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Humility: True Greatness
Discover the JOY of dying to self and living for GOD.
With insightful, penetrating clarity, Andrew Murray calls all Christians to turn from pride, empty themselves, study the character of Christ and be filled with His grace.
In every chapter, his Godly wisdom will help you cultivate a Christ-nourished life as you learn to model your life after Christ´s and discover the joy of dying to self and living for the glory of God!
"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4:10)
"Humility: True Greatness" is indispensable for every Christian.
54 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1895
About the author
Andrew Murray
1,334 books565 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Murray was Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Murray became a noted missionary leader. His father was a Scottish Presbyterian serving the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, and his mother had connections with both French Huguenots and German Lutherans. This background to some extent explains his ecumenical spirit. He was educated at Aberdeen University, Scotland, and at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. After ordination in 1848 he served pastorates at Bloemfontein, Worcester, Cape Town, and Wellington. He helped to found what are now the University College of the Orange Free State and the Stellenbosch Seminary. He served as Moderator of the Cape Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church and was president of both the YMCA (1865) and the South Africa General Mission (1888-1917), now the Africa Evangelical Fellowship.
He was one of the chief promoters of the call to missions in South Africa. This led to the Dutch Reformed Church missions to blacks in the Transvaal and Malawi. Apart from his evangelistic tours in South Africa, he spoke at the Keswick and Northfield Conventions in 1895, making a great impression. upon his British and American audiences. For his contribution to world missions he was given an honorary doctorate by the universities of Aberdeen (1898) and Cape of Good Hope(1907).
Murray is best known today for his devotional writings, which place great emphasis on the need for a rich, personal devotional life. Many of his 240 publications explain in how he saw this devotion and its outworking in the life of the Christian. Several of his books have become devotional classics. Among these are Abide in Christ, Absolute Surrender, With Christ in the School of Prayer, The Spirit of Christ and Waiting on God.
Murray was Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Murray became a noted missionary leader. His father was a Scottish Presbyterian serving the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, and his mother had connections with both French Huguenots and German Lutherans. This background to some extent explains his ecumenical spirit. He was educated at Aberdeen University, Scotland, and at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. After ordination in 1848 he served pastorates at Bloemfontein, Worcester, Cape Town, and Wellington. He helped to found what are now the University College of the Orange Free State and the Stellenbosch Seminary. He served as Moderator of the Cape Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church and was president of both the YMCA (1865) and the South Africa General Mission (1888-1917), now the Africa Evangelical Fellowship.
He was one of the chief promoters of the call to missions in South Africa. This led to the Dutch Reformed Church missions to blacks in the Transvaal and Malawi. Apart from his evangelistic tours in South Africa, he spoke at the Keswick and Northfield Conventions in 1895, making a great impression. upon his British and American audiences. For his contribution to world missions he was given an honorary doctorate by the universities of Aberdeen (1898) and Cape of Good Hope(1907).
Murray is best known today for his devotional writings, which place great emphasis on the need for a rich, personal devotional life. Many of his 240 publications explain in how he saw this devotion and its outworking in the life of the Christian. Several of his books have become devotional classics. Among these are Abide in Christ, Absolute Surrender, With Christ in the School of Prayer, The Spirit of Christ and Waiting on God.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,063 reviews
January 17, 2008
This is a powerful book for me, and I've read it several times. Murray (a late 19th c. pastor, very Christ-centered) writes, "When I look back at my own religious experience, or on the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus." This book is both convicting as to my own lack of humility and encouraging, making humility seem very enticing. Humility is "the mark of a soul that has seen the glory of God (Job 42:5-6; Is. 6:5" -- now, who doesn't want that?! Murray knows that it is God who humbles us and not something that we do -- but having a good perspective on humility makes it easier to accept what God is doing, I think.
July 10, 2017
The fact that I'm "finished" with this book should not by any means be interpreted to mean that I'm "finished" with respect to humility. In fact, this book quickly convinced me that I'm not even "started." That's worth knowing if nothing else, but Murray also provides a hopeful path forward for those who are starting to perceive their own need.
I think highly enough of Murray's Humility that I've started working on my own simplified-language edition, but don't wait for that to be done! Get the original and read it today. You just might find it rather life-changing.
I think highly enough of Murray's Humility that I've started working on my own simplified-language edition, but don't wait for that to be done! Get the original and read it today. You just might find it rather life-changing.
March 25, 2009
This is a really amazing book about why being prideful is so terrible when we are Christians. It talks about the relationships between humility and holiness, sin, faith, death to self, happiness & exaltation. It also gives some wonderful examples about how Jesus displayed humility, as well as the examples of humility & lack of humility of his 12 disciples. There are so many important lessons here about being humble before God, but most importantly being humble in our everyday life among others.
You could even read it online when you are bored or when you have a break from work: http://www.worldinvisible.com/library...
Favorite Quote: This gives us the answer to the question so often asked, and of which the meaning is so seldom clearly apprehended: How can I die to self? The death to self is not your work, it is God's work. In Christ you are dead to sin the life there is in you has gone through the process of death and resurrection; you may be sure you are indeed dead to sin. But the full manifestation of the power of this death in your disposition and conduct. depends upon the measure in which the Holy Spirit imparts the power of the death of Christ And here it is that the teaching is needed: if you would enter into full fellowship with Christ in His death, and know the full deliverance from self, humble yourself. This is your one duty. 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, in the spirit of meek and patient and trustful surrender to God. Accept every humiliation,. look upon every fellow-man who tries or vexes you, as a means of grace to humble you. Use every opportunity of humbling' yourself before your fellow-men as a help to abide humble before God. God will accept such humbling of yourself as the proof that your whole heart desires it, as the very best prayer for it, as your preparation for His mighty work of grace, when, by the mighty strengthening of His Holy Spirit, He reveals Christ fully in you, so that He, in His form of a servant, is truly formed in you, and dwells in your heart. It is the path of humility which leads to perfect death, the full and perfect experience that we are dead in Christ. (Chapter 10)
You could even read it online when you are bored or when you have a break from work: http://www.worldinvisible.com/library...
Favorite Quote: This gives us the answer to the question so often asked, and of which the meaning is so seldom clearly apprehended: How can I die to self? The death to self is not your work, it is God's work. In Christ you are dead to sin the life there is in you has gone through the process of death and resurrection; you may be sure you are indeed dead to sin. But the full manifestation of the power of this death in your disposition and conduct. depends upon the measure in which the Holy Spirit imparts the power of the death of Christ And here it is that the teaching is needed: if you would enter into full fellowship with Christ in His death, and know the full deliverance from self, humble yourself. This is your one duty. 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, in the spirit of meek and patient and trustful surrender to God. Accept every humiliation,. look upon every fellow-man who tries or vexes you, as a means of grace to humble you. Use every opportunity of humbling' yourself before your fellow-men as a help to abide humble before God. God will accept such humbling of yourself as the proof that your whole heart desires it, as the very best prayer for it, as your preparation for His mighty work of grace, when, by the mighty strengthening of His Holy Spirit, He reveals Christ fully in you, so that He, in His form of a servant, is truly formed in you, and dwells in your heart. It is the path of humility which leads to perfect death, the full and perfect experience that we are dead in Christ. (Chapter 10)
August 13, 2013
I read this book every six months. It's like a spiritual detox from all the self-help messages of the world.
March 30, 2017
This book was recommended to me by a close friend, who told me that if he could only get people to read one book other than the Bible, it would probably be this one. Naturally, I was impressed, and having now finished it, I can see why he felt that way.
To me, the greatest teaching books are the simplest ones, and this book is both simple, and extremely powerful. The author does not waste words (the book is quite short) but clearly and beautifully presents the truth that humility is the essential characteristic of the Christian life, and that pride stands as the one defiant obstacle to everything God wants to do in us, and through us. If we would be like Christ, there is one thing we must do every day of our lives on this earth, and that is to humble ourselves. God is near to the humble, but knows the proud afar off. Which of us hasn't prayed that God would be with us, without ever considering if we have met the basic qualification for that prayer to actually be answered?
I cannot even begin to imagine the kind of earth-shaking impact we could have as the Church, if every one of us would put into practice the principles taught in this book. I personally plan to reread it often, but more importantly, to make humility in my own life the object of earnest prayer and seeking.
“Here is the path to the higher life: down, lower down! Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.”
― Andrew Murray, Humility
To me, the greatest teaching books are the simplest ones, and this book is both simple, and extremely powerful. The author does not waste words (the book is quite short) but clearly and beautifully presents the truth that humility is the essential characteristic of the Christian life, and that pride stands as the one defiant obstacle to everything God wants to do in us, and through us. If we would be like Christ, there is one thing we must do every day of our lives on this earth, and that is to humble ourselves. God is near to the humble, but knows the proud afar off. Which of us hasn't prayed that God would be with us, without ever considering if we have met the basic qualification for that prayer to actually be answered?
I cannot even begin to imagine the kind of earth-shaking impact we could have as the Church, if every one of us would put into practice the principles taught in this book. I personally plan to reread it often, but more importantly, to make humility in my own life the object of earnest prayer and seeking.
“Here is the path to the higher life: down, lower down! Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.”
― Andrew Murray, Humility
June 11, 2024
Going to go ahead and read this every day for the rest of my life
April 23, 2012
WOW! A fairly accurate indicator of how I enjoy and digest a book is how many quotes I keep. I picked up more of Murray's phrasing than I probably have from the last five books I have read. And this was a very short book.
He looks at humility as primarily a vertical issue, the major indicator of one's relationship with God. The likes of How to Win Friends and Influence People can teach the outward habits of seeming humility, but Murray is not so easily satisfied. Real humility, he argues, requires a complete surrender of one's self to one's God.
He looks at humility as primarily a vertical issue, the major indicator of one's relationship with God. The likes of How to Win Friends and Influence People can teach the outward habits of seeming humility, but Murray is not so easily satisfied. Real humility, he argues, requires a complete surrender of one's self to one's God.
December 22, 2018
According to Murray, humility is the attribute that most Christians need but that most don't want. It's the "forgotten" virtue that enables us to be most like Christ. True humility involves dying to self and letting Christ live in you. A common misconception of "death to self" is that it annuls one's personality, but just the opposite is true. Murray says that the "death-life" enables us to be our true (as we were meant to be) selves because as we become less, we actually become more as Christ dwells in us in His fullness. Throughout the book he makes references to the idea that the main attribute of Satan was pride and the main attribute of Christ was humility.
"When we see that humility is something infinitely deeper than regret [over past sins], and accept it as our participation in the life of Jesus, we will begin to learn that it is our true goodness. We will understand that being servants of all is the highest fulfillment of our destiny as men created in the image of God."
"Don't look at pride only as an unbecoming temper, nor at humility only as a decent virtue. The one is death, and the other is life."
This is a book to be read slowly, to savor and to pray over. Beside the Bible this has been one of the most influential books I've ever read. Simple yet life-changing truths.
"When we see that humility is something infinitely deeper than regret [over past sins], and accept it as our participation in the life of Jesus, we will begin to learn that it is our true goodness. We will understand that being servants of all is the highest fulfillment of our destiny as men created in the image of God."
"Don't look at pride only as an unbecoming temper, nor at humility only as a decent virtue. The one is death, and the other is life."
This is a book to be read slowly, to savor and to pray over. Beside the Bible this has been one of the most influential books I've ever read. Simple yet life-changing truths.
June 22, 2021
Short, thorough, and outlook-altering. One of the very few books I've finished and immediately started rereading again. Murray critically examines humility from angles and at a depth unparalleled, arguing convincingly that humility is both the core and whole of the biblical messianic narrative.
Stylistically, modern readers may find Murray's English a challenge to unravel in places, which is unfortunate since his insights are sufficiently challenging in themselves. I believe there are "updated" versions available, or if you're not intimidated by 19th-century texts you can get the original from Project Gutenberg.
Stylistically, modern readers may find Murray's English a challenge to unravel in places, which is unfortunate since his insights are sufficiently challenging in themselves. I believe there are "updated" versions available, or if you're not intimidated by 19th-century texts you can get the original from Project Gutenberg.
January 22, 2026
"It is indeed blessed, the deep happiness of heaven, to be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up in the thought that Jesus is all."
There is so much I could say about this book, but honestly you should just read it yourself. It's short and sweet and an easy, blessed read. Andrew Murray's proposition that humility is the very thing we're missing in our churches is prophetic and important. This will be an often read and recommended book for me (I'm already planning to read it with my D group this semester lol).
There is so much I could say about this book, but honestly you should just read it yourself. It's short and sweet and an easy, blessed read. Andrew Murray's proposition that humility is the very thing we're missing in our churches is prophetic and important. This will be an often read and recommended book for me (I'm already planning to read it with my D group this semester lol).
September 2, 2022
I've been meaning to read this book for a while, but September 1, 2022 was the day I sat down and read it. I know I'll be rereading it again, probably before the year is out and skimming it often for the powerful reminders. This book is both convicting and hopeful. It plunges deep into pride with a sharp knife, only for you to realize that it was a pocket of infection and it needed to lanced.
Read this book.
Read this book.
March 8, 2021
Classic, challenging, necessary.
April 26, 2025
“How great is God! How small we are! Lost, swallowed up, in love’s immensity! May God teach us to believe that to be humble, to be nothing in His presence, is the highest attainment and the fullest blessing of the Christian life”
So good. Thankful for this book that transcends generations to speak truth.
So good. Thankful for this book that transcends generations to speak truth.
November 29, 2025
Convicting.
July 31, 2025
The humility of Jesus is the entirety of our salvation. This book articulates that so clearly through each of the chapters. Humility is not reminding myself of how lowly I am, but rather placing myself under the authority of God. “To every Christian the command comes from the throne of God himself: humble yourself. The earnest attempt to listen and obey will be rewarded with the painful discovery of two things: the depth of our pride, and the powerlessness of all our efforts to destroy it.” Isaiah 57:15
Great book that I definitely will spend time reflecting on. Sometimes was hard to read because it felt like there was so much repetition within the chapters.
Update: I have read this at least three times now and might mess around and keep the yearly tradition going. This book has so many good nuggets that are necessary reminders always.
Great book that I definitely will spend time reflecting on. Sometimes was hard to read because it felt like there was so much repetition within the chapters.
Update: I have read this at least three times now and might mess around and keep the yearly tradition going. This book has so many good nuggets that are necessary reminders always.
June 5, 2023
This book gets richer and richer with every reading! This is my third time reading it through and I have a few things to highlight about this book.
First of all, it’s highly readable! Murray writes in a fairly simple style, but nearly every sentence packs a punch.
Secondly, this book is the best case scenario. It’s very short, my addition is less than 100 pages, but it has more to say than most Christian books on the market today. You can pick up copies on Amazon for as little as $0.99. I got mine for $0.10 at a library bookstore and it’s the best $0.10!
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1st review:
So good. I'm going to re-read it immediately and chew on some of these thoughts a bit longer.
First of all, it’s highly readable! Murray writes in a fairly simple style, but nearly every sentence packs a punch.
Secondly, this book is the best case scenario. It’s very short, my addition is less than 100 pages, but it has more to say than most Christian books on the market today. You can pick up copies on Amazon for as little as $0.99. I got mine for $0.10 at a library bookstore and it’s the best $0.10!
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1st review:
So good. I'm going to re-read it immediately and chew on some of these thoughts a bit longer.
July 20, 2013
There is, it seems to me, that there is a tension in the Bible between loving and accepting oneself and humbling/denying oneself. We are told on the one hand to love our neighbors as ourselves (implying that we DO love ourselves) and we are told on the other hand to deny ourselves and follow Christ (who denied Himself as co-equivalent with Father and Son in order to experience the indignity of human existence and death in disgrace). In Humility, the distinguished pastor/author of yesteryear, Andrew Murray, emphasizes the latter. He contends that “Self is the root, the branches, the tree, of all the evil of our fallen state.” (p. 98) He recognizes that human arrogance with its refusal to focus on subjective needs and desires is the source of sin. So, he pounds hard on dealing with “self” in order to help the reader focus on Christ as our example of humility, humility which is, indeed, the root of the tree of goodness, obedience, and relationship with God in our lives (p. 18). And, “If humility is the root of the tree, its nature must be seen in every branch, leaf and fruit.” (p. 19) That is, our lives and what we accomplish should point to what God did in Jesus and is doing in us at the present.
In expressing the example of Jesus, Murray points to a number of verses (particularly from the Gospel of John) which indicate that Jesus claimed to be able to do nothing without the intervention of the Father. This would serve to proclaim to God’s people that they need God to accomplish anything. “Christ was nothing, that God might be all.” (p. 23) That act of Jesus’ will to insist on the Father as opposed to His own way was the key to power in the Incarnate Christ. The application for modern believers quickly follows: “…it is the knowledge that it is God who works all in all, that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and to do nothing of ourselves.” (p. 24)
Here, I must once again interject a caveat. Murray is looking at the universal nature of pride, of human arrogance, and noting how important it is to put the totally-self-centered, totally self-aggrandizing, totally self-satisfied motivations of the self to “death” in order to follow our Lord, BUT we cannot go too far here in debasing the sculpture before we insult the Sculptor (perhaps, I should appeal more to Jeremiah and talk about deforming the pottery without insulting the Potter). The Creator God made humanity with potential and creativity. Certainly God wants to participate in helping us reach as much of that potential and creativity as possible. Indeed, that’s why the preferred word for the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John seems to be “Paraclete,” “the one calling alongside,” the “coach,” the “mentor.” We need God’s empowering presence, but that doesn’t mean denying what God has done in making us. As the late Grady Nutt used to say, “I’m me and that’s okay, cuz God don’t make no junk!” Murray is making a valid point, but we shouldn’t let that other insight be blotted out in self-deprecation.
Murray’s book is useful, however, in pointing to God’s topsy-turvy way of turning our expectations upside-down. It isn’t always the smartest, the wealthiest, the most talented, or the one who makes the most effort in God’s work who is blessed with success and collateral blessings. God chooses the unlikely to show us that no matter what potential or creativity we have, God is the power Who takes us “over the top.” As Murray cleverly writes, “Humility is the only ladder to honor in God’s Kingdom.” (p. 29) He’s right, but I truly believe he sometimes throws out God’s seed plants with the weeds of self-centeredness equivalent to sinful arrogance.
Another problem with this little work was his indistinct view of the Trinity. He states that in the resurrection of Christ and, “In His ascension, He received the Spirit of the Father, through whom He might do what He could not do while on earth. Then He was able to make Himself one with those He loved, and actually live their life for them, so that they could live before the Father in a humility like His, because it was He Himself who lived and breathed in them.” (p. 39) I know the understanding of the unity of the Trinity is an impossible concept for humans to get their heads around, but this seems like a gross oversimplification where the Holy Spirit’s role as Paraclete, coach, and mentor is reduced to being the “battery power” for the Son.
Much as I have always admired Murray, I think this treads dangerously toward heresy in making the Holy Spirit less than wholly God. Jesus taught that a separate encounter with God was coming as a “Comforter.” That didn’t mean that Jesus was coming back with more “battery power.” I hope this doesn’t offend anyone; I’m just bothered by what appears to be disrespect for the work of the Holy Spirit in an author who is famous for his teaching on the Holy Spirit. It seems inconsistent.
I do appreciate his emphasis on humility in daily life: “Our humility before God has no value, except that it prepares us to reveal the humility of Jesus to our fellow men.” (p. 45) “The one infallible test of our holiness will be the humility before God and men which marks us.” (p. 51) Murray even talks about how one’s consciousness of having sinned in the past and being vulnerable to sinning again that keeps one truly humble (p. 64). That rings very, very true from my personal experience.
In spite of my concerns with this book, I find myself in gratitude for an insight shared in the latter pages of Humility: “All God’s dealings with man are characterized by two stages. There is the time of preparation, when command and promise—with the mingled experience of effort and inability, of failure and partial success, with the holy expectation of something better which these awaken—train and discipline men for a higher stage. Then comes the time of fulfillment, when faith inherits the promise and enjoys what it had so often struggled for in vain.” (pp. 90-91)
To be honest, Humility isn’t as good as I remembered from reading portions a while ago. It is worth reading as a corrective for believers who think that they can accomplish a lot for God instead of by means of God’s presence and power. Theologically, it has helpful insights that veer dangerously toward logical boundaries that I’m sure Pastor Murray didn’t intend to cross. I hope I haven’t poisoned the idea of this book, merely warned of possible excesses.
In expressing the example of Jesus, Murray points to a number of verses (particularly from the Gospel of John) which indicate that Jesus claimed to be able to do nothing without the intervention of the Father. This would serve to proclaim to God’s people that they need God to accomplish anything. “Christ was nothing, that God might be all.” (p. 23) That act of Jesus’ will to insist on the Father as opposed to His own way was the key to power in the Incarnate Christ. The application for modern believers quickly follows: “…it is the knowledge that it is God who works all in all, that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and to do nothing of ourselves.” (p. 24)
Here, I must once again interject a caveat. Murray is looking at the universal nature of pride, of human arrogance, and noting how important it is to put the totally-self-centered, totally self-aggrandizing, totally self-satisfied motivations of the self to “death” in order to follow our Lord, BUT we cannot go too far here in debasing the sculpture before we insult the Sculptor (perhaps, I should appeal more to Jeremiah and talk about deforming the pottery without insulting the Potter). The Creator God made humanity with potential and creativity. Certainly God wants to participate in helping us reach as much of that potential and creativity as possible. Indeed, that’s why the preferred word for the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John seems to be “Paraclete,” “the one calling alongside,” the “coach,” the “mentor.” We need God’s empowering presence, but that doesn’t mean denying what God has done in making us. As the late Grady Nutt used to say, “I’m me and that’s okay, cuz God don’t make no junk!” Murray is making a valid point, but we shouldn’t let that other insight be blotted out in self-deprecation.
Murray’s book is useful, however, in pointing to God’s topsy-turvy way of turning our expectations upside-down. It isn’t always the smartest, the wealthiest, the most talented, or the one who makes the most effort in God’s work who is blessed with success and collateral blessings. God chooses the unlikely to show us that no matter what potential or creativity we have, God is the power Who takes us “over the top.” As Murray cleverly writes, “Humility is the only ladder to honor in God’s Kingdom.” (p. 29) He’s right, but I truly believe he sometimes throws out God’s seed plants with the weeds of self-centeredness equivalent to sinful arrogance.
Another problem with this little work was his indistinct view of the Trinity. He states that in the resurrection of Christ and, “In His ascension, He received the Spirit of the Father, through whom He might do what He could not do while on earth. Then He was able to make Himself one with those He loved, and actually live their life for them, so that they could live before the Father in a humility like His, because it was He Himself who lived and breathed in them.” (p. 39) I know the understanding of the unity of the Trinity is an impossible concept for humans to get their heads around, but this seems like a gross oversimplification where the Holy Spirit’s role as Paraclete, coach, and mentor is reduced to being the “battery power” for the Son.
Much as I have always admired Murray, I think this treads dangerously toward heresy in making the Holy Spirit less than wholly God. Jesus taught that a separate encounter with God was coming as a “Comforter.” That didn’t mean that Jesus was coming back with more “battery power.” I hope this doesn’t offend anyone; I’m just bothered by what appears to be disrespect for the work of the Holy Spirit in an author who is famous for his teaching on the Holy Spirit. It seems inconsistent.
I do appreciate his emphasis on humility in daily life: “Our humility before God has no value, except that it prepares us to reveal the humility of Jesus to our fellow men.” (p. 45) “The one infallible test of our holiness will be the humility before God and men which marks us.” (p. 51) Murray even talks about how one’s consciousness of having sinned in the past and being vulnerable to sinning again that keeps one truly humble (p. 64). That rings very, very true from my personal experience.
In spite of my concerns with this book, I find myself in gratitude for an insight shared in the latter pages of Humility: “All God’s dealings with man are characterized by two stages. There is the time of preparation, when command and promise—with the mingled experience of effort and inability, of failure and partial success, with the holy expectation of something better which these awaken—train and discipline men for a higher stage. Then comes the time of fulfillment, when faith inherits the promise and enjoys what it had so often struggled for in vain.” (pp. 90-91)
To be honest, Humility isn’t as good as I remembered from reading portions a while ago. It is worth reading as a corrective for believers who think that they can accomplish a lot for God instead of by means of God’s presence and power. Theologically, it has helpful insights that veer dangerously toward logical boundaries that I’m sure Pastor Murray didn’t intend to cross. I hope I haven’t poisoned the idea of this book, merely warned of possible excesses.
July 24, 2022
I was only supposed to read one chapter today, but I had only one left after that and I really just wanted to finish it, and so I went to the end.
I didn't like this book at all. I hope it's not for the reason that most people will think of. I am a very proud and arrogant person. I know this about myself, it's something that I am consistently and constantly struggling with. How can I practice humility? How can I value others above myself? And how, in the name of all that is holy, can I have patience with those that take absolutely forever to understand the most basic of concepts?! See, already you can see the pride and vanity coming out. I'm sure to some other people it seems as though I take forever to understand the most basic of concepts.
But my own failure to put into practice the tenets of humility is not why I don't like this book. I don't like this book because it's self-contradictory, heretical in some places, and just plain wrong in others.
For example, Andrew Murray is just plain wrong when he says that "humility is the mother-virtue, your very first duty before God" (p. 97). If it was the very first duty before God, God would have said so in his word, and he never did. It's very easy to show that Andrew Murray is wrong here because God actually tells us what is most important, he uses those exact words! "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment." (Matthew 22:34-40). That makes it pretty clear that love is the mother-virtue, the first duty before God.
I think the reason that Andrew Murray is hammering humility so much is because he doesn't actually believe the Bible as it is written, he thought there must be some sort of secret knowledge, that it couldn't be as easy as the Bible presents it to be, and so he advocated something extra 'becoming nothing'. But he takes this way too far, even attributing words to Christ that are not in the Bible. For any non-Christians reading this, that is a big no-no, maybe the biggest no-no. You don't go telling people the Bible says something it doesn't say, let alone telling people that Jesus said something he didn't. There's a couple of verses that make that very clear, like in Proverbs "Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar" or like in Revelation "if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book." Granted that last is only talking about Revelation, but since the same idea is located in other places throughout the Bible, I think it's safe to say that it applies to the whole Bible. Anyway, Murray does this great big no-no. He says that Jesus says: "I am nothing." Christ did not say that, not anywhere in the Bible. Not only did he not say it, but the idea that he would say it is heretical. The 'I am' statements of the Bible are foundational doctrine. When Christ says 'I am' he is saying that he is God, the God who is not bound by time, who has no beginning and has no end, who forever is. You can't have a God who is be nothing.
Maybe Murray was trying to argue a metaphorical meaning rather than an actual physical meaning. I still contend that it's heretical, because when Christ says an 'I am' statement, like he does throughout the book of John, it's always to draw an important symbolic connection between Jewish traditions that are illustrating some aspect of God from the old testament. In John 8:12 when he says "I am the light of the world", he is claiming that in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, where the Jews had a giant illumination ceremony to remind them of God's promise to send light to them. Christ is letting everyone know that he is the fulfillment of prophecy, and is alluding to all kinds of old testament verses like Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light" and Isaiah 60:19 "The Lord will be your everlasting light." The statement 'I am nothing' has zero references in the old testament, because it came out of Murray's head. Not only that, but every one of Christ's 'I am' statements is him declaring himself to be God. When he says that 'I am the light' he is saying 'I am God', because the Jews clearly believed what the Bible said and identified God with light. Nowhere in the Bible does it have God the Father claiming to be nothing. With Murray's insistence that Christ declared himself to be nothing, he's saying that Christ wasn't God. That's pretty heretical.
Then there is the self-contradiction. In the same chapter he says that "[humility' is not something we bring to God or that He bestows" and " humility is not something that will come of itself, but that it must be made the object of special desire, prayer, faith, and practice." If humility is not something that God bestows, why would you need to pray for it? If it doesn't come from us and it doesn't come from God, where does it come from?
But perhaps the quote that illustrates everything that I find most ridiculous about this book is the following: "God has so constituted us as reasonable beings that the greater the insight into the true nature or the absolute need of a command, the quicker and more complete will be our obedience to it." I have rarely come across such a strong statement that is propounding something so laughable. All someone has to do is glance at another human being to see that this is patently false. Yes, we are reasonable beings, we have the power of reason, but simply understanding that something is true and needful doesn't mean that we quickly and completely obey. I understand that it is true that I shouldn't eat an entire pizza in one sitting, I understand that my body needs to eat food that is more nutritional than pizza and not as calorie-heavy as pizza. My reason tells me I should eat the salad instead, it's lower in calories, higher in minerals, I'm struggling with weight gain right now, the cheese in the pizza contributes to my LDL and triglycerides...I know all of these things. I understand them. I'm still going to eat the entire pizza in one sitting, because I want to. Pizza is delicious. The satisfaction of my tastebuds outweighs all of the other considerations. Because we are not solely reasonable beings. We are also biological beings, which means sometimes our biological desires will outweigh the desires of our minds. We are also psychological beings, which means sometimes our psychological desires will outweigh the desires of our minds, sometimes depression keeps us from doing the things we know we should. We are also spiritual beings, and sometimes our spiritual desires will outweigh the desires of our minds.
This author just gets so fixated on one tiny idea that he ignores other things that are blatantly obvious, it's like he never thought about anything outside of this one idea. He has the opposite of my problem. My problem is that I think of one idea and then I think of all the other ideas that are vaguely connected to that idea and end up getting all muddled in my head and unable to hold all of the related ideas concurrently. The truth of the matter is, we don't live in a simple world. Multiple things can be true at the same time, you can't just focus on one thing, because if you do, you are missing out on all of the other things. It's true that I like to read because I get to learn new things, it's also true that I like to read because I want to escape my life. Both of those things are true at the same time. We are reasonable beings, but we are not solely controlled by our reason, and that's what makes us human.
I didn't like this book at all. I hope it's not for the reason that most people will think of. I am a very proud and arrogant person. I know this about myself, it's something that I am consistently and constantly struggling with. How can I practice humility? How can I value others above myself? And how, in the name of all that is holy, can I have patience with those that take absolutely forever to understand the most basic of concepts?! See, already you can see the pride and vanity coming out. I'm sure to some other people it seems as though I take forever to understand the most basic of concepts.
But my own failure to put into practice the tenets of humility is not why I don't like this book. I don't like this book because it's self-contradictory, heretical in some places, and just plain wrong in others.
For example, Andrew Murray is just plain wrong when he says that "humility is the mother-virtue, your very first duty before God" (p. 97). If it was the very first duty before God, God would have said so in his word, and he never did. It's very easy to show that Andrew Murray is wrong here because God actually tells us what is most important, he uses those exact words! "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment." (Matthew 22:34-40). That makes it pretty clear that love is the mother-virtue, the first duty before God.
I think the reason that Andrew Murray is hammering humility so much is because he doesn't actually believe the Bible as it is written, he thought there must be some sort of secret knowledge, that it couldn't be as easy as the Bible presents it to be, and so he advocated something extra 'becoming nothing'. But he takes this way too far, even attributing words to Christ that are not in the Bible. For any non-Christians reading this, that is a big no-no, maybe the biggest no-no. You don't go telling people the Bible says something it doesn't say, let alone telling people that Jesus said something he didn't. There's a couple of verses that make that very clear, like in Proverbs "Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar" or like in Revelation "if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book." Granted that last is only talking about Revelation, but since the same idea is located in other places throughout the Bible, I think it's safe to say that it applies to the whole Bible. Anyway, Murray does this great big no-no. He says that Jesus says: "I am nothing." Christ did not say that, not anywhere in the Bible. Not only did he not say it, but the idea that he would say it is heretical. The 'I am' statements of the Bible are foundational doctrine. When Christ says 'I am' he is saying that he is God, the God who is not bound by time, who has no beginning and has no end, who forever is. You can't have a God who is be nothing.
Maybe Murray was trying to argue a metaphorical meaning rather than an actual physical meaning. I still contend that it's heretical, because when Christ says an 'I am' statement, like he does throughout the book of John, it's always to draw an important symbolic connection between Jewish traditions that are illustrating some aspect of God from the old testament. In John 8:12 when he says "I am the light of the world", he is claiming that in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, where the Jews had a giant illumination ceremony to remind them of God's promise to send light to them. Christ is letting everyone know that he is the fulfillment of prophecy, and is alluding to all kinds of old testament verses like Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light" and Isaiah 60:19 "The Lord will be your everlasting light." The statement 'I am nothing' has zero references in the old testament, because it came out of Murray's head. Not only that, but every one of Christ's 'I am' statements is him declaring himself to be God. When he says that 'I am the light' he is saying 'I am God', because the Jews clearly believed what the Bible said and identified God with light. Nowhere in the Bible does it have God the Father claiming to be nothing. With Murray's insistence that Christ declared himself to be nothing, he's saying that Christ wasn't God. That's pretty heretical.
Then there is the self-contradiction. In the same chapter he says that "[humility' is not something we bring to God or that He bestows" and " humility is not something that will come of itself, but that it must be made the object of special desire, prayer, faith, and practice." If humility is not something that God bestows, why would you need to pray for it? If it doesn't come from us and it doesn't come from God, where does it come from?
But perhaps the quote that illustrates everything that I find most ridiculous about this book is the following: "God has so constituted us as reasonable beings that the greater the insight into the true nature or the absolute need of a command, the quicker and more complete will be our obedience to it." I have rarely come across such a strong statement that is propounding something so laughable. All someone has to do is glance at another human being to see that this is patently false. Yes, we are reasonable beings, we have the power of reason, but simply understanding that something is true and needful doesn't mean that we quickly and completely obey. I understand that it is true that I shouldn't eat an entire pizza in one sitting, I understand that my body needs to eat food that is more nutritional than pizza and not as calorie-heavy as pizza. My reason tells me I should eat the salad instead, it's lower in calories, higher in minerals, I'm struggling with weight gain right now, the cheese in the pizza contributes to my LDL and triglycerides...I know all of these things. I understand them. I'm still going to eat the entire pizza in one sitting, because I want to. Pizza is delicious. The satisfaction of my tastebuds outweighs all of the other considerations. Because we are not solely reasonable beings. We are also biological beings, which means sometimes our biological desires will outweigh the desires of our minds. We are also psychological beings, which means sometimes our psychological desires will outweigh the desires of our minds, sometimes depression keeps us from doing the things we know we should. We are also spiritual beings, and sometimes our spiritual desires will outweigh the desires of our minds.
This author just gets so fixated on one tiny idea that he ignores other things that are blatantly obvious, it's like he never thought about anything outside of this one idea. He has the opposite of my problem. My problem is that I think of one idea and then I think of all the other ideas that are vaguely connected to that idea and end up getting all muddled in my head and unable to hold all of the related ideas concurrently. The truth of the matter is, we don't live in a simple world. Multiple things can be true at the same time, you can't just focus on one thing, because if you do, you are missing out on all of the other things. It's true that I like to read because I get to learn new things, it's also true that I like to read because I want to escape my life. Both of those things are true at the same time. We are reasonable beings, but we are not solely controlled by our reason, and that's what makes us human.
September 3, 2023
Wow. I can’t believe it took me so long to read this one. Easily a member of any Christian Classics series.
“It is the sinner dwelling in the full light of God's holy, redeeming love, in the experience of that full indwelling of divine love, which comes through Christ and the Holy Spirit, who cannot but be humble.
Not to be occupied with your sin, but to be occupied with God brings deliverance from self!”
“It is the sinner dwelling in the full light of God's holy, redeeming love, in the experience of that full indwelling of divine love, which comes through Christ and the Holy Spirit, who cannot but be humble.
Not to be occupied with your sin, but to be occupied with God brings deliverance from self!”
January 13, 2026
Beautiful and edifying. I will be continually drinking from this well for years to come. To the humble heart, trials, tribulations, fears, distresses, and humiliations are catalysts for unity with the humility of Christ.
December 21, 2019
This is an intense little book that is jam-packed with thought provoking passages. Don’t plan on reading this quickly, but rather look forward to carefully considering and pondering what Murray has to offer. I don’t know how I’ve missed out on Andrew Murray for so many years, but I’m glad I’ve finally discovered him! What a profound Christian thinker he was, and I’m so glad that his works are readily available today.
HUMILITY is all about just that topic: humbling oneself before God. It’s a tough subject because it faces head on the ugly struggle with pride that all of us battle daily, whether knowingly or unknowingly. But what Murray points out so deftly is that humility isn’t about self-hatred, which is ironically just another iteration of a focus on self rather than God that ultimately has its root in the soil of pride; rather, it about taking the focus off of ourselves and fixing our gaze upon only God. True humility is realizing our smallness against the immensity of God. Murray beautifully illustrates this concept in the following imagistic passage: “It is only in the possession of God that I lose myself. As it is in the height and breadth and glory of the sunshine that the littleness of the mote playing in its beams is seen, even so humility is the taking our place in God’s presence to be nothing but a mote dwelling in the sunlight of His love.”
