Through the entire first chapter of Philippians, Paul has been preparing the readers for one, huge request. He knows their situation, struggling with division, disputes, and doctrinal differences. But he also knows that if they can get this one thing right, it will make all the difference in the world. This week, as we begin Philippians 2, we will learn what this request is and why we should pay very close, very deep attention to it!
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Jon Stallsmith
Series: Philippians: The “What Ifs” of Faith
October 13, 2013
What If We Really Loved Each Other?
Philippians 2:1-5
If you have your Bibles, open them up to Philippians 2. We’re working through Philippians and these “What ifs,” these big what-if questions, like, “What if we really got the gospel? What if we grasped it deeply?” If you have any need for a Bible or for a sheet, slip up your hand, and we’ll get you a Bible. We’ll get you a sheet. We’d love for you to be reading with us in the text as we walk through Philippians 2.
Now as we move into Philippians 2, we want to remember a little bit of where we’ve been in the first chapter of Philippians. Remember, Paul starts off, and he’s in prison writing this letter to a church he planted some years before. Remember those stories of how that church sprang into being. Lydia, the saleswoman, the merchant of purple items, coming to faith, inviting them into her household from which they went out, operated as a base.
Eventually, they were arrested and they went to prison. As they were singing in the prison, the prison shook. They were all set free, but they didn’t leave. The jail keeper and his entire family came to faith right then and there. Out of these, Lydia’s household, the jail keeper, and several others who were coming to faith at that time, there was this church that was there.
As Paul begins to write in the beginning of Philippians, he says, “Hey, I want you to remember I’m praying for you. When I pray for you, I’m praying for you with Christ’s very own love. That’s what really holds us together.” He kept saying, “All of you, all of you, all of you, all of you,” trying to remind them how important it was they understand their unity in Christ and in his love.
But then Paul moves on and walks through his own situation. He’s in jail. If your leader, the guy who had started your church, was in prison, it would be a bit discouraging. You can imagine if Buddy one day on his Facebook was like, “I’m writing this update from jail.” We’d all be bummed. Buddy started Grace 30 years ago. He has been preaching every week. He has been a pillar in the community. “What? He’s in jail?” This obviously would’ve troubled the Philippians.
Yet for Paul, he said, “This is how you need to see this situation. Here’s how I see the situation of being in jail for the gospel. I’m looking first at Jesus, who’s the King.” That’s the gospel, that declaration, the truth that Jesus by his death and resurrection has ascended to be the true King over all, the true King of the kingdom. He says, “From there, I’m understanding my situation, and finally I’m able to have joy myself. So I’m looking first at Jesus, at others, this situation, and then at me.”
Then last week we talked about how if that gospel is true and Jesus is indeed the King, the true King, then we as his followers are called to live as citizens in his gospel kingdom with the rights of a citizen and also with the responsibilities of a citizen. So we talked about that last week, and Paul calls us to play together on the same team, to strive together in unity. He also calls us even when we’re suffering, as he is suffering, to have good joy because we’re fulfilling what Christ himself set as an example.
This is what Paul has been working toward…this unity, this gospel, understanding your situation, living as citizens of the gospel kingdom. Here’s what Paul has been working toward. We realize as we read through the book of Philippians that even as Paul is calling them to unity, calling them to life as citizens in the gospel kingdom, he’s addressing some real problems. They are wrestling in Philippi with some big obstacles in the community.
As we read through the book of Philippians, we see that within that church there are beginning to be little divisions, little groups within that church. “I’m the cool group, and maybe you’re not the cool group.” They’re excluding each other, and they’re not working together like they should be. We also see as we read through Philippians that there’s beginning to be some discouragement creeping into the church at Philippi. They’re starting to get a little bit tired, getting a little bit worn down. The world is pressing in on them, and they’re discouraged.
We see there are disputes; people arguing with each other. We see there are doctrinal threats, that people within the church are beginning to latch onto stuff that’s actually not true, stuff that doesn’t glorify Jesus. So Paul, as he has been working to this point here in the letter, is about to give the church at Philippi a huge challenge. He’s about to make an enormous request. He’s going to give them the big “ask.”
