Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)
If you’ve been around the church for any length of time, you would hear stories about people being rude, judgmental, or even self-serving. While I believe that for every negative story, you can find countless other stories of the church’s beauty, we should still ask why all the church hurt? Why are people who have been met with the grace of God, lack grace? Well, one of the main reasons is that we aren’t taking hold of what is already ours.
In Philippians 2, Paul writes to a church and encourages them to be of “one mind.” It’s Paul’s way of saying be united rather than divided. He longs for the church to be a place where people belong. And then he says in verse 4, “Let each of you look not only to his interests but also to the interests of others.” He’s calling the church to a radical type of living. In the world, people are looking out for themselves. In the world, you rise by beating out other people. But in the church, we look for ways to meet other people’s needs. How many painful experiences would be eliminated if the church was filled with people like that? So how do we get there?
Paul says this in Philippians 2:5, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” You see that! Have this sacrificial and humble attitude among yourselves. But it’s not something you have to struggle to find. It’s not something you have to manifest. No. It’s already yours! Church, the sacrificial and loving attitude you’re looking for is available to all who have put their faith in Jesus. We don’t have to wait to experience a beautiful community where love, compassion, care, and humility are the norm. It’s already ours in Jesus.
So what do we do when we feel ourselves not being that way or when we see others struggling to live like that? We remind them that the person most worthy of demanding respect and service from others, Jesus, came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. And if that’s what Jesus did, then who am I to make demands of others. And meditating on that will cause anyone to see that the greatest privilege is not glory or honor, but Christ-like humility. This isn’t a pipe-dream; this is a reality. Humility is there, my friend, take it, it’s yours!