To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get’ (Luke 18:9-12).
When a person is growing in their relationship with God they will be very hesitant to compare themselves to others in a judgmental way. Like the case with the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, false convictions of sanctification leave a person confident in the purity of their love for God, and of their present accomplishments, giving the person the attitude that he or she has come a lot farther in his walk with God than they actually have.
This gives the person the attitude that they are somehow better than the Christians around them. As Fenelon says, “The humility that can still talk needs to be carefully watched.” Pride can masquerade as humility
False humility leads to the feeling that things are just fine right now in a person’s relationship with God and they don’t really need changing. False humility leaves can also give the impression that the believer was largely responsible for the distance he or she has come in the sanctification process.
Conversely, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit will produce the opposite effect, causing us to see others as better than ourselves. As Paul says in Philippians 2:3-4, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
- Do you identify more with the Pharisee or the tax collector in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18:9-14?
- How can you discern the difference between true and false humility?
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 