Humility vs. Pride
Our Internal Struggle between Humility and Pride
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a Publican. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, dishonest, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I earn.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far aside, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man, rather than the other, went down to his house justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The one who used humble words with Paul, His persecutor, used the same humble words with the Pharisee. Humility is so powerful that even the all-conquering God did not conquer without it. Humility was even able to bear the burden of a stiff-necked nation in the desert. Moses, the humblest of men, was given charge of the nation that was the most stubborn of all men. God, who needed nothing to save His people, later found Himself in need of the humility of Moses just to abide the grumbling and complaining of (His) critics. Only humility could tolerate the perversity of a nation that dismissed signs in Egypt as well as wonders in the desert. Whenever pride caused divisions in the nation, the prayer of humility healed their divisions. Now, if the humility of a tongue-tied man endured six hundred thousand,208 how much more does His humility endure, who granted speech to the tongue-tied! For the humility of Moses is a (mere) shadow of the humility of our Lord.