Humility Toward One Another

Jul 29, 2018 by: Sam Hestorff| Series: One Another
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:1–11

I want to read you a couple of profiles that describe a person, and see which one you like better.

The first description has words like these: considerate, good-natured, team-player, thoughtful, dependable, good listener . . . Do you like the sound of this person?

I don't want to brag, but this comes from a personality profile done on me.

Contrast that with this second description: stubborn, inflexible, hesitant, and detached . . .

How do you like the sound of this person?

You may be surprised to know that this is from the same personality profile . . . and it's also me.

It's like I have these two sides.  If you’ve been around me long enough, I’m sure you experienced both.

We all have this.  We have our best selves - the people that we aspire to be, and when life is cruising along and all is good we’re pretty good at being that person most of the time.

Then we have the other side that we’re not so proud of.  And that side tends to come out when we’re under pressure, tension, stress, fatigue or when life feels out of control.

It’s the same person . . . me at my best and me under stress.

And I think the same is true when it comes to churches.

I want Logos Dei Church to be known by words like: loving, accepting, engaging, serving, Christ-centered, and people-focused.

In our best moments, I think that these words perfectly describe who we are.

But churches face stresses too, and under stress it's possible for us to become like other words: unloving, unforgiving, unaccepting, inward, and self-focused.

It's almost like two different churches, but it's not. It's Logos Dei at our best and Logos Dei under stress.

We are in a series where we are looking at the various one another commands in the New Testament. The very phrase, “one another”, contains the idea of togetherness. 

So, as we have been going through the “one another” passages, we have not been surprised to find things like; love one another, encourage one another, serve one another, live in harmony with one another, and even to teach and admonish one another.  That’s church at it’s best.

And today, we’ll be looking at a one another command that was written for a church under stress. Let’s listen to our text.  READ 1 Peter 5:1-6

Our passage this morning comes from 1 Peter, a letter written to churches under incredible stress because they were experiencing the cost of following Jesus. 

You see, it was a time that bearing the name Christian was a difficult thing to do. It brought great challenges and suffering and persecution every day – just because they were called Christians.

As you can imagine this created a lot of stress which affected their relationships at work, and in their families, and with their friends.  And they were facing the danger of letting this stress affect how they functioned as a church as they were contemplating just throwing it all away.

 

So, Peter steps in and writes this letter of encouragement, essentially telling them, “Don’t give up!”

 

Today’s passage is sandwiched between two passages on suffering. That's no accident because how we relate to each other is going to be affected by the situation we face.

 

It's interesting that Peter doesn't say . . . “Guys, just chill out, go light a candle, meditate and de-stress as a church” because no matter what they did, their outside environment wasn’t going to change.

So, instead of saying don’t be stressed, Peters says, let me tell you how to respond to stress.

And he borrows a concept from the Greeks and Roman’s who had something called a household code which outlined the way that the house should run.  These instructions were typically given to the head of the house, the father, to rule over the household wisely.

Peter takes this household code and he applies it to the church, as if we are not just a collection of individuals who go to church to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel and listen to a band play and a preacher preach but an actual household, deeply connected despite all of our differences.

But unlike the Greeks and Romans, Peter doesn't just write to the head of the church saying that they have to rule over the church with a firm hand.  Instead, he writes to the whole church and outlines responsibilities for all of us. 

He begins with leaders and he says here’s how you should lead.

  • Not reluctant, but willing; honored and excited that they get to play a role in what God is doing.
  • Not greedy or motivated by a desire for status, but eager to serve
  • Not being bossy but being an example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

In other words, he’s taken many of the “one another” commands and said, this is how you lead . . . Be an example!

I can’t help but think that as Peter was writing these words, he was recalling that last night as he and the other disciples gathered around the table for one last meal with Jesus.

In that culture, typically a servant would clean your feet as you came into a house because you’ve been walking along dirtied, muddied paths and you’re wearing open toed sandals so it’s between your toes, and under your toenails and your feet are nasty.

But they were using a borrowed room for the meal so there was not a host with a servant and in this scenario the job would go to the person in the room who was considered the lowest on the totem pole. 

