1 Peter 5

The Right Kind Of Clothes

Be clothed with humility. 1 Peter 5:5 (AV).

We have spoken about the right kind of hands and feet and eyes and ears and nose and tongue and memory and heart. Now, after we have got all those right, what do you think we ought to see to next? Well, I think the next thing we should consider is how to get the right kind of clothes. Clothes are rather important things, are they not? And none of us would like to wear the wrong kind. So will you turn to the First Epistle of Peter, the fifth chapter and the fifth verse, and there you will find your text “Be clothed with humility.”

The Greek word which is translated “clothed” has rather an unusual meaning. The word is used only in this place in the New Testament. It refers to the overall or apron which the slaves wore fastened round their waist with a girdle. They put it on over their other garments to keep them from being soiled. So the word was connected with the lowliest service of the lowliest people.

I wonder why Peter used this word. I think it was because he wanted to tell the people to whom he was writing that they were to be ready to serve each other.

They were not to be ashamed of the lowliest service if that service would help somebody else. They were to put away all pride and haughtiness and make themselves of no account. And perhaps he was also thinking of the time when Jesus girded Himself with a towel to do a slave's work to wash the disciples' feet.

Before Jesus came, humility was a much despised virtue. At the time He was born the Romans were the great conquerors of the world and the Romans were the proudest people on earth. Humility meant to them something mean and servile. A haughty, overbearing spirit was what they admired. It was Jesus who glorified humility and gave it a new meaning. He came to earth to serve. He was born in a lowly manger, did lowly work, went in and out among lowly people, died the lowliest and most shameful of deaths. And through all He was meek and lowly in heart, and taught His disciples that, as He had served them, so also they should serve one another.

Now there are two kinds of robes of humility. Some people mistake the one for the other, and I want to tell you about them both so that you may not fall into that error.

The first is the robe of False Humility, and it is a very ugly and unbecoming sort of dress.

The robe of False Humility is really just a very mean and shabby kind of pride. It pretends to be what it is not. Once there lived two rival philosophers. One dressed in the ordinary way, but the other wanted to make a parade of his humility, so he went about in rags. And the philosopher who dressed like other people said of his rival that you could see his pride through the holes in his garments. Do you see what he meant? No humility is real humility that wants to make a parade of itself.

There are some people who go about the world pretending that they are worse than they are, or less clever than they are, in order to get others to praise them. These people are wearing the robe of False Humility. They don't really mean what they say, and if you agreed with them they would be very angry and disappointed. Never wear the robe of False Humility. It is sure not to suit you.

But the second dress is the robe of True Humility, and it is the best dress anyone could wear. It suits everybody, and it fits everybody, and it never goes out of fashion.

And what is true humility? True humility means having a right but modest opinion of ourselves and never considering beneath us anything that is good or right.

I want to give you three reasons why we should wear the robe of True Humility.

The first reason is that all our gifts come from God. Sometimes you hear people chattering about their cleverness, or their wealth, or their fine relations. But they forget that they would have had none of these things if God hadn't given them to them. If we are cleverer than others we should remember that it is God who has made us so, and that He means us to use our brains for the good of other people. If we are better off than most, it is God who gives us our riches, and we should be grateful to Him and try to use our money to help those who are less fortunate.

The second reason is that if we want to be of any use of the world we must be humble. If we go to people with proud hearts and disdainful looks we won't be able to help them.

Once there lived in Persia a good shepherd named Dara. He rose to be head man of his village, and he ruled so wisely and so well that the King made him chief governor over a large province of Persia. Later strange stories were told of him. It was said that he took money from the people by unjust means, and that he stored it in a huge chest which he always carried about with him wherever he went.

The story reached the ears of the King, and he determined to find out if it were true, so he journeyed to the city where Dara lived. The governor with a troop of archers met the monarch at the gate of the city. Near by stood a camel bearing a huge chest. When the King saw the chest he was very angry, and commanded that it should be opened immediately. His orders were quickly obeyed, and what do you think was found inside? Just an old, ragged shepherd's coat.

Dara's accusers looked very much ashamed, but the King demanded to know the meaning of the coat.

Then the governor explained that this was the coat he had worn when he ruled over his native village. It had helped him to rule justly and kindly. He was afraid that he might become proud and vain and harsh, but when he looked at the coat it reminded him how poor and mean a man he had been, and it helped to keep him humble and kind.

The highest honor we can have in the world is just to be able to serve somebody else, but we shall never be able to do that unless we put on the robe of True Humility.

Lastly, we should wear this dress because it is to humble people that Jesus comes. He cannot enter the dwelling of the proud, and if we want Him as our Friend we must put away all pride and conceit out of our hearts. (The texts of the other sermons in this series are: Exodus 23:9; 1 Samuel 3:10; Psalms 24:2 (2), Psalms 34:13; Proverbs 6:13; Malachi 1:13; Luke 6:41; 1 Peter 3:4.)