The Humble Footsteps

The great enemy of unity in my life, family, marriage, friendships, church and Church is my selfish ambition and conceit. The great solution: intentionally imitating the ludicrous humility of Jesus. We must look and count the interests of others, intentionally, purposefully and habitually training ourselves in the mind of Christ.

Solve Every Argument

Do ever have arguments? Disagreements? Divisions?

No, of course not. But if you did, wouldn’t it be nice to have one magic wand that you could wave to just “fix” everything.

Sounds click-bait-y… and it is. But it is kind of what Paul says this morning.

This is not the tattoo from Philippians that people tend to get… but it should be.

This is Paul’s big thing, his “one” thing he is going to ask of the Philippians. There are more that come along for the ride, but this is his first real ask of them.

Paul’s One Thing

Philippians 1:27 ESV

27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,

Only? Like the only thing?

Okay, just this one thing: “be worthy of the gospel???”

What is our: “Manner of life?” It is “citizenship” language. Literally “live like a worthy citizen.” A citizen of the Kingdom, a citizen of the gospel.

Can we ever be worthy of the gospel? No, not to earn the gospel. But, this is good news, does the righteousness of Jesus enable us to then live righteous lives? Yes and amen. That’s good news.

So, live a “worthy” life to earn salvation or earn the gospel! No, may it never be!

Because of the gospel, live a life of righteousness, of beauty, a citizen of the Kingdom that is salt and light, in that sense “worthy” of the gospel? Yes. Absolutely. And it looks like this:

One Spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel

Wow. That is a goal. That is a vision. That is the Church of Jesus Christ.

Isn’t that beautiful?

That is the church against which the gates of hell cannot stand!

Fearless. A living testimony. And therefore:

Philippians 1:28–30 ESV

28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Our fearlessness and our unity is a testimony to the enemies of Jesus. A clear sign to persecutors or enemies of the gospel that they are on the WRONG side.

A clear sign to us of our salvation, being worked out, and not because we earned it with good behavior, our salvation is from God.

Granted “for the sake of Christ.”

Paul - persecuted for the name of Christ. That honor, that privilege, that joy is granted to the Philippians. And it sounds sarcastic when I say it. And it sounds ludicrous to say from our nice building that I drove my nice car to wearing nice clothes from my nice home.

Paul met them on a day he was stripped naked, beaten bloody, and thrown in jail. That was their origin story. And he writes them from prison, under threat… and he truly believes it is a joy and a privilege. He knows it is.

So much so, listen to how earnestly he entreats them:

Philippians 2:1 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

Is there any encouragement in Christ?

Any comfort from love? Agape.

Any participation in the Spirit? That’s fellowship, koinonia, sitting at a table together.

And affection?

Or even any sympathy?

It’s cascading down. Some are filled with some courage tonight. Hands? Alright. But maybe you don’t feel actual courage… but would you agree that love is great? Okay, maybe you can’t feel the love tonight. But the Spirit is moving, even a bit, any participation in the Spirit?

No? Oh, but you maybe remember feeling that, just a bit… any affection for that, any emotion in there?

No? How about just sympathy. Like you feel bad that I feel bad? Just a touch?

if there is ANY at all… then:

Philippians 2:2 ESV

2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

There’s joy again. I’m telling you: on every page of Philippians. Rejoice! Make his joy complete!

By that same goal. Unity.

One mind, one love, full accord, of one mind.

That is a high bar, isn’t it. Like we are all going to agree together, think the same thoughts together? I can’t get my whole family to agree on dinner most of the time. Beautiful words, but sounds impossible.

And we know, indeed, it has proven out rare and unlikely in the actual church. “One mind, same love, in full accord” is not the story of the church.

How could we possibly do this?

Here’s the beautiful thing. Paul gives us the goal and the method. It’s one verse. You can memorize it.

The (eventual) solution to just about every problem and strife you have in your life. For realz.

