HUMILITY AND LOWLINESS

P. Hogan

1 Peter 5: 5; 1 Kings 3: 6–9; Philippians 2: 5–11

Humility is a subject that I do not know very much about. If we look inside our human hearts, it is a great rarity. If we look at the business and commercial world, indeed every aspect of this world, at school or whatever sphere of life we are in, we do not find humility. Hence the reason that the scripture says we are to bind on humility towards one another. Someone else has said that there was only ever one person who did not need to bind on humility, and that was the Lord Jesus. Humility was a feature that was intrinsically there in Him. He was the only Man who ever walked on this earth of whom this could be said. Also, you will very rarely see in the same sentence as the word ‘humility’, the matter of authority. These two things were seen uniquely in Christ. Humility is often thought of in the world as a sign of weakness, but in Christ I believe humility and authority were entirely interwoven in Him.

Therefore we have the practical exercise of binding on humility because it is not in us naturally. What we are in all our imperfections constantly asserts itself, but the Holy Spirit constantly occupies and fills our hearts with Christ. He is the One in whom there was lowliness and humility. They were perfectly seen in every aspect of His pathway. Paul was someone who could speak of himself at one point in his life as being an insolent overbearing man (1 Timothy 1: 13). He says elsewhere, “in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves”, Philippians 2: 3. These are two opposites, but Paul had been affected, his heart had been worked with and formed after Christ. So what was seen in Paul was a different kind of man and a different kind of mind. Paul had taken on the mind that was in Christ Jesus and that became displayed in his pathway. Persons who had seen Paul before, as an insolent overbearing man would be able to see displayed in Paul something that was entirely different.

The reason I read about Solomon is that, when you think about him and all his glory, humility is not a word that would readily occur to you. But I believe there is a line here that gives us an insight into what was in Solomon’s mind, and that gave God a basis for doing what He did for Solomon. He says, “I am but a little child—I know not to go out and to come in”. He took the place of a little child before God and effectively said, ‘I do not know anything at all. I am nothing before God. There is nothing in me naturally, no natural resource at all’. On that very basis God was able to bring about in him wonderful prosperity. It also says that he asked for an understanding heart. That thought came into a local reading recently, the importance of understanding and judgment and discernment, to discern between good and bad. Solomon said “Give therefore to thy servant an understanding heart”. That is what he was seeking after. He did not ask for long life or riches for himself. He simply asked for an understanding heart. If we have an understanding heart, it means that we are able to work things out with one another, it means that we have been before God and, like Solomon, we prostrate ourselves before God.

He realised his own smallness, yet it is a wonderful thing that God had such great things in mind for him. Solomon is able to display the discernment and judgment that God gave him. Almost immediately it is put to the test when the two women are brought before him with the living child. The scripture says that “they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice”, 1 Kings 3: 28. It is a great thing to see that God would work with people on that very basis, that He would put in their hearts something that was not there before. That would provide tremendous strength and power.

You might say that strength and power are not immediately associated with humility or lowliness, but think of this—there was a Man here, the Lord Jesus, who was able to display all these attributes, and He came in order that the will of God would be worked out absolutely perfectly. For Him it meant that He stooped in love. He stooped into this world in the first place, and then He stooped into death. His pathway went down and down and down. Yet think of the authority that was seen there. There was a point where they had to fall away backwards (see John 18: 6). At the moment of great outward weakness, they were faced with His authority and His power and they went away backwards. We have to be constantly occupied with the Lord Jesus because what we are naturally often asserts itself. It says that He “humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death”. I cannot say much about that.

We all know what it is to be disobedient. But we also know that when we are occupied with Christ we are occupied with a Man who was always obedient to His Father’s will.

Scripture also says that God “granted him a name, that which is above every name”. We have to do with One who is exalted and ascended and glorified. He fills our hearts. He is able to occupy us in every aspect and detail of our lives. Whatever the circumstances we are in, Christ is able for them. As that character of man is worked out in us there is something formed in us that would give glory and satisfaction and joy to God, because what He sees there are features of Christ worked out in persons in a practical way in this world. These are features that are of no account in this world, but as we are occupied with Christ I believe there is something there in which God takes great joy, and the result is praise flowing out to Him.

May the Lord bless the word.

Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
25 July 2006