us in the kingdom of his beloved Son, that is, in the kingdom of light. For it is by his Son alone that we have been redeemed and have had our sins forgiven.” 

We paid no price to be born again – just as we contributed nothing to our physical birth except to show up at the finale. It is what we do with our lives that matters. We need to remember that we have been RESCUED from the power of darkness, an inescapable prison, by the only One Who could pay the price, and He values every soul irrespective of Godly giftings or visible fruit.  Everything we are or do or can be is a gift from God that He wants us – in gratitude for our rescue – to choose to gift back and submit to Him so that He can make the best of us – our talents, abilities, skills and possessions – and fulfill His will and purpose to bring more souls into His Kingdom.  

Impact on Me

So, I find the second half of today’s passage easier to do than the first half. Salvation was free; I like free and have always remained grateful for the gift only Jesus could provide. However, sanctification (“living this new life”) is much more challenging as it apparently has a cost to me that requires strength and courage and may require me to endure pain and distress, all the while thanking God for the opportunity to do so. “As you live this new life, we pray that you will be strengthened from God’s boundless resources, so that you will find yourselves able to pass through any experience and endure it with courage. You will even be able to thank God in the midst of pain and distress because you are privileged to share the lot of those who are living in the light.” 

If I am truly grateful for the free gift, can I really refuse to trust and obey the Giver, regardless of what it might cost me, so that others might receive the free gift of salvation and begin to live this new life?  Have I grasped that I am now part of God’s Kingdom and have a share of both the cost and benefit of “those living in the light”?  Isn’t any cost to me just returning what has been supplied by Him and His resources?  Can I really believe that I bring something to the table that is completely my own?  What is my rescue worth to me?  What price will I be willing to pay so others might be rescued? 

I always come back to consider the price Jesus paid for me – that was equally paid for every soul, that was my only hope, that is a rescue for whosoever will come. When I consider these things, I strive to let the cost of my obedience be in God’s hands and to remember to be thankful that no matter where I find myself or the circumstances surrounding me, God is with me and has a plan to redeem, restore, and rescue.  While I am not at the place where I say, “Thank you, God, for bringing on the pain and distress!”, I am getting better at asking Him what He would have me do and be in the middle of it.  I hope that is a visible fruit of living the new life in Christ.

Prayer

I stand in awe of the path You walked and the price You paid to provide my redemption, my rescue.  And then You offer salvation free to me for the taking.  I pray that You remind me always that everything I have, am and do, I have because You have first given Your all on my behalf.  Remind me that regardless of the circumstances You go with me and will provide all I need.  I want to keep my perspective in line with Yours as I humbly and gratefully walk this Christian life.  I ask this all in Jesus’ name.

On Being a Humble Servant

 Mark 10:43-45 ESV But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. 

John 13:1-17 PHILLIPS 1-5 Before the festival of the Passover began, Jesus realised that the time had come for Him to leave this world and return to the Father. He had loved those who were His own in this world and He loved them to the end. By supper-time, the devil had already put the thought of betraying Jesus in the mind of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son. Jesus, with the full knowledge that the Father had put everything into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from the supper-table, took off His outer clothes, picked up a towel and fastened it round His waist. Then He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel around His waist. 

6-9 So He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”  “You do not realise now what I am doing,” replied Jesus, “but later on you will understand.”  Then Peter said to Him, “You must never wash my feet!” “Unless you let me wash you, Peter,” replied Jesus, “you cannot share my lot.”  “Then,” returned Simon Peter, “please—not just my feet but my hands and my face as well!” 

10-11 “The man who has bathed,” returned Jesus, “only needs to wash his feet to be clean all over. And you are clean—though not all of you.”  (For Jesus knew His betrayer and that is why He said, “though not all of you”.) 

