Have This Mind Among Yourselves

Jesus and Jiu-Jitsu // Devotional #74

In Philippians 2:3, Paul gives us a simple command, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (ESV). This command’s simplicity is matched by its breadth. “Do nothing from selfish ambition…” Paul doesn’t leave much wiggle room, and he doesn’t intend to.  

Paul’s default assumption about the human heart is that we are all prone to selfish ambition and conceit, believing we can take from others what’s reserved for God alone. Although he originally wrote this to a church enduring deep persecution and hardship, the seeds of pride were just as destructive then as they are now. 

Pride can take even the most humble circumstances and turn them from an opportunity for increased dependence on Christ into a means of seeking glory, power, and resources for ourselves. This was often the resistance Paul faced in the early church, as proud and ambitious men sought opportunities to make a name for themselves by exploiting the difficulty of persecution to their advantage. 

They convinced themselves that if the ends are noble enough, the means don’t matter as much. They could pursue their selfish ambitions under the guise of faithfulness, while considering their interests as greater than the interests of others.  

But pride is an equal-opportunity temptation. Its allure extends to the rich, the poor, the powerful, the weak, the needy, and the satisfied, offering the same false promise whispered to Adam and Eve: we can be like the Most High. In that place, it isn’t His will that matters, but ours. Pride seeks to make God subservient to our desires, elevating our will above His Word. 

What’s so insidious about pride is that it can mask itself as faithfulness. Pride can look like the person who always picks up after the meal, who does more than what’s asked, and who always says “yes” to every request made of them. Pride doesn’t always manifest as a desire for the biggest, grandest stage. It often shows up where others might least expect it, but at its root, the same rot remains.

If we find ourselves constantly managing others’ perceptions and asking how our decisions, actions, or words might be perceived, odds are good that our hearts are consumed by pride. 

If we find ourselves living duplicitously, feigning faithfulness in public while our interior lives are oriented toward our desires, pride is likely already deeply rooted within us. 

If we find ourselves doing things for the recognition and celebration we receive from them (even something as good as writing a devotional), we can be sure that pride lingers in the space meant for humility. 

Yet, for all our effort, pride can’t deliver on its promises. Even if we get what we think we’re after, we’re always left wondering whether we would be loved for who we are or only for who others perceive us to be. Pride doesn’t lead us to peace. It leads us further into the insecurities we think we can outrun. 

Thankfully, Paul doesn’t end his exhortation to the Philippians with a command alone; he gives us a way forward: 

Paul continues in Philippians 2:4-11: 

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 emptied himself, by 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. (ESV)

Think about the picture Paul paints of Jesus. Jesus, in whom all the fullness of God dwells, empties Himself, willingly becoming like us and becoming subject to sin’s penalty: death. Though He had every right to exempt Himself, He laid aside His rights for our good. He made Himself low, dying a criminal’s death in exchange for our crimes in the most lopsided trade in history. 

The proud heart can’t conceive of a love that would willingly suffer that way for the good of another. Pride can generate a version of ourselves that endures as little pain as possible until it becomes too much for the facade to bear. In His example, Jesus shows us the humility we’re to embody, but it’s a humility that costs too much to imitate. It’s a humility that leads to death to self and death to the false version of ourselves we’ve hidden behind for so long.

For in order to receive the life that Jesus gives through His death, we must be willing to lay down our lives to receive it. By receiving the gift of Jesus’ death for us, we receive the death of our pride, because pride can’t receive grace. Only a heart humbled by its need for grace can receive the grace we need. 

We don’t put pride to death by simply trying to emulate what Jesus did for us. Our pride dies when we live in the death of Jesus for us, continually living in dependence on Him to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. And it’s when we find our needs met by the grace of God for us that we can freely meet the needs of others without worrying about whether we’ll be recognized or what it might mean for our reputation. 

The humility that grace gives is the pathway to leaving behind the false self our pride creates, for in it, we die to who we think we need to be and embrace who Christ is creating us to be in Him.  

Take time to consider these questions:

• How does pride keep us from confessing our need for grace? 

• In what areas of your life does pride tempt you to exempt yourself from grace? 

• How does Christ allow us to live in true humility? Could we live in humility without the grace God’s given us in Christ? 

As you end your time, confess the ways pride manifests in your daily walk. Ask that your heart be humbled by your need for grace and that God might graciously expose the areas where pride still tries to convince you that you can live apart from God’s grace. Praise Him that He’s given us freedom from pride by humbly receiving from Jesus what only He can give.