“If humility is self-forgetfulness, it will never be attained through continual self-monitoring. However, if humility is self-forgetfulness, how are we to remember to forget ourselves?” (Quote from the Porterbrook Learning Module: Gospel Relationships)
Think of a scenario where humility is an issue for a Christian friend. How would you counsel that person with the gospel? How would it differ if they were not a Christian?
I believe the statement above sums up the tension in addressing pride in myself & in other people whether they be Christian or non-Christian.
In regards to counseling or addressing an issue of humility in someone else I believe the answer is the same as it is for addressing it in me for the answer is Christ.
I believe that only a consistent & accurate proclamation & contemplation of the person & work of Christ applied to a sinner’s heart will produce personal holiness characterized by humility.
The model of Christ; ministry of Christ; cross of Christ; servant hood of Christ; love of Christ; sacrifice of Christ; power of Christ; faithfulness of Christ; forgiveness of Christ; majesty of Christ; glory of Christ; friendship of Christ; supremacy of Christ; teaching of Christ; etc., etc., etc., the list could go on and on and should go on as we decrease and Christ increases.
This pursuit of pride wrecking humility really is a daily war with our sinful tendencies while clinging to the person & work of Jesus as He through the power of the Spirit magnifies himself more and more in our souls.
The longer I walk with Jesus the more I realize my own sinfulness. My tendencies towards superiority, sense of arrival, need to fix others & desire to win the fight and boast of my super intellectual prowess just scratches the tip of the iceberg in terms of my deep, deep need for Christ to save me & change me & remind me that I am but a small speck in comparison to the vastness of all things created by an even bigger God who holds all things in His hand.
Our true need for pride murdering humility is the same and the answer is the same for all of us and the answer is simply… Jesus.
I would submit Philippians 2:1-11 for further meditation…
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.