05 Humility is the Most Important Virtue.
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Last episode we talked about how humility distinguishes the believer. And there is a quick comment I want to make on that before we get into today’s episode.
I want to clarify a point I made in the last episode where I said that humility is the greatest position of man. That is 100% true, but I wanted to add that that does not mean you have to be in an occupation that is connected with lowliness. You could be the CEO of your company, a leader in your business, a higher up in your organization, and still be the lowliest. When I say humility is the greatest position of man, I’m alluding to the heart. You can still serve those below you as the CEO, and you can still metaphorically wash the feet of those who may work under you.
It’s not about your position in the world, but the position of your heart. That is why humility is the greatest position of man…because it allows for God to work the most in and through us.
Now with that being said, I want to talk about why humility is the most important virtue.
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Why is humility the greatest virtue you might ask? Because every single virtue is rooted in humility. Faith is rooted in humility. Love is rooted in humility. Peace is rooted in humility. Hope is rooted in humility. Every virtue is rooted in humility.
These virtues are fruits from the heart posture of humility, which flows from the Holy Spirit at work in us.
Paul describes the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 6:22-23 as ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…’.
Notice how he never said humility as a fruit of the Spirit? I believe that is because humility is not a fruit of the Spirit, rather it is the very essence of its being. It is the seed of humility that is placed in us when we repent and believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins.
Look at the imagery of a flower as an example. Remember I said in the episode titled “Humility is Necessary to Battle Sin”, that no flower can grow except from the seed which was planted. When we are born again through a saving relationship with Jesus, and our life is no longer our own, the seed which is planted in our hearts is of humility. That seed is the Holy Spirit living inside of you, at the core of your being, at your root, in your heart. And the fruits of that reality are the budding flowers of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control on the surface, which are visible for others to see.
This is why I said last episode that the greatest piece of evidence showing your humility before God is your humility before man. Because if you’ve received Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you’ve been born again of His seed of humility, that will be proven by your actions before man, and whether your life is producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Andrew Murray would say that “it is only by the indwelling of Christ in His divine humility that we become truly humble.”
In other words, you cannot be humble without Jesus. You cannot be humble without the Holy Spirit. You absolutely cannot. You need His Spirit dwelling within you, leading you in paths of righteousness.
In episode three of this series I said that humility is the foundation for all righteousness. This is because no passion of the flesh can exist in the climate of humility. Similarly, every fruit of the Spirit CAN and does exist in a climate of humility. Now think of the flipside of that. Can every fruit of the Spirit exist in a climate without humility? Can ANY fruit of Spirit exist in a climate that lacks humility?
The answer is no. Because, a climate that lacks humility is a climate that is full of self. And where self is all the Spirit cannot produce fruit.
Every single day you are actively creating a climate conducive to the sin that comes from pride or the righteousness of Christ that comes from humility. You are either living in a self-centered, self-seeking, self-fulfilling way, not allowing for the fruits of the Spirit to come forth from your life but rather the sinful fruits of the pride of the flesh, or you are living a life surrendered in humility to God and absent of self, allowing for the fruit of His Holy Spirit to come forth in your life.
You cannot do both and you cannot have both. It is one or the other.
In Jesus’ sermon on the mount which takes up three chapters in Matthew, (chapters 5, 6, and 7), He gives very clear guidance on how to follow Him and what the marks of a true disciple of His are to be. He gives us the beatitudes, He gives us reasons for our hope in Him because He fulfilled the law, He teaches us how to give, He teaches us how to pray, He teaches us so much in that sermon.
That sermon practically gives us everything we need to know as believers to follow Christ.
And you know what I have found most interesting about the sermon on the mount?
The greatest sermon of all time?
I have found His introduction most intriguing. The very first words to come out of Jesus’ mouth in the most influential, most powerful, most impactful sermon of all time, was this (verse 3):
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (italics mine).
The first virtue to come out of the mouth of Jesus in the sermon on the mount was of humility.
Jesus could have led with a different beatitude like blessed are the pure in heart or blessed are the peacemakers or he could’ve led with how to give or how to pray or how he came to fulfill the law but no…Jesus chose to start off with humility.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit” means blessed are those who live with complete dependence upon God.
This is because those that are poor in spirit are those who recognize their need for God. These people recognize that they are nothing without Him and that He is everything. And this is EXACTLY what we've been talking about with humility. I believe these are the exact reasons why Jesus started off the sermon on the mount talking about humility.
Jesus doesn’t care so much about what you’re doing but who you’re doing it for.
Jesus cares about your commitment.
He wants you to be completely dependent upon him and to rely on him to supply all of your needs. That takes humility. His will and his ways over your will and your ways.
This is why living in humility is the most God honoring thing we can do as believers. It is because of Matthew 5:3…”Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. We honor God by living with full dependence on Him. We honor God by humbling ourselves before Him so that He may have all of our heart and be all in our lives.
Conversely, we dishonor God by doing the exact opposite…we dishonor God by living in independence. We dishonor God by giving our heart’s commitment to someone or something else. This is why every attack you receive from the enemy will be one that gets after your commitment to Jesus. He will do anything to get you to give your heart away to anything that is not God. The enemy doesn’t care so much about your life circumstances, he cares about your heart’s commitment.
Remember that there are two master powers in the world, one of pride led by the enemy and one of humility led by Jesus Christ, both who are after eternal control of man.
Think about it: Jesus desires your commitment. He wants you to be fully devoted to Him. And the enemy desires your commitment. He wants you to be fully devoted to anything but Jesus. Jesus desires your focus. And the enemy also desires your focus. They both want the same thing…they want your heart.
So the question is which power are you going to serve? Because you will serve one or the other. There is no riding the fence in this battle. You either serve the enemy by indulging in self and the world or you serve God by giving up your life in humility every single day so that He might be everything in your life.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Blessed are you if you live in humility, for Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven will be yours.
Scripture also says this in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 57:15, which reads
“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place; and also with he who is of a lowly and contrite spirit; to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite”
God is saying here that He dwells in Heaven, which is the high and holy place, but also that he dwells with those who are lowly and contrite in spirit. He dwells with those who are humble in heart. And isn’t that what we want? God’s presence?! For Him to dwell with us?!?!
It ought to be.
God says very plainly that he is with those who are humble in heart. And that is, as a believer, why we cannot wait to get to Heaven. Not because the place itself is so great, but because the Creator of the place itself is SO GREAT, and we will get to be with Him.
And the beauty is that we already do get to do that! I think God is less focused on getting man into heaven and more focused on getting heaven into man. The kingdom of heaven is God’s beautiful presence! And He wants that to dwell in us every day through relationship with Him, of which He says He dwells with the lowly and contrite in spirit.
This is again why I cannot emphasize the importance of humility enough. It is the root of every virtue and the main qualification needed to allow for or enter into God’s presence. And His presence should be all we ever seek day after day after day, which means we ought to seek to humble ourselves day after day after day.
Humility is the most important virtue.
Next week we’re going to start talking about how we can specifically grow in humility. Although we’ve touched on it a little bit these past four episodes, what I’ve done is basically ingrained into you the four pillars for the importance and necessity of humility.
The four pillars regarding the importance and necessity of humility are:
It is necessary to battle sin. (and our sanctification)
It is the foundation for righteousness.
It distinguishes the believer.
It is the most important virtue.
Do not forget these four pillars and what they mean!!! The rest of this season I will be referring back to one of these pillars every episode because they are the main reasons for why we seek after humility!!!
Thank you all for reading!
I love you all.
God bless.