The title is, of course, written with tongue firmly in cheek, because humility is quite an amusing phenomenon. The Bible tells us: “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” Since traditional Jewish and Christian interpretation has taught that Moses was the author of the Torah, Moses was therefore writing about himself that he was the humblest man in the world. Rather paradoxical—but the Bible is full of rather amusing paradoxes, as every intelligent reader may perhaps have noticed. Our Savior also said of Himself: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)

I, too, have occasionally been told that I am humble. In 2020, I received a prophecy from a fellow believer in which God Himself was said to have spoken these words:

For even then I saw your humble heart; beforehand I saw your tender conscience before My Word. I have given you the ability to put biblical prophecies into words in a form that people can understand. That is your gift, received from Me.

Here, however, we encounter the same amusing paradox again. The moment I begin to think that I am a humble person—and that this has even been confirmed by what were said to be the words of God Himself—my humility turns into pride in my supposed humility.

A truly humble person probably does not even realize that he is humble, or at least he does not boast about it, even if he happens to be aware of it.

On the other hand, if we believe that such a thing as humility truly exists, then we should also believe that it can somehow be recognized. And if humility is a recognizable quality, a genuinely humble person would probably know that he was humble because other people had recognized that quality in him.

But the moment he becomes conscious of being humble, that virtue becomes a source of pride.

And so we once again find ourselves at an impasse.

C. S. Lewis said:

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”

True humility is therefore not the same thing as belittling yourself. Sometimes such self-deprecation can itself be a form of false humility or concealed pride.

A person has every right to feel a healthy sense of pride in his achievements, especially when he has accomplished something through hardship.

My own self-image has always involved a kind of struggle between healthy pride and tearing myself down. Self-denigration is perhaps especially dangerous for people like me because it provides fertile ground for more negative emotions, such as pride and envy, which lie dormant within all of us.

When I begin measuring my own success against the success of others, I notice that my thoughts easily turn either toward belittling myself or, in the opposite direction, feeding my own ego.

When I examine my own heart more honestly, I am not a humble person at all. I am damn proud.

Sometimes I even imagine that I am some overlooked genius of my own time whose brilliance will only be recognized by future generations. Quite a paranoid form of grandiosity, to be honest.

That grandiose thinking was also recorded in a psychological assessment written about me, which was one of the reasons I was eventually granted a disability pension.

Well, I suppose a lack of honesty cannot be counted among my greatest vices, even if my humility still leaves some room for improvement.

Any virtue within us begins to turn into a vice the moment we make it part of our identity.

A person may genuinely be righteous, but the moment he begins to see himself as more righteous than other people, his righteousness turns into self-righteousness.

For this reason, Paul did not boast about his own holiness but called himself the “chief” of sinners:

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
(1 Timothy 1:15)

In the same way, a person may genuinely be humble, but the moment he begins to see himself as humbler than others, his humility turns into pride.

The proper way to escape this apparent impasse is therefore to understand that humility is not something we are, but a goal toward which we should strive.

Holiness and righteousness are likewise not things we simply possess, but goals toward which we should continue pressing.

And whenever a person is genuinely humble or righteous, he also recognizes the deceitfulness of his own heart, which causes us to imagine that we are more than we truly are.

When a person’s heart and eyes are fixed upon Christ, he will always see the unworthiness of his own heart beside His holiness.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
(Romans 3:23)

Only at the cross of Calvary can our pride truly be broken, because there we see at the same time both the unfathomable seriousness of our sin and the incomprehensible greatness of God’s grace.

The cross strips us of all self-righteousness, but it does not leave us in despair. It reminds us that our salvation is never based upon our own goodness, but upon the perfect righteousness of Christ.

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Humbly thanking you,

the humblest man in the world—after Moses, at least.

Soli Deo Gloria

Glory to God Alone

(because I am personally far too modest to take credit for my excellent blog)