It’s Not About Me (Or You)
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There was something about being a newspaper editor that I loved in a way that maybe only my wife ever saw.
I liked being recognized. Toward the end of my 10-year tenure as editor of the Suffolk News-Herald, sometimes it seemed like we couldn’t go to lunch or dinner without seeing people we knew.
Folks from Rotary and the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. People I’d interviewed or photographed for the newspaper or the magazine. City officials and police officers and court officers and more.
I liked being recognized and known. I liked being respected and even thought myself a bit grand because of my associations.
But I didn’t realize I’d felt this way until I found myself sick with a raging fever, lying on an upstairs cot in a little compound in Haiti.
Gary, the Haitian director of Supply and Multiply, was trying to understand how he could help, but he didn’t speak much English, and I spoke even less Haitian Creole.
I’d been in Haiti for just three days. And already, I was helpless. The somewhat self-important editor and man-about-town was gone. Here, now, in his place lay, essentially, a 210-pound infant, entirely dependent on the grace of God and the care of others.
And THAT’S how I learned about humility.
Augustine of Hippo, the great church father who lived in the late fourth- and early fifth-centuries had this to say about humility:
“Should you ask me: What is the first thing in religion? I should reply: the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.” [Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 456, quoting Augustine.]
Indeed, I think humility is the key to the kind of complete surrender to God that we’ve talked about the past couple of weeks as we’ve examined what it is that God wants from each one of us.
So, I’d like to continue that little series of messages today with a look at humility.
So what does God want you to surrender to Him? What attitude or habit or hidden corner of your life has He been nudging you about recently? What fear or worry or heartache has He been calling you to give to Him? What part of your life have you been unwilling to give Him in faith and trust?
I don’t know your answers to those questions. Only you and God know that.
But I do know that we’ll never be able to surrender these things to Him until we learn to surrender to humility — humility before God, humility among the Body of Christ, and humility before the world.
Now, God talks quite a bit about humility in His Word.
“Humble yourselves” and even “humble your souls,” he tells the people of Israel regarding the required Sabbath rest. In other words, worship Him then and recognize for at least one day that it’s not all about them.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote some memorable verses about humility in his little epistle:
6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
And this:
10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
There’s something about humility that causes God to cover us in His grace and bring us dignity, honor and happiness.
There are dozens of other references to humility in both the Old and New Testaments, many of them familiar to you. But today, I want to look at a passage from the Apostle Paul in Philippians, chapter 2.
Writing from prison in Rome, Paul was eager to encourage this church to continue to grow in its love for Jesus, in its unity, and in its witness for the gospel.
Let’s pick up in verse 1 of chapter 2.
1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
These are four incentives for the unity Paul seeks for the Philippian church.
In the Greek, the word “if” here is what’s called a “first-class condition.” Each of the conditional clauses is assumed to be true for the sake of Paul’s argument.
Hence, we could read this verse as follows: SINCE you have encouragement in Christ; SINCE you have the consolation of love; SINCE you have fellowship of the Spirit; and SINCE you have affection and compassion, THEN…
The Philippians — and we — had received the encouragement of Jesus toward humility, His example and His teachings.
They had been consoled by the love of Paul AND the love of Jesus. They enjoyed the fellowship of the Spirit, both as individuals and corporately as part of the Body of Christ, His Church. And they had received the compassionate sympathy of God.
Given these incentives, then, how should they act?
According to verse 2, they should act as people who are of the same mind. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean they should all agree on everything.
But since this letter is written to a group of believers — people whose primary identity is IN Christ Jesus — what it DOES mean is that they should share HIS mind — His values, His priorities, and His purposes.
And it means they should be — WE should be — united in seeking HIS mind — His will — above all else.
Being of the same mind assumes the things Paul mentions in verse 2.
It assumes we’re maintaining the same love: To be of the same mind, we must continue to love one another as Jesus loves each of us, sacrificially and without expecting anything in return.
