Philippians 2 tells us to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus and then tells of his humility in coming down from heaven to die on a cross for us. But we can’t do that for others. So how can we be humble like Jesus? Surprisingly it begins with what we need to STOP doing, and that is bring prideful.
Message
Last week we began a brief series about what it means to have “The Mind of Christ” and how this means more than just thinking ABOUT Jesus, but actually means thinking LIKE Jesus. Many people don’t think LIKE Jesus because they don’t know how He thinks. They have allowed the world’s thinking to shape their thoughts and beliefs rather than focusing on God’s thoughts and ways, which are given to us through the Holy Spirit.
However, our lack of thinking like Jesus isn’t the result of not knowing how to think. Let’s face it – following Jesus to discern His thoughts is just plain hard! We don’t think like Jesus because we don’t want to think like Him.
Think about the times you know what to do, but you don’t do it.
One easy example is maintaining physical health. We all know what we should do: eat healthy and be active. It’s so simple! Avoid the sugars, eat something green every day, and drink plenty of water. Get off your couch and move. Take a walk, play a game, ride a bike, work outside the house. Just don’t be so sedentary.
While we all know these simple, basic facts, there are days we don’t want to act on them. We want the can of soda (or, worse, the 44-ounce large fountain soda from Casey’s because it’s only 99 cents in the summer). We don’t want to go for a walk because we’re tired, and we’re tired because we’re out of shape. Around and around we go.
The Mindset We Don’t Want to Follow
Today we’re going to look at a famous passage from Philippians 2, which clearly says, “Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” The instruction is obvious; we have to see what that mindset is.
Philippians 2:5 – In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
This mindset like Jesus helps have better relationships with one another, but that’s not our focus today since that will be the primary topic of our next message series, Closer.
The rest of this passage discloses what the same mindset as Jesus should look like:
Philippians 2:6-7
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used
to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
There is a lot of debate about what these verses teach about Jesus. The phrase “He made Himself nothing” could be literally translated as “He emptied Himself.” People argue about what it means for Jesus to empty Himself of His equality with God and His divine nature. What I want to tie together, and what is much clearer to see, is that Jesus WAS IN VERY NATURE GOD, but took on the VERY NATURE OF A SERVANT.
The writer, Paul, wants to make sure we see that Jesus sacrificed something! He sacrificed His divine nature – and all that entails – to be made in human likeness. Not only did He slide from God to Man, but He went lower than that. The Israelites expected the Messiah to come as a king; and while being a king isn’t the same as being God, it’s not half bad.
However, Jesus didn’t come as a king. He came to a lowly peasant girl, was born in a feeding trough, and took on the nature of a servant. Servants don’t command a lot of respect. They don’t have a lot of freedom, finances or fame. Yet Jesus’s slide from the position of God didn’t stop with the life of a servant.
Philippians 2:8
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
The life of a servant was not the end. Jesus humbled himself to the death of a servant; and not just any death, but death on a cross!
That’s the journey of Jesus: from the throne of heaven to earth as a man, as a servant, as one to die an excruciating death on a criminal’s cross. All of that is how the Apostle Paul tells us we are to be of the same mind as Jesus.
What Humility Looked Like for Jesus
This last passage we read is all about HUMILITY. Jesus humbled Himself. He made Himself less to become like one of us – to die in place of us. He was not arrogant or prideful. He didn’t cling to His position of divine authority over anyone, but actually gave it up and became a servant to His disciples; He washed their feet. Jesus became a servant to us all in dying on the cross for the wrongs we have committed. It’s easy to hear this story and nod approvingly for what our Savior did for us, but do we ever take the time to fully imagine what it must have been like?
A mob of people had Jesus arrested and beaten. Before time began, Jesus knew those people in their mother’s wombs. He knew them in their childhood innocence before the world made them ugly, hateful, fearful people. He knew how deceived they were in missing the big picture God had in store. He knew they were shaming Him when they were the ones who should have been ashamed.
More than divine knowledge of all, Jesus had the power to stop this entire event at any point. He could have struck His opponents dead. In fact, when Jesus told His disciples what was going to happen and Peter tried to stop Him, He rebuked Peter:
Matthew 16:23 – Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
That word ”MIND” again! The Mind of Christ understands the concerns of God and sees God’s plans from His perspective, not ours. Peter saw the unjust abuse Jesus said He would take; so, just like us, he wanted to make things right and stop the coming arrest and murder. He wanted to put people in their place. However, Jesus knew that all of humanity needed Him to save us. He knew He needed to humble Himself and be obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Humble Like Jesus
With all that said, we know what we should do, but what we probably all struggle with: Be humble like Jesus. Turn the other cheek; keep no record of wrongs; seek the interests of others. All of these instructions are found in the Bible, but they’re not easy to follow.
Some of you may wonder why I keep saying we all struggle with humility. After all, we’re not huge braggarts telling the world how awesome we are. But I’ve learned one thing about humility: It is easy to avoid ACTING arrogantly; it is much more difficult not to THINK arrogant thoughts.
Ask yourself what you might be thinking in the following situations:
- You are in a hurry, and the person checking out in front of you at the store is taking forever. Then they want to talk to a manager about a price that rang up a few cents too much. What are you thinking about that person?
