Category Archives: Humility

Richard Sibbes, The Art of Self-Humbling.3

17 Wednesday Jan 2018

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Sibbes then provides six directions on how one is to obtain humility. In a nutshell, humility will flow from knowing who God is and who we are. The first direction is a summary of the rest, “First, Get poor spirits.” He then defines what is meant by a “poor spirit”,

[1]to see the wants [that is, what we lack] in ourselves and in the creature;

[2]the emptiness of all earthly things without God’s favour;

[3]the insufficiency of ourselves and of the creature at the day of judgment;

for what the wise man saith of riches may be truly said of all other things under the sun: they avail not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death, Prov. 11:4.

We need to consider what we are as a creature, we come from the dirt and we will return to the dirt and we are not able to do anything without the power of God. We need to consider how guilty we are before God, due to our sin. We need to see how liable we are to sin.

The second direction is to see ourselves before God,  “[L]et us bring ourselves into the presence of the great God: set ourselves in his presence, and consider of his attributes, his works of justice abroad in the world, and open* ourselves in particular.” Having thought of how lowly we are in ourselves, let us think of how great God is. I do not know the reference off hand, but in one place Spurgeon speaks of having a thought of God before creation — before anything when there was only God. As we try to consider the greatness of God in every way, we cannot persist in great thought of ourselves.

Third, we must be content to receive the words of others that exposure our sin. We “naturally” repel at anyone who points to our sin — Yes, but what about yours! We love flattery, but, “a true, wise man, will be content to hear of anything that may humble him before God.”

Fourth, remember you will die, you will come to dust and you will be brought to judgment, “look to the time to come, what we shall be ere long, earth and dust; and at the day of judgment we must be stripped of all. What should puff us up in this world? All our glory shall end in shame, all magnificency in confusion, all riches in poverty.” How strange that such creatures with such an end should ever be proud — yet we are idolaters, “We are both idols and idol-worshippers, when we think highly of ourselves, for we make ourselves idols. Now God hates idolatry; but pride is a sacrilege, therefore God hates pride.”

Fifth, if we would be humble, let us consider Christ:  For this he relies upon Phil. 2:

Philippians 2:5–11 (ESV)

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

No Christian can truly hold this knowledge in contemplation and not become humble. “I say, is it possible that he which considers of this, should ever be willingly or wilfully proud? Do we hope to be saved by Christ, and will we not be like him?”

Sixth, reason with yourself — let us speak to ourselves. Consider our plight: other men can bring us low. What will we do when we stand before God? What will we do when we with our sins, with our body of dust are called to judgment? We cannot even keep our breath in our bodies, how will we stand? What can we do without Christ? How can we be proud when we have nothing in ourselves?

Further, There is an order, method, and agreement in these reflected actions, when we turn the edge of our own souls upon ourselves and examine ourselves; for the way that leads to rest is by the examination of ourselves. We must examine ourselves strictly, and then bring ourselves before God, judge and condemn ourselves; for humiliation is a kind of execution. Examination leads to all the rest. So, then, this is the order of our actions; there is examination of ourselves strictly before God, then indicting ourselves, after that comes judging of ourselves.

Richard Sibbes, The Art of Self-Humbling.2

12 Friday Jan 2018

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Now to the “what” of humility.

Humility (before God) is a proper realization of our sinfulness before God. No degree of pomp, wealth or power can free us from selfishness, covetousness, anger, lust, greed. This is the cognitive realization which is the basis for our humility:

To begin with the first inward humiliation in the mind, in regard of judgment and knowledge, is, when our understandings are convinced, that we are as we are; when we are not high-minded, but when we judge meanly and basely of ourselves, both in regard of our beginning and dependency upon God, having all from him, both life, motion, and being; and also in regard of our end, what we shall be ere long. All glory shall end in the dust, all honour in the grave, and all riches in poverty. And withal, true humiliation is also in regard of spiritual respects, when we judge aright how base and vile we are in regard of our natural corruption, that we are by nature not only guilty of Adam’s sin, but that we have, besides that, wrapt ourselves in a thousand more guilts by our sinful course of life, and that we have nothing of our own, no, not power to do the least good thing.

