In Humility
Two women in the church at Philippi could not get along. Paul names them in his letter: "I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord" (Philippians 4:2, ESV). Some who preached Christ in his own city did it "out of selfish ambition" (Philippians 1:17, ESV). Paul was in prison, and the church he loved was pulling apart.
Paul answered with a person. "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5, ESV), and then he told them what Jesus did.
In one sentence: Humility is living before God as someone who depends on Him for everything, the way Jesus lived before His Father all the way to the cross; it shows itself in counting others more significant than yourself, and God, who dwells with the lowly and opposes the proud, lifts it up in His time.
Key Takeaways
(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)
Types & Prophecy
- Prophecy fulfilled. Zechariah saw Israel's king coming "humble and mounted on a donkey" (Zechariah 9:9, ESV). Matthew says that was fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:5).
- Prophecy applied to Jesus. The LORD swore, "To me every knee shall bow" (Isaiah 45:23, ESV). Paul says every knee will bow at the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:10).
Lessons about Jesus
- Jesus humbled Himself before His Father. He "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8, ESV). His humility was obedience first.
- Jesus is gentle and lowly in heart. He says so Himself, and He gives it as the reason to come to Him (Matthew 11:29).
- Jesus washed feet. The Lord and Teacher took a slave's task at His last supper and said, "I have given you an example" (John 13:15, ESV).
- The Father exalted Him. Jesus left His lifting up to His Father, and God gave Him "the name that is above every name" (Philippians 2:9, ESV).
Memory verses
✝️ Philippians 2:3 (ESV)
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
✝️ 1 Peter 5:6 (ESV)
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
Be Transformed
- Think. Everything you have, you received (1 Corinthians 4:7). Your next meal, your gifts and your salvation all come from God's hand.
- Attitude. Depend on Him for today. Pray "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11) and mean it, and leave your lifting up to Him, as Moses did (Numbers 12:1-8).
- Do. This week, take one task nobody wants, for someone who cannot repay you, and tell no one. That is what Jesus did with a towel (John 13:4-5).
Prayer
Father, you are the High and Holy One, and you dwell with the lowly. Everything we have comes from your hand. Thank you for your Son Jesus, who did not hold on to His glory but emptied Himself, obeyed you to the cross for us, and is now exalted as Lord of all. Give us His mind. Humble us under your mighty hand. Teach us to trust you for today's bread, to cast our anxieties on you, to count others more significant than ourselves, and to wait for you to lift us up.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Study outline
- What the words mean. A word for "low," and the Hebrew word for the poor who have only God to rely on.
- Before God. The root: dependence on God, everything you have as received, where He dwells, and whom He lifts up.
- The mind of Christ. Philippians 2:1-11, where the command's words come back in what Jesus did.
- Gentle and lowly. The Gospels' picture: the gentle King, and the towel.
- Toward others. The fruit: what the letters ask of a church.
- Humility for show. The same Greek word, used at Colossae of a proud religion.
- The opposite: pride. Self-sufficiency, and a pointer to the fuller study.
- Discussion questions. Six, for a group or on your own.
What the words mean
A word for "low"
The Greek adjective is ταπεινός (tapeinos, tah-pay-NOSS, G5011). Its first sense is "low-lying," like ground, and used of people it meant low in station. Abbott-Smith's lexicon notes that in classical Greek, used of a person's spirit, it was "usually in a slighting sense," and in the New Testament "in an honourable sense."
The Greek Old Testament had already made the turn. God "gives grace to the humble" (Proverbs 3:34) is ταπεινοῖς in the Septuagint, and so is "he who is humble and contrite in spirit" (Isaiah 66:2, ESV). The apostles inherited a word God had already honoured.
