Humility • Philippians 2:1-11
By Becky Brown
The Gospel According to Matthew records the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in chapter 21. This was Passover week. On Friday, Jesus had a divine appointment on Mt. Calvary to give His life for the world. The Pharisees and Sadducees were playing tag team challenges to trap Jesus with words in an all out effort to discredit His ministry. Pharisees and Sadducees did not even like or agree with each other but they certainly did not approve of this carpenter from Nazareth. Disposing of Jesus was their single mutual concern.
Of course, Jesus stood toe to toe with them during every encounter. His parables pointed out their hypocrisy. The replies of Jesus left them holding their holy robes, colorful sashes and prayer cloths. They also held their tongues, possessing no words with which to challenge Him. One star student “tested” Jesus by asking Him to reveal the greatest commandment in the Law of Moses. Matthew 22:34-40 records this conversation.
Jesus answered, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
As we continue observing what scripture teaches us about the development of our personal spiritual character, we can easily connect that question/answer session with the title of our lesson: Humility. In order to properly love God, we must humble ourselves before Him. Likewise, in order to properly love others, we must also humble ourselves before them. Humility and love are mutually inclusive, inseparable spiritual characteristics.
An equation for expressing true love for God and others might look like this: “God most” plus “others most” equals “self less.” This is my definition of humility. The beauty of humility was perfectly expressed by Jesus. He humbled Himself and became one of us in order to give His sinless life in place of our sin-filled lives. Jesus provided salvation for all who would confess, repent and believe in His shed blood sacrifice. Jesus kept his Friday appointment that Passover week in Jerusalem. Convinced that they had won all the arguments, the Pharisees and Sadducees cheered…until Sunday dawned.
In chapter 2 of his letter to the Philippian church, Paul presented the greatest example of humility ever penned. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul provided the Philippians (and all future readers) with a “recipe” for living like Jesus. We cannot compare ourselves to others and obtain our humility quotient. Any time we compare ourselves to others, we will either be pride-filled by thinking we are “better” or consumed with defeat thinking we can never live up to the qualifications. Jesus is the only qualified example.
Paul gave them a dose of Philippian Glue. The ingredients of the glue are encouragement in Christ, consolation of love, fellowship of the Holy Spirit, affection, and compassion. They were to apply this glue by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, being united in spirit and acting with intent on one purpose. They were to stick together, stick up for each other, stick to the point and stick around…never abandoning the joy of serving God by serving others. They were to put aside selfishness and the emptiness of conceit, with each one regarding one another as more important than themselves. They were to be upwardly worshipful (loving God) and outwardly selfless (loving others).
Jesus emptied Himself of His place in Heaven with the Father and was miraculously born of a virgin mother. He became a human being bondservant of Holy God on earth. He took on flesh and blood so that He could live and bleed and die. Fully God and man, His death gave us life. I cannot even begin to understand that, but I completely believe it! If someone says they understand it…RUN! We don’t have to understand to faithfully follow Him with humility. To fully understand this would be to explain God. He is too big for that!
Paul says Jesus was “obedient” unto death. What a beautiful picture. The result is that Jesus is highly exalted and has been given a name above every name. Everyone who ever lived on earth will one day bow the knee, confessing Jesus is Lord. Humility took Jesus from the throne room to a crown with thorns.
Brown leads LittleBrownLight Ministries.
