To Encourage You

James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

As I read the command above from James 4 the first thought that comes to my mind is “How on earth do you do that?” And then the next thought that comes to my mind is, “Well, what was Jesus’ example? Did He give us one?” And the answer to this, as with any other command that God has called us to, is, “Of course He did!” In fact, He gave us an example that was so magnificent that if we can model it even a little bit, we will do well.

But notice how the command of James 4 is worded. It says that we are to humble ourselves “before the Lord.” It strikes me that our pride must be so great that it is even difficult for us to humble ourselves in this way, otherwise the command would not have been given. Imagine this! To be so arrogant as human beings that we need to be told to humble ourselves before the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God of the universe, a universe which He alone has both made and continually sustains. But to think about it, every time we sin, every time we don’t do what He’s commanded in His Word, or we do what He’s commanded us NOT to do, we are exalting ourselves ABOVE Him. In essence with this disobedience, we are saying that our way is better than His. And we do it continually! By contrast, i.e., by absolutely stunning contrast, let’s look at the example of the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the best places to see this is in the words of Paul from Philippians 2. Here, in the following words, we see what could be considered a wonderful elaboration of the words in the verse above: “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 the point of death, even death on a cross.” Think of it! While we are told to humble ourselves “in the sight of God,” we are told that Jesus, as God, humbled Himself in the sight of MEN!  That humility was seen in His perfect obedience to the Father. And that obedience went so far as to serve the very people He had created even to the point of death on a cross.

Likewise, we will never humble ourselves unless we obey Him. That includes how He has commanded us to view and treat the people around us. In our day-to-day walk, how prone are we to cling to those things that lift us above someone else? Maybe we are more intelligent than some others, more gifted, or physically stronger than them. Maybe we have more experience. Or perhaps we have a higher position in the workplace. Or maybe we’re a parent, and the Bible says that we are to be honored by our own children. So do we exalt in these things? Do we cling to the status they afford us? Are we quick to react in anger whenever any of that “status” is threatened or challenged? Can we honestly say if it is for selfish ambition and conceit that we are acting and thinking as we are? If it is, we are disobeying the God of the universe who has told us to “in humility count others more significant than (ourselves) and to . . . look not only to (our) own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

You see, the God of the universe did exactly those things for us. It is the height of arrogance, is it not, if we think we should do anything less?