This week's Bible Study - November 29, 2009
Work on your Humility
 Background Scripture:
James 4:1-17
Quote of the Week:
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
-- Albert Einstein
What do you think of when you hear of humility? Humility can be thought of as having a modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance. It is recognized in most major religions as a positive character trait. Helen Nielsen has said that humility is like underwear; essential, but indecent if it shows. In essence, it is not going about life in such a dramatic way that others think you are always seeking glory or that you are going out of the way to show your humility. There are some people who always want their name listed first, or shown as the primary contributor to a project. I've worked with people that always want to take the headline status. Several years ago I had to work second shift with a co-worker. They had to take off for the evening and didn't come back until the next day. I had to fill out a status report and I used the word 'I' in several places, without even thinking much about it. When they found that out the next day, they were very mad at me and when I asked why, they said it should have said 'we'. It would have been if it had been we. Many people want the credit even when they didn't lend a hand.
I suppose there is a fine line between taking credit for what you do and humility. Even as I read the above, I guess it could be construed that I was talking all about me. In your job, you have to let others know what you do, but you shouldn't be all about making a show of it. Humility is a huge issue in our society today. I like watching sports and one of the things that I don't care for is the athletes that are very much into themselves. Granted, professional athletes are skilled well beyond the paying public, but when they want to make a show of it, they are anything but humble. For some, it may be an act, but even in that case, they are drawing attention to themselves. I enjoy seeing great athletes (at any level of play) that can succeed without calling attention to them.
As believers, we are also supposed to be careful about becoming too prideful. There are many people that are blessed with talents, and it is good when they use those talents in a way that serves others. But, even in the church, humility can be a problem. It's not merely about whether or not we boast, as this lesson will help us to understand.
When we find ourselves putting self in the middle of life, we will encounter problems. It is a positive thing to try and make the best out of your life. There certainly is nothing wrong with trying to get a good education and do well in a career. There is nothing wrong with working to do the best that you can do and to be the best you can be. But, these qualities can overtake a person such that they becoming 'the' driving factor in life. They may not look at themselves as being materialistic, but they will find that life becomes about getting one thing, and then the next and the next.
When a person is focused on getting more and more, there becomes a competition of sorts to beat others out. You've heard of keeping up with the Joneses. When this competition wages on, it can easily go to an extreme. A couple of years ago, my sons were listening to a song called "No Handlebars" by a group called Flobots. The song is about two boys that have a rivalry of sorts, always trying to do better than the other. It starts with riding a bike with no handlebars and gets progressively more difficult. You can imagine as two rivals grow up and get more powerful - the deeds get more and more difficult and dangerous. The song continues on to talk about the power to do anything with no permission, guiding missiles through a satellite, hitting a target through a telescope, and ending the planet in a holocaust. While this is just a song, it makes a point that we can easily understand. Most people won't go that far with their rivalries, but when they become the overwhelming pursuit in life, it can cause much turmoil. How far will people go to outdo their rival? And, there are others who may not be in a duel, but they continue to go for more and more and more.
James says that pleasure is the source of quarrels and conflicts. When a person lusts for something that they do not have, they may end up doing whatever it takes to obtain. In the passage, it goes as far as murder. When a person is envious for something that they do not have, they can end up fighting and quarreling over it. The point that James is trying to make is that these worldly passions that are known to exist outside of the church often find their way into the lives of believers.
When we are looking for more in life, James says that we do not have because we do not ask, and then when we do ask, we are often asking with wrong motives. We tend to want to get primarily so that we have, so that we can turn around and get whatever we want. This makes me realize that we often neglect to remember the things that God has in mind for us. God does want to bless our efforts, but he wants us to use them wisely and not just on our own pleasures. In the past week, I heard a very moving story in my Bible Study class. One man talked about how he had taken a commission job, with no salary, and was struggling to make ends meet and to afford what he already had. He was out with his manager who apart from the company; gave him $500 of his own money, because he knew what this man was going through. This touched this man deeply and since that time, he has done the same for several others. God gives for us to be able to give, not so that we can amass what we can get.