Everything Paul has written so far about his situation, their situation, is all leading to this point which we’re going to see in this week’s talk in Philippians 2 and then also in next week’s talk. This big request, this big “ask” from Paul is going to be a thing that’s going to hold it all together, that’s going to help them in spite of the divisions, in spite of the disputes, in spite of the doctrinal differences, in spite of their discouragement. This is what’s going to hold them together.
This is massive! If they can get this one thing right, it will change everything in their community. Just before we read this, we need to think about in our own lives too, because I think probably a lot of us (of course, not at Grace, because it’s a perfect church and everyone gets along perfectly all the time; just kidding), within our church (Grace is not a perfect place), within our families (our families are not perfect places), in our work places, in every community, even of believers, we find, we run up against these same kinds of challenges.
We have disputes. We get discouraged. We have doctrinal differences. We find ourselves divided. So this request Paul is going to make to the Philippians is not just for the Philippians; it’s also for us.
It just makes us think, “What if we got this right and we really knew how to love each other well? What if we knew how to strive to maintain the bonds of unity like it says in Ephesians? What if we knew how to deeply encourage each other? What if we knew how to handle disputes with grace, how to walk in the simple truth of the gospel? What if we handled our disagreements in here in our families, in our relationships, in our communities, better?” That is what Paul is going to be talking about with us tonight.
He’s going to be talking to us about the chief virtue of the kingdom. It’s the single most important quality of citizens in the gospel kingdom. You might be surprised that this quality is not love. It’s actually not joy. It’s not peace. This quality Paul is going to challenge us to seek and to discover and to practice… If we get this right, however, we will love, and we will have joy, and we will have peace, and we will be righteous. It’s powerful. So let’s read Philippians 2:1-5. Pay attention.
He says, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:1-5)
There it is; the big request. What we’re going to talk about tonight are two things. First, the why, and second, the what. First, the motive. “Why would we even do this?” Second, the action. “What is it we’re supposed to do?” The reason for doing it and then the response we are to have in every situation.
1. The why. That’s what Paul starts with here in the passage. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy…” (Philippians 2:1) A lot of “ifs.”
Some of you guys might know that this last week I was in Colombia, South America (not South Carolina), a little farther south. Actually, South Carolina is north of here, but South America is south of here. They’re confusing, the souths. But anyway, we were down there, and we were doing a JAQ training with some local church leaders there to help them have productive, fruitful conversations of peace with the Muslim communities that are moving into Colombia, actually, and all throughout South America.
We did it all in Spanish, so my brain is still a bit tired. My Spanish is okay. I was there with Dan Koenig also. Some of you might know Dan. He and his wife, Jen, and their two boys spent 13 years in Ecuador, and then they’ve just come back the last year, and they’re helping out on our team. It’s really sweet. Dan carried a lot of the Spanish, and they corrected my grammar a lot. But it went well.
For two of the days, we went down to a coastal region called La Guajira. Down in La Guajira, they have an area that was not particularly regulated by the government. It’s right next to Venezuela, and so there’s a lot of contrabanda. You don’t have to speak Spanish to know what contrabanda is, do you? So they have a lot of illegal goods coming in and out, and that has actually drawn a lot of Muslim businesspeople there. So there’s a large population. We went down then and visited the area, and it was a great time.
But while we were there, one of the Colombian pastors who hosted us was named Oscar. Oscar was a really cool guy. So anyway, he was a really interesting guy. He grew up in a violent atmosphere, and then he went on to become a policeman and got into some black magic stuff. He had a spell put on him and his wife for protection. Then God started really moving in their family and delivered him from all of that demonic influence and set his wife free also. It’s incredibly powerful as we watched what the Lord had done.
Now he was actually on the police squad that tracked down Escobar, the great drug lord in Medellin. So he was specifically there that day, tracking him down. So he’s a pretty interesting guy, but such a sweet man.
One morning we got up and we had a couple of meetings that got cancelled. They said, “Well, we have to take you out to the beach.” We were like, “Okay, fine. I guess we’ll suffer.” So I think I have a picture of this beach. It’s quite lovely. Well, it’s stretched out. That boat was quite long, but anyway, when you take a phone photo and then stretch it out, it looks like an outrigger canoe that can seat 35 people. My goodness! That is actually a rowboat, to tell you the truth. Aspect ratio. That’s the mystery of aspect ratio.
