Count Others More Significant

(Philippians 2:3-11) Do nothing from rivalry 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. 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 made himself nothing, 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. 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.

Rivalry is the desire to put one's self forward
Conceit is self-esteem which is groundless, empty glory, vain glory, vain opinion of self
Humility is to have a deep sense of one's own moral littleness, lowliness, modest
Significant is to be above, to be excelled, to be superior
Obedient is to listen attentively and be submissive, to obey

Rivalry and conceit seem similar but I think they work themselves out like this: rivalry is the desire to step forward in order to show myself off. And conceit is the vain and selfish opinion of myself that brews in the heart. So it starts with a lifting up of one's self in one's own mind, then to step forward and boast or brag about one thing or another. How many times do you ask another person a question, only to voice your own opinion about the matter? How many times do you listen in order to understand, and not to find fault?

Jesus is our example. He, as God, became man. Really that says it all. Can you imagine deciding to become a maggot in order to save a race of maggots, or carp, or poop flies? God, the creator and designer of every thing seen and unseen decided to humble himself to become a little baby boy. God, who is completely holy and set apart from his creation in a moral sense, walked on this earth with folks that were just like you and I; who are forward stepping, selfish, conceited and always think of ourselves more significant than others.

Jesus is the humblest man to ever walk the planet. Yet He spoke boldly and profoundly. He rebuked those who had vain opinions of themselves. Humility doesn't lift one's self up. Humility knows that it is not the creator of the truth, but is bound to live and speak the truth. Today this comes across as very arrogant and intolerant. Yet those who criticize Christians who seek to live humble lives, and speak the truth in love; are themselves very arrogant and intolerant of the views of Christians. Tolerance is not accepting every opinion or view as though it were true. Tolerance is listening to and understanding opinions and views of others, speaking truth to them; yet not putting one's self forward as though I was the creator of that truth. Tolerance agrees to disagree. Tolerance says, "I will listen to you, and tell you that you are wrong, yet we can agree to disagree." Tolerance doesn't have to accept every opinion as truth. That is relativism.

Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death by a cross. We have a command to "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." The more obedient we become, the more humble we become. I know that I am not the creator of truth. It is very humbling to say in my own mind that I am unable to know right from wrong, truth from error, and wisdom from foolishness. I want to think that I am capable to determining what I should and should not do on my own. Yet I know that this view is the relativistic view of our day. Does it seem to you that we as a society are doing a good job determining right from wrong on our own? It seems to me that our society is in a downgrade, where we call good-evil and call evil-good. Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to what? To the will of His Father. And where do we find out the will of the Father? You guessed it, the Scriptures.