3 Misunderstandings About Humility
We are, as Christians, to pursue humility. We do that in any number of ways – by serving in such a way that we know we won’t be recognized, by reminding ourselves of our own sin and condemnation apart from Jesus, and simply by praying for it. We are, in other words, to take a very active stance when it comes to humility, and to go hard after it.
One might argue that humility is the first step toward becoming a Christian. I’m not trying to disagree that we come to Christ by grace through faith; not at all. But one might say that even before you get to “by grace through faith” you might come to your knees in humility. That’s because coming to Christ means recognizing not only something about Him, but also recognizing something about yourself.
When you come to Christ in faith, you are recognizing that He loves you. That He died in your place. And that He has grace enough to forgive you of your sins and put you in right relationship with God.
At the same time, though, you are recognizing that you cannot do any of those things for yourself. You can’t make yourself right with God. Even your best works are tainted with sin. You have no means or power by which you can stand before God, and it’s only in Christ that you can be saved. This is the essence of humility.
But despite the fact that we must exercise humility in coming to Christ, it is nevertheless a characteristic we seem to be confused about. Here are three of those misunderstandings:
1. Humility means thinking less of yourself.
Humility is not self-loathing. To be humble does not mean to hate oneself. It certainly does not mean to punish oneself or to think oneself worthless. In fact, this kind of self-hatred is not only not humility; it’s also dishonoring to our Creator who made us in His own image:
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
(Psalm 139:13-14).
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Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees
The danger of legalism lurks wherever we would relax God’s law from its high-as-heaven standard, dragging it down to a standard low enough for us to keep. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees! The painful truth is that none of us can reach God’s perfect standard. Rather, before his standard, we must tremble, crying out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24).
In every age, the church must be vigilant to avoid legalism. We must never be like the Pharisees, who “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger” (Matt. 23:24). God tells us that his commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3), but to add to God’s commandments would indeed be burdensome.
The danger of legalism is one that all true ministers of the gospel of Christ must take with the utmost seriousness. Nevertheless, do we really understand what Christ was condemning when he warned us to “Watch and beware the leaven of the Pharisees” (Matt. 16:6)?
In this article, I want to raise the question of whether we understand the spirit and nature of legalism correctly, and to explore whether this misunderstanding may seriously skew our gospel ministry.
The Legalism of the Pharisees: Not too Strict, but too Lax
What exactly was the legalism that the Pharisees were teaching? A common thought is that the Pharisees were legalistic by being overly strict about the law, while the Sadducees were overly lax about the law. That is, the Pharisees are commonly characterized as legalists, and the Sadducees as libertines. While this view is both common and convenient as a way of categorizing the two groups, it does not match either the historical records or the biblical records, especially regarding the Pharisees.
Both Jewish and Christian historians have recognized that the Pharisees were trying to simplify the law, rather than complicating it. So, the Jewish scholar Alexander Guttmann writes:
Emerging from the ranks of the people, the rabbis spoke in terms intelligible to the populace and were therefore able to lead the people in accordance with their teachings, a feat the Prophets had been unable to accomplish. Uncompromising idealists, the Prophets demanded perfection and the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth in their own time; therefore, they were doomed to failure. Prophetic Judaism never became a reality but remained only an ideal, a goal, like Plato’s Republic. The rabbis were idealists, too, but they were at the same time pedagogues. In guiding their people, they took the realities of life (among them the weakness of human beings) into consideration. They upheld the Torah as the divine code, but at the same time they recognized the need for harmonizing the Torah with the ever-changing realities of life.1
The mission of the Pharisees was not to create a set of extra rules to prop themselves up—even if this may have been the eventual result. Rather, the mission of the Pharisees was to boil down the law to principles, practices, and techniques that normal people could understand and keep.
To be sure, the Pharisees were legalists. Their legalism, however, was the result of trying to reduce the law down to something manageable in the lives of the people. This did not leave them to become too strict, but, far too lax in comparison to the fullness of what God required.
