1 Peter 5:5-6

Date: June 29, 2025

Title: Humility

Passage: 1 Peter 5:5-6

Connection between wisdom and humility:

Prov 11:2, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.”

We’ll be looking at a few passages, but I want to use 1 Peter 5 as our launching pad.

“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.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”

INTRODUCTION

It’s been well noted by the great saint Augustine that, “For those who would learn God’s ways, humility is the first thing, humility is the second, humility is the third.”

In other words, there is no way to make spiritual progress in our relationship with God apart from humility. We cannot live a life pleasing to God, we cannot grow in the Lord, we cannot do anything that will highlight the glory of God apart from humility. Humility is an essential quality to exhibit in our lives because to not be humble is to be proud, and to be proud is to have God oppose us!

That’s what Peter says: “God opposes the proud.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have God oppose me… I don’t want to have Him against me… I want to have Him on my side, working in my favor!

But according to what we’re told in our passage, in order for God to be on our side, and in order for us to receive more grace from Him, it is incumbant upon us to walk in humility… and so it is written, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”

As you can see, we have a responsibility to clothe ourselves with humility, otherwise we will be opposed by God instead of being blessed by God.

But what does that look like? What exactly does it mean to be humble? That’s what we’re after this morning, and I got four points that I would like to draw your attention to. Now, of course there’s many things we could say about humility: the Bible is replete with verses and stories that teach us a lot about what it looks like to walk in humility, but this morning I want to simply point out four chracteristics of humility that are clearly disclosed for us in scripture.

1 - Sacrificial Service:

Humility is reflected in sacrificially giving oneself for the benefit of others.

The chief example of this is found in Phil 2, so please turn there.

Phil 2:1-2 = Provoking the Philippians to think about the kind of qualities that are essential to bring about unity of mind in the context of the church, which includes things like encouragement, comfort, affection and sympathy.

These are the types of things that make for peace.

But then in V. 3-4, he exhorts them to do something in humility that tells us something very important about what humility is.

Philippians 2:3–4, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Now, notice here how humility is contrasted with selfish ambition: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Which tells us, then: selfish ambitions are rooted in a prideful disposition of heart that seeks to serve the interests of self over and above the interests of others.

Warren Wiersbe has rightly said, “By nature, all of us are rebels who want to be celebrities instead of servants.”

We want the attention; we want the glory; we want to live a life of ease with everything being handed to us because we think we deserve it. But such a mindset as this betrays true humility.

Now, none of this is to say that there’s anything wrong with looking out for one’s own interest, but that’s not Paul’s point! The point, rather, is that when, we, in humility, count others as more significant than ourselves, then we will be more inclined to look out for the interests of others, which will lead to sacrificial service.

We will give of ourselves to sacrificially serve others.

We will cultivate the mind of Christ, who though He was in the form of God, humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross.

That, right there, is sacrifcial service par excellence!

The one who occupies the highest of the heights, lowered Himself to the lowest of the low, in order to serve others.

That’s humility!

Clearly, the cross wasn’t something Jesus carried because it was serving his own selfsih ambitions. Not at all! He carried it because He was looking out for the interests of others.

Now, that’s not to say he had a self-deprecating view of Himself: God forbid we would ever think the Son of God viewed Himself as such.

And the same should hold true of us as well. Don’t confuse - thinking less of yourself with thinking about yourself less. There’s a difference between those two things and humility fits into the latter category, not the former: humility is not reflected in devaluing the life God has given you; it’s reflected in using the life God has given you to build others up to become more like Christ.

Now, that doesn’t mean that as you seek to do that that you’re not allowed to care about you’re own interests at all, but what it does mean is that you’re not going to be ruled by your own interests, so that when push comes to shove, you are more than willing to lay those interests aside when it’s necessary to serve and bless others.

So, that’s point # 1. Humility is reflected in sacrificial service, and as we see such service manifested in our Savior, Jesus Christ, so we should seek to emulate that same character in our own lives.

2 - Dependency on God: Matthew 18:1–4

Many instances thoughout the ministry of Christ where the disciples of Jesus asked Him a question that really revealed a profound degree of misunderstanding.

What we read about in Matt 18 is no exception.