So anyway, we were there, and Dan and I took a quick dip in the water. When we came back from the water, our friend Oscar had pulled his car up, and as you can tell from the picture, it’s not a well-developed beach. There aren’t like huge high rises and everything. It is virgin, crystal aquamarine water with white sand. It’s awesome. The only structures they have there are basic covers with just palm fronds over the top of them and everything.
So as we were coming up out of the water, we’d just taken a quick swim, and we were walking back up toward the car. Oscar had parked his car underneath the overhang, and he’d opened up all the doors and the trunk and everything else, and he was cranking worship music really loudly in Spanish. So we’re walking up, and there’s a great song about quiet time with God in Spanish. It was amazing.
We walk in, and he’s like, “Do you like the music?” We’re like, “Yeah, it’s awesome.” So we sit down and we’re just chilling out a little bit, and I wanted to know what Oscar thought about this passage. So I said, “Do you have your Bible?” He said, “Yeah, I do.” So he opened up his Bible, and I said, “Just tell me your thoughts from Philippians 2 here. When you read this, what’s going on? What’s this about?”
As he started reading, he loved it. We’re going through, and he says, “Oh, if there’s any encouragement in Christ.” He’s like, “Paul is trying to gather all the Philippians together. He’s calling together a huge team. He says, ‘Hey, listen, if you’ve ever been encouraged in Christ, if Christ has ever lifted your spirits, or if there’s any participation in the spirit…'”
He said, “Paul is saying, ‘Hey, if you people, church at Philippi, have ever felt that connection to the people of God through God’s Holy Spirit… If you’ve ever felt that, if you’ve ever felt that affection and that sympathy, that feeling in your gut of just deep love, if you’ve ever felt that…'” He just kept reading that, and he went, “Oh man, it’s so beautiful.” He was loving it.
First of all, it’s just wonderful to see a man captivated by the Scripture. But he just kept saying how Paul was doing everything he could, as he was talking about the motive or the reason to obey his big request. He was trying to connect with anybody who had ever been touched by God.
Something really interesting began to happen. As we were reading and talking about this passage, people who we didn’t know just started sitting down at our table. We were sitting at this little table. Let’s go to the next picture there. That’s Oscar on the left. That guy on the right just walked up and he said, “Are you guys talking about the Bible?” We’re like, “Yes.” He goes, “Can I listen?” We’re like, “Sure, have a seat.” So he sits down.
About five minutes later, we’re still talking about the same passage. A woman walks up. She goes, “Are you guys talking about the Bible?” We’re like, “Yes.” She goes, “I’d like to hear about that.” She just sits down. And then there wa a woman and her child, and they were selling some handcraft goods, and they were working their way up and down the beach, and they came by, and they heard us talking about the Bible, and they just posted up. They never wanted to sell us anything. They were just listening.
So by the end of the time we were talking just about this one little passage, there was a little group of seven or eight people around us, just locked into the passage. It was like what Paul was trying to do in this passage was happening before our very eyes. He was just gathering people, and people who were not otherwise connected but had been touched by God in some point in their lives, and it was drawing them in.
It’s very interesting because when Paul is trying to motivate these people to respond to his request, his focus is not rooted in what he has done for them. He doesn’t walk up and say, “Hey, guys, if you ever cared about me, if you ever really loved me, or if you ever thought I was just a nice guy, then do this.” He doesn’t do that. His focus is not on himself as the motivation; his focus is on what Christ has done for them. It’s all about Christ’s work, not Paul’s.
Paul says, “Complete my joy,” but there’s no manipulation in that. As he’s trying to draw them together and to respond to this big request, he’s trying to motivate them. He’s trying to remind them of what Christ has done in their lives, because that’s the thing really that draws us together. That’s the thing that motivates us. That really should be the true motive deep down at a heart level for all of us who follow Jesus. It’s to respond well to what Christ has done in our lives.
But it makes me wonder, “What are our true motives most of the time when we ask people to do something?” When we ask our children to obey or behave a certain way, when we ask people at work to do this or that, when we ask our spouses, when we ask our friends, what are our motives?
Because if I’m going to be really honest, when I’m making a big request of someone, a lot of times it’s about me. I want you to do something for me. Not so much about what Christ has done in your life, but more about me. I was thinking about this, and I remembered this video I saw one time on YouTube. Some of you guys may have seen it. We’ll show it in just one second.
