Humility, Matthew 18:1-4
We are getting into a new section in this chapter. It grows out of what we have just seen. This emphasis where Jesus has taken these three men and sort of given them a privileged position to go up with Him on the mountain and to see the foretaste of the kingdom. They saw Elijah and Moses and I'm sure when they got back there was some interesting discussion with the other disciples. And from what comes up in this next chapter it probably generated a little jealousy, a little competitive spirit, and this is seen from the very first question that comes up. The emphasis and the teaching from our Lord throughout this whole chapter flows from this initial question.
One of the things that I grill into everyone here is the importance of context, context, context. Don't just jump into passages and pull verses out of context. There is a verse in this chapter that is one of the most egregiously abused verses in the New Testament. It is when Jesus is dealing with a sinful brother in vv. 15-20. In verse 20 Jesus said: “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” You will find that quoted by almost every evangelical Christian as some sort of a prayer verse—that somehow if they just get a group of two or three together that somehow gives a certain power that God is going to listen to us and is going to respond to that prayer. But that is not what that verse is saying. The context is the context of dealing with a personal problem where you have one person in the congregation who is causing trouble with another one and you go through a process of trying to correct the problem. One person goes to him in private and then a second person goes to him in private and he is unwilling, stubborn, he is not going to change, and so two or three are taken together to serve as witnesses that he is a recalcitrant individual and is not going to respond to any encouragement to do the right thing. And what God is saying is when two or three are together I am there in judgment. It doesn't have anything to do with prayer.
We have to pay attention to the context, and the broader context of this whole section is dealing with this question the disciples ask: Who is the greatest in the kingdom? And that covers everything down through verse 35. Everything here is related to that, and the backdrop for that is humility. Jesus is teaching that the emphasis isn't who is the greatest, the emphasis is on developing the Christian virtue of humility.
Matthew 18:1 NASB “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, 'Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'” They have been talking amongst themselves and now the question is, is it going to be Peter, James, John; is it going to be one of them? What about the rest of us? Don't we have a say in this? Haven't we been following the Lord? Jesus then gives them a little object lesson by taking a child to use as an example of the kind of faith related to what He has been talking about.
Matt 18:2, 3 NASB “And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, 'Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven'.” How many read that as a salvation verse? But that is not a salvation verse. Jesus isn't talking about that. How do we know? Context, context, context! To whom is Jesus speaking? He is speaking to His disciples. Were the disciples regenerate, justified individuals at this point? Yes, they are. This is not more than five or six months before the crucifixion. He says to His disciples: “Unless you are converted ...” They are already justified.
The Greek word that is used there for conversion is the word that is normally used to translate the Old Testament word shub, which was the word to turn back to God in the Old Testament. He is talking about a post-salvation turning back to walking with the Lord. He is not talking about conversion in the sense of converting from an unbeliever to a believer, but turning from being a disobedient believer. And they are all being disobedient right now. They are operating on arrogance and pride; they are more concerned with this competitive nature within them, who is going to be the greatest, and He is basically saying you need to turn from being arrogant and self-absorbed and become like little children. This is an issue in their spiritual growth, it isn't an issue related to becoming a believer.
When He mentions entering the kingdom of heaven, as we have seen earlier, this is sometimes used as Jesus used it with Nicodemus when talking about getting justified or regenerate, moving from being unsaved to being saved. But we have also seen other passages in Matthew when entering the kingdom isn't just getting saved, it is entering into the fullness and the responsibilities and privileges in the coming kingdom. So it is a challenge to living their Christian life in light of eternity. He is saying, “If you don't change and turn back to walking in obedience, walking in terms of humility, you are not going to enter into the fullness of your potential in the kingdom of heaven.” In order to grow spiritually so that you have a future role and responsibility in eternity you need to live your life on the basis of humility. That is the focal point here.
This word we are looking at here, TAPEINOO is the verb; TAPEINOPHROSUNE is the noun for being humble. Humility wasn't a valued characteristic or virtue in the pagan world at the time of Christ. It's value only comes into western civilization as a result of Christianity. What was valued in Greek culture was someone who would assert their rights. Humility is often one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Bible because we think of humility as someone how giving up what we want to do, or just being a doormat that people are going to run over and we just sort of disappear into the woodwork. That is pretty much how the ancient Greeks viewed it as well. But in the New Testament we get a fresh understanding of just exactly what humility is.
TAPEINOO, the verb form, is basically translated to humble. In it's literal meaning it referred to something that was low or laying low, something that was brought low, and it came to mean and it was applied to someone who was of low degree—a homeless person, somebody living under the bridge, somebody who was on welfare and who just couldn't do anything to help themselves. It referred to somebody who was weak, somebody insignificant, and somebody poor; not the kind of person you were going to elevate or emulate in a culture. So a humble person was someone who was just the lowest dregs of society. But that word came to be used metaphorically for someone who did not think overly too much of themselves, did not think too highly of themselves, wasn't conceited, wasn't boasting, wasn't full of themselves.
In Scripture we see that humility is in contrast to pride, arrogance and self-absorption. We are all born controlled by our sin nature. It starts controlling us from the moment we take our first breath and its focus is, it is all about me. And that is the source of all conflicts because we think it is all about us. The Scripture says it is not about us at all, it is all about God, all about serving God, glorifying God, serving the Lord Jesus Christ. So the contrast that we see in the Scripture is arrogance, and that humility is the opposite of this self-absorbed me focus of our sin nature. Humility is the direct opposite of arrogance. So humility isn't the idea of being weak or being a nobody; it really a very strong term. In fact, Moses is called the most humble man in the Old Testament. He was a man who spent 40 years leading two or three million stiff-necked Jews through the wilderness with all of the different attacks against his authority, attacks against God, all of the rebellion that went on, and yet Moses was called the meekest, most humble man in the Bible.
