Real Humility

by Pastor Andrew Wolfenbarger
09/19/2023

2 Corinthians 12:10 - “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

The story is told of a pastor who was voted the humblest pastor in America. The congregation gave him a medal that said, “To the most humble pastor in America.” Then they took it away from him on Sunday because he wore it.

This is the evasive nature of humility. We have it one second and it’s gone the very next, as soon as we realize that we had it in the first place. Because of this, many have a wrong understanding of what humility is. Here are some wrong assumptions about humility.

• Humility is the suppression of our pride
- Perhaps you have tried to deny feelings of superiority knowing that they were rooted in pride. When this happens, we have thoughts that come to mind that we would never verbalize for fear of how haughty they might sound. Those thoughts sound like, “If I had been asked to do that, I would have done a much better job” or “I would never do that”.  But humility is more than having enough couth about you to not make yourself look foolish by the words that you say.

• Humility is self-effacing
- Others attempt to reject compliments or downplay a job well done under the guise of false modesty. This sounds like “I’m sure anyone could have done it better than me”, with no sincerity behind it at all.

• Humility is to not think of one’s self at all
- I heard it said, “Humility is not thinking less about yourself. It is not thinking about yourself at all.” For many reasons, I don’t believe this is even possible. Especially considering we are biologically wired for self-preservation. Furthermore, the Scriptures say, “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it,” (Ephesians 5:29). Humility is already such a difficult Christian virtue to achieve, we don’t need witty platitudes making it more difficult to understand, much less, to possess.

From the key verse today, I think we learn a lot about the establishment of humility in our hearts.

1. Paul recognizes an area of weakness
It is very easy for our flesh to acknowledge areas of strength for us. Maybe you have a charismatic personality or you are skilled in a particular area. All too often, we become prideful about that which we are good at. A hard dose of reality is that no one person is great at everything. While your pride will seek to shine its spotlight on that which you do excellent, humility will reveal in our life areas that are weak (especially in the area of spiritual growth).

2. Paul receives an answer
God did not desire to take away Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” which He was fully capable of. Instead, He chose to use this area of weakness as a constant reminder of Paul’s dependence upon the Lord. That is exactly why Paul says, “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,” (2 Corinthians 12:7). God used Paul’s weakness to keep him in a place of useability.

3. Paul rejoices in the strength of the Lord
Paul chose to take joy in the fact that God had given him grace instead of relief. Grace served as an adequate answer while ensuring his heart stayed pure and right before God.

Pride demands our self-dependence because it deceives us with the message that we are fully capable on our own. Humility seeks submission to a source of strength that is not found in and of ourselves. It is important to understand that humility is not the weaker virtue. In fact, it is the stronger one. Because, whereas pride rejoices in its own strength, humility finds solace in a source of much greater strength. John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease”; and from this, we come to learn that the only hope of a decreasing self is an increasing Christ.