Being of the same mind assumes we’re being united in one Spirit: We must allow the Holy Spirit to draw us together, to unite us. We can’t allow ourselves to be divided and derailed by our affections for the world and all the ways it works to separate us from Christ and from one another.
And finally, being of the same mind assumes we’re all Intent on one purpose: We must be devoted, individually and corporately, to the one purpose we have as those who’ve been chosen and called to follow Jesus.
And what IS that purpose?
To answer that question, let’s take a look at a couple of well-known verses from Romans, chapter 8.
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
We like to think of our salvation in very personal terms: Jesus died so that, by faith in Him, I’ll be saved from the just punishment for my sins. And that’s true. But it really tells only part of the story — and not even the most significant part.
We who’ve turned to Jesus in faith are saved so that God can conform us to the image of His Son, so we can be made to be more and more like Jesus — partially in our time here on earth and fully when we get to heaven.
And this makes Jesus the “firstborn” of a family of forgiven, resurrected, and glorified brothers and sisters who will all share the character of Jesus and, therefore, the character of God.
And when God changes sinners to saints — when God makes righteous we who are UNrighteous — He is glorified. We are saved BY grace alone, THROUGH faith alone, IN Christ alone, AND for the glory of GOD alone.
Not for our own glory. How could we imagine there’s any personal glory in our own salvation? We didn’t do anything to earn it. We didn’t do anything to deserve it. We didn’t do anything to make it happen.
Indeed, the very fact that we were chosen and called by God WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS should make humility our default position as followers of Jesus.
And that’s just what Paul is getting at back in the second chapter of Philippians.
Paul says we need to be of the same mind. In other words, we need to love one another the same way Jesus loves us — sacrificially and without expecting anything in return.
We need to allow the Spirit to unite us, rather than allowing worldly attitudes and affections to divide us. And we need to be devoted to God’s purpose for ourselves and for one another.
But how can we accomplish those things? Look at verses 3 and 4.
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,” Paul says here. Now, we all know what selfishness is, but what about “empty conceit”?
Empty conceit would be an exaggerated opinion of oneself. And in the view of the next phrase,““with humility of mind,” as well as the context of the greater passage, Paul’s warning is especially against having an exaggerated opinion of our own convictions.
Folks, this is how the lost world looks. Full of selfishness and full of self-certainty. Full of people bound and determined to make sure the rest of the world sees things THEIR way. Full of sanctimony and self-righteousness. Full of people looking out for No. 1.
But we who follow Jesus are called to be different . With the humility of mind that should be our default position in Christ, our priorities get turned upside down.
Now, it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me. Now, my own priorities take a backseat to God’s purpose for me and for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, what’s most important is no longer me, but others.
The world says to look out for No. 1. But Paul’s very clear that followers of Jesus are called to look out for one another.
We’re not just to consider our own personal interests and our own personal priorities, and our own personal agendas.
We’ve trusted for salvation in the One who set aside His own divine rights and privileges as God to live and die among us as a man. Following Jesus means walking in the footsteps of humility.
And that’s what Paul talks about in the next portion of this passage. Look at verse 5.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Once again, we see that the basis for Paul’s expectation of humility among followers of Jesus is the fact that God is conforming us to the image of His Son.
To the extent that we surrender ourselves to Him and His work of reconstructing us, we become more and more like Jesus each day.
And since JESUS exhibited humility throughout His time here on earth, we, too, should be humble.
He has existed as the second person of the Trinity for all eternity. He has eternally enjoyed equal station, position, honor, and power with the Father.
And He set all those things aside — though NOT His divinity — to be sent to us, having been “made in the likeness of men.”
He didn’t try to hold onto His rights and privileges as God, but rather set them aside so He could come to offer mankind reconciliation with God.
He emptied Himself to be made into the likeness of men. And even at that, He chose to come not as a king or temple official, but as a servant.
And his humility, Paul says in verse 8, was an act of obedience.
