The Essential Quality of Christianity
If you could name just one quality that every believer must have, what would it be? There are many options: Love, repentance, brokenness, holiness, and others you could list. However, let me share a popular verse with you, that I believe suggests what the most essential quality for a Christian should me. II Chronicles 7:11 says, "If my people who are called by My name would humble themselves, and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land." There it is! The essential quality is humility! Too many times when preachers preach, or when teachers teach on this passage, the emphasis is on prayer. Or even the need to repent from sin. And yes, those are in the verse, and yes, they are key ingredients to faith. But, to get to those qualities, you first come to humility. We must humble ourselves. A friend of mine, Will Hall, states it this way, "This is important, because 'being humble' is the central tenet of every spiritual process: If you want salvation, you must first humble yourself. If you want to restore your fellowship with Christ, you must first humble yourself. If you want to mend broken relationships (spouse, friends, church members, children), you must first humble yourself." Repentance comes when God's Holy Spirit reveals your sin, and you humbly recognize you can't save yourself, and you need a Savior. In spiritual maturity, you are never more like Christ than when you humble yourself. Paul says in Philippians 2, "Let this mind be in you...being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto the point of death, even the death of the cross." Micah 6:8 reminds us, "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." There is no place in the Christian faith for an arrogant believer. There is no place in the Church of Jesus Christ for a conceited church member. Humility recognizes that apart from Christ, I am nothing. Humility knows that I am just a sinner saved by His amazing grace! Humility bows the knee knowing that one day, "every knee will bow, of those in heaven, and on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." You want to glorify your Father in Heaven? Begin by humbling yourself!
If you could name just one quality that every believer must have, what would it be? There are many options: Love, repentance, brokenness, holiness, and others you could list. However, let me share a popular verse with you, that I believe suggests what the most essential quality for a Christian should me. II Chronicles 7:11 says, "If my people who are called by My name would humble themselves, and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land." There it is! The essential quality is humility! Too many times when preachers preach, or when teachers teach on this passage, the emphasis is on prayer. Or even the need to repent from sin. And yes, those are in the verse, and yes, they are key ingredients to faith. But, to get to those qualities, you first come to humility. We must humble ourselves. A friend of mine, Will Hall, states it this way, "This is important, because 'being humble' is the central tenet of every spiritual process: If you want salvation, you must first humble yourself. If you want to restore your fellowship with Christ, you must first humble yourself. If you want to mend broken relationships (spouse, friends, church members, children), you must first humble yourself." Repentance comes when God's Holy Spirit reveals your sin, and you humbly recognize you can't save yourself, and you need a Savior. In spiritual maturity, you are never more like Christ than when you humble yourself. Paul says in Philippians 2, "Let this mind be in you...being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto the point of death, even the death of the cross." Micah 6:8 reminds us, "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." There is no place in the Christian faith for an arrogant believer. There is no place in the Church of Jesus Christ for a conceited church member. Humility recognizes that apart from Christ, I am nothing. Humility knows that I am just a sinner saved by His amazing grace! Humility bows the knee knowing that one day, "every knee will bow, of those in heaven, and on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." You want to glorify your Father in Heaven? Begin by humbling yourself!
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