Just a Speck

“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love…” Ephesians 4:2 NASB

     Humility may seem everywhere nowadays with self-deprecating humor and the self-rejection we’ve adopted in pursuit of validating others, but true humility, actual modesty usually feels absent in today’s culture. Why is that? Part of it may have to do with the growing trend over the years toward false humility. We are told we are to be humble, yet at the same time we’re told to be confident and self-assured. Some of us try to be humble like it’s stiff business attire we must put on and then chaff within while around the alpha males and alpha females who by nature laugh at humility with their exalted demeanor. Yet, for most of us, I think that it is a lot more like trying to find the balance between humility and confidence the same way Goldilocks was trying to find that just-right porridge. But, what is humility anyway?

     The Bible’s definition in Ephesians 4:2 literally means humiliation of the mind or a deep sense of one’s littleness. It is further driven home by the fact that gentleness also suggests humility in the Greek but more toward a gentleness or humility of spirit. When we consider the vastness of the universe that our God created, it’s not hard to be humbled. We are but specks dotting a grain of sand, on a beach, on an island in a lake…we don’t even get to lay claim to being dots on a grain of sand on a beach of the ocean. Yet, through the One Who created it all, we are called sons and daughters despite our littleness.   

     Ephesians 4:2 goes on to say that we must be patient, or my favorite usage of the word long-suffering in tolerance. Now, this is not today’s use of tolerance. This is not what we have come to call tolerance or show as tolerance in today’s culture. Thank God. The Bible’s use of tolerance means to hold up, to endure and to put up with each other. Here we are being told to put up with one another in love and not just any sort of love but the good will, affectionate, charitably-dear type of love.  

     I wonder what would happen if we could just work toward being the embodiment of this verse as the Body of Christ? Imagine the amount of light that God could pour into this world through our living this verse out? Like, what if every Generation X’er, Xennial and Millennial decided to put as much effort into living this verse as we do bucking conformity, talking about tolerance and saying we love, how different would our world become if we just did it?

     How can you better live this verse out? In what ways do you struggle with humility, patience and showing loving tolerance? In what ways can you strengthen your representation of Christ by cultivating these qualities?

Until Next Time

God Bless