Since the early 1970’s there have been dozens of books and hundreds of articles written from a supposedly Christian perspective that tell us how to build our self-esteem, our mate’s self-esteem, and our children’s self-esteem. We have been assured by the supposed “experts” on human behavior that low self-esteem is at the root of all our emotional and relational problems. The self-esteem movement has transformed much of America, but this is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the schools. A brilliant article, titled “When Praise is Dangerous,” in the February 2007 edition of New York Magazine provides a fascinating glimpse into why the movement crashed and burned.
Since the 1969 publication of The Psychology of Self-Esteem, in which Nathaniel Branden asserted that self-esteem was the single most important facet of a person, the belief that one must do whatever he can to achieve positive self-esteem has become a movement with broad societal effects. Anything potentially damaging to kids’ self-esteem was axed. Competitions were frowned upon. Soccer coaches stopped counting goals and handed out trophies to everyone. Teachers threw out their red pencils. Criticism was replaced with ubiquitous, even undeserved, praise.
Author Melanie Phillips offered a devastating critique of the movement in her book All Must Have Prizes. As she revealed, achievement in all areas was being replaced with exercises intended to boost self-esteem. Every player on the team has to receive a prize and all prizes have to be equal. She put it this way:
“Surely, in the immortal words of John McEnroe, they cannot be serious? Alas, the latest pronouncement from those in charge of our exam system is truly beyond satire. Their new idea for boosting examination success is to abolish the very idea of failure, along with the difference between the right and the wrong answer to a question.”
Parenting Magazine had an article on the subject as well. Here’s what it said, “There is a line where self-esteem tips over into superiority and dominance and the false assumption that one is better than the other. Those squelched weaknesses get covered up with braggadocio and creates false esteem that leads to condescension, superiority, and power struggles in friendships and other relationships. Self-esteem without self-knowledge is arrogance. It can stop children from persevering towards a defined goal when the ‘going gets tough’ because false self-esteem is superficial and doesn’t allow one to access the deep reserves that true self-worth can provide.”
Today, we find ourselves back in Philippians 2 for one of my favorite passages in the Bible and we’re going to contrast the wisdom of culture and its self-esteem movement against the wisdom of Scripture. Did you know there’s not a single verse in the entire Bible that tells us we need to build our self-esteem? In fact, in Scripture we often see exactly the opposite…that we need to LOWER our self-esteem and grow in humility (in older translations, the term for humility is sometimes “lowliness of mind”).
Now, listen closely, at first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a natural connection between humility and joy. As a matter of fact, at times, they seem to be moving in opposite directions. But, stick with me and I promise you there will be a clear connection between an increase in humility and an increase in joy.
Philippians 2:1-8
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 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. How many recent books or articles have you read on how to lower your self-esteem and grow in humility? This is what Paul is clearly teaching here: in verses 1-4, he is issuing a call to humility, and now picking back up in verse 5 he’s going to highlight the greatest example of humility ever recorded in human history.
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.
We could literally preach a series of messages just on these eight verses. These verses alone have literally produced hundreds of books and articles expounding on the theological implications of what is being taught. But lest we turn this back into a 30 week series, we’re going to have to double-time our way through this passage this morning.
Humility – lowliness of mind – is a bit of a paradox. Right about the time you think you have achieved it is about the same time that you can be assured you have NOT. It’s also something that we find incredibly attractive in others yet it is so elusive to guard within our own hearts because the opposite, pride, is incredibly blinding. I really want to focus on verses 3-8 this morning but before we do, I want to take just a few minutes and help clarify what humility is by describing what it is not…because it’s hard to grow in humility unless you take the time to first identify some of the false markers that can throw you off course.
What humility is not…
• Self-abasement – this is when belittles or humiliates themselves. The person of true humility does not think LESS OF HIMSELF, he simply THINKS OF HIMSELF LESS. Self-abasement is false humility at best and it is degrading something made in the image of God at worst.
