THE CASE FOR HUMILITY
1 Peter 5:5-7 NKJV
5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Peter is making a case for humility in his closing thoughts to the Jewish believers. And he makes a good case.
Younger submitting to the elders is always a good idea, but Peter does not stop there. He advocates everyone being submissive to one another. I do not believe that Peter is instructing people to be doormats and allow people to run all over them. Because if everyone is submitting to one another, no one is dominating. If everyone were submissive to one another, it would be you go first, no after you. In other words, no one is pushing their own agenda. It's not about me, but how can I be a blessing to you. From the guy who was one of the most headstrong and aggressive disciples when he walked with Jesus, Peter has come quite a way.
And be clothed with humility. Humility is taking the lower place. Humility does not mean inferiority or weakness. Humility requires strength. But humility says that God and His ways are right, and I submit to them. Humility says that I am not trying to push my own agenda, but I want what the Lord wants. Our example, Jesus was humble, but He was never weak.
And another reason that humility is a strong position is what Peter declares next. Quoting Proverbs 3:34, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So the humble get grace, God's ability, and power on our behalf. More of God's grace should be case closed for our pursuing humility.
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. No one can humble us. We can be humbled by wrong decisions and bad moves, but that is on us. Other people may demean us, but that is not humbling. We humble ourselves by taking the position that we want what God wants and are willing to adjust to Him. Easy? Not always, but always smart, particularly when we consider that God is the One who exalts us in due time. And when God exalts us, what man does is minimized.
Verse seven seems out of place, but in the light of humility, it becomes clearer. We cast our cares on the Lord. Instead of worrying about and racking our brains as to what we are going to do, we give our cares to Him. This is not relinquishing responsibility but rather giving the Lord what we can not do on our own. It's humbling to admit we are not completely self-sufficient and to give God our cares. But He cares for us. And His care gives me confidence.
APPLICATION
Humility is another one of those back door to benefits that is counterintuitive to how the world thinks. If I ever said I was doing a series on humility, I don’t know that the response would be overwhelmingly positive. We tend to think of humility as something that other people should be doing. But it's a blessing.
When I read this chapter again, I was struck by the fact that we are always learning. For some reason, I thought that James was the only one who said God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Peter said it also. It's always a good place to admit that we don't know it all. And it's a humbling place as well. But it's the place where we get more grace!
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, please show me what it means for me to humble myself under Your mighty hand. I desire more of Your grace in my life.