A New Way of Thinking

Earlier this week in one of my Nuggets of Truth I shared that there is hope in the midst of the chaos that’s gripping our country. And the reason for this hope is that God is actively at work.  God has strategically placed His people in every city in our country. People like you and people like me. Some are there to pray.  Some are there to serve, clean and repair. Some are there to comfort the broken and some are there to bring hope to the hopeless.  And that’s what I want to talk about this morning from God’s Word.  God has given every one of His children a new way to live – a way that goes counter to the culture we find ourselves in – a way that reveals a different reality – and that reality is the kingdom of God.

You see, in the kingdom of man, the prevailing mindset is to look out for number one.  It’s a mindset that says, “my way is the right way.” But when everyone is doing what is right in their own minds, there will be division, chaos and even anarchy.  There will be those who protest or even fight for what they think is right. And right now we are seeing this kind of mindset play out live on our television screens every night.

But in the kingdom of God, God has given us a different way of thinking, a way that’s not looking out for number one but is looking out for others. It’s a mindset that’s no longer trying to make yourself look good but is more into doing good.  And it’s this kind of mindset that God wants to develop in us.  For it’s the mindset of Jesus that is spelled out for us in Philippians 2, which says:  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  Philippians 2:3-4

God wants us to learn how to think like Jesus.  God wants us to have the same mindset as Jesus so we might serve other like Jesus.  But before we can begin to think like Jesus, we must deal with our old way of thinking.  And that’s where Paul begins in these verses, by calling us to Avoid our old self-serving attitudes:  Paul writes: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. 

What Paul is saying is that if we are going to learn to think like Jesus, then we must have nothing to do with the worldly attitudes of selfish ambition and empty conceit.  So let’s look at that first attitude: We are to have nothing to do with selfish ambition 

The word selfish ambition is a word that had its origins in expressing an attitude of self-advancement by any means in the pursuit of political office, usually by unfair means.   It later came to be a word used to express the process of jockeying for position and the deceitful intrigue that takes place behind closed doors as one vies for power or position. And by the time Paul used this word it carried the meaning of an ambition that has no conception of service and whose only aim was profit or power.  And so this mindset of selfish ambition is the very opposite of an mindset of a servant.

With this worldly attitude you see people as pawns to be used for your advancement.  With this worldly mindset people become tools to use or walk over on your way to getting what you want. So this mindset devalues people, disrespects people and abuses people and is has no place in the thinking of a believer  So we are to have nothing to do with selfish ambition.

This is where the disciples blew it with Jesus. He rebuked them for their worldliness when they were “jockeying” for the position of leadership at his right hand.  He said to them,  “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:42-45

What Jesus is saying here is that we are to have nothing to do with exalting ourselves.  David Platt says it this way, This selfish conviction is the real sin beneath every other sin.  It was the original original sin.  When the serpent tempted Adam and Eve, he did it ultimately with self-exaltation: “You will be like God,” he said.  And every moment we operate out of selfish ambition and conceit, every time we think of ourselves as better than others or look only to our interests, we are essentially saying, “I am God.”

So we are to have nothing to do with this attitude – EVER.  We are to eradicate this way of thinking in our all relationships and all our dealings with other people.  We are to have nothing to do with exalting ourselves over others.  This is the sin of the evil one.  It is the sin that separates us from God.  It is the sin that destroys relationships.  It is the sin that creates division, hatred and war.   So Paul uses the strongest words possible:  Have nothing to do with selfish ambition.  Stop using others to get ahead.  Stop exalting yourself. That’s the first attitude we’ve got to eliminate in us if we’re going to learn how to think like Jesus.

Now here’s the second attitude we are to have nothing to do with: We are to have nothing to do with empty conceit  The actual Greek term is “kenodoxian.”   It’s made up of two words: “Kenosis” which means “to empty” and “doxa” which means “glory.”  In other words, “empty glory.”  So this is all about personal vanity.  It’s wanting to look good in the eyes of others.  It’s a word that expresses the idea that it is more important to look good to your peers than it is to please God.

Our culture places a lot of emphasis on looking good; whether it’s our personal appearance, the possessions we own, or our personal status – the world builds its value on such things.  But in God’s kingdom these things hold little value.  Later on Paul will go to great lengths to share how his status and accomplishments made him look great in the eyes of the world, but once he came to faith in Jesus, he saw them for what they really were – they were basically worthless. They had no real value in God’s kingdom.

Do you struggle with wanting to look good?  Do you crave the applause of man? If selfish ambition is thinking, “I’ve got to beat them,” conceit is like being a sore loser when you don’t. Conceit is about appearances, about saving face.  Conceit is like pretentiousness, a pride that connects our feelings to our image. So do you compare yourself to others and become bitter when you don’t think you measure up?  Do you struggle with envy, jealously, anger, or malice because you keep seeing the successes or joys of others and compare them with your own?  Do you find yourself despising other people because your life doesn’t measure up to theirs?  If you do, God’s Word says you might just be conceited.

