Articles
Humility
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” - James 4:10
Humility is the opposite, or the lack of pride. The nature of pride is competitive. Pride can almost be identified by the desire to want, have, be, or become better than one's rivals. It is not from humility that one compares himself to his neighbors in order to determine who is the better man. Pride may present itself in the comparison of houses, cars, salaries, or any other number of physical possessions. It is the mind set that believes that one is more or less of a person, or more or less worthwhile as a person by the things that they possess.
Physical possessions are not the only means of comparison by which pride creeps into our lives. Spirituality is also a huge stumbling stone on which the righteous might stub their toes without ever knowing. When people compare their spirituality to other's spirituality in a competitive manner, we are assuming a few things. The first thing that we assume is that the spirituality that we have achieved is through ourselves. Paul makes it very clear in 1 Cor. 1:30-31 that this is not so. Secondly, we assume that by being "better" spiritually, we are some how more worth while to God. Luke 15:7 shows that God cares just as much for the lost and weak as he cares for the saved. Thirdly, we seemingly believe that this comparison is somehow either good, natural, or meaningless (not detrimental nor helpful). When Jesus's disciples had these competitive discussions, originating from pride, Jesus corrected their thoughts because they were detrimental to a Christian attitude. (Matthew 18:1-4; 20:20-28; Mark 9:33-37) Let us be humble, and exhort others.
