humility

1 Peter 5.5 “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'”

I think this verse is incredible. My friend Adam pointed it out to me a while back. It was the first time I had ever thought about why Peter used the word ‘clothe’ here. Here is what jumps out at me when I read this verse now:

“Hey stupid. Yes, I am talking to you…now listen up. You are naturally prideful just as much as you are naturally naked. You don’t have to do anything other than exist in your natural state to be prideful. That means you are gonna have to really try to intentionally put on humility. It won’t just happen. You have to put it on every day, just like you put your pants on every morning–one leg after the other. And if you don’t you will walk out into life naked and be exposed for the prideful fool you are.”

Too many times I am that fool who walks out into the street naked because I did not clothe myself with the humility of Jesus. I am fascinated by humility–both by how incredibly hard it is for us and also how it is the most important, underlying issue I can think of in following Jesus. There are no other virtues without it, and it is the prerequisite for confession and repentance. The last part of this verse tells me that humility is what allows us to receive God’s gift of grace, which is infinitely better than being the proud person who is opposed by God. I imagine that being opposed by God never turns out favorably for anyone.