One Simple Way to Demonstrate Love and Humility : Baptist Bible Hour

One Simple Way to Demonstrate Love and Humility

Posted by: Justin on August 18, 2011

I used the following quote from Kevin DeYoung’s blog in my message Sunday morning.

As Paul speaks in Galatians 6:1-5 of the importance of humility – of recognizing we are nothing in and of ourselves — he instructs us to make much of the free salvation we have in Christ by making much of our neighbor for Christ’s sake (i.e. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ”).

I found Kevin DeYoung’s post a very helpful and practical example of how we can begin bearing one another’s burdens, loving our neighbor as our self:

“The humble person does not draw attention to his humility; he draws conversation out of you.

There are hundreds of ways to love and a myriad of ways to demonstrate humility. But one of the most effective ways to accomplish both is to simply ask questions. True, it’s possible to be nothing but a smooth talking salesmen who cares little for the actual person across the table. But every virtue can be faked from time to time. So let’s not let that deter us from giving others the gift of our curiosity.

Almost everyone loves to talk about themselves. So loving others as we want to be loved should entail asking lots of questions. Ask how the couple met. Ask what their kids are like. Ask what their plans are for the summer. Ask what you do with a packaging degree. Ask where they learned to speak French. Ask when they first came to the United States. Ask what they miss about being at home. Ask if they’ve seen any good movies or read any good books. Ask where they’re from and what they are studying in school. Ask about their health and their jobs. Ask about sports or the weather or the local news. In time, ask about Jesus. Ask about their church. Ask about what they’re learning in the Bible. Ask how the difficult conversation went last week. Ask how you can pray. . . .

What I am saying is that most of us need to see conversation as a way to care for others and not as something we wait fo others to do for us. It would be an exercise of courageous humility for many Christians (especially the young) to make the family dinner table or the church foyer an audience of for our questions instead of our quietness. Not to put too fine a point on it, many of us, pastors by no means excepted, need to grow in our ability and desire to simply talk to others. Love your neighbor as yourself and make him the center of your attention.”

You can read the entire post here >

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