Humility is not merely an intellectual apprehension, it also includes one affections.

Again, Inward humiliation, besides spiritual conviction, is when there are affections of humiliation. And what be those? Shame, sorrow, fear, and such like penal afflictive affections. For, upon a right conviction of the understanding, the soul comes to be stricken with shame that we are in such a case as we are; especially when we consider God’s goodness to us, and our dealing with him. This will breed shame and abasement, as it did in Daniel.

Sibbes combines these two elements in humility enlisting the fear of God:

The third penal affection is, fear and trembling before God’s judgments and his threatenings, a fear of the majesty of God, whom we have offended, which is able to send us to hell if his mercies were not beyond our deserts. But his mercy it is, that we are not consumed. A fear of this great God is a part of this inward humiliation. So we see what inward humiliation is: first, a conviction of the judgment; and then it proceeds to inward afflictive affections, as grief, shame, fear, which, when upon good ground and fit objects, they are wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, they are parts of inward humiliation.

He then notes as an aside: if we not humble ourselves, we will be humbled by another:

But as for the wicked, they drown themselves in their profaneness, because they would not be ashamed, nor fear, nor grieve for them. But this makes way for terrible shame, sorrow, and fear afterwards; for those that will not shame, grieve, and fear here, shall be ashamed before God and his angels at the day of judgment, and shall be tormented in hell for ever.

Next, Sibbes notes that such knowledge and affection will result in conduct, “It was not a dumb show, but done with his outward expression and his inward affection.” There will be some sorrow, some action or conduct consonant with the affection and knowledge which are the basis for humility.

 

Richard Sibbes, The Art of Self-Humbling.1

11 Thursday Jan 2018

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Sibbes sermon, “The Art of Self-Humbling” sets forth the “what”, “how” and “why” of humility: why should we humble ourselves.  We should not that “humiliation” and humbling are not matters which are prized by our culture. In “Humiliation: Its Nature and Consequences” (Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online June 2010,  38 (2) 195-204) note that humiliation takes place when, ” an individual suffers humiliation when he makes a bid or claim to a certain social status, has this bid or claim fail publicly, and has it fail at the hands of another person or persons who have the status necessary to reject the claim. Finally, what is denied is not only the status claim itself, but also and more fundamentally the individual’s very status to have made such a claim at all.”  The results of such humiliation are substantial: “Suffering severe humiliation has been shown empirically to plunge individuals into major depressions, suicidal states, and severe anxiety states, including ones characteristic of posttraumatic stress disorder.”

Yet, Sibbes in this sermon commends humbling oneself. How can such things be squared? How can humility be good and yet humiliation be troublesome? Before we get into Sibbes’ help on this issue, we should consider this point. The trouble of humiliation is that one claims to a social status which cannot be maintained: it is an attack upon one’s identity. The identity is predicated upon what other people think of you.  When you fail to maintain your anticipated status, you feel humiliation.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount repeatedly warns against being “seen” by others and establishing some status on the basis of what others think about you (or what you cause others to think about you). Matt. 6:1. When it comes to any sort of good work, giving alms, praying, fasting, he warns against doing such things so that others can see you and praise you. Jesus calls these people hypocrites.

Our identity is to be grounded in God’s judgment — not the judgment of others. Paul can so far as to say that no charge can be brought against God’s elect, “It is God who justifies”. Rom. 8:33. When it comes to what others think of him, Paul writes, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things which show my weakness.”  2 Cor. 11:30.

The humility of a Christian is our humility before God. We measure ourselves before God and care only of God’s judgment: that is the basis of our humility and our honor. If we are right before our king, then we are freed to disregard what other think of us.