The noun Paul uses in Philippians 2:3 is ταπεινοφροσύνη (tapeinophrosynē, G5012), "lowliness of mind." It joins tapeinos to φρήν (phrēn, G5424), the mind. Abbott-Smith notes it is rare outside the New Testament, and where Josephus and Epictetus use it, it is a fault. It occurs seven times in the New Testament. Five name the real thing (Acts 20:19; Ephesians 4:2; Philippians 2:3; Colossians 3:12; 1 Peter 5:5). Two name a counterfeit (Colossians 2:18, 23), which this study comes to below.
The poor who have only God
The Old Testament's word is עָנָו (ʿanav, ah-NAHV, H6035). It sits beside עָנִי (ʿani, H6041), "poor, afflicted." The two overlap so closely that the Hebrew text of Proverbs 3:34 is written with one and read aloud with the other. The ʿanav is low enough to have only God to rely on. The anointed one of Isaiah 61:1 brings them good news, and Jesus read that verse as His own (Luke 4:18).
That is the heart of humility in Scripture: dependence.
Moses, who did not answer
The word's most famous use is about a man. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses: "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses?" (Numbers 12:2, ESV). Then the narrator stops the story:
✝️ Numbers 12:3 (ESV)
3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
"Meek" is ʿanav. What follows shows what it means. Moses says nothing in his own defence. The LORD calls the three of them out, and the LORD answers: "Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Numbers 12:8, ESV). Moses left his defence with God. The ESV Study Bible says the word's focus here is on Moses' attitude (note on Numbers 12:3-4).
When the Septuagint translated ʿanav in Numbers 12:3, it chose πραΰς (praus, G4239), "gentle." That is the word Jesus used of Himself.
Before God
Daily bread
Moses told Israel why God led them through the wilderness for forty years:
✝️ Deuteronomy 8:3 (ESV)
3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
God humbled them by making them depend on Him one day at a time. Manna could not be kept overnight (Exodus 16:19-20). Jesus put the same lesson in the prayer He taught: "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11, ESV). See The Lord's Prayer and Bread of Life.
Everything you have, you received
The same chapter names the opposite. When Israel was full, the danger was that "your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God," and say, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:14, 17, ESV). Humility says, "You gave me this." Pride says, "I got this myself."
So humility before God is simple to say. You are a creature, and everything you have is received: "What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" (1 Corinthians 4:7, ESV). Paul asks you to think "with sober judgment" about yourself, measuring by what God has given (Romans 12:3). Your gifts are real, and they are gifts.
James applies it to next year's plans. Instead of "we will go into such and such a town," say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:13, 15, ESV).
Where God lives
Isaiah says who God comes to:
✝️ Isaiah 57:15 (ESV)
15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
God has two addresses. One is "the high and holy place." The other is the person who is דַּכָּא (dakka, H1793), "crushed," and שְׁפַל־רוּחַ (shephal ruach, H8217), "low of spirit." The Holy One who inhabits eternity chooses to live with people who know they are low, and He comes to give them life. If you are low today, you are where God has promised to dwell.
Walk humbly with your God
Micah answers the question every worshipper asks: what does God want from me? Calves, rams, rivers of oil, even a firstborn (Micah 6:6-7)? Micah answers:
✝️ Micah 6:8 (ESV)
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
"Walk humbly" is הַצְנֵעַ (hatsneaʿ, H6800) with the verb "to walk." This verb occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. Its root appears once more, as an adjective, in Proverbs 11:2: "with the humble is wisdom" (ESV).
The meaning of this word is contested. Every English version compared for this study reads "humbly." The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible notes that newer study of the word argues for "prudently" (note on Micah 6:8), and the LSB's footnote offers "circumspectly." On that reading, Micah asks for a careful, attentive walk with God. Either way, the person Micah describes walks with their attention on God. The rest of Scripture teaches humility before God without leaning on this one word.
Humble yourself, and He will lift you up
James and Peter both quote the same proverb:
✝️ James 4:6-7, 10 (ESV)
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ... 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
✝️ 1 Peter 5:5-7 (ESV)
5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
The proverb is Proverbs 3:34 in the Septuagint, which reads κύριος, "the Lord"; James and Peter both write ὁ θεός, "God." "Opposes" is ἀντιτάσσω (antitassō, G498), which Abbott-Smith glosses as ranging in battle against. God sets Himself against the proud, and He gives grace to the humble.
