Several years ago when personalized license plates were introduced in the state of Illinois (sometimes they are called vanity plates) within the first week there were over 1,000 requests for the license plate that said “#1”. The state official who worked for the DMV whose job it was to assign license plates said this, “I wasn’t about to assign it to someone and disappoint a thousand people.” So what was his solution? He gave it to himself.
I love the story about a little boy and a little girl who were riding on a mechanical horse in the mall. The little boy turned back and said to the little girl, “You know, if one of us would get off there would be more room for me.” That’s a typical kid, isn’t it? But sadly most of us don’t grow out of it. As we get older it’s, “You know, if one of us would go find another job, I’d get the promotion here. If one of us would stop talking, we could talk about me. If one of us would move out of the way, I could be in the spotlight.”
Guess what the most popular genre of photos is today? It’s not scenic nature scenes. It’s not pictures of wildlife or family photos. It is selfies! Tens of billions of selfies are uploaded to Google every year. And I wonder how many of those photos were tinkered with a bit by those who took them to make the person in the photo look a little slimmer or more muscular.
These are expressions of the world’s largest religion. It is not Christianity. It’s not Isalm or Hinduism or Atheism. The world’s largest religion is Egotism. In the Bible it goes by other names – pride, haughtiness, arrogance, self-loving, self-exalting. Every follower of the religion has their own little shrine at which they worship a false god called “me, myself and I.” Around the shrine are the common mottos of our day, “Have it your way. Do yourself a favor. You owe it to yourself. You deserve a break today. You’ve got to look out for number 1. Make you happy. Believe in yourself. Trust your heart.”
This is the cultural norm. This the religion of the land in which we live. Its influence is everywhere and certainly invading the churches.
Scripture foretold this. II Timothy 3:1ff, “But realize this, that in the last days [that is in the age in which we are now living, the final age of time, in this last age] difficult times will come. [Why?] 2 For men will be lovers of self [that’s the summary heading. All that follows in the list results from loving self. Because people will be lovers of self, they will be -], lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, [And verse 5 is sobering] 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.“ That tells that me that Paul does not have in mind pagans or “unchurched” people of the world. But he has in mind people who hold to a form of godliness, a form devotion to the Lord, a form of Christianity, like attending church. Yet they deny the power that is in true Christianity to transform our selfish prideful hearts.
We must not go the way of our culture in this regard. I Peter 5:5-7 is a Scripture I want to read and comment on briefly and then talk about a little more Lord willing in the next mid- week devotional. It says, “… Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”
Pride and humility are both ways of thinking about ourselves in relation to others that comes out in our speech and behavior. Pride is a high estimation of ourselves and it comes out in stubbornness and self-promotion and self-serving. Humility is a lower but more accurate estimation of ourselves and that comes out in being teachable and compliant and others-promoting and others-serving.
And Peter says us being humble or prideful determines the way God will deal with us, whether He will oppose us or give us grace, whether He will work toward our downfall or work toward exalting us.
For this lesson let’s just think on what he says in v5. “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.” One of the first things people notice when they see you is your clothes. We are to clothe ourselves with humility. Humility is to be one of the first things that stands out about us in our interaction with one another. Humility should obvious about us.
So what does that mean on a practical level? What does it look like in everyday life to be clothed with humility toward others? I share with you a few things that I think of, and leave you to think on it more and apply it your life.
It definitely means we do not brag or boast or show off or try to impress people with ourselves. When it’s not helpful to others we don’t tell the stories in which we’re the hero. Proverbs 27:2, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth…” We seek rather to impress people with Jesus. We boast in what He has done for us. We understand that He deserves the credit for the good in us, so we seek to impress people with Jesus, not with ourselves.
It means that we do as it says in Philippians 2:3ff. “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Look out for the interests of others. Care about their house and their projects, not just your own house and projects. Care about their kids, not just yours. Care about their health, their job, their feelings, their relationships. See if you could help with them with their concerns. Help them get ahead. Promote them. Volunteer for the tasks that they don’t want to do so they don’t have to. Prioritize them. Be a servant of everyone.
“5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” He put our interests over His own. He served us. He served the Father to the point of death, even the worst of deaths, death on a cross. This is the path He has left for us to follow in our lives, And if we follow this path of humble unselfish service and persevere in it, by God’s grace, then in due time as the Father did for Jesus, He will also highly exalt us.
Well, I needed that reminder I don’t know about you. I tend to get too focused on me and my interests. The Lord has not called me to take care of me. He will take care of me. He’s called me to be a humble servant like He was.