When people study Scripture, they tend to think of it as an intellectual struggle and not so much as a spiritual one. Yet if we think of the many verses of Scripture on this issue, we will be forced to understand that all the information in the world can do the soul no good apart from humility. I Corinthians 8:1 tells us that knowledge puffs up, yet we are so eager to pursue knowledge and information without humility. On the other hand, James 1:21 tells us that it is only in humility can we receive the word.
James 1:21 – “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.”
The text is quite clear. Something must be put aside and then it is in humility that one is able to be saved through the word. What does filthiness come from? It comes from a filthy heart that is full of pride and self. What does wickedness come from? It also comes from a wicked heart that is full of pride and self. In order to put aside filthiness and wickedness, therefore, one must be turned from pride and to be humbled. There are many things tied to this, but what we must understand is that the Word of God is more than just words and it does more in the soul than just give it basic information. When God communicates His Word to a human soul, He is giving it the truth of Himself and when the Spirit makes it come alive it is the Word and the Spirit in the soul doing this. God communicates Himself to sinners through the Word and by the Spirit. He will not share Himself with the proud and He will not communicate Himself to the proud any more than He will share His glory with proud souls.,
Isaiah 66:2 – “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
Here is the heart that God will show His Word. It is not that there is such a thing as true humility and then one can add contrition and then one can add some trembling here and there at His word, but this is the state of the heart before God where one has all to some degree or one has none of any. God has created the whole world from nothing other than Himself and He has created all things for His own glory. But even more than all of those things, He looks with favor and pleasure on the soul that is humble, contrite, and trembles at His word. The reason that this is true is because the humble soul is bowed before Him and has been emptied of the self-centeredness and self-sufficiency which the proud creature has. This is a soul that the enmity to God has been taken away and this soul is low before Him wanting to do nothing but receive Him. It is the humble soul that will seek and reflect the beauty and glory of God rather than seek itself. God has pleasure in the contrite soul because it has sorrow for sin because sin is against God rather than just because it will get in trouble for it. A contrite soul has sorrow for sin as against God because it loves God and desires His glory, so it mourns when it has sinned against Him. This shows that the character and true love of God is being worked into that soul. The soul that trembles at the word of God because it sees His commitment to punish sin, but it also sees the display of His glory. This is simply to say that a soul that trembles at His word trembles before God and desires for His name to be revered and to be glorified. The soul that has these things is the soul that has been converted from self to one that has the life of God in it.
The proud soul will never receive the word of God but will do as the Pharisees did. They took the word and treated it as a text book for morality. They limited it to the external sense and so made it into something they could keep. The parts they could not keep they built fences around or twisted it to conform to themselves. A proud heart will twist the word of God in order that s/he will not have to change. This means that the proud heart loves self rather than love the true God and His revelation of Himself. The proud person always judges others and never really judges self as self should be judged. The proud person may be those that are harsh on themselves and moan about how they wish they could be different, but that still does not get to their pride and self-centeredness. A person that is harsh on themselves in words and even some actions in some way looks to self-righteousness as a way of acceptance with God. A truly humble soul bows in its utter nothingness and looks to grace alone.
One reason that we live in such a dark day is because we have forgotten that we are to be humbled in order to understand God and His word. We prefer to read a commentary from an expert who may be as proud as our own hearts. We prefer to study the Bible academically rather than bow before the living God who speaks in and through it. It is much easier to read the Bible for self rather than as a way to be emptied of self. But it is a proud thing to do.
God Loves... Himself 
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