SEVEN CARDINAL VIRTUES
HUMILITY
DR. JIM DIXON
MAY 20, 1990
Philippians 2:3-11
There were three passengers on a small twin-engine plane. One passenger was a computer programmer. Another was a minister and, the other was a Boy Scout. There came a moment in the flight where, the plane was in trouble. To the dismay of these three passengers, the pilot came back into the cabin and he said, “The plane is going down. We only have three parachutes and there’s four of us. I’ve got a wife and three children. I know I shouldn’t do this but I’m going to take one of the parachutes.” He grabbed one and jumped out.
Well, the computer programmer looked at the minister and the Boy Scout and he said, “I am probably the smartest man on earth. The world needs me. What I do, I do for all mankind.” He grabbed one and jumped. The minister, with nervousness but also compassion, looked at the Boy Scout and said, “You’re a young man. I’ve lived a long life. It’s only right that you take the last parachute. I’ll go down with the plane.” The Boy Scout smiled and he said, “Relax, Reverend, the world’s smartest man just grabbed my back pack and jumped.” The Bible tells us that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and certainly that was true of the computer programmer.
When we look at the Bible, it’s very obvious that humility is a quality extremely precious to God. And yet for most of us, humility remains kind of an elusive goal, and a concept difficult to define. We look at some people and we’re not sure what humility is. We know whatever it is, however, these people don’t have it. We look at other people and we suspect that perhaps they are humble. We’re kind of afraid to think of ourselves as humble for fear that the mere thought might remove us from the ranks of humble people.
So what is humility? What does it mean biblically to speak of humility? Well, biblically, humility may be defined in two ways. First of all, humility means to lower yourself. If you’re a humble person, you’re willing to lower yourself for a godly purpose. Now the Greek word, the biblical word for humility, is the word “topineos” and it literally means “low.” They didn’t use it to describe someone who had low self-esteem and they didn’t use it to describe someone who had a poor self-image, but they used it to describe someone who was willing to lower himself or herself for the good of others.
Now the primary example of humility, in this sense is our Lord Jesus Christ who lowered himself. He was in the form of God. He was in the beginning with God. As the Son of God, He shared the very nature of God. Enthroned in glory, He was surrounded by the angelical hosts. Myriads of myriads of angels worshiped Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He ruled the cosmos. But, you see, the Bible tells us in humility, He lowered himself and He came into our world. He emptied himself of His godly prerogatives. He came into our world and He shared our flesh, being born in the likeness of man. Being found in human form, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even unto death on a cross.
Now the Bible says, “Have this mind in you which is yours in Christ Jesus.” God wants you to be humble. He wants you to be willing to lower yourself. The Bible says there’s really only two mindsets. There’s the mind of Christ, willing to lower himself and then there’s the mind of Satan, who wants only to exalt himself. The Bible tells us that at the dawn of time, Satan said to himself, “I shall ascend above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will make myself like the most high God.” That’s the mind of Satan. The Bible tells us that this world has adopted not the mind of Christ but rather the mind of Satan. The people of this world are not willing to lower themselves. They only want to exalt themselves. If we’re honest from the moment we came out of the womb, we were taught to exalt ourselves, to make something of ourselves, to climb the ladder of success. The system of capitalism and free enterprise is predicated on the belief that people want to exalt themselves. The Protestant work ethic, in its foulest form, promotes self-exaltation. This is how the world thinks and has always thought. From Alexander the Great to Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolph Hitler, all of these sought to exalt themselves. Some of them sought to rule and conquer the world.
Well most of us are not so greedy and we deal with small portions of the world. But in these small portions, we tend to seek to exalt ourselves. This is the mind of Satan. God tells us He longs for us to have the mind of Christ…That we would be willing to lower ourself. Now, of course, God wants us to be productive. He wants us to bear fruit. He wants us to cultivate our gifts, our abilities, our aptitudes, and He wants us to use them but not to exalt ourselves. In fact, God says, if we would please Him, we must be humble, must be willing to lower ourself.
You know, humility is kind of illusive and sometimes people lower themselves and are kind of proud of it. I mean Satan is really tricky and he gets in there. I’m reminded of a story of Dr. H.A. Ironside, Harry Ironside. He was considered to be the greatest preacher in America in his generation. He received many accolades, much praise. The problem was he believed most of it and he was not always a humble man. His wife on one occasion, said, “You know, Harry you need a little bit of humility.” He said, “Well I know that’s true and I struggle with that.” He said, “I don’t know how to become more humble.” His wife said, “Well Harry, I think you need to be humiliated. I think it would be good for you if you were taken down a notch.” Harry said, “Well, what are you suggesting?” She said, “I think you ought to get one of those sandwich boards, put it over your head, and on the front board and the back board put the plan of salvation. Put ‘All have sinned… then write Repent… then write Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved… Put John 3:16, and a few other passages on there’…” Then she said, “When you’ve got this sandwich board on, go to downtown Chicago and walk all day in the marketplace, and the business section.” Harry said, “I can’t do that. I’m a respected preacher.” She said, “That’s just the point. I think it would be good for you.” So he did it.
He went to downtown Chicago, wearing this sandwich board, saying, “Jesus Saves.” He was mocked and he was ridiculed but he stayed all day long and then he came home, came into the house and took off the sandwich board. He just sat down and reflected. His wife said, “Harry, what are you thinking?” He said, “Well, I was thinking… I’ll bet there’s not another minister in America who would have been willing to do what I did today.”
Humility is like that isn’t it? I mean the moment you do something kind of lowly, you feel proud. Satan is pretty subtle and humility is pretty elusive. But, you see, that’s why there is a second definition of humility in the Bible. Humility doesn’t simply mean to lower yourself. It also means to exalt others. If you’d really be humble, you not only need to lower yourself but you need to exalt others. In fact, you need to lower yourself but you need to exalt others. In fact, you need to lower yourself for the purpose of exalting others. Some people lower themselves to exalt themselves. If we would be humble, we must lower ourselves to exalt the Lord and to exalt people for His sake.