The humility of a Christian frees one from the psychological “need” to be thought well of by others.  But we must humble ourselves before God — even a king who has the greatest social status of any group:

Therefore it is not unbefitting kings to humble themselves before God, seeing they have to deal with him who is a ‘consuming fire,’ Heb. 12:29, before whom the very angels cover their faces. I say it is no shame for the greatest monarch of the earth to abase himself when he hath to do with God; yea, kings, of all other persons, ought most to humble themselves, to shew their thankfulness to God, who hath raised them from their brethren to be heads of his people. And considering the endowments which kings usually have, they are bound to humble themselves, as also in regard of the authority and power which God hath put into their hands, saying, ‘By me kings reign,’ Prov. 8:15. But usually we see, from the beginning of the world, that kings forget God. Where there is not grace above nature, there kings will not stoop to Christ; but so far as it agrees with their pleasure and will, so far shall Christ be served, and no farther.

 Richard Sibbes, “The Art of Self-Humbling”, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 6 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 45.

How to become humble

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in Humility, Matthew, Uncategorized, Worship, Worship

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Humility flows not from thinking badly about oneself (that is still pride that I am not better); rather it flows from not thinking of oneself. It is not obtained by looking to oneself, but is obtained by looking one greater.  True humility before God and worship are inextricably linked:

Poverty of spirit is born of the conscious meeting with God. It lives by the constant daily, hourly realisation of God. Therefore it keeps a man strong, it makes him stronger than all the self-asserting vaunters who trust in themselves, or in their brains, or their rank, or their money, or their power of making a noise—it makes him strong, because he is always feeling the true source of his strength, always in touch with his Inspirer. He is not casting about wildly to find support in other men’s appreciation of him; the sources of his strength are present to him—they are ever with him; he is and God is—and in his case the unforgotten Voice ever says, “Fear not, for I am with thee, I have called thee by thy name, and thou art Mine.” He cannot vaunt himself, he cannot push himself, he is but an instrument, and an instrument that can only work as long as it is in touch with its inward power; the ‘God within him’ is the source of his power. What can he be but poor in spirit, how can he forget, how can he call out ‘worship me,’ when he has seen the Vision and heard the Voice, and felt the Power of God? Poor in spirit, emptied of mere vain, barren conceit, deaf to mere flattery he must be, because he has seen and known; he has cried “Holy, Holy, Holy,” he knows God, and henceforth he is not a centre, not an idol, but an instrument, a vessel that needs for ever refilling, if it is to overflow and do its mission. His is the receptive attitude; not that which receives merely that it may keep, but that which receives because it must send forth. And so he accepts all merely personal conditions, not as perfect in themselves, but as capable of being transmuted by that inward power, which is his own, yet not his own—his own because God is within him, not his own because he is the receiver, not the inspirer. His cry is ever, “Nevertheless I am alway by Thee, for Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel: and after that receive me with glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee: and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”

Robert Eyton, “The Benediction on the Poor in Spirit,” in The Beatitudes, Second Edition. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd., 1896), 18–19.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.20

12 Friday Feb 2016

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The previous post in this may be found here.

Humility is not hard thoughts about oneself. It is not constant self-deprecation. Even though such talk is negative, such talk is still self-centered. The “I” is the center of the universe.

Christian humility is to have God in the center, it is submission to the will of another. While one may claim to have such humility, the humility can only be truly tested in the midst of different circumstances:

The seventeenth property of an humble soul is this: an humble soul will bless God, and be thankful to God, as well under misery as under mercy; as well when God frowns as when he smiles; as well when God takes as when he gives; as well under crosses and losses, as under blessings and mercies: Job 1:21, ‘The Lord gives and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.’ He doth not cry out upon the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, but he looks through all secondary causes, and sees the hand of God; and then he lays his hand upon his own heart, and sweetly sings it out, ‘The Lord gives, and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.’ An humble soul, in every condition, blesses God, as the apostle commands, in the 1 Thes. 5:18, ‘In every thing give thanks to God.’

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, “The Unsearchable Riches of Christ”, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 24.

