Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Being humble and being humiliated are not the same concept. In the original Greek the meaning is “lowliness of mind.” In reality humility is a heart attitude, not merely an outward demeanor. One may put on an outward show of humility but still have a heart full of pride and arrogance. While we see the need for humility there is a distinct difference in being humiliated by another person. That is in reality an act of putting someone down rather than building them up. That is usually an act of pride and not an act of showing a humble attitude. Trying to explain this concept is difficult and often a problem for us that are believers. It is best understood in relation to grace and understanding that salvation comes us to as a gift rather than something we earn. Pride is something we earn by what we do, humility comes from the attitude we carry.
Our whole life, we are taught about earning things. We earn our grades, we earn a paycheck, we earn respect, we live by a standard that we get a reward for what we accomplish. We instill that idea in our kids with allowances based on chores, grades in school and so on. To fully understand grace, let me share a story of something I read recently.
A Christian missionary in India had befriended a devoted Hindu and had explained that salvation is a gift. Then one day the Hindu told the missionary he was going to crawl many miles on his knees to Delhi as a means of earning salvation. But before he leaves, he gave the missionary a small, heavy box. "I have had this box for years", said the Hindu. "I keep one thing in it. Now i will tell you about it. I once had a son." "A son?", the missionary responded. "Why you never told me you had a son." "My son was an excellent pearl diver. On day he found the most beautiful pearl, one of the largest ever found off the coast of India. But he had stayed under the water too long and he died soon after he recovered the pearl. I have kept the pearl. And now I want to give it to you." "This is an amazing pearl", the missionary said. "Let me buy it. I’ll give you $10,000 for it, or if it takes more i will work for it." "Friend", the Hindu said, "this pearl is beyond all price. No man in all the world has money enough to pay what the pearl is worth to me. I will not sell it to you. You may have it as a gift." "No I cannot accept that. As much as I want the pearl, I cannot accept it that way. I must pay for it or work for it.", said the missionary. The old diver was stunned. "You don’t understand. Don’t you see? My only son gave his life to get this pearl. And I would not sell it for any money. It’s worth is in the life blood of my son. I cannot sell this, but I can give it to you. Just accept it as a token of the love I bear you", said the Hindu.
The missionary could not speak for a moment. Then he gripped the hand of the old man. "Don’t you see", the missionary said in a low voice, "that is just what you have been saying to God." The Hindu looked searchingly at the missionary and slowly, slowly he began to understand.
Salvation is more like a birthday gift than a paycheck. We get presents for having survived another year not because we earned it from the person who bestowed it upon us. Salvation when accepted by grace is like a birthday gift and not a paycheck we have earned. It is a gift bestowed to us because God loves us.
Humility is understanding that our salvation is something we didn't do, nor something we were owed, it was simply given.
Much love
Preach