The Interests of Others

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yours elves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Philippians 2:3-4 CSB

I will be honest; I have lived a large part of my life not really being selfish but being self-Centre. How? I obviously do consider others but mainly after I have considered myself. I look out for myself first before others. It kinda makes sense.

I strongly believe you’ve got to take care of yourself first before thinking of others, at least God blesses us so that after being blessed, we can bless others.

So it’s not the first part that bothers me, it’s the second: in humility regard others as better than yourselves. And what I find hard about this second part is precisely what I found valuable about the first: I don’t know if you can love others well if you don’t love yourself. I don’t know, that is, whether you can treat others as worthy and valuable if you don’t first see yourself as worthy and valuable. I know this isn’t typical church talk; Paul’s language of humility and treating others as better than yourself is more the norm.

And maybe that’s my problem. In my experience, we’re very good at talking about this, but not always at doing it. 

Do you know that If no one ever did anything from rivalry or conceit, the world would be a much better place.

Humility is considering others above yourself. Jesus left the heavenly glory just to come and die for us, I sometimes wonder in this world and day of self-glorification and the celebration of “me” if this is possible.

When we value others above us, we are demonstrating the kind of humility that is in Jesus. We serve God by serving others.

As we interact with others today, let us not look on our interests alone but to interests of others. We must learn to turn the attention to others and not on ourselves. That is true humility.

Be blessed!