Orphans or Heirs?

I've been thinking a lot lately about what our humble approach to God should look like. Humility has been a bit of a buzz word in Christian circles and teaching and we seem to have formed our own ideas about how this should be demonstrated. I've heard conflicting views and I wanted to get to an accurate description, or interpretation of humility.

"True humility" is distinctly different from "false humility" which consists of deprecating one's own sanctity, gifts, talents, and accomplishments for the sake of receiving praise or adulation from others. This is an excerpt from Wikipedia and I think it fits the Biblical descriptions of humility quite well.

Various other definitions include "a modest or low view of one's own importance; meekness, submissiveness. This is, in my opinion, where we go wrong as Christians. We take this idea of having a low opinion of ourselves and degrade our strengths and talk up our weaknesses. I believe this is false humility. Let's explore this further.

Paul, the apostle, boasted in his weakness, but only to show God's work in his life. In our weakness, God is made strong. But we can't take this so literally. Paul said, "I thank God that I pray in tongues more than all of you." (1 Cor 14:18) but he also said, "For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle" (1 Cor 15:9). And yet again he seems to contradict that statement with, "I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing." (2 Cor 12:11) Paul is not seeming to take a low, submissive view of himself when he claims to do something more than all of the recipients of his letter. But maybe he qualifies this in his following chapter when he claims to be the least of the apostles. But this statement is confusing because in chapter 12 of the same letter, Paul is defending his place among the "super apostles" claiming that he is not inferior to them - even though he is nothing. Paul has consistently made paradoxical statements throughout the scriptures, which leads me to think that all scripture was designed to be read with the help of the Holy Spirit. The scriptures are, after all, God-breathed, so we should approach God when we try to interpret them.

Let's look at little more into some of our favourite Bible verses on humility.

James 4:10 "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." I like this verse, but I believe that the Holy Spirit has revealed this further meaning to me. When we humble ourselves before the Lord - have a low esteem, change our haughty ways, ceasing revelry and taking on a repentent heart - then He will lift us up. Prior to this James said, "draw near to God and he willl draw near to you." I believe that when we come into the presence of God, his goodness and mercy and grace are so evident that we can't help but be humbled. But what is promised to us? That we will be lifted up. I looked the meaning of the word 'lift' (hupsoo) in greek and it says, "to lift up on high, to exalt; metaphorically - to raise to the very summit of opulence and prosperity or to exalt, to raise to dignity, honour and happiness". Maybe this is referring to us when we get to Heaven. But then again - what if it's referring to now. If Jesus was growing in stature with God and man, then there's no reason, if we humble ourselves before God, why he would not parent us in the same way as his son Jesus. We are, after all, co-heirs with Christ, aren't we? 1 Peter 5:6 says a similar thing. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."

Here's another one.

Romans 12:3 "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you." This is an interesting one because Paul tags on to the end of his sentence that we should think of ourselves in sober judgement in accordance with the faith that God has given each of us. This word sober is 'sophroneo' in the Greek translation and means to be in right mind; to exercise self control; to put a moderate estimation on one's self. I also looked up the meaning of faith (pistis) in this scripture and the greek definitions include, "conviction of the truth of anything; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it relating to God; the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ." This verse doesn't tell us not to have a good opinion of ourselves, but not to think too highly of ourselves. It tells us to judge ourselves in our right minds, in moderate estimation according to the faith we have been given. There are no verses telling us we should not think highly of ourselves. But there are verses telling us to be humble. So this would indicate that there is a middle ground. The revelation I have received is that we are encouraged to have an accurate opinion of ourselves. We were sinners, but we are now saved. Maybe I am wrong in this interpretation, but at our moment of conversion, we humbled ourselves. We confessed our sins and repented. And God lifted us up, exalted us, adopted us. If our level of faith brings us to a place where we are confident in God's opinion of us - then that's great. If God has saved us and forgiven us all our past, present and future sins through Jesus on the cross; if God has redeemed us and called us his treasured posession; if God has, through his abounding grace, given us giftings and strengths to further his kingdom on earth - then who are we to disagree? But then again, if our faith has not yet led us to this revelation, then I for one, will not cast judgement against them, but honour them for who God sees them as.

Let me finish with this analogy I received from God. Romans, Ephesians and Galations all talk about our adoption by God. I was thinking about adoption here on earth. Specifically adoption of foster children into a caring and loving family. I'm going to generalise here, but this generalisation is a result of me being acquainted with different children and adults who have been through this process. First there's the issue of trust. These children will often scavenge food at meal times because they are not sure when they will eat again. There is also the common theme of being suspicious when something nice is done for them or given to them because something has always been expected back from them. There will often be feelings of inadequacy - like I'm not good enough to deserve something like this; if these people knew the 'real me' they wouldn't keep me; or I'm going to do everything I can to pay these people back for their goodness... They may not become friends with the biological children of the adoptive parents; often they will run away because they don't know how to respond to love like this. (Obviously these sorts of feelings and behaviours are not that common with children who have been adopted from younger ages.)

Now let's look at the adoptive parents. Assuming they are adopting for the right reasons, what will their expectations of the child be? That the child will become one of their family members. That the child will have all the same rights and privileges as their biological children. That the child will take their name and with it, the pride of belonging to a family. I can imagine how devastated godly parents would be if their adopted son refused to be a part of their family because of the sinfulness of his past life. I imagine that they would want him to know that all of his past life was forgiven and forgotten at the point of his adoption. I would propose that if an adopted child did not want to take the name and privileges of her new family, it would grieve her new parents that she was not living her life to the best she was able. I believe that the family of the adopted child would be looking forward to playing with him, living with him, learning about his strengths and supporting him through his weaknesses. They would become co-heirs. They would all carry the family name. They would all inherit the family's fortune. They would all receive the parents' love. They would all be forgiven.

I want to propose that when we persist in our low opinion of ourselves - despite our pure motives to humble ourselves - that we grieve the heart of God, our adoptive father. We need to think of ourselves in sober judgement. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging our gifts - after all, they didn't come from us, they came from our Father. Let us take up our positions in God's family, accepting what Jesus did for us, as us and press on to receive the prize of eternal life - living in Heaven with our Father and family.

Matthew 7:11 "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"