Philippians 2:3,4

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count yourselves more significant than yourselves.

Philippians 2:2-3

In continuing his larger theme of unity within the church body, Paul turns his attention to the internal motivations that should guide our interactions. He sandwiches this command between the ultimate aim: unity in the church (2:1,2) and the means of accomplishing it: by imitating Christ (2:5). The eventual aim of the church is a diverse group of believers united in purpose and focus. As new groups of Christians were established either through relocation due to persecution or through the apostles’ missionary journeys, the emphasis became on unifying believers and living out life together in love. Nowhere was there present the concept of the solitary Christian. With that connectivity being assumed, the writers of the New Testament spent considerable ink on encouraging believers to live together unified by the love of Christ in selfless communities.

Here Paul exhorts the Philippians to have the same mind and the same love, for the Lord and for each other. The path to achieving this is to do nothing from selfishness or conceit. Paul’s speaks matter-of-factly but we know too well the difficulty that comes in trying to rid ourselves of selfish ambition.

We need no training in selfishness. We need no tutor in seeking ourselves first. Our bent towards self-preservation and self-fulfillment color nearly everything that we do and every decision that we make. As a product of our own inherited sin nature, it remains a shadowy presence even after we commit our lives to Christ. We can all recall times when our self-focused nature led us into ungodly decisions if not outright sin. Better yet, we can let those close to us testify about them. But while sin remains, it need not reign. We have been given the keys to victory over selfishness. First, though, we must learn to identify its rule in our lives.

While the outward signs of selfishness might seem obvious (prideful talk, boasting, lying, stinginess) we must probe deeper into our lives to root out the more insidious tendrils of conceit. Nearly everything in us and in our society (as an overflow of our collective hearts) bespeaks our self-focus. Our desire for entertainment (not necessarily a bad thing) often is prioritized over others. Consider even our need to advance the corporate ladder; the push to have every career change get us closer and closer to some personally fulfilling mountaintop. What does our need for such approval say about the state of our soul? The demands for self-gratification that gnaw always at the back of our minds show how far we have to go towards embracing a lifestyle of humility. Even our ubiquitous and notable economic system relies chiefly upon the conceit of self-advancement. Once we are able to see how deep the poison actually goes we realize how woefully far we are from the standard of righteousness.

In spite of how short we fall of this aim, Paul commands the Philippians to cast of conceit and selfish ambition and instead count others as more significant that themselves. In our day of ambition and self-actualization we balk at these words. ‘Surely he cannot mean considering others more significant than ourselves. He must mean as significant as we view ourselves.’ The problem is, of course, that we view ourselves as pretty significant. Even the parts of ourselves we don’t like are still given significance in that we spend a considerable amount of time obsessing over them. We are privy to all of the millions of thoughts that pop into our heads. We rest upon the billions of memories that inform our decisions. We are surrounded by ourselves 24 hours a day. Why should we consider ourselves most important? We don’t experience others the way we experience ourselves. Henry David Thoreau summed it up well when he wrote, “I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.”

Yet we are met with Paul’s words.

A key step in considering others as more significant than ourselves is when God allows us to understand that every single human is filled 24/7 with the same amount of thoughts, dreams, desires, and memories as we are. This realization alone should go far in combatting the temptation toward racism, sexism, political mudslinging, and irrational nationalism as we come to understand that everyone is as complex a universe of thoughts and motivations as we. It is harder to ignore the concerns, needs, and suffering of others when we consider that they are just as complex and unique as ourselves.

However, merely comprehending our equality as complex creations of God is not what Paul is exhorting. Instead, he commands that we consider others more significant that ourselves. This might seem impossible considering both the natural depth of understanding of ourselves and our sinful bent toward selfishness until he presents his example: the attitude of Jesus Christ.

By introducing the example of Christ and emphasizing, quite rightly, his humanity rather than His divinity. Paul presents a practical (though not easy) answer to the question of our selfishness. We turn to Christ and see a human, like us, who not only chose to suffer on the behalf of others though He had done no wrong, but also a man who could have accessed power to avoid such suffering but chose instead to endure it for our sake. The author of Hebrews adds in response to this that we should “consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” This would seem to be wise advice for us as well as we seek to consider others before ourselves.

As we progress through our day we are presented with dozens if not hundreds of people who are, quite obviously, not us. How will we interact with them? Will we treat them, at best, as ancillary figures in the drama of our life; as tools towards our own ends, or at worst, as antagonists? What does it look like to abandon our claim to self for the sake of another? How will we respond to the angry customer? The tedious coworker? Our spouse who is frustrated from a long day? Our children who intrude upon our personal time?

By forcing our eyes to Christ in these instances it is demanded that we acknowledge One who put our interests above His own and put the greater glory before His own suffering. If He was able to seek the glory of the Father not just through symbolic sacrifices but a very literal and painful torture and death, surely we can set aside our concerns momentarily and seek the good for our neighbor.

Without turning our thoughts to Jesus and His example, our predisposition towards self-interest will either result in remaining ignorant of others or manipulating them to our benefit. As we learn to consider the concerns of others we will begin (frustratingly slowly at times) to put their needs before our own. This will be painful in the beginning as our spoiled nature fights for ‘what we are owed’. In time, facilitated by frequent glances Christ-ward, we will begin to comprehend that while we chafe at being denied of what we desire, what we actually deserve is condemnation and judgement but that by the mercy of Christ we are saved and given a new life. This new life, which we have received by grace, is not our own to claim and thus we are enabled to give of it freely to others; to put their interests before our own and in doing so subjugating our fathomless self-interest.

To do so we must bring every thought and action to the foot of the cross, examining them with the Spirit and the word as our measures to ensure our motivations are aligned correctly with the Jesus we aspire to emulate. Practices such as the prayer of examen are designed toward this aim.

We must also be conscious of those around us on a daily basis and be dedicated to find out how we can best serve them. This mean going out of our way to actually ask them rather than basing our ‘knowledge’ on assumptions or hearsay.

Finally, we must stay conscious of the example of Christ in all of our interactions and fixing our eyes firmly on Jesus and his example for us.