But sometimes when we’re trying to motivate people or get them to respond to a big request, we make it about ourselves. If we’re not careful, we can almost throw a little temper tantrum, like, “Come on! Do this thing. Come on; just please!” We just focus in on ourselves. We’ll show this video because this is something children actually know how to do from a very young age.
[Video]
At what point does that move from a funny video to bad parenting? I’m not sure, but it’s funny. But sometimes we do that. If we’re trying to motivate people to do something or just come in and say, “Hey, do this,” and they walk away and come over here… “Hey, do it!” I’m just wondering as I’m reading this. Here’s Paul calling us in to community, calling us to respond to the work of God by reminding us of what Christ has done. He says, “This is the real motive. This is the real reason if you’ve ever been touched by the Lord, if he has ever worked in your lives.”
So what do we use when we motivate, when we make requests? Parents, with your kids? You know, “Come. Respond. Obey. Help. Do the chores.” That was a big conversation around my house growing up. What do we use to motivate? The promise of video game time? Bargaining? Other rewards? Or with friends?
When we’re asking things, do we ever slip into that world of guilt, asking them to be motivated, but using that little guilt knife in there? “Remember that time I helped you move…and it rained…and the U-Haul broke down…and then you didn’t come to my birthday party last month? Remember when I was in your wedding and I bought a suit to stand there?” You just start working that guilt in there to get people to respond, and it’s just manipulation. What does Paul do here? Paul is saying, “No, remember the work of Christ.”
Or kids, with your parents. Do you ever try to push your parents’ buttons? Have you ever tried to tweak them a little bit just to get what you want? You know that if you cry long enough or if you’re sassy long enough or if you give a good pout face for long enough, then probably they will relent and get you the ice cream you want or let you stay up longer past your bedtime even though they told you every night, “8:30 is 8:30.” But then you get your pout face at about 8:25, and you try to motivate them to let you stay up longer. Manipulating.
Or work. Money is a way we use to motivate people all the time. What will you do for money? Here’s what Paul is doing in the first half of this little passage. He’s calling together a big team, gathering us all and saying, “Here’s what should motivate us in our family, the family of God’s people. Here’s what motivates us as citizens of the gospel kingdom. It’s what Christ has done in our lives. It’s responding to his work. If there’s any encouragement, any comfort, any participation in the Spirit, that is the godly motive to respond to another’s request in the kingdom.”
I love the way The Message translation has this verse. It writes a paraphrase of what we’ve just read. “If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care…” This is the motive Paul is using to draw us together. That’s the big why. If God has worked in your life.
2. The what. What is the request? What does he call us to do? What is this big thing that can draw us together in spite of disputes and divisions and doctrinal differences? He works us into it. He says, “…complete my joy by being of the same mind…” (Philippians 2:2) Being of the same mind.
Maybe you guys have been watching the playoff games. The baseball playoffs are going on right now, but there have been some really great pitching performances. I remember as a pitcher myself, whenever I read this being of the same mind, it makes me think of the times when you are a pitcher and your catcher is in the game with you, and you’re looking in for the sign, and it’s like you and your catcher are on exactly the same wavelength.
You guys know that the catcher is the one who calls the pitches…fastball, curveball, changeup…wiggly fingers like that. All kinds of different pitches and everything else. One of the great strategies of a pitcher is to throw in different locations, change the speed, anything to foil the evil hitter who wants to destroy his life.
But as a pitcher, you’re looking in, and there are some days when your catcher knows you so well that even… Let’s say it’s a 2-1 count (2 balls, 1 strike). It’s normally a count where you’d throw a fastball, but today your changeup is going really well. You’re on the mound, and you’re thinking, “I’d like to throw a changeup,” and you look in, and he just gives you the changeup sign. You’re like, “Yes! One mind.” It gives you so much confidence. “Yeah, that’s the right pitch. We’re going to do this.”
But then there are other days when you’re pitching and your catcher is on totally a different page from you. So you look in, and you want to throw that changeup, and he puts down one finger for a fastball. “No,” you shake it off. One. “No, no. I already shook that off.” One again. Okay, step off the mound. Rub the baseball a little bit. “Now, I know what I want to throw. I have the ball. You don’t have the ball.” He puts down the one. He comes out, and you have a conversation. That’s not oneness of mind.
