Commentary: Humility and the old man

Ralph Fudge

Let us always remember that all of our achievements of any value are not due to us and our efforts, but to God’s work through us.”

Long life has taught me to value humility. It has also made me desire to desire humility in myself. God has taught me through His Word and other sources that I truly am not good. I am infested with selfishness and lack of concern and love for other people at times.

I know I am not good because the Bible tells me so. Jesus told His own disciples that they were evil (Luke 11:13). So, where does that leave us? These were men that Jesus had taught personally and that had walked and lived with Him. Yet they, in their natural way, were evil.

Knowing that I, too, am evil, according to God’s standards, helps me to suppress my innate pride. It helps me to avoid judging others in their sometimes flagrant evil. Knowing this about myself is a great help in my effort to be and stay humble. When people ask why they should be humble, be bold enough to tell them that they, too, are evil. But be sure to explain that this is due to their inheritance from Adam and that Christ came to make us all new creations.

In your witnessing, be sure to point out that even after we are saved by trusting Christ, we still sin on occasion. We will lose a battle to Satan here and there, but we can never lose the war. And we can never lose our salvation because we believers are adopted children of God, and God never abandons or disowns any of His children.

We all have a tendency to be proud and think too highly of ourselves. But in Romans 12:3 the Apostle Paul suggested that we not do that. He says, “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

From time to time the Holy Spirit lays things very strongly on my heart. For some time now it has been the fact of my own unworthiness. As I contemplate this fact, I realize that none of my academic or other achievements are of my own making. Anything I may have done of significance I can attribute to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This should impress on all of us the requirement of sensitivity to God’s Spirit. Let us always remember that all of our achievements of any value are not due to us and our efforts, but to God’s work through us.

Charles Stanley called this “walking in the Spirit.” Things of importance are achieved, not by us but through us as we yield to the Holy Spirit. These things we call “fruit of the Spirit.” It is evidence of salvation, but many Christians show little of it. Many Christians struggle to do good things, such as being kind, sympathetic, patient, and loving, only to be disappointed when their ugly and mean “old man” comes out.

The problem with all this is that many Christians erroneously think that they can produce this “fruit” themselves. The Bible makes it perfectly clear that no one can produce any fruit. All we can do is bear the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces. All we can do is our best at staying tuned in to Christ and trying to walk in His Spirit.

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Ralph Fudge is the pastor of Big Ochlocknee Baptist Church in Coolidge, Ga., and has a Master’s degree in theology from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.