Pride says, I know best. Pride says, I’ll do what I want, because I belong only to myself.
Humility, on the other hand, says, God knows best, and I’ll do what HE wants, because I belong to HIM in Christ Jesus and because I trust that He wants only what is good for me.
Jesus’ perfect obedience took Him all the way to the cross, where humility became humiliation. And why did He bear the pain and the humiliation of death on a cross? Well, look at verses 9 through 11.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Because of Jesus’ obedience, even to death on a cross, God has highly exalted Him, proving one of the things King Solomon wrote about humility in the Book of Proverbs:
4 The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord Are riches, honor and life.
God has given the resurrected Jesus the promise of His eternal kingdom and a place of honor, sitting at the right hand of the Father’s throne in heaven. And He’s made the name of Jesus greater than every other name. But what does that mean?
When we pray, we pray “in the name of Jesus,” which isn’t some magic phrase that’ll get God to listen to us. It’s a reminder to US that we come to God in the authority of Jesus Christ, His Son and our Savior.
So, then, the name of Jesus being above every other name suggests that He has authority over all mankind. And, as verse 10 suggests, all mankind — both living and dead — will one day bow before Him.
And every tongue will confess — every person, whether saved in this life or unsaved — will kneel before Jesus and confess that He is King of kings and Lord of Lords. We will give Him all honor and glory.
But look how Paul concludes this passage. What will be the result of our glorifying Jesus as Lord and Savior?
God the Father will be glorified. Even in heaven, So, then, the humble obedience of Jesus brings glory to God.
And if that’s true of Jesus, it should also be true of we who follow Him in faith.
Look, I don’t know what specific part of your life God is dealing with right now. I don’t know what fear is holding you back from trusting Him completely.
I don’t know what vestige of your past is keeping you from fully realizing your true identity in Christ. I don’t know what habit or attitude you’ve been unwilling to give to Him.
I don’t know what injustice you’ve been unable to forgive, in faith that He is just and that He loves you.
But I do know that He’s clear about what He wants from each and every person here. He wants our whole hearts. He wants us to love Him and trust Him completely in every part of our lives.
For those who’ve never turned to Jesus in faith, He wants you to surrender your dead and unresponsive heart of stone so He can replace it with a heart of flesh that’s fully alive and responsive to Him.
So you can repent from your sins and be forgiven and have eternal life — life the way it was always meant to be, in the presence of and in fellowship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And for we who’ve followed Jesus in faith, He wants us to continue to surrender our hearts, giving Him whatever holds us back from loving Jesus more and becoming more like Him.
Salvation is free. But there’s a cost to true discipleship. It will almost certainly require you to give up something you hold dear, because those are the things most likely to come between you and Jesus.
So, Jesus told us to count the cost. Following Him means we might have to give up all the things we used to think were most important to us. That was certainly the case for Paul.
But the rewards of following Him in complete surrender are all the blessings and joy of being right at the center of His will for you.
And that’s something we don’t have to wait for heaven to experience.
But, as we’ve seen this week, this kind of complete surrender to God requires our humility before Him.
First, as sinners desperate for His grace, by which we’re saved through faith. And then, as He reveals to us the things we need to set aside for a closer walk with Jesus.
God was glorified in Jesus’ obedient, humiliating death on the cross, and He was glorified in the resurrection three days later.
And God is likewise glorified in our humility and obedience.
But then, because He’s so incredibly gracious, He responds to our humble obedience by, as James said, exalting us.
Think of it. We sinners who are so unworthy of anything but God’s wrath have been graciously invited to join His family as adopted sons and daughters through the humble confession of faith in none but Jesus.
In fact, the Bible says we’ll rule with Jesus on the renewed earth. How exalted is THAT?!
But remember: It’s not about me, and it’s not about you. All of this is, as Paul says at the end of this passage, to the glory of God the Father.
He alone is worthy. And His grace is without measure. Let us humble ourselves before Him now.
