Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1458
“Though I am nothing.” 2 Corinthians 12:11.
THE Divine discipline had succeeded well with the Apostle Paul. There was danger of his being exalted above measure by the abundance of the Revelation which he received and, therefore, there was given him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him—this trial fully answered its purpose and Paul remained a lowly-minded servant of Jesus Christ. His humility comes out in the incident before us. He was compelled to defend himself and prove his Apostleship and this he does very thoroughly but very modestly. In the midst of strong expressions of self-assertion, every one of them truthful and none of them exaggerated, his true humility is as manifest as if he had been unveiling his inward faults, or writing his, “Confessions.”
Augustine in his, “Retractations,” is no more humble than Paul in his self-vindication. It is easy for a man to use lowly expressions when he is writing about his own faults and the Grace of God which saved him from them, but it is not so easy to maintain the virgin blush of modesty when called in necessary self-defense to vindicate one’s own character and mention one’s own achievements. Indignation is generally awakened in such a case and humility creeps out of the way— the more amazing is it, then, to find Paul esteeming himself as nothing, even when answering the cruel depreciations of his opposers.
Read verse 11 and see the lowly heart of the man—“I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind the most eminent Apostles, though I am nothing.” Beloved, when we have to take the same medicine, may it have as sure an effect upon us as it had upon Paul. If it should be necessary for us to be buffeted, or to endure a thorn in the flesh, may the affliction be as much sanctified to its end as it was in his case! Alas, I am afraid that some have many thorns in the flesh and yet are not humble. They have many buffetings and yet are lifted up and, what is worse still, they have never enjoyed a perilous abundance of Revelation to lift them up, but rather they have been surfeited with an abundance of that which is gross and earthy and yet they are not humble.
Though they have no good thing to glory in, they have exalted themselves above their brethren and have spoken harshly of them and to them and have been exceedingly high and haughty in all that they have done. Such persons may expect to be stopped in their boasting before long. May God grant that a little thorn may be enough for us; that one touch of the knife may suffice to let out our proud blood; that a little buffeting by the messenger of Satan may avail to prevent our being exalted above measure, for has not the Lord said, “Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose month must be held in with bit and bridle”?
A tittle trial ought to suffice to ballast us, for I am sure we have nothing so abundant in the way of Revelations and spiritual attainments that we should feel inclined at all to boasting. It is a great shame if we have fallen into the danger which Paul escaped and have fallen into it without rhyme or reason. He who is proud about nothing is a fool in capitals. I desire to call your attention to the fact that although Paul was undoubtedly humble and the discipline of God had helped to keep him so, yet there is not a particle of cant in any of his expressions. There is no trace of the whine of hypocrites revealing, rather than concealing, their self-conceit. Humility has been well defined as having a just estimate of yourself. There is no humility in such self-depreciation as would lead you to deny what God has worked in you, or worked by you—that might be willful falsehood and certainly would be grievous error.
Falsehood is not a constituent element of anything that is gracious—we are not required to call five talents one in order to be humble. If we make a fair and just estimate of ourselves, we shall certainly discover nothing to boast about and we shall not, then, be likely to borrow from the lips of others words and confessions which do not accurately represent our character, or state our feelings and, ought not, therefore, to be employed by us. The mimicry of humility is
a very common piece of masquerading. You shall find persons speaking in very lowly terms of themselves, but they do not expect you to believe them. A Brother who has called himself worldly in prayer, if you should tell him in private conversation that you were glad to hear his truthful description of himself, would not take it at all kindly, but would ask who and what are you that you should judge him! He would tell you he is as spiritual as you are and perhaps more so.
A monk, we remember, confessed that he was so great a sinner that he had broken all the commandments. But when afterwards one of his friends began to charge him with breaking first one commandment and then another, the hypocrite averted that he had not broken any one of them! Men are so little humble that when they smite on their breasts they may be still boasting in their hearts! Mock humility creeps around us, cringing and fawning, but every honest man loathes it and we may be sure that God loathes it, too. Now, if the Apostle had said that he was not an Apostle at all, that he had never suffered anything for Christ, or done anything to spread the Gospel, he would have been speaking, as some say, humbly. But this is a mistake—he would have been telling lies!