Humility of a Servant
I Peter 5:5-7
Likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Humility has a very negative connotation in the Greek-speaking world of Peter’s time. When used as an adjective it means “lowly, mean, insignificant, weak, poor, of trivial power or significance as a city or country, state or statesman.
As a verb to humble means “to make small or little, to humiliate, to weaken. Humility is the attitude that a slave adopts to his or her master. Even today humility continues to have a negative connotation, yet there is one situation in which humility is appropriate, and that is in regard to our relationship with our heavenly Father.
Humility is a theme in both the Old and New Testaments. The Psalmist wrote often regarding humility stating, “The Lord lifts up the humble’ (Psalm 147:6); “He shall beautify the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4) and Psalm 9:12 where he says; “He does not forget the cry of the humble.” James in the New Testament says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:10). Matthew 18:4 gives us the words of Christ; “Whoever humbles himself as this little child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Throughout all of Holy Scripture the two people that exemplify the model of humility that we should seek to strive to is Moses in the Old Testament and Christ in the New Testament. Philippians 2:8 puts it this way when speaking of Christ; “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
So, let us all strive to be humble, not lording over others or seeking fame or wealth, but serving the communities in which we worship in.
The Bible In Your Hand 