The Ship of Theseus is what they call a “thought experiment” in philosophy. It goes like this: if a ship is slowly replaced over time, part by part, is it still considered the same ship after all its parts have been replaced? What makes that ship that ship? Is it the same ship because it has the same shape and form even with new parts? Or is it supposed to be considered a whole new ship because physically it is a whole new ship with all new parts?
There’s something of this Ship of Theseus in our Christian life as well. When I was saved the bible says I became a new creature. The old me passed away and the new me in Christ came forth. Or as Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me…”
Yet also at the same time I still have so much of the “old” me to deal with. Spiritual growth as a Christian in many ways can be seen as a “piece by piece” transformation of who we are for our entire lives. So that after the passage of time, there’s a lot that is “new” about us – which is to say a lot that is of Christ about us. The old “impatient” piece of me has been replaced by more “patient” parts. The old “greedy” part of me has been replaced by “giving” parts. The old “lustful” part of me has been replaced by “holy” parts. Piece by piece God is replacing the old me with the new me – piece by piece. That’s one way to see our growth. And yet, also, we could ask the Ship of Theseus question: “Am I the same person I was before if I’m so different now?” Its a brain buster, but, I would say yes I’m still me, but, also, no I’m no longer me.
Now this brings us to Proverbs and our study of wisdom. Day by day, we are to have the foolish parts of our lives taken out and replaced by parts of wisdom. And the first thing from proverbs I want us to study is humility. My goal is to motivate each of us to do away with pride and replace it with humility. That would be wisdom.
Humility and wisdom go together. Humility is both a root and a fruit of wisdom. It is a root in the sense of Proverbs 11:2, which says , “When pride comes then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” See how humility leads to wisdom? But humility is also a fruit of wisdom. The book of James has been called the NT book of Proverbs – lots of faith in action content. In chapter 3 verse 13 he says, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.” See here how humility is the product of wisdom!
God has not left us without lofty examples of the greatest humility. Numbers 12:3 says, “Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth.” When Mary was pregnant with Jesus she glorified God in her song saying, “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has been mindful of the HUMBLE state of his servant.” The greatest example of humility was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which is so famously described in Philippians 2:6-8….When the highest and most glorious being willingly descends down to the lowest and most shameful experience we are seeing the quintessence of humility.
Remember how wisdom was defined, or described last week: it is skills in righteousness. It is the ability to act with moral excellence. Humility is just that. Humility is a skill in righteousness, a quality of moral excellence as Christians. It’s not something that comes natural, its a skill. Its learned.
And let me be quick to advise us: Don’t mistake a guilt complex as humility. That’s actually pride. Don’t mistake someone with low self esteem as humility. That’s actually pride also.. Don’t mistake a tendency for an overly Puritan self debasing as humility. That’s actually pride too.
What is humility? Its having a modest opinion of yourself. It’s the idea that you don’t over-rank yourself. Humility is basically not letting your opinion of yourself become bloated. Humility is a conscious lowering of yourself.
You see a lot of descriptions of humility in the Bible: It is being small in your own eyes (1 Sam 15), which means you don’t make much of yourself. It is refraining from exalting yourself (Mt 23:12). It is not thinking of yourself as higher than others (Php 2). It is not trying to be first ahead of everyone else (3 John 9).
PROVERBS’ TEACHING ON HUMILITY
God LOVES humility. We see what God loves by seeing how much he hates pride – the opposite of humility. Proverbs 6:16, “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him” Guess which is the first one? “Haughty eyes.” Proverbs 16:5 says, “The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.” When God rebuked King Saul He said, “You were once small in your own eyes.” God was not just rebuking Him, but it was out of a fondness for that time in Saul’s life when Saul was humble. Isaiah 66:2 says, “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit.” God loves humility. Does knowing that affect you? Turn to Proverbs 16:19 with me to see how valuable to God humility is…. [READ]….It is a better circumstance to be humble and among the oppressed than to be prideful and among the oppressive. God says humility is a better condition even in the worst of circumstances, than being prideful in the best of circumstances. God loves humility. Do we?
God REWARDS humility.
First, God rewards our humility with honor. Proverbs 15:33 and 18:12 both say, “humility comes before honor.” Turn to 22:4 with me, “Humility is the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life.” Proverbs 29:23 says, “Pride brings a person low but the lowly in spirit gain honor.”
A second reward for humility is God’s protection.. In Proverbs 15:25 it says “The LORD tears down the house of the proud, but He sets the widow’s boundary stones in place.”
