What the Bible says
What does the Bible say about humility?
Humility is seeing ourselves truly before God and putting others first. Its supreme example is Christ, who, though he was in the form of God, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8). God gives grace to the humble and will exalt them at the proper time (1 Peter 5:5-6), and he looks to the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at his word (Isaiah 66:2).
Key Bible verses about humility
- Philippians 2:3-8
doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.
- Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- James 4:10
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
- 1 Peter 5:5-6
Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility and subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
- Matthew 11:29
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.
- Matthew 18:4
Whoever therefore humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Proverbs 22:4
The result of humility and the fear of the LORD is wealth, honor, and life.
- Proverbs 3:34
Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.
- Colossians 3:12
Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance;
- Isaiah 66:2
For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,” says the LORD: “but I will look to this man, even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.
- Romans 12:16
Be of the same mind one toward another. Don’t set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Don’t be wise in your own conceits.
- Zephaniah 2:3
Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD’s anger.
Scripture: World English Bible (public domain). Short quotations in the introduction are from the ESV. Read each passage in its chapter for the full context.
From the Baptist Catechism
- Q31. Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?
Christ’s humiliation consisted in His being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.