The ongoing posts I have written about Philippians 2 have been very fruitful for me. Paul is always laying down challenges for my head and heart that leave me little room for argument with him. He is a master of logic and persuasion and this passage lays down the gauntlet for how believers ought to live out the faith.
However, this week I think I found a weakness in Paul's argument. You can see it in the second half of verse 3: "in humility consider others better than yourselves." The chink in the armor of Paul's statement here is that I can think of plenty of ways that I am better than others. For example I am very likely better than you at the following:
- Eating donuts. I ate 33 Krispy Creme donuts the first 24 hours after they opened in Minnesota. While my volume has decreased through the years I promise that few people eat donuts with as much flourish or enjoy them as thoroughly as me.
- Stumbling, tripping, and almost falling only to save myself at the last moment thereby avoiding injury. Ask my wife about it if you haven't witnessed it yourself. No one can come closer to major wipeouts than me.
- Zoning out in the middle of a conversation. I can be right in the middle of making a point and forget to
- Making seemingly insensitive comments about my wife and kids. I love them dearly and part of that love is expressed through some honest, irreverent comments about their large heads, clumsiness, and lack of punctuality. We don't have a doghouse so I don't need to worry about ending up in it!
In light of my many obvious exceptional giftings it is pretty ludicrous for Paul to suggest that I need to consider others better than myself. It just doesn't make sense when it is clear there are ways in which all of us actually are better than others. My wife is better than me at a lot of things (she doesn't read this blog so its ok for me to admit it here). So are my brothers. And co-workers. And pretty much everyone else in the world could find ways that they are better than me.
Hopefully it is apparent that I am being facetious but I still wonder what is with Paul's "consider others better than yourselves" statement. Aren't there ways that everyone is better than at least a few other people?
The problem in answering this question is one of categories. As much as my rebellious, self-exalting, self-righteous heart would love to be able to say that it is better than others, Paul isn't really looking at the same kind of categories that we typically use to judge "better: or "worse" between people.
Our hearts are so determined to be "better" than others that we assign value and dignity to all sorts of categories. Apart from the fact that these categories are often manufactured, many of them are of no value apart from a cultural familiarity. Often when we judge between people we can look at talents, skills, and abilities. Or we differentiate and assign value to difference in capacity. Or to difference in intellect. Or, God forbid, to difference in race or ethnicity.
Our hearts secretly love difference because it allows us to set ourselves up as being "better." Ironically this hidden heart condition usually comes out most in those who most vocally lament and lambast difference. The difference becomes a category that we can use to judge others.
In this passage Paul has an entirely different sort of category for assessing "better" and "worse". Whereas the above categories are based on various capacities or cultural qualities, Paul is calling to mind a category of character. He is asking us to make an assessment of our righteousness, purity, and holiness when looking at others. AND, he is asking us to make this assessment in comparison with Jesus and not with others.
On our status within this moral category scripture is quite clear:
- Romans 3:10- There is none righteous, not even one.
- Psalm 14:1- The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. (Also Psalm 53:1)
- Psalm 143:2- Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.
- 1 John 1:8- If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
- Romans 3:23- For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The list of verses could go on. It is this universal sense of moral failure that Paul is getting at in this passage when he implores us to consider others better than ourselves. The truth that Paul wants us to see is that all people are equally guilty before an infinitely perfect and holy God and so there is no better or worse.
On a scale for moral purity there are no gradations for humans. We are all together. Thats right. Aaron Robertson, Adolf Hitler, Mother Theresa, Osama Bin Laden, and you all have the exact same standing.
Realizing this is the beginning of true faith in Christ as Savior. Without this realization, when our hearts begin to say "I'm better, they're worse", we fall into the fatal trap of legalism and self-righteousness. Our comparison point and benchmark is not others but God, and in that comparison we don't stand a chance of narrowing the infinite difference.
The Good News is that all who believe can give up that fruitless struggle to pay off an infinite debt. A moral purity entirely not our own is given to us in Christ so that we no longer need to self-righteously strive under a legalism that will always and only ever fall short.
It is easy for my heart to play games with this idea. The comparisons come so quickly to mind. The quick judgment of character. The haughty spirit that says "at least I don't ......... like so and so." When we truly understand what Paul tells us about how knowing Jesus changes our hearts we can begin to see that it is possible to view others as better than ourselves.
If you know your sin and you know your Savior it becomes far easier to see others as better than yourself. If this passage doesn't reflect your inner thought life or how you think about others pray that you would fully know the extent of your sin AND fully know the power and mercy and grace of your Savior. Knowing those things produces humility, cures vanity, and demands sacrifice for others so don't pray for that without a willingness to give yourself up.
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