When we consider the qualities that we as Christians should possess we realise that the list is a most formidable one. Yet it is not for us to select from among them the ones that we would like to excel in. It is no use for one of us to say to another “show me your works and I will show you my faith” or vice-versa, although some qualities have a more obvious appeal — to the human mind at least — than have others.
Courage is one of these obviously attractive ones; to think of the brave things done by worthies of old stirs the heart, as for many of us’ do the sounding of trumpets and the beating of drums. Who is not uplifted when he reads the story of the stripling David going out to do battle with the giant of the Philistines? It does not seem to matter that we know the story by heart, it still thrills us, a mere lad with a homemade sling and a few pebbles against a man taller than any we have ever seen, clad in the finest armour the smiths of the day could make. Or there is Daniel, a captive in a foreign land, not even free to go where he wanted, and given orders by no less an authority than the king; yet when those orders went against the principles of his religion, he refused to obey them, although he knew that the consequence could be a most unpleasant death. To come down to New Testament times, there is Peter, speaking boldly when authority told him to be quiet. “By what power or by what name have you done this?” he was asked, and he told them in no uncertain words, so that “when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled”. A warning not to go on preaching just brought the reply: “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4 vv. 7-20).
In each case this display of boldness, of courage was essential; there was nothing foolhardy about it. Had there not been a David to stand up against Goliath, the stripling nation of Israel might well have succumbed to Philistia’s dominance. Had there not been a Daniel to stand firm against the orders of the great king, and set an example to his fellow captives, they might, like other conquered nations, have been absorbed into the peoples around them. Had Peter and John not put God’s orders in front of those of the men set in authority over them, Christianity might not have spread as it did; and we might never have heard of Christ.
God’s Order
Yet such qualities are not enough of themselves. Remember how 1 Corinthians 13 begins: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” Boldness and courage may indeed, and often justly. bring us honour from men, but there is a sobering little phrase (twice over) in Proverbs 15, v.33 and again in 18, v.12: “Before honour is humility”. This is God’s order, not man’s. Humility has never been popular; it certainly is not today. It implies a respect for authority, an admission that there is someone above you. In the troubled days at the end of the Judges when there was no such authority, no king in the land, “every man did that which was right in his own eyes”. That is what people do today in this permissive age, and it is an unthinkable idea that what you want to do should be wrong; but humility demands just this —the ability to admit that you might very well be wrong. This is not an easy thing to do, even Christians need a great deal of practice in it. If we are honest with ourselves, I wonder how many of us have read the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican and felt in a corner of our hearts that the Publican was not much of a fellow; of course we know that he pleased God and the other did not, but all the same — the modern psychologists would say he had an inferiority complex, wouldn’t they?
But if we have any need to convince ourselves that Jesus’ judgement was right and ours is wrong, then let us reread the story of Saul, the first King of Israel. When the people wanted to acclaim him as their King, they could not find him, because he had hidden himself among the baggage, which I suppose he had done because he did not feel himself fit to be a king; in this case he was showing humility. What made God turn away from him was a change in Saul’s heart; he became arrogant. His stupid refusal to allow anyone to stop for any food during their chase of the enemy and his even more stupid insistence that his own son should be punished for doing so arose from his determination to show his force as a leader and his refusal to admit that his ruling had been wrong. This was the man who thought he could modify the instructions that Samuel had given him from God and who was condemned by God for his attitude. Humanly speaking we may not think much of a man who hides away rather than face a crowd, but he suited God’s purpose better than did the man who thought he knew better than God.
Walking Humbly
If we wish to measure the importance of humility as a virtue, there is no better way than to recall the stress given to it by Micah. In the prophet’s summary of what God requires of man, he gives pride of place (the last and therefore the most likely to stay in our minds) to “walking humbly with our God”. If it is examples we want, then there is no lack of them in the Bible. Numbers 12, 3 tells us that “the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were on the face of the earth”. In view of all that this man achieved in the course of his life, such a statement must seem surprising, yet since it must be true, we have to accept that God preferred a meek or humble man to any other for this great work. As with Saul, his bad moments were when he forgot to be humble; it can hardly be mere coincidence that there is only one verse between the arrogant question “Hear now ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” and God’s declaration that Moses would not be allowed to take the Israelites into the Promised land. Numbers 20:10 & 12.
In David also there was a deep strain of humility, one which seems to have deepened rather than lessened in the course of his long life. When his son Absalom revolted against him, he did not stay to fight it out, but fled —which may have been partly because he did not want bloodshed, especially that of his son. Yet when the faithful began to follow him into exile and among them Zadok the priest also, bringing with him the ark of the covenant of God, as if to say “What does Jerusalem matter? Here is the true King, where the ark of God is”, then what was the king’s attitude? Here are his words from 2 Samuel 15, 25-26: “Carry back the ark of God into the city; if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again, and show me both it and His habitation; but if He thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good to Him”. After all the years that he had ruled Israel for God, he was still ready to admit that maybe he was not good enough, that maybe he deserved to lose his throne. How much more natural it would have been to ask “What have I done to deserve this?” and to take the attitude “God cannot really mean me to lose my kingship now, He must be expecting me to defend myself and show others that they cannot put away God’s anointed”. Instead, he showed an almost incredible humility, and as we know, he did in fact find favour with God and was restored to his throne.
Jesus Who Humbled Himself
Then of course there is the example of Jesus. True, in John 8, v.46 Jesus asked the Jews “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” words which would have been the worst arrogance in the mouth of any other man, and only were justified because of the astounding fact of Jesus’ innocence and the necessity not to allow these Jews any unnecessary victories. An-incident which seems much more “typical” of Jesus is that recorded in Matthew 19 where a man came to ask him: “Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” Before Jesus would answer this question, he insisted on rejecting the title of “good” (v.17), saying that this belonged to God alone.
