01/17/2024 – Live to serve, not to be served
Philippians 2: 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
One of the greatest challenges in the Bible is the command to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1) Most of the amazing works of the Lord Jesus in His ministry on this earth are far beyond our reach. He demonstrated Divine power over sin in a way no other person on this earth could ever accomplish. No human can ever come close to the wisdom of Jesus or the faith of Jesus. The only way we can imitate God is by imitating Christ is humility and service.
In Philippians 2 the apostle Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit commanding us, the followers of Jesus, to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. He explains in detail what he means: Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. On the contrary, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. The amazing works Christ accomplished, He performed as a servant. He gave us salvation, eternal life, defeated death, as a servant. Here is truth the world can only know from Jesus: the greatest victories are achieved in humility and service. We see service as a painful obligation…God has ordained it as our greatest privilege and the condition to achieve our greatest victories.