Introduction
Pride is a funny thing, it can hide itself in so many ways.  Simply put, pride is simply “preoccupation with self,” which can be seen either found in grandiosity or self-loathing, the key aspect is the point of focus which always must be on self.  It is when self must be the center of attention.

.

Pride, preoccupation with self is the opposite of humility, taking the focus off of self.

Jesus – Our Example
Perhaps the best display of true humility is seen in the person of Jesus Christ as alluded to in Philippians 2:5-8, which states:

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Understanding Christ’s humility can be seen in different aspects.

For one, Humility is who Jesus is as an individual.  Yet, this is NOT to take away from the fact that Jesus chose to be humble as a free will action that displayed itself in behaviors.

In one aspect of this choice in understanding that He humbled Himself under the authority of God the Father is that He witnessed the consistency of the Father in all things throughout eternity, that God the Father is worthy of faith.

Faith
Jesus, while fully God; gave up His place in heaven to become a man, not only in appearance; but in the limitations as well, This was a choice of exercising faith in God (Faith is a choice, an action; not simply a belief.  Belief, which is merely a cognitive exercise, a mental process that by itself will save no one, even as James referred to the Devils which believed yet were not saved ~ James 2:19.  See Endnote #5).

Jesus hungered, He thirst, He felt pain, and He desired not to die; yet He went through all of this based upon His faith in God the Father – Jesus was the author and finisher of faith, as stated in Hebrews 12:2, which states:

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our [“our” is always in italics because it is not in the original text; it is implied by the translator – we should never follow what is added to the text by a translator, ever; because it is not inspired] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

This passage states indisputably that we are to look unto Jesus as our example (this is the context that this set-up according to the prior verse, v. 1), as Jesus is the author and finisher of faith, not “our” faith, but of faith!

This is not speaking of faith in the sense of “the faith,” concerning Christianity as an institution, a belief system, or of a Christian doctrine (It cannot be referring to these aspects faith, because the particular article “the,” is not used, which emphatically proves that this is not speaking about “the” faith in the generic sense as in these three examples, but can only refer to “faith” in a denotatively sense, in a personal sense as an action in the life of the believer – a lifestyle of dependence upon God, seen in our daily walk as well as the means of access to God’s grace in salvation; NOT in a theoretical sense as a belief system, Institution or doctrine); because the article, “the” is missing.

Jesus – Living by Faith
Concerning the subject of faith; the word for “author“ (Greek: archēgon) more specifically is translated “the originator and first to utilize;” and the word “finisher” (Greek: teleiōtēn) more specifically means “to completely have done and finished what was started” and works in unison with (Greek: archēgon): both describing Jesus being the originator and best example to have thoroughly demonstrated faith (Regarding the faith of Christ, which to some seems controversial; please see our article entitled: “Jesus ~ The Ultimate Example of Faith” ~ LINK ).

In attempting to understand the faith and humility of Christ, a good place to start is in the Matthew 11:29, where Jesus spoke concerning himself:

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29) – Christ modeled it 

Moses Said Concerning Himself:

“Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.”  (Numbers 12:3) – Others have done it

The Language Concerning the Word “Meek”
In the above scripture (Numbers 12:3), the word translated meek in the English is from the Hebrew word, “Anaw,” (Strong’s # 6035).  According to Vine’s Hebrew Dictionary:

“Anaw is translated, humble; poor; meek.  Anaw, appears almost exclusively in poetical passages and describes the intended outcome of affliction from God, namely “humility.”  In its first appearance [In the Bible] the word depicts the objective condition as well as the subjective stance of Moses.  He was entirely dependent on God.”

In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Septuagint  (See Endnote #2), the Hebrew word “Anaw” (meek) is rendered into the Greek word, “praios”, which is also the word used for the word “meek” in Matthew 11:29, where Christ refers to Himself.

Law of First Mention
Within Biblical interpretation, referred to as hermeneutics (See Endnote #3); there is a principal referred to as the “Law of First Mention.”  This principle recognizes that within life as well as literature, things always evolve from simple to more complex.

