Philippians 2:3-11

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. RSV

2 Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. RSV

John 3:16-17: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. RSV

I think that it’s often extremely difficult to be a contemporary American and be a Christian. It wasn’t always so. The values that this country embraced in its infancy were similar to Christian values.

Not so now.
When America was founded, duty was put before privilege, obligation before rights. Now, not only do we demand our rights, but we actually believe that our value comes from the fact that we are people who have rights.

Our thinking goes along these lines: We are human beings. We have rights. Therefore, we are valuable; we should be valued.

This is very different from the thinking of the early Americans and from the thinking of the Bible. Our value doesn’t come from our being human beings. Our value comes from our being loved by God. And that love—that value—doesn’t guarantee us rights. Just the opposite. It guarantees us obligations.

Paul tells us in Philippians to do nothing from selfishness or conceit. We have convinced ourselves that we aren’t selfish. But we are.

The RSV here actually waters down the meaning as given in the Greek. What is translated here as selfishness is translated in the KJV as strife. And that doesn’t even really explain what the Greek word means. In fact, we really don’t even have an English word that gives the complete meaning to this very broad and expressive Greek word.

The Greek erithia means (according to Vine’s): denotes ambition, self-seeking, rivalry, self-will being an underlying idea in the word. It includes the meaning of “seeking to win followers.” So, in a sense, it’s the desire to have everyone be in your side, want what you want, support your views, defend your position. It is the sense that we are the center of the universe and that our priorities are what matters.
Doesn’t that sound to you like the constant demands for rights that we have in America? And Paul tells us not to do anything from this perspective, from this desire, from this motivation.

“But I deserved that promotion. I worked harder; I’m more qualified.”

Paul tells us to do nothing from this perspective.

“But there are people who have greater advantage than I do.:

Paul tells us to do nothing from this perspective.

“But that person always gets more than I do even though things should be equal between us.”

Paul tells us to do nothing from this perspective.

Even as churches, we want every right that we can gain from the government. I read part of a discussion last month where it was asserted that churches needed to legally organize (incorporate) so that members could be protected and could access the tax benefits.

What would Paul say? Obviously, we aren’t to consider anything from a self-serving perspective. Why? He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us all things with him? (Romans 8:32 RSV)

The second thing Paul tells us to do is to not seek things from the perspective of conceit. The definition of conceit is “a result of mental activity : thought; individual opinion; favorable opinion; especially : excessive appreciation of one's own worth or virtue.” The thing is, none of us think that we excessively appreciate our own worth or virtue . . . but we do. Any time we aren’t willing to give in to the demands of someone else, any time we aren’t willing to consider the situation from their perspective, any time we think that someone is mean to us simply because they are a “bad person,” we are having an excessive appreciation of our own worth or virtue.

Paul tells us to do nothing from this perspective.

“In humility, count others as better than yourselves.” Rather than demand our own rights, we are to focus our efforts on doing for others, because—in our minds—the others are better than us. That’s not the mindset of the contemporary American and, unfortunately, the contemporary American Christian. But it should be! Rather than being people who demand our rights, we should be people who are acting in humility, trusting God to take care of us when we are put upon, when we are taken advantage of, when we are persecuted.

God gave us His Son. That is what gives us value. God will give all things to us; we don’t need to demand them, to fight for them, to insist upon them.