What impact does Christ’s humility have on Christian behavior and unity? Christ never taught his disciples to do what he would not do; rather He leads by example. It is do what I do not do what I say only. Humility is a state of being humble and at such , whosoever is humble is neither proud nor haughty. It takes a lot for Christ to humanize himself (assume a low estate as against  his position in Heaven) enough for us to emulate Him in thought, word and deed. Jesus as the Word of God in John 1: 1-4 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word  was God. The same was in the beginning with God, All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (KJV) this refers to Jesus as not being humanoid (in the form of man). Being part of the essence of God he was and still is higher than man and yet, he was never haughty or proud. He has reasons to be proud of who He was and is, from the standpoint of human beings and their hierarchical arrangement of status. He does not teach us to adopt the doctrine of the “pecking order”, rather whoever aspires to be leader must show the traits of a servant to be able to help others for such leadership to be meaningful before God.

J. G. Kris observed ; “Humility is a virtue most pleasing to God, Pride is a grievous sin in his sight”. This is a further explanation to Proverb 8:13. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” If we .humble ourselves, we stand the chance of being exalted. There was the story of a senior Manager retrenched from work and had to take a job that was being paid half the salary in his former job. He forgot what he was in his former job and ensured doing the job given him diligently. Whenever, his new boss happened to be on the verge of making grievous mistake, he would quietly draw the attention of the boss (with lesser experience than he is on the job) to it and humbly offer helpful advice. When his advice was taken and pitfall avoided, nobody would seem to acknowledge him but his record was being updated positively until there was a sudden vacancy created by another boss on similar assignment that left for a better pay elsewhere.  The “humble subordinate” asked was asked to  act for observation period of six months. Within one month his output spoke volumes about his competence for the job. He was confirmed on the job with a mouth-watering remuneration. Humility and ability to promote unity between others saw him through trough to pinnacle. 

Jesus never condoned pride in people, that was the crux of rebuking his disciples for their proud attitude concerning letting the children come to Him. Luke 18: 15-17 attest to it: “And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.” Jesus also rebuked  the attitudes of the Pharisees in doting on law and forgetting that which was of spiritual significance. Luke 11: 37-44 (KJV). Lesson to be learnt therefrom is that the height of pride tend to determine the depth of humiliation; therefore, be humble at your huge success to be exalted in consequence, all things being equal. The Pharisees who chose to pray publicly and draw comparison themselves and those who do not observe the laws or are too poor to tithe big or are outright heathens underscore the teaching of Christ in Luke 14: 7-14 and especially verse 11 that says: “For everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (ASV)

Christ teaching was to warn the Pharisees and religious leaders of today that if they do not humble themselves before God they stand the chance of missing inheriting the kingdom of God. Matthew 6: 1-8. Fear of the Lord is humility personified. King Nebuchadnezzar failed because he boasted about his own power without attributing it to God. Humility has positive reward. The coming together of the disciples after they had scattered following trial and crucifixion of Christ  was a sign that humility and unity must be part of the code of conduct for all Christians. Even in today’s situation, we talk of being brother’s keepers. Those that have did not despise the have-not. It was a unanimous decision that the rank and file of the followers of Christ should sell all their belongings and bring the proceeds to a common purse for the use of all of them. Ananias and Sapphira sold theirs and kept part of it for which the spirit of the Lord dealt with them and they died because of their half-hearted spirit  of obedience and unity.  Disciples of Christ and new converts feared the Lord and remained in unity in spite of mass arrest, torture and cruel death.  We do believe that those who are not ashamed to confess Christ, the Son of Man shall not be ashamed of them in His Father’s kingdom. 

Therefore, it behoves all believers to emulate Christ’s humility for enhancing unity of purpose and happiness here on earth and the promise of eternal life. With humility that promotes the fear of God and the acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The blood of Jesus with his righteousness assures our place in God’s kingdom while others would have their eternal life in hell as prescribed in the bible.