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The Essential
Qualities of
Humility

Dr. Stanley D. Toussaint

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In his last chapel message before his retirement from Dallas
Theological Seminary, the late Dr. Stanley D. Toussaint
(1928-2017) said that bringing a message on humility is very,
very difficult because it can be taken the wrong way—as if the
speaker is saying he has already arrived when it comes to
practicing true humility. Dr. Toussaint went on to say, “We’ve
all heard that old joke about the person who wrote a book, put a
full-page picture of himself on the cover, and titled it Humility
and How I Obtained It. That’s not where I am. The last thing I
want to give is an impression that I’ve attained humility.”
Despite his hesitations, however, we believe Dr. Toussaint was
the right person to speak on this timely subject, which is why we
are delighted to share with you this eBook based on his powerful
message.

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Knowledge Joined with Devotion

W
hen it comes to the subject of humility, I feel like the apos-
tle Paul, who said, “Not that I have already obtained [it] .
. . but I press on” (Phil. 3:12). This is one reason why it is
hard to talk about humility. It’s also hard to explain what real humili-
ty is, so I’d like to look at it under the following three headings.

Humility Before God

Humility before God is where we need to begin, and I can’t think of

a better passage to use here than Matthew 5:3, where the Lord says,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
This is the first of the Beatitudes in Jesus’ well-known Sermon on the
Mount.

The theme of this famous sermon is genuine righteousness, which is

for Jesus’ disciples. I call it an “interim ethic,” meaning it’s an ethic
until the kingdom comes. The disciples were expecting the kingdom
to come then, but Jesus said, “Here is how I want you to live in the in-
terim until the kingdom does come.” The kingdom still hasn’t come,
so this is an ethic that still relates to us as Jesus’ disciples today. And
He begins by talking about the poor in spirit.

All of the Beatitudes have three parts. First, there is a pronouncement

of blessing; second is a character qualification; and third, there’s a
description of the kingdom. Let’s apply this formula to Matthew 5:3.
The first word is “blessed.” It’s a Greek word that some translate, “All
the happiness of,” and then say, “This is a description of a happy life.
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This is how you have a happy life.”

That’s possible, but this word was also used for congratulations. So
Jesus was saying, “Congratulations to the poor in spirit. Congratu-
lations to those who mourn. Congratulations to the meek.” Why?
Because these are the ones who are going to go into the kingdom. It’s
a description of the kingdom.

In between this pronouncement of blessing and a description of the

kingdom in verse 3 is the character qualification “the poor in spirit.”
The word for “poor” describes somebody who has nothing. It’s used,
for instance, in the wonderful story of the rich man and Lazarus in
Luke 16. In verse 20, the New International Version calls Lazarus a
“beggar,” which is exactly the picture of this word. Interestingly, the
same word is used of Christ in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become
rich.”

Seeing Ourselves Before God

So in Matthew 5:3 Jesus was describing a person who is a beggar in

spirit. What does that mean? It’s how we see ourselves before God.
You have nothing, I have nothing when we come to stand before
God. There’s no better illustration of this than Isaiah 6, when the
prophet Isaiah saw God in all of His glory and cried out, “Woe to me!
. . . I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a
people of unclean lips” (v. 5). That’s poverty of spirit.

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Or consider Job, the best man God had on planet Earth. Can you
imagine that? For God to say, “Have you considered my servant
Job? There is no one on earth like him” (Job 1:8). But you know how
Job’s story went. God permitted Satan to get to Job, and all the way
through the book Job was saying, “If I could just have access to God,
if I could just talk to God, I know He’d hear my case.”

But when it was all over, Job stood before God and all he could say
was, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5–6).
Job was a beggar, a pauper, in spirit. That’s humility before God.

Humility Before People

The apostle Peter wrote: “Young men, in the same way be submissive
to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility
toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace
to the humble’ ” (1 Pet. 5:5). The humility Peter calls for is toward
believers, toward other people. The word translated “clothe” is used
only here in all of the New Testament. It has the idea of tying a knot.
It refers to a garment that’s put on by tying a knot.

I can’t help but think of John 13, in the Upper Room, as Jesus arose
from the table and wrapped a towel around Himself. How do you
affix a towel? You tie it on. Peter is clearly looking back to that mo-
ment at the Last Supper when Christ tied a towel around Himself so
He could wash the disciples’ feet. Jesus clothed Himself with humility
toward His disciples.

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How do you clothe yourself with humility toward others? By humbly
serving them, by offering yourself as a living sacrifice in service. Paul
described it this way: “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to
offer your bodies as living sacrifices” (Rom. 12:1). That’s your body,
then verse 2 deals with your mind: “Do not conform any longer to
the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind.”

It’s very instructive that in light of this call to service, Romans 12:3
says, “I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly
than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,
in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Then
Paul goes on to talk about spiritual gifts, which are to be exercised in
humility. Why?

Because the gifts we have are from God to use in serving others, not
to exalt ourselves. John the Baptist is a great illustration of this prin-
ciple. John said that he was not fit to untie the Lord’s sandals (Matt.
3:11; John 1:27). Then in John 1, the Jewish religious authorities sent
out a delegation to find out who John was. He readily confessed that
he was not the Messiah. But notice in this chapter that John did not
have that false humility that says, “Oh, I’m nothing and I can’t do
anything.”

No, when the authorities asked John what they should say to the ones
who sent them, he replied in verse 23 that his ministry was a fulfill-
ment of the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3, “A voice of one calling: ‘In the
wilderness prepare. . . .’ ” Again, this is true humility before people.
John didn’t elevate himself above what he ought to be. He recognized
that God had given him a job to do, and he accepted it humbly.

