This morning, I am reading from Philipians 2, and, to be honest, it can be a bit hard to swallow if you don’t take the time to pray about what is being said.

Verses 5 through 8 says,

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus; who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!

This passage is not saying that we are to be slaves, but we are to consider ourselves slaves worthy as servants in the kingdom of God. When we consider ourselves better than others, we have exalted ourselves above others, even God. This is not about position, but, rather, about who we worship.

We will always have authority to be accountable to, but how must we respond? The earthly realm might seek to force us to be slaves, but we are servants to God. As children of God, we belong to God. It is God that we worship, not man. It is the difference between our flesh and our soul. For Jesus, man took his flesh on the cross, but they couldn’t take his spirit. Our spirit is the one thing that the devil cannot take without our permission. It is with our spirits that we wage war and become victorious.

Verse 3 and 4 says,

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility considers others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

This does not mean that you aren’t good at anything or that you are not worthy of anything. This is a state of mind that you set for yourself so that you don’t cross the line and begin to worship something that is not God the Almighty.

Sometimes it will be necessary to place someone else above yourself, but it should never be all about you. This is about balancing our hearts between loving ourselves and loving others. Ultimately, God has other children, and God wants us to love them just as much. If we are always focused on ourselves, we completely disobey Gods command to love others. We don’t always get the choice on who we get to love. We must be open to who that might be, because, ultimately, we are servants of God through Christ Jesus.

I want to challenge you to read Philipians 2 on your own as it is a chapter that I cannot fully do it justice. Ask God what his message is for you.

Go forth and be blessed, my friend.