A third reward for humility is wisdom. Wisdom and humility are inseparable. Remember Solomon who humbly asked for wisdom and God rewarded him with the greatest wisdom of all men (1 Kings 3). Our theme verse, 11:2 says, “When pride comes then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” James 1 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God.” That takes humility to admit and to ask. But then James makes this promise in the very next sentence, “ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it [wisdom] will be given to you.” The only road wisdom will walk with us on is called humility.
A fourth reward for humility is peace. Proverbs 13:10 says, “Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.” Where there is strife, there is pride. What’s the opposite of that? “Where there is peace, there is humility.”
PRIDE: THE ENEMY OF HUMILITY & WISDOM
Pride is the enemy of humility and wisdom. God is the enemy of pride. “The LORD detests all the proud of heart” Proverbs 16:5 say. Proverbs 6:16 says, “There are 7 things that are abominable to the LORD.” The first one on the list is haughty eyes.
He hates it because it creates strife (13:10), it lashes out and is full of insolent rage (14:3; 21:4), it leads to disgrace (11:2), it leads to stubborn self-righteousness that refuses to take advice (12:5), it makes someone think they’re righteous when they’re filthy (30:12-13), it leads to disaster (16:18) and all foolishness.
The definition of Arrogance given by Wuest is “to show yourself above”. How perfectly this describes us in our arrogance: we think we are above everyone else; we think everyone else is beneath us. We feel like we’re better than those around us because our self-esteem is built on top of the condescending criticism we level at others. “All your pomp has been brought down” God said to Satan (Isa. 14:11). “Your heart became proud” He said again in Ezekiel 28:17, “…so I threw you to the earth.” Jesus promised, “A man who exalts himself will be humbled; but, a man who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11). “I’m glad you haven’t made me like this sinner behind me” the Pharisee prayed at the temple in Luke 18.
Pride says I have to be first, the best, the most important, the most noticed and the most admired. Pride makes us think we don’t have any faults. Pride makes us think the plank in our eye is only a little sliver while simultaneously thinking the sliver in someone else’s eye is a giant plank. Pride exaggerates our own strengths while minimizing the strengths of others. It makes us exaggerate the weaknesses of others, while minimizing our own weaknesses.
There are many different faces of pride. Pride is an overestimation of our own status. Pride of knowledge. Even worse: pride of biblical knowledge. Pride of religion. Pride of politics – sense of superiority over one’s political position that results in dehumanizing the other person. Pride of ignorance – overestimating one’s actual grasp of facts or wisdom. Pride of moral superiority. Pride of blindness – blind to one’s own faults. Pride of higher status. Pride of competition. Pride of toughness (physically beat people up, talk macho, I put him in his place, I really gave it to him, no one pushes me around). Pride of ambition. Pride of greed. Pride of lust. Pride of appearance (clothing, possessions, looks). Pride of self-determination and being my own highest authority. Pride of self-righteousness or self-justification where “I’m always right, I’m never wrong. What I’m doing isn’t wrong, I can do this or act like this.” Pride of victimhood, and its cousins Pride of self-pity, pride of bitterness and resentment. Pride of unforgiveness. Pride of selfishness, only ever thinking of ourself. Pride of stubbornness. Pride of ungratefulness. Pride of entitlement an its cousins The pride of Jealousy and envy and coveting. There is legitimate & illegitimate entitlement (1 Cor 6 not suing each other, Php 4 not demanding your rights).
Pride is so strongly related to insecurity that I would say insecurity causes pride. Pride is a cover up. Like Adam and Eve covered up with fig leaves after sinning and feeling shame, pride covers up any fear, weakness and insecurity we have. Insecurity is the breeding ground of pride. The deeper sense of our insecurities we have the greater pride becomes – if we don’t respond humbly to those insecurities. We feel weak and unattractive as a person over something about ourselves so we compensate by focusing on and drawing attention to something about us that we think makes us feel stronger, superior, and overall better. The tough talker actually feels tiny inside. The moral champion up on their high horse is hiding their moral repugnance by trying so hard to see everyone else as morally beneath them. We all have insecurities and weaknesses. Let us respond to them not with pride, but humility.
CONCLUSION:
Let us allow the Lord daily to remove the prideful parts of our old self, and replace them, piece by piece with new humble parts.
Benjamin Franklin made humility one of his 13 virtues. It was difficult he said to practice humility. He is quoted as saying, “Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome [my pride], I should probably be proud of my humility.”
I’m not saying we should be proud of our humility. But I am saying, if there is anything worth being proud of in our lives, let it be our humility.