How Can I Grow in Humility as I Grow in Knowledge? - Ask Pastor John

Video from Desiring God

How Can I Grow in Humility as I Grow in Knowledge? - Ask Pastor John

"Audio Transcript

You know that tension Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians — “Love builds up, but knowledge puffs up” (see 1 Corinthians 8:1)? It’s quite the dilemma, isn’t it? I mean, how do you grow in knowledge without growing in pride?

Growing in knowledge without growing in pride is something that’s been on your mind for years, hasn’t it, Pastor John? Some of you might even remember that we just touched on this last summer, in episode 2079, “The Pitfalls of Being a Thinker.” We’re back to it because a listener named Moses (great name) is wrestling with this as he packs up for Bible college.

“Hello, Pastor John! I just want to thank you for how Ask Pastor John has served my soul in the very darkest times of life, focusing my attention back on the glory of Christ. I have a question regarding preparation. I’m going to Bible college soon. I want the Lord to use this training in my life so that I bear much fruit for him. But with going to Bible college I fear that I will become prideful, arrogant, and knowledge-reliant instead of relying on the Holy Spirit. My question: How do I effectively make it so that everything that I learn changes my heart, and not just vainly informs my mind?”

Pride and Its Schemes

Let me start with an illustration from my own experience about fighting pride. When I finished graduate school — and that means finishing 22 years of formal education between the ages of 6 and 28 without a break — I took a position, when all that education was done, as a college professor teaching Greek and biblical studies. At the same time, I published my dissertation and began to write articles for leading journals in the guild of New Testament studies. I wanted to make an impact for the sake of biblical truthfulness. I wanted to make observations from the Bible, arguments for true interpretations of the Bible to the glory of Christ. So, I prayed.

But then a fear arose several years into that teaching and writing life. The fear arose that what Moses (in this question to us) expresses is a real problem — namely, am I becoming prideful in my pursuit of publishing? Specifically, am I pursuing the praise of man rather than loving the people of God? Am I seeking to exalt myself rather than to be a servant who counts others more significant than myself? I became so troubled by this question and the uncertainty of my own motives that I decided to shift my focus (at least temporarily) from publication to teaching my students, giving most of my energy for the sake of my classes at the college rather than publication.

“The battle against pride must be fought mainly at the inward, unseen, spiritual level of the heart.”

And here’s what I discovered. Not long after I began to devote most of my energy to being an effective and caring teacher in the classroom, I began to have the same suspicions about my motives in doing that. Did I get inappropriate amounts of pleasure from being complimented by students for lectures or devotions? Did I want to have good student evaluations at the end of the semester more than I wanted their spiritual good?

The True Battlefield

Here’s the lesson I learned: Pride is an enemy of the soul that is so insidious it will stalk you down no matter how many outward strategies you devise to avoid it. The battle against pride must be fought mainly at the inward, unseen, spiritual level of the heart, not mainly at the level of outward circumstances — that is, whether you’re publishing or teaching.

So, yes, Moses, going to Bible school and learning more and more about the Bible and about theology, about God, can lead to pride. The Pharisees probably knew more Bible than anybody else in Palestine, and they were the most proud. The human heart is desperately corrupt, deceitful, and can even take the most pride-destroying doctrines and make you proud that you hold them. Oh yes, advanced training in biblical studies can go hand in hand with a proud and arrogant spirit. Yes, it can.

But here’s the catch: The avoidance of advanced training in biblical studies can go hand in hand with a proud and arrogant spirit too. There are as many proud uneducated people as there are proud educated people. No class of people, no level of education or culture or riches or vocation, has a corner on pride. If you think that getting alone with the Holy Spirit, coming up with your own interpretations, and then telling other people what you think God has shown you is going to be a safeguard against pride, you are sorely mistaken. It is more likely that sitting in a classroom with other students listening to a wise professor would be a very humbling experience, rather than you presuming you could get everything you need by yourself with no input from the body of Christ.

So, how might you fight this inner battle, which can’t be won by changing your external circumstances? It can only be won by this inner spiritual warfare. Here are my suggestions. This is the way I’ve tried to fight pride.

Weapons of Humility

First, seek to be continually amazed that you are saved from hell, saved by sheer sovereign, undeserved, indescribably precious grace. Never get beyond the amazement that God saved you — that God chose you and Christ died for you and the Spirit drew you, and that he shows you patience a hundred times every day because of your shortcomings. Never let that become, in some satanic way, a ground for boasting, but always a ground for humility. “I’m saved — utterly undeserving me. I’m saved!” Let that be your chief amazement. Let it be your song.

“Take up the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and stab to death every rising temptation to magnify yourself.”

Second, keep near the front of your mind that absolutely everything you are and have is an undeserved gift. Paul says, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Say to God every day, “I’m not God. I’m not my own. I belong to you entirely. I’m not an owner; I’m a servant. I am utterly at your disposal. You can take me out anytime you want. You can do me no wrong that I don’t deserve.” Everything is an undeserved gift — every breath, every heartbeat. Keep that near the front of your mind.

Third, pray continually that God would act in your life to prevent you from being deceived that you are something when you are nothing. Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7). So, pray that God would work the miracle of self-forgetful humility in you and guard you from self-dependence and self-exaltation. Pray, pray, pray for this.

Fourth, in everything you do, set yourself to be a servant of other people in the name of Jesus. Don’t exalt yourself over others; live for the good of others. Measure all by love. Even if you are given some form of leadership, always think of it as a calling to be a servant of others. Live much in Philippians 2:1–11, until the mind of Christ is formed in you. Be a servant. Be a servant.

And finally, fifth, as Paul says in Romans 8:13, put to death by the Spirit every whiff of temptation to self-exaltation. Be on guard against the subtleties of pride, and take up the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and stab to death every rising temptation to magnify yourself.

So, Moses, whether you go to Bible school or don’t go to Bible school is not the issue. The issue is the battle within. I pray that God will give you great victory.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy." from the Transcript

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