And that with time words not only become more complex, but they sometimes become distorted from the original meaning, at least as far as our understanding knows.

Therefore, within the Hebrew and Greek languages, going back to the original understanding of the word which conveys the original intent of a word brings greater clarity than simply relying on the word as it may have become known in a more multifaceted manner; and therefore convoluted in the process.

Many times words which are used figuratively were taken from a literal situation.

It is the literal situation that displays original intent, and adds shades of color to what many times is a black and white pictorial of understanding concerning the word.

The Original use of the Word “Meek”
Within Classical Greek the first use of this word “praios” was in a Greek play about training a certain breed of horse, in particular it concerned a stallion that was very high-spirited, strong, and fast.

In the play, while this breed was known as the strongest runners, it was also the hardest to break because of their will power.

It was common for the stallions to die rather than being broke.

The Stallion
In the play, a very rich man fell in love with a wild stallion that no one could ever capture.

After much work he finally managed to capture the horse, however, no matter what the rich man’s stable master did, he could not break the horse.

He advised the owner to destroy the horse due to its lack of utility and the danger it presented due to its uncontrollably.

The master decided to personally train the horse, but to try a different approach.

He had a giant corral built in front of his tent, and had the house penned there alone.

This way the horse could watch the owner (And learn to trust him – have faith in him, the way God has displayed Himself in His Word) and become acquainted with him slowly.

Love – An Action – Sacrificially Putting Another First before Yourself
Every day the rich owner would patiently and lovingly visit and speak to the horse while feeding him.

For a year the rich owner only approached the corral without going in and leave the feed just inside the corral, then after talking to the horse quietly he would leave, walking backwards.

The horse would stand in the very middle of the corral, watching all around, and only come close to the fence to feed when no one was around, and then he would eat the grain.

After this first year the owner finally stepped into the corral, but only in one step, then set down the feed, speak softly for a few minutes, then leave by backing up.

Month after month he stepped one step further in the corral, with the horse never leaving the middle of the corral, but not moving back when the owner started to get closer as well.

It took almost another year for the owner to get within touching distance of the horse.

Then after a few weeks he finally touched the horse softly, and after a few more weeks he could pet the horse quite easily, then he started to bring a bite with him and lay it on the ground while petting the horse.

Faith Gained
On the second anniversary of the horses capture, the owner approached the horse, slowly placed the bite on the horse then went around to the animal’s side and eased on top of him.

The horse did not move, allowing the owner to mount him.

The owner pulled on the rains and the horse responded, figuring out what the owner wanted.

Within a few days the horse responded correctly to every command of the owner.

The horse had developed a devotion to the man in which he would do anything his master commanded.

The horse was known far and wide as the fastest, most powerful animal around.

He would jump any gorge or obstacle his master directed.  He was courageous because of his trust (faith) in his master.

He was not weak, powerless, afraid, or beaten down.

The horse was power in control (Controlled by his master by his own choice – faith must always be a free choice), he was tamed by love, and he was meek.

The master, at great cost to himself (This is what real love is – sacrificially putting someone else first, before yourself – God’s love is seen in His greatest costs, that of sacrificing His own Son.  See John 3:16; and 1 John 3:16 ) slowly and patiently displayed his love for the horse, setting up a situation wherein he could approach the horse displaying ‘s patient long-suffering, and in so doing gaining trust in faith from the horse, to the extent that the horse would voluntarily accept the master.  This is a beautiful pectoral of God has done for us through Christ.

Tamed by Love, Because of Faith 
Meek which is a synonym for humble (See Endnote #4); contrite, and spiritually poor (such as in the sermon on the mount, to be ‘poor in spirit); is also a synonym for the Greek understanding of the word, “tamed.”

For these reasons, in today’s vernacular it seems more relevant for our usage to employ the word tamed, rather than meek.

The point is that Christ was power under control, He was meek, He was tamed, and He calls believers to make the same choice, especially in light of the gracious love that the Father has displayed to us in Christ.

It is because the most superior tool to fight pride is humility, they cannot coexist.