Peter joins humility to anxiety. The humble person hands their worries to God "because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Pride carries its own load because it will not admit it needs help. Humility is trust.
Both apostles end with the same promise: humble yourself, and God will lift you up. Jesus said it three times, to three audiences (Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14): "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14, ESV).
The mind of Christ
The command
Paul opens with what the Philippians already have in Christ: encouragement, love, "participation in the Spirit" (Philippians 2:1, ESV). Then he asks for one mind.
✝️ Philippians 2:3-4 (ESV)
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
"Conceit" is κενοδοξία (kenodoxia, G2754), literally "empty glory," found only here in the New Testament. "Selfish ambition" is ἐριθεία (eritheia, G2052), the word Paul has just used of the rival preachers (Philippians 1:17).
The same words, in Jesus
Then Paul tells the story of Christ.
✝️ Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV)
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In Greek, three words from verse 3 come back in verses 6-8. One is the same verb, and two share a root:
| Philippians 2:3 | Philippians 2:6-8 |
|---|---|
| "count" others more significant: ἡγούμενοι (hēgeomai, G2233) | "did not count" equality with God a thing to be grasped: ἡγήσατο, the same verb |
| not from "empty glory": keno-doxia | "emptied himself": ἐκένωσεν (ekenōsen, G2758), from the same root, "empty" |
| in "humility": tapeino-phrosynē | "humbled himself": ἐταπείνωσεν (etapeinōsen, G5013), from the same root, "low" |
The Philippians are asked to do what Jesus did first. He had the highest claim anyone has had, and He did not hold on to it for His own advantage. He was in the form of God and took "the form of a servant," δοῦλος (doulos, G1401), a slave. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible observes that people of status in the ancient world barely ate with their servants, much less acted like one (note on Philippians 2:7).
And His humility took the form of obedience: "he humbled himself by becoming obedient." Before it was service to us, it was dependence on His Father.
What "emptied himself" means
"Emptied himself" has been read to mean that the Son gave up His divine nature or some of its powers. Verse 7 says how He emptied Himself: "by taking the form of a servant." The ESV Study Bible says Paul is not saying Christ became less than God (note on Philippians 2:7). He added a human nature and laid aside His rights. This site's statement of faith holds the same: "He emptied Himself to take on humanity while remaining fully God."
Therefore God exalted Him
The hinge of the passage is "therefore" (Philippians 2:9). Jesus went down, and the Father lifted Him up.
In Isaiah 45 the LORD says, "I am God, and there is no other," and swears, "To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance" (Isaiah 45:22-23, ESV). Paul quotes that oath elsewhere of God (Romans 14:11). Here he gives the bowing knee and the confessing tongue to Jesus. The one who humbled Himself furthest receives the worship the LORD swore would be His alone. The Names of God traces the name He was given.
God exalts the lowly, and He did it first and supremely for His Son. For Jesus, the way down was the road to glory. Paul turns straight back to the Philippians: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you" (Philippians 2:12-13, ESV). Then he names people who lived it: Timothy, Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:19-30), and himself, using hēgeomai again: "whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ" (Philippians 3:7, ESV).
Gentle and lowly
The gentle King
Jesus once described His own heart, and He chose these two words:
✝️ Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV)
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
"Gentle" is praus, Moses' word in the Greek of Numbers 12:3. "Lowly" is tapeinos. His lowliness is the reason He is safe to come to: His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
When He came to Jerusalem to die, He came the way Zechariah said Israel's King would come: "righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey" (Zechariah 9:9, ESV). Matthew quotes it, "Behold, your king is coming to you, humble" (Matthew 21:5, ESV), using praus again.
The towel
John sets the scene of the last supper. Jesus knew "that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God" (John 13:3, ESV). Knowing all of that, He got up.
