To the Church: Humility Is the Answer
In my previous blog, I discussed divisions within the church and broader culture. I think it may be prudent to get deeper into the heart and psychological function of what, in my opinion, are some of the greatest catalysts to these divisions. So let’s define some terms.
Pride
The word pride gets used both in negative and positive connotations depending on the context. For example, when Christians think of pride, they most likely view it in the context of sin and therefore negatively. On the other hand, we could also use the word for pride in our sports team, in an accomplishment, or even pride about being from New Jersey! Are these sinful? Good? Right? Wrong? Who is the judge? This brings me to the next piece—judgment and control.
Judgment and Control
Judgment is something that is far too prevalent, especially in North American culture. And not the good kind.
We live in an age of consumerism and social media, giving us limitless communications to engage in as often as we allow ourselves. We can now voice opinions and thoughts on a global scale—and all while we are being marketed and sold as the commodity. This can easily lead to the delusion that we are the center of the universe. Aggressive and divisive rhetoric becomes encouraged with increased likes, fiery comments, and wide sharing. With such “power,” we can begin to think that we are the judge, naming what is right and wrong with the world.
We are basically back in the Garden, being tricked into the same thing as always—you are God of your life. You are in control. You get to be the judge of good and evil. You get to say what’s right. This has bred a spirit of judgment in society. We have created our own echo chambers which divide us further.
Our cultural echo chambers keep us from considering anything outside of our own narrow position. With the mix of politics, media, and advanced algorithms, the walls of our chambers continue to close higher and tighter. We are left throwing stones from our mountain tops without any real understanding of the issues or people on “the other side.” I think this also leads to a lot of misunderstanding which transitions to what I call enemy-projecting (projections onto people that make them enemies to you).
Fear
This all then relates to fear. On the societal level, companies and organizations spend billions of dollars researching fear in order to market products to us. Afraid of illness? Buy these cleaning products. Worried about your children? Buy phones you can track. Scared of death? Purchase life insurance. And we wonder why we are the most anxious and depressed nation in the world (according to sociologists in the last decade). Our capitalistic nature has already begun to cannibalize itself. We are a fear-mongering society.
Fear is also personal depending on how we struggle in life. Some of us have struggled so greatly that fear overarches life itself. Others of us have more nuanced fears, causing us to worry too much about things that are out of our control, such as people’s opinions of us. Or maybe we go to great lengths to avoid looking like an idiot because we fear we actually are. Often we project our fears as judgment from others, but really they are our own judgments of ourselves—or the enemy in our ear.
All of this intertwines to become a giant mess of dysfunction—or sin, in other words. We prop ourselves up as more important than others, fearful of the truth that we are not good enough. We hide, we control others’ perceptions, and all while projecting our own self-judgment onto others. We go along, bogged down by this giant mess, trying to find something that makes us happy in life.
Humility offers the answer
The psychological and spiritual answer here is humility. Humility is quite the opposite of pride, judgment, control, and fear. Scripture tells us often to humble ourselves. (James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6, Matt 23:12, 2 Chron 7:14, Rom 12:16).
Think through what this means. It means I must make myself of equal or lesser importance than the person I am talking with. It means considering myself of little importance in the grand scheme of the world or the universe—certainly nothing in comparison to God. It means not needing to be right or have control, not needing to know the answers, not needing to be respected by the person across from me. It means not assuming my view must be the right one, it means seeking truth above the need for importance, acceptance, or admiration. In the end, I would say humility is the model for how we love each other.
Jesus’ ultimate humility
Jesus’s humility in the Gospel shows us this clearly. Think through what he really did. As God of the universe, living in perfect harmony, not needing a thing, he lovingly chose to create a temporal space, time itself, and life! Then in his perfect foreknowledge, he decided to humble himself from his throne in Heaven to live a life confined in an earthy flesh pack completely dependent on broken, sinful humans to take care of him. I sometimes wonder what this must have been like in the early years of his development. He made himself a baby! Then not only did he live a perfect life, but he demonstrated even more love by humbling himself as a servant (Phil 2:7), and then dying a torturous death for us so we could have the relationship that he wanted with us. And, we did nothing to make that happen!
How humble is it that he did all the work to free us from ourselves? This ought to fill us with such gratitude that humility could be a regular fruit of our lives. With humility, we would dispel the very things that cause such division in our relationships.
In summation, lacking in humility leads to pride, judgment, and control, often leading to fear of others or ourselves. But, if we receive the depth of humility that the Gospel offers and demonstrates, then we will experience freedom from all of it.
I once heard a preacher say, “I am so free of me that I am free of you.” I think he gets it.