These short verses are a big theme and complex as well as relevant in our lives. It talks about being humble / humility or being pride. It is becoming rare nowadays that people hold the value of humility or being humble. Why so? John Piper said that the humility can only survive in presence of God. When we throw away God, we also throw away humility. Humility follows God as shadows so that we can see that the humility is being appreciated in the community where God is being appreciated, which is rare in this world. In this modern world, God has been removed that this means humility becoming even rare and even harder to find.To understand humility, we also need to understand pride. Pride is not only one of seven deadly sins but it is also the root of sins. Sins came from angels that against the God, and we will know more about it from the book of Judas. Angels are the creation of God that is glorious that has been placed highly but they are not satisfied of their position as angels. They want to become like God and they want to be placed into a higher position than what God has determined for them. Thus, God threw away these angels and demoted them, that they then became liars and source of evil, known as Satan.
Ever since human fell into their sin, the motive behind them has been somehow same to these angels, that is to be placed into a higher position that what God has determined for them. C.S Lewis said that this sin of pride is the fall of every individual life. He also said that it is the sin behind any other sins that we have done. The sins of pride or humility has the nature of paradox. If certain person being asked on whether they are humble, that person will say they are humble, however they are not actually humble – that is paradox. What is pride? It is a refusal to admit our total dependability to God. When we are not depending on God, that we are depending on ourselves, that we can become God to our own selves. When we become God to our own selves, the consequences is the truth about the true God must be squashed and must be destroyed. As stated on the first chapter of Romans, the heart of the prides must become dark toward the light of truth of God – this is a threat to the prides. If we understand about the pride, we also understand verse 5 of this chapter, that God is against those prides. God is also an enemy of the prides, the same goes to those prides are the enemy of God.
Pride does not only against God, consider themselves as God, also not only becoming a competition for one against another, but pride will eventually destroy themselves. When the prides compare with the others, that they want to compete to win, to excel, to be better than others by exaggerating themselves. The opposite of prides is not humble or even self-pity. Self-pity itself is a form of pride. C.S Lewis stated that humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. Self-pity, on the other hand, is about people who always looked upon themselves. John Piper said that being arrogant boasting the voice of the pride in the heart of the strong, but self-pity is the voice of the pride in the heart of the weak. In fact, they are both arrogant, but in the different form. Being arrogant and pride are the voices of an arrogant person but they are strong, but self-pity is the voice of an arrogant person but they are weak. Pride relies to themselves, does not believe in God, and comes in a form of worry when difficulty arises that they sometimes afraid of facing it. They can forget about God and they did not submit their worry to God, which is a form of pride.
On the positive note, God said to us to be humble under the strong hand of God and to submit our worry to God because He will take care of you. The opposite of pride is the heart that willing to focus in God, heart that willing to see God, to recognise God, as what was told in His word to us. Outside of Christ, we realised that we cannot do anything but it will not stop there, otherwise it will become self-pity should it stop there. On the contrary, inside of Christ, in accordance to His command, we can do anything and we will not fall into self-pity that we will be humble instead. In the presence of God, I am nothing, I cannot do anything, and we will be given opportunities to recognise ourselves to understand that God is everything, God is reigning, God that is blessing and God is caring. When we do this, we can be peaceful and to love one another, we will become humble because everything that I own comes from God. My success comes from God’s blessing. And when the difficulty arises, that I will submit it to God. We will pray for them and we will support them because God will take the stand to against the prides, but God will love the humbles.
