Humbled by His Humility

                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.

Philippians 2:3-4

Is this easy? Does this come natural? We know that we are to count others before ourselves and we know that we are to seek out the interests of others before our own, but every fiber of our being is screaming, ME. My thoughts, my bones, my heart is seeking out what is best for me. Is that girl or guy good for me? Is that job good for me? Is that purchase good for me? How will this community service project work for me? Is this church good for me? Left to ourselves and our sinful nature this is our life. We are always looking out for number one—ME.

Understanding that man, in his natural state, would only seek himself Jesus did the unthinkable. He showed the ultimate sign of humility. He did what we couldn’t. Paul lays this out for us in Philippians 2:6-8,

…who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus took the form of a servant. Jesus—God—became man. He “emptied Himself” and became a Jewish baby destined to die on a cross. Jesus did this for an underserving population. Jesus willingly took the cross so that we—sinners—would not have to. He had his eye set on you—Christian—as He made His way to Calvary. He had His eye set on you—Christian—as they drove nails into His wrists. He had His eye set on you—Christian—as He screamed in agony, “IT IS FINISHED!” Jesus truly counted others more significant. Think about that. Our savior, our God thought of us even though we deserved that cross not His love.

This act of humility saved us. This act of humility paved the way for our eternity. Do you understand that? Do you appreciate that? Even as we were sinners He took the cross (Romans 5:8). We must not overlook this wonderful truth. In the middle of our failures our God our Savior set His sights on us. What a wonderful truth. What a wonderful example. What a wonderful Savior.

We live for self. “I will help my neighbor but he will owe me.” “I will serve at church but I better be mentioned in the bulletin and receive the credit.” This is man’s focus and motivation—what is in it for me? When Christ enters and grabs ahold of us all this will change.

Our motivation will no longer be our own motives or our self-interests. Instead we will be motivated by a humble heart and love for others. We will help that neighbor because we want to share the love of Christ with those around us. We will serve at church with the Kingdom on our mind instead of our credit on our mind. We will do things in secret (Matthew 6:3-4) so that we don’t receive the glory but instead Christ receives all the glory. This is the life we are called to lead.

What is your motivation? Does the world revolve around you? Read these verses again and appreciate the truth given to us. Our world must revolve around the One who will never fail—Jesus. As long as your world revolves around man it will most certainly crumble. We must not set our foundation on a fallen world or in this case a fallen man—me. We must, instead, set our foundation on the One who gave it all. We humble ourselves and serve others because He—Jesus—humbled Himself and served us.