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James, Part 12

This Virtue Before All Others

"Humility before honor"  -Proverbs 15:33
"Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self." -Chas.Spurgeon
"Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil's reach as humility." -Jonathan Edwards 

In this fourth chapter, James deals with the most basic concepts of man's existence, and his relationship with God. The fifth verse is a very difficult verse, and has been translated in numerous ways by Bible scholars. It refers to the spirit God placed in man. The essence of the verse is seen in the unique power of choice, which God gave to no other creature but man. God wanted man to use that power to choose to be in close fellowship with the Father. However, it allowed man also to choose to love himself, and turn away from the Father. James says that we have sufficient grace from God to resist this wrong decision, if we will avail ourselves of it.

It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of humility and self-denial in the Christian life. It is significant that Jesus began His first sermon, and His most significant discourse, with the words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven". Toward the end of His life He says, "If any man would follow me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross..." Here James underlines that sentiment when he quotes from Proverbs, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble". 

There are several reasons that this characteristic is essential to the Christian life. All of our relationships with other people, all of our reactions to the events we face, our value system, upon which our choices are based, all depend upon our self-image. How we see ourselves is what causes us to behave as we do in every situation of life. If we overestimate our importance, our abilities, or our worth, it will skew our behavior into bad behavior patterns. These often harm others. They also reject God's direction of our lives, for we have supplanted Him with our own ego-centered wills.

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The humble person realizes that he is a creature who has received his life from a source greater than himself, and that he is answerable to that source. He recognizes that he is one of many such creatures, and therefore is not the most important person. He does not lord it over others, for he realizes his limitations, and faces the fact that he is not always right. 

In this attitude, the humble man gratefully accepts guidance from the Father. He never judges his fellowman, for his own faults are ever before him. He strives to help others, for he realizes that he cannot achieve anything without help from outside of himself. He doesn't pretend to be a master teacher for others to follow, for he recognizes that he does not know everything. 

This is the only kind of person who can really love God, and love his neighbor as himself. Even Jesus never claimed that He was the master teacher. He constantly pointed to God, and characterized Himself as the voice of the Father. He humbled Himself, and those of us who dare to try to show Him to the world would do well to imitate that. 

A humbler Adam would still be in the Garden of Eden. Only the "poor in spirit" will return there. 

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