{"id":115478,"date":"2026-09-14T12:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T16:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/?p=115478"},"modified":"2026-09-14T12:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T16:06:11","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-humility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/what-jesus-teaches\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-humility\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does the Bible Say About Humility? In Paul&#8217;s World, &#8220;Humble&#8221; Was an Insult"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>11 Minute, 28 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><p>Someone at work gets praised for a project. You helped. Maybe you helped a lot. But you say nothing, because you want to be humble.<\/p>\n\n<p>Later, at home, it still stings. And a quiet question sits there: <em>Is this what humility is supposed to feel like? Making myself small so nobody thinks I&#8217;m proud?<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p>If you have ever wondered that, you are asking one of the oldest questions in the Christian faith. So let&#8217;s ask it plainly: what does the Bible say about humility? The answer is more surprising than &#8220;think less of yourself.&#8221; It starts with a word that, in the world Paul wrote to, was not a compliment at all.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What Does the Bible Say About Humility? The Short Answer<\/h2>\n\n<p>The Bible says humility is walking humbly with God and putting other people&#8217;s good next to your own. Micah asks, &#8220;what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?&#8221; (Micah 6:8). Peter says, &#8220;God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble&#8221; (1 Peter 5:5).<\/p>\n\n<p>But the Bible&#8217;s clearest picture of humility is not a rule. It is a person. Paul&#8217;s letter to the Philippians says, &#8220;Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus&#8221; (Philippians 2:5). Then it tells the story of Jesus stepping down.<\/p>\n\n<p>To feel how strange that story was, you have to know what &#8220;humble&#8221; meant to the people who first heard it.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"bb8885f220\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/bb8885f220\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>In Paul&#8217;s World, &#8220;Humble&#8221; Was Not a Compliment<\/h2>\n\n<p>The Greek word behind &#8220;humble&#8221; in the New Testament is <em>tapeinos<\/em>. In everyday Greek, it meant low. Low to the ground. Low in rank. Poor, weak, or unimportant.<\/p>\n\n<p>When Greek writers used it about a person&#8217;s character, it usually sounded bad. It could mean servile, the way a slave was expected to act. It could mean grovelling, or flattering someone to get ahead. Greek moral teachers told people to avoid two extremes: arrogance on one side, and this kind of lowness on the other.<\/p>\n\n<p>To be fair, that is a general pattern, not a perfect rule. The word could be a good thing in a child, a soldier, or a subject who was simply obedient. But it was not the kind of thing a proud, free man hoped people would say about him.<\/p>\n\n<p>Here is a detail most people read right past. The noun Paul uses in Philippians 2:3, <em>tapeinophrosune<\/em>, which the King James Bible translates &#8220;lowliness of mind,&#8221; is very hard to find in any Greek writing before the New Testament. When a non-Christian philosopher like Epictetus uses it a generation later, it means something like a petty, small-hearted spirit. It was not on anyone&#8217;s list of virtues.<\/p>\n\n<p>Historian John Dickson makes a bigger version of this case in his 2011 book <em>Humilitas<\/em>: that humility became a widely admired virtue in the West largely because of the way Christians told the story of Jesus. Scholars argue about how far to push that. But the basic point holds. Paul was taking a word people did not want and telling them to want it.<\/p>\n\n<h2>But Israel Already Knew Something Greece Didn&#8217;t<\/h2>\n\n<p>This part matters, and it gets left out a lot. Humility was not invented in Philippians.<\/p>\n\n<p>Long before Paul, the Hebrew Scriptures honored the humble. Micah told Israel to &#8220;walk humbly with thy God.&#8221; The book of Numbers says, &#8220;Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth&#8221; (Numbers 12:3). Moses led a nation, and the Bible&#8217;s highest praise for him was that he was meek.<\/p>\n\n<p>So Paul was not making something up. He was carrying a truth from Israel&#8217;s Scriptures into a Greek-speaking, Roman-run city where that truth sounded backwards. And he did not just argue for it. He pointed to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Philippi: A City That Carved Its Rankings in Stone<\/h2>\n\n<p>Philippi was not just any city. Acts calls it &#8220;the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony&#8221; (Acts 16:12). A Roman colony. And Romans loved rank.<\/p>\n\n<p>An ambitious Roman man climbed a set ladder of public offices, one step higher at a time. It was called the <em>cursus honorum<\/em>, the &#8220;course of honors.&#8221; Smaller cities and even local clubs copied it in miniature. People put their titles on stone monuments so everyone walking by could see how high they had climbed.<\/p>\n\n<p>New Testament scholar Joseph Hellerman studied this in <em>Reconstructing Honor in Roman Philippi<\/em>. His point is simple and striking. When Paul describes Jesus in Philippians 2, he tells the story as that same ladder, but going the other way. Not a course of honors. A course of shame. Step after step, down.