Don't think badly of yourself and call it humility
On being defined by Trinitarian love
Humility is perhaps the most misunderstood among all the Christian virtues.
Many people assume that humility means thinking badly of yourself. It requires us to deflect praise. When someone says, “You are really good at that,” the humble person should respond, “Thank you, but I’m not really that good. In comparison with so-and-so, I’m actually bad at it.”
It also requires us to dwell on our sinfulness and unworthiness. Paul is seen as the example of humility in 1 Timothy 1:15, where he calls himself the chief of sinners. To be humble, then requires us, according to the “thinking badly” definition, to define ourselves as “just an old sinner.”
But if humility was thinking badly of yourself, then Jesus would not have been capable of being humble. Thinking badly of himself would have required him to believe a lie about himself, which would have compromised the One who is himself “the Truth” (John 14:6).
Defining humility by Trinitarian Love
What then is humility? When studying the topic recently, I came up with the following definition, and I’d love to hear thoughts from readers as to how it could be improved:
Humility is to become so consumed into and defined by the love of the Trinity that your affections for God, neighbor, and self are rightly ordered and expressed.
Our definition of this virtue begins with Jesus, and what better place is there to start examining Jesus’ humility than Philippians 2:5–11?
In Philippians 2, Paul introduces Jesus as “in the form of God” and possessing “equality with God” (Phil 2:5–6). As the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son lives within and is identified by the love of the Trinity. He is the One who is beloved and begotten by the Father and esteemed and empowered by the Spirit. Within the bonds of Trinitarian love, he is the Word, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3).
When we remember the Son’s identity within Trinitarian love, then we can rightly understand Paul when he says that the Son “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). The Son did not give up his divine nature or any of his divine attributes in the Incarnation, since to do so would mean to become less than God. Rather Paul says quite clearly what Christ did: He “emptied himself” by the addition of human nature to his divine nature. Yet, it is not merely the human nature that defines Christ’s humbling but the exact expression of his divine and human person—obedience to God and service to humanity, even to the most extreme degree, crucifixion (Phil 2:7–8).
In the incarnation, then, God the Son did not do anything other than fully express within creation and history who he had always been in eternity. Within eternal Trinitarian love, the Son is the one who is beloved and begotten by the Father and who reveals the Father in the power of the Spirit, and the best way to reveal the character of the Father was through becoming human and dying on the cross. On the cross, we do not see the Son becoming something he is not. Rather, we see him fully expressing who he is and thus fully expressing who God the Father is.
In the mission of the Son, we see his eternal relation of origin in the Trinity expressed most fully within creation in relation to his creatures. That is to say, what the Son did in history simply expressed who he had always been as the begotten of the Father. Scott Swain puts it this way:
“The Son’s mission, from his incarnation in the Virgin’s womb to his resurrection and enthronement at the Father’s right hand, thus manifests in time his begetting in eternity (Acts 13:30, 33; Rom 1:4). It is the temporal announcement of the eternal utterance reported in Psalm 2:7.”1
By fully knowing who he was within Trinitarian love, God the Son ordered rightly his love for God, neighbor, and self, and thus expressed that love fully. Jesus knew who he was and lived accordingly.
The same thing can be said about each person of the Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit are all completely satisfied to be who they are in service to one another, which then overflowed into God’s acts of creation and redemption.
Being humble
What then of humility in us? We are enabled to become humble, first and foremost, by being brought into the fellowship of Trinitarian love by faith in Christ and fellowship in the Spirit.
When Peter commands all of us to clothe ourselves with humility because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet 5:5; cf. Prov 3:34), he does it after spilling lots of ink instructing his readers who they are in relation to the Trinity. They are now “obedient children” who should be holy as God is holy (1 Pet 1:14). In chapter 2, they are both the “spiritual house” or temple where God dwells and the “holy priesthood” who serve God (1 Pet 2:5). They are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…God’s people” (1 Pet 2:9–10). Even in chapter 5, he recaps, calling them the ones who have been “called..to his eternal glory in Christ” and those “who are in Christ” (1 Pet 5:10, 13).
Peter urges his readers to truly understand who they are. They have been brought into the fellowship of eternal Trinitarian love, and they should find themselves consumed into and defined by that love.
When we understand who we are within the love of the Trinity, then our affections should become rightly ordered and expressed.
When we understand who we are within the love of the Trinity, then our affections should become rightly ordered and expressed. When we see ourselves as dearly loved by God, we can stop our striving, our worrying, and our proving, and we can simply be fully who we are out of love for God, love for neighbor, and even out of a rightly ordered love for ourselves.
I’ll conclude this brief thought on a personal note. The most humble people I’ve ever known have not been those who thought badly of themselves. Rather, it has been those who have been most comfortable in their own skin. They didn’t have anything to prove. They didn’t strive in competition with others. They are people who know who they are and seek to be all they are for the glory of God and the good of others.
This is humility.
We have some big news to share at Overland Church. Starting in August 2025, we will be hosting the Northern Colorado teaching site of Gateway Seminary. I’ll be sharing more about this in coming days, but if you or someone you know in Northern Colorado or Southeast Wyoming would be interested in pursuing theological training within a deep discipleship model, I’d love to hear from you.
Scott R. Swain, The Trinity: An Introduction, Short Studies in Systematic Theology (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), 114–15.
Good post. Part of my definition of humility has been "measured by God's love." I think that may touch on what you mean by "rightly ordered." Thus far, I think Scripture explains that divine love's effect on the believer causes one to think of themselves rightly. I'm always exploring biblical examples of why genuine expressions of God's love establishes humility in Christian community by way of union with Christ.