Day 20: If Anyone Wants To Be Great…

Yesterday we’ve begun to look at this very important, and sometimes poorly understood principle of humbling ourselves. We’ve read 1 Peter 5:5-6, where he uses a very vivid metaphor which is worthwhile looking at. “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” Again, that’s our responsibility. In the natural, we don’t ask other people to clothe us; we see our responsibility to put our clothes on for ourselves. So it is with humility. “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.”

In the original New Testament Greek, there’s a very vivid metaphor there which I would like to bring out. One of the words that’s used refers to a certain garment called in Greek an enkonboma, which was a white apron worn by slaves that distinguished slaves from freemen. And so Peter says, “Put on the white apron of humility as an indication that you’re a slave willing to serve your brothers and sisters.” J. B. Phillips translation modernizes that and says, “Wear the overall of humility in serving each other.” The “overall,” the kind of garment worn by a humble workingman, not a whitecollar worker, but a man who makes his living with his hands. So, whatever way you represent it, the fact is it’s something we have to do. We have to take a decision; we have to adopt a certain attitude. “I’m not here to be served, I’m here to serve.” Jesus said that that was what He came for. He didn’t come to be served. He came to serve. We have to have the same attitude. That’s the result of a decision.

When you walk into a situation you can look at it two ways: You can say, “What’s in this for me? What are people going to do for me?”—that’s pride; or you can say, “Is there something here I can do for others? How can I help? How can I serve?”—that’s humility. Whichever you do, it’s a decision.

You see, Galatians 5:13, speaks about the freedom that we have but how we’re to use that freedom.

“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”

Humility and serving go very closely together. After all, the servant or the slave is one of the types of the humble. Paul says, “We’re free in Christ, but let’s be slaves. Not because we have to, not under compulsion, but because we’ve made a decision to serve our brother.” That’s the decision that expresses humility. You put on the overall. You put on the white apron, which means you are a slave. I’m not here for what I can get; I’m here for what I can give. Can I help you brother? Can I serve you? Is there anything I can do for you? That’s the decision that you need to make.