Count Others As More Significant
Let me know if this sounds familiar: you wake up in the morning and some of the first thoughts you have are on what things you need to do that day and what commitments you have. You don’t want to forget anything, so you think through where you need to be and when. For me, it’s a reflection on what will be required of me, what energy am I spending today? Put another way, how will today’s commitments impact me?
If that list is empty in the morning then my thinking shifts to, “how can I enjoy the free time that I have today?” You might fill that time with just resting and relaxing. If you are working towards goals in your life then maybe you take that time to work hard towards those goals. The choice is going to be in line with my own ambitions.
A recent read through the book of Philippians challenged me to evaluate my mindset each day. Is today going to be about what will be required of me or what I want to do, or should it be about Christ and the interests of others?
The first verse I noticed was 1:17 - “[They] proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely…” So there are some who are doing the right thing, they share the Gospel, they serve in their church, they meet in small groups or are discipling others. The actions are correct but the motivation is completely wrong. Their goal was personal, what would they get out of it?
In the next chapter we find 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” There are really 2 arguments here. The first refutes the attitude that was found in 1:17, don’t do things for selfish reasons. This makes sense, if we are to serve our Lord Jesus well then we can’t put our ambitions first, His callings on our life have to be supreme. Anything less means that He is not Lord but we have placed ourselves as Lord.
The second half of verse 3 takes it even further though. Not only are we to put Christ first, but in humility we put others before us. This is exactly how Jesus summed up the law of God, love God and love others. What does it look like to count others as more significant than yourself? When I roll out of bed my inclination may be to think on what impact the day ahead will be on me. As a husband, my job is to think “how can I serve Darla today? How does she need me to lead our family today?” As a father, “how are my kids doing? How can I help them grow in their knowledge of Christ and His love for them today?”
You can spend each moment of the day asking, what are the needs in my church right now? Who is someone that I could bless in my life group? How can I take time during a break today to call or send an encouraging message to someone? Each thought is making others more significant than yourself. It comes from a posture of humility and service to others.
Now, Paul knew this wouldn’t be easy for the church at Philippi to understand and to do, just as it is hard to do today. So he spent verses 5-11 showing how Jesus embodied this reality and so we should mold our minds to follow after him. Intellectually that is easy to understand, act more like Christ today, but that isn’t easy to do. We know we should, so I wake up on my weekend and go help a friend move from one 3rd floor apartment in Boston to another. The whole time though I wish I was at home relaxing. Which is when I come to Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” Put another way, what matters is your heart posture towards others. It’s not enough to serve them, but on the inside grumble and complain about what it is costing you.
The path then is this: a love of Jesus puts him as Lord of our lives. As Lord, we worship Him and put His interests first. As we follow Him our heart continually is molded to be more and more like Christ. Jesus has made it clear that a love for him will also result in a love for others. As our heart grows then we are shifting our mindset to think of Christ. If then we pursue our own ambition and our own interests at the expense of others it contradicts the lordship of Jesus over our lives. A love of Christ will mean counting others as more significant than yourself.
Jesus, the Son of God, loved you by humbling himself and dying on the cross for you. How does your mindset each and every day need to change to love others in the way that your savior has loved you?
