Humility is the opposite of pride and contempt for others, a humble person is able to make himself at disposition and at the service of others without belittling himself, humble people do not have an ego to support and this makes righteous living possible: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", Matthew 7:12. Humility also brings the benefit that facilitates listening and hasty and superficial judgments towards others. Pride is linked to the hardness of the heart but instead humility with the spiritual gift of fear of God (constancy, firmness, devotion, equanimity, and stability). This is why humility is a quality of the wise, that is of those persons who have achieved spiritual perfection, or of a person who, without being wise, at least lives with wisdom: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" Matthew 5:48.
The master of wisdom Ben Sira taught us, that to please the Lord we have to be humble first of all, excessive pride is usually annoying to others and sooner or later betrays us, the humble people are always before the eyes of the Lord and his mercy (compassion, kindness, gentleness), so Ben Sira explained this spiritual truth in his book with a wise advice:
"My son, conduct your affairs with humility,
and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.
Humble yourself the more, the greater you are,
and you will find mercy in the sight of God.
For great is the power of the Lord;
by the humble he is glorified" Ben Sira 3:17-20.
In the Christian faith humility has a special value because the Kingdom of God belongs to the "poor in spirit": "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 5:3. This poverty of the gospel is humility with a thirst for God, it is knowing that we are nothing without the Lord. Our Lord Jesus, in the gospels became humble and simple, the servant of all his brothers, to reveal to us the mysteries of God.