Stick With Humility - Sunday School Lesson - May 24, 2015

Humility is quite a difficult virtue for me. When I look deep enough, I guess my lack of humility actually arises from insecurity; I think I need approval from other people, need to know that what I do is valuable and appreciated. When I feel I am not getting my due attention, I pout or demand that someone notice me or rant about the useless drivel that seems to matter in preference to the quality work I produce. So, rather than being humble, taking my lot as it comes and being happy for others' success, I end up looking quite arrogant and brash - right the opposite of a Christ-like attitude.


Philippians 2: 1 - 15 is the focus for my Sunday School lesson this week, and Paul speaks quite highly of humility in these verses. Definitely a lesson for me to heed.

Let's begin with a look at verses 1 and 2: Paul begins with some conditional statements - if and then statements. If Jesus is all He claims to be - if He is an encouragement to us, a source of love, a sender of the Holy Spirit, and a giver of mercy - if He is all of these things, then we have Jesus as our central focus in the church, and we should all share the same feelings of love and mercy for one another. We should find our comfort and self-worth in Jesus since He is the source of love and encouragement, the giver of Mercy.

So many times, I know I look for my self-worth in other places - in my job, in my appearance, in my children's accomplishments, in my personal achievements. And when I do that, I take my focus off of Jesus. When my self-worth comes from everyday possessions and circumstances that can easily be destroyed, then I am trading in the eternal and the strong for the temporary and the weak. The temporary and the weak make me vulnerable to critics and compliments, again taking my focus away from the most important work of Jesus and drawing my attention to my feelings. Here is where division often starts in the church. I place my feelings on top of any work I do, and then I feed on the compliments and become nauseated with criticism. Then, my work becomes conditional - dependent of whether I feel valued, not whether I am fulfilling the will of God. My defenses rise, and I think I can hurt others by refusing my contribution, or I try to out do someone else because I crave adulation. But what if every worker were to approach the church with a heart and mind and focus only to do God's will? If we get ourselves out of the way, we can focus on the one true goal of the church - to glorify God and serve Him. And only when we get ourselves out of the way can we hear God's will. Our desires and ideas must decrease so that His will may become clear.


Verse 3 gets a little more sticky. Paul tells us to do nothing out of rivalry or conceit. Our motives for serving the Lord must be pure. If we consider how many of our actions come from rivalry or conceit, then we might see why we have disagreements or strife.

Consider these scenarios:

Acting out of rivalry - being in competition with someone else - How many times do we brag about how we commit more of our lives to service of the Lord compared to someone else? How often do we compare churches to prove that one does more for the community or gives more to a cause? How often does our contribution come only after what we see others have contributed (money, time, or effort)? Do we say to ourselves comments such as: "If he gave $5, I will give $8."? Or "she just volunteered to cook, but I always stay to help clean up, too." Or, "We did such a better job with VBS last year." Or "I never see her in the nursery." I know I have been guilty of similar comments, and that proves that my motives for doing the Lord's work were not pure. I wanted to prove my worth to others instead of to show how grateful I am for what Jesus has done for me.

Acting out of conceit - trying to show off my talents to gain compliments for myself, to feed my ego. Now, this one is especially tricky because everyone wants to feel like she is appreciated, and we, followers of Jesus, should try to help others feel appreciated, but self-aggrandizement is dangerous in the church. We cannot have our own self-worth as the basis for our service to the Lord. Think about the times when we sing or act in a play at church because we love it when people brag on us. Think about times we have become angry when no one thanked us for doing our part. All the times we take reactions personally ("No one came to my Bible study; I guess they don't like me."). Think about the times we help with missions because it will build our personal resume or brighten our reputation or give us something to list under the category of community service. If these are our priorities, then we are working for our own recognition and not for the glory of God.

Our consumer culture does not help in our efforts of humility, either. We often seem steeped in our need to ask, "What's in it for me?". Selfishness has no place in the church of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ knew no selfishness. He willingly sacrificed himself for us.


Verse 4
We should be less concerned with our own interests and take more interest in the needs of others. Think of others as more important than ourselves. What a counter-cultural idea! To consider what others need instead of ourselves is not popular in our world. In fact, putting others before ourselves is often considered having low self-esteem or being weak. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth. Humility cannot be equated with weakness. Weak people seek personal glory and validation because they need approval from others to prove themselves worthy. They think so little of themselves that they need to be told they are worthy.

A humble person, however, knows her worth. She knows that Jesus Christ died for her. Humble people know themselves and understand that all we have belongs to God, and nothing we do is a result of our own doing. We do only because God allows us to do. Nothing is possible without God. Only a self-assured and secure person can sacrifice himself for someone else, and that is exactly what Jesus did. He took the punishment from the very creatures He himself had created. He was able to suffer on the cross because He was certain of his place and his worth with the Father.