✝️ John 13:4-5 (ESV)
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
The ESV Study Bible notes that washing feet was a task reserved for non-Jewish slaves (note on John 13:1-17). Jesus washed all twelve pairs, including the feet of the man who would betray Him that night (John 13:11). Then He explained it:
✝️ John 13:14-15 (ESV)
14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
His humility came from knowing who He was and what the Father had given Him. That security is what let Him kneel. At the same table He said, "I am among you as the one who serves" (Luke 22:27, ESV), and on the road He had said, "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45, ESV). The towel was a picture of the cross.
Toward others
Humility before God shows itself toward people. The noun tapeinophrosynē is aimed at other people in all four of the letters' commands to put it on (Ephesians 4:2; Philippians 2:3; Colossians 3:12; 1 Peter 5:5).
- Count others more significant. "In humility count others more significant than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3, ESV). Verse 4 says how: look "to the interests of others." Treat their interests as weighing more than yours, the way Jesus treated ours.
- Bear with one another. "With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2, ESV). Humility comes with patience, because the people you are humble toward will try it.
- Put it on. "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience" (Colossians 3:12, ESV). It is a garment, put on every day. Peter's "clothe yourselves" says the same (1 Peter 5:5).
- Go where the lowly are. "Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight" (Romans 12:16, ESV).
- Be a child, and grow up. "Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:4, ESV). A child had no status to protect. Yet Paul told a church proud of showy gifts, "do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature" (1 Corinthians 14:20, ESV; the KJV has "in understanding be men"). The ESV Study Bible calls their behaviour childish because it did not care for the needs of others (note on 1 Corinthians 14:20). Humble thinking is grown-up thinking about what builds others up.
- Wash feet. "You also ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14, ESV). The foot washing is a custom of one time and place. The act it pictures, taking the lowest task for someone else's good, belongs to every time and place.
Humility for show
The same word at Colossae
Two of the seven uses of tapeinophrosynē describe something God rejects. Teachers at Colossae were telling believers they fell short: they had not fasted enough, kept the right days, or seen the right visions.
✝️ Colossians 2:18 (ESV)
18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
"Asceticism" is tapeinophrosynē. The ESV Study Bible says so, and suggests Paul had fasting in mind (note on Colossians 2:18). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes that Jewish people had long fasted to humble themselves, and that some also used fasting to seek revelations (note on Colossians 2:18).
In the same sentence the man practising "humility" is "puffed up," φυσιούμενος (physioō, G5448). The verb means to inflate, like a bellows. Six of its seven New Testament uses are in 1 Corinthians, the letter to the church proud of its gifts (1 Corinthians 4:6, 18, 19; 5:2; 8:1; 13:4). "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" (1 Corinthians 8:1, ESV).
Five verses later, Paul gives his verdict on the whole system:
✝️ Colossians 2:23 (ESV)
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
"Self-made religion" is ἐθελοθρησκία (ethelothrēskia, G1479), found only here: worship a person chooses for themselves. The humility costs real effort and real hardship, and it has "an appearance of wisdom." But it is self-chosen, it ranks other believers, and it leaves the person inflated. It has no power against the flesh.
How to tell them apart
Scripture commends fasting (see Fasting). The difference at Colossae is where the practice points. The false kind points to the person doing it: it keeps count, it compares, and it judges others as "disqualified." It is still self-reliance, now in religious dress. The true kind depends on Christ. Paul's answer to Colossae was Him: "not holding fast to the Head" (Colossians 2:19, ESV) is the root of the problem, and in the next chapter the same word tapeinophrosynē is a garment the chosen people of God put on (Colossians 3:12).
Jesus gave the same test: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them" (Matthew 6:1, ESV). Humility that needs to be noticed has become pride.
