ANNOUNCEMENT 1: Please check the new weekly segment following the bible commentary: From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye. Or you can scroll immediately to it, I won't mind.
ANNOUNCEMENT 2: Going forward, beginning from Sept 1, I will add a segment to my thrice weekly newsletter. I call it weekly chant. You will get to hear the Weekly Chant (not music, because I am just repeating one or two phrases). The weekly chants are words and melodies I am hearing in my spirit.
He humbled himself
This may be one of the most profound statements in this whole discuss. It was not something done to him; it was something he did by himself. It was not forced on him. That is an example of what true humility is. It is not something that is circumstantial (forced on you by circumstance), but a decision you make.
You decide not to have your heart lifted up within you (Deuteronomy 8:14), not to speak in a boastful manner (James 4:16), and to consider others more important than yourself (Philippians 2:3).
This is not something we can do in our own strength, but rather by putting on Christ, as the scriptures say.
and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth. (Ephesians 4:24)
No one is able to be humble unless enabled by Christ. Sin is diverse, but at the core, it is the diversity of arrogance/pride. Jesus exhibited humility by obedience to the Father, and he can be called the righteous one (1 John 2:1).
Jesus impressed on his disciples the importance of humility when he undressed, put on a towel, and bent down to physically (not spiritually) wash the feet of the apostles (John 13:1-17). This is what he seems to be saying: that even if you are standing tall, let what God sees within you be what Jesus showed - a life sold out to helping others.
That kills the idea of a caste system within the church where some people are less than others because they do the menial jobs. Not that nobody should do menial/dirty jobs, but that it does not determine your standing before God. That means social status is irrelevant in the presence of God, based on the new life we have in Christ. In short, his kingdom is not of this world, not patterned after this world (John 18:36).
By becoming obedient
Humility is about obedience. Let me repeat that: humility is about obedience. What we display in humility is our obedience to God.
Humility does not mean allowing yourself to be walked on by men. It is not humility for the apostles to stop preaching in the name of Jesus because the religious authority tells them to do so (Acts 5:29). It is humility not to fear man, but fear God (Luke 12:4-5).
It is humility when they stand boldly proclaiming Christ, even at the risk of their own lives. It is humility when we call upon God to help us in the place of prayer. Not saying it is a replacement for action, but all too often we are all up in arms when we have not brought up an issue to God.
Peter wrote that the way we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God is if we cast our burden upon him (1 Peter 5:6-7). It is wrong to define humility just in emotional terms or from the point of view of what humans call humility, since in truth God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) and true humility is about obedience to God and dependence on God.
Another way we express humility, apart from obedience and casting our burden upon God, is through repentance.
Jesus has no sin to repent of, but we do.
if my people, who belong to me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Here we see prayer and humility bundled together in one package, including seeking to please God, in addition to repentance.
We see humility defined in terms of prayer, obedience, and repentance. We see Jesus exhibit the first two: prayer and obedience, but the sinless one, Christ, has nothing to repent of.
Hebrews 5:7: During his earthly life Christ offered both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his devotion.
Requests, supplications, with loud cries, tears, all offered up to God.
to the point of death
Many people can understand obedience, but fewer people understand obedience to the point of death. But it's all the test of the fear of God.
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do. But I will warn you whom you should fear: Fear the one who, after the killing, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! (Luke 12:4-5)
Look carefully, and you will see that Jesus is talking about himself. He is the one who has the authority to throw into hell. If He were talking about the Father, he would not use the phrase has authority.
The Father does not have authority. He is authority. Do you get? In another place, Jesus said all authority has been given to him (Matthew 28:18). The Father gave him the authority. At the creation of man, God gave man some authority. After His resurrection, Jesus said He had all the authority.
—even death on a cross!
There is death, and there is death on a cross. The cross is described as a slow, bleeding, grueling, mocking death. It's death in the extreme, if there can be anything like that. It is pain tearing at the body. It is cruel death, not just hanging, but carefully designed death for maximum message to crush dissent. It sends the message to people: Don't do what this guy did. But God inverted that. Therefore, the message of the cross is: follow in His steps.
So God became man, that is humility enough, and death is another humility. So Christ is the twice-humble one, who gave up his life for our sake.
Welcome to a new weekly segment: From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye
