Can God be humble?

[JontheMaronite]

Can God the Father, creator of the universe be humble?

One might say that Jesus humbled himself by becoming man, but humility is a virtue (vir/virtus - for man) and humility is knowing and respecting one’s intrinsic self-worth, with restraint against a higher and inaccurate disposition of one’s self-worth.

Can God, the creator of all and perfect in every aspect, be said to possess humility?

 

[Trishie]

Humility is honesty, not self deprecation as some think.
It is simply being honest about who one is and what one does, without deception or self deception. It is recognizing and accepting the truth of oneself in one’s genuine state. In that sense God is humble because God is truth, and God has no pretence or no unrealistic deprecation or elevation of Himself.“I am who am” God has told us through Abraham. Exodus 3:14

 

[fhansen]

Can God the Father, creator of the universe be humble?

One might say that Jesus humbled himself by becoming man, but humility is a virtue (vir/virtus - for man) and humility is knowing and respecting one’s intrinsic self-worth, with restraint against a higher and inaccurate disposition of one’s self-worth.

Can God, the creator of all and perfect in every aspect, be said to possess humility?

Jesus revealed the Father. Amazingly, yes, God is humble- while man isn’t.

 

[White_Peony]

Jesus deserved to be born in the most magnificent of places, but instead He was born in a dirty, smelly barn full of flies, animals, and poop. He grew up in what my teacher called “a biker town” because Nazereth was an immoral city. Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. Rabbis were respected in that time. Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. Foot- washing was considered a very lowly chore.

Coming down to this ugly, sin-ridden earth after all the wonder and glory of Heaven is definatly a humbling act.

Yes, God is humble!

 

[jpjd]

Humility is honesty, not self deprecation as some think.
It is simply being honest about who one is and what one does, without deception or self deception. It is recognizing and accepting the truth of oneself in one’s genuine state. In that sense God is humble because God is truth, and God has no pretence or no unrealistic deprecation or elevation of Himself.“I am who am” God has told us through Abraham. Exodus 3:14

Superb answer!

 

[valentino]

Can God the Father, creator of the universe be humble?

One might say that Jesus humbled himself by becoming man, but humility is a virtue (vir/virtus - for man) and humility is knowing and respecting one’s intrinsic self-worth, with restraint against a higher and inaccurate disposition of one’s self-worth.

Can God, the creator of all and perfect in every aspect, be said to possess humility?

I would say that every emotion or idea that man can think about God can know.To be humble one has to be humble to someone.IN other words if you lived on a desert island alone would you be humble?

 

[Little_One0307]

Hi,

After a few days of researching and praying here is my reply to this topic. I hope it helps.

Phillipians 2:1-8

1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of charity, if any society of the spirit, if any bowels of commiseration:
2 Fulfill ye my joy, that you may be of one mind, having the same charity, being of one accord, agreeing in sentiment. Bible Topics » Church » Church is One
3 Let nothing be done through contention, neither by vain glory: but in humility, let each esteem others better than themselves:
4 Each one not considering the things that are his own, but those that are other men’s.
5 For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.
8 He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.

I use this Scripture as one example of how Christ is humble. Jesus Christ is the Image of God, the Eternal Word Made Flesh. If Jesus Christ is humble, then it follows that God is humble.

And now with that stated, here’s the rest of the post.

Okay, we are going to be hitting some pretty heavy stuff here. This is taken from the Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Dr. Ludwig Ott. The following is a De Fide doctrine, this may help better to explain things better than I can do.

I am going to lay a bit of a foundation before laying down the De Fide doctrine.

The attributes or properties of God [which Humility would be one] are perfections which, according to our analogical mode of thinking, proceed from the metaphysical substance of God and belong to it. Hence, we only know being of the absolutely simple Divine Substance “in part” [1 Cor 13:9], ie.e in a multiplicity of inadeqaute concepts, by which we know individual perfections of God truly but inadequately.

The Divine Attributes are really identical among themseves and with the Divine Essence. [De Fide]

The reason lies in the absolute simplicity of God. The acceptance of a real distinction would lead to acceptance of a compsition in God, and with that to a dissolution of the Godhead…

[skipping a few paragraphs]

Holy Scripture inidcates the idenity of the Essence and the attributes of God, when it says “God is Charity” [John 4:8] St. Augustine teaches Quod habet, hoc est - “What God has, that He is.”

Okay here’s another De Fide doctrine.

God is absolutely simple [De Fide]

Two things I mean here.

1. God is pure spirit, that is God is neither a body nor a composition of body and spirit.
2. [This one I am interested in this thread] God is an absolutely simple spirit, that is, in God there is no composition of any kind, of substance, or accidents, of essence and existence, of nature and person, of power and activity, of passivity and activity, of genus and specific difference.

God is absolute Benignity [De Fide]

God’s benignity reveals itself in that He bestows on created things countless gifts in the natrual and supernatural order, and thus permits them to particpate in His goodness [creation, preservation, providence, redemption, sanctification.]