<\/p>\n\n<p>Now read the passage again with that city in your mind.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Philippians 2: Jesus Walks the Ladder Downward<\/h2>\n\n<p>&#8220;Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross&#8221; (Philippians 2:6-8).<\/p>\n\n<p>Count the steps down:<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>From the form of God<\/strong> to &#8220;no reputation.&#8221; In a city built on reputation, that is a shocking line.<\/li>\n<li><strong>To the form of a servant.<\/strong> The Greek word here is <em>doulos<\/em>, a slave. The very bottom of the ladder.<\/li>\n<li><strong>To death.<\/strong> Not a noble death, either.<\/li>\n<li><strong>To the cross.<\/strong> Romans used crucifixion for slaves, rebels and the lowest criminals, and generally not for their own citizens. It was the most shameful death they had.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Every Philippian who read those words knew what a monument looked like. This was a monument in reverse.<\/p>\n\n<p>And notice the verb: &#8220;he humbled himself.&#8221; Nobody forced Jesus down. He was not low because he had no choice. He chose the low place, while being the highest one in the room.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then comes verse 9: &#8220;Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.&#8221; Jesus did not climb. God lifted. Jesus said the same thing himself: &#8220;he that shall humble himself shall be exalted&#8221; (Matthew 23:12).<\/p>\n\n<h2>Humility Is a Strong Person&#8217;s Choice, Not a Weak Person&#8217;s Condition<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here is where it turns for us.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Greeks thought of <em>tapeinos<\/em> as a condition: something you were stuck in if you were a slave, or poor, or nobody. Paul shows it as a choice: something a person with real worth freely does out of love.<\/p>\n\n<p>That changes what humility asks of you. Look closely at the verses right before the hymn:<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others&#8221; (Philippians 2:3-4).<\/p>\n\n<p>Read that small word in verse 4 again: <strong>also<\/strong>. Not &#8220;never look at your own things.&#8221; <em>Also<\/em> look at the things of others. Your needs still count. Your work still counts. Humility does not erase you. It makes room beside you.<\/p>\n\n<p>That is why humility is not self-hatred. If you have ever heard &#8220;be humble&#8221; and taken it as &#8220;think you are worthless,&#8221; that is the Greek idea sneaking back in, not the Bible&#8217;s. (We looked at that honestly in <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/what-jesus-teaches\/is-it-a-sin-to-hate-yourself\/\">Is It a Sin to Hate Yourself?<\/a>) And it is not a ban on being glad about good work, either. Paul himself tells people to test their own work and find their joy in it, which we unpacked in <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bible-resources\/bible-answers\/is-it-a-sin-to-be-proud-of-yourself\/\">Is It a Sin to Be Proud of Yourself?<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p>Jesus could stoop because he knew exactly who he was. Humility comes easiest to people who are secure. It is very hard to lower yourself when you are afraid you are already at the bottom.<\/p>\n\n<p>So back to that moment at work. Humility does not mean pretending you did nothing. It might sound like, &#8220;Thanks. I helped with the numbers, and she did the hard part.&#8221; It is honest about you and generous about them. You are not shrinking. You are just not climbing over anyone.<\/p>\n\n<p>And there is a gift hidden in this. Jesus said, &#8220;I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls&#8221; (Matthew 11:29). The ladder never lets you rest. There is always someone one step higher. Humility gets you off the ladder. That is where the rest is.<\/p>\n\n<p>If you want to dig into more of the Bible&#8217;s hard questions like this one, you can ask our free <a href=\"https:\/\/chatgpt.com\/g\/g-6RiO699jI-bible-answers-ask-any-question-about-the-bible\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bible Answers AI assistant<\/a> (it opens in ChatGPT).<\/p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Humility isn&#8217;t making yourself small. It&#8217;s refusing to climb over anyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<h2>Actions to Take<\/h2>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Give away one credit today.<\/strong> Send a two-line message to someone whose help you have not thanked out loud. Name exactly what they did.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Say one honest &#8220;I helped.&#8221;<\/strong> The next time someone thanks you, don&#8217;t wave it away. Say &#8220;Thank you, I was glad to help,&#8221; and then name someone else who helped too. Practice the word &#8220;also.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Read Philippians 2:3-11 slowly, once.<\/strong> It takes about three minutes. Each time Jesus steps down, pause and ask: where is one place I am trying to step up over someone this week?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<h2>Journaling Prompts<\/h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li>When you hear the word &#8220;humble,&#8221; what do you picture? Where did that picture come from?<\/li>\n<li>Where in your life are you climbing a ladder, measuring yourself against someone one step above or below you?