This is more foreign to us than we may realize. Consider the song, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord”:

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all as it should be
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

It looks right, but note the words, “When the world’s all as it should be”. We sing these words and know exactly what he means: when the world is easy and comfortable for my present state. The only “as it should be” is what God gives to me. Adversity and prosperity are alike “as it should be”. The world is as God has fit it to me:

 

An humble soul is quick-sighted;
he sees the rod in a Father’s hand;
he sees honey upon the top of every twig,
and so can bless God;
he sees sugar at the bottom of the bitterest cup that God doth put into his hand;
he knows that God’s house of correction is a school of instruction;
and so he can sit down and bless when the rod is upon his back.
An humble soul knows that the design of God in all is
his instruction,
his reformation,
and his salvation.

This being true, we have a test to distinguish the ones who only pretend and profess and the ones who have taken this to heart:

You have many professors that are seemingly humble, while the sun shines, while God gives, and smiles, and strokes; but when his smiles are turned into frowns, when he strikes and lays on, oh the murmurings! the disputings! the frettings! and wranglings of proud souls! they always kick when God strikes

This does not mean that trials do not feel like trials — they do. Suffering is suffering; affliction is affliction; loss is loss. It is not laugh at death. This is not perversion or rebellion. This is simply submission to the will of God. God has brought it, God is wise. I will live with this.

The following section from the prayer “Spiritual Helps” is an appropriate ending here:

If my waywardness is visited with a scourge, 

enable me to receive correction meekly, 

to bless the reproving hand, 

to discern the motive of rebuke, 

to respond promptly, 

and do the first work. 

Let all thy fatherly dealings make me a partaker of thy holiness. 

Grant that in every fall I may sink lower on my knees, 

and that when I rise it may be to loftier heights of devotion. 

May my every cross be sanctified, 

every loss be gain, 

every denial a spiritual advantage, every dark day a light of the Holy Spirit, 

every night of trial a song.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.19

07 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by in Humility, Thomas Brooks, Uncategorized

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The previous post in this series is found here

We live in a culture which treasures status and formal education. Even though of us who think ourselves immune to such things automatically consider one’s wealth, status & education to make one a more valuable human being. Today I read a story about a man who died in a freak accident in Manhattan. The story referred to the man who died as “Harvard graduate, Mr. X”, as if the death were more tragic because it befell a graduate of Harvard.

The instances could be multiplied indefinitely — it is the basis of our culture.

We could supply instances of celebrity pastors who somehow more importance not because of the clarity of their thought, their piety, their actual knowledge of the thing before (do we seriously think that Mr. Y is The Master of all these topics? And often, if the true be told, their “mastery” is more show than substance).

The death of people in a rich neighborhood demands hours of time on television news. The death of a man person may be included in a total, 4 were murdered this weekend.

This brings us to the humble man: Brooks shows that the actual metric of humility lies in what is not seen. The humble man does not ignore merit; it is just that the metric for merit lies the scales of God:

The sixteenth property of an humble soul is this, An humble soul, though he be of never so rare abilities, yet he will not disdain to be taught what he knows not, by the meanest persons, Isa. 11:6. A child shall lead the humble soul in the way that is good; he cares not how mean and contemptible the person is, if a guide or an instructor to him.

Thomas Brooks, “The Unsearchable Riches of Christ”, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 23.

Humility ignores human merit and looks through the veil of flesh to see the work of God. if God has taught the simplest woman a truth, the humble man will learn from her and ignore the doctor’s erudition:

As an humble soul knows that the stars have their situation in heaven, though sometimes he sees them by their reflection in a puddle, in the bottom of a well, or in a stinking ditch; so he knows that godly souls, though never so poor, low, and contemptible, as to the things of this world, are fixed in heaven, in the region above; and therefore their poverty and meanness is no bar to hinder him from learning of them, Eph. 2:6.

Finally, it is humility that has been mark of many Christians — including Christ:

Though John was poor in the world, yet many humble souls did not disdain, but rejoice in his ministry. Christ lived poor and died poor, Mat. 8:20. As he was born in another man’s house, so he was buried in another man’s tomb. Austin observes, when Christ died he made no will; he had no crown-lands, only his coat was left, and that the soldiers parted among them; and yet those that were meek and lowly in heart counted it their heaven, their happiness, to be taught and instructed by him.

