Zambia Hunt

Dear CABU Student,

I write you this morning to exhort you to pursue Jesus Christ and thus pursue humility. CS Lewis is credited with saying that “humility is not thinking meanly of yourself, it is not thinking of yourself at all.”

How many of our daily problems are the direct result of pride that lurks in our hearts. This may be seen as the desire for recognition or the feeling of disappointment or offense when overlooked. It is the critical reaction to your critic, or the shrinking back and removing yourself from your ministry because of his censure.

There is a great danger, Dear Student, on the path you now find yourself. Education is a blessing, but it is also can be a moral trap. Our flesh looks for any opportunity to elevate itself over others, to feed its ego, to demand its rights.

I’m convinced that at the root of all conflict with others are the tentacles of pride in one or both parties. The more knowledge you gain will be leveraged by your sinful nature, and very soon you may be puffed up. Be vigilant!

Others have written more eloquently than I can on this subject that I wish to warn you of. Allow me to quote these words from Gospel Powered Humility, but receive it as coming from my heart also. 

“Pride tempts those zealous for knowledge. An aspiring leader pursues knowledge, but he does so to gain the respect of others. His learning morphs into a distorted thing. Because the devil knows this he will push and drive this process.

“Knowledge is crucial: we can never have enough. But there is a right and wrong reason to pursue it. Hunger to know and love God is the right reason. Intellectual respectability-the admiration of others—is the wrong reason. It is an expression of pride. God will resist it.

“Here lies the great danger of formal theological education it will motivate gospel-compromise. To the mind of unbelief there is nothing respectable about the gospel, and there is no way to make it respectable without converting the unbeliever.

“This sin is hard to detect. Here are some telltale symptoms:

• Do you delight in quoting authors that others find hard to read? 
• Do you pursue advanced degrees to earn the admiration and respect of your peers? 
• Do you talk about the books you read in order to gain the respect of others? 
• If you went to a prestigious university, is your identity rooted in the institution? If it is not prestigious, are you ashamed of it?

It would be better to be ignorant than to be a slave of intellectual pride. ’All of us possess knowledge,’ Paul observes: “Knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. (1 Cor. 8:1-3)

Knowledge For The Right Reasons

This passage implies three truths. First, knowledge pursued for the right reasons enhances our fellowship with God. The man who uses knowledge to better love and serve God will be “known by God.” He will enjoy intimacy with God. That is because the pursuit of knowledge for the right reasons is an expression of humility, and God draws near to the humble.

Second, Paul implies that knowledge pursued for the right reasons deepens our contact with reality. It has a humbling effect. True knowledge makes us feel ignorant. By contrast, knowledge pursued for the wrong reasons makes us proud of our knowledge.

Third, Paul implies that knowledge pursued for the right reasons produces love. It builds other people up. But knowledge pursued for the wrong reasons produces arguments, quarreling over theological minutiae, and endless splits and divisions.

“Intellectual pride replicates itself. Students of the proud become proud.” 

Remember, you produce what you are, not what you say!

Mt. 23:15: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

My greatest fear for you Dear Student is that you be educated beyond your spiritual intelligence. This, I fear is the cause of many of the conflicts and tensions that exist between older pastors, and the young men who they have sent away for theological training. 

A Word To My Older Friends

A word at this juncture to you dear elder Pastor. Are you not to model patience, humility and live for your Timothys rather than viewing them as a threat to your position? Dear brother, this too is pride! Pride of position, and pride of place. Please dear brother, show us Christ! (Phil. 2:5-8)

Dear CABU alumni, you were taught to be a man of honesty, obedience, wisdom, and service, and for four years we modeled those core values before you. It is the service value I wish to press on you today.

You must humble yourself in service to God and to his church, and the leadership He has placed over you. Humility will ensure you serve obediently and well! “Knowledge is the fuel that feeds the spiritual fire that glows in the heart of God’s servants.” (Gospel Powered Humility, p.177)

If you feel that you are more intelligent, more equipped, better prepared than the pastor of your church, it may be that the root of pride is producing this fruit in your mind. Brother, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think soberly, humbly!

A Final Word

So how do we nurture humility in our lives, and how do we mortify pride? Allow me to quote once again from Gospel Powered Humility:

“The gospel is the remedy. The cross, not knowledge, must always be our identification. The cross is never intellectually fashionable. You must be growing in humility to preach it, and its proclamation will increase your humility. The offense of the cross is the first casualty of the lust for intellectual respect-ability. Learn, study, and grow in the knowledge of God, but always scrutinize your motives. (Gospel Powered Humility, p.178)”

Dear CABU Student, choose humility and in so doing you will be like your Lord and Master Jesus Christ!