Self

DEVOTION

PHILIPPIANS

SELF

Phil 2:5-11

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 is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
NIV

When I consider verse 5 and the following I surely can see how Paul is exhorting me to take on an attitude of humility. My attitude, this is not my actions but my attitude, how I think, how I perceive myself in relationship to God and to others. Certainly I agree I am not equal to God, after all he is the creator and I am the created. He is the master, I am the servant. He is the Lord and I am the Lord’s. No question about that at all. The rub comes when I take on the same attitude of Christ and then consider myself better then someone else. Oh I say I don’t? I have to consider for a moment, how many times I have felt negatively about another. When I see a person who may be overweight, if I am not, or a person who is very thin, if I am not, or a person who is very good looking and I am not, or I see someone I consider not as good looking as me, and the list goes on. Come on now and be honest with myself, do I judge another by their appearance? I may even judge another by their actions or things they say, how they say them, why they say what they say. Then I have to examine how I interact with those others. Do I get my feeling hurt? Does another cause me to get upset and angry? Do others make me feel inferior or superior? And then what about thinking I just might be more spiritually mature then another.
Again I could list so many feelings and reactions to the actions of others this would be a book rather then devotion. The point is this; if I have the same attitude of Christ then I would not have those feelings because I would always consider the other person before myself. Instead I must ask myself, do I always or many of the times, consider myself and my feelings and my own self interests, getting upset with others because they do not consider me before themselves? I have to conclude if every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, then I alone with everyone else are all the same, sinners saved by grace and therefore what room is there for self.