Here was a case where it would seem to us that Jesus would have been quite justified in accepting this honour from man, but in his humbleness he would have none of it. We see too his humility in the everyday things of his life: he, the King of Kings, lived for about thirty years in a humble carpenter’s home, probably earning his bread very much by the sweat of his brow; then and even afterwards if he wanted to get anywhere he went on foot (how often are we today prepared to go far by this means?); he was poor and he had no false pride about accepting charity, in the form of food and shelter, from those kind enough to offer it. Then he died, a humiliating death, and before it he put up, without murmur, with being spat on and poked fun at. And all this was absolutely necessary; to do otherwise would have been to disobey God, for Philippians 2 v.8 tells us; that “he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”.
It is all very well quoting examples, and there are a good many others we could have chosen, but what of us? Are we also examples of humility to those around us? I hope that in many ways we are, but perhaps in one respect we give the opposite impression.
Were we to ask others what they think of Christadelphians, might we not sometimes get a different sort of answer? Might we not be told that they are an arrogant sect, thinking that they know everything and that nobody else can possibly be right? Of course we must have confidence in our faith, of course we must preach with conviction, but is there not some justification in this criticism?
It is true that what distinguishes us from nearly all other sects is our knowledge of the Word of God and our understanding of its message. Perhaps in other respects such as Christian living, good works and zeal for preaching, there are other sects who could outshine us. But even if our superiority is in knowledge, how great is this superiority? Or, to put it another way, what a vast number of things there are that we do not know! “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” said God through Isaiah (55 v. 8) and “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (v.9).
However much we may study and try to appreciate, this will still be true, as the Apostle Paul well knew; “now we see through a glass darkly” he tells us (1 Cor. 13 v.12) and with the “glasses” of those days, that meant very dimly indeed. “We know in part” he adds, but to hear us talking sometimes, one would think we knew everything there was to know. Paul’s humility in this respect is really remarkable. Here is a man whose words we now accept as divinely inspired, but he was not always sure of that: “I think” he says, (1 Cor. 4 v.9) “that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death”; and much more striking still (ch. 7 v.40) when he gives his decisions about marrying he says: “and I think also that I have the spirit of God”.
Seeing Darkly
Just think for a moment of the things we do not know or understand. “No man knoweth the day or the hour” of the coming of the Lord; that much the Bible, Jesus himself, tells us —though one would hardly believe it from some of the things our Brethren sometimes say and certainly not from some of the unsolicited leaflets that are posted to us. Perhaps a certain degree of dogmatism is excusable in a public address, when we can only (or should only) state broad outlines to arouse the interest of others, but when we hear Brethren arguing about “times and seasons” as if their salvation depended on it, then we are very far from the spirit of Christ — that Spirit which made him admit that the Father had not even told him. Apart from this, which one of us can claim to understand the spirit of God, spell it with a small or capital letter as you will (that difference is mere human invention)?
Which one of us can understand the nature of Christ; what does it really mean to have God as one’s actual father? It is beyond our feeble comprehension. Those first verses of John’s Gospel; what exactly did John mean by his use of the word Logos? The most assured ideas seem to me to come from those who know least about language. What will the resurrected body be like? The Apostle Paul does not tell us; in fact 1 Corinthians 15 seems purposely to avoid trying to do so. And the Kingdom of God? There are probably as many visions of this as there are people who believe in it, and visions they must remain.
Yet this realm of knowledge is one in which we justifiably consider ourselves superior to other sects. If in this, our strong point, we are so weak, then how humble we ought to be! Of course we must study; he who stands still moves backwards in this as in everything else, but let us not forget that “knowledge puffeth up” (1 Cor. 8 v.1).
The aim of study is not the mere acquisition of knowledge that will only bring us the honour of men. Paul told Timothy and all of us: “Study to show thyself approved of God”, and to the end of his life Paul was still studying because he was not sure whether he had “attained”.
Does all this exhortation to humility, all this showing up of our weaknesses, lack the thrill of David throwing a stone at Goliath, of Daniel standing firm in the lions’ den, or of Peter facing and out maneuvering the authorities? Thrills are not everything; and if we go right back in history again to the time of Solomon, we find God promising that if His people humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, then he will hear from heaven. (2 Chron 7 v.14). We all have, and must admit that we have, wicked ways from which to turn before God will hear us. Do you know that even Ahab and Manasseh gained from humbling themselves?
After the disgraceful episode of Naboth’s vineyard, when Ahab had been told what was to happen to his royal house, he humbled himself; and God said to Elisha: “Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the evil upon his house” (1 Kings 21, 29).
In a similar way, Manasseh found himself taken into captivity by the Assyrians because of his wickedness “and when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him; and He was intreated of him, and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom” (2 Chron 33 v.12, 13). If God was merciful to such men because they showed humility, surely He will be to the average poor struggling Christian.
In fact, God has promised to do so. Way back in Proverbs 3 v.34 we read: “Surely He scorneth the scorners; but he giveth grace unto the lowly”. You may not have noticed that this verse is twice quoted in the New Testament. James quotes it (4 v.6): “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith: God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble”. With all the New Testament doctrine of Grace behind it, these words seem much more forceful than they did in Proverbs, but it is still the same promise.
Peter also says (I Peter 5 v 5): “Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble.” In the face of such passages we must realise, if we never did before, that whatever other qualities of courage etc. we may possess, they will avail us little unless we can add to them not only Love but also Humility. Let us leave the last word with Jesus himself: “The meek shall inherit the earth.”
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay