Book Club Questions for Humility

1.Murray identifies three distinct motives for humility: as a creature, as a sinner, and as a saint. In your own words, what is the difference between these three? Which one do you think most Christians are most familiar with?

2.Murray says that in ordinary religious teaching, the 'sinner' aspect of humility has been put 'too exclusively in the foreground,' even to the point where some have said we must keep sinning to remain humble. Why do you think that misunderstanding arose? What's wrong with it?

3.Murray claims that 'it is not sin that humbles most, but grace.' What do you think he means? Does that match your experience of what has actually produced genuine lowliness in your own heart?

1.Murray describes the creature's proper relationship to God as one of 'unceasing, absolute, universal dependence' — not a dependence that is merely historical (God created us once) but moment-by-moment. How does that description sit with you? Does it feel oppressive, or does it feel like relief?

2.He defines humility not as a feeling of worthlessness but as 'the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all.' What is the difference between that vision of humility and simply having a low opinion of yourself?

3.Murray traces all pride back to Satan's original temptation — the desire to be 'as God' — and says that 'pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil.' Do you find that claim convincing? Can you think of sins in your own life that, when you trace them back, have pride at their root?

1.Murray repeats the phrase 'no tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang' three times. What work is that image doing in the chapter? What is the 'root' of the old life and the 'root' of the new?

2.He describes pride not merely as a personal bad habit but as 'a terrible spiritual power, outside of us as well as within us' — ultimately Satanic in origin. Does that make pride feel more serious to you, or does it feel like an excuse? How does Murray use that diagnosis to point us toward hope rather than despair?

3.Murray makes the bold claim that 'what is the incarnation but His heavenly humility?' and that every stage of Christ's life — birth, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension — is an expression of humility. Walk through those stages. In what sense is each one an act of humility?

1.Murray gathers a series of Jesus' 'not I' statements from John's Gospel — 'I do nothing of myself,' 'I seek not mine own glory,' 'The words I speak are not mine,' and others. Read through those statements slowly. What portrait of Jesus emerges when you put them together?

2.He says Jesus' humility 'was not a temporary sentiment, wakened up and brought into exercise when He thought of God, but the very spirit of His whole life.' What is the difference between occasional humility and humility as 'the very spirit of one's life'? Which better describes you?

3.Murray describes Christ's life of entire self-abnegation as 'one of perfect peace and joy. He lost nothing by giving all to God.' Does that surprise you? Why might giving everything up feel like loss to us, when Jesus experienced it as fullness?

1.Murray walks through nine separate occasions in the Gospels where Jesus taught on humility. Which of these nine struck you as most surprising, or most challenging? Why?

2.He says of the Beatitudes: 'The very first words of His proclamation of the kingdom of heaven reveal the open gate through which alone we enter.' What does it mean that the gateway to the kingdom is poverty of spirit and meekness — not strength, not knowledge, not zeal?

3.Murray reflects: 'How little this is preached. How little it is practised. How little the lack of it is felt or confessed.' Do you agree with that assessment? Why do you think the church has so consistently underemphasized what Jesus so consistently emphasized?

1.Murray's first lesson from the disciples is: 'How much there may be of earnest and active religion while humility is still sadly wanting.' He lists genuine faith, love, sacrifice, and willingness to die — and says pride can coexist with all of them. Does that surprise you? How does it change how you assess spiritual maturity — in yourself or in others?

2.His second lesson is that 'no outward instruction, not even of Christ Himself, can cast out the devil of pride.' The disciples had three years of the greatest teacher in history on this exact subject and still failed. What does that tell us about where genuine humility must come from?

3.Murray says that pride is 'ourself, our very nature' — inherited from Adam — and therefore the remedy must be equally deep: a new nature from Another, from Christ Himself. How does that diagnosis affect your approach to fighting pride? Does it lead to despair, or to a different kind of hope?

1.Murray opens with a striking parallel to 1 John 4:20: just as you cannot love God while hating your brother, you cannot be humble before God while proud toward people. 'Humility towards men will be the only sufficient proof that our humility before God is real.' Do you agree with that test? How does it land on your own life?

2.He says, 'It is in our most unguarded moments that we really show and see what we are.' What are your 'most unguarded moments' — the situations or relationships that tend to expose the true state of your heart?

3.Murray surveys Paul's instructions across multiple epistles — to prefer one another in honor, to count others better than yourself, to forbear and forgive. He then raises the honest question: How can we count others better than ourselves when we know they are not wiser or holier? What is his answer, and does it satisfy you?

