Pastor’s Thoughts – 02-08-2026

In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord Jesus declares, “Blessed are the gentle for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). The word gentle (NASB) means humble. The Bible declares the essential importance of possessing humility – “To this one I will look, to Him who is humble and contrite of spirit and trembles at My Word” (Is. 66:2). The dictionary states that to be humble is simply being submissive or meek. The Bible offers the best definition given by Paul under inspiration, “I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think” (Rom. 12:3). This is given in a context of using gifts to the glory of God. We live in a self-centered society and a proud and egotistical generation where people promote themselves. Pride is accepted today as something to be fostered as a beneficial virtue. As people are increasingly consumed with self, commitments are replaced with personal preferences. This kind of thinking has entered many churches in the guise of meeting personal needs rather than honoring Christ. For the Christian we know that pride is hated by God. “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 21:4). “God is opposed to the proud” (James 4:6), and we are told, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, and arrogance” (Prov. 16:5). Pride, as it was with Satan, is at the very source of sin. It is an abomination to God because it puts self before God. It is therefore to be hated by all who claim Christ and should be recognized as evil and an element of man’s fallen and reprobate mind.

The Bible says of Moses, “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). Why was Moses humble when he humanly had reasons to be prideful? He was a man who had been raised in Pharoah’s house. He was a leader among men and considered one of the greatest men of history. Yet he was humble! It was because Moses had personally encountered God in a manner like no other man living in his time. There is no place in Scripture where we find a person encountering a manifestation of God that results in pride. Encounters by God to Job, Isaiah, or John are shown in terms of the personal devastation of their egos. Such encounters are a beneficial blessing from God. It is a consistent truth that the closer we come to God in our understanding and knowledge of Him, the greater is our humility. In each recorded situation in the Bible where people were brought to a state of humility, it was also then that they could and were used by God. Today, we encounter God as we are in His Word.

There was a time in church history where a key component of the preaching resulted in humility, and there was a sense of spiritual brokenness among brethren. The writing of the Puritans reflected a spiritual meekness, and ironically it gave the church great power. But now a different attitude has dominated and replaced what the Bible says with emphasis on being proud and fulfilled. This has relegated thoughts of humility in the minds of many as being a weakness. We recently studied Micah where the prophet says, “What does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). The whole of Scripture is about knowing God in His infinite greatness and knowing ourselves as undeserving sinners. As we know more of Christ and see ourselves as we really are, humility is our enlightened reaction. And humility fits with the correct understanding of the Lordship of Christ, and ourselves as His obedient bond-slaves.

I am reminded that Jesus declared, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). The idea of becoming like children, in this context, is possessing an innocence devoid of the mindset of arrogant self-worth. We also see by Christ’s statement that there is the requirement to be “converted” or have a new birth and that new birth is marked by humility. There will be no pride in glory.

Humility is a God given characteristic. It is the opposite of anyone who thinks they are pleasing to God apart from the true work of Christ in the person. All such thinking is formed in blind pride. We came to Christ only because He first came to us, and if we serve Him at all in any sense of usefulness, it will be because He enables us and He receives the glory. The essential attitude of overcoming the world by a Christian is not, “Look at me and how special I am.” But, instead to recognize as the Old Testament prophet stated, “Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were dug” (Is. 51:1). It is to know where we have come from and who we are as sinners.

There is a valuable picture of humility demonstrated in the Old Testament by the words of the crippled son of Jonathan, Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth, who was invited to dine daily with King David. When brought before David he said to him, “What is your servant that you should regard a dead dog like me (2 Sam. 9:8)?” That same attitude should be reflected before God by every Christian. We should recognize the infinite undeserved blessing God has provided by calling us out of darkness, making us His children, and promising us an eternal future with Him. All of it is completely unmerited and only by His grace. We should herald today and throughout eternity our unworthiness, and say with the apostle Paul, “To Him be the glory forever!”