James goes on to expose those who have made friendship with the world a priority in their lives. In essence, he calls them adulteresses, as they have chosen the world over God. We need to be careful in our stance with the world, as James says that friendship with the world is hostility toward God. You really wouldn't think that it would be so stark, but friendship with the world truly is hostility towards God - the two sides are often very far apart. If you are aligning with the world, you are making yourself an enemy of God. As believers, we should take that very seriously. Who among us wants to be an enemy of God?
The Scripture says that God jealously desires the Spirit which He made to dwell in us. God created us for a purpose and he gave us his Spirit. When we live life without regard to the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives, we are effectively putting ourselves in the driver's seat and living life as we would have it, as opposed to how God would have us live. Those who are proud get their own reward, but God gives grace to the humble. The proud among us often place self in front of anything else; and in doing so they find themselves in opposition to God. I can't imagine any believer that would want to be an enemy or in opposition to God, but many of us at times seem to lean towards the goals of this world, without regard to God's clear direction.
How should we handle it when we have to deal with this constant pull of the world? James tells us to submit ourselves to God. For many of us, we know the answers to many of the Biblical questions and we have decent head knowledge of what we believe, but is that the same as submitting yourself? It's not so much what we say we believe, but how we live. A 'said' faith will fall short when it comes up against the struggles with the world. It may not be instantaneous, but if we don't submit to God, we will eventually fall to the world.
We are also told to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We have all seen the cartoons that have the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. We know what that is like, as we struggle between what God would have us do and what the devil wants us to do. Granted, we don't classify it as a struggle against the devil - none of us would want to line up with that side, but we still have that situation. You can probably think about how this comes to play in your life. The problem is that we too often give that 'little devil on our shoulder' too much attention. We stop and listen to what he entices us to do. When we resist the devil, we are to put aside that communication and ignore those things. As long as we give the devil an opportunity to make his case in our lives, we are playing with fire. Flip Wilson, a comedian from the 70s, used to say 'the devil made me do it'. I believe God is telling us to quit listening to the devil!
James tells us that we need to draw near to God. When we draw near to him, he will draw near to us. Are we drawing near to God? How much of our daily routine involves God? Are we spending time in the Bible, or are we engrossed in anything but the Bible? If we don't take the steps to draw near to God, we can't really expect that he would draw near to us, can we?
We are told to see our sin in the same manner that God sees it. James tells us sinners to cleanse our hands, and us double-minded to purify our hearts. He isn't really holding any punches, is he? The problem is that none of us really has an argument against what he is saying. We know in our hearts that we are sinners, and we can think back to times when we have been double-minded. We are told to be miserable and mourn and weep - and to let our laughter be turned into mourning and our joy to gloom. This doesn't sound like a lot of fun, does it? But, even in this case, we know that we are often aligned with the world and reveling in the things it offers. God doesn't want us to be depressed individuals, but he doesn't want us following the ways of the world for our laughter and our joy.
What are we asked to do? James says that we need to humble ourselves in the presence of the Lord, and then he would exalt us. In order to humble ourselves, we need to be able to see the areas of our lives that we are holding back from him, and to turn them over to him. As stated before, none of us desires to be in direct rebellion to God, but in many of our lives, it would be difficult to show that to not be true. What areas of your life do you need to turn over to God, and how can you humble yourself before him?
Another example of humility becomes evident in how we treat one another. In most churches, there are several people who tend to want to continually stand in judgment of others. While these people may be the nicest people at times, you see a different side of them when they begin to speak against others. We all have areas in our lives that we are not proud of, and we have all made mistakes that we wish we could go back and fix. However, when we don't allow others to get past what they have done, we are quenching the Spirit's work in their lives. Granted, there are times when we need to help others see the need to make changes in their lives. And there are biblical ways that we are to make that happen. God often uses failures in our lives to teach us important lessons or to draw us closer to him. Sometimes, we are thwarting the work of God in a person's life as we stand in judgment. God will often use those times to teach a lesson that we would never even listen to in other times. Help your brother, but realize that God deals with each of us individually.
