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Humility & Pride

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 14:11 (NIV)

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 18:14 (NIV)

When I am humbled by someone else, it is always humiliating. Humiliation is an evidence of pride. If I am already humble and someone humbles me, the experience is not humiliating.

Recently, at the funeral of a godly man, we heard a short teaching he had given to one of his sons. It went something like this: “There are two types of men in this world, humble men and men who are about to be humiliated.”

Jesus said it another time.

The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 23:11-12 (NIV)

Humility in the scripture is always self-imposed. It has to be, for if someone else does it to me it is, by definition, not humility.

Pride is not a virtue.

Humility is a subset of love.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. I Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)

More repetition to follow . . .

(Taken from Day & Night)

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