Vices and virtues

In the Bible, there are virtues and there are vices. These are traits to cultivate, and traits to purge.

In the sixth century, Pope Gregory the first curated a list that we know today as the “seven deadly sins.” Pride was first on the list. Its corresponding virtue was (and is) humility. But if pride is so bad and humility is so good, what is it?

This episode will provide a definition which, I believe, is faithful to how the word is used in the Bible. Speaking of which, here are a few of the times it is mentioned.

Biblical examples

In James 4:10 the half-brother of Jesus says: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” The apostle Peter says something similar in 1 Peter 5:6. Both of these statements echo Jesus’ own words in Matthew 23:12: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Proverbs 3:34 says: “Toward the scorners he [God] is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.” That verse was so well-known that it is alluded to in two other places in the New Testament.

Further, there are times when the humility of a biblical character is celebrated. One example is Mary in Luke 1:46-55, a passage famously known as the Magnificat. Another is Jesus himself in Philippians 2:5-11 where we are told to be like Jesus who: “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (verse 8).

Definitions

When it comes to zeroing-in on a definition, the Thayer lexicon says that it has to do with littleness, modesty, and even lowliness of mind. Interestingly, it mentions that the word for humility is very rarely used by secular writers outside of the Bible at the time, and when it is, it is used negatively. This already tells us that there is something counter-cultural about the biblical ideal of humility.

The Friberg lexicon includes the ideas of voluntary submission and selflessness. In light of what we know about Jesus, that makes sense. Literary critic and author C.S. Lewis picks up on this when he says: “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but of yourself less.”[i]

I’ve also become fond of an insight by Henri Nouwen. He pointed out that we live in a society that values upward mobility. Think of the “ladder of success”—which, by the way, seems to imply stepping over other people in the process. In contrast, Nouwen coined the phrase “downward mobility.”[ii]

That’s good. And it leads us into a definition that I think is faithful to the biblical picture: Humility is being down-to-earth and unpretentious as you yield to God for the benefit of others.