1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only t your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 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 in Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
About the second part, I see exactly how much we can be blessed by the same attitude as Christ Jesus. He was so humble to be like a human and obedient to death. Born in a barn, and died on a cross.
We can never be like Jesus who is perfect, but at least we can try to follow his attitude before God. We can't be in the highest place or get our names above every name for that, but at least God will know how much we deserve.
The truth is the more we humble, the more we get exalted by God.
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2 comments:
Thank you Sungeun for the reflection. Hope you are doing well!!
What stands out for me from today's passage was verse 3-4.
If you think about it, every conflict among Christians boils down to one thing: self-centeredness. James wrote,
James 4:1-2 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; you fight and quarrel...
Disagreements come about because we so often are just thinking about ourselves. If we admit it honestly, our universes revolve around us.
And so it is when Christians who are self-centered come into contact with others of the same nature. So often, our solution to solving conflict is avoiding the people we’re having conflict with. We move out of the neighborhood, we change churches, we stop going to the service that they attend. We figure that our universes can’t collide when we’re all by ourselves!
But the right solution, the godly answer, to this problem is to bring the other person into the center of your universe. Paul says,
Phil. 2:3-4 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not {merely} look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
If you begin to put other people into the center of your universe, and they put you in the center of theirs, then there is unity.
thanks sungeun for your reflection today. God's children everywhere need to memorize and have these verses engraved on their hearts, most especially myself. how different the world would be, how different the church would be, if we conducted ourselves in this "like-minded" way, if we pursued the interests and well-being of others as eagerly as we pursued our own!!!
paul's gentle pleading to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit" and his beautiful description of Christ Jesus's humility both shame me and exhort me to be more like Him in every way. God willing, our attaining to the likeness of Jesus Christ will be "carried unto completion on the day of Christ Jesus" "to the glory of God the Father".
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