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I have been meditating on the book of Philippians, specifically, chapter 2. The chapter gives us the supreme example of the humility of Christ. We have the example before us. His love for His people was demonstated in the fact that He would come into the world, being God of very God, knowing the condition of all men and women, being omnipotent, omnicient, and sovereign, and taking the form of a servant.

The Greek word that is used for servant in this passage is duolos. This word is distinguished from another Greek word for servant which is diakonos. Diakonos defines a servant who willingly puts himself in the position because he is willing to be a servant to others, such as a deacon in the church, though not a position of honor, it could be a position of recognition. The word however, that is used of the Lord in Philippian 2:7, is duolos, which means a slave, one who is servant or slave to the point where there will be no praise or admiration.

The slave Christ became on our behalf, had to be; there was no other way it could have been! Humanity owed a debt to divine justice it could just not pay! The time is yet coming when God the Father will call for the day of accountability; the Day of Judgment, those found not in union with Messiah will have hell to pay, literally!

Being full of glory and truth, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; the second person of the Trinity, took upon himself the form of a slave. Indentured servant, He became for debts He did not owe, because He loved His people with an everlasting love.

Inspite of who the people were, are, and would ever be, He paid the price once and for all on calvary’s tree for their sin.

“Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

Brothers and sisters, what an ultimate example we have in Christ! Humbled himself as a slave to the point of death, death on a cross! Think of this, ponder it, meditate on it.

From this great example Paul tells us, “if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy,” and of course based on what we read of what Christ had done for us there is eternal encouragement, eternal comfort, amazing fellowship in the spirit, affections which come from what Christ accomplished, Paul further says, “make my day.”

Make my joy complete. How do we do this? By being of the same mind, having the same love, , being in full accord, and of one mind. Paul exhorts us because by nature we are wicked. We are selfish, self-seeking, corrupted, deceitful, and cannot be trusted! We must come to terms with this! If it were not so, Christ would not have to have experienced the horror of absorbing the wrath of God upon the Cross on our behalf!

Christian, stop for a moment. Put aside the thoughts of being rich, popular, attractive, liked, respected. Read the passage above again from Isaiah!

“For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

The truth is, we really don’t esteem Him as believers even today! We are truly hypocrites. Jesus said that by our love for one another they would know we are His disciples. “This is my command that you love one another.” “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

The love we have for Christ is revealed in the love we have for each other! Somehow, we miss this today. The church is marked by hopeless waves who are tossed to and fro! Brotherhood is not esteemed because we truly do look upon our own needs before the needs of others! This is to our shame!

Paul further explains that we do NOTHING out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves, let each of you look not only for your own interests, but also to the interest of others! This goes against the grain! It is a difficult, I would even say an impossible task apart from full reliance upon Christ! He is the one who does the willing and the doing! And we must thank Him for His immeasurable grace! If we were measured apart from the grace that saves us, we’d be immediately cast into the depths of hell!

I have come to understand that men and women will always let each other down. Failed expectations there will always be from each other. Like the Lord Jesus Christ, despised the shame and opened not His mouth, but accomplished the mission set before Him on our behalf, we must also endure with each other. The Scripture says that faith, hope, and love, remain, but the greatest of these is love.

When we examine ourselves and our view of love, to our shame, we practice humanistic love, a love that fades and ultimately fails! What defines the love of Christ?

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

We must have this mind in us which was also in the Lord Jesus Christ, who took the form of a bond-slave, being God of very God, came and took upon the lowest of human position. Dead man walking the Lord Jesus was, but He did it knowing He was setting the ultimate example! He in fact lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died!

We seek out to be great by being better than others, stepping on others to get ahead, maneuver for positions in life. We want to be on top! The best teacher, the best apologist, the best looking, the most wealthy. If we have or possess these, the craziness is we glory in them and think we’ve attained it! When we don’t get want we want or thought we could have had, or we are wronged, we definitely do not shut our mouths. What we do is begin to reason and in the final analysis, we begin to plan for ways to leave, escaping and at the same time sacrificing relationships of brothers who truly are bound by the affections of Christ.

The fellowship of the Spirit is an amazing grace to us as a body, but selfishness, looking to our own needs, causes us to abandon those whom we love most. We don’t abandon our blood relatives, we always seem to work it out somehow. How much more should we follow Christ’s example unto death, and remain together as those purchased by the blood of Christ and are part of the family of God?

Mud slinging, email campaigns, the desire to take another down, glorying in the fact you are one who opposes the “status quo.” None of these bring glory to God! What God reveals in Scripture is that we press on to the high calling, we are to pursue that which is excellent, praiseworthy. We are to glory in the fact that we seek to declare truth to those who need it, those who are hurting, those who are lost!

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13

We are the body of Christ. Do people see the love of Christ in us? Or do they see contentions and divisions? Let us examine ourselves! More than likely, if we are doing God’s work, we will be hated by those who oppose the truth or have ongoing controversy with Christ.

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:18-26

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

“One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Galatians 6:1-10

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

We are to have this mind in us, which was also in Christ Jesus. The way up is the way down! The way to greatness is the way to slavery, the way of emptiness, the way of shame, the slave of all, the way of no praise, no glory, and understanding that our riches are not of this world, but they are found in Him who walked the via dolorosa! He walked it willingly, and He calls us to pick up the cross and follow Him!

The Lord is sovereign, let us be motivated not to bitterness and enying, but let us be motivated to holiness. Jesus did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. We should be pressing on doing the same! Are we willing to give our lives? The way to greatness is the way of servanthood, the way of slavery to the glory of God. What will we do?

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Heb. 4:12

This was a sort of flow directly from my heart to the brothers and sisters! The Great Commission of our Lord presses on! It is a spiritual battle, we must press on since Christ is amongst us and bids His soldiers, as the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, to pick up our cross and fight the good fight! If you don’t know the Lord Jesus, may He open your eyes to see His glory!