Verse 5
And Jesus is our standard. We should adopt the attitude of Christ. And what was Christ's attitude? Humility, self-sacrifice, obedience, and service toward others.


Verses 6 - 11 discuss the Divinity of Christ: how He, being one with God, did not abuse his privileges as the creator of the Universe. He never used his power and position for his own advantage. Any time he tapped into the power of the Holy Spirit, it was for the good of others through healing and forgiveness. I wonder what I would do if I had ultimate power for one day. I have fantasized about making sure people who have hurt me "got what was coming to them." I have wanted to put some people in their places. And I would like to reward those who I feel have been victimized, who have been done wrong in this world. Yet, Jesus did none of that. He could have struck down the Pharisees when they tried to trick him. Instead, he suffered their insults and evil plots against him.

Bobby Brown had a song when I was in high school called, "It's My Prerogative." It was Christ's prerogative to punish sinners, but He chose mercy instead. It was Christ's prerogative to be worshiped, but he chose to wash the feet of his disciples instead. It was Christ's prerogative to sit and rule from above, but he chose to come to earth as a nobody instead, to be abused and ridiculed for all eternity so that I might have a chance to be with him one day.

The whole scene reminds me somewhat of the show, Undercover Boss. Jesus, the Boss of the universe, chose to come to earth undercover to get first-hand knowledge of the cruelty of mankind. Like the boss on the show who gets chewed out by an arrogant and clueless middle manager, Jesus willingly gave up his Divine Privilege to be bullied and ridiculed by arrogant and clueless church leaders. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail" talks about how those in privileged positions won't give up their privileges willingly because who would? If I have an advantage, why would I willingly give it up to help someone else? Yet, Jesus did. How in the world can we act as Jesus did if serving others this way is so contrary to our nature? Only if God works through us can we do it.


Verse 13
"For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose."

The only way we will become willing to relinquish our privileges and our selfish ambitions is to let God work through us. We are inherently selfish creatures who want to be loved and comfortable and praised. The Holy Spirit must take over our hearts and minds; only the Holy Spirit can empower us to obedience. We can't do it alone.


Verse 14 - 15
Do whatever needs to be done in the church without grumbling and complaining. Wow! I can barely brush my teeth in the morning without complaining. When I think back on all the grumbling I have done in the church and all the complaining I have heard in the church, I know that I have failed His will countless times. Consider how we fuss about plans or decorations for VBS or AWANA or a special program or play. Consider the times we have said, "I don't know why we have to do it this way every year...." Or the times I have said, "I always get stuck with arts and crafts. I hate doing arts and crafts because I stink at it."

True, I may have been trained in music and would feel much more productive in the music department, and I could even suggest gently that the music department is where I belong by saying, "I'm not good at arts and crafts, but I love music...." But then again, if I am asked to help in arts and crafts, I might ought to try my best there simply because I don't know why God has put me there. What if God has someone he wants me to meet and talk to in arts and crafts? What if He has an idea He wants me to develop from something I will see in arts and crafts? What if He wants me to discover a new talent there? We just never know why God has placed us in certain places with certain tasks. Let's be open to the possibility of God's will and promises. Let's determine to find God's blessings in every circumstance.

Paul ends this section by comparing Christians to shining stars. He says that if we do what needs to be done without grumbling and complaining, then we will be blameless and pure. If we have a sacrificial attitude, we will make a difference in our world. People are not moved toward Jesus through arrogance and selfishness; if they are moved at all, they are moved away from Jesus by such attitudes. Yet, humility is unique; it inspires admiration. We see the work of God in someone's life when they willingly submit to some unpleasant task. We say, "that must be the Holy Spirit at work because why else would he volunteer to sweep the floor or keep the toddler class or travel to a war-torn country to feed the poor...?". Why else would he act in a way that is contrary to our human nature except that the Holy Spirit gives him power and desire to do good?

Paul calls his generation "crooked and perverted." Our generation in 2015 is no different. And the world watches the church and how it reacts, behaves, handles controversy. When Christians act as normal humans do, out of selfishness or with grumbling, they call us hypocrites. They say we are just like everyone else, that we try to tell others how to live when we don't even live that way ourselves.

Yet, the world is moved by self-sacrifice. What made Mother Teresa or Billy Graham or Lottie Moon such heroes of the faith? They sacrificed themselves and performed tasks most of us would not be willing to do.

These great heroes of the faith became shining stars in a world of darkness by offering themselves as sacrifices to the Holy Spirit, which served to light the way, to offer hope in a seemingly hopeless universe.