 

 

 

John Newton’s Ministry Advice

04 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Humility, John Newton, Meekness, Ministry, Peacemaking, Peacemaking, Prayer, Preaching, Uncategorized

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Letter V: Advice to a Young Minister

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Robert C. Chapman

Humility is the secret of fellowship, and pride the secret of division.

R.C. Chapman

The fifth letter is ministry advice to a young man who has set into ministry. The man has asked Newton what to expect in ministry. Newton’s advice should be heeded by anyone who has or will enter into ministry. And, while the letter is directed specifically to the preaching pastor of a congregation, the observations, warnings and encouragements are use to anyone involved in Christian ministry at any level:

General Outline

Greeting  & Commendation

I. You Will Meet With Difficulties

A. Have you prayed?

B. Don’t be naive.

C. Sweet then bitter

D. Encouragement

II. Three Difficulties You Will Meet

A. General Observations

B. Opposition

            1. General

2. Two temptations.

a. The temtpation of anger and bitterness

i. Ruin your work

ii. How to respond.

b. The temptation of self-importance

C. Popularity

1. A danger few will avoid

2. Do not mistake gifts for grace

3. How God protects us.

D. Spiritual Weakness

1. “Hypocrite!”

2. Never preach again.

III. Conclusion

Here is the letter with analysis:

GREETING:

This is a curious introduction. Newton is writing to an (apparently) young man who has recently been ordained to the ministry. However, he does not merely praise young man; he also includes a prayer:

I hope he has given you likewise a heart to devote yourself, without reserve, to his service, and the service of souls for his sake.

As Newton will make clear, the work of a Christian minister can be brutally difficult. Only a man whose heart is devoted to Christ’s service will complete this work.

I. YOU WILL MEET DIFFICULTIES

The body of the letter concerns the difficulties which a minister will meet. Newton first begins with a general statement.

A. Have you prayed?

You have, doubtless, often anticipated in your mind the nature of the service to which you are now called, and made it the subject of much consideration and prayer.

As Newton will make plain, the difficulties of ministry are supernatural: they are snares and temptations, and “natural” responses will only make things make things worse.

B. Dont’ be naive.

I remember being in law school, thinking I had some idea what being a lawyer would be like. I quickly learned, I had only learned enough to later learn how to be a lawyer.

Likewise with pastoral work: One can train, but even those most closely connected to a pastor cannot quite understand the nature of the burden. There is something unique in the weight of ministry:

But a distant view of the ministry is generally very different from what it is found to be when we are actually engaged in it. The young soldier, who has never seen an enemy, may form some general notions of what is before him: but his ideas will be much more lively and diversified when he comes upon the field of battle. If the Lord was to shew us the whole beforehand, who that has a due sense of his own insufficiency and weakness, would venture to engage?

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The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation XIX: Upon a Greek Accent

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Confession, Humility, Meditation, Repentance, William Spurstowe

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From William Spurstowe, The Spiritual Chymist, 1666. The prior post is this series is here.

Delphi (XIX)

Accents are by the Hebrews aptly called Sapores, tastes or savors that speech or [those] word without some observance of them are like Job’s white of an egg, without salt, insipid, and unpleasant. In the Greek they derive their name from the due tenor, or tuning of words, and in that tongue words are not pronounced according to the long or short vowels, but according to the accent set up on them, which directs the rise or fall, the length or brevity of their pronunciation.

Now, what accents are to Greek words, that methinks circumstances are to sins, which, as so many moral accents do fitly serve to show there just and certain dimensions, and teach us aright to discern how great or small they be. And he, that without respect had onto them, does judge of that bigness of sins, is like to error as much as a man that should take upon him, without mathematical instruments, to give it exactly the greatness of the heavenly bodies, and to pronounce of altitudes, distances, aspects, and other appearances, by the scanning of the eye.