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

In this little teaching session that was sparked by the question of the disciples, you can see how Jesus really seized this opportunity to teach His disciples about what it takes to enter the kingdom of heaven and what it looks like to be truly great.

Contrary to the disciples’ expectations, Jesus surprisingly told them that true greatness is reflected in childlikeness. In fact, Jesus even goes so far as to say that unless someone becomes like a child, they will never enter the kingdom of God, nor will they ever be considered great in God’s eyes.

When you think about it, that’s quite the assertion to make because if anything, the disciples would have thought that greatness is seen in people who are strong, people who are accomplished, people who have a good set of skills, people who are proficient at what they do.

But Jesus turns this typical mindset on its head, because according to Him, true greatness can only grow out of a seed of humility, and indeed a kind of humility that is emplified in the actions of a child.

Now to be sure, this undoubtedly would have been hard for the disciples to swallow, but Jesus was pressing a point that really needed to be understood: the kingdom of God is unlike the kingdoms of this world, and if you want God to lift you up within the realm of His domain, then you don’t despise the little ones; you actually got to become like the little ones.

In other words, you got to recognize your absolute need for someone to do for you what you can’t do for yourself! You got to recognize how helpless, weak, and vulnerable you are, so that just as a child freely and frequently calls on Mom and Dad to basically do everything for them, so you would feel compelled to freely and frequently cry out to God to uphold you, strengthen you, and empower you in your weakness.

You see, to become like a child is to become dependent like a child. It’s to trust in the power of another to do for you what you cannot do alone. That’s humility.

And brothers, we need more of it! Sometimes we’re far too adultlike. We depend on our own strengths, capabilities, gifts, money, and thousands of other things: we all too often trust in the power of the arm of the flesh, but the thing is, if we’re going to truly grow in humility as God would have do, then we’re going to have to become more dependent on God, not less.

3 - Lowliness of Heart: Prov 29:23

Now, a third aspect of humility that we need to consider is this idea of lowliness of heart.

Proverbs 29:23, “One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.”

This proverb makes it clear that there is an obvious contrast between pride and lowliness. God does not draw near to the proud, but He does draw near to the lowly; pride ultimately results in one being laid low, but lowliness ultimately results in one being raised up.

Well, given the fact that the lowly are raised up to receive honor, it’s probably a good idea for us to know exactly what it means to lowly… So what is it—what does it mean to be lowly?

Well, at a purely linguistic level, lowliness is the opposite of highness. And I think we all know what it means to have a high view of self, right? Someone who has a high estimation of self is someone who manifests behaviour that is self-aggrandizing. They take away the attention from the person to whom such recognition is due.

They use their lips, not just to speak about something they did but to speak about it in a way where they’re self consciously looking for the praise of men. In effect, they praise themselves rather than letting others praise them.

However, to to be lowly in spirit is to maintain a lowly view of oneself: now, not a self-deprecating view of self (as we saw earlier), but a modest view of self that doesn’t have an overextended and over-inflated view of one’s own self-importance.

In other words, you have clear vision. You have sober judgment. You know what your purpose is; you know what your mission is; you know what your gifts are; but knowing that everything you have comes from God, it moves you to serve the Lord with a heart that is so soft, so senstive, and so warm towards Him that you would want nothing less than to shine a massive spotlight on the grace and goodness of God.

That’s what lowliness is! It’s a manifestation of humility that God loves!!

Psa 138:6, “For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.”

The lowly are regarded by God.

You know, even Jesus had this kind of lowly attitude… He was lowly in heart. He made Himself of no reputation, and yet as result of His lowly character, He obtained honor when God highly raised Him up to the highest place of honor!

And so, as we seek to follow in the footsteps of our King, then; and we seek to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God as per Peter’s exhortation in 1 Peter 5, it is vital for us to know that we must aim to acquire a frame of mind, heart, and will… that is truly lowly.

4 - Accepting and Submitting to God’s Will: 1 Peter 5:6

In the context of 1 Peter 5, Peter is addressing a group of believers who were suffering for their faith in Christ. They were objects of ridicule; they were maligned; they were mistreated; they were having to persevere through all kinds of challenging circumstances—circumstances that none of us would want to face.

