LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Doctrine of Humility
“When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, Give this man your seat. Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, Friend, move up to a better place. Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:7-11).
Someone has said, “I never was truly happy until I ceased to wish to be great.” This is a fine moral truth. When we cease to wish to be anything, when we are content to be nothing, then it is that we taste what true greatness - true elevation - true happiness - true peace, really is. The restless desire to be something or somebody is destructive of the soul's tranquility.
To the proud heart and ambitious spirit this may seem a poor, unproductive attitude - but to those of us who have entered the school of Christ and have begun to learn of him who was meek and lowly in heart - when we have drunk, in any measure, into the spirit of Him who made Himself of no reputation, we then see things quite differently.
The way to go up is to go down. This is the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine which Jesus taught and modeled for us. Remember “Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:2-4).
This is the doctrine of heaven – the doctrine of self-emptiness. What a contrast we Christians are called to, when we consider the worldly scene of endless self-seeking and self-exaltation! (C.H. Mackintosh).