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Humility Versus Pride

We dare not become proud about the spiritual gifts God has given
us. I can say without reservation or exception that every single good
thing we have is a gift from God. A student here at Dallas Theological
Seminary or some other school could say, “Wait a minute. I was the
valedictorian of my class.” Well, who gave that person the intellectual
ability to achieve that recognition?

Another might say, “Hold on. I have worked very hard to put myself
through school.” But who gave you the opportunity to study? Who
provided the funds and the strength to work those jobs that met your
needs? They’re all gifts. James wrote: “Every good and perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights”
(James 1:17).

Rather than being proud of our gifts and our abilities, let’s use them
to minister to one another as servants in humility. That’s the point:
we are all servants. I appreciate the fact that the administration,
faculty, and staff here at DTS understand that we are here to serve the
students and each other as we all serve the Lord. Service is our main
responsibility.

So if you really want to become a servant, become a slave. If you want

to be first, become last. We are training men and women at the Semi-
nary to be servants and leaders—but first of all, to be servants.

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A Warning for Us All

Now, a word of warning in regard to humility. This warning is found

in 1 Corinthians 8:1, where Paul writes, “Knowledge puffs up, but
love builds up.” There’s the warning. Paul was writing in regard to
food sacrificed to idols, and he proceeded in this chapter to answer
the Corinthians’ question about this issue. But first, he wanted them
to realize that knowledge alone on the subject, even the right knowl-
edge, was not enough.

Knowledge is the basic coin of the realm at Dallas Theological Sem-

inary. Our students are here to gain knowledge about God’s Word
and about ministry. But knowledge can be dangerous because we
may begin to think that we actually know something! By that I mean,
whenever someone becomes well trained in a field of knowledge,
people begin looking to that person for answers. That can be pretty
heady, and if we’re not careful, we may begin to believe our own press
clippings, as my dear late friend and former colleague Dr. Howard
Hendricks used to warn his students.

The same thing can happen in your world. But wherever we are serv-
ing God, it’s absolute folly to think we know it all. Knowledge by itself
without love, which requires humility, puffs up. For those who have
a tendency to think they know something, 1 Corinthians 8:2 is the
antidote: “The man who thinks he knows something. . . .” Another
way to translate that is, “A man who supposes he knows something.”
It’s just a supposition. That means if we begin to think we really know
our subject, we don’t.

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The Humility of Knowledge

Whenever we have chapel services at the Seminary, the platform is

filled with experts. I mean this in the right sense, the purest sense.
The men and women who sit in those chairs at Chafer Chapel are
experts in all different fields— Old Testament, New Testament, Bible,
theology, church history, Christian education, missions, youth work,
women’s ministries, and whatever other area you can name. They’re
experts, yet I guarantee you that every one of them will say, “There is
so much I don’t know.” In fact, I think to a person, our faculty mem-
bers would confess to our students, “If you knew how much I don’t
know about my field, you’d be frightened.” There was laughter when
I said that in my chapel message, and I did say it with a smile. But
there’s a lot of truth in it. Sir Isaac Newton was a great student of the
universe, a philosopher, and a mathematician, the genius who de-
veloped mathematics and formulas that are still used in astrophysics
today. But Newton said of himself, “I’m like a child, playing by the
seashore, picking up a pebble here and a pebble there while the ocean
rolls in front of me.”

Perhaps the greatest inventor in American history was Thomas Ed-

ison, who once said, “We don’t know one millionth of one percent
about anything.” Newton and Edison understood that there is an
entire ocean of truth out there, and the best we can do is dabble in it
at the shore. So it’s foolish to become puffed up with pride over our
knowledge. Knowledge puffs up.

It’s true to recognize how little we really know. Don’t get me wrong;
information is important. I don’t want to put anything down. Knowl-
edge is extremely important. Hosea said, “My people perish for lack

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of knowledge” (see Hosea 4:6). Malachi said, “A priest’s lips should
keep knowledge” (see Malachi 2:7). John says in 1 John, “I am writing
these things to you that you may know.”

So here are the three steps of humility: 1. Before God. “Oh, God, I’m
nothing. I’m a sinner. I’m undone.” 2. Before people. “Oh, God has
given me some opportunities, some abilities, some gifts, not for my
glory, not so that I might magnify myself, but that I might serve the
body of Christ.” 3. A warning. Get knowledge, but don’t be puffed up.

John Trapp was a great Puritan divine who made a statement that has
haunted me for years. It just pursues me like my shadow. Here’s what
he said: “Those who know God will be humble. Those who know
themselves cannot be proud.” Let’s think about that.

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STANLEY D. TOUSSAINT
Senior Professor Emeritus of Bible Exposition, Adjunct Professor in
Bible Exposition
B.A., Augsburg College, 1951; Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary,
1955; Th.D., 1957.

The late Dr. Stanley D. Toussaint faithfully taught the New

Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary for more than 40 years
and pastored more than 20 years. A pastor-teacher who was
committed to expository preaching, Dr. Toussaint was an editor,
author, teacher, and conference speaker who taught not only at the
Seminary but also in Christian schools in the Middle East,
Australia, and the Far East. He also ministered in the pulpit literally
around the world. Known as one of the world’s leading authorities
on the New Testament, Dr. Toussaint received a B.A. degree from
Augsburg College in 1951 and held both the ThM (1955) and ThD
(1957) degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary.

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© 2016 Dallas Theological Seminary

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