Philippians 2:3 ESV

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

He says the same thing another way:

Philippians 2:4 ESV

4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

The Solution to All Strife and Division

And there it is. Did you catch it? This is Paul’s lifehack. His one trick. This is the means by which you too can solve all strife and division.

This is all you have to do:

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Why Humility is Dumb

aka, why this doesn’t actually work.

Let’s tell Paul, let’s tell God, all the reasons why this is a dumb plan, this is a dumb method, this is never going to work.

Perfection

Ambitious for Jesus

Self-Care

Exploiters vs. Doormats

Scale

Perfection - is that what is required. Perfection? Do “nothing” from selfish ambition or vainglory. Right off the bat, that doesn’t seem realistic.

And what is Ambition anyway? No, I want to be a rockstar billionaire for Jesus, just think of all the things I can do for God when I’m rich and famous!

And, let’s not forget about “self-care.” I don’t think Paul knew about healthy self-care. That’s the word of the day.

Plus, is Paul asking us to be doormats, and obviously people are going to take advantage of that for days.

And this simply doesn’t scale. How many people can I actually “count more significant?” I loved 1000 people today, when do I get to eat???

A Deeper Look - What Paul Actually Said

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Selfishness. Selfish ambition. No explanation needed there, I think we do that one pretty well!

Empty conceit. Vain glory. It’s the same word for “glory” we would use for God, but it’s vain, it’s empty… because it is pointed wrongly at yourself. So it serves no actual purpose or affect. Empty.

Does it say “have no selfish ambition or conceit”? Nope. That’s still there, we come with mixed emotions, mixed motives… we just don’t allow selfishness and vainglory to drive the bus.

Instead of doing things “from” selfishness and conceit, let’s be “humble”? What is humble? Some kind of “lowliness” or “flatness” that’s in the root of the word. Someone who is “humble” or from “humble origins” means they are poor, or uneducated, or low social status. It is not a positive, it is not generally a compliment. Greek philosophy, and philosophy generally before this considered it a vice, not a virtue.

In Aristotle’s ethics, for example, “great souledness” was the highest-virtue. Displaying contempt for others was part of it. You might give others benefit, to show your great souledness, but it would be “humiliating” to receive benefits from them.

So Paul’s “simple” solution, to the Philippians, to the Greek and Greek-influenced Roman ear… sounds absolutely backwards. And even to us, trained by Christian thinking to think “humble” is a good thing…

Even to us, this doesn’t sound real. So let’s unpack that.

We humble ourselves. We intentionally lower ourselves, because our innate human sinful selfishness is constantly putting us on the throne. Putting us at the center. It’s the default, it’s the flesh, it is instinct. And so we have to lower ourselves off the throne to even see others.

What is humility really?

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.” Ken Blanchard

Does it say “ignore your own interests entirely?” Nope. You have to look to your own interests… that’s actually the definition of “your interests.”

Do I have interests? The word here is actually SUPER open-ended, purposefully so. My “things”. My “stuff”. My preferences, desires, wishes, dreams, interests, hungers, ambitions, all the things. I have all of those. This doesn’t say that I lose them, that I no longer desire them. And I still look to them… I can’t help that!

And this takes consideration. You have to “look.” Usually, you have to ask. But neither is it giving someone everything they ask for. As we will see in a second, that isn’t what Jesus did. Often he gave what someone needed, and NOT what they asked for. Or beyond what they asked for. Or what they didn’t know to ask for.

There’s an arrogant obnoxious “assuming” version of that. And there’s a wise, Holy-Spirit inspired, humble version of that.

We consider. Intentionally, thoughtfully, creatively. Wisely. Generously. We consider the interests of others. And we consider our own interests.

And we weigh their interests higher. We have to do that, because our selfishness would cheat the scales every time. Our bent is self-glory, vain-glory… and we intentionally lean the other way. Into love, into service, into washing feet, into laying down our lives for one another - one day at a time.

Does it say “do nothing for yourself?” Nope. It says “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.” And that’s a heart issue. That’s a “why” issue.

I could get up every MWF at 6 am to get my workout on because I will look SO good in the mirror, it will achieve my selfish ambitions of being Mr. Universe.

Or, I could do that same activity because every day I sit on my butt all day, I have less energy to serve the next. Every day I exercise, I have more energy to serve the next day. And, this way, I get to do that exercise alongside my boys and that’s good for them and me.

Where is it coming from? What’s the heart?

What’s the scale here? Do this for everybody always and it will always work?

Paul writes to one church, a community of saints, committed to do this together. This isn’t an all-by-yourself thing.

This isn’t a “with sinners” thing. The expectation from sinners is persecution. Opposition.

This is about your brothers and sisters in Christ, committed to community together, united in the Spirit of Jesus.

Look and Consider

In this room. With these people, with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We practice this. We lean into this. We do it again and again.

We take the time to look, and just doing that is apparently rocket science in this world. But we go even farther. We intentionally consider it, and we consider it higher, by default, we weigh it more, we give it a higher place than we instinctively or even thoughtfully think it should have… simply because it is theirs and not ours.

We look and we consider.

And if everyone a church did that, what would happen? Everyone considering each other’s needs and counting them more, and this could then converge as we sought and truly discovered each other’s needs and interests and, led by the Holy Spirit, that love and concern for all of one another leads to unity and harmony in mind, in the way we think, in the choices that we make. The kind of arguments that we have are “No, let’s do your thing...” and “No, let’s do your thing,” and a third person comes in and says “I’ve been thinking and praying about both your interests, and what if we did it this way to serve both things...”

That unity of heart and mind… that is the mind of Christ. and IT IS ALREADY OURS.

Philippians 2:5 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

And, supernaturally, because we have already the mind of Christ Jesus, we can reject selfish ambition and vainglory, and put the interests of others above our own.

And 99% of our divisions and discernments melt away.

The Mind of Christ

I still have questions. Objections. Concerns. I bet you do too.

For one thing, I want to prescribe this to others. I have a list of people who are TOTALLY being “selfish” and “conceited”. I counted their interests, their perspective… and their count is terrible and their perspective is stupid! If they would just take a moment they would absolutely see that my way is better and do it right!

Yeah. It doesn’t work that way. You only get to be one side of this story. You only have one job in this scenario. To humble yourself. To look and to count their interests… above your own.

Paul gives us the goal, the method, and the model. Or rather, Paul points to the model, the obvious definition of what it means to be truly and perfectly human: Jesus.

The real answers are in the model. In the Poetry of the Gospel. In the person of the gospel. And that is where Paul points us. To fix our eyes on him. His example. His humility. His work, his death, his cross, his exaltation, his glory.

And when we have these questions: how does this actually work? Does this actually work? What does “humility” look like in this situation.

The ultimate answer, the best answer, every time is… Jesus!

Did Jesus take good care of himself? Of his body? Did he eat and drink wisely? Did he sleep when appropriate? Did he take care not to sprain his ankle when walking for miles, and to wear good footwear when doing so? Did he welcome donations to support his ministry to be sure he and his disciples had food and lodging, enough that his little group needed a treasurer to manage the money?

Yes and yes and yes.

Was any of that for selfish ambition or conceit? Not a bit of it. Not a hint.

“This is because I love.”

Jesus. Infinite reason to take some “me” time. All the “me” time. The Universe was created through him and for him. It was all his. Is all his. All glory is due him.

And yet, he “condescended.” He humbled himself. He put others needs, our needs, your needs as if they were “more significant” than his. Jesus didn’t just lay down his life one day on the cross and a few days in the tomb. He laid down his life every day for 33 years.

If the Lord of the Universe could humble himself while we were yet sinners, maybe we can do that here among the saints.

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.