Here’s what Paul is saying. “No, listen. Be of one mind. Be in sync. Know each other. Know how each other reacts in various situations. Be unified, connected in the Spirit. Be of the same mind.” So he’s working us into this big request. “…having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit…” (Philippians 2:2-3) Now he’s getting a little bit closer to home.
Selfish ambition and conceit… When we’re doing things from selfish ambition and from conceit, we’re actually using other people. We do that all the time when we do stuff out of selfish ambition, we do stuff out of conceit, trying to use people and manipulate them. This happens in families. Manipulation happens in your workplace. This happens in churches, between churches.
One of the interesting things about being in South America last week, as we were talking to these leaders… Of course, we represent a healthy North American church of some size. The leaders we’re working with are saying, “There has been a lot of history of manipulation and using each other over the years between the North American church and the South American church,” because the North American church oftentimes just wants to come down, find some poor people, take some pictures with them, go back home, and say, “Hey, we hung out with some poor people.”
In a lot of South American churches too say, “Okay, well, if these guys are going to come down, we can take them around for a week because they’ll give us a lot of money, and they’ll build us a new building.” It’s not real partnership. It’s not oneness of mind. It’s mutual manipulation. It’s just using each other.
This happens in relationships. You can be dating somebody and both of you are just using the other to fill some hole in your heart. It happens in families. It happens all the time. We do all sorts of things from selfish ambition and from conceit, from vainglory like the older translations have that word.
But instead of that, do nothing from that. Don’t use each other. Don’t manipulate each other. Instead of that, here’s what we are called to do. Here it is…the big request. In the second half of verse 3, Paul says, “…but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:3-5)
Boom! There it is. The word humility. The chief virtue…humility. Let me spend a couple of minutes talking about humility. Before we do that, I need three kids who would like to eat a little doughnut. All right, we have to have you two guys because you’re so eager. So you guys come on up. All right, young lady on the left in the very, very back row, come on up. Great. So the three of you.
Now this is a thing that happened in my house quite a bit. This is something that would happen at my house. My brother and I were the only two kids in the family, and my mom would make delicious desserts sometimes. But you guys have probably found that circumstance when there’s only one piece of brownie left or there’s one doughnut left, like this one.
Let’s see. Jack, since you’re the oldest… This is how my mom would handle the dilemma of having only one piece left but multiple children. One of you cuts; the other chooses. Have you guys ever had that situation? Okay, so here you go. You need to just divide our one doughnut here into three pieces so everyone up here gets a piece, but remember, if you cut, they get to pick first. You know how this works. Great. Perfect.
As you’re cutting, tell me what’s going through your mind. What’s your strategy for cutting? What’s your strategy? Do you have a strategy in cutting?
Jack: I cut them all the same.
Jon Stallsmith: Okay, great. Cutting them all. Looks like you cut a pretty small one there. Uh-oh. It looks like you’re going to get a pretty small one. Okay, you’ve made your decisions. Does everyone see our plate here? I don’t know the best way to… So ladies first. You get to make the first selection. Which one would you like? Now as you’re choosing that one, tell me, why have you chosen that one?
Girl: Because this is the biggest.
Jon Stallsmith: Naturally. And why have you made that choice?
Boy: I think it’s the biggest.
Jon Stallsmith: You think it’s the biggest, and it definitely has the most cream. I’m sorry, Jack. That first cut really left you with a little rind of doughnut. That’s unfortunate. Okay, everybody, thank you. Thank you, guys. You can head down. Eat your doughnuts. Wonderful. Here you go. You can have that.
So read that verse again. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3) It’s funny isn’t it? Our natural way, our natural tendency, is if we’re going to have to share this doughnut, we want to make sure all of us get exactly the same amount. If I’m going to cut this thing, I’m going to make sure I cut myself the perfect piece.
I remember my goal with my little brother when we were cutting that brownie between the two of us… It was like I would get out the micrometer to make his choice as difficult as possible. My goal was to stump him so badly that he could not choose between the two pieces because they were so exactly the same.
Why? Because we want the dessert. Because we want the doughnut. We want it. This is our natural way, our natural tendency. Now there’s nothing really inherently wrong with wanting a bigger piece of doughnut, but it does reflect this natural bent we have as humans to cut it so we get the most.
Here’s what Paul is doing. He’s coming in and he’s turning that natural old tendency on its head. He’s flipping things around entirely. If you read about this word Paul uses here for humility… In the ancient Greek world it was a really negative word. It was just like a bad word. It was almost like an insult. If they used it, they would use it to refer to a slave, and it had the same idea of being unfit, shabby, of no account, no value.