Of course, Christ again is the example. He lowered himself that He might exalt the Father. He lowered himself that He might exalt all mankind. He was broken that we might be made whole. He came down to earth that we might go up to heaven. He died that we might live. He lowered himself that we might be exalted. That’s what He wants us to do for His name’s sake… that we’d be willing to go out and lower ourselves for His kingdom’s sake.
A few centuries ago in Britain, the English people called the entrails or the viscera of a deer, umbles. The umbles were the heart, the liver and the kidneys of the deer. The English people would take the umbles, the viscera, the entrails and make a pie out of that and called it umble pie. The kings and their courts loved to eat venison. The kings and their courts would dine on the carcass but the servants and the slaves were forced to eat the umble pie
In a kind of play on words, they began to refer to umble pie as humble pie, and the servants and slaves were forced to eat humble pie in order that the kings and their courts might eat the better portion. The servants were forced to take the lowly portions so the kings and their courts could have the better portion.
Well, you see, a lot of those servants and slaves were not really humble. What they did, they didn’t choose to do. They didn’t do it freely. If you want to be humble… if you really want to be humble, you’ve got to choose freely, you’ve got to choose to eat humble pie. You’ve got to choose to take the lowly portion in order that others might have the better portion, in order that others might be exalted. Isn’t that difficult? I mean that’s totally contrary to the world’s way of thinking. It’s totally contrary to the way we’ve been taught to think and the way we want to think.
You have heard of Martin Luther. Martin Luther has been called the “Father of Protestantism.” Some would argue with that but none would argue that Martin Luther was the principal mover in the Protestant Reformation. It was Martin Luther who nailed the 95 Thesis to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. And it was Martin Luther who defied papal authority, who renounced the indulgences and abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. It was Martin Luther who elevated the scripture and the authority of scripture over the authority of the church. It was Martin Luther who taught and stressed that salvation and justification come only by grace through faith. And it was Martin Luther who took the Latin and Greek Bible and translated it into the German tongue. In doing this, he shaped the modern German language. But more importantly, he made the Bible available to common everyday people. Martin Luther was bigger than life and he was a leader of men. He was a man of God and there’s no one who has studied his life and his work who would deny that he was brilliant and courageous as well.
But there was a man behind Martin Luther, a man Christ has used to exalt Martin Luther. That man’s name was Philip Melanchthon. Melanchthon, like Luther, had been a professor at the University of Wittenberg. Melanchthon has been called the Father of the German and European Educational Systems. Melanchthon was the greatest New Testament Greek Scholar in Europe. It was Melanchthon who had helped Luther translate the Bible into that beautiful German form, but Martin Luther received all the praise. Philip Melanchthon didn’t care. It was Melanchthon who was the principal author of the Augsburg Confession, the leading confessional statement of the Lutheran Church today. Martin Luther has received the lion’s share of the credit for that confession but most of the work was done by Philip Melanchthon who gladly worked behind the scenes. It was Melanchthon that Luther went to for consultation and help on matters relating to theology, piety, ecclesiology, exegesis, hermeneutics, and wisdom. It was Melanchthon who shaped much of Luther’s life and thought, and it was Philip Melanchthon who was Martin Luther’s very best friend.
Martin Luther received all the glory, and humbly, Philip Melanchthon just was glad to work behind the scenes. Philip Melanchthon willingly lowered himself that Martin Luther might be exalted. When Luther died, it was Melanchthon who gave the sermon at Luther’s funeral, and it was Melanchthon who gave the committal over Luther’s grave. When Philip Melanchthon died, it was his body that was lowered into the same grave. Today, they rest side-by-side at the Castle Church in Wittenberg, equal in death though they had never been equal in the eyes of the world. Even today, almost everybody’s heard of Martin Luther and virtually nobody has heard of Philip Melanchthon.
The Lutheran Church takes its name from Martin Luther, and all over the world people have heard of Lutheranism but Melanchthonism is unknown. But I wonder… When Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon stand before the judgement seat of Christ as we all must, who’s going to receive the greater reward? I’m sure that both of them, “fought the good fight.” Both of them, “finished the race.” Both of them “kept the faith,” and I’m sure that Christ will say to both of them, “Come on blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.”
But, you see, there’s something awfully precious to Jesus Christ about humility. There’s got to be some kind of special reward for Philip Melanchthon. The Bible says… our Lord Jesus Christ says that many people who in this world are first … in the next world will be last… and many who are in this world that are the least, in the next world will be the greatest. Humility.
You know, I’m the Senior Pastor of this church. As Senior Pastor I get some recognition and I get some praise, a few privileges., No matter how bad my message, somebody always comes up to me to say, “Great job.” I sometimes think that when I get to heaven and I stand before Jesus Christ He is going to say to me, “You’ve had your reward.”
I hope you understand… I hope you understand what Christ says. “He who humbles himself will be exalted. He who exalts himself will be humbled.” Praise God for those of you who are willing to labor behind the scenes, to lower yourself that others might be exalted. Praise God for those of you who just want to be faithful, and you don’t seek you own glory. You seek His glory. You’ll never be sorry.
You know, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the same night of the Last Supper, girded himself with a towel and He washed His disciples’ feet. He knelt before them. He scrubbed their dirty feet. He said, “Do you realize what I’ve done for you? You call me Lord and Master. You are right, so I am. But if I, then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, how much more ought you to wash one another’s feet. I’ve given you an example that you should follow in My steps.” Let’s close in a word of prayer.