When we speak against our brother or judge our brother, we are really speaking against and judging the law. In the courtroom, the judge sits in front of others, and appears to be beyond judgment. Our society needs judges to have some semblance of order. But, when the judge is no longer in front of the court, they are as prone as the rest of us to make mistakes. You can probably recall many 'hard-nosed' judges that have fallen into many legal problems. When we think that we can sit and judge others, we may believe that we are making ourselves exempt from the law. We all need to realize that we have enough to take care of in living our own lives that we should not be continually pointing our fingers at others.
James tells us that there is only one Lawgiver and Judge. And, we need to realize that judge is not you or I. The lawgiver and judge is the one who is able to save and destroy. None of us have this power - we can help build others up or we can tear others down, but only God can save others and destroy life. Who do we really think we are when we sit in judgment of others?
The last part of humility that James mentions in this chapter involves us assuming that we have more control of our life than we do. It is easy for us to presume what will happen in the coming weeks, months or years. But, James offers a stern reminder that we really cannot know of any more than just the current day. If you take a look back at your life over the past ten years or so, you probably understand that you have little idea of where life might take you, beyond where you thought you might be.
James talks about those who might say "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit". There is a sense of presumption that tomorrow will come; that they would be able to go to a certain place; that they could spend a certain amount of time there; that they could engage in business there and make a profit. We certainly can and should have goals of where we want to be, but we should never become tied to them. We really don't have control or the knowledge of tomorrow.
James says that you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. We've all seen the vapor that appears on a cold winter day, as others breathe - it is noticeable for a few seconds and then gone. It is sobering to think of that as our life, but in the grand scheme of things, our lives are very short. When we make all the presumptions of what will happen, we're missing what God is trying to do in our lives. Most of the presumptions we make are very 'me' focused. Isn't that true in your life? Sometimes, we are focused on where God wants us to be, but in many of our plans, God seems to be an afterthought.
The key is brought up in verse 15 - instead you ought to say, "if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that'. There will come times when we have our own desires and we try and fit the Lord's will into that, as opposed to understanding the Lord's will and fitting our lives into that. Most of us would say that we desire to be in the Lord's will, but often we find our own will overshadowing his. James tells us that boasting in our arrogance is evil.
Instead of planning ahead and presuming what the future will be, we need to be willing to do the right thing as time goes by. James states that to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. You may not be involved in outright sinful deeds, but when you are neglecting to do the right thing now, in favor of what you are looking for in the future, that is sin.
Closing
As you have read, humility impacts more of your life than just boasting about yourself. Granted, boasting reveals a lack of humility, but the way in which we live our life shows whether we are trying to build up ourselves or to truly follow God. Are you placing yourself, your goals and your dreams in the center of your life, or are you more interested in pleasing God? Are you finding yourselves sitting in judgment of others? Are you thinking that you are in control of every event in your life?
None of us would say that we want to be an enemy of God, but as we seek friendship with the things of this world and align our lives to the world, we are making ourselves an enemy. The world has a tremendous pull and it attempts to grab our attention and sway us away from God. When we are more desirous of what the world offers, we are establishing a hostile relationship with God. We all can relate to the analogy of the little devil on one shoulder and the little angel on the other. Are we allowing the devil a place to rest? We are told to resist the devil and draw near to God. If you continue to leave the other option there, you will be continually drawn. And, it isn't enough to just get rid of the evil influences; we must seek God to fill that void.
In short, any area of your life that you hold apart from God shows a lack of humility on your part. It shows that you are going to make your own choices about how you live and what you do and how you view others, regardless of what God says. We'll never fully arrive at humility, but it is something that we should all be working on in our lives.
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