#DailyDevotion Humility Leads To Eternal Glory

1 Peter 5⁶All of you, be clothed with humility before one another because God opposes the proud but is gracious to the humble. Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand so that He may honor you at the right time. ⁷Turn all your worry over to Him because He cares for you. ⁸Keep a clear head and watch! Your enemy, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. ⁹Be strong in your faith and resist him, knowing that your fellow Christians in the world are going through the same kind of suffering. ¹⁰After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, Who called you in Christ Jesus to share in His everlasting glory, will make you perfect, firm and strong. ¹¹He has the power forever. Amen.

Well we have two contrasting things in this passage, humility and glory. First, Peter encourages us to clothed with humility before one another. This is because “God opposed the proud but is gracious to the humble.” But what does this mean? Paul says in Romans 12³ “As God gave me His gift of grace for every one of you, I tell you, don’t think too highly of yourselves, but take a sane view of yourselves…” and again, ¹⁰“Love one another tenderly as fellow Christians. Outdo one another in showing respect.” Paul tells us in Philippians 2³ “Don’t be selfish or proud, but humbly treat others as better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you, don’t be interested in your own things, rather in the things of others.”



Jesus tells us in Matthew 20²⁵“You know the rulers of the nations are lords over them, and their great men are tyrants over them. ²⁶But among you it’s different. Anyone who wants to become great among you let him be your servant, ²⁷and You know the rulers of the nations are lords over them, and their great men are tyrants over them. ²⁶But among you it’s different. Anyone who wants to become great among you let him be your servant, ²⁷and any one who wants to be first among you let him be your slave, ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.”

So having a humility before one another is thinking of yourself soberly, i.e. rightly, to love others and to treat others as deserving more honor, to be interested in other people’s well being and to serve one another as Christ Jesus has served us. But we are to humble ourselves before God as well. Peter tells us to ⁷“Turn all your worry over to Him because He cares for you.” That is we are to rely upon God for all good things. It is in this way we resist the devil who seeks to devour us. If we are turning our worries over to God and seeking his help in all ways then the devil cannot convince us to rely upon ourselves, our own power, our own thinking like he did with Adam.

The result of this humility is God will honor us at the right time. With what sort of honor should we be looking for? Well not for the sort we would receive in this life. That is much too small a thing. No, Peter tells us he has called us in Christ Jesus to share in God’s everlasting glory. To share in God’s glory is to participate in the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4) To bear God’s glory is our hope as Christian and is what we rejoice in. What this will be like is really beyond all words but Christ gives us a glimpse of it at his transfiguration. To God be the glory. Amen.

Heavenly Father, you call us to humble ourselves before our fellow man and before you even has Christ Jesus did for our redemption. Grant us your Holy Spirit that we may truly be humble in your eyes, serve our fellow man and be exalted by you in due season. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.