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 made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
St Paul’s inspiration to learn contentment was the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was God, is God and always will be God but he didn’t consider the privileges of godhead something that he needed to cling hold of. He therefore, ‘made himself nothing’. He took a downward path; always downward. ‘And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient…’ As a human, He voluntarily, gladly chose to become obedient to God, obedient to the point of torture and execution!
A couple of times, Jesus explained that he said and did only the things that he saw his Father saying and doing (see John 5:30 & 6:38). Jesus did not please himself but was content from His cradle to His cross. I think it’s accurate to say that the Gospels do not record a single instance where He did something to please Himself, where He acted to reduce the inconvenience to Himself or to make His situation more comfortable.
There was the occasion recorded at the start of John 4, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees heard that He was baptising more disciples than John the Baptist, so he went to Galilee. Also, Mark 3 tells how Jesus took His disciples to the seclusion of a seaside town to evade a murder plot. But on both occasions, it seems that Jesus' motivation was not His reputation or His safety but His mission. As Paul put it in Romans 15:3: 'For Christ did not please himself...' 1 Corinthians 13 is therefore crucial to understanding Paul's imitation of Jesus, his whole approach to life.
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… So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
This is the quality of love that drew Jesus out of heaven to Bethlehem and it is the glory of the Christmas message. Without developing that kind of love, Paul could never have trusted God as he did. Without it, he would have been so shackled by disappointment and bitterness; without it, he could never have lived in the freedom that Jesus won for him on the cross. And neither can we. We need to be inspired by the love of Jesus just as Paul was inspired if we are to enjoy the freedom he enjoyed!
'Therefore...' writes Paul in the passage at the start of this Reflection. 'Therefore...' As a result, as a consequence of... 'God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.'
I realise this next statement is theologically suspect but I hope you see what I mean. Paul makes it sound as if that as Jesus followed the downward path from Bethlehem to Calvary, His Father did for Him more than He would do for Himself. That's the challenge of contentment for us also.
I realise this next statement is theologically suspect but I hope you see what I mean. Paul makes it sound as if that as Jesus followed the downward path from Bethlehem to Calvary, His Father did for Him more than He would do for Himself. That's the challenge of contentment for us also.
© Copyright Philip Evans 2014.
What is freely received should be freely shared and not sold for profit, so please feel free to copy these Reflections freely and without cost to others. Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations in these Reflections are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