<\/li>\n<li>What would change if you believed your worth was already settled, so you had nothing to prove by staying high or making yourself low?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2>A Prayer for Humility<\/h2>\n\n<p>God, I confess I don&#8217;t always know the difference between being humble and hiding. Sometimes I climb over people to be seen, and sometimes I make myself small so no one thinks I&#8217;m proud. Teach me to see myself the way You see me, so I have nothing left to prove. Give me the mind that was in Jesus, who knew exactly who he was and chose to serve anyway. Help me look at my own things, and also at the things of others. Amen.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Discussion Question<\/h2>\n\n<p>Do you think the world today treats humility more like the Greeks did, as weakness, or more like Paul did, as strength? Share your thoughts in the comments below.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"bb8885f220\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/bb8885f220\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Share This<\/h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;In Paul&#8217;s world, &#8216;humble&#8217; was a word for a slave. Then Philippians 2 told the story of Jesus stepping down on purpose. Humility isn&#8217;t weakness. It&#8217;s a choice only a secure person can make.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I always thought humility meant thinking less of myself. Philippians 2:4 says look at your own things AND the things of others. That one word &#8216;also&#8217; changed it for me.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The ladder never lets you rest. There&#8217;s always someone one step higher. Jesus said &#8216;I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.&#8217; Getting off the ladder is where the rest is.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2>Q&amp;A: What the Bible Says About Humility<\/h2>\n\n<h3>What does the Bible say about humility?<\/h3>\n<p>The Bible describes humility as walking humbly with God and caring about other people&#8217;s good alongside your own. Micah 6:8 asks what the LORD requires &#8220;but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God,&#8221; and 1 Peter 5:5 says &#8220;God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.&#8221; The fullest picture is Philippians 2:5-8, which describes Jesus choosing to take &#8220;the form of a servant&#8221; and humbling himself even to death on a cross.<\/p>\n\n<h3>What does the Greek word for humble mean in the Bible?<\/h3>\n<p>The main Greek word for humble in the New Testament is tapeinos, which in ordinary Greek meant low, poor, weak, or of low rank. Greek moral writers usually used it negatively for servile or grovelling behavior. The related noun tapeinophrosune, translated &#8220;lowliness of mind&#8221; in Philippians 2:3 in the King James Version, is very rare in Greek writing before the New Testament and was not treated as a virtue in the wider Greek world.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Does biblical humility mean thinking less of yourself?<\/h3>\n<p>No. Biblical humility is not self-hatred or pretending to be worthless. Philippians 2:4 says &#8220;Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others,&#8221; and the word &#8220;also&#8221; means a person&#8217;s own needs still count. In Philippians 2, Jesus humbles himself from a place of full identity and security, which shows humility as a free choice to serve rather than a low opinion of oneself.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Why did Paul write about humility to the church in Philippi?<\/h3>\n<p>Philippi was a Roman colony, as Acts 16:12 notes, and Roman culture prized climbing a ladder of public honors called the cursus honorum. New Testament scholar Joseph Hellerman argues that Paul framed Philippians 2:6-8 as that ladder in reverse, with Jesus stepping down from equality with God to a servant and then to the cross. Paul used this picture to call a status-conscious church to stop competing for rank and to serve one another.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Did Christianity invent humility as a virtue?<\/h3>\n<p>Not exactly. The Hebrew Scriptures praised humility long before the New Testament, calling Moses &#8220;very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth&#8221; in Numbers 12:3 and telling Israel to &#8220;walk humbly with thy God&#8221; in Micah 6:8. What changed was that the early church carried this idea into the Greek and Roman world, where lowliness was usually seen as a weakness, and grounded it in the story of Jesus choosing the low place.<\/p>        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"115478\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\" title=\"\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"twp-reaction-title\">\n                        Happy                    <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"twp-count-percent\">\n                                                    <span style=\"display: none;\" 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In Paul&#8217;s world, &#8220;humble&#8221; was a word for a slave or a nobody. Philippians 2 shows how Jesus made it a strong choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[669,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-answers","category-what-jesus-teaches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115479,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115478\/revisions\/115479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}