“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:5-7 ESV)
This week’s Epistle presents us one of the most dynamic passages in scripture concerning humility. Here, as Paul testifies to the dual nature of Jesus Christ, he reveals that when Jesus became incarnate, He did not surrender any of His divine attributes. Instead, He humbled Himself by taking on human limitations. He chose to allow those limitations to prevent Him from fully exercising His divine powers. This allowed Him to suffer the excruciating pain of crucifixion and death. He had to be fully human, to be one of us, in order to be our proper sin offering.
God in Christ became the servant of all. He sacrificed His glory to become a human being like us and die for our sins. In our self-centered world we might not like this idea of service to others at all, especially to people who we think are undeserving. We fear that they will use and manipulate us, that they will take advantage of us. We are afraid to lose what we think we need or what we think is our right and privilege: we want what everybody else has. Yet Jesus died for undeserving and ungrateful people.
As servants, God calls us to do the same. He humbles us as He reminds us of our weak and sinful nature. He shows us that we are not in control of our lives: He is. As His servants He uses us as He sees fit. He calls us to obey Him totally and completely. Only by accepting this call, on our jobs, in our families and all our relationships and activities, will we find true peace, joy, and glory.