To Live is Christ — no thought of self

My devotional reading asks, “What does this Scripture tell us to do in order to avoid the trap of selfishness and conceit?” The Scripture is . . . 

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. (Philippians 2:3)

The context of this verse points to Jesus as the example of how to obey it. The context says . . . 

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5–7)

Why is this important to me avoiding the trap of selfishness and conceit? It is all about that phrase “let each esteem others better than himself.”

Jesus is the example, but how could He esteem anyone better than He is? He is sinless and always obeys His heavenly Father; no one is better. I’ve concluded that “better” must mean something else than superior, such as more important.

A Greek dictionary says otherwise. This word is translated one time as higher, once as better and once as excellency. It is also translated once as pass and once as supreme. The dictionary says that it means: to have or hold over one; to stand out, rise above, overtop; to be above, be superior in rank, authority, power; the prominent men, rulers; to excel, to be superior, better than, to surpass.

That didn’t help me much. How can Jesus do that? Again, I looked at the verses about Jesus. They describe what He does as a result of His attitude toward others.

Jesus was in the form of God and equal with God, but He never used His equality with God as an opportunity for self-exaltation. Instead, He abased Himself. The Bible says He “emptied” Himself, yet this is not about emptying Himself of the fulness of His Godhead, or of His being on an equality with God. He did not stop being God the Son.

Instead, this was about the FORM that He took. He took on the form of a servant, and by that addition, He emptied Himself of His outward self-manifesting glory as God. That means that Jesus never showed off who He was. Everything He did was in service to people and obedience to His Father.

Not “looking on His own things” means that even though He existed in the form of God and esteemed it no robbery to be on an equality with God, He still did not cling to that and use it to build His reputation.

Besides that, being on an equality with God is not identical with existing in the form of God. The latter is about the external characteristics, majesty, and beauty of the Godhead — and it was this which “He emptied Himself of” to assume “the form of a servant.” Being equal with God was His being, or His nature. He always existed in a state of equality with God because both the Father and the Son have the same essence. So the idea of emptying Himself is more about how He lived while on earth.

This is heady stuff, but it is also practical. It says that I do not stop being who I am to obey verse 3. Considering others “better than” myself isn’t about who I am, or about becoming a doormat or any less of a person. It is about them and their importance. It is about esteeming their needs superior to mine. It is about putting them above my own ambitions. It means that I drop all conceit and pride that would keep me from thinking that way.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if I am richer, smarter, more privileged, or whatever, because to live is Christ means forgetting all those measurements and being “kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:10).

I suppose it would be possible to serve others with a self-serving and superior attitude, thinking I am over them in some way, even just because I am helping them. Jesus never did that. In fact, I don’t think He thinks about Himself at all. He loves us so much that nothing is more important to Him than doing whatever we need so we can have God’s very best. That is all that is on His mind.

Oh my, I have a long way to go to be like Him.