Why does God call him that? Because the focal point of humility isn't on some sort of self-abnegation, running down of yourself, or some low self-image, it has to do with understanding who we are and being properly oriented to God's authority. True humility is submission to God's authority, and the person who is truly humble is a person who understands the authorities in their life—parents, husbands, fathers, teachers, superiors in the military, the people who are over you at work. Submission to authority is what humility is. It is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength.
The New Testament picture of humility is given for us in Philippians 2:5-11. In Philippians 2:3 Paul says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit ...” That's arrogance. “... but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” So the context here is talking about developing humility as a mental attitude. [4] “do not {merely} look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”
Then he starts this section we want to look into. Philippians 2:5 NASB “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” In other words, this was a mental attitude. What Paul is developing is an understanding of the mental attitude of humility.
Philippians 2:8 NASB “Being found in appearance as a man [incarnation], He humbled Himself ...” How did He humble Himself? This gives us the biblical definition of humility. “... by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” He humbled Himself by becoming obedient.
When we look at the context we are to develop this same mentality, the mentality of orienting to God's authority and obeying Him. What this describes about Jesus is, Philippians 2:6 NASB “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped ...” And He has every right as the creator to have all of the adoration and obedience from the human race. He doesn't make an issue out of that. [7] “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, {and} being made in the likeness of men.” All of this was in obedience to the Father. “He humbled Himself,” and that is the verb TAPEINOO, and it means to see yourself in proper relation to reality and to be placed under authority. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient. The verb there means to add something to what you are, something new. It wasn't that Jesus wasn't obedient before but in His humanity He is becoming obedient to the Father in order to accomplish the plan of salvation.
What is the result of that? By being humble, by obeying God and focusing on God's plan and God's priority God gave Him the glory. The human viewpoint is, I am going to get glory by going out and asserting myself, by asserting my rights; I am going to make sure that nobody takes advantage of me, nobody walks on me, nobody treats me poorly; I am going to assert my rights. What Scripture says is, let God take care of that, our focus is to serve the Lord and to be obedient to Him; and the result is, as with Christ, that He is glorified for eternity. When we try to assert our rights individually in time we may get glory for a day or two, or a week, but when we are walking in obedience to the Lord then that exultation comes at the judgment seat of Christ, and it lasts for all of eternity. The picture of humility is Christ's submission to the authority of God to go to the cross.
The Lord also demonstrated this humility in His desire to serve. Humility is related to our ability to properly serve the Lord. So if we are called as believers to serve God we have to develop humility in order to serve Him.
Rather than emphasizing His sovereign authority or His own personal rights and personal privileges the second person of the Trinity de-emphasized His power, His prestige and His person and became a creature in order to serve us by dying on the cross for us. This is an example we have seen throughout history for people who were missionaries.
There are three categories of humility that the Bible mentions. The first is a false humility, typical of a lot of people and is mentioned in Colossians 2:18, 23. It is not obedience to God, it is this sort of self-denial and sort of putting one's self down, but what you are really trying to do is make yourself look good by making yourself look humble. Second, the humility that is emphasized in passages like Colossians 3:12, that we are to put on humility; 1 Peter 5:5, that we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God; Ephesians 4:2—this is a result of the role of God the Holy Spirit producing the genuine humility in our lives. Third, there is enforced humility, and this is what comes when we are put in a position such as going in the military, you are under some sort of authority and they are enforcing that obedience on you. The only humility that really counts in terms of your spiritual life is the second category.
Humility is important because it is foundational to grace orientation. You can't grow in grace if you are not humble, if you are not willing to obey the Lord and learn to trust Him, and learning that His grace is sufficient. Grace orientation means that all that we are and all that we have is from God. We can handle anything because God's grace is going to sustain us in the difficulty. The classic illustration of this comes in 2 Corinthians chapter twelve.
2 Corinthians 12:6 NASB “For if I do wish to boast I will not be foolish, for I will be speaking the truth; but I refrain {from} {this,} so that no one will credit me with more than he sees {in} me or hears from me. [7] Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself!”
There is a lot of talk about what the thorn in the flesh was but the phrase “a messenger of Satan” defines it—AGGELOS, an angel. He was personally assaulted by a demon who was stirring up trouble around him. Reading in through the passage what he is talking about is the constant rejection and persecution that came his way. He knows so much because God has revealed so much to him that people reject it. People were hostile to him. Three times Paul pleaded with the Lord to remove this, and here is the point [9] “And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness'.” Sometimes the Lord brings testing, adversity, difficulties and limitations into our life because it teaches us to rely upon Him and not on our own efforts and abilities. Relying on self leads to arrogance but relying exclusively on the Lord, which is humility, leads to grace orientation and ultimately to maturity.
Paul's response: 2 Corinthians 12:10 NASB “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Humility is also foundational to learning. You can't learn anything in life without humility. You have to submit to the authority of your teacher, your instructor, your boss, etc. When they come in to correct you and straighten things out you have to understand that they have your best in mind.
Ephesians 4:1,2 NASB “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love”. Humility is foundational to being able to love one another.
Humility is foundational to forgiveness and reconciliation. If we are to understand how to forgive one another we have to develop humility and dependence on the Lord. Colossians 3:12, 13 NASB “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
1 Peter 5:5-7 NASB “You younger men, likewise, be subject to {your} elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
This
is where Peter closes out. This is the Peter who is learning the lesson of
humility back in Matthew 18. So many things that Peter learns
in Matthew 17 & 18 come out in his first and second epistles.