1.Murray says 'the chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility.' Why would a person who is seriously pursuing holiness be especially vulnerable to this form of pride? What is it about spiritual progress that creates the danger?

2.He uses the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in a striking way: the Pharisee of today may not say 'I am holier than thou' — but may feel it through 'a hidden habit of soul which feels complacency in its attainments, and cannot help seeing how far it is in advance of others.' Do you recognize that 'hidden habit' in yourself in any area?

3.Murray writes: 'Pride can clothe itself in the garments of praise or of penitence.' How can even an act of thanksgiving or confession become a subtle vehicle for self-congratulation? Can you think of an example — from your own life or from your observations?

1.Murray notes that Paul consistently describes himself as 'chief of sinners,' 'less than the least of all saints,' 'not worthy to be called an apostle' — but these are not confessions of current daily sinning. What are they? And why is that distinction important for understanding humility?

2.He points out the remarkable fact that Paul never confesses particular failures or sins in his letters — yet speaks of himself in the most humbling terms. Murray takes this as evidence of a life 'in the power of the Holy Ghost.' What does that suggest about the relationship between genuine holiness and genuine humility?

3.Murray writes: 'It is not sin, but grace, that will make me indeed know myself a sinner.' What does he mean? How is this different from simply being reminded of your failures? Have you experienced humility produced by grace rather than by guilt?

1.Murray opens with the image of blessings in a shop window — visible but unreachable, with 'a thick pane of plate-glass between me and them.' Have you ever experienced that — clearly seeing a promise or a blessing that you seemed unable to actually receive? What did you attribute the gap to at the time?

2.He argues from John 5:44 that the desire for human approval ('receiving glory from men') makes faith structurally impossible — because faith is the seeking of glory that comes only from God. How do those two orientations conflict? Can you name a specific area where the desire for human approval competes with your trust in God?

3.Murray defines faith as 'the confession of nothingness and helplessness, the surrender and the waiting to let God work' — and says humility is therefore 'simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust.' Does that definition of faith align with how you've thought about it? What does it add or change?

1.Murray writes: 'Humility is the path to death, because in death it gives the highest proof of its perfection. Humility is the blossom of which death to self is the perfect fruit.' What does he mean by 'death to self'? Is this a one-time event or an ongoing process?

2.He says that 'only humility leads to perfect death' and 'only death perfects humility' — the two are inseparable. Walk through his reasoning. How does choosing the path of humility draw us deeper into death to self, and how does death to self produce a deeper humility?

3.Many people ask 'How do I die to self?' and find no satisfying answer. Murray's answer is: 'Place yourself before God in your utter helplessness; consent heartily to the fact of your impotence to slay or make alive yourself; sink down into your own nothingness.' Does that answer satisfy you? What would it look like in practice today?

1.Murray describes two stages in a Christian's relationship to humiliation: first, fearing and fleeing it; second, 'most gladly glorying' in it as Paul did. Where would you honestly place yourself between those two stages right now?

2.He says that what moved Paul from the first stage to the second was 'a new revelation of the Lord Jesus' — a clearer sight of Christ that made His presence more desirable than Paul's own comfort or reputation. Have you ever experienced something like that — a vision of Christ that made something you feared or resented suddenly seem small?

3.Murray notes that Paul — a man of extraordinary spiritual experience who had been 'caught up to the third heaven' — still needed a thorn in the flesh to keep him from pride. What does that say about the relationship between spiritual depth and the ongoing danger of self-exaltation?

1.Murray opens with a question posed to him: 'How am I to conquer this pride?' His answer is deliberately simple: 'Do what God says is your work: humble yourself. Trust Him to do what He says is His work: He will exalt you.' Does that answer feel satisfying or too simple? What might make it harder in practice than it sounds?

2.He explains that the command to 'humble yourself' does not mean conquering pride by your own power — that is God's work. What it does mean is to 'take every opportunity of humbling yourself before God and man.' Can you name two or three concrete opportunities to do that in your current life?

3.Murray describes God's pattern in all His dealings as moving through two stages: preparation (effort, failure, partial success, growing desire) and then fulfillment (faith inheriting what it could not achieve). How have you seen that two-stage pattern in your own life — in prayer, in character growth, in faith?

1.Which chapter or theme from the book had the most significant impact on you — either because it was most convicting, most surprising, or most liberating? Share it with your group and explain why.

2.At the beginning of this study, how would you have defined humility? How has that definition changed or deepened? What was the most significant shift in your understanding?

3.Murray's central claim is that 'humility is the only soil in which the graces root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure.' Looking back at your own spiritual life over the past several months, where do you see evidence that he is right?