The cardinal virtue is humility. It stands opposite pride and ego.

So the more you cultivate humility, with God’s help, the more you prepare yourself to be a more loving person.

In fact, and just in case you need some extra motivation to cultivate humility in your life, check out James 4:6: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

That’s right. God OPPOSES the proud, but shows FAVOR to the humble. That gives you a sense of how big of a problem pride is. If you’re egotistical and self-centred, God will OPPOSE you.

Here’s how I define humility. It’s being down-to-earth, unpretentious, and honest about who you are for the benefit of others.

I think that’s a helpful definition. After all, the word humility has its origin in “humus,” meaning soil or earth. So being down-to-earth really captures something about the essence of humility. It’s being unpretentious (instead of pretentious) and honest (instead of boastful) about who you are for the benefit of others.

In light of all this, Christians need to work at eliminating any personal and selfish agendas that don’t honour Christ and bless others.

Think about how you set your priorities, and about how you spend your time, attention, energy and money. Is your life all about building the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of you?

Humility is being down-to-earth, unpretentious, and honest about who you are for the benefit of others.

So look at your life, and start to eliminate those personal and selfish agendas that don’t honour Christ and bless others.

By Matthew Ruttan

–Bible quotes are from the NIV