Humility and the Word.

Even a casual reading of Scripture reveals a profound connection between humility and grace {Lk. 18:14; Jms. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5c}. But can we pause for just a moment to look at humility in relation to the Word. What’s our attitude toward the Word of God? It’s one of the critical questions.

Professor Dallas Willard, in his book The Divine Conspiracy, describes how as a college student he found his way into the requisite practices of Life in the Spirit of Christ almost by accident. He describes his discovery like this.

In particular, I had learned that intensity is crucial for any progress in spiritual perception and understanding. To dribble a few verses or chapters of Scripture on oneself through the week, in church or out, will not reorder one’s mind and spirit— just as one drop of water every five minutes will not get you a shower, no matter how long you keep it up. You need a lot of water at once and for a sufficiently long time. Similarly for the written Word.

...Hence one cannot tack an effective, life-transforming practice of prayer and study onto ‘life as usual.’ Life as usual must go. It will be replaced by something far better.” {Some Italics Mine}

Scripture is the mind of Jesus Christ {1 Cor. 2:16b}, the voice of His Spirit speaking directly to our hearts. So, what’s your honest attitude toward the Word? Apathy, indifference, take it or leave it? To know our Father intimately we have to know His heart toward us. And His heart toward us is revealed in the Mission and Ministry of the Messiah! You want to know what Abba is like? Look in faith at the Son. Because we’ll never see the full image of the Father, we’ll never see God clearly— without distraction and distortion— unless we look through the lens of the Son. Jesus came to show us what Abba is really like: not the false images which abound, not the vanity of our own imaginings, not the cultic deity of pagan superstition, but the real, the only, the One true God.

You see, your theology is, in essence, your approach to God— your understanding of Abba. And if your theology is not setting you free, bringing you a greater sense of courage in Life, bravery in the Battle, then what good is it... in Time or Eternity? Maybe your theology is not as accurate as you think it is. The other option is that you don’t really believe what you’ve been taught, you don’t trust the teaching you’ve received. Which means, essentially, you haven’t really received it— in the Scriptural sense of the term. You with me here?

There’s a particular term used in the Greek of the NT, a very specifically chosen term from among the multitude of images available which picture what it means to receive in faith what God has given in grace. The word is hupakouo, an intensified form of the root verb akouo = ‘hear and understand.’ Hupakouo carries the ideas of ‘obedience to, of following fully, of embracing something or someone in complete surrender.’ After researching the nuances of this term over and over again in the early years of my ministry, here’s how I chose to define it. Hupakouo means = hear with the ear, comprehend with the mind, and obey with the will {Rom. 6:16 and 10:16; Phil. 2:12; 2 Thes. 1:8; of Jesus as the Source of Salvation in Heb. 5:9 and Abraham’s unyielding obedience in 11:8; and of the elements under Jesus’ authority in Mat. 8:27, Mk. 4:41, and Lk. 8:25}. Is this us?

If you will pull up on the ‘Interwebs’ the YouTube clip of Chinese Christians receiving their first Bibles, smuggled in under Communists’ noses no doubt, you will see the Sons and Daughters of the Great King weeping with joy, kissing the precious Book of Life and holding it to their foreheads in adoration. There’s all the imagery we need to test whether our love for the Living Word is evidenced by our passion for His Message ...or whether we’re ready to sell the Scriptures out the first time totalitarianism comes knocking on our door!

Ric Webb, Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
hjcommunity.org