To be a man is, fundamentally, to be humble.

*Men's breakfast talk, Nov 2, 2024. 

OPENER: Role models as you grew up (uncles, cousins, pastor). Q- Who were/are your role models?

PAST Men’s Breakfasts we’ve considered various questions about manhood. Today we want to consider the 1st and 2nd Adam (Adam and Jesus, c.f. 1 Cor 15) as role models. If there is one thing they have in common it is humility.

Worldly men/boys are portrayed as vastly different in the media, etc, than spiritual men since the Fall. Q- How do we see this?

1st ADAM
Adam was our example and role model in humility as the first man. Humility may be defined as: a) entire dependence on God (vertical-think the Great Commandment- ‘loving God’), and b) counting others as more significant than yourself (Phil 2, horizontal-again, the Great Commandment- ‘loving others’). It isn’t about a false modesty but seeing yourself rightly (in relation to God and others).

Activity for the boys- practice bowing and kneeling prostrate, explaining the meaning.

However, the Fall changed all of this. Read Gen 3:5. What was the first sin? It was prIde, the desire to be as God: to be worshipped, served, to set right and wrong, etc.

In ADAM
Story: When I was a teenager an elderly man whom I did not know stopped me on the street to ask if I was Jack Crocker’s grandson. He didn’t know me but knew I looked like my grandfather!

Q- Are there any family resemblances amongst our boys/fathers here today?

As Adam’s descendants the spiritual apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. We are all proud.

Activity for the boys: How might we act out being proud (pointing, strutting, crossed arms)? Can we act this out? Very different from bowing!?

In Adam we follow his pride, not his humility.

2nd ADAM
Jesus did what the 1st Adam couldn’t do, He perfectly obeyed the Father, earning believer’s His righteousness. He also died a perfect death, the death we deserve to die, so believer’s might have forgiveness. He even rose from the dead so that He might offer us new life. All of this He did through humility (Phil 2- humility horseshoe).

Q- How did Jesus show humility?

Jesus humility is the means of salvation; our humility to the Gospel the means of receiving it. To be saved me must become utterly humble.

Activity for the boys: Using a retractable poll we played LIMBO!

In CHRIST
Once we are saved by faith (justified) we go on being saved by the Spirit (sanctification), in which humility is just as important, indeed a fruit of the Spirit! Read Col 2:6.

Q- How were we called? (we have some newly baptized believers here) (humility, repentance, faith, etc). We’re called to continue to walk in this same way.
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Today, to be a man is to be humble. Q- How can we display humility as men of God today?
Christ is our role model, and as we follow Him, we are the role model of humility for others (1 Cor 11:1). 

Our world is obsessed with itself (yet “God opposes the proud,” Ja 4:6). Think of how vain we can be when we shamelessly draw attention to ourselves[1]:

• Look at what I’m wearing
• Look at what I’ve done
• Look at how I helped so and so
• Look at what I have
• Look at what they gave ME
• Look at what they did for ME
• And so on…

We love to make a spectacle of ourselves but this is detestable in God’s sight, it does not see ourselves truly in relation to God or to others. We must repent of this. It is only when we humble ourselves that God will exalt us in forgiveness and favour (Ja 4:6). This is why Jesus had so much to say about His followers pursuing self-modesty. We’re to be like Jesus who gave up the glory of heaven to serve others (Phil 2). Jesus was humble.
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Think of how Jesus commanded his followers to pray in secret (Mt 6:5–6), fast without flaunting it (Mt 6:16–18), give in secret (Lk 21:1) and take the less prestigious seats at gatherings (Lk 14:10). Listen to how Jesus described vanity in His own words on the subject of giving to the needy and how seriously he condemns it (Mt 6:1–4):

6 “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

There is no place for vanity amongst Christ’s followers. We do not make a spectacle of self but live to give all glory to Christ. Let us not live empty lives but full lives that centre upon Him.


[1] It is not wrong to speak of oneself discretely, but what is our motive? That is always the most important question. We can appropriately share in natural conversation with others about our lives when we’re mutually interested in others and when what we share is in the pursuit of sharing wholesome truths (e.g. come see the birds at my feeder, I think you’ll really be interested vs. I’ve got a new feeder, come see how nice it is). 

Why do people pursue vanity? For some it is sheer pride, the desire to be God. For others it comes for competition's sake. Still others do it to meet some unmet need in their life (relational affirmation). On the latter, they ought to find affirmation through knowing the love of Christ through faith in Him, which of course is what all three ultimately need.

Long title; short blog.
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To many people the knowledge of God can lead to pride: that they know Him, how much they know about or of Him. Scripture paints a very different picture. The knowledge of God is humbling:

1. Without Him stepping in to reveal Himself to us we could know very little about Him. Ro 1: 20 limits such knowledge as being of His divine nature and eternal power. Surely we couldn’t know such an infinite God as finite creatures in any meaningful sense if He didn’t take the initiative to reveal Himself further.
2. God must reveal Himself then to us so that we might know Him. He did so through His written Word (2 Ti 3:16) and by sending His Son (Jn 1:4, 14:7–8).
3. A correct knowledge of God is only possible by His help. When Peter acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 16:17)
4. Coming to a saving knowledge of God through belief in Jesus itself, because of the blindness caused by our sin, is only possible because of God’s actions. Throughout the Gospel of John this is made clear, “no one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (Jn 6:44).
5. Once we’ve believed in Jesus our sanctification and increasing relational knowledge of God remains dependent upon Him too. We need His grace to help us grow in faith (2 Pet 3:18a).
6. Even doctrinal knowledge of God is based upon God’s grace. His common grace to give us minds to think, and His Spirit who helps us to spiritually discern the spiritual truths of Scripture (1 Cor 2:14).
7. The more you know about God the more you realize how little you know. The finite learning of the infinite.
8. Knowing God as we are known by Him (1 Cor 13:12), produces a certain mystery, “What is man that you are mindful of him.” (Ps 8:4)

The Christian knowledge of God, from start to finish, is of grace. There is no room for pride in the knowledge of God, only humility, for such knowledge is not worked up but shone down. This radically changes our outlook as we are graced with humility. Though we are still bold in proclaiming our knowledge of Him, no longer is there any room for pride. When we speak of the reason for the hope that is in us we will do so in gentleness and respect. It has been my experience that this greatly alters, in an advantageous way, how we go about evangelism, apologetics and debates.

May we know Christ and make Him known, in humility. Surely, the Lord will use this for His glory.