But you know, when we are forced to bear up under the heat of of fiery trials, we don’t always do the best job responding to them in the way we should. Rather than accepting God’s will by humbling ourselves, we plead our own innocence.

We tell God that what He’s allowing us to go through isn’t fair: ‘I don’t deserve this; here I am, Lord, faithfully serving you - doing everything I’m supposed to be doing - seeking to be the best witness I can be - and yet, no progress is being made. This isn’t fair. I don’t deserve this. I should not have to go through what I’m going through when there are so many other people out there, more sinful and less faithful than me, who have it so easy. So, God why are you allowing this to happen to me? Why are you putting me through this mess?

And you know what God says? Humble yourself. Clothe yourselves with all humility. This is so important because, unfortunately, all too often when trials come our way in life, we grow hardened to God, and to His people, and to His Word, but the reality is - one of the purposes of tribulation is to actually teach us humility, so don’t allow it to escape you without humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God.

Whatever God puts us through and allows us to experience in life is always just, so don’t plead your own innocence to God as if He were doing something wrong. God doesn’t owe us anything but judgment— that’s what we deserve, and the fact that we get anything less than that, is a mercy of God for which we should give Him praise.

So, when confronted with undesirable circumstances: pray to God and say, ‘Lord, if there be any other way out of this, please make it so, nevertheless, not my will but your will be done.’ That’s how we are to respond: we are to accept and submit to the will of God for our lives, so that in broken humility before the Lord, we can truly say, “the Lord gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Sometimes the Lord takes away and sometimes He gives, but in both situations we are to humble ourselves before the Lord, and as we do, we are to trust that in His perfect timing, He will lift us up.

And this leads us to another aspect of submitting to God’s will I want to underscore. Not only are we to humbly accept and submit to God’s will when things are going bad, but we are also to humbly accept and submit to God’s will when things are going better.

Look at what Peter says in V. 6: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you [lift you up].”

When Peter says, “so that,” he’s telling us something about the purpose of humbling ourselves: it’s so that God might exalt us at the proper time.

And the “proper time,” by the way, refers to God’s time. Whenever God chooses to exalt or lift up, it will always be at the proper time because He always acts at the perfect time. God is always on schedule.

Now in terms of Him exalting us at the proper time, it should be noted that, ultimately, a time is coming when we will all be exalted at the return of Christ when Jesus comes back from heaven to lift us up in the fullest sense of that term. But even before then, we know that during this age, God exalts His people in various ways.

He lifts us up; He delivers us from the miry bog; He alleviates some of the pain we might feel under one set of circumstances by blessing us with another set of circumstances.

One of the ways by which we can humble ourselves whenever that happens, is by accepting and submitting to the manner in which God exalts us, and the measure to which He chooses to exalt us.

Beginning, first, with the manner in which God lifts us up: think about the military commander of the Syrian army in the Old Testament, whose name was Naaman. Naaman was a man who contracted leprosy, and was told by one of Elisha’s messengers that he would be healed of his leprosy by going to wash seven times in the Jordan River.

But do you remember what Naaman’s initial response was? No thanks! Why? Well, it’s basically because he thought this method of healing was beneath him. After all, he was the commander of the Syrian army, and so if God is going to heal him, surely it must be done through a grand, instantaneous act that cures him on the spot. And besides, not only that but do you really think I’m going to go wash in that dirty old Jordan River? Look, the unwashed masses of society may be okay with that, but not me!

You see what Naaman’s problem was? His pride was keeping him from accepting the manner in which God was choosing to lift him up, but it was a lifting up that he should have immediately taken! Rather than complaining about the manner by which God was going to exalt him, He should have been rejoicing in the goodnesss of God for choosing to exalt him at all.

It’s not like he deserved to be healed.

But we can act in the same way.

Say you’re looking for a job because there’s payments that need to made, and God graciously opens that door for you: He provides a decent job that will be really helpful, but instead of taking it, you say, no thanks. That’s not for me. This job is beneath me. I’m better than that. I deserve more than that. I got all these great skills that people need to start recognizing!

