There are few subjects that are both as critical to the church and as poorly understood and practiced as humility. There are few men more qualified to teach us on the subject than C.J.Mahaney. When I had the priviledge of an interview with CJ by email a few weeks back I was again reminded of his amazing humility and have not been disappointed in the content of his new book.

As I discovered a couple of years ago when it fell to my lot to preach on meekness there is little in print on such subjects. I understand and sympathise with the pain that CJ had to bear but am glad that he went through it and produced this fantastic book.

I guess when you are plucked from obscurity as he was and end up leading a whole group of churches without any formal training it is going to send you one of two ways. You will either think "now I finally arrived....." or you will be forever in awe of the amazing grace of God that can take you to places you never imagined possible. Despite his attempts to claim to be a man who has struggled more than most with pride I am convinced that C.J. has taken the latter view.
Why is humility so critical? C.J. launches straight in to tell us in the opening of his book- because "humility draws the gaze of our sovereign God"

...this is the one to whom I will look:he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Is 66:2)

C.J is most helpful in his definition of humilty which he says is "honestly assessing ourselves in the light of God's holiness and our sinfulness".

C J quotes Jerry Bridges definition of pride as "contending for supremacy with God" and elaborates that pride seeks "to rob God of legitamate glory and to pursue self-glorification"

Seen this way, and given the fact that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble it is little wonder that C.J. aggrees with Stott's assessment that "pride is our greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend"

Mahaney wisely points us towards a sermon Spurgeon preached on the subject of pride and humility and thanks to my friend Phil Johnson we can read it online. Spurgeon's sermon is based on a revealing scripture:

"Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility."�Proverbs 18:12.

C.J. urges us to learn to simply "serve others for the glory of God" urging us to realise that pride is quite out of place for the Christian - C.J. quoted Carl Henry as saying "how can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the cross"

C.J. masterfully outlines some practical ways for us to cultivate humility and holds before us another reason to do so "the humble are genuinely care free"

One of the things my pastor Tope Koleoso has taught me to do is to look for the gaps- ie to look for the throw away comments which may not be on the subject at hand but which reveal much that has not been fully said. Sometimes these throw away comments tell us something which comes so naturally to the person that made the comment that they almost do not think it needs explanation. For the rest of us, though that hidden wisdom is sometimes the pearl worth seeking in the whole book. One such pearl that C.J. writes in this book is "I guess I never do anything passively. Im never just observing". I pray God will help us to be so purposeful in our approach to life.

C.J.s deliberate pursuit of the God of the humble has achived much in his lifetime. We can all do well to learn from the wisdom distilled in this, his finest book so far.

I have no hesitation at all in adding this book to my list of books I feel every Christian should read at some point in their Christian lives.


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