"But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." - Mark 10:43-45

These are one of the clearer scriptures of our Lord Jesus Christ coming as a servant. His ministry was as of one to self-denial and self-sacrifice. He did not come to promote Himself, but as the Servant of servants Jesus gave His life for us as a ransom.

In our scripture the Lord Jesus calls His followers to do the same. We are to give ourselves for others in a humble like fashion. Yet, humility is foreign to a sin cursed world. Whether we would honestly admit it or not, most of the time we are a worshipper of self and our ego gets in the way.

The famous news broadcaster Walter Cronkite was sailing down the Mystic River in Connecticut, and as he following the tricky turns through the water channels, a boatload of young people sped past him in a boat shouting and waving their arms. Walter Cronkite waved back with a cheery greeting and his wife said, "Do you know what they were shouting?" Walter said, "Yes. It was, "Hello Walter, Hello Walter." His wife said no it wasn't. They were shouting, "Low water! Low water!"

We can easily hear or see one thing and interpret it around our self, as if we are the center of everyone else's world. By nature we are quick to be self-centered and egocentric. That is called pride -- the opposite of humility.

What happens first with pride is that we become exclusive. Pride then destroys unity, destroys tolerance, destroys compassion, and destroys charity. Lastly pride pushes God away. It was James who wrote, "God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble" (James 4:6).

Now understand that humility cannot be attainted or maintained on our own. Just when you think you got it -- you lost it. As soon as you've said to yourself, "I have finally attained humility." Guess what? You're back to square one. When we seek to attain humility through self-effort by setting our minds on being humble, acting humble, and speaking humble. That is pride by self-humiliation. True spiritual humility is not by self-effort, it is by self-sacrifice for the good of others, and not self-sacrifice so that I can bee seen by others.

So humility is attained by imitating Jesus Christ. Now how do we do that? It is by, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). By looking unto Jesus, humility will naturally flow out of our lives as we serve Him by serving others without all the accolades. Simply put, Jesus Christ is true humility.

David C. Hale, Pastor Email: reasons4believing@gmail.com