Jesus defined the greatest command like this:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:29-31).

Obviously, love is massively important.

But many of us don’t love like we should. Why? Because of our pride and ego. In fact, the great church Father Augustine referred to pride as the core sin. And when our core is selfish, it rots and contaminates everything else we try to say or do.

In short, you can’t be Christ-centred and self-centred at the same time.

That’s why we need to cultivate humility if we want to be more Christ-centred and loving.

By its very definition, there can only be one centre to something; there can only be one core. If our centre is so full of our own selfish pride and ego, that means there is no room for Christ to enter and do his work through our heart, mind and hands.

So, how do you cultivate humility? One idea is to simply confess your mistakes to God frequently.

Yup, super simple. But critical. Confessing our mistakes to God in prayer reminds us that we are, in fact, very human and fallible. It reminds us that we are not superior and have no claim to be pretentious. It cultivates humility of spirit, and that helps lay the groundwork to be more loving to the people around you.

You can’t be Christ-centred and self-centred at the same time.

So cultivate humility and confess your mistakes to God frequently.

By Matthew Ruttan
–Bible quotes are from the NIV.