Recap
of 9/30/12 (John 13:14-17):
1. Humility is essential to the life, service,
and exercise of authority of the believer.
2. Humility is not, as commonly thought,
thinking poorly about ourselves, it is not being preoccupied with ourselves
(the freedom not to think about ourselves). “Being humble involves having a
true perspective about ourselves (see Romans 12:3). It does not mean that we should put ourselves
down.” (NLT One Year Study Bible)
3. Pride (self) gets in the way of humility.
4. To deal with pride:
-we must
realize and accept our position in Christ, finding our satisfaction and
acceptance in Him.
-we must
realize that all we have and all we are (gifts, talent, knowledge, position,
status, means) are from God’s hand (1 Corinthians 4:7)
-when we
think about others we must focus on how we may serve them, not on how we
compare with them (2 Corinthians 10:12 ,18;
Philippians 2:3,4)
-we must
take control of our thoughts, asking “Would Christ think this way, or would he
like this thought?” We must not let our thoughts be taken captive by our
feelings.
-when
feeling ad about ourselves or threatened
by others we must focus our thoughts upon Christ (Philippians 4:8)
5. Jesus is the primary biblical example of
humility (Philippians 2:4-8), Timothy is cited by Paul as another (Philippians 2:19 -24).
6. God’s attitude toward the proud (resistance)
and the humble (providing grace) should be motivation for believers to seek
humility.
