What Is Humility in the Bible?

If you ask, “What is humility in the Bible?”, just know that it rolls along without so much as a hint of self-importance. That’s until pride attempts to rise up in your heart—similar to a snake that slithers from the dark and nestles under your feet.  You aren’t sure what happened but something changed quickly.

What Is True Humility?

Just so you understand how quickly pride overtakes humility, I’m sharing my story. Be forewarned, it’s not pretty.

Years ago I sang often in churches. In fact, people compared my voice to Sandi Patty’s. I was singing at a packed church and God brought to my attention the stony faces looking back. He orchestrated what I saw to teach me a lesson about humility. After the event, I received accolades from people and thought. “Wow, that must have been awesome!”

On the drive home, a dark feeling loomed up. Something was wrong. God said, “You have a heart condition.” Immediately, the word bypass came to mind. In fact, spiritually that’s just what I needed. I knew He meant something else.

My heart was fractured by pride and focused on what people thought of me. Instead of ministering the Gospel message of salvation, my intent was to make a grand slam performance. Ouch! My heart and motives were in direct opposition to God’s and He said so. I felt ugly and ashamed. I wasn’t concerned about the spiritual condition of the churchgoers. Wow, what a blunder.

So What Did I Do?

I stopped singing from that day forward because I exalted talent over servanthood. God would need to change my heart before I ever sang again. To this day, I won’t sing unless my heart is humble.

Pride may be in my past, but it’s always ready to be part of my future. When that spirit tries to take over, I resign myself to God and tell pride to take a hike.

What Does Humility Mean?

The Greek word translated humility means lowliness of mind and a “sense of one’s littleness” compared to God. To appear humble, your head and heart must agree to subdue pride and arrogance. Humility doesn’t mean that people walk all over you. On the contrary, you want to serve others rather than be served. Selfish ambition, pride, conceit, and self-justification are signals that humility is not on your radar.

I’ve seen people exhibit a demeanor of humility and it’s quite refreshing. They don’t rely on self. I love the Biblehub’s definition of humility from the Strong’s Concordance. “Humility is an inside-out virtue produced by comparing ourselves to the Lord rather than to others.”  Conversely, pride narrows your viewpoints, clobbers humility, and takes over.

What Is Humility in the Bible?

Along with these scriptures, there are 72 verses or more about humility in the Bible.

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love, Ephesians 4:2.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, Philippians 2:3.

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom, Proverbs 11:2.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up, James 4:10.

Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor, Proverbs 29:23.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land, 2 Chronicles 7:14.

What’s Humility in the Bible and Its Importance to Christianity?

A closed heart exemplified by pride misses opportunities. The quote below helps to answer the question, “What is humility in the Bible?”

Pride sees how to knock people out of the way, whereas humility makes a way for others to prosper. B.C. Wise, 2017

Humility is a component of childlike faith that sees wonderment in nearly everything. You are teachable.

I don’t know anyone that’s thankful without being humble. People want to be around you because you aren’t looking for a fight or trouble. You’re sensitive to the needs of others and your weaknesses dim from view. A humble person is secure versus weak because you have nothing to prove.

Try this solution when pride rears its head. Carry a recorder with you to hear yourself. You’ll probably seem obnoxious and come off as superior, overconfident, and resistant to anyone else’s views.

Also, let God use people to put you in your place. He did that for me. I hurt people with my words because I put myself on a higher level. The people corrected me with love.

God lovingly corrects us without damaging our self-esteem. He uplifts me and corrects at the same time because He thinks of me, highly. He builds into each of us the best virtues, especially humility.

What Is Humility in the Bible? It’s Living the Golden Rule

A humble person lives peacefully with others because loving them is important as it’s a main component of their Christian faith. A life of humility is a life of contentment.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting repayment in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (NIV, Luke 6:31-35).

Having this virtue in my life keeps me serving Christ because He has a humble nature and always treats others fairly. I want to be just like Him!

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