If you want to be Right in the long term you have to be WILLING to be Wrong in the short term.
If you are guarding against being Wrong than this post will be difficult for you.
DOCTRINE #31: HUMILITY
Humility is considering you are wrong: considering another perspective. Pride is the opposite. Pride is not considering another perspective, including that you could be wrong. Pride is the belief you are in need of nothing. If a worldview's definition of humility requires the person to actually be wrong, then Jesus couldn't be humble.
Question: Do you believe it is a strength to be able to see where you could be wrong?
Next Doctrine: Doctrine #32
Table of Contents
If you need it, here is the support from the Word of God...
SCRIPTURE
"18 Pride goeth before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 Better it is to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, Than to divide the spoil with the proud." (Proverbs 16:18-19)
"25 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 16:25)
(Pride is equated with comparative thinking. To be contrastive is to be poor, or in need. If you are in pride you have a haughty spirit and you see yourself as entitled or above others. Who are lower than the poor? No one! This passage referenced destruction. Do you remember the definition of EVIL?)
"4 The wicked, in the pride of his countenance, saith, He will not require it. All his thoughts are, There is no God." (Psalm 10:4)
(Pride: all thoughts are "there is no God", nothing is greater or higher than the individual. If you believe that there is no God, you are stating that YOU are the First Cause, and you are always and completely Right and Just.)
"1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning Edom: We have heard tidings from Jehovah, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.
2 Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised.
3 The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?" (Obadiah 1:1-3)
(The Book of Obadiah began with an example of pride: no one is greater than me so that they can bring me down. In this passage the heart was mentioned twice, and in the heart are someone's CAUSES. These people were physically high, but spiritually low. They had confidence in their habitation (Right WHAT) with a Wrong HOW/WHY. They BELIEVED that no one would bring them to the ground, which was pride.)
"15 His strong scales are his pride, Shut up together as with a close seal." (Job 41:15)
(Job had a poetic example of pride. Shut up as with a close seal so nothing outside could get in. Rebuke and correction will come from God and other people, and the way that you handle these situations prove if you have wisdom or not. If you are "shut up" the only way that you can respond to an influence outside of your own thinking (man's thinking) is with anger and being comparative: being unwilling and unable to consider that you could be wrong.)
"5 Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5)
(Peter stated the proud was shut up and prevented God's grace from getting in. God literally RESISTS the proud! By being humble you are able to see God's perspective and consider that you may be wrong because He is always Right!)
"8 He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8)
(The following actions were called "good": do justly, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Walk humbly meant to make progress with God, which could only be done if you were humble.)
"12 For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, Let them even be taken in their pride, And for cursing and lying which they speak." (Psalm 59:12)
(Pride is shown with the words you use. Words are important! These words are an effect (WHAT) of the condition of someone's heart: their HOW/WHY are the causes. Truth creates and evil destroys, and the people who are in pride will be destroyed, "Be taken," by their pride.)
"10 By pride cometh only contention; But with the well-advised is wisdom." (Proverbs 13:10)
(If everyone thinks they are above everyone else, there will be contention. When you are humble, you do not choose who will be contrastive with and who you will be comparative with. If you see yourself as higher than anyone, you are actually doing the measuring, and denying God's HOLY measures. A balance was even referenced in the next passage...)
"1 A false balance is an abomination to Jehovah; But a just weight is his delight.
2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame; But with the lowly is wisdom." (Proverbs 11:1-2)
(A false balance is an abomination and with pride cometh shame. Both are opposite to Just. Just being something that God measures. If you are lowly, consider that others are above yourself, then God will direct your actions and decisions which is wisdom.)
"9 Therefore as I live, saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall make a prey of them, and the remnant of my nation shall inherit them.
10 This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Jehovah of hosts." (Zephaniah 2:9-10)
(God said Moab and Ammon would be like Sodom and Gomorrah because they were prideful: They "magnify themselves". Their WHY was pride and their HOW was that they reproached and magnified themselves. Was Sodom prideful?)
"48 As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:48-49)
(If you want to know why Sodom was destroyed, the answer was here! Four reasons. One was pride. Notice, not strengthening the hand of the poor and needy could also be seen as pride. God gave a HOW and a WHY for the destruction of Sodom. God created EVIL for long term GOOD.)
"16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John 2:16)
(In this passage, "vain glory" was pride. Pride was deception. It was a Right WHAT (glory) with a vain HOW/WHY (because the person built themself up for attention). This was the same as Matthew 6. Notice, from the previous Doctrine (contrastive thinking), we saw that Eve convinced herself it was right to eat the apple because it was good for food, had a nice appearance, and made one wise. Look at what John warned us about: lust of the physical (food), lust of the eyes (appearance), and pride of life (being wise in one's own eyes). This was man's thinking.)
"18 Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increasing with the increase of God.
20 If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances,
21 Handle not, nor taste, nor touch
22 (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men?
23 Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh." (Colossians 2:18-23)
(This passage showed a wrong humility. The Right WHAT was seeing someone else as greater. The Wrong HOW/WHY was worshipping angels and other spirits instead of God who is the One who ought to be worshipped. We are to worship the Creator, the cause, not the effect: the created. This makes a show of humility (Right WHAT) but they are not of any value. A Right WHAT with a Wrong HOW/WHY is deception. It is Wrong. These are people who are "humble" so that they could have their reward now... remember Matthew 6?)
"1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, And loving favor rather than silver and gold.
2 The rich and the poor meet together: Jehovah is the maker of them all.
3 A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; But the simple pass on, and suffer for it.
4 The reward of humility and the fear of Jehovah is riches, and honor, and life." (Proverbs 22:1-4)
(True humility will eventually be reward through justice. This was not talking about the physical (effect), this was something spiritual (cause). Can you see a "good name"? Can you see "loving favor?" Here was the best example...)
"1 If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions,
2 make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;
3 doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself;
4 not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.
5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name;
10 that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:1-11)
(This passage contrasted pride and humility, which was counting others better than ourselves. Then, Paul stated Jesus was the ultimate example. Jesus is God so He could have achieved that status as a cause. However, Jesus' cause was to empty Himself in humility, and God through justice exalted Him to God. Even though Jesus is the Holy One, He still was contrastive. Even though Jesus considerered where He was wrong, He was NEVER wrong! It is in your control to be humble, just as it is in your control to have understanding and wisdom. Notice, Jesus not only had a Right WHAT, He had a Right HOW/WHY. If Jesus could have attained a higher status, yet chose to humble Himself, then we REALLY ought to humble ourselves as well. Anyone who is choosing a higher status as a cause is saying they are greater than Jesus. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!)
We have been learning tons of chords and tons of colors, and we can say that the picture is filling quite rapidly. When do we reach a point where we can put our feet up and relax? As we become more and more contrastive on ourselves, we continue to remain uncomfortable because we are choosing to think as God instead of our natural way of thinking.
Do you see being uncomfortable as a good thing?
