Compartmentalized Humility

I recently read an intro and into to a book which portrayed a family who was going to church. Pretty normal huh? Yeah that’s what I thought especially when in the story escalated to bitter nostalgia with the father was yelling at the children to get them to go to church, speeding on the way, the wife was making rude comments back to him, and the kids stood in cold blood silence like someone had just been murdered because spears their parents were throwing. It was showing that there is an inconsistency in belief with lifestyle, a schism between what we hold to be true, and the reality of our actions.

Unfortunately this is a more common occurrence than not in the western world modernized beyond recognition. It curses us with the black plague of hypocrisy that lies in every human heart, home, and life. Is that not the most common argument that atheists have? “They are all a bunch of hypocrites.” And rightly said so, don’t believe me? “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Did you pass that test? Yes? What do you think your parents would say about that?

As I was considering this I realized that we don’t think of ourselves like this, we don’t think we are hypocrites. And anytime someone tells us that we are, we always try to justify ourselves, “You see man the crusades were really about…”. We as Christians in the world think of ourselves basically as good people, not hypocrites. How could we, who hold the truth of God, go to church, have a good community be wrong? “Dude, I read my bible I’m not a hypocrite.” Self-defeating argument. If we see something that needs to be done we do it, sometimes, Lord knows we can do everything. But if we are truly are hypocrites, (pause, then read again), then we are not fully submitted to God, because if we were, we would have the life of Christ (Rom 8:3,4) and this would cause all un believers to gaze upon this city on a hill and see the light and not walk in darkness. And besides no one enjoys conversation with a hypocrite.

One of the problems I see exceedingly consistent in my life is what I call ‘compartmentalized humility’. And this simply is that we, being children of God, have experienced his grace, gone on mission trips, shared the gospel with our coworkers even though it was really hard, and gone to church yet only have fruit in certain areas, or are hypocrites in some, but not all stages of our life. And because of these few varied graces we tend to think that we have it figured out, that we are humble, that we are Christians. Automatically assuming that humility has folded over into every are of our life. Instead of thinking that we are figuring it out, what we are becoming humble. And that we still need the grace of humility in other areas of our life. You see, when we have figured something out, there is no need to work on it anymore. Who keeps on building a Lego castle after you finished with the directions? But if we see ourselves as a ‘work in progress’ then we realize that salvation is not complete, but it is a lifelong process, that is continually being worked out by our continual submission to God and his revelation through his word. And then we begin to become humble.

So if you are having problems with a ‘consistent’ Christian walk, then remember that you have not figured it out, Christ did, that we are not humble, but Christ was, and we are not glorifying to God, but Christ was. This is the reason that the singular expression, “in Christ” is mentioned 13 plus times in the book of Ephesians in the first 3 chapters. This is to show the sufficiency of Christ in light of our deficiency, or hypocrisy. He gives you his mind through the new birth to be able to make decisions now to glorify God and enjoy him forever, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). And in this mind is understanding the absolute necessity of submitting ourselves to the glory of God, for our total joy.

I guess in conclusion if you suffer from the black plague of ‘inconsistent Christianity’ or better defined, maybe you have given up on trying not to sin. Then perhaps you need to submit areas of your life back to God and, “bear fruit in keeping(as in continually) with repentance” (Matt 3:8).

And remember this submission, its not stoic, its for your joy, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (use a concordance to find this verse so you will remember it).