• Quietness – Being quiet is a personality trait – humility is a spiritual maturity trait. A person can be quiet because they are aloof or simply because they are an introvert…but true humility can be achieved no matter what natural personality bent a person has.
• An unwillingness to be firm - When God says to be humble, He lets us know we must examine our motives and attitudes. We also must examine how we take action. But there are times when we need to take strong actions. Jesus was meek of spirit, yet he chased the moneychangers out of the temple (Matthew 21:12 and Mark 11:15-16).
• Not a denial of our gifts or calling – We don’t deny our gifts, we just recognize that God is the source of them and they are to be used for His glory and the advancement of his church.
So those are some incredibly common expressions that are falsely attached to humility that I wanted to dispel before getting to what humility is in verses 3-8.
1. HUMILITY IS THINKING OF MYSELF LESS OFTEN
Left to myself, self-promotion is the natural drift. Look at verse 3. Do nothing from selfish ambition or (vain) conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. To be motivated by selfish ambition is to seek to advance ourselves rather than the gospel. It’s to view others as rivals. When you look in the original Greek the literal translation is so revealing. The word translated “vain conceit” would be literally translated “empty glory.” Let me give you the plainest example of this that I can think of…it’s politics. It’s that constant self-promotion…and I get it…for a Congressman, or Governor, or President to win a second term, talking about yourself (building yourself up) has become a necessary evil in our current climate of politics…and I for one hate it.
Not only is self-promotion obnoxious and an effective repellant in social contexts, the original language in this verse describes it as a behavior that means nothing and has no lasting value. This is yet another stunning example of how counter culture Christianity was and still is. To promote yourself is not only seen as something that has value, it is considered essential. But yet here in Philippians 2, in the original language, we discover that self-promotion has no value whatsoever in the economy of God. In the Greco-Roman world, humility was viewed as a weakness, as it is often in our world unfortunately…but in the Kingdom of God, it is a virtue that is to be esteemed.
And here’s how promoting yourself has no value in the economy of God – it’s because you cannot promote yourself and Jesus at the same time. One of you is going to steal the spotlight from the other and just in case you are confused, Jesus is the one who deserves the spotlight. This week I listened to a fascinating interview from Pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie. Over the years, he had the opportunity to spend time with Billy Graham on numerous occasions. The interviewer asked him what stood out the most to him about Billy Graham and Laurie said, “No matter how hard you tried, you could not pin a compliment on him. As soon as a compliment came out of your mouth about his ministry, he would respond that the only reason he was effective was because of the power of God. Every compliment he received he somehow turned it back to Jesus.” Billy Graham, maybe the greatest evangelist since the Apostle Paul, modeled the idea that thinking of yourself less often puts you in a position to promote Jesus instead of yourself.
So verse three is about thinking of YOURSELF less often but verse 4 pushes the concept of humility even farther because it challenges you to…
2. HUMILITY ACTIVELY LOOKS OUT FOR OTHERS NEEDS
It’s one thing to not simply think about yourself all the time. It’s quite another to actively be thinking about others so that you can intentionally put their needs above your own. You know, most days I like me, so the idea of thinking of myself less is really hard…but I actually think verse 4 is harder: Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but ALSO to the interests of others.
You see, verse 3 allows me to be a little more passive, but verse 4 calls me to ACTIVELY & INTENTLY pursue the needs of others before my own needs. I think I need to grow in this area. But look at the word “also” – but ALSO to the interests of others.
The Biblical assumption is that we will look out for our own needs and that’s probably a pretty safe assumption isn’t it? When the Bible says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” in Matthew 19, it is not a command to love yourself, it is assumed that you already do as evidenced by the fact that you look out for your own interests. Let’s dig a little deeper in this verse. The verb that would be literally translated “looking out” is the Greek word “skopeo” which is related to the noun “skopos” which was used of a military guard, spy or scout. Do you see the picture here? We are to be like a guard, a spy or a scout, diligently searching and seeking someone whose needs we should meet. I don’t live like that often enough. I respond to needs when God clearly presents them, but verse 4 calls me to a lifestyle of actively seeking out these needs around me.
