MAY I HELP YOU?
In a Home Depot store, how do you distinguish employees from customers?
In a multi-cultural society, how do you distinguish followers of Christ from the rest of the crowd?
The apostle Peter wrote, “…Clothe (egkombōsasthe) yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another…” (1 Peter 5:5 ESV). The Greek word in the parenthesis is only found here in the New Testament. It refers to tying on an article of clothing. Peter may have been alluding to the apron-like garments that Roman slaves wore to distinguish themselves from Roman citizens. The image of Jesus tying on a towel to wash the feet of his disciples comes to mind.
Could it be that the distinguishing mark of a disciple of Jesus Christ is not so much morality as it is humility? I have heard a lot of “biblical” preaching and teaching. Have done quite a bit of it myself. I’m sorry to say that I have not seen humility pushed as hard as conformity to certain practices and beliefs. And what’s worse, I have seen humility walked even less than it has been talked.
I believe that it was Jesus’ humility that made him so attractive to the “spiritually incompetent” of his society. Jesus’ humility had nothing to do with feigned inferiority or any other form of self-deprecation. It was more about priorities. Father God’s way before his own way. The needs of the world before his own needs. For Jesus, humility was essentially a life of complete submission and total service, coming from an absolute confidence that his Father had the world completely under control and had him totally taken care of.
What would happen to the world’s view of Jesus Christ, if his followers moved humility from the periphery to the center of their teaching and practice? What would my world begin to look like if I wore humility like a bright orange apron?
posted by grateful talmid | 2:29 PM
4 Comments:
I agree that teaching would benefit from an effort to emphasize more frequently the attributes of Christ, such as humility.
The "distinguishing mark" of a disciple is love. Christ says in John 13:35: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." 1 John 5:2 says: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments."
From these passages, we see that Christians distinguish themselves by loving one another, by loving God, and by keeping God's commandments. Certainly this would include practicing humility as well as following God's laws regarding morality.
So, instead of a bright orange apron, how about a bright rainbow apron representing the many qualities of a Christian?
Humility is an expression of love..."Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 18:4
The ultimate expression of love..."And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!" Phil. 2:8
Here's a thought. Humility is love's demeanor.
Both of you make very good comments. I just wanted to emphasize the multi-faceted nature of both love and living as a Christian.
For instance, in addition to having humility as its demeanor, 1 Cor. 13 shows us that love exudes kindness, patience, an unwillingness to be provoked, hope, etc.
Of these various demeanors though, humility does sound like a great place to start.
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