“Do nothing from rivalry 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, ESV)
If you are to live for others, at least three things must happen.
First, you must admit that in yourself you do not care for others and left to yourself, your choice will always be Satan’s choice rather than the choice of Jesus Christ. Your way will be the way of self-aggrandizement and pride, and it will always be harmful to others. In the book Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis discusses this problem, asking at the end how it is possible to acquire a character that will truly deny itself for others. He calls it humility. “If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud.” He adds that it is “a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it.”
The second step is to humble oneself before God. Peter writes, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand” (1 Peter 5:5–6). Maybe you will think that such a relationship is odd. You imagine that if you humble yourself before God, admitting his worth, you have every right to expect that others should be humbled before you. But it does not work this way at all. To see God aright is to admit your total unworthiness. If you will say with Peter, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8), or with Isaiah, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5), you will have little cause for setting yourself and your own interests above others.
The final step involves a daily fellowship with Christ. He is the source of our life, and we must stay close to the source if we are to realize the self-giving life he advocates. Without him we can do nothing. On the other hand, says Paul, “I can do everything through him, who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13).
Watchman Nee, the Chinese evangelist, tells of a Christian he once knew in China. He was a poor rice farmer, and his fields lay high on a mountain. Every day he pumped water into the paddies of new rice, and every morning he returned to find that a neighbor who lived down the hill had opened the dikes surrounding the Christian’s field to let the water fill his own. For a while the Christian ignored the injustice, but at last he became desperate. He met and prayed with other Christians and came up with this solution. The next day the Christian farmer rose early in the morning and first filled his neighbor’s fields; then he attended to his own. Watchman Nee tells how the neighbor subsequently became a Christian, his unbelief overcome by a genuine demonstration of a Christian’s humility and Christlike character.
Can you live for others? At work or at home? With friends, enemies, or relatives? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not only possible, it is also an important aspect of your calling.
James Montgomery Boice. Philippians: An Expositional Commentary (Baker Books, 2000)
If you are to live for others, at least three things must happen.
First, you must admit that in yourself you do not care for others and left to yourself, your choice will always be Satan’s choice rather than the choice of Jesus Christ. Your way will be the way of self-aggrandizement and pride, and it will always be harmful to others. In the book Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis discusses this problem, asking at the end how it is possible to acquire a character that will truly deny itself for others. He calls it humility. “If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud.” He adds that it is “a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it.”
The second step is to humble oneself before God. Peter writes, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand” (1 Peter 5:5–6). Maybe you will think that such a relationship is odd. You imagine that if you humble yourself before God, admitting his worth, you have every right to expect that others should be humbled before you. But it does not work this way at all. To see God aright is to admit your total unworthiness. If you will say with Peter, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8), or with Isaiah, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5), you will have little cause for setting yourself and your own interests above others.
The final step involves a daily fellowship with Christ. He is the source of our life, and we must stay close to the source if we are to realize the self-giving life he advocates. Without him we can do nothing. On the other hand, says Paul, “I can do everything through him, who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13).
Watchman Nee, the Chinese evangelist, tells of a Christian he once knew in China. He was a poor rice farmer, and his fields lay high on a mountain. Every day he pumped water into the paddies of new rice, and every morning he returned to find that a neighbor who lived down the hill had opened the dikes surrounding the Christian’s field to let the water fill his own. For a while the Christian ignored the injustice, but at last he became desperate. He met and prayed with other Christians and came up with this solution. The next day the Christian farmer rose early in the morning and first filled his neighbor’s fields; then he attended to his own. Watchman Nee tells how the neighbor subsequently became a Christian, his unbelief overcome by a genuine demonstration of a Christian’s humility and Christlike character.
Can you live for others? At work or at home? With friends, enemies, or relatives? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not only possible, it is also an important aspect of your calling.
James Montgomery Boice. Philippians: An Expositional Commentary (Baker Books, 2000)
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