The world says, “Run over people to get what you want. It’s a rat race. It’s a dog- eat-dog world. It’s survival of the fittest.” But humility demands that my life is to look just the opposite of that because instead of looking out for #1, I am to live my life like a scout, like a spy searching out who has needs around me.
Anne Lamott in her book “Traveling Mercies” writes of the time she, as a single mother with a baby, began attending a new church:
Almost immediately they set about providing for us. They brought clothes, they brought me casseroles to keep in the freezer, they brought me assurance that this baby was going to be part of the family. And they began slipping me money. A number of the older women lived pretty close to the bone financially in small Social Security checks. But routinely they sidled up to me and stuffed bills in my pocket – tens and twenties. It was always done so stealthily that you might have thought they were slipping me bundles of cocaine. One of the most consistent donors was a very old woman named Mary Williams, who was in her mid-eighties, so beautiful with her crushed hats and hallelujahs; she always brought me plastic baggies full of loose dimes, noosed with little wire twists.
Let me tell that story another way: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but ALSO to the interests of others.”
And what would a life look like that actually lived out of just those two principles in verses 3-4? It would look like Jesus, the greatest example of humility in all of human history. Again, we could go on and on about these two verses but since this is an overview in Philippians, let me just look at the example Jesus gives us when it comes to humility.
3. A HUMBLE PERSON REFUSES TO DEMAND THEIR RIGHTS
I cannot think of another season of pastoring where there is more discussion in Christian circles about our rights as Americans. And I think that unfortunately, for many people, their definition of freedom is more rooted in the American Constitution than it is the Bible. But one of the phrases often used in the Bible to describe Christians is “slaves to Christ.” That term is used over 130 times in the New Testament alone. Christ is our master. We are to live as willing slaves to Christ – bondservants is the term used in some places. That is the picture of a Christ follower. “My obedience is not to myself, it’s to Christ and in doing so, I lay aside my personal right to do whatever I want so that I can obey Christ as Lord.”
And that concept runs directly counter cultural to the rugged individualism we see in America. What we often want is dual citizenship – we want all the eternal benefits of being a citizen of heaven and we want all the civil freedoms of being an American citizen. And yet we see Paul, with all the freedoms due to him as a Roman citizen, allowing himself to be unjustly chained up to a Roman guard in his own home because he sees God’s providential purposes in laying aside his rights as a Roman citizen. I don’t see a huge appetite for that right now in American Christianity. Someone came to me a few months back for advice with regard to this battle that was playing out in their hearts…the battle for these RIGHTS that they felt were theirs as an American versus this call as a Christian to set aside our rights in the name of Jesus-like humility. And since this person was having so much trouble with this, I suggested an actual real-life scenario and asked them to choose between the two…rights versus Biblical humility. And their response was this “I hate it when you rephrase the issue like that because my answer makes me seem so unloving.”
Look at verse 6 again with me: “[Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped…”
Now, I am going to get a little technical…in one of my seminary classes that I took, we spent an entire week studying this verse…in fact, there has been a tremendous amount of focus on this verse by every theologian since the early, New Testament church. When Paul states in verse 6 that Jesus existed in the form of God, he is referring to His preexistence before He was born of the virgin Mary. Jesus is not a created being, but rather is the second person of the triune God. As John opens his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3).
A few verses later John explains further, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Or, as Jesus said to the Jews who challenged His claims, “Before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58). When Paul states that Jesus existed in “the form of God,” “form” refers to that which is intrinsic and essential to the being of God, that is, to God’s attributes. Thus Paul is saying that Jesus in His preexistence shared the essential attributes of deity. He is God!
