Facets of Fruit: Humility More than Milk

Humility is not something that's very highly valued in our world today, but it is a command of us as believers. Let's look together at how Christ is our example of humility and how we can be more like Him!
Show Notes:
Welcome back to More than Milk; I’m Hannah Rebekah. This week, we’re talking about the Facet of the Fruit of the Spirit called humility. This is not included in the list in Galatians 5, but I could argue that humility is actually the root of the whole Fruit of the Spirit. None of the qualities we’ve looked at so far can be accomplished without humility. I would also argue that pride, the opposite of humility, is the original sin and the root of all sin, but that’s a little outside the scope of what I want to talk about today.
So what is humility? In the Old Testament, most of the words used for humility either meant or carried the connotation of being low or lowly. In the New Testament, there are only three words used, and they all carry this same meaning, as well. This gives us a good starting point for what humility means. We can picture someone kneeling before a king or master. Physical positioning has always connoted rank in human society. If you are higher up physically, you’re higher up in rank, too. This is why thrones are elevated from the floor around them, why drill sergeants push into trainee’s faces and physically look down on them, and why we imagine God as physically above us, even though Heaven is not even in this dimension. To be high up is to be superior; to be low is to be inferior.
We all want to be superior. It’s ingrained in our sin nature to seek a better position, more respect, more honor, more glory. This is our pride showing up. Even those who modern psychology would say need more self-confidence are prideful. As C.S. Lewis pointed out, humility is not going around telling everyone how lowly and poor and bad-off you are. That is just seeking attention and recognition in a different way.
I am painfully aware of my own pride, which feels like both a curse and a blessing at times. I’m constantly wondering what other people are thinking of me, whether strangers or friends, and trying to do things that will increase their opinion of me. I hate it. It’s gotten a little better over the years, especially as I learned about identity in Christ, but it’s always there, lurking in the background.
I bet you can relate. What exactly we want people to think of us is different from person to person because of personality and experiences, but we all want others to think and notice certain things about us and, ultimately, to think well of us, whatever that means to each person.
Instead of this, the New Testament writers command humility of us. 1 Peter 5:5 says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” The word for pride here literally means “over-shine,” as if the person is calling attention to themselves more than they have the right to. The word for humility, what Peter says we are to clothe ourselves with, means “a deep sense of moral littleness.” I love that.
This means true humility comes when we recognize the perfect moral purity of God and then also recognize our own deep moral failings. When done well, this leads us into a sense of wonder at God and the grace He shows us in choosing and redeeming and using us in His righteous plans.
Philippians 2:3-11 says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to