Living Understanding, Pt 38: Vain conceit

Philippians 2:1-4                   1Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.  3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Romans 12:9-10                    9Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  10Be devoted to one another in love.  Honor one another above yourselves.

Galatians 5:22-26                  22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Encouragement

Life in the early church was not easy.  In the wider culture Rome was the prime focus; Rome was good at promoting the general peace, but it was pagan, and the growing community of Christ-followers was seen as a threat.  Believers were rejected by their parent Jewish mother church as heretics so there was no support there.  But this pagan and hostile environment did have a positive effect: It promoted cohesion and solidarity within the local fellowship and promoted communication in the wider Church as believers united against an oppressing outside world.   The result was a real sense of being a part of the world-wide fellowship of believers directly founded by the only recently departed Jesus Christ.

But it was not peaches-and-cream within the fellowships either.  People then were as people now, caught up with their own needs and pettiness.  There was indeed a sense of belonging and a strong sense of support and encouragement from the Holy Spirit, but then, as now, their sin nature got in the way. 

Value others

Whereas the Roman governmental system promoted peace and stability, the Greek worldview held that each person was responsible for his own personal success and should be dependent upon no one else, nor accountable to anyone else.  This value system did not regard humility very highly, and to make matters worse, interpersonal bickering and disharmony seems to have become a problem.  It is important that we value others in the 21st Century just as much as they were admonished to do in the 1st.  We live in an increasingly antagonistic world as believers holding to the value of divine precepts are seen as uncaring, prejudicial, and judgmental.  Our time now is much as theirs was then.  So we should be looking to the needs of our brothers and sisters because it is unlikely the world will, especially as times grow tougher as we approach the End of Days. 

When we are self-centered, we are, at the root, simply being prideful.  Pride is deservedly called one of the seven deadly sins because it elevates our needs above others’ needs at best, and at worst it undermines the supremacy of Christ.  Christ calls us to express our love for him through our love for his children, our brothers and sisters, and in fact calls us to look out for others’ needs:

44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you?’ 45“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ (Matthew 25:44-45)

However, this does not mean we must be totally self-effacing.  Each of us has gifts which are given to us for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom.  None are greater than any other, just that ours are different, and unique to us.  The implication is that we should consider the needs of our brothers as primary, to be met before ours.  Thinking in this manner puts us in the position of considering the overall best for the community, including but not primarily ourselves.  If everyone does this, the outcome is that unity is magnified.

Cling to what is good

Still, we must overcome our own sin nature and tendency towards selfishness.  The cure for this is in the ‘clinging to what is good’.  Left to our own inclinations we sin.  To avoid that, we should cling to Godly precepts.  In the real-time implementation of this ideal, this means that we should engage in ‘meta-thinking’.  Meta-thinking is thinking about thinking.  Why am I irritated now?  Why am I angry with that person?  These kinds of things.  To follow the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, this would mean to avoid making that snappy comeback when someone has irritated you, for instance.

It's hard, probably impossible, to do this in the flesh.  I can hear the naysayers out there saying, “O get off your high horse!  This is fantastical nonsense, and you know it.  It’s not the real world!”  In our hearts, I think everyone recognizes there is something greater than themselves.  We believers know that something is Someone, our Lord Jesus Christ.  The implication of v1 of the Philippians text is that of course we have tat encouragement and that comfort, because we do have Jesus Christ in our heart through the Holy Spirit.  We want to live in unity, we want to love others as ourselves, precisely because we are part of the King’s family.

What about me?

But every member of any family knows that membership doesn’t automatically bring unity.  We have to work at it.  That sister or brother who snaps at us doesn’t deserve being snapped back at just because she or he is having a bad day.  It is our job to love the unlovely.  Take a moment to consider the most important five people in your life.  What have you done to irritate them in the previous week.  Did you ignore an expressed desire?  Did you blow them off?   Is there an edge in your relationship with one of those five?  That edge is a nudge from the Holy Spirit to heal a potential break in fellowship.  You should listen to it, because that is exactly why we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts—to guide, shape, and nurture our walk with Jesus.

If you don’t have feelings of love, affection, or sympathy for those five, then something is wrong.  What is it?  Did that person hurt your feelings?  Are you holding a grudge?  Have you failed to forgive?  These are all things Satan uses to breakup families and relationships.  Don’t cooperate with him.