The Bare Text of the Law vs. The Full Ethics of the Moral Law
Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham helps to see this point by observing that the text of the law does not give us a complete accounting for the fullness of what the moral law actually requires. Or, as Wenham puts it, there is a “gap” between the bare text of the law in the Bible and the fullness of the ethics (moral law) required by the Bible.2 So, the bare text of the law “sets a minimum standard of behaviour, which if transgressed attracts sanction,” but the “ethical ceiling is as high as heaven itself, for a key principle of biblical ethics is the imitation of God. Man made in God’s image must act in a godlike way: ‘Be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy’ (Lev. 19:2).”3
From this, we can see that the legalism of the Pharisees manifested itself in two ways: (1) they sought to keep the bare text of the law, rather than the fullness of the biblical ethic (moral law) of what it means to imitate God; and (2) they boiled down the full biblical ethic of the law into manageable principles that seemed to make the law possible to keep.
New Testament scholar J. Gresham Machen makes this point powerfully:
The legalism of the Pharisees, with its regulation of the minute details of life, was not really making the Law too hard to keep; it was really making it too easy. Jesus said to His disciples, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The truth is, it is easier to cleanse the outside of the cup than it is to cleanse the heart. If the Pharisees had recognized that the Law demands not only the observance of external rules but also and primarily mercy and justice and love for God and men, they would not have been so readily satisfied with the measure of their obedience, and the Law would then have fulfilled its great function of being a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. A low view of law leads to legalism in religion; a high view of law makes a man a seeker after grace.4
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1 Alexander Guttmann, Rabbinic Judaism in the Making: A Chapter in the History of the Halakhah from Ezra to Judah I (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970), xii. Cited in Moisés Silva, “The Place of Historical Reconstruction in New Testament Criticism,” in Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon, ed. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1986), 120. I am indebted to Silva’s article for much of what I have written about the nature of legalism here.
2 Gordon J. Wenham, “The Gap between Law and Ethics in the Bible,” Journal of Jewish Studies 48, no. 1 (1997): 17–29.
3 Wenham, “The Gap Between Law and Ethics in the Bible,” 18, 26.
4 J. Gresham Machen, The Origin of Paul’s Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1921), 179. -
Let the Word of Christ Dwell Richly Among You!
As we learn to meditate on the meaning and application of the Word, every believer ought to grow in the grace of actually applying it to life. You see, it’s one thing to prayerfully discern how to put a passage of the Bible into action, but it’s another thing to do it. And we must press on to actually being doers of the Word because that’s where the truth comes to life for us, and that’s where we bear the kind of fruit that glorifies God, amplifies our joy, and blesses other people.
Over the years, I have benefited from Colossians 3:1-17 more than even I know. One of the main reasons for this is that it so clearly displays how God works with his people; he is always seeking to transform our hearts and shape our motives rather than just modifying our behavior. Human religions, including Christian legalism, try to change or control people by imposing rules upon them and demanding conformity from them. That is, they seek to work from the outside in. But while their approach has an appearance of wisdom and spirituality, it has no value in suppressing the flesh and addressing self-indulgence (Colossians 2:23). Indeed, human religion has no power to transform even a single life.
In contrast, God seeks to shape godly behavior in us by getting to our hearts, by helping us see and feel that we’re loved and accepted by him without reservation through faith in Christ, by helping us understand why he instructs us in the way he instructs us, by inviting us to join him in his work, and by giving us the power of his Spirit to do what’s glorifying to him, best for us, and beneficial to others. He issues the “what” of his commands on the foundation of the “why” of the gospel, and Colossians 3:1-17 displays this well in the space of just a few verses.
Seek the Things Above (3:1-4)
To begin with, we see in verses 1-4 that God, by his eternal grace, made us alive with Christ when we put our trust in him so that our past, present, and future blessings have been eternally secured for us. As for our past, Paul states that we died, which is to say, our old selves died with Christ when we believed in Christ. As for our present, Paul declares that our lives are hidden with Christ in God, where our Good Shepherd faithfully and ceaselessly intercedes for us and protects us from all threats within and without. As for our future, Paul prophesies that when Christ returns and his glory lights up the sky, then we who have put our trust in him will also appear with him in glory.