So humility in the ancient world for people who did not know Christ, who didn’t understand his kingdom, was a bad thing. “No, I don’t want humility. It means you’re shabby. It means you’re giving up the better piece.” In the ancient world, the thing you wanted to be was powerful, strong. You wanted to present a good image. You wanted to look good. You wanted to do the right things.
So Paul comes along and says, “Guys, if you’re going to be true citizens of the gospel kingdom, in humility count others more important than yourselves.” When you’re looking at the plate with sliced doughnuts, consider surrendering the bigger piece to the other person instead of taking it for yourself. Are you convicted yet? How was the doughnut, though? Delicious? Good. Yeah, pretty good. It’s great. Don’t feel too convicted. It’s not like a sin thing. It’s just an illustration. Don’t worry about it.
Humility is so important. Some of you guys may have read Andrew Murray. He has a little book written called Humility. He writes all about humility. He says, “Humility is the only soil in which the graces of God root.” He says, “The lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure in our lives.”
At some point or another, most of us have probably heard someone say pride is the root of all our sin. Pride. Puffing ourselves up. Thinking of ourselves first. Putting ourselves ahead of others. That prideful impulse all the way back to the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve heard Satan say, “If you eat this, you’ll be like God.” They said, “Ah, yes! I’ll disobey God if I could be like him and puff myself up more.” [Eating fruit] “I’m naked.” That’s what happened. They realized they were naked as soon as they ate it. It didn’t puff them up. It actually embarrassed them.
But pride is the root of sin, of disobedience. On the flip side, humility is the root of righteousness. Humility, that place of total dependence upon God, that place of honesty about who we are…nothing more and nothing less. Sometimes people say, “Oh, humility, being humble, that’s like walking around saying, ‘I am a zero. I’m worth nothing.'” No, that’s not true, actually. You’re worth immensely much in the eyes of God. Jesus died for you. The Lord loves you so much. You have enormous value.
Humility isn’t walking around going, “I’m a zero,” because if that’s how you are, you don’t have to treat anybody else with much respect to treat them with more than yourself. Paul here says, “Treat others more significant than yourselves.” If you’re thinking you’re a zero, you pretty much only have to treat other people like a one or a two. No, that’s not the point.
Paul has already talked to us about what it means, the honor and dignity of being a citizen of the gospel kingdom. He’s saying, “Now, knowing your true value, your true identity in Christ, treat others even more so. Lift them up. Honor them. Serve them. Display humility.”
Here’s the thing. Here’s the reason why it’s fair to say humility is the chief and most important characteristic of people in God’s kingdom who follow Jesus. What does it mean to love someone? It seems like probably the big command Jesus gave us. It’s to love God and love our neighbors. But what does it mean to love someone? It means to value them, to show them honor, to sacrifice on their behalf. That’s what it means to really love someone, and it’s going to be impossible to truly love someone if we’re focused on ourselves.
But if we are humble, if we’re honest about who we are, if we are self-forgetful, if we are not consumed in ourselves and our own pride and what we can get and how we can manipulate, if we are not that way, but we are humble, then our hearts are free to truly love. “Of course, naturally I can honor you. Naturally, I can serve you. Naturally, I can love.” So humility is so crucial.
How do we get it? How do we get humility? I would not recommend praying for it. Sometimes you hear people say, “O God, make me humble!” You know, he might. The Bible never tells us to pray for humility. Do you know what the Bible says? Humble yourself. When we pray for humility, God will answer it. Do you know how he answers it? It says the Lord brings low the proud.
No, no. The choice we should embrace is the choice to humble ourselves. It’s also a tricky virtue. Even though humility is so important, it’s not one we should be focused on all the time. Whenever people start talking to me about how hard they’re working at humility, I’m thinking, “I don’t think you’re getting it.” You’re walking along with somebody and they’re like, “Hey, did you see how humble I was back there? Where I laid down my life, did you notice that?”
“Oh, I’ve really been trying to be humble lately. I don’t know if you saw. I washed the dishes. You didn’t even ask me a second time.” Do you know what I’m talking about? Focusing on humility won’t generate it either. Why? Because focusing on ourselves and focusing on humility just kind of points us inward. Like Buddy always says about pride, pride is not necessarily thinking a lot of yourself, but thinking of yourself a lot. Just focusing on yourself.