Yet humility must be planted first in order to choke out pride; and it pride starts to appear, insert genuine humility to defeat it.

When we find ourselves in a situation where pride starts to present itself, where self puts itself out there to be seen of men; this is where we need to humble ourselves before God and man in order that pride will not contaminate that which we do for the Lord and live out in our lives on a daily basis.

The Lesson – How to Do It
It is when we are in roles of leadership that pride is most prevalent.  If you are a preacher or teacher, you need to admit to your congregation or students that you are a sinner, and not simply sinful; but a sinner in your daily life.

It is this type of humility that helps in maintaining a correct attitude of humility in the ministry.

If you find yourself in a situation where you’re a leader, speak about the achievements and abilities of others above yourself.  Seek wise counsel, don’t allow yourself  the solitude of your own discretion.  The Bible teaches over and over again the wisdom of humbly seeking wise counsel of others.

And if you are a follower, fight the urge to introduce yourself into the situation; resisting those opportunities that we deceitfully use to brag to others.  When were explaining something, why do we need to refer to situations which make us look good; especially when it’s not mandatory to the subject at hand.

Stop bragging.

Follow Christ’s Admonition
Jesus said in Luke 9:23,

“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Five Steps to Follow:

1) The first thing to notice is that we are to follow him, not our own contrivances – we are not to use Christ or the ministry as ponds to achieve our own goals.

2) Next, We are to deny ourselves – we do this by putting him first, and by putting others first – this is the definition of love, to sacrificially put someone before ourselves, and to do so not to be seen of men, in order to maintain the integrity; because otherwise is an act in a display which is manipulation and corrupts love.

3) Next, Take up your cross – we are not to take up Christ cross, that is impossible; we are to pick up our own cross.  A cross is an instrument of death, what this means is we are to find ways of crucifying ourselves – this is what we been referring to above, it is humility.  Humility is the best tool to crucified the flesh, which is to choke out pride.

4) Next, do this daily, not on Sundays when we meet with brothers and sisters; but on Mondays when we stub our toes.

5) Lastly, Continue on as you started by following Christ.  It is not an accident that we start by following him, and we end by following him – this is because it’s all about Jesus.

The best example of this is seen in the person of John the Baptist.  He constantly directed people to God, and he displayed a servant’s heart in directing people to Jesus.  And he displayed one of the hardest traits that a leader should always display, that of turning his followers over to one that is greater than himself, to Jesus.

How many ministers keep growing churches because they can’t let go of what is not there is in the first place, the parishioners.  There were never any mega-churches in the first century.

When a church got to a place where it was too big to meet the individual needs of people, and a close environment; mature leaders in training would start another church in another location.  John had the correct attitude concerning self – kill it – and point to Christ.

Conclusion
The way that the believer is to deal with pride is to humble themselves in front of men, and always keep Christ as preeminent; basing what they say and do firmly on God’s Word.

Endnote
1.  The Faith of Jesus

Greek is a highly inflected language (i.e. the form of words change to indicate the role each word plays in the sentence), a noun changes forms based upon its relationship to other words and how it functions in the sentence. The stem of the noun contains the basic meaning of the noun, but a suffix is added to indicate the noun’s role in the sentence.

The endings are changed according to certain patterns, or ‘declensions’, that indicate what is the number, case, and gender of the noun form.

To “decline” a noun means to analyze it and break it down into its basic parts according to number, case, and gender.

Of these basic parts, the case provides perhaps more information than anything else.

The case form is shown by the ending of the word.

There are four different case forms in Greek, they are Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative.

Concerning the present study we are only going to narrowly look at three of these cases, the Genitive case, Accusative case, and Dative case.

The following 6 Scriptures utilize the Greek word “Pistis” (Strong’s #4102), which is translated into the English word “faith” in every occasion.

Pistis is a noun, and in the cited examples is in the Genitive case which displays possession.

What this means is that in the following Scriptures the “faith” that is being spoken about is possessed by Jesus himself, without equivocation.