Is this not the Scripture way to set out sin, by the place, time, continuance in it, and repetitions of it? They provoked him at the Red Sea, where they saw the mighty works of his power, and making the deep to be their path to Canaan, and the Egyptian’s grave. They tempted him in the wilderness, where their food, drink, clothes, were all made up by miracles. The clouds yielding them meat [their food], the dry rock water, and their garments not waxing old.

Does he not aggravate them, by the long space of their continuance in them, saying that they grieved him 40 years? Does he not number the times of their reiterated, murmurings and rebellions, and make it as a ground for his justice to destroy them?

Necessary therefore it is, that in the duty of self-examination, and reviews of the book of conscience, we do not only read over the naked facts which have been done by us, but that we look into those apices peccati, little dots and tittles which are set up on the head of many sins(the circumstances I mean with which they are committed) or else we shall never read that book aright, or learn to know what sins are great or what small. The fact and circumstances are both noted in the journals of conscience, though they be not equally legible. And he that is truly penitent will make it a chief part of his work to find out one as well as the other, as being the best means both to get the heart broken for and from sin.

What shame? What fear? What carefulness? What revenge will a serious sight of the several aggravations that meet in the interpretation of a sin move up and stir the heart of the sinner? Will he not say, what a beast am I to sin against so clear a light? To break so often my own vows, to defer so long my repentance and rising again? What revenge shall I now take of myself to witness my indignation? What carefulness shall I exercise to evidence the truth of my return? With diligence shall I use to redeem my lost time, who have joined the morning of the task and the evening of the day together? These, and such like thoughts, will sin, when it is read as it is written, and accented in the conscience produce.

But a general knowledge and sight of it, without such particularities, will neither make nor leave any impressions but what they are both slight and confused.

Do thou therefore, holy God,
teach me to understand the errors of my ways aright,
And by the light of thy Spirit
Make me to see that circumstances in sins are not motes, but beams,
and greatly intend their guilt — if not their bulk.
That so I may mourn for those sins which carnal men conceive to be but so many black nothings;
And abhor myself for those corruptions in which they indulge themselves.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.18

10 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Forgiveness, Humility, Thomas Brooks

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The previous post in this series may be found here.

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John Fox, author of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

Brooks continues with his explanation of humility:

The fifteenth property of an humble soul is, he will rather bear wrongs than revenge wrongs offered.

There are three parts to this understanding.  First, the action: the humble soul will not strike at injustice done to him: “Mr Foxe, that wrote the Book of Martyrs, would be sure to do him a kindness that had done him an injury: so that it used to be a proverb, ‘If a man would have Mr Foxe do him a kindness, let him do him an injury.’”

This behavior of the humble soul appears to be madness — until it is understood in the entire complex of Christian life. Thus, we must second understand the motivation for such a way of being. To merely be struck and bear the wrong could be stupidity or a depraved self-deprecation. But the humble soul finds motivation elsewhere:

“An humble soul is often in looking over the wrongs and injuries that he has done to God, and the sweet and tender carriage of God towards him notwithstanding those wrongs and injuries; and this wins him, and works him to be more willing and ready to bear wrongs, and forgive wrongs, than to revenge any offered wrongs.”

The sight of the majestic patience and forgiveness of Christ turns the humble soul to forgive others.

Third: the question of justice. The humble soul does not ignore justice; rather the one who is humble refers the matter to Chrst as judge: “The humble soul knows that vengeance is the Lord’s, and that he will repay, &c., Ps. 94:1. The humble soul loves not to take the sword in his own hand, Rom. 12:19; he knows the day is a-coming, wherein the Lord will give his enemies two blows for one, and here he rests.”

The matter of justice is crucial to the entire process. Humility is not contrary to justice, in fact it upholds justice. The humble soul does not think himself the perfect judge and thus refers the matter to the one judges justly. The referral to Christ is a rest for the one who trusts Christ to do the work of judge. The humble soul is free to forgive and love. If the love and forgiveness wins the enemy, then the enemy has been extinguished in love. If the enemy is not won, he is referred to Christ for judgment.