Peter’s final thoughts in his first letter urge us to pursue humility. Why is that so hard?

“I’m humble and proud of it.”

That was one of my favorite quotes when I was in youth group. Sure, I was speaking tongue-in-cheek, but there was enough truth in the second half of that statement to ensure the first half wasn’t true. 

Humility has always been the one virtue that I aspired to most of all but have never truly grasped. And the problem is that even writing that sentence wraps me up in internal conflicts: 

If I say I’ve never been humble, will I be perceived as humble? 

If I say that I aspired to humility, is that humility or pride? 

I admitted that I’m not humble. Does that mean I’m getting more humble? 

Welcome to my brain; apologies for the mess. 

As I’ve walked with Jesus alongside others, however, I’ve realized that my struggles in this regard are not unique. Like an old well, the deeper spiritual conversations get, the more gunk gets revealed. And most of the gunk in me and others that these conversations have revealed seems to relate to the lack of humility. 

The main issue for Peter’s first-century readers is likely the main problem for his twenty-first-century readers: we need to remember that it’s not all about us. I think that’s why he closes his first letter with instructions on humility:

“…All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.”

There are several factors that I want to highlight in Peter’s instructions here. 

First, he uses a word picture that speaks volumes. He tells us to “clothe” ourselves with humility. In the original Greek, the word is egkomboomai (ἐγκομβόομαι) and was frequently used for slaves tying on an apron, or the mark of their servitude. So, Peter is intentionally equating the Christian putting on humility with a slave putting on the very thing that marked them as a slave. The mark of Christianity is humility.

Second, Peter tells his readers why Christians are to be clothed with humility: because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Peter quotes from several Old Testament passages in Isaiah and Proverbs, but he could have drawn this teaching from many Scripture references. God sets Himself as an opposing army towards the proud but allies Himself with the humble. Salvation is found in the confession of our inability to save ourselves and our utter dependence on God’s provision for us in Christ. Humility “comes with the territory,” so to speak. 

Finally, Peter tells us the result of our humbling: God will exalt us. And the reason He will do that is that He cares for us. People get the wrong idea about God. They think He is a cosmic killjoy, just waiting for us to screw up so He can give out a good ol’ smiting. But that’s not right at all. God doesn’t take pleasure in casting down; He delights in raising. Why would He bother to create us if only to destroy us? No, God rejoices in building His people up. 

This means His people ought to delight in lowering themselves down. 

Maybe that doesn’t make sense. How about this: 

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you. And wherein does the exaltation consist? The highest glory of the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the divine glory. The exaltation God promises is not, cannot be, any external thing apart from Himself: all that He has to give or can give is only more of Himself, Himself to take more complete possession.”

Andrew Murray

Christ-follower, Peter calls us to humility because Christ calls us to humility. We can relate to one another and the world humbly because Christ showed us the way and because we want more of Him in us. 

Make it your delight to humble yourself and let God delight to exalt you in Christ.