12-17 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His clothes, He sat down and spoke to them, “Do you realise what I have just done to you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and you are quite right, for I am your teacher and your Lord. But if I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you must be ready to wash one another’s feet. I have given you this as an example so that you may do as I have done. Believe me, the servant is not greater than his master and the messenger is not greater than the man who sent him. Once you have realised these things, you will find your happiness in doing them. 

Observation 

The point of the Bible is to tell us God’s story and His plan for our redemption.  All of the passages are there to reveal Who He is, what He desires of us and for us, and how He responds to our choices.  Jesus the Christ, the manifestation of God in human form, called Himself “gentle (meek) and humble” (Matthew 11:28-30), defined servanthood as the path to pleasing God, and spoke of Himself as serving all of us by giving His life as a ransom for us all (God’s redemptive plan to restore the intimate relationship He desired with us and intended from the beginning).  In the passages above, Jesus demonstrates for His disciples the type of servant they are to be if they want to be like Him and considered great and first in God’s Kingdom.   Footwashing was an important element of hospitality for the culture of the time as feet became dirty walking on dusty roads.  As important as it was, the lowest, almost always Gentile, servants were the ones to do it.   When Jesus “took off his outer clothes, picked up a towel and fastened it round his waist,” He took on the persona of a menial foreign slave.   

This is why Peter protested.  Disciples were supposed to serve their Master/Rabbi, not the other way around.  Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Man, God, was demonstrating the kind of humility and servanthood He required to truly be one of His disciples.  “But if I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you must be ready to wash one another’s feet. I have given you this as an example so that you may do as I have done.”   Jesus had come to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah regarding the servanthood of Messiah (Isaiah 42:1-4, Matthew 12:16-21), the bowing low of God to redeem His creation, His people, so that He might restore the intimate relationship with us disrupted in the Garden of Eden.  

Did you catch that He washed ALL of the disciples’ feet – including the feet of Judas who was about to betray Him?  This level of humility requires more that setting pride aside temporarily.  This level of humility requires complete surrender, total submission to the will and purpose of God Who does not want any to perish (2 Peter 3:9).   This was a powerful discipleship lesson which was apparently caught and embraced as His disciples later identified themselves as servants (or slaves) of God and committed even to die in His service – John (Rev. 1:1), Paul (1 Cor 3:5-6), Peter (2 Peter 1:1), James (James 1:1), Jude (Jude 1:1).   

Impact on Me 

I have participated in footwashing services and it is a very humbling experience.  However, this passage is not meant to tell me how important footwashing services are, but, rather, that I need to be willing to set aside my pride and any status provided by my position to gladly and humbly serve those who have nothing to give me in return.  Jesus is demonstrating to me (and us all) the kind of humility and service I am to emulate if I want to be like Him in this day and age.  

Merriam Webster defines “humble” as “not proud: not thinking of yourself as better than other people.”   A servant is simply one who serves others.  Servant in the New Testament is often translated as slave.  We don’t like that word as it has a bad taste in our historical context.  The position Jesus took above was as low as He could go in His culture.  What is the lowest I can go in service today – an unpaid volunteer in homeless ministry, serving orphans in a foreign land, working to change the lives of the poorest so they can have a better future?  I know people who do all these and will never have any recognition on earth but much treasure in heaven. 

Jesus is showing me that it’s not a sign of weakness to serve someone — it’s a sign of love, strength and humility – all treasures in His kingdom.  Jesus is saying to me, “Don’t view yourself as better than other people – even your enemy – for I died for him/her, too.”   This is a hard lesson to embrace and live. 

Prayer 

Father God, You are Love and created us in Your image.  You gave Jesus to walk this earth as a human to show us how to live in and for You.  I am humbled by how lowly Jesus stooped, how much He sacrificed, to restore intimacy between us.  I am woefully inconsistent in my attempts to emulate Jesus’ example.  However, I pray that as I find each new pocket of pride, You will, by Your Holy Spirit, help me to place that pride on Your altar to be burnt up.  I truly want to be more like Jesus day by day as I journey through this life.  Make it so, Lord, in Jesus’ name.