And as the disciples were busy arguing over who is the greatest, Jesus quietly took of his outer garment and put a towel around his waist, gets a basin of water, and he begins to scrub their feet.

Well, Peter couldn’t believe what he was experiencing.  It was horrifying to see Jesus washing his stinky, dirty feet; this is the work of servants and so he says to Jesus, “this isn’t going to happen”.

 

Jesus responds, “Peter, if you do not let me be who I am, if you do not let me stoop down and act on your behalf to cleanse you, you will have no fellowship with me, and you cannot enter the kingdom.”

 

Washing Peter’s feet pointed to the only thing he needed – the Cross of Christ.  

 

After Jesus had this exchange with Peter, he then took back his place of honor at the banquet table and he says to his disciples  . . . “Do you understand what I have done for you?  You call me teacher and Lord, and leader . . . rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your leader, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another’s feet.”

 

Being called into church leadership is about a willingness to get on your knees and take basin and towel and wash the filthy nasty feet of people so that they might experience God’s amazing and unconditional love just as you have experienced it.

Then Peter moves on and although he is briefer in what he says, it is equally as important.  He says, “If you’re not a leader then your responsibility as a part of this household is to be a good follower.”

It’s essentially a call to respect your leaders.  On one level this should be obvious.  I mean, if church leaders have been called to serve so that you can experience God’s amazing and unconditional love, then we should respect their leadership, right?

It may be obvious, but it’s not easy.  In fact, it may be more difficult now than it was back then.

We live in a day in which the prevailing attitude is that leaders can't be trusted with power.  And some of us have experienced firsthand the abuse of power and we carry a very real fear of getting hurt, again.

And I think that Peter, by pointing out the importance of being a good follower, is once again calling us back to the gospel – to forgive when you’ve been hurt, to ask for forgiveness when you’ve hurt someone, and reconcile as brothers and sisters who are a part of a family.

I know this is far from easy, and it goes against every cultural trend. But we're not called to follow cultural trends of distrust. We're to be a community in which leaders serve and followers respect.

Peter has one more instruction that is for everyone.  It’s the how to; how to be a leader and how to be a follower, how to live as one another’s.   Let’s read it together.

Peter simply says, “Be humble . . . all of you, whether you are a leader or a follower . . . be humble”

I would add . . . as the gospel mattered!

There was something that struck me about the night Jesus washed the feet of his disciples . . . He washed the feet of Judas, the feet that are going to walk out of the meal and betray him for a couple of bucks . . . why would he do that?

He did this because he loved God.  Judas may never appreciate this, he may never show him any love, or kindness, or affection.  But he’s not doing this for Judas.  He’s doing this to Judas out of love for God and to bring glory to God.  He did this because the gospel matters.

 

And that’s the heart of humility! 

 

On that night, Jesus had the clearest sense of who he was and what he was called to do.  He knew where he had come from and where he was going, and no sooner did he gain clarity on all that, that he was on the floor wiping the off the calloused feet of grown men – even those who would betray him. 

 

In this foot-washing scene, Jesus shatters our concept of what it means to lead, what it means to follow, and what it means to be the church, living as one another’s for the glory of God. 

 

Now at this point, it seems fitting that we should have a foot washing ceremony . . . but if we did, I think we’d miss the point.  If we wash each other’s feet, then you’d most likely pair up with somebody you’re comfortable with and then call it Christ like. 

 

But it’s not.  That’s simply called being the church.  Loving and caring and nurturing one another.  It’s what we just supposed to do as a church. 

 

But washing Judas’ feet, now that’s a hard task; loving those who are unlovable, caring for those who no one else wants to care for, embracing those who want nothing more than to hurt you.   

 

Washing Judas’ feet is about living your life and loving God and asking God to show you those places where you could take opportunities, just like Christ took this opportunity to serve somebody; to humble yourself, to love them, to extend God’s grace.   

 

Because you know what that does . . . you know what it does when you wash the feet of Judas . . . It reminds you of your own brokenness and brings you back to the cross where Jesus died for you, loved you, healed you, set you free. 

 

So, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another . . . Humble yourselves, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” 

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