Philippians 2 – Selfies or Humility
Selfies characterise our age. These photos we take of ourselves with our mobile phone cameras. It is estimated that there are 93 million selfies posted online every day. Our age is narcissistic. Focused on self. Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Tumblr, 500px, Ello, Flickr, and Mastodon, the number of sites online where you can show the world what you are doing seems never-ending.
Selfies are an instant visual communication of where we are, what we are doing, who we think we are and who we think are watching. They are an indicator that we think the world revolves around us.
In 1540, Nicholas Copernicus wrote, ‘If a man is to know the truth, he must change his thinking. Despite what we have said for years, our earth is not the centre of the cosmos, but one celestial body among many. The sun does not move around us, but we move around the sun’.
It seems that in our time, everyone has gone back to thinking that the sun moves around the earth. And forgetting the truth that the earth moves around the sun. I am not the centre of the world.
In the second chapter of Philippians, Pauls draws us to the truth that life is not found in focusing on ourselves but on our neighbour, it shows us how Christ came to live this truth – to the extreme.
Paul says, ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition and vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not to your own interests but to the interests of others’ Because this is the attitude of Jesus Christ’.
In Philippians 2:6–11, Paul moves into describing this life of Christ. In this hymn or poem, it describes Jesus’ journey as going down down down, then he is raised up up up.
Jesus was equal with God, but he put this aside; he humbled himself and took on human flesh becoming a human being. He continued his humility and was obedient to his Father and allowed himself to be killed on the cross.
But then God the Father raised him from death, and he ascended to the highest place and now has the name above all names so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and confess Jesus is Lord of all.
This movement down and then up is how it works in the Kingdom of God. We are created not to focus on self but on others near us. That is how each of us as Christians are to live. Following the same pattern that Jesus followed. Humbling ourselves and focusing our attention on others and then God will elevate us.
As Christ-followers, we humble ourselves, take the attention away from ourselves and so learn to serve and love other people. We focus on others, not self. We don’t count ourselves as better than others. We look to the interests of others, not to our own. In due course, God will raise us up, perhaps here already on earth, but definitely in the life to come.
We know this is not how it is in the world around us. Human nature fights and struggles to get to the top over others. Climbing over them, pushing them aside. It asserts itself and reaches for power and privilege and what I can have before others. It focuses on self and for a time an achievement is made something we really want is obtained, but then it ends and falls away.
This Copernicus revolution within ourselves – a complete change of thinking – requires the Holy Spirit to change our hearts from self-centred to other-centred. This begins at our baptism and then continues every day when we hear the Word of God. As Christians, our sinful selfish nature struggles within us. We want to do things God’s way, but we also want to still serve self. We have two ways of experiencing the world. Jean Paige made the statement, ‘Each person must experience his or her Copernican revolution. They must learn that true living is experienced when we are not the centre of our world’.
This is what Jesus meant when he said, ‘For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it’ (Mark 8:35).
I pray you will come to know and live this truth and so adapt this revised statement of Copernicus, ‘If a man or woman is to know the truth, they must change their thinking … Everybody does not move around you, but you must learn to move around others’.
Try it the next time you enter a room full of people. Think not about yourself but put your attention on the others in the room and focus on them. See what a difference it makes.
Pastor Robert Bartholomaeus
Bishop NSW, ACT and LCNZ Districts
This article was originally published in the September edition of Contact, a magazine of the NSW–ACT District.