Father, thank you for this day and may our time together be a blessing to all as we walk with Jesus toward living a life worthy of our calling. In His name, Amen. Philippians 2:3-8 (ESV)
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 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.
For whatever reason, when I first started out to write this blog this morning, I went straight to “breaking down” the verses…checking the correlation between them and my worship notes…when it came to mind as I stood back and looked at them in their entirety…what a beautiful picture of “Living Worthy “ a life of Love through Humility made complete in Jesus Christ. Simple, yet warming to my soul.
In closing, I would like to leave you with The Message version of these verses, which includes versus 1 & 2, which is Paul’s exhortation to living a life worthy in Christ. The language is wonderful and inspiring, and I hope it blesses your day, as it has mine…and as we Begin in prayer this week...”may we all be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
The Message (MSG)
2 1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
Blessings to you and yours,
jim