Christian Character Lesson 1 of 12 - meeting 1a

Christian Character meeting 1a - Humility and Pride

In the Christian Character module we’re helping the young disciple get rid of sin on the one hand and grow in the character fruit of Jesus on the other. Once again, two wings on a bird both have to be working well in order to fly otherwise its flying in circles.

The goal in building Christian Character is to become as much like Jesus Christ in our character as we possibly can.

We have a partial list of the Character of Jesus in Galatians 5:22 “..the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23gentleness, self-control ..” NASB

The character trait of humility found in Christ is where I start in this module
Jesus himself encouraged us to be humble, Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.” NASB

The Apostle Paul encouraged the same, Colossians 3:12 “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” NASB

There is an additional advantage for starting this module with humility - – the disciple needs much grace (God’s favor and help) in order to grow and God gives this grace to the humble.

James 4:5-7 “ 5Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? 6But He gives a greater grace Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE {favor and help}TO THE HUMBLE." 7Submit therefore to God Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” NASB

1 Peter 5:5 “You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE {favor and help} TO THE HUMBLE. 6Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” NASB

What does humility mean?
Humility means lowering oneself or deflation. Pride is the opposite.

Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
Romans 12:3 “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”

Being humble, or having the Spiritual fruit of humility, is the end result of actively lowering oneself, it is not a natural humility but rather a Holy Spirit inspired active trait. Jesus as God, left heaven and came to earth, actively lowering himself to become a human being. He lowered himself further to become a servant of man. Etc.
Philippians 2:8 “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross..” NASB
Matthew 18:4 4"Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” NASB

In brief, the Bible describes two audiences of which we are to be humble towards:
(1) Being humble before God - actively lowering & deflating oneself before God. (Jas 4:5-7; Mic 6:8)
(2) Being humble before each other - actively lowering & deflating oneself before people or persons. (1 Pet 5:5)

It is possible for a person to be humble before God and not toward others and vice versa. You may have a disciple who is very humble toward people but proud when it comes to God or vice versa. (We’ll go through various types of pride later.)

In addition humility can be true or false. True humility is Bible based, Christ like and sincere - sincere meaning the action and heart are united in the deed.

A very tragic mistake in disciple making is when the disciple maker accepts, allows, teaches or promotes some form of false humility.

Therefore we need to really grasp this concept of false humility at the beginning and follow only the teachings and practices of Jesus and the Apostles regarding true humility.

False humility or deceitful humility can be many things – below are 3 ways:

(a) Insincere humility - whereby the deed and the heart/spirit are disconnected and not united:

Psalm 12:2 “They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.” NASB
Isaiah 58:3 “'Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice? 'Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers.”
Mark 7:6 “And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:' THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.” NASB
Luke 18:18 “ A ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 19And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” NASB
Luke 6:46 “" Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?” NASB

Anytime we fake humility it is not genuinely sincere as Jesus is in His humility.

For example:
An extreme case is those who mocked Jesus and bowed to him insincerely – “Mark 15:19 “They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him.”

A far less extreme case is when the Priest or Pastor instructs everyone to kneel and they all do so yet many are insincere and are just following orders as General Naaman did when he bowed to a foreign god for show and not in sincere humility. (2Kg 5:18). In contrast we have those who refused to fake humbleness (Dan 3).

Are we humbling ourselves before God and man because we are told to or because the culture we live in demands it or is it because we really mean it and thus are sincere in our humility whereby our heart/spirit and action are united in humility toward God and others?

For many the insincere humility will suffice but that is a mistake – we must not accept nor promote that sort of insincere practice in a young disciple.

Jesus was humble, truly sincerely humble, and never faked it.


(b) UnChristlike humility - humbling oneself in a way that Jesus did NOT teach nor practice.

Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.” NASB

We learn from Jesus - ask yourself the question, did Jesus lower himself like that or teach us to do that?

For example a disciple that has an inferiority complex and thinks they are inferior to all others – “I’m ugly, I’m stupid, I’m uneducated, I’m fat, I’m divorced, I’m handicapped, etc.” This is not the humility fruit of the Spirit.

The Apostle Paul once said he was the worst of sinners. (1Tim 1:15). Why did he say that? (1 Tim 1:13). He was listing out his great sins which made him a great sinner – few had been a murderous killer of Christians like Paul had been so this was no inferiority complex but rather a truthful statement. Paul also called himself the least of the Apostles for the same reason (1 Cor 15:9), yet he was never inferior to them (2 Cor 11:15,23).

Speaking the truth about oneself is what Jesus did and taught. Jesus was not a door mat and did not let others treat him like one, that is all the way up to the point where he would take the sin of the world upon himself and become man’s scapegoat on the cross – before that point he did not let others treat him like a door mat in a perverted form of humility.

John 8:48,49 The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" “Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.”
John 18:23 “Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?" NASB

Door mat humility is not like Christ. Likewise the Apostle Paul was also unwilling to allow himself to be treated like a door mat.

2 Corinthians 12:11 “I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.” NASB
Acts 25:11 “"If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar."



(c) non-Scriptural humility where one humbles themselves beyond any instructions in Scripture.

Such as humbling oneself before animals thus lifting animals up higher than the position the Lord created them in - treating animals like humans. Animal lovers can become extreme and end up exalting animals and lowering humans.

For example: In America many treat their pets as humans, even better than humans in some cases, and that is a not found in Scripture. In India many humble themselves before cows and rats, and monkeys.

There are cases where Christians have mistakenly felt that God wanted to humble them so they went around with dog collars on and crawled on all fours barking like a dog. Only the devil enjoys such humbling of Christians , God takes no pleasure in it.

Ask yourself, where in Scripture are we to lower ourselves like that?

Finally, help the young disciple enter into true humility and not false humility.

What is the proper and true fruit of humility we are building in the disciple?, is a question you must ask yourself as you examine the lives of Jesus and the Apostles and build that into the young disciple.

As homework ask the young disciple to take note of his/her false humility moments this coming week - humble towards God, family, friends, coworkers, peers, various people we come into contact with, animals etc. Was there any insincere or unChristlike or unBiblical humility practiced?

Then address it using the Word of God and the anointing of the Holy Spirit that He has given you to make disciples.

Disciple Maker


P.S. Meeting 1 b – the beginnings of getting rid of the sin of Pride and learning more about true humility.