Questions or coments are welcome.

God bless.

 

[valentino]

God is humble.God is all things.

 

[JontheMaronite]

Humility is honesty, not self deprecation as some think.
It is simply being honest about who one is and what one does, without deception or self deception. It is recognizing and accepting the truth of oneself in one’s genuine state. In that sense God is humble because God is truth, and God has no pretence or no unrealistic deprecation or elevation of Himself.“I am who am” God has told us through Abraham. Exodus 3:14

Hi,

After a few days of researching and praying here is my reply to this topic. I hope it helps.

Phillipians 2:1-8

I use this Scripture as one example of how Christ is humble. Jesus Christ is the Image of God, the Eternal Word Made Flesh. If Jesus Christ is humble, then it follows that God is humble.

And now with that stated, here’s the rest of the post.

Okay, we are going to be hitting some pretty heavy stuff here. This is taken from the Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Dr. Ludwig Ott. The following is a De Fide doctrine, this may help better to explain things better than I can do.

I am going to lay a bit of a foundation before laying down the De Fide doctrine.

The attributes or properties of God [which Humility would be one] are perfections which, according to our analogical mode of thinking, proceed from the metaphysical substance of God and belong to it. Hence, we only know being of the absolutely simple Divine Substance “in part” [1 Cor 13:9], ie.e in a multiplicity of inadeqaute concepts, by which we know individual perfections of God truly but inadequately.

The Divine Attributes are really identical among themseves and with the Divine Essence. [De Fide]

The reason lies in the absolute simplicity of God. The acceptance of a real distinction would lead to acceptance of a compsition in God, and with that to a dissolution of the Godhead…

[skipping a few paragraphs]

Holy Scripture inidcates the idenity of the Essence and the attributes of God, when it says “God is Charity” [John 4:8] St. Augustine teaches Quod habet, hoc est - “What God has, that He is.”

Okay here’s another De Fide doctrine.

God is absolutely simple [De Fide]

Two things I mean here.

1. God is pure spirit, that is God is neither a body nor a composition of body and spirit.
2. [This one I am interested in this thread] God is an absolutely simple spirit, that is, in God there is no composition of any kind, of substance, or accidents, of essence and existence, of nature and person, of power and activity, of passivity and activity, of genus and specific difference.

God is absolute Benignity [De Fide]

God’s benignity reveals itself in that He bestows on created things countless gifts in the natrual and supernatural order, and thus permits them to particpate in His goodness [creation, preservation, providence, redemption, sanctification.]

Questions or coments are welcome.

God bless.

Great answers from both of you and I really appreciate the help from everybody.

I’ve been recently trying to explain God’s nature especially concerning creation to an agnostic friend and the fact that creation is for His glory. I explained that for His Glory does not mean that he intends creation to add to his accomplishments or pride, but to manifest and share his goodness with others, as that is the nature of goodness and love. He just seems so fixated on his idea that God is unjust and proud and self-centered in an inappropriate way, when I try to reason with him that it’s just the opposite; it’s so very discouraging.

 

[Little_One0307]

Great answers from both of you and I really appreciate the help from everybody.

I’ve been recently trying to explain God’s nature especially concerning creation to an agnostic friend and the fact that creation is for His glory. I explained that for His Glory does not mean that he intends creation to add to his accomplishments or pride, but to manifest and share his goodness with others, as that is the nature of goodness and love. He just seems so fixated on his idea that God is unjust and proud and self-centered in an inappropriate way, when I try to reason with him that it’s just the opposite; it’s so very discouraging.

I’ll get back to you on this and see if there’s anything that might be said that may help in this matter. I want to write out my response and pray about it before posting.

I can say this, perhaps it’s his understanding of God that his views are such the way they are.

Maybe you could go over the attributes of God, namely his inifinity and perfections in all things. But I will spell this more out when I respond to this at a later day.

God bless.

 

[DCNBILL]

Can God the Father, creator of the universe be humble?

One might say that Jesus humbled himself by becoming man, but humility is a virtue (vir/virtus - for man) and humility is knowing and respecting one’s intrinsic self-worth, with restraint against a higher and inaccurate disposition of one’s self-worth.

Can God, the creator of all and perfect in every aspect, be said to possess humility?

He gave His creations the free will to reject Him, it would seem that this is the perfect example of humility.

 

[fakename]

Can God the Father, creator of the universe be humble?

One might say that Jesus humbled himself by becoming man, but humility is a virtue (vir/virtus - for man) and humility is knowing and respecting one’s intrinsic self-worth, with restraint against a higher and inaccurate disposition of one’s self-worth.

Can God, the creator of all and perfect in every aspect, be said to possess humility?

I don’t think that God has any of the virtues properly speaking so that includes humility. Also, humility, I read once in Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles, has to be related to someone. So God can’t be humble because He is alone and not really accountable to anyone for His actions.

