January 7, 2022

Philippians 2: 5-7 (NIV)

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Jesus didn’t passively become nothing in order to serve; he made himself nothing. . . He took the initiative.*

According to Paul in this passage, Jesus made himself nothing. What did that mean to him? It did not mean that he gave up his essence; it meant giving up the “prerogatives, privileges, and advantages of deity.”* He did it, not by taking anything away from his divine nature but by adding to it: the “full human nature of Jesus of Nazareth;” and “the subordinate role of a servant.”*

How in the world can this apply to me? I have struggled with what it is that God wants me to do – or to be. I always feared that his will would be for me to go somewhere or do something I didn’t want. Now I’m afraid it may be worse than that. I think he might want me to be nothing and go nowhere. 

Paul doesn’t say that I have to (or that I am even able to) do what Jesus did. He says my attitude should be the same as that of Jesus. Summed up in one word: humility. Each of us must examine ourselves to ferret out those things we hang onto that prevent us from attaining true humility. For most of us, it means giving up our right to be right. For me, it also means overcoming my craving for significance. For all of us, it means surrendering to the will of the Father, just as Jesus did.

If being nothing is good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me. That’s my attitude!

Humility begins by simply understanding there is a God enthroned in the heavens, and I am not Him!*