But the truth is, if we’re honest, is that we all struggle to some degree or other with empty conceit.  None of us wants to look bad.  But when we’re always trying make ourselves look good, we become slaves to a false image.  And when we fall into this comparison trap and try make ourselves look better than others – we cannot possibly serve others let alone please God.  So Paul says, “Do nothing out of empty conceit.”  It is a worldly attitude that has no place in a person who wants to think like Jesus.

Now, are you beginning to grasp how these attitudes keep us from thinking like Jesus?  Before we can think like Jesus, we need to understand how our old ways of thinking are so selfish. But once you are aware of this, once the Holy Spirit shows you how selfish and empty your old ways of thinking are, then you are ready to start thinking like Jesus, and you can..

Embrace other-serving attitudes:  That’s where the rest of these verses come into play: Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  

“In humility value others above yourselves.”  In humility, you can begin to regard other people as better than you.  He’s not saying that you are now to think of yourself as worse than others, but now you are free to think well of others.  You see, what Paul is getting at here is this:  God wants to change how you think about yourself  He is saying that you cannot change how you think about others until you change how you think about yourself.  That means seeing yourself in comparison to God and not to anyone else.  That’s humility.  He is the Creator and you are the created.  He is full of goodness, grace and mercy.  You’ve been the recipient of His goodness, grace and mercy.  And now, you’re the apple of His eye.  You are now fully accepted in His eyes.  You have nothing left to prove.  And that’s freeing.

So Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.  It’s like how C. S. Lewis’s once described a humble person.  I find his description quite helpful.  He says, “Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call humble: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is a nobody.  Probably all you think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.  If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily.  He will not be thinking about humility; he will not be thinking about himself at all.”

So there it is: When you are thinking of yourself less – you’re now free to think of others.  THAT IS HOW JESUS LIVED!  He’s our model of humility.  And we’ll dig into his model of humility in the passage that follows.  But this is our starting point.  This is HUMILITY:  When you no longer think of yourself, you are free to think of others.  That’s the kind of humility God wants to develop in you.  So once He changes how you think about yourself, He can begin to change how you think about others:

So how does God want you to think about others?  God wants you to value others above yourselves.  To value ALL people as God values people.  That’s why Paul says we are “to consider others” as better than ourselves.

So this is a new perspective that God is calling us to.  So then, to consider others as better than ourselves, is to make a judgment about them.  However this judgment is not the same as how the world judges.  The way the world judges is to point out something inferior about a person so as to make yourself look better. We call this “putting others down.”  This is a common practice of middle school students.  They’ve perfected the art of the put down.  I know this, because I worked with them for over 14 years.  But  the sad reality is that many people never mature beyond the junior high level.  They master the art of the put down and try to disguise it by telling others that it’s just their way of having fun.  But here, God’s Word calls us to have nothing to do with that way of thinking.

So then, rather than put others down, God would have us put others up.   Lift them above us.  And the way we are to do this is to begin seeing their value or worth from a different perspective – God’s perspective.  To begin seeing all people as those who are created in the image of God.  To see all people as ones Jesus loves and died for.  And the more we see people as God sees them, the more we will value them as Jesus values them, and we can consider them as better than ourselves.  This is what people are crying out for today.  People just want to be valued, respected and treated with dignity.  And God has given us the mindset of Jesus to do this very thing!

And when we begin to value people like God does, then we are free to serve them.  And the way we do that is the last thing we see in this passage.  We can now look out for the interests of others   That’s the mindset of a servant.  We can be present with others to listen to their stories, hear their concerns, their struggles, their hopes and dreams.  When we’re no longer self-focused we can give all our focus to their interests.  This IS the mindset God wants to see take hold in all His children.  With this mindset, we will no longer be in competition with one another.  With this mindset, personal agendas and preferences become a thing of the past.  With this mindset people are heard and understood.  And with this mindset everyone can have their needs met.

So then, when we are done with self-serving attitudes and embrace other’s serving attitudes, we will be the Church God calls us to be; and we won’t just get along with one another, but we will enjoy a culture marked by joy and peace.   And then, when others see our joy and peace, our love and respect for one another, our genuine acceptance and encouragement of one another – then the world will see and know that there really is another way to live – for we will be serving one another, just like Jesus served us.

Remember, God wants us to learn how to think like Jesus so we can serve one another just like Jesus.  That’s the point of this passage. But before we can think like Jesus, we need to have nothing to do with our old way of thinking.  This may be hard for you.  I know it is for me.  For we’ve been taught to look out for ourselves all of our lives.  This way of selfish ambition and empty conceit has been ingrained in each of us from the day we were born.  This is the mindset of the prevailing culture – but it’s not to be ours. So don’t be too hard on yourself.  For you are not alone in bringing about this change to make you more like Jesus.  That’s why the verses that follow this teaching remind us of God’s grace to help us:  it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2:13

God is not done working in you; He will finish what He started in you; so He will continue working in you until you learn to think like Jesus.  So may God help us all eradicate these worldly attitudes, so we can be free to think and serve like Jesus.  Let’s pray.