It Is Humility Month (Part 1)

Some say it’s pride month! I say it’s humility month.

It is very difficult to fathom anyone spending 3 straight years with Jesus Christ the Lord and Incarnate Son of God, observing His teaching and miracles and then somehow conclude you need a little attention for yourself! Yet, this is exactly what happened in Matthew 18! Following the Transfiguration, the Lord Jesus was healing others in Galilee, and the disciples enjoyed it so much they were impressed with themselves for being around Him! And they corporately posed the question to Him, “… ” (vs. 1). At one of the pinnacles of popularity in the life of Christ when He should have been receiving all the glory – especially from the disciples – they have the nerve to ask Him which of them was the greatest! Remember His answer? “… (quietly dependent and trusting)” (vs. 3-4).

In other words, the way up isdown (Jas 4:10). If you want glory, you must walk the path of lowliness. Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness; not my merit but my misery; not my standing but my falling.

great message to them about the 1^st being last and vice versa, they still didn’t get it. They continued to think they could handle the Christian life on their own. Pride was a constant battle with them. Along with that, they struggled frequently with something else towards the end of the life of Jesus, and I believe these things are connected: hope. Why and how did Jesus start off His last words of encouragement to them (John 14-17)? He started by trying to give them a glimpse of the eternal hope they had to look forward to?

Here’s the connection: the disciple who struggles with humility will struggle with having hope. Why? Because

To close, meditate on these words from one of the apostles who was there in Matthew 18: “” (I Pet 5:5-7

).