This is the Key
Selfishness. Does anyone else struggle with this, or is it just me?
I choose selfishness way too often where my family is concerned. I wish this was not the truth, but it is. I can be completely selfless with everyone else, but once I am home, I just want to do whatever I want to do and not be bothered. It’s terrible really, but I am working on it.
Paul addresses this idea of selfishness head on at the beginning of Philippians chapter 2. I have to wonder if verses 3 and 4 of chapter 2 are what verses 1 and 2 are talking about. Is the one purpose that he mentions at the end of verse 2 to consider others as more important than ourselves and to look to the interests of others rather than ourselves? This would certainly line up with what Jesus says are the two most important commandments in the 22nd chapter of Matthew.
Paul talks about having the same love, being united in spirit, and being intent on one purpose in verse 2. Wow. Love, unity, and one purpose…what would Paul think of this world we are living in right now? Having the same love for one another? We are missing the mark. Being united? We are missing that mark too. Let’s not even talk about being intent on one purpose.
What would this world look like if we were all intent on one purpose and that purpose was to do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than ourselves? (verse 3) What would it look like if that one purpose was to look not to our own interests, but rather to the interests of others? (verse 4)
How do we even begin? Lucky for us, Paul gives us the answer in verse 5 - “adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus”. (CSB) Easy peasy right? Hardly.
If we are to be like Christ, we must stop putting ourselves first. We must adopt humility and put others' needs ahead of our own. We must take the posture of humble obedience. We must place obedience at the top of our priority list. Humble obedience must be the most important thing to us. Humble obedience must be a lifestyle, and we must live it until the day we die. This is what it looks like to adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.
If anyone ever had a reason to do whatever He wanted whenever He wanted, it was Jesus. He was God for goodness sake! He created the whole world and everything in it, including the people, and then He came down to live among His creation and serve them. Not give out consequences for their actions (although they all deserved some consequences). Not lord over them (ironic considering He is the Lord). He came to serve them in love and humility.
Humility. If you watch the news at all or scroll through social media, it seems that we are lacking that as well in our world right now.
Scripture makes it abundantly clear that God places great value on humility. There are no shortages of passages that I could pull out to support that statement: Proverbs 22:4, 1 Peter 5:5-6, Proverbs 29:23, or James 4:6-10. Need I go on? The Bible may be a little murky on a few things, but it is crystal clear on the fact that God opposes the proud, but exalts the humble.
Humility feeds into obedience. Jesus “emptied Himself by assuming the form of a servant,…” (verse 7). He “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death…” (verse 8). Scripture says it is for this reason that God “highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name…” (verse 9). It was His humble obedience that exalted Him. It was the heart of a servant that dwelled inside of Him. It was His willingness to do whatever His Heavenly Father asked Him to do, even climb up on a cross and die a humiliating, excruciatingly painful, and wrongful death.
Humble obedience is the key. It was the key for Jesus, and it is the key for us still today.
No matter what God is asking us to do, we must never think ourselves too good to be obedient to Him. Whether He is asking us to travel overseas and introduce people to the Gospel or clean toilets, humble obedience is the key and must become the one purpose we are intent upon. This is how we will live out what Jesus proclaimed to be the greatest commandment of all, to love God and love people. It is not going to be easy. We live in a world that tells us to look out for number one. But as believers, we are charged to go out into the world and turn it upside down for Jesus, and this is how we start.