Reading: Philippians 2

Spotlight: Philippians 2:2-3

“Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

In my bible, this section of text is called “Imitating Christ’s humility.” In my personal life, I am finding more of a need for humility each and every day. As I pursue a life of meekness and ask God to reveal to me the arrogance within myself, I see how far from humility my attitude really is. When I read the words in the text “being likeminded” I immediately think that it means everyone should pursue God and serve Him the way I I do. When I read “Same love” I think to myself everyone should express their love for God the way I do. When I read “being one in spirit and in purpose” I immediately feel justified that my way is the right way and others should join me in my purpose. I think perhaps many of us read God’s word through the tainted eyes of our own arrogance. The answer to that is in the last sentence in verse 3. It says “but in humility consider others better then yourselves.” The way I read this text seems to say to me that I should give up my pursuits for the good of the body of Christ as a whole. That seems like a tall order. I’ll be honest; sometimes I think it’s too much. I don’t think I can do it. But just when I start to feel overwhelmed by what God is asking of me, I am reminded that our savior doesn’t ask anything of us that he wouldn’t do himself. Read verse 5.
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” He came and lived out the example of setting aside personal comforts for the good of His church. He lived out the exact kind of humility he is asking us to have. I don’t think most of us will ever be asked to die on a cross for the body of Christ, but we are told to take up our crosses and follow Him.
I would like to submit to you this thought: One of the biggest problems in the church today and the reason that there is no unity is because we all have different goals. We are all serving our own purposes. We don’t display any genuine love, let alone having the same love. If the church is ever going to get to the place where the Lord can send His Spirit in power, we must get back to the basics. Each of us must do our best to live out this scripture. We must pursue ridiculous humility. I say ridiculous because it’s only ridiculous to our perspectives where humility is non-existent in our culture. It really should be the standard. So how did Jesus live this out? Let’s do a play by play:

1. (v.6) Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped
a. We are by very nature men. We can live this out by not considering equality with other men, how?
2. (v.7) by “taking the very nature of a servant.”
a. We should seek a life of voluntary slavery to Christ and to our fellow believers
3. (v.8) “He humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.”
a. At that time there were not many worse ways to die. So Christ sets the example by paying the ultimate sacrifice in an ultimate manner. Can we do no less then to sacrifice our lives for His church?

I don’t think God is asking any of us to die on a cross today. But I do think we can do a lot more then we are to serve Him, to serve our church and to humble ourselves. We need to literally consider ourselves lower then others. Of course the culture teaches us exactly the opposite. Consider this one last point as it relates to God’s view of humility: In Numbers chapter 12 we see a situation where Aaron and Miriam speaking against Moses (v.1). Nowhere in the text does it mention Moses responding to their attacks. But in verse 3 it adds this little note, “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” The bible says it so it must be true. Now scroll down to verse 8 where the Lord says of Moses, “With Him I speak face to face.” When I read that I had a startling revelation. There must be a direct correlation between our humility and our ability to hear God’s voice! The bottom line is we need to pursue humility before God with all of our effort. God hears us if we are humble. In II Chronicles 7:14 it says “If my people… will humble themselves and pray... then will I hear from heaven…” We need more humility. We need to go head first into the trials that will mold us into more humble servants. We need to pray for continual humbling from the Lord in the form of trials and situations that will force us to be more humble. It’s difficult but there is something great in store for us if we seek humble hearts.

How to pray this Scripture:

Dear Lord Jesus, I pray that you would humble me each and every day. I pray that I would pursue unity in the body of believers even if it means giving up my privileges or status. I pray for my church that we would be like minded, having the same love and that we would be one in spirit and in purpose. I pray that we would do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better then ourselves. Most importantly, Lord I pray that each day my attitude would look more and more like yours. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Additional Scriptures:

Numbers 12:1-9
II Chronicles 7:14
Luke 18:14
James 4:6
I Peter 3:8-9