- Or maybe you’re watching the news and see a recent college graduate talking about how hard life is and how they need the government to give them way more than $10,000 in student-loan forgiveness. What’s your opinion of that person?
- What about when you watch somebody buying smokes, lotto tickets, and a case of beer at the gas station, and then you watch them get into a run-down car with an infant in the back seat? Do you feel a bit judgmental?
- Or have you ever been fortunate enough to watch a car go speeding around you only to find them pulled over to the side of the road by a cop just a few minutes later? Do you feel a little glee about their situation?
In all these situations I find myself thinking, “I’m glad I’m not that person – so cheap, such a snowflake, so irresponsible.” And in thinking that, what I’m really thinking is “I’m better than you. I’m smarter. I make better decisions. I care for my family better. I drive better. I know better.” That is the opposite of humility; it’s pride! It may not express itself in an action I take, but it flows from my heart into my thoughts.
The Opposite of Humility: Pride
Here’s an interesting twist on the humility of Jesus. Many theologians have said that pride, the opposite of humility, is ultimately the root of all sin. Some call it the “father of all sin.”
Adam and Eve’s first sin was not disobedience in eating the fruit; it was the pride they felt when the serpent offered them the fruit that would make them “be like God.” Yes, their sin was that they broke God’s command; but the action flowed out of a heart issue of pride – wanting to be on top – wanting to be God-like. It has been the human condition ever since – our sinful condition of thinking we are top, we are superior, and everyone else is below us.
- It’s pride when you watch the news and get angry at the stupid/godless/ignorant “other side” because internally your heart is saying you are better in all ways.
- It’s pride when you’re jealous of your neighbor or co-worker for the new clothes/new truck/fun vacation because you wonder why they get the good things and you don’t.
- It’s pride when somebody gets angry at you and makes your life difficult and you think up a million reasons why you are right and they are wrong.
- It’s even pride when you lie or steal because you think you deserve something good and you don’t deserve the consequences for your bad behavior. You think you’re above the law.
- It’s pride anytime you pass judgment on another person’s choices or actions with a heart that essentially screams, “Why can’t you be better – think like I think and act like I act?” When we judge people for those differences, we are essentially acting like Adam in the garden thousands of years ago, wanting to be God-like and be the judge of the whole world.
Do you see now why pride is such a big sin for each of us to wrestle with?” It slips into our thinking as a temptation by the enemy in so many of our interactions with others! It leads to anger, jealousy, laziness, disrespect, lying, and every other sin you can name. It makes sense that Paul begins this passage with “in your relationships with others” because pride so easily derails our relationships.
Having the mind of Christ means guarding against those prideful thoughts. We need to be like Jesus, who, while He was ON TOP as God of the universe, made Himself nothing. He didn’t see anyone as beneath Him; not the lepers, or the sinful woman at the well, or the woman caught in adultery, or the tax collector He made His disciple. Not even the Pharisees who had Him crucified on a cross.
Time to Eliminate Pride
If we want to take this teaching seriously, we need to be hyper-vigilant in searching our hearts for pride and turning it into an attitude of humility. Let’s be honest – none of us can follow Jesus’s example of giving up our divinity for humility or dying for the sins of the world. In fact, the statement “Be humble like Jesus” is almost too abstract to put into practice.
However, when you start thinking about how you interact with people – at home, at the store, with your difficult neighbor, or even on social media – I’m sure it’s easy to identify those times when you feel like you know best and those other people are flat-out wrong! They are more than wrong; they are less intelligent than you. Less this or less that – but less because you are superior.
Sometimes I slip into this kind of thinking about others, and I find others thinking this way as well. I see it on social media and in the news. People belittle others on television and in movies, mocking people for a laugh. It’s the “worldly wisdom” that’s all around us, but we are called to have the Mind of Christ. We are called to pursue godly wisdom. We follow Jesus, who lived the most extreme example of humility ever seen.
Conclusion
I could show you dozens of Bible verses that tell us how God feels about pride. If you want to see them, just do a quick Google search. God and pride are not compatible. He hates arrogance; He warns that pride goes before destruction. The book of James tells us God opposes the proud; He actually works against them.
Why are there so many verses steering us away from a life of pride? It’s because pride is the primary attitude that stirs all other outward sins in our lives. It is the root of all sin! Not only did it get Adam and Eve booted from the garden, it is also the very sin that got Satan, known as Lucifer, kicked out of heaven as described in Isaiah 14:12.
When the thought pops into your mind: “How foolish, how lazy, how (fill in the blank),” what do you do with that thought? Do you let it linger, or do you recognize it as prideful and come to a different recognition of the other person’s value or perspective or experience?
Jesus told His disciples the world would recognize them by their love for one another. Love looks like dying for an enemy so they can join you in heaven. It does not look like tearing one another down because you think you are better.
And so we follow Jesus’s lead. We love fully and sacrificially. We root out prideful attitudes. We submit these attitudes to the altar so Jesus can forgive us and transform us into people who think like Jesus and are humble like Jesus. In this way we become a church which is, the community recognizes, simply different!
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