I guess it’s all in the interpretation. I went to church intent on hearing a particular preacher, only to find him absent from the pulpit. The guest minister’s sermon on humility was a stark reminder that it’s all about the message and not necessarily the messenger. Fortunately for me, that was one of the spiritual lessons I learned from the minister who saved my life, coincidentally, the one I would hear on that Sunday. As the guest pastor was trying to clarify and explain, humility should be viewed from Philippians 2. That entire chapter is devoted to Paul’s message to the Church at Philippi regarding “imitating Christ’s humility. “As I listened, humility went from a concept of docile behavior to a fact of faith and strength of conduct. By that, I mean it was made clear that Christ chose to consider Himself at best equal to, if not lesser than, his fellow man. Remember, we’re talking about God here. He consciously chose to make himself human to serve His divine purpose. The text says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others are better than you. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Now, my recollection of Christ says that a pretty good description of how He looked upon His duty is what got Him killed. I mean, isn’t it interesting that the most dangerous, therefore the most powerful and important, thing you can do in life is to care about someone else more than you care about yourself? This humility does indeed have teeth.
Paul teaches us that as Christians, it is our fundamental responsibility to be united to emulate Jesus’ denunciation of status, pride, ego, and self. Surely, if anyone had a right to be arrogant, it was the living Son of God. You try being the walking, talking Word and deliberately transform yourself into a mortal human. If you can grasp that thought, please don’t let it blow your mind because you know you couldn’t do it. Become Christ and die willingly on the cross by the hands of mere men. Fortunately, the minister clarified that Paul is not asking us to do the impossible. He lets us know that our goal is to serve men. Put a lid on what we think of ourselves and prideful independence in favor of our collective interdependence upon each other and the Almighty. Christ died to save us all here in Philippi. Paul tells us that our conduct must be rooted in the following truth: out of this thing called humility, Christ saved the world. Are we better than him? Think it through. If you looked down your nose at anyone for any reason, if you truly think you’re better than anyone else, then you think you’re better than Jesus, who thought himself no better and even less than you. He died in service to us, you and me. Do something good for someone else today simply because you can. If you don’t get this…
May God bless and keep you always.