“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 emptied himself, by 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.” (Philippians 2:5-8)
Here Paul affirms the dual nature of Jesus Christ. When He became incarnate, He did not surrender any of His divine attributes. Instead, He humbled Himself by taking on human limitations. He chose to allow those limitations to prevent Him from fully exercising His divine powers. This allowed Him to suffer the excruciating physical pain of crucifixion and death as well as the emotional and spiritual pain caused by the nauseating corruption of sin. Jesus was fully human. He had to be one of us, in order to be our proper sin offering.
Thus, this passage from Paul’s epistle presents us one of the most dynamic passages in scripture concerning the humility of Christ Jesus. His aim is to impress on us the necessity of humility in our lives. We are to think and behave as Jesus did, that is, we are to serve others without reservation, to be the servant of all. God in Christ became the servant of all. He sacrificed His glory to become a human being like us and die for our sins.
In our self-centered world many reject this idea of service to others, preferring to have others serve them, cater to their needs, affirm their sinful lifestyles. In fact, many reject the idea of serving people who they think are undeserving or have political and social views which differ from their own. They don’t want these undeserving ones to get away with their wrong thinking or else they fear that they will use and manipulate them or they will take advantage of them. Most are afraid to lose what they think they need or what they think is theirs by right and privilege.
Yet Jesus died for undeserving and ungrateful people. And as His servants of God calls us to serve those undeserving ones. He humbles us in many ways, convicts us of sin and prejudice in order to remind us of our our weak and sinful state. He shows us that we are not in control of our lives: He is. As His servants He uses us as He sees fit. He calls us to obey Him totally and completely. Only by accepting this call, on our jobs, in our families and all our relationships and activities, will we find true peace and joy, and give glory to whom it belongs: Jesus.