What your English Bible shows
Most modern English versions translate the word at Colossians 2:18 by what the teachers were doing:
| Version | Colossians 2:18 |
|---|---|
| ESV | "asceticism" |
| CSB | "ascetic practices" |
| NLT | "pious self-denial" |
| NASB 1995, LSB | "self-abasement" (LSB footnote: "Or humility") |
| NIV, NKJV | "false humility" |
| KJV | "voluntary humility" |
| NASB 2020 | "humility" |
Each is a fair rendering. The KJV, the NASB 2020, and at Colossians 2:23 the WEB, let a reader see that Paul used the same word here as in Philippians 2:3. That is the warning: the counterfeit uses the real thing's name.
The opposite: pride
If humility is dependence, pride is self-sufficiency. It is the heart that says, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this" (Deuteronomy 8:17, ESV), and at its root it wants God's place: "you will be like God" (Genesis 3:5, ESV). Jesus lists it among the evils that come "from within, out of the heart of man" (Mark 7:21-22, ESV). The word there is ὑπερηφανία (hyperēphania, G5243), its only use in the New Testament. God opposes the proud (James 4:6).
Where pride comes from, how to recognise it, and whether Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 describe the fall of Satan belong to a study of their own: Pride.
Discussion questions
- The language. Tapeinos usually meant something low and slighted in Greek writers, yet the Greek Old Testament used it of the people God gives grace to (Proverbs 3:34). What does that tell you about how God values what the world looks down on?
- The text in its context. Paul answers a quarrel in Philippi (Philippians 4:2) with the story of the incarnation. What does Philippians 2:6-8 say to two believers who cannot agree?
- Christ. Jesus washed feet because He knew the Father had given all things into His hands (John 13:3). How does knowing who you are in Christ make humility easier?
- Before God. Manna could not be stored, and Jesus taught us to ask for bread "this day" (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 6:11). Where do you find it hardest to depend on God one day at a time?
- The hard part. The man at Colossae practised "humility" and was "puffed up" (Colossians 2:18). Where might your own disciplines have become a way of measuring yourself against others?
- Be transformed. Whose interests could you count as more significant than your own this week, and what would it cost?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path
The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.
In Humility
Philippians 2:1-11The point Humility is living before God as someone who depends on Him for everything, the way Jesus lived before His Father all the way to the cross; it shows itself in counting others more significant than yourself, and God, who dwells with the lowly and opposes the proud, lifts it up in His time.
Ask: what comes to mind when you hear In Humility
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Philippians 2:1-11 1Therefore if you have any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being united in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross. 9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Also read:
In Humility
- What the words mean. A word for "low," and the Hebrew word for the poor who have only God to rely on.
- Before God. The root: dependence on God, everything you have as received, where He dwells, and whom He lifts up.
- The mind of Christ. Philippians 2:1-11, where the command's words come back in what Jesus did.
- Gentle and lowly. The Gospels' picture: the gentle King, and the towel.
- Toward others. The fruit: what the letters ask of a church.
- Humility for show. The same Greek word, used at Colossae of a proud religion.
- The opposite: pride. Self-sufficiency, and a pointer to the fuller study.
In Humility
1The language. Tapeinos usually meant something low and slighted in Greek writers, yet the Greek Old Testament used it of the people God gives grace to (Proverbs 3:34). What does that tell you about how God values what the world looks down on?
2The hard part. The man at Colossae practised "humility" and was "puffed up" (Colossians 2:18). Where might your own disciplines have become a way of measuring yourself against others?
3Before God. Manna could not be stored, and Jesus taught us to ask for bread "this day" (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 6:11). Where do you find it hardest to depend on God one day at a time?
4The text in its context. Paul answers a quarrel in Philippi (Philippians 4:2) with the story of the incarnation. What does Philippians 2:6-8 say to two believers who cannot agree?
5Christ. Jesus washed feet because He knew the Father had given all things into His hands (John 13:3). How does knowing who you are in Christ make humility easier?
In Humility
6Be transformed. Whose interests could you count as more significant than your own this week, and what would it cost?
- Think. Everything you have, you received (1 Corinthians 4:7). Your next meal, your gifts and your salvation all come from God's hand.
