Passages to Ponder

Exalted and Abased ~ Humbled and Exalted

Key Text:

“...whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Luke 14:11

    I have found that this Scripture is, quite often, misunderstood. The first part of it is fairly straight forward, but the second part often leads some to an incorrect conclusion and, consequently, an attempt to accomplish an impossible feat — that of trying to become humble. A correct view can be garnered from a closer look at the first part of the text. If someone exalts him/herself, they will be abased. Who is doing the exalting? self. Who does the abasing? God.

    It is inherent in the sinful human nature of man to exalt one's self. It is not inherent in man to be humble. As a matter of fact, most people don't like the idea of being humbled or becoming humble, because the very thought of it carries with it the idea of being humiliated, which is a form of the word “humble.” Humble, as a word, also conjures up the idea of being or becoming weak. No one likes the idea of being weak and no one lekis being humiliated. Here is where the problem in understanding the term begins. If we wrongly interpret the second part of this text in this manner and continue to follow this line of thinking to its conclusion, it would lead us to think that the way to be exalted by God is to humiliate ourselves, which is not at all what is meant by the text. No wonder so many refuse to consider becoming a Christian, if they have to become weak or humiliated.

    As with many other Scriptures, the problem lies in a wrong interpretation of the “wording” of the text. The term ”he that humbleth HIMSELF” is misunderstood, because of many false teachings that surround this issue. While the text is meant to clarify the difference between exalting one's self as opposed to allowing God to exalt us, many fall in to the old and far too prevalant trap of works vs. faith. The importance in found in the fact that we are humbled, but the wording of the text, without considering other texts that touch on this point, can be disasterous.

    The “work” of salvation is wholly a work of God. We cannot make ourselves humble any more that we can save ourselves. Just as it is God Who humbles those who exalt themselves, it is God Who exalts those that are humbled and, more to the point, it is God who must teach us humility. Now here is a word that is not so troubling, and one that is more conducive to a solution. This is a far cry from humiliating ourselves, because, as the text states, “he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The importance here is not how we are humbled, but rather, how we are to become exalted. In considering this, there are three questions I would like to pose.

Who does the humbling?
Are we able to humble ourselves?
If we are able to humble ourselves, then why isn't it possible to exalt ourselves?

Before we attempt to actually answer any of these three questions, let me introduce a Biblical principle of interpretation — one that you will see repeated many times throughout this site. We cannot allow ourselves to attempt to determine the meaning of a text by considering any one text by itself. This is called “taking text out of context.” Most teachers of Scripture agree on this principle. I would like to take this a step further and declare, according to both the Old and New Testament, that we are to live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (See Deuteronomy 8:3 and Matthew 4:4) Taking something out of context does NOT just mean that a consideration of the entire “passage” will produce correct result. One mus consider "“every word” the proceeds from the mouth of God. This means the entire Bible must be explored to deduce a correct understand and coplete perspective on any point of Scripture. One text, or even one passage cannot be allowed to establish doctrine or give meaning to a point under consideration.

So, having said this, let's consider a couple of text/passages that might shed a little light on the topic of humility and how it is achieved. The first passage is found in the Book of Exodus, where God is addressing the Pharoah in Egypt that refuses to let His people go. He states,

“How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.” Exodus 10:3

The term used here — humble thyself — is very comparable to the term we are discussing. Did the pharoah humble himself? If one has read the story of the Hebrew deliverance from bondage in Egypt, he/she would have to conclude that he did not. Again and again, God prompted him to humble himself and let His people go, so they could freely worship Him in a land to which He was to lead them. But, again and again, the pharoah refuse to relent — to humble himself. Did he ever humble himself? No, he did not, but in the end, he was humbled, nonetheless. Although he held firm to his determination, even after God revealed His power and ability to deliver His people numerous times. In the end, the pharoah did decide to let God's people go, but it was not until he suffered the loss of his first-born son. But then, even after he allowed God's people to flee into the wilderness, he mustered his armies and pursued, with the intention of destroying every last one of them. How was he humbled? He humiliated himself.

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