Friends, for those who believe, this is our reality and destiny, and nothing or no one can change, corrupt, or snatch away what God has done for us! And since this is so, doesn’t it just make sense that we would spend our lives seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God? Doesn’t it just make sense that we would set our minds and fix our eyes on the things above, and not on earthly things? In verses 5-15, God calls for a number of things from his people, but all of these things are built upon this “why” of our lives in Christ. Why should we rid ourselves of certain things and develop a way of life characterized by other things? Because God has done all of this for us in Christ, he wants us to come into the fullness of his joy by cooperating with his work in us.
Put to Death the Earthly Things (3:5-11)
With this in mind, God gives us some negative instructions in verses 5-11 and some positive instructions in verses 12-15. He calls on us to seriously and severely rid our lives of certain things and passionately and persistently clothe ourselves with other things. But I say again, and we must never forget that these things flow from the “why” of the gospel as God revealed it to us in His Word.
On the one hand, God calls us in verses 5-11 to put to death everything that’s still earthly in us, things that aren’t pleasing to him and don’t reflect his heart and character. Specifically, he mentions sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from our mouths. Paul warns us that because of these things, the righteous judgment of God is coming upon all who refuse to humble themselves and receive the grace, forgiveness, and life of God in Christ. But for those of us who have believed by God’s grace, his best desire for us is that we let go of, and in fact kill, our old self along with its way of life and put on the new self, which most beautifully images Christ.
As Paul says in verse 10, God is renewing us in knowledge after the image of our Creator; in other words, he’s transforming our lives by first transforming our minds, hearts, and wills. Since this is so, let’s cooperate with him and kill everything in us that’s working against him. You see, this is yet another part of the “why” of Colossians 3:1-17—God is working in us, he’s renewing us in his image, and for this reason, he’s calling us to die to what’s already dead in us. He’s saying, My Children, trust me and cooperate with my work in you.
Put on Godly Things (3:12-15)
On the other hand, in verses 12-15, God calls us to clothe ourselves with the kinds of things that reflect his heart and character. Things that are honoring and glorifying to him. Things that give rise to the greatest joy in us. Things that bless and build up other people. But before he does that, he adds even more to the “why” of his instructions in verse 12, “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved.” Friends, these things are facts of our lives through faith in Christ, and there’s simply nothing we can do to make ourselves more or less chosen, holy, and dearly loved. Of course, our behavior still pleases God (if we obey His Word) or displeases God (when we sin), but the fact is that he’s completely forgiven and accepted us through faith in Christ and counts us as his chosen ones, his holy ones, his dearly loved children. This is the reality of our lives.
On the foundation of this “why,” God then invites us into the privilege and joy of being like him. He graciously calls us to cooperate with his work in us and develop a way of life that best magnifies him, amplifies our joy, and equips us to be a blessing to others.
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I Never Knew My Mother when She Was Young
With more couples delaying marriage and children, it’s inevitable that children will come later, if they come at all. Of course, that’s the crux of the crisis facing the family. That’s why all this talk about over population is such utter nonsense. We’re not suffering from too many people. We’re suffering from too few.
Most families have running jokes, memories and moments talked about and discussed repeatedly across the years. They can bond us and help elicit happy recollections of days gone by.
My mother, whose been gone since 2012, loved to bring up something I said when I was just ten years old. She said it always tickled her. We were at church, milling about and talking with the pastor and some friends. The subject of age came up, and I apparently blurted out, “I never knew my mother when she was young!”
At the time, my mom was fifty, which is actually my age now. You can do the math. That means she had me when she was forty. Back in 1982, a half-century ago seemed ancient to me. It was the Great Depression – and nine years before the start of World War II. Thinking of my mother’s childhood and era, I may have even thought of those days in black-and-white. I wasn’t trying to be witty or sarcastic. It was just a matter of fact. From the lips of a child, so to speak.
I thought of that story this morning after seeing that just yesterday, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its annual report concerning births in America for 2021. This particular edition, published under the banner of “National Vital Statistics Reports – Volume 72, Number 1,” paints the picture regarding not just the numbers of births, but also maternal demographic and health characteristics, medical and health care utilization, source of payment for the delivery, and even infant health characteristics.
The main headline was that there were 3,664,292 births in the United States, an increase of 1% between 2020 and 2021.
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