Back in 2017 and 2018, the Holy Spirit had me teach two series back-to-back titled,What is Good? And Who Gets to Define It? and What is Repentance? And Who Gets to Define It? By the titles alone, one can guess the gist of each series. Additionally, given that the prior was 17 parts, and the latter was 30 parts, there was obviously a lot the Spirit had to say on the subject of definitions, in general.
As I taught in the aforementioned series, there’s a common pitfall that many Christians fall deeply into and rarely seem to extricate themselves from; that is, they build their theology upon doctrines misaligned with Holy writ. In some cases, I’ve seen these folks are “Christian” merely by proclamation, which amounts to nothing more than severe delusion and a lifetime of malcontentment. Jesus pointed out this tragedy very clearly.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
– Matthew 7:24-27
The Apostle Paul taught this same principle when it manifested in a very ugly way in the church at Corinth.
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
– 1 Corinthians 3:1-15
Our “foundation” must always be Christ, the Word of God (John 1:14). It is Christ who defines good, repentance, and humility – it is Christ’s mind that we seek (ala 1 Corinthians 2:16). I suppose we could ask ourselves the same two questions as the above-mentioned series’ titles: What is humility? And who gets to define it? If we honestly seek the truth, then we must receive our definition for humility from Holy Scripture. Here’s a good place to start:
Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD.
But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
“He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.”
Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name’s sake have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy’; but it is they who shall be put to shame. “The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the LORD, rendering recompense to his enemies!
– Isaiah 66:1-6
For years behind my pulpit, I’ve taught that humility is the key to the spiritual life. I maintain that position because of what the Bible teaches us. For starters, “[God] gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6); and, since we are sanctified by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Corinthians 15:10), the only hope we have of growing up, spiritually, is to learn how to receive this grace! This means that if we wish to be blessed by God, we must do as we just noted in Isaiah 66:2, “…[tremble] at [His] word.”
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
– Proverbs 1:7
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.
– Proverbs 4:7
If you synthesize all that the Bible has to say about humility, you quickly realize that it can be summarized into one simple principle: fear God and keep his commandments.
True humility implies obedience to the Word of God.
The Bible warns us against being educated by any other source than itself or any teacher (aka “prophet”) who uses a different source as the basis of their teaching.
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
– Deuteronomy 13:1-4
If humility is the key, then obedience is the practical expression.
When all of his experimentation was completed, Solomon concluded the following:
Besides being wise, the Preacher [Solomon] also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
– Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
Solomon was the wisest man alive when he wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes. His conclusion is the one I’ve taught for years now, only he stated it differently. Where I’ve whittled it down to ‘Humility is the key to the spiritual life,’ Solomon articulated it in v13, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
This is what it means to be humble, my friend. There’s nothing terribly complicated about it. In fact, it’s quite a simple concept. Obey.
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins