The Power of Humility

Monk: 1, Demon: 0

We’re still doing Lent with the Desert Fathers, those ancient Christian monks who gave up everything to follow Jesus out in the desert. One thing that you’ll notice if you read much from or about these fellows is that spiritual warfare was very real for them. In these stories, they encounter and battle with demons in all kinds of literal ways that I’ve never experienced. And so you’ll find episodes like this one:

A demoniac, frothing terribly at the mouth, struck an old hermit on the jaw, and he turned the other cheek. This humility tortured the demon like flames, and drove him out there and then.

When I think about “turning the other cheek”—like Jesus challenges us to do in Matthew 5:39—I think immediately of self-control. You need enough restraint not to sock them right back in their jaw. It’s about having the self-control to resist that impulse to get payback. 

But here, turning the other cheek is described not as self-control but as humility. Because, to resist the urge to get even is to allow yourself to be treated as less than without making a fuss. It tells someone: ‘Yes, you can act like you matter more than I do, like you’re more valuable than I am’. It’s not true, but it takes great humbleness to accept that kind of treatment without protesting or seeking revenge.

And that humility shows much greater strength than any kind of retaliation. It takes a lot more effort to resist anger and indignation than to give in to them. Besides, if you try to hit that demon back, you’re about to get steamrolled. Just ask the seven sons of Sceva, who got into an altercation with a demon-possessed man in a wild scene in Acts 19:

Some… tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. (9:13-16)

You can’t out-muscle evil and overcome it on its own terms—but you can overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21). Humility, what seems like weakness, overwhelms and drives away demonic, evil powers, for “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10).

The next time somebody gives you an opportunity to turn the other cheek—either literally, or more figuratively—before you decline and return fire, remember that refusing to hit back isn’t a failure, just ‘letting them walk all over you’, not standing up for yourself. Refusing to hit back is an act of humble obedience to Jesus, who turned the other cheek all the way to beatings and nails and death. And this act has the power to defuse situations and to stop evil and ill-will from multiplying.

Torture those demons like flames. Drive them out. Show them the power of humility.

Listen to today's devotional here!