Austin Bible Church
Humility is a divine characteristic to be found in the human soul of the believer resulting from the intake and application of the Word of God. It is a manifestation of spiritual growth. In 1 Peter 5:5, the Greek word for “humility” is ταπεινοφροσύνη (tapeinophrosunē) and means a mental attitude thought pattern of grace. Grace thinking recognizes that we, at no time, earn or deserve any blessing from God.
"You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." (1 Peter 5:5, NASB)
Humility understands that everything depends on who and what God is and all He has done. Humility is not self-effacement (“Aw, shucks that was nothing”) nor is it telling of your failures, telling jokes about yourself to show how stupid you are.
Humility-grace thinking causes a believer to have no illusion about themselves. Thus, the believer has an edification complex in their soul instead of an inferiority complex or superiority complex. They have a relaxed mental attitude.
Mental attitude humility produces a relaxed mental attitude toward believers that have authority over you. This mental attitude grace enables the spiritual believer to submit to the teaching authority of another believer in order to learn Bible doctrine.
Pride is the opposite of humility and always resents and rejects the authority of the pastor-teacher. Thus, only true humility through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit allows learning of Bible doctrine. This process causes the believer to become spiritually self-sustaining.
A believer who has the correct biblical concept of humility in their soul is a wonderful believer to be around because of the evident relaxed manner, dogmatic position without being arrogant, confidence in their beliefs, and is never double-minded.
The word “gentleness” is found in Galatians 5:23 as one of the fruits of the Spirit and is closely related to the meaning of humility. It is also a mental attitude of not being pushy, self-centered, or demanding. It is not a word denoting weakness. Moses was called humble in Numbers 12:3 and was very much a man, not a mouse.
"gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:23, NASB)
"(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)" (Numbers 12:3, NASB)
Dr. L.S. Chafer said on page 190, Volume 7 of his Doctrinal Summarization that: “Since man has no merit in himself before God but receives all that he has, humility is only the right and natural attitude. Christ was humble, still not because He was a sinner or meritless. To become conscious of humility its utter ruin.”