Humility is Fundamental

James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

The definition of humility is to be “humble.” The opposite is pride and arrogance. So to be humble is to be free: freedom from pride and arrogance. It is a thoughtful, realistic, and modest estimate of one’s own worth. Even more, it is a realization of one’s own unworthiness through imperfection and sinfulness.

Without humility, mercy and grace do not seem to have value. If I am proud, I am essentially saying I don’t need what God has to offer.

Another Good Perspective

“When we come to Christ as sinners, we must come in humility. We acknowledge that we are paupers and beggars who come with nothing to offer Him but our sin and our need for salvation. We recognize our lack of merit and our complete inability to save ourselves. Then when He offers the grace and mercy of God, we accept it in humble gratitude and commit our lives to Him and to others. We “die to self” so that we can live as new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We never forget that He has exchanged our worthlessness for His infinite worth, and our sin for His righteousness. The life we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20). That is true humility.” – Got Questions

The Hallmarks of Humility

Humility is easy to identify. If someone is teachable, they are likely humble. They are admitting a lack of knowledge, insight and wisdom. A humble person is also wise. Wisdom is in short supply until one is humble. Humility recognizes our needs and that we are dependent, not independent.

Other Helpful Reminders…

The following quotes are from John Blanchard’s, The Complete Gathered Gold: A Treasury of Quotations for Christians (Webster, New York; Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2006.)

“The most holy men are always the most humble men.” Thomas Brooks

“Humility is the hallmark of wisdom.” Jeremy Collier

“When God intends to fill a soul, he first makes it empty. When he intends to enrich a soul, he first makes it poor. When he intends to exalt a soul, he first makes it sensible to its own miseries, wants and nothingness.” John Flavel

“If we learned humility it might spare us humiliation.” Vance Havner

“Not until we have become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God’s holiness and sovereignty … acknowledging our own littleness, distrusting our own thoughts, and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours.” J. I. Packer

Source: John Blanchard, The Complete Gathered Gold: A Treasury of Quotations for Christians (Webster, New York; Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2006), 319–320.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.