So how do we get humility? How do we find it? How do we discover it? We’re not really supposed to focus on ourselves in humility, and it’s not really something the Bible tells us to pray for. How do we get it? Paul tells us. Paul tells us right here. In verse 4, he says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves…” (Philippians 2:4-5)
First of all, he says if you really want to get humility, aim at others. The word for look or the word for aim is the same kind of word they would use for an archer. Have you guys ever shot bows and arrows? Some of you guys have. Yeah, maybe gone up to camp or maybe in your backyard or whatever. The idea is you’re shooting a bow and arrow, aiming.
Do you know what happens when you aim at something? You focus all of your energy there. You have that arrow back, but your eyes are locked on the target. Are you thinking about yourself? Are you thinking about how your pants look right now? No! You’re going to miss the target. If you’re going to aim like a good archer, you focus. You put your attention over there and you let it fly. This is what Paul says. If you want to be humble, aim at others. Let your focus be there. Look there.
This really changes everything because that means that every situation, every place we go, is an opportunity to cultivate humility. With our wives, aim at our wives. Not with a real bow and arrow, but with the bow of love and service. Our kids. Our coworkers. The people around us. Look at them. Focus on them. Not on, “What can I get out of this person? What does this person want to do with me?”
No, look at this person. What’s going on in him? What’s going on in her? Are they hurting? Are they sad? Are they happy? Are their dreams so distant they’ve forgotten they even had dreams? What are their talents? It’s interesting, every person is better than us at something. Sometimes we forget that, but every single person has stuff we don’t have. Focusing on those things, focusing on others, develops deep, deep humility within us.
It’s another funny thing because it’s actually the people who drive you the most crazy who are the greatest opportunity to develop humility. Sometimes your boss who just drives you insane… “Why, God, do I have to go see this person again? They’re going to drive me crazy. They’re going to ask me for some TPS reports.” You go in. We forget sometimes as citizens of the gospel kingdom that those people in our lives are some of the greatest people from whom to learn deep humility and cultivate profound depths of dependence on God.
We don’t have to hate that person or wish their doom or their transfer to another place. This man shows up. “All right, Lord, you brought this person into my life. You have to help me with humility. I’m going to focus. How can I bless this person? What’s going on in his life? What’s going on in her life? What have you put there?”
Then the last little bit about getting humility… Paul says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:5) It’s not just a focus on others, but also to aim our focus at Jesus himself, because when we behold the example of our King, we see what it looks like to be truly humble. He exemplifies humility. Everything he did was humble to the max. He is the perfect representation of humility.
We look at him. We focus at him. We don’t look at the storm. We don’t even necessarily have to be caught up in all this stuff going around. We just lock our eyes in on Jesus. That’s where we see that mind of Christ that is somehow supernaturally transferred to our own minds. This is what Paul is saying here. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” It’s like a possibility that the Lord could actually change the way we think, change the way we feel, change the way we live so we are truly humble people, focused on him and focused on others.
So we’re going to pray. We’re going to worship a little bit. We’re going to eat some pizza. Lord, we love you. We’re grateful for how you have worked in our lives. Lord, each of us here tonight, whether we realize it or not… You’ve touched us. You’ve worked in our hearts. You’ve shown us the fellowship in your Spirit, the affection, the love, Lord. We’ve felt it, and that’s why we’re here…because you’ve drawn us.
Now we’ve heard your Word through your servant Paul calling us towards humility, to aim at the interests of others, forgetting ourselves. So, Lord, I pray you would open our eyes, that you would remove scales. Lord, things that cause us to divide or to dispute, focus on differences, Lord, come remove those and give us your mind, the mind of Christ. Let us, Lord, just draw our attention to you and to your face. Let us watch you and, Lord, just make that supernatural transfer to where we become more humble people.
Lord, we do. We humble ourselves before you. You’re in heaven. We’re on earth. You’re high and lifted up, and we’re the creature made of dust, and to dust we return. So, Lord, we just humble ourselves before you. We turn our eyes. We aim them at you. We say thanks for loving us even as we are, for calling us into a life of humility produced in love, peace, joy, and righteousness. In Jesus’ name, amen.