Philippians 2:3
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves”.
This is great. This sounds like Jesus. He was so humble. He brought to the world the way God intended us to be. There’s that word, humility. The last five years being humble and God’s humility have been prominent. Like a lighted sign in the night, it seems to have been the brightest.
The almighty God sent His Son to be born in a manger. He was raised by poor, ordinary parents and grew up in an area of low reputation. God chose that for Jesus. He claims that as a description of Himself in Matthew 11:29, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
I didn’t see this at all in my start as a new believer. I had much guilt. I thought God was the source of it. Not at all. The feelings that I had didn’t bring rest, nor were they from someone that was gentle and lowly in heart. I had a very impatient, critical stepfather. It appears I took his traits and applied them to God.
I now know what Jesus meant in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”. He didn’t mean the sound of His voice, but His character. He is gentle and lowly of heart. His presence does bring rest. Arrogance and pressure aren’t from Jesus. People don’t need to use works about them. We can see it and sense it in their attitudes. Wonderful. We know the voice of Jesus. It’s that of humility. Thank You, Lord.
Today’s verse charges us to be humble. He also tells us how to be, or not to be. He says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit”. Neither of those traits are humble. We are born selfish and will be so until we die. However, the new heart God gives and the examples in scripture are to be humble and loving. Even the seats we choose should be humble. The parable of the dinner party makes that clear. Don’t seek to make oneself prominent. Allow one’s self to be in a seat to be used as a blessing.
We’ve got this battle in us to be selfish or humble. Jesus’ advice in Matthew 16:24 tells us how to deal with this conflict, ‘Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”‘ We are to deny the selfish part of us. The cross implies we are to crucify it. Put it to death.
The other phrase is empty conceit. To have conceit (to be conceited) is to have mental fantasies of greatness. I can see satan in this. His “I wills”. It caused him to revolt against God and he brought 1/3 of the angels with him. Just as with selfishness we will always have conceit to battle against. We have desires for greatness and recognition. Those that value class and standing are full of it.
The bible talks about roots of evil. Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many”. Conceit brings it’s own root of sin. Some are so taken by it. They were offended by Jesus. He was a commoner who worked a sweat bearing job.
Even in my harshness against the classist, I can have my own conceit against it. Evil is tricky that way. It’s better to be humble than to be against things. An attitude of humility is all encompassing.
In talking about satan and his fall, Ezekiel 28:15 gives some insight, “From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways—until wickedness was found in you”. There is plenty of wickedness in us. Today’s verse tells us to weed it out.
Lord, thank You for Your humility. What a blessing to serve a humble God and You give us the honor to be as You are. Help us to walk in Your humbleness.