- Attitude. Depend on Him for today. Pray "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11) and mean it, and leave your lifting up to Him, as Moses did (Numbers 12:1-8).
- Do. This week, take one task nobody wants, for someone who cannot repay you, and tell no one. That is what Jesus did with a towel (John 13:4-5).
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Philippians 2:3 (ESV)Father, you are the High and Holy One, and you dwell with the lowly. Everything we have comes from your hand. Thank you for your Son Jesus, who did not hold on to His glory but emptied Himself, obeyed you to the cross for us, and is now exalted as Lord of all. Give us His mind. Humble us under your mighty hand. Teach us to trust you for today's bread, to cast our anxieties on you, to count others more significant than ourselves, and to wait for you to lift us up.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
In Humility
Philippians 2:1-11Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear In Humility
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Read it aloud Philippians 2:1-11
1The language. Tapeinos usually meant something low and slighted in Greek writers, yet the Greek Old Testament used it of the people God gives grace to (Proverbs 3:34). What does that tell you about how God values what the world looks down on?
2The hard part. The man at Colossae practised "humility" and was "puffed up" (Colossians 2:18). Where might your own disciplines have become a way of measuring yourself against others?
3Before God. Manna could not be stored, and Jesus taught us to ask for bread "this day" (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 6:11). Where do you find it hardest to depend on God one day at a time?
4The text in its context. Paul answers a quarrel in Philippi (Philippians 4:2) with the story of the incarnation. What does Philippians 2:6-8 say to two believers who cannot agree?
5Christ. Jesus washed feet because He knew the Father had given all things into His hands (John 13:3). How does knowing who you are in Christ make humility easier?
6Be transformed. Whose interests could you count as more significant than your own this week, and what would it cost?
- Think. Everything you have, you received (1 Corinthians 4:7). Your next meal, your gifts and your salvation all come from God's hand.
- Attitude. Depend on Him for today. Pray "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11) and mean it, and leave your lifting up to Him, as Moses did (Numbers 12:1-8).
- Do. This week, take one task nobody wants, for someone who cannot repay you, and tell no one. That is what Jesus did with a towel (John 13:4-5).
In Humility
The point Humility is living before God as someone who depends on Him for everything, the way Jesus lived before His Father all the way to the cross; it shows itself in counting others more significant than yourself, and God, who dwells with the lowly and opposes the proud, lifts it up in His time.
References & Recommended Reading
- ESV Study Bible (Crossway) — notes on Numbers 12:3-4, Micah 6:8, John 13:1-17, 1 Corinthians 14:20, Philippians 2:7, and Colossians 2:18.
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Zondervan) — note on Micah 6:8.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on Philippians 2:7 and Colossians 2:18.
- Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing) — translator footnotes at Micah 6:8 and Colossians 2:18, compared with the ESV, NIV, NKJV, CSB, NLT, KJV, WEB and NASB (1995 and 2020).
- G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, via STEPBible's TBESG (CC BY) — ταπεινός, ταπεινοφροσύνη, ἀντιτάσσω, φυσιόω, ἐθελοθρησκία, ὑπερηφανία and πραΰς.
- STEPBible TBESH (CC BY) — עָנָו, עָנִי and שָׁפָל.
- Macula Greek (SBLGNT) and Macula Hebrew (WLC) — occurrence data for ταπεινοφροσύνη, ταπεινόω, κενοδοξία, ἡγέομαι, φυσιόω and צָנַע.
- Septuagint lemmas — the Greek of Numbers 12:3, Proverbs 3:34, Isaiah 45:23 and Isaiah 66:2.
On this site
- The Names of God — the name above every name, and the names before it.
- Pride — the sin humility answers.
- The Lord's Prayer — "Give us this day our daily bread," and the manna behind it.
- Bread of Life — the manna, and the bread that came down from heaven.
- Fasting — a discipline of humbling yourself before God, done rightly.