These are the words of Thomas a Kempis on humility, written in the 1400's. He wrote in the form of a dialogue, where the Lord taught, and his servant responds. What do you think?
"My son, walk thou before Me in truth, and in the simplicity of thine heart seek Me evermore (Gen 17.1). He that walks before Me in truth shall be defended from evil attacks, and the truth shall set him (John 8.32) free from seducers and from the slanders of unjust men. 'If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed' (John 8:36), and shall not care for the vain words of men."
"O Lord, it is true! According as Thou sayest, so, I beseech Thee, let it be with me: let Thy truth teach me, itself guard me, and preserve me to an end of safety. Let it set me free from all evil affection and inordinate love; and I shall walk with Thee in great liberty of heart."
"I will teach thee (saith the Truth) those things which are right and pleasing in my sight.
Reflect on your sins with great displeasure and grief; and never esteem yourself to be anything because of good works.
In truth you are a sinner; you are subject to and entangled with many passions. Of yourself you always tend to nothing; you are quickly cast down, quickly overcome, quickly confused, quickly dissolved. You have nothing whereof you can glory (1 Cor 4.7), but may things for which you ought to account yourself vile; for you are much weaker than you are able to comprehend.
Let nothing therefore seem much of all the things you do. Let nothing seem great, nothing precious and wonderful, nothing worthy of estimation, nothing high, nothing truly commendable and to be desire, but that alone which is eternal. Let the eternal truth be above all things pleasing to you. Let your own extreme unworthiness be always displeasing to you. Fear nothing, blame nothing, flee nothing, so much as your vices and sins, which ought to be more unpleasing to you than any losses whatever of things earthly."
Do you agree or disagree with Kempis? Is this really humility or is it something else?
Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 4 (Augsburg: n.p., 1486); (Chicago: Moody, 1982), 101-102
1 comment:
Hosch,
I have read Kempis for 20 years, and have found that much of what he writes causes me to think. But I agree with you; here, I think, he misses the mark on humility.
Humility is not self-deprecation (to express disapproval of oneself) nor self-abnegation (to value oneself at zero or less). Even though the dictionary shows it to be an antonym of pride, I don't believe that it is a polar opposite of pride. If this were a continuum with self-deprecation on the negative end and pride on the positive end, humility would be in the middle.
Humility is neither thinking more than we ought of ourself, nor thinking less of ourself than we should. Your quotation of Matt 22.37-40 is exactly to the point. God expects us to have a certain amount of self-love. He also expects us to value his creation, and we are his creatures. Though it does not mean that we can treat the remainder of his creation callously, we are the height of his creation and made in his image; to denigrate that is to assault the glory of God.
Humble people realize that God has gifted them, but willingly humble themselves before that God so as to avoid humiliation. If we do not give humility, we will receive humiliation (see Humility or Humiliation).
Humble people have good self-esteem, but willingly place others first because they know that this most closely imitates the behavior of God (and in the flesh, Jesus).
To be humble in the right way, you have to believe in yourself and in God. To be humble, you have to know your place, but not insist upon having it.
This is easily said. What is difficult is to avoid a false humility. We may kindly defer to another person's opinion while, in our heart, believing that they are ignorant or arrogant for failing to listen or yield to ours. Or, we may use "humble" statements to fish for compliments when none are forthcoming without any bait.
But we need to be careful about judging someone else's behavior as being false humility. An example? This weekend, there were several times when I told Ben and Nathan that I wish I could be a bigger help. That wasn't fishing for a compliment, but an expression of frustration for not being able to work as long and hard as I could years ago. They were kind to the old man, but the old man is still in touch with reality. So, false humility is something to watch for in ourselves, but to avoid diagnosing in others.
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