Love and 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

These verses sound like an ancient Sumerian tablet in today’s world. We live in a culture of consumeristic ease, where everything is geared toward our own enjoyment and pleasure—often at the expense of others. Countless voices encourage us to cut off “toxic relationships” and disassociate from people for the slightest offenses.

And yet Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, commands the exact opposite. The guiding principles that should mark every Christian relationship are love and humility—considering others as more significant than ourselves. In these verses the apostle sets forth one of the most challenging commands in the Christian life, one that can only be obeyed through the powerful work of God’s Spirit within us. The challenge becomes especially clear when we apply it to specific situations.

Consider your fellow church member whom the Lord, in His wisdom, has called you to regard as more significant than yourself. Consider the weary parent, laboring to teach covenant children to participate in worship, whom God calls you to count as more significant than yourself. Or that brother or sister in Christ with whom you have had a disagreement: the Lord calls you to consider his or her needs as more important than your own.

Think of those in your own home. Husbands, do you love your wife as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, counting her as more significant than yourself? You are called to lead, shepherd, and wash her with the water of the Word, yet to do so without selfish ambition, always seeking her good above your own. Wives, do you consider your husband above yourself? In your calling to help and submit to your own husband, do you look to his interests even above your own? Parents and children, do you see one another as more significant than yourselves and seek to sacrificially love and serve the other above your own desires?

Paul does not issue this command in a vacuum. He calls us to follow the pattern after our Savior, who came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. In complete humility, He became the servant of all. And for this reason, we are to follow after our Lord in considering others above ourselves.

As you are sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit, He enables you more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness, being renewed after the image of God. And yet, as we grow in sanctification, we will increasingly consider others more and ourselves less. May we be marked by a love that puts others above ourselves, seeking the interests of others above our own, and thereby honoring Christ by pursuing the good of His people for His glory.

Rev. Alex Yonjof, Bi-Vocational Associate Pastor