As I was studying in the Book of John this morning and
reading in Warren Weisbe’s Bible Commentary he spoke about for four things that
started with an h that we see in John chapter 13. As I pondered this I realized
that 3 of them are positive and one is negative. But the last two are actually
dependent on the first two being either present or absent in our lives. The H’s
are humility, holiness, happiness, and hypocrisy. I think it is interesting to
take a quick glance at these and to see where we are as Christians in our
personal 4-H club.
Wiesrbe spoke on the importance of the order of the first
three in our lives and humility is the very first one. Humility is probably the
greatest virtue one could pursue because if anything defines Christ humility
does. From the very beginning of the shift from the OT law to the NT Gospel is
an act of humility as seen in Christ leaving His place of glory in Heaven and
humbling Himself to come here as a man.
Philippians 2:5-8 explains as it
instructs us to be like Jesus saying this, “Have this mind
among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in
the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Jesus emptied Himself and took the form
of a servant. He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death. And
that death was accomplished by the most shameful way possible in that day,
death on a cross. There are at least 22
scriptures in God’s Word that instruct is to die to ourselves. Maybe the most
well-known is Luke 9:23-25 which a direct command from Jesus spoken Himself
saying, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it
profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”
Yet we rarely see humility in in the
church. Just recently I observed a situation where a certain ministry which is
ripe for expansion and growth be stunted because someone doesn’t want “his
ministry” to be risked by moving forward with what it would take to grow and
reach more in that ministry. You see the problem is that it isn’t “his” ministry;
it is “His” ministry. We are just like the disciples, who even up to the night
before Christ died on the cross, were arguing over who of them was the greatest
in the kingdom. Oh, how that lack of humility hinders God’s work. Breaks my
heart.
The second H is holiness. In order to
become like Christ we must be humble. When we die to self we allow God to do
the work in us He so much wants to do. When Jesus left to return after the
resurrection He gave us all who are truly Christians the power to become like
Him. He gave us the Holy Spirit. Here is this promise as Jesus Himself spoke it
in John 14:15-17, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be
with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells
with you and will be in you.”
Romans 8:9-11 reminds us that we have
the same power that raised Christ from the dead living in us as we read, “You,
however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to
him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin,
the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the
dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in
you.”
Yet somehow we don’t seem to be living
this out do we? As individuals we really don’t and thus as the Church we don’teither,
do we? I offer that it is because we have forgotten to put in effect the first
H before we try to move to H number two. We must seek humility.
The third H is happiness. I believe when
we are speaking of this type of happiness we are really speaking of joy. When
we humble ourselves and then begin to become more and more holy everyday in our
quest to be like Jesus we will be happy and our joy will be complete in spite
of all circumstances we live in and under. Paul speaks about this very thing in
2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “And He has said to me, "My
grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."
Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the
power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with
weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with
difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
The final H is hypocrisy and is
actually only prevalent when we fail to put the first two H’s in effect in our
lives. Instead of being happy and filled with joy through the humility and
holiness of our lives, the world then sees us as hypocrites and we lose our
witness for Christ. We dim the light He shines.
So the question we all must ask of is
what H’s will we let define us? All of us, whether we want to believe it or not,
have these H’s sewed onto the jackets we wear in life. Being a witness for
Jesus isn’t really that difficult. Put on humility and holiness and the
happiness the world sees in you will be all the witness you need to be faithful
in serving God. But leave off those three H’s and all that is left is
hypocrisy.
God has not left us powerless. My
prayer is that His church becomes what it has been empowered to be. We need
revival. As my pastor often reminds us, revival starts right in our own
personal heart.
God bless each of you in your journey
to become humble, holy, and happy.
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