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our [“our” is not in the original, it is merely assumed by the translator] faith [G] …” ~ Heb. 12:2

“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith [G] of Jesus Christ...” ~ Rom. 3:22

“…by the faith [G] of Jesus Christ … justified by the faith [G] of Christ… ~ ” Gal. 2:16

“… the promise by faith [G] of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” ~ Gal. 3:22

“...we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith [G] of him.” ~ Eph. 3:12

“… which is through the faith [G] of Christ, the rightousness…” ~ Phillip 3:9

In the next Scriptures, the Greek noun Pistis is in the Accusative case, which displays the Direct Object of the sentence, and Jesus is in the Genitive case; meaning that He possesses the faith which is the direct object of the sentence.

“...not the faith [A] of our Lord Jesus Christ [G] … with respect of persons.” ~ James 2:1

“… and the faith [A] of Jesus [G].” ~ Rev. 14:12

In the following verse, the Greek noun Pistis is in the Dative case, which displays the means by which an action is accomplished; meaning that faith is the action which is possessed (Genitive case) by Jesus Christ.

“…the life which I now live… I live by the faith [D] of the Son of God [G] …” ~ Gal_2:20

The Scripture says that “God is not a man, that he should lie,…” (Numbers 23:19).

However, those that would espouse that Jesus, during His incarnation on earth maintained the attributes of His divine, that of Omnipotent (Meaning: “All Powerful, Visible & Invisible.”), Omnipresent (“being everywhere at the same time”), and Omniscient (“having all and every bit of knowledge that there is, without any limitations whatsoever”); naïvely accuse God of breaking His Word, because here in Philippians (Phillip 2:7-8), unequivocally it states that Jesus became a man in every sense of the word, yet a sinless man.

We must always remember that faith is an exercise of the believer (See Endnote #5), even when in what appears to be a noun form, must be more readily understood as an action, always reminiscent of a verb.

Also, In Greek there are verbal nouns, which are nouns formed directly as an inflexion of a verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its constructions (i.e. pistis Christou, subjective genitive).

Biblical faith; both in obtaining salvation and in exercising the Christian walk, are life changing choices seen as actions and behaviors (See Endnote #5), more than mere mental assent which is NEVER in view in God’s Word (though it is commonly understood that faith starts as a mental belief that leads to an action, yet when isolated from activity, mental assent is not enough to stand as biblical faith. And it is God, and God alone who delegates the type of action that is biblical. The thief on the cross displayed biblical faith in words alone, and there are times that the action is an internal process that men may not be able to observe, yet God who examines the heart can see.)

Jesus’ faith was seen in everything that he did and said in fulfilling the will of the father.  In fact his faith was so obvious, that it was declared by his detractors and used in sarcasm when they stated the obvious:

“He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him” ~ Matthew 27:43

Two other thoughts.  Would Jesus be a hypocrite that would demand of us what he did not give himself, that of living in faith.  Or would Jesus hold the power all along in yet act like he had no power.

This is why Jesus never did a miracle prior to his baptism, when he was filled with the Holy Spirit more than any man, and simply asked those things of the father which where the father’s will and the father always answered and did what Jesus asked as seen in the miracles that were done by the fathers according to the faith of Jesus.  Jesus was not a hypocrite, he lived what he said.

He demands faith from his followers because he exercised faith more than we ever did.  He became a man based upon the limitations of a man, even to the point of death; trusting in God, that God would resurrect Him from the dead, as seen in Romans 10:9,

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

 Please see the following Scriptures which also state that the father raise the son, which displayed the faith that Jesus had that the father would fulfill all that he had promised to the son concerning the resurrection (Restoring Jesus to His place of honor in God’s throne, until the Second Coming, when Jesus would take His own through on earth, the throne of David as stated in Luke 1:32).

Colossians 2:11-12; 1 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Corinthians 6:14; Acts 2:23-24; Acts 3:14-15; Acts 10:40; Acts 13:30-37; Hebrews 13:20-21; Ephesians 1:15-20; Romans 6:4; Galatians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; yet the mystery of God is seen in the fact that the Trinity was involved in the resurrection of Christ.