Now, if anyone had ever earned the right to say, “I have earned the right to not have to lay aside my rights, it would be God!” Do you agree with that? But yet Jesus, God in the flesh, does the exact opposite. Look at verse 7: “but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
When Paul says that Jesus “emptied Himself” – NIV: made himself nothing – contrast that to our obsessive desire to “make something of ourselves” (which verse 3 calls empty glory). Here’s a great question about the nature of Christ that theologians have debated for thousands of years. When it says that Jesus emptied himself, does that means that he lost his deity? Did he become less than fully God at that point? Clearly, God cannot cease to be God, and so Jesus did not, as some have asserted, give up any of his divine attributes.
What he did do, is he limited the independent use of certain attributes and prerogatives while on this earth. [Matt. 4 narrative] When Paul says that Jesus took on the form of a servant, he means that He voluntarily adopted the very nature of a servant. He did not cease to be God in any sense, but added to His divine nature a truly human nature. His body was subject to the results of the fall, such as weariness, aging, and death. He was born into a family as a baby, grew to maturity as we all do, and in every other observable way was completely human. He was fully God and fully man. For those theology nerds in the room, this is what is known as the hypostatic union of Christ. And the fully human side of Jesus, did not demand his rights, but instead willfully divested Himself of His divine privileges of being God, and in doing so, he modeled for us the greatest act of humility in all of human history. “8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The facts are laid before us and are very black and white this morning. That’s what Jesus did in dying for the sins of the world. The only question is whether you and I are willing to embrace that model OR are we too busy expending our energy demanding our rights when in reality, as slaves to Christ, we’re called to willingly lay aside our rights just like Jesus did on our behalf. Jesus, as He is in every scenario, is the perfect example of verse 4 where we are actively looking to put others interests above our own.
The bad news is that because of our sin nature, none of this comes natural to us… but the good news is that once we receive Christ, the old US died and Jesus now is alive IN us causing us to want and to will what we would not want apart from Christ in us. Let’s put it another way this morning – there is hope for us. And the hope is not a better US, the hope is an US who daily dies to self through the power of Jesus at work in us reorienting the affections of our heart.
So you know that we like practical. We want you to not only understand the text, we also want you to have some examples of what it might look like to apply the text to your own life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me share a resource with you that is a book Christians should read every year. It is called Humility by CJ Mahaney. Mahaney has dealt with some controversy in recent years, but that does not make what he wrote in this book any less true in regards to content. In his book he offers practical steps to cultivate humility and we as pastors have found these steps so helpful. Let me share a few with you without much explanation for the sake of time:
• Consistently reflect on the cross – that’s what humility looks like
• Begin your day by acknowledging your dependence on God - John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me, you can do nothing.
• At the end of each day, transfer the glory for achievements onto God
• Actively identify evidences of God’s grace in others
• Invite and pursue correction
• Respond humbly to trials
I promised you that I would help you connect the dots between humility and joy. Here’s the connection – Humility leads to joy because I am seldom disappointed when I think of myself less often. I am seldom concerned with the fairness of my circumstances and I am free from bitterness towards those with better circumstances. When I am constantly on the lookout for myself, then I have a heightened and often over-inflated sense of my rights and my desires and therefore I have a heightened potential for anger or bitterness when my rights or desires are not considered.
Pride is a joy robber because pride puts me in a falsely elevated position where I live with the expectation that people owe me something and when I don’t get what I think they owe me, I get angry and depressed – both of which are the opposite of joy. Simply put, the humble person lives out of the deep conviction that if the only thing they received in life was Jesus, then they have already gotten more than they deserve.
A couple years ago we bought our girls a Cricut for Christmas where you can cut out vinyl letters and stencils…and we love making signs. In fact, Rachel paid for an entire mission’s trip last year selling signs. And just recently we took an old window pane and I stenciled verses 9-11 on it and hung it in our guest room!
I LOVE these verses.
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.
JOY HAS A NAME…AND HIS NAME IS JESUS!