5 stars for a profound Christian classic. Those looking for a mind bending read that is truly life changing should pick HUMILITY up as soon as they can.
HUMILITY is all about just that topic: humbling oneself before God. It’s a tough subject because it faces head on the ugly struggle with pride that all of us battle daily, whether knowingly or unknowingly. But what Murray points out so deftly is that humility isn’t about self-hatred, which is ironically just another iteration of a focus on self rather than God that ultimately has its root in the soil of pride; rather, it about taking the focus off of ourselves and fixing our gaze upon only God. True humility is realizing our smallness against the immensity of God. Murray beautifully illustrates this concept in the following imagistic passage: “It is only in the possession of God that I lose myself. As it is in the height and breadth and glory of the sunshine that the littleness of the mote playing in its beams is seen, even so humility is the taking our place in God’s presence to be nothing but a mote dwelling in the sunlight of His love.”
5 stars for a profound Christian classic. Those looking for a mind bending read that is truly life changing should pick HUMILITY up as soon as they can.
December 29, 2025
“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.”
A great exhortation to follow Christ's example of humility. Murray shows how humility is a Christian's highest aim and the real danger of pride (especially relevant in our culture of self-exalting). So much great stuff!
“Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.”
“The highest glory of the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the diving glory.”
A great exhortation to follow Christ's example of humility. Murray shows how humility is a Christian's highest aim and the real danger of pride (especially relevant in our culture of self-exalting). So much great stuff!
“Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.”
“The highest glory of the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the diving glory.”
March 8, 2025
Wow. This book is insanely powerful and deeply convicting. Practically every page oozes with wisdom and repeated warnings of the deep danger of pride in the Christian life.
For the foreseeable future, I will be reading this book every single year. Probably every 6 months. It’s that good. Read it soon.
For the foreseeable future, I will be reading this book every single year. Probably every 6 months. It’s that good. Read it soon.
December 1, 2025
Fantastic. A few quibbles here and there, but they are eclipsed by the sheer gold in several pages. I’ll need to return to this book often.
Re-Read: August 2024 & October 2024. I’ve never read a book 3x in a year, but this book is just so incisive and helpful.
Re-Read: March and November 2025 🔥
Re-Read: August 2024 & October 2024. I’ve never read a book 3x in a year, but this book is just so incisive and helpful.
Re-Read: March and November 2025 🔥
October 7, 2025
Incredibly transformational teaching on the virtue of humility and how it is the source for literally everything else. Highly recommend! Especially impactful was the teaching on our design as empty vessels, humility NOT as occupation with our sin, and how utterly dependent we are on the Lord to produce humility in us - often through undesirable circumstances that our flesh generally seeks to avoid.
“Self can never cast out self… nothing but the presence of God can reveal and expel self. The presence of Jesus will make us delight in every humiliation that prepares us for His fuller manifestation… Humility is our very first duty before God, the one perpetual safeguard of the soul. Set your heart upon it as the source of all blessing.”
“Self can never cast out self… nothing but the presence of God can reveal and expel self. The presence of Jesus will make us delight in every humiliation that prepares us for His fuller manifestation… Humility is our very first duty before God, the one perpetual safeguard of the soul. Set your heart upon it as the source of all blessing.”
June 23, 2023
I probably need to read this over and over and over again - quite a convicting read.
“Oh, to be emptier, lowlier,
Mean, unnoticed, and unknown,
And to God a vessel holier,
Filled with Christ, and Christ alone!”
“Oh, to be emptier, lowlier,
Mean, unnoticed, and unknown,
And to God a vessel holier,
Filled with Christ, and Christ alone!”
November 3, 2023
A convicting read, as I expected. Pride tends to be known as the cop out sin when confessing, but Murray does a great job at explaining how it hinders our holiness. This is one I’ll have to go back and read every so often!
January 29, 2026
“As it is in the height, width, and glory of the sunshine that the speck of dust playing in its beams is seen. Even so, humility is taking our place in God’s presence to be nothing but a bit of dust dwelling in the sunlight of his love.”
(Plz also read the endnotes, so good)
(Plz also read the endnotes, so good)
January 25, 2024
This is my 4th time reading this book, and it never fails to challenge me to run to Jesus more and more!
June 7, 2012
No one wants to think of him/herself as an arrogant, prideful, conceited person, but after reading this book, one will have no other choice, but to admit that the "number one virtue" eludes our understanding. The one thing the body of Christ needs to imitate is the one thing we refuse to practice...humility. The bragging, overlooking each other and boasting is idolatry.
I have shared this book with several friends. Their responses were staggering...no comments. Nothing was said after they claimed they read the book. Nothing. When I read this book I had to read it in small doses. Not because it was difficult to read the words, but that it was difficult to swallow the words...they burned as they went down. But, like a good medicine, this book healed and delivered me from the original and often discounted sin of pride! Read it if you dare because you dare not not to read it!
I have shared this book with several friends. Their responses were staggering...no comments. Nothing was said after they claimed they read the book. Nothing. When I read this book I had to read it in small doses. Not because it was difficult to read the words, but that it was difficult to swallow the words...they burned as they went down. But, like a good medicine, this book healed and delivered me from the original and often discounted sin of pride! Read it if you dare because you dare not not to read it!
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