By Robbie Bellis serving in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
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!
Philippians 2:3-8
Christmas can be a great time with special family treats, the fun of presents, and that nostalgic Christmas feeling. But it can also be a testing time. The nights are drawing in, everybody is very busy, stress levels mount up, and there are the relational tensions and difficulties amongst our family, friends and colleagues to deal with. Our ‘Christmas cheer’ only carries us so far. We can quickly find ourselves snapping at others and being irritable to those around us.
How can the Christmas message help us when the stress builds and we’re finding it hard to love others? Paul, in Philippians 2, paints the picture of our perfect Saviour. The one who took on flesh that first Christmas and who died for us on the cross that first Easter is the model we should follow when we’re struggling to love others. In verses 3 and 4, Paul exhorts us to ‘do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’ How can we do that? Only if we heed verse 5 and we ‘have the same mindset as Christ Jesus’ in our relationships with one another.
What is this attitude we should imitate? In verses 6-8, we see God the Son’s selfless self-giving of himself as he values us above himself, and as he looks not to his own interests, but to ours. He denied himself in taking on our humanity and he humbled himself in dying for us. What a Saviour! In the Christmas rush this year, may we fix our eyes on him, thanking him afresh for the salvation he brings and praying that we might follow his example of self-giving love.