Imitate Christ’s Humility– Philippians 2:1-13

 “Waiter!” shouted an angry customer. “Is this coffee or tea? It tastes like motor oil.” The waiter answered, “If it tastes like motor oil, it’s coffee. Our tea tastes like turpentine.” When we don’t get what we want, do we respond with the grace Christ gave us? Or do we let ourselves get angry? Do our words & actions speak so loudly that others can’t hear our witness? When someone gets angry, our witness depends on the way we handle it. That’s true when we’re the ones angry. But it’s just as true when others get angry with us.

For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about our Christian lives together. We talked about the life of love we need to live. We talked about the transformation of our minds that enables us to live that life of love. Last week we began talking about our unity in the Spirit. Unity is the product of our transformed lives. This week, we’ll also talk about unity. Why? Disunity threatened the Philippian church. Disunity threatens every healthy church. People are trying hard. They really care. They’re really trying to live their beliefs. That’s when people are most likely to step all over each other. It happens in every church. At some point, we’ll be angry, just like that customer. When it happens, only one thing matters. How will we respond? In his book Strawberry Wisdom, Lao Wei points the way. “Love begins when the needs of someone else become more important than your own.” Are others’ needs more important to us? If so, we’ll be concerned with what’s going on in them, not with our feelings. That’s the antidote for anger that’d disturb our unity. And that’s where Paul is headed as Philippians 2:1-13 begins.

¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness & compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit & purpose. Has Christ blessed us directly or through others—with encouragement, comfort, fellowship, mercy & grace? If so, Paul spells out the response God wants. Be like-minded & one in spirit & purpose. But without the guidance of love, even that isn’t enough. In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen tells a tale from ancient India. 4 royal brothers each decided to master a special ability. Later, they met to reveal what they’d learned.

The 1^st said, “I have mastered science. I can take a bone & create the flesh around it.”

“I,” said the 2^nd, “know how to grow skin & hair if there is flesh on the bones.”

The 3^rd said, “I am able to create the limbs if I have the flesh, the skin, & the hair.”

“And I,” concluded the 4^th, “can give life to the creature if its form is complete.”

The brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could show their skills. As fate would have it, they found a lion’s bone. The 1^st added flesh to the bone. The 2^nd grew hide & hair. The 3^rd created matching limbs. And the 4^th gave the lion life. The lion rose, shook its mane, & jumped on its creators. After killing them all, it vanished contentedly into the jungle.

We do need to be like-minded. And we do need unity. But united without love’s guidance, we have the capacity to create what can devour us. Goals & dreams can consume us. Possessions & property can turn & destroy us—unless love guides our unity. How does love guide? Focus on others. ^3aDo nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

In the summer of 1986, 2 ships that collided in the Black Sea made the news. What caused it? An investigation found that their radar worked just fine. There was no fog. The cause was selfishness. Each captain knew the other ship was near. Each could’ve steered clear. But neither captain would give way to the other. Each was too proud to yield first. By the time they came to their senses, it was too late. Hundreds of passengers died in the icy waters.

So, when was our last argument? What was it about? Was it at work? Or was it with our spouse? Or our children? What was the real problem? Maybe we weren’t as selfish as those 2 captains. Even so, weren’t we arguing (at least in part) to get our way? ^3aDo nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Focus on others. ^3bBut in humility consider others better than yourselves. What does humility look like? Well, we won’t see it in a story about Al Smith, who ran for president in 1928. (Don’t you remember him?) One of Al’s speeches went the way a 2008 election speech could’ve gone. (It could’ve happened in either party.) A heckler in the audience yelled, “Tell ‘em what’s on your mind, Al. It won’t take long.” Al Smith grinned & pointed at the man. He shouted back, “Stand up, partner. I’ll tell ‘em what’s on both our minds. It won’t take any longer.” No humility there! True humility won’t belittle others.

We do see humility in Ignace Jan Paderewski. He was a famous Polish composer-pianist. At a famous American concert hall, he was to play for a high-society gala. In the audience sat a mother with her fidgety 9-yo son. No one noticed when the boy slipped away from her. He crept up to the Steinway on stage as if pulled by magnets. He sat down & began to play “Chopsticks.” Immediately, the crowd noticed. Hundreds began to yell, “Get that boy away from there!”

Paderewski heard the uproar. He grabbed his coat & ran over behind the boy. As the boy played, he reached around him & began to improvise a countermelody. As they played, Paderewski kept whispering to the boy, “Keep going. Don’t quit, son. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.”

How important is humility? Someone asked St. Augustine, “What are the 3 most important Christian virtues?” His reply? “Humility, humility, & humility.” How can we know if we have humility? It’s hard. Humble people don’t think themselves low. Humble people don’t think of themselves at all! Andrew Murray adds this. “Humility is the grace that, when you know you have it, you’ve lost it.” If it’s so important, how can we grow in our humility?

⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. In a cartoon a few years ago, a little boy stumbled over stones in the road. With a look of hurt surprise on his face, he asked his mother. “Mommy, why don’t you look where I’m going?” As believers, our responsibility is much more than looking out for ourselves. Each of us needs to look to the interests of others. When we focus on serving others, problems with unity disappear.

Some people serve because the law requires it. (Love God. Love neighbor.) Others serve because love desires it. An elderly Christian lady was crippled with arthritis. She hobbled to worship services on crutches. It was a great ordeal. Each week required a good deal of effort & pain. Seeing her faithful attendance, a friend asked her, “How do you manage to be at every service?” Her answer was, “My heart gets there first. My old legs just follow after.” I’m betting that lady did more than come to worship. I’m betting she served others in the coffee hour afterwards, too. When the heart belongs to Jesus, the body serves with all it has.

Do we think we have too little? Henry Wadsworth Longfellow corrects us. “No man is so poor as to have nothing worth giving. The mountain streams might as well say they have nothing to give the sea because they are not rivers. Give what you have. To someone it may be better than you dare think.” No matter how little we think we have or how trapped we feel by our circumstances. We can still put others’ needs 1^st & serve them.

In WWII, an allied bombing raid returned to its base. They were hit several times by German antiaircraft gunners. But a miracle happened. None of the shells exploded.

Specialists gingerly removed the shells from the plane. They took the shells to a safe place to examine them. What was their surprising discovery? The shells had no firing pins!

Where the firing pin should've been, they found a note written in Czech. Apparently, one of the slave workers in a German munitions factory wrote this. “This is all we can do for now. Wish we could do more.” They looked to their own interests. They did the work they were forced to do. But they looked also to the interests of others. They did what they could. How could they do that? It begins with our attitude. So, what attitude should we have?

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. ⁶ Being in very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. ⁷He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. In our culture, what might that kind of humility look like? At a Philippine Bible school, the men’s rest rooms were always dirty. One student got upset. Over time, nothing changed. So, he complained to the principal.

Soon, he noticed improvement. But soon, he saw the man with the mop & pail. It was the principal! Later, he said, “I thought he’d call a janitor. Instead, he cleaned those toilets himself. It was a major lesson to me on being a servant. No, I wonder. Why didn’t I take care of the problem?” The principal did what Jesus did. Humanity fell. No human cleaned up sin’s mess (our responsibility). People prayed for a rescue. God listened. But He didn’t send a servant. In the person of Jesus, God came Himself to clean up our mess & rescue us from sin.

The attitude that enables us to serve others starts with humility. And true humility also includes obedience to God. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, Jesus humbled himself [even more!] & became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Jesus came to die for us. That’s obedience! How can we develop obedience like that? A missionary translator struggled to find a word for “obedience” in the native language. As he went home from the village one day, he whistled for his dog. It came running. An old tribal elder watched, admiringly. The elder then said in his native tongue, “Your dog is all ear.” The missionary had his word. When it came to the will of His heavenly Father, Jesus was “all ear”—even if it meant death.

Do we want to be obedient like Jesus? Then, when it comes to the Father’s will, let’s be “all ear.” Saying it another way, “Let the mind of the master be the master of our mind.” When the master’s mind masters us, we’ll have the mind of obedience. Like Jesus.

Will we serve others like Jesus did? Here’s the test. A helper helps when it’s convenient. A servant serves others even when it isn’t. A helper helps those they like. A servant serves even people they dislike. A helper helps when they enjoy the work. A servant serves even when they dislike the work. A helper helps when it’s convenient. A servant serves even it it’s inconvenient. A helper helps to obtain personal satisfaction. A servant serves even without personal satisfaction. A helper helps with an attitude of assisting another. A servant serves with an attitude of enabling another. Jesus served us. And God rewarded Him.

⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place & gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven & on earth & under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear & trembling. How do we work out our salvation? We work out what God worked in at our salvation. Have Jesus’ mind: humble obedience—all ear to the Father. Serve. Like Jesus. In humility, look 1^st to the interests of others. Consider them better. In His love, practice being one in spirit & purpose.

In the NT, there were 2 basins… In one basin, Pilate washed his hands. In the other, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. Jesus’ basin stands in sharp contrast to Pilate’s. Pilate used his to avoid his responsibility. Jesus used his basin to take on responsibility that wasn’t His. Jesus used his basin to make clear God’s desire. If we’re going to be associated with Him, we won’t shun responsibility. We’ll look for opportunities to take on more than we’re responsible for. We’ll look for opportunities to serve. When we do, v. 13 is for us. ¹³For it is God who works in you to will & to act according to his good purpose. When we serve, we’ll imitate Christ’s humility. When we serve, God’s power will be released to act through us according to His good purpose.

How can we start? Imitate Christ’s humility.