What does it mean to be spiritually humble as a disciple? This devotion discusses being humble, being proud, and which will inherit the earth.
Nuggets
- Spiritually humble and meek disciples are to imitate God.
- The opposite of being humble is being proud.
- If disciples humbly submit to God, they will inherit the earth.
Devotions in the The Beatitudes Show Us How to be Docile series
The third Beatitude talks about being humble and meek. It has a very nice reward attached to it. Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context
We are taking in this series about how disciples ae to be docile. Docile means easily taught. As we grow in our relationship, we become blessed.
Blessedness means we have been perfected. For the disciple, perfection is holy, sanctified, and righteous.
Holy means to be set apart, perfect, and pure. Sanctification is the process where our lives are changed, and we made holy. Righteousness is the result of a solid relationship with God.
Most of the newer versions translate the word humble. Humility is “a personal quality in which an individual shows dependence on God and respect for other persons” (Holman Bible Dictionary).
The older versions translate it as meek. Meekness is “a personality trait of gentleness and humility, the opposite of which is pride. Meekness does not refer to weakness or passivity but to controlled power.”
Just a reminder — gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22-23). If we combine Merriam-Webster Dictionary definitions of gentleness and gentle, we get that is the quality or state of being free from harshness, sternness, or violence.
Did you catch that? Gentleness is used to define meekness, and humility is used to define meekness. So, the foundation is dependence on God.
What Is Humble?
“Blessed are the humble …” (Mt. 5: 5 CSB)
Why are disciples called to be humble and meek? This is how we submit to God.
Scriptures call us to be
- Humble — “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Col. 3: 12 CSB).
- Respectful of others — “respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God and respect the king” (II Pet. 2: 17 NLT).
- Submissive — “Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4: 7 CSB).
- Meek — “But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace” (Ps. 37: 11 ESV).
- Gentle — “To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Ti. 3: 2 ESV).
- Not prideful — “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom” (Prov. 11: 2 ESV).
- Not harsh — “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Prov. 15: 1 ESV).
- Not violent — “not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money” (I Tim. 3: 3 NIV).
Barker wrote, “A meek spirit is a spirit of goodwill and clemency: is placid and calm amidst the vexations and cares of life (1 Peter 3:4); is tractable and submissive; forbearing and forgiving; bows to the rod of affliction.”
Spiritually meek disciples are to imitate God. If God blesses us, we are to thank him. If God tests us, we are to thank Him and pass His test.
Blackall made an interesting point. He said that humble disciples “will gladly except and thankfully acknowledge help and relief from others.” Ooo, baby that is hard.
I remember, after Mom got sick, she said the hardest thing for her was to let others do anything for her. She was one independent lady. She said she had to tell herself to let others help her so that they could receive their blessing.
So, let’s talk about the opposite of being humble. That would be pride.
In What Are Moral Sins?, we said pride is “undue confidence in and attention to one’s own skills, accomplishments, state, possessions, or position.”
The Bible talks about two conditions that take confidence over the top: boasting and arrogance. These verses sums it up.
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (II Tim. 3: 1-5 ESV emphasis added).
See how important self-discipline is?
Well, worldview followers probably don’t mind being called lovers of self and money. They are perfectly fine with being called disobedient to God (therefore, unholy).
Ooo, baby. How many of us want to be called abusive, ungrateful, and heartless? Yep, worldview followers would take issue with that.
Let’s take ungrateful first. God created mankind (Gen. 1: 26-27). God blessed us (Gen. 1: 28).
But instead of being grateful and worshiping God, worldview followers are “… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power …” (II Tim. 3: 4-5 ESV).
How do worldview followers appear godly? Many people today care about others. The problem is their motivation.
Many worldview followers fight for the right to choose how they are going to live, regardless of what God’s laws and commandments say. Refusing to acknowledge God as Sovereign Lord and not living the way He decrees is not going to end well for them.
Okay, let’s go to heartless. I would argue that this means they do not have a circumcised heart.
We talked a couple of times about circumcision of the heart. Circumcision of the heart is where God changes our hearts.
God wants us to cut out the old sin and replace it with His love and grace. He doesn’t want it to just be a ritual or symbolic. God wants the change to be real, personal, and genuine.
Our hearts will always be wicked (sinful) because of our human nature (Jer. 17: 9). That doesn’t mean we get a pass because of that. We will still have to pay the consequences of our sins.
Worldview followers do not have a circumcised heart, which could be interpreted as heartless. That, too, is understandable when they refuse to acknowledge God as Sovereign Lord.
Disciples are persecuted. We have not been persecuted as much in the United States, but we will be. We are going to hold off for now on this discussion because this is a separate Beatitude.
What Do We Inherit?
“… for they will inherit the earth” (Mt. 5: 5 CSB)
If disciples humbly submit to God, they will inherit the earth. The resources that are utilize did not say much about disciples inheriting the earth. Jordan noted that disciples will inherit this earth and the new earth.
So, let’s look at inheritance. We have looked at it before.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We become children of God when we asked Jesus to become our Lord and Savior (Jn. 1: 12). Our faith makes us heirs of God (Gal. 3: 26). Our inheritance is a reward for doing God’s Will.
Three specific rewards that are mentioned are the Holy Spirit (Jn. 3: 5-6), eternal life (Ti. 3: 7), and the kingdom (Jas. 2: 5). The last inheritance is of interest to us right now.
Another reference we need to look at is Revelation 21: 1-3. It says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God” (Rev. 21: 1-3 CSB).
We know this earth is going to end one day. It isn’t going to be because of something we have or haven’t done. This earth will end because God’s plan of salvation will be complete.
A new heaven and new earth will take its place. Somewhere here is where we are going to be. Where we will be is with God.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
Ooo, baby. Go back to the definition of meekness. It is controlled power. Blackall wrote that meek disciples “… have command over their passions.”
Can we say self-discipline?
Good wrote about “Resignation to His will” and “Subjection of the mind and judgment to the revelation He has made of His character and grace.” We can only do that through self-discipline.
How Do We Apply This?
Okay, we are talking spiritual meekness here. So, what are we talking about?
We are talking our relationship with God.
- We need to be submissive and let Him control us.
- We aren’t supposed to talk back and try to tell Him we know better than He does.
- We are to change our lives to imitate Him.
- We are to make Him the priority in our lives.
- We are to be kind and gentle with others, not argumentative.
- We are to forgive others, as He forgave us.
Bottom line is the humility of a disciple is because we know we have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Rom. 3: 23). We need to submit to His Will.
Father God. We submit our will to You. We humbly ask that keep us to the day when this earth has passed away. Amen.
What do you think?
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