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Philippians 2:3-4

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.” (NLT)

We all remember learning the golden rule as children, either from our parents, a schoolteacher or a Sunday school teacher. That rule is: treat others the way you would like to be treated. However, did you know that there is another teaching that is very similar to that famous golden rule? This is found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. This teaching has to do more with the way you think of and see others. Why is this similar to teaching to the golden rule? It is thinking of others as better than yourself. Wow! This goes against everything we’ve been taught. We are told to worry about ourselves because if we don’t, no one else will. We are told to take care of our needs before all others. The culture in our world would have us believe that we are the most important person in this world.

However, in the letter to the Philippians, in the second chapter, Paul’s gives us the example of the humility of our Lord Jesus. As followers of Christ, we are to live different from the world around us. One way is by not being selfish. Another is by changing the way we view others. How are we to view others? The Bible says we are to think of others as better than ourselves. This way of thinking goes against our pride and challenges us to live in service of others. We all like to think of ourselves as important people and treat our family members as important people in our lives, but what about all other people? What about those people that are complete strangers or that we have nothing in common?

We tend to focus on our own interests, that is human nature, however we should flip that way of thinking upside down by looking into the interests of others. This way of living is what causes others, who don’t know the Lord Jesus, to say, “What causes you to live this way”. This way of living will bring glory to our God. This is the example of Jesus left for us as he humbled himself by taking on human form and came to earth to meet our needs. That need was for us to be saved and reconciled with God. That is why the gospel of Mark portrays Jesus as the suffering servant. This way of thinking crushes our pride and makes us more concerned for the needs of others. How about we stop being selfish and start being humble by thinking of others as more important than ourselves.