Well, okay, that may be true, but the fact is, a job is better than no job; some pay is better than no pay. Look, God is lifting you up, so take it, because you know what? by accepting His lifting you up in that situation, it may lead to an even greater lifting up in the future, so humble yourself and receive it!

There are so many ways in which God might choose to exalt us, but pride can sometimes get in the way of us accepting it.

And the same is true of the measure to which God chooses to lift us up.

I was listening to a preacher speak to this in a sermon I was listening to this week, and it was made a good point he made.

He pointed out that when Israel was in the wilderness, after being set free from slavery in Egypt, they were not happy with the measure to which God had lifted them up.

Remember what they were complaining about in the wildernesss? ‘I’m sick of this Manna. I want some of that tasty onion and garlic we had back in Egypt. Yea but you were enslaved and literally being beaten with whips over there! Yea but the garlic was so good.’

You see what they were struggling with?

Let me ask you, what do you think is better?

To have onions and garlic with whips and chords?

Or no onions and garlic with no whips and chords?

In other words, do you prefer freedom, while still being able to get your daily bread? Or do you prefer beatings and bondage with your taste buds being momentarily satisfied every now and then?

You see, what God did for Israel was a lifting up; they just weren’t happy with the degree to which He had lifted them up.

They wanted more! They wanted the onions and garlic. In fact, in actuality, they would have much preferred to have the onions and garlic with no whips and chords, but by focusing so much on the miniscule delights they lost in Egypt, they lost sight of how much better it was to be free.

We can be the same way, too.

We can reject God’s true blessings because in our hearts we feel like we deserve onions and garlic.

In other words, ‘I deserve something far better than what God has given me.’

But that’s really nothing but pride.

It’s discontentment that flows out of a prideful heart that rejects the measure to which God lifts us up.

But know this: if we do not humbly thank God for the ways in which He chooses to lift us up, then like Israel, we will not enjoy the benefits of His blessings but instead face the discipline of the Lord. Remember, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

So, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time, He may exalt you… and know that whenever He does—whatever method He chooses to use in lifting you up, and indeed whatever the extent is to which He chooses to lift you up, know that this is something that comes to you as a free gift of His unmerited grace, which ought to be received with much humility and thanksgiving.

Look, God knows what’s best. He is the most wise God who knows exactly what we need, and we can trust Him with that.

CONCLUSION

So, just to review everything we’ve learned about humility, this morning we’ve seen that there are at least four virtues that are associated with humility: (1) Sacrificial service, (2) Dependency on God, (3) Lowliness of heart, (4) Accepting and submitting to the will of God for our lives.

But something I want to point out in closing here is that with everything I’ve said about humility, not once have I suggested that humility is directly associated with the confession of sin.

And the reason why that’s important to affirm is because the most humble man who ever lived never confessed any sin. But the fact that Jesus had no sin to confess didn’t in any way detract from the humility with which He carried Himself.

Now did Jesus sacrificially serve others? Yes.

Was Jesus, in His humanity, dependent upon God His Father? Yes.

Was Jesus lowly in heart? Yes.

Did Jesus accept and submit to God’s will? Yes. Even in the Garden of Gethsamane: “Not my will but your will be done.” You have that submissive heart to God’s will, no matter the cost!

So, as you can see, then, humility cannot be directly tied to how much or how little someone confesses sin, otherwise we would have no way to answer for the humility of Christ. Now, with all of that said, though, it should also be noted that if we are truly living out these aspects of humility that I’ve talked about today, then there will be the confession of sin in our lives for the specfic reason that, unlike Christ, we are actually sinners!

When sinners seek to serve sacrificially, humility demands that we confess our failure to do so as Christ did.

When sinners seek to walk in dependence on God, humility demands that we confess our failure to do so as Christ did.

When sinners seek to reflect a spirit of lowliness, humility demands that we confess our failure to do so as Christ did.

And when sinners seek to accept and submit to God’s will, humility demands that we confess our sin in failing to do so as Christ did.

Humility demands that we live in truth, and when we are truthful with ourselves, we will be honest with God about ourselves.

That’s why you can have humility without the confession of sin, where there is no sin; but you cannot have humility without the confession of sin, where there is sin: it’s because humility is living our lives in light of the way things really are. That’s why pride is so deadly. It dillusions us.