One of the most important character traits, and the key to pleasing God as a Christian, is humility. This is something that is stated consistently throughout the Bible. Here are a few examples:

Furthermore, the conclusion we draw from passages such as James 4:6 and 1 Pet 5:5 is this: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” In other words, if you want God to look favorable on you, seek to be humble. Christian walk must be characterized by humility. 

For the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation. (PS 149:4)

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6-8)

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Eph 4:2)

The Basic Prerequisites for Humility

In order to be able to practice humility, however, we need to consider at least two basic prerequisites.

We need to see ourselves for who we really are.

This includes all flaws and imperfections. It means we realize that we are sinners, with no hope apart from God’s grace. I am not saying that we need to be miserable and sad all the time by constantly thinking of how bad we are and how unworthy we are. We do have a great worth as believers, but we must always be aware that our worth is in Christ and not in ourselves. 

Until we are glorified, we continue to struggle with our fallen human nature. We must look upon ourselves objectively. We acknowledge our weaknesses and do not pretend they do not exist. And if pride happens to be one of those weaknesses, we need to tackle it head on.

We need to see the destructive force of pride

Pride, after all, is the source of separation from God and a constant cause for rebellion against him. The greatest obstacle in practicing humility is pride. Even as born-again believers, we need to be aware of all the challenges that we face in life because of pride. The devil constantly tries to make us stumble by appealing to our pride. And many times, sadly, his job is not that hard, for we have in ourselves this tendency to please and exalt the self. 

If we are aware of pride’s destructive potential, we will seek for the antidote of pride, we will seek humility.  

Humility pleases God

The motivation for humility, then, is twofold. In a negative sense we understand what is at stake if we fail to be humble while in the positive sense, we are motivated by the knowledge that this is the kind of heart God expects from us. Furthermore, the positive part includes several benefits for the one practicing humility.

The fruits of humility

Humility not only pleases God but it is also a source of great blessing. How are the humble blessed? The main passage to consider is Philippians 2:1-11. Here are some of the rewards of humility:

Humility involves and produces obedience

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Phi 2:8). 

We have confirmation of this in the gospels where we read the words of Jesus as he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane:’’Not my will but your will be done” (Luke 22:42).

Obedience is vital to the Christian experience. We come to faith in obedience, as we submit to God and his authority. We also need to remain in submission to him through the rest of our lives. 

God calls us to live according to what he has revealed to us in the Scriptures, regardless of what we would prefer to do. Obedience is about surrendering the will. To do that one must be able to humble himself.

Humility is a weapon to fight pride 

Our society sees humility as a weakness, but believers should see it radically different – as a weapon. This will be a weapon to fight the devil and his temptations but also to disarm other proud people. In James 4:6-7, we read:

God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  

In many temptations the devil appeals to the pride of man. Whenever he tells you that you should have something because you deserve it, when he points out that someone has more than you, that someone is more appreciated than you, although you worked harder, he appeals to your pride. He is counting on our pride to take the bait. But when you instead choose to humbly submit yourself to God, the devil will flee from you. 

Humility enables us to serve

We, as Christians, are called to serve. The Bible is very clear on that. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). Notice the word ‘’even’’. If our Lord has adopted this attitude, how much more should we. Paul writes in Philippians 2:4-7:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.

Humility enables us to approach things without a selfish and self-centered spirit but rather looking at the interests of others, to see what is it that they need, how we can be helpful to them. 

It also means that we practice the same type of mercy and forgiveness to their flaws and shortcomings as we do to our own. We should not be more judgmental of them than we are to ourselves. In fact, valuing them above ourselves means that we are harder on ourselves and more understanding with others. 

Humility produces unity 

The apostle Paul encourages the Philippians, and us, to practice humility because this results in great unity among believers. In Philippians 2:2, he says:

Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Christian unity is often compromised because Christians fail to exercise humility. As a result, people get hurt, churches split, and the testimony of the Church is tarnished. This alone should be enough to motivate us towards humility and meekness. 

Humility is rewarding

Surprisingly there is nothing wrong with wanting to be great, but we need to seek to be great in the right things. We should seek to be great Christians. In Matthew 20:26-27, Jesus says:

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.

Interestingly, to be great it means to do the opposite, which is to lower yourself. But the good news is that when we do that, we are lifted up. In the same chapter in Philippians, in verses 9-10, Paul writes:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. 

We are also promised to be exalted if we humble ourselves – Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. God loves the humble and hates the proud. We should do our best to be loved by God. I pray that as you read this, you will respond by seeking humility in all your activities.