The Father is seen in the above Scriptures.

Jesus is involved as seen in: John 2:19-22; and John 10:17-18.

And the Holy Spirit is involved in the resurrection as seen in Romans 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18.

However, Jesus always submitted to the will of the Father, displays the submission to the Father, giving glory to the Father.

Observing the overwhelming Scriptures giving preeminence of the resurrection to the Father, there is no doubt that Jesus exercised faith in the Father fulfilling what He had promised to the Son.

2.  The Septuagint ~ The Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament  

The words Septuagint is a Latin word meaning 70, and is used to name this translation due to the amount of translators.  With the conquest of Alexander the Great, 332 years before Christ, the Greek world conqueror instituted certain rules over conquered territories which included establishing vassal kings that would do his will, Greek overseers of each kingdom to monitor and guarantee his will be performed, the mandatory use of his own coinage, and the mandatory use of the Greek language as a world language.  All of this was done in order to solidify his hold as a world dictator.

As such, after Alexander’s death, he broke his world kingdom into four regions to be ruled by his for top generals. 270 years before Christ, in order to create favor with some of the Jews, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the general who became leader over Egypt which included Israel, commissioned 72 Hebrew scholars to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into the koine Greek language.

Currently, many times when reading a New Testament quotation of an Old Testament passage, there is a direct inconsistency observed.

The reason why there is to be diversity between the two is because the current Old Testament within Protestant Bibles was translated from the Hebrew text, yet Jesus and His disciples quoted from the Septuagint Greek translation, wherein because of this translation the wording and grammar is somewhat diverse.

Jesus placed His stamp of approval on the Septuagint by using it.

The Septuagint gives us a way of understanding the Old Testament which was written in Hebrew.

The Hebrew language is a very vague language that can have diverse meanings to words dependent upon the application.

Whereas, the complete opposite is true of koine Greek, which is a very precise language which is exact, as it is utilized in the law, medicine, and science.

What this does is this gives the believer the opportunity to read that Hebrew translation in its beauty, flow, and ability to create meaning; while at the same time by reading the Greek Septuagint, the believer has the opportunity to also know exactly what these Hebrew words meant in greater detail in order to conduct word studies with precise, which is what this article is about.

God connects the Old Testament with the New Testament with the creation of the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament – just another way that God displays His mastery over His Word – wherein the only conclusion must be is that this completed Book, referred to as the Bible was orchestrated not my man, but by a God who is all-powerful and outsider time domain.

“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”  (Psa 138:2)

3.  Hermeneutics Meaning

Hermeneutics is the theory of textual interpretation, especially the interpretation ofB biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. It is the science of how to achieve proper meaning from the text wherein diverse principles of interpretation come together in order to fully understand the meaning that is meant to be conveyed.

4.  Philippians 2:5-8

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

5.  The Process of Faith

Faith only grows when it is stretched by tribulations (problems, hard times, difficulties, calamities, trials, and testing; they’re all synonymous concerning the “trying of our faith”). Faith can only grow incrementally, as more and more is demanded of it.

This is because trust is a process contingent upon experience, as someone (or in the case of God and His Word the Bible – Rom. 10:17) proves they are trustworthy situation after situation, we trust them more and more.

In this way faith is analogous to a muscle which must be torn before growth can occur.

Therefore, we must always realize and therefore understand that testing is not done as a process whereby God attempts to validate the existence of our faith, or its degree, which might appear cruel on the surface; but that these trials are necessary for faith to grow, and that without these trials, it is impossible for faith to mature ~ James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 4:12.

Therefore, as a believer when you enter trials and temptations, these are your opportunity to make faith choices of choosing God’s Will, according to His Word; rather than your own, wherein the trying of your faith is more precious than gold and will earn eternal rewards far beyond this temporal existence in the flesh.

Brent

The difference between ‘involvement’ and ‘commitment’ is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast:
the chicken was ‘involved’ – the pig was ‘committed’.”