Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 38:2 (Spring 2024)
Article: Humility: The Path For Male-Female Relationships
Author: John E. McKinley

PP 38:2 (Spring 2024) p. 22

Humility: The Path For Male-Female Relationships

John McKinley

John McKinley is professor of theology at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in southern California. He completed a PhD at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2005) in Louisville, Kentucky. He is a student of Martin Luther’s theology and an advocate for the ministry of women for the whole church in all areas of God’s work, to teach and encourage his people.

This is an edited version of an article presented in November 2023 at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in San Antonio, TX.

Humility is relevant to the theology of gender in three ways.1

First, humility is a model of God in relationship with humanity. God accommodated himself to ancient peoples’ situations and needs, and he met them in terms of cultural expectations so that people could respond to him. Like a loving parent to children, God listens to prayers and serves by responding to peoples’ requests. He does as they ask, like a servant obeying a master’s will. God humbles himself to serve his creatures because he loves them. Humility is a model of what God does in his relationship with humankind.

Second, humility is a model of the NT churches in relationship with the nonbelieving people in the cultures of their mission fields. Churches accommodated themselves to the situations and needs of their neighbors and met them in terms of cultural expectations so that people could engage with God through the gospel. Churches sought to avoid slander and persecution to maintain winsome appeal for the gospel. Churches humbled themselves in culturally important ways for outsiders so they could represent Jesus Christ. All Christians are called to humility, and by humbling themselves churches are being like God. Humility is a model of what NT churches did as missionaries in the first century.

Third, humility is a model of Christian women and men in relationship with each other. They live to honor, value, and serve others, considering others’ interests above their own. Jesus is the model for all Christians by the way he humbled himself to serve the church. Jesus loves us by his service, and all Christians are to love one another by serving one another. Humility like Jesus’s means that Christians must set aside their concerns for personal rights and roles. These personal concerns distract us from humbling ourselves and are an obstacle to unity and love among us. We have been freed by God to serve one another in the way that Jesus humbled himself to serve us. Humility is a model of women and men in relationship with each other, since we are called to love as Jesus does.