 

[Art321]

I don’t think that God has any of the virtues properly speaking so that includes humility. Also, humility, I read once in Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles, has to be related to someone. So God can’t be humble because He is alone and not really accountable to anyone for His actions.

I don’t seem to follow. How can the Blessed Trinity be alone if they have one another for company?

 

[fakename]

I don’t seem to follow. How can the Blessed Trinity be alone if they have one another for company?

Whoa, forget my whole earlier post because I can’t seem to find any references to anything I wrote there (in fact I looked at the Summa C. again and it says that God does have virtues -but only the virtues that are befiting to a perfect being like wisdom and not something like temperance).

I do think though that humility is a recognition of fault and since God is faultless, God has no humility. But if you define humility simply as “knowing the truth about yourself” then I guess God has that but I’m not sure if the humility is defined correctly.

 

[Little_One0307]

I don’t think that God has any of the virtues properly speaking so that includes humility. Also, humility, I read once in Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles, has to be related to someone. So God can’t be humble because He is alone and not really accountable to anyone for His actions.

Wow so God doesn’t have love, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control ect. becuase these are all virtues?

God bless.

 

[Little_One0307]

Whoa, forget my whole earlier post because I can’t seem to find any references to anything I wrote there (in fact I looked at the Summa C. again and it says that God does have virtues -but only the virtues that are befiting to a perfect being like wisdom and not something like temperance).

I do think though that humility is a recognition of fault and since God is faultless, God has no humility. But if you define humility simply as “knowing the truth about yourself” then I guess God has that but I’m not sure if the humility is defined correctly.

[BIBLEDRB]Matthew 11:29[/BIBLEDRB]

Jesus Christ is God right? If Jesus said that He was meek and humble of heart, then God by definition would also be meek and humble of heart?

[BIBLEDRB]Philippians 2:1-11[/BIBLEDRB]

Christ was humble, since Christ is the Son of God, therefore God is also humble.

We are called to be Perfect as Our Heavenly Father Is. He has all the virtues and them to an infinite perfect degree.

What is humility? St. Teresa of Avila a doctor of the Church defined it as acknowledging the Truth. What is the Truth? That God is God and that we are creturas ex nihilo [creatures made out of nothing]. That we owe all our existence to God, and that if we do any good, it is because of God and not us.

Mary’s response to Elizabeth is telling. Think, Mary is the Mother of God. And when Mary when to Elizabeth for a visit, Elizabeth said “Who am I that the Mother of my Lord would come to me?” And what did Mary do?? She immediatley said, My soul doth magnify the Lord for he has done great things. She gave credit back to God. She realized that whatever good was in her life, did not come for her, it was from God.

God bless.

 

[fakename]

I don’t think that God has any of the virtues properly speaking so that includes humility. Also, humility, I read once in Aquinas’s Summa Contra Gentiles, has to be related to someone. So God can’t be humble because He is alone and not really accountable to anyone for His actions.

[9] But, if there are any virtues that deal with notions belonging to subordinates in relation to their superiors, such cannot befit God: for example, obedience, worship, or something of the sort that is due a superior.

From Summa Contra Gentiles.

Let me amend what I said earlier, technically God does have all the virtues because everything exists in Him in some way. Yet it is affirmed by St. Thomas Aquinas that God doesn’t have some virtues by their nature but rather He has them by His wisdom which is His nature and His nature is the exemplar of all things. Properly God has supreme prudence, justice, etc. since these are all virtues that deal with spiritual goods and are the acts proper to spirits and so especially to Him who is supremely spirit -God. As for Jesus having humility, I suppose He did as a man -for this virtue is fitting to the latter being; but Jesus as God couldn’t have humility. This is since humility is a virtue referring to relations between inferior and superior and God is has no superior so He needs no humility (again I think humility means more than just proper self-respect but rather, “deference towards someone who is truly better”).

 

[benedictus2]

Can God the Father, creator of the universe be humble?

One might say that Jesus humbled himself by becoming man, but humility is a virtue (vir/virtus - for man) and humility is knowing and respecting one’s intrinsic self-worth, with restraint against a higher and inaccurate disposition of one’s self-worth.

Can God, the creator of all and perfect in every aspect, be said to possess humility?

Humility comes from the word humus - of the earth.

God (in Christ) humbled Himself by becoming “humus”. The First Person of the Trinity cannot be said to be humble because the word itself derives from creation’s relationship to the Creator.

 

[benedictus2]

God is humble.God is all things.

Huh? Are you a Hindu? God is NOT all things. That is nothing more than pantheism.

 

[fred_conty]

Can God the Father, creator of the universe be humble?

One might say that Jesus humbled himself by becoming man, but humility is a virtue (vir/virtus - for man) and humility is knowing and respecting one’s intrinsic self-worth, with restraint against a higher and inaccurate disposition of one’s self-worth.

Can God, the creator of all and perfect in every aspect, be said to possess humility?

Humility is facing the truth. God is truth.