Paul the apostle wrote, “Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.”
– 1 Thessalonians 5:21
Consider the following illustration: suppose you were stranded in the desert without water and you came across two people. One person said, “I have water and here is the evidence that proves it to be clean and healthy. Test it for yourself.” The second person said, “Don’t listen to that combative fellow who wants to test everything. Do I have water? I don’t know if I do or not. It could be poison. I’m not going to allow you to test it, but let’s drink it together and see what happens.” Who is humble and who is arrogant?
Is there such a thing as false humility? There is. Paul wrote in Colossians 2:23 that some had a “show” of humility, but were not truly being humble. These were humble in appearance only, but not actually. So also, those who today “don’t claim to have the answer” are only being apparently humble. The truth is that they want you to believe what they are putting forth, but they want you to believe it without setting forth any evidence or allowing you to subject their beliefs to criticism. Such is truly the height of arrogance. They are also hypocrites. They are hypocritical because while they verbally deny any claim to knowledge, they certainly don’t live like that. If they lived consistently with their claim to not know the answer, they would give up their unknowable beliefs. The fact is that they live their lives based upon the things that they are teaching to others; their claim “not to know” what they believe and practice is inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst.
What do you do when someone says to you, “You may be right and I may be wrong”? You ask questions like, “Then why are you living the way that you are living?” “If you may be wrong, then why don’t you give up what you are doing?” “If you don’t know, then why are you teaching others the things that you believe?”
The truth is that their comment “You may be right” is simply a ploy for them to escape criticism of their beliefs. It is simply a way to not have to defend what they are teaching to be true. It is intellectually dishonest, arrogant, and hypocritical.
Like the church at Colossae, we have allowed individuals who use such ploys to redefine humility. We need to come back to the true standard of humility. Humility isn’t shrugging your shoulders and saying, “I don’t know” but I want you to believe what I’m saying anyway. Humility is offering up what you have, defending it, and allowing others to either accept or reject it based upon a rigorous evaluation of the evidence. As a Christian, I have no fear of that process. On the contrary, those who reject rigorous examinations of their beliefs have everything to fear.
For part 1 of this epistle, check out The True Test of Humility (Part 1 of 2)