Humiliation vs. Humility

When was the last time you were humiliated?  What about the last time you were humbled?  Yes, those are two separate questions.  Humiliation and humility are not the same thing.  Humiliation is brought about by things like guilt, embarrassment, ridicule, defeat, or even abuse.  My freshman and sophomore high school football teams combining for an 0-16 record is pretty humiliating. Humility, on the other hand, comes from being overwhelmed by things like love, grace, mercy, and generosity.  When a financial need for Delta was made public the other month, some fellow church planters in our church planting network, Acts 29, brought our need to their elders and we received a number of financial gifts.  It was a very humbling experience to be the recipient of such love and generosity.

Galatians 1:13-2:10 shows us a very personal snapshot of how the gospel was working in and through Paul.  While there are many things that could be pointed out and talked about in this section, I think the one key theme that stands out is that of gospel humility.  When the gospel does it's work in and through people, humility happens, and humility begins to produce some very godly fruit.

In Galatians 1:13-23, Paul tells of his conversion and very early ministry.  In one amazing sentence, he communicates the height of his moral character and the depth of his depravity (v. 13-14).  Paul could have honestly said that he was moral enough to not need the gospel, yet depraved enough to not deserve it.  Then he unpacks the beauty of God's love and grace in verses 15-16 in that it simply pleases God to pour His grace out on people and love them.  And the result that this type of grace-induced humility brings?  A changed life, as noted in verse 23.

Now, it's so easy for people to look at the "triumphs" of others, champion the human spirit, and worship the gifts and abilities of others.  Athletes like Labron James, who come from humble beginnings yet achieve super-stardom, are caught saying very self-promoting things like "There are few people that can take over a game, and I'm blessed to be one of them."  Paul could have been accused of this type of self-promotion in telling his dramatic story.  But we have to look at the result of his story; how people responded to it.  Galatians 1:24 is clear that a truly humble result of a changed life is that God is glorified, not a person.

In the beginning of chapter 2, Paul fast-forwards his story about 14 years, and shows him and his ministry partners going to Jerusalem.  He wanted to find out if their message was to have been "in vain" (2:2).  This is a little perplexing, for according to Galatians 1, Paul is very confident in the pure gospel message.  What was at stake here was the "truth of the gospel preserved for you" (2:5).  Paul, an apostle called by Jesus himself, wanted to check off with the leaders of the church - Peter, James, and John - which was headquartered in Jerusalem.  If these "pillars" (who were still sinful, human beings) had begun to preach, like the Judaizers, that you needed to do something in addition to having faith in Jesus (in this case, adhere to Jewish ceremonial law), then the fruit of Paul's gospel message was in jeopardy.  That is the "vanity" that Paul was concerned about.  He saw a potential church split, and desperately wanted to avoid it.  But because Paul was a man humbled by the gospel, that resulted in a spirit of submission, in him going to the leaders of the church.

A glorious thing happened during this meeting, which I believe was a reference point for Paul as he wrote Ephesians 4:1-3.  Peter, James, & John "added nothing" (2:6) to Paul's message!  They agreed that faith in Jesus alone is what causes God to accept us.  This was symbolized by the "right hand of fellowship" (2:9), which saw Paul and the Jerusalem leaders bond together, and also symbolically deny the false teachers.  The humility all these men had before God and his gospel resulted in great unity.  Sadly, Paul's fears still came true, as our time is perhaps the most divided time in church history with the three main tribes of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant plus the countless denominations.  This makes the message of Galatians of utmost importance - that we lay aside meaningless traditions and distinctions that distort and reduce the gospel of Jesus.

This brings us to Galatians 2:10.  At first read, it seems a little odd - sort of out of place - even borderline "legalistic".  So what gives with the serve the poor thing?  Actually, this verse unlocks the whole theme of humility for the passage.  Serving the poor is instrinsic to gospel humility.  God has always wanted his people to care for the poor (Leviticus 23:22). Jesus said that his ministering to the poor was a fulfillment of him being the messiah (Matthew 11:1-6). Paul mandated that Christians and their churches serve the poor when he spoke with the Ephesians elders (Acts 20:35).  The early church was made up of both rich and poor, and was a great picture of how unity can be achieved amongst social classes (Acts 4:34-37).  And Jesus, in his greatest collection of teachings called the Sermon on the Mount, said that the poor in spirit are the ones who are blessed (Matthew 5:3), and serving the poor reminds us of our spiritual poverty.  Galatians 2:10 is not an "add on" at all. Serving the poor is a natural expression and result of gospel humility. 

But we get humility all wrong.  We confuse it with humiliation.  We run away from it and become self-righteous.  We over-do it and play the self-pity card.  So what are we to do?

Nothing.  God has to do it in us.  Which is exactly why Jesus came.

Philippians 2:7-11 shows us this.  He was humble because we couldn't be.  He was obedient because we wouldn't be.  He brings unity because we won't.  And he will be glorified because he alone is worthy.

That is the ultimate result of gospel humility!