Doormats and the Deity

I wrote this in the first couple of weeks this year. Since a few things have been raised, especially on Matt's blog, I thought I would post this and see what people thought. It is my first effort at writing something and some kind of editing could be appropriate. I thought it was ok though, since I am an engineer and I wrote it in about 2 hours.

Doormats and the Deity – A comparison of Christ’s humility and ours.
Philippians 2: 1-4.

Recently, the assistant minister of my church and I have been discussing the topic of Christ’s example of humility from Philippians 2. In our meeting up I realised that I previously had almost glazed over the first 4 verses of the chapter in excitement of getting to what Jesus has done.
Upon closer inspection, we can see that this passage is full of application. A proper understanding of Christ’s example of humility provides great benefits for us in our mandate of imitating Christ. Once we begin to put others above ourselves, we will start to have a great impact on our brothers and sisters around us, while also furthering our understanding of the great sacrifice that Christ has made for us.

1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being likeminded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Are you united with Christ? Are you comforted by his love? Do you have fellowship with the Spirit? Joy or Compassion? (Paul knows that the answer to all these questions is ‘yes’) Then be to others as Christ has to you. We are called to have the mind of Christ, being one in spirit and purpose. What is our purpose? Think about what you do. Do your actions reflect this command? Is that seen to you as one in Spirit and purpose?
I have found that commonly at this point that we can fall into the trap of being double-minded. Our spirit and purpose do not have the required ‘oneness’ that is called for. We want to be as Christ has been to us, however, the sinful nature creeps in with it’s selfish desires removing our focus from others and placing it on ourselves.
Selfishness (putting your needs above the needs of others) is the opposite of humility (putting other’s needs above your own) and is warned against in a number of other places in the bible as well as in the next few verses.

3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It is important to note here that considering others better than yourself is not related to inherent worth. We are all equal in Christ and it would be contradictory to say that you should see others as better in God’s sight than yourself.
It is saying that we need to consider others needs better than ours. We are to consider others not in our estimation of them, but in our caring for them, putting their needs above our own. What are people’s needs? Think about what are the needs of those around you. Are those needs being met? How can you meet those needs?
We are also called to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Loving in tenderness and compassion will mean that we will be looking for others above ourselves. This is how Christ’s humility expressed itself.
Seeking the good of others is the cure for selfish ambition and vain conceit. We cannot do the two at the same time. Such a man is a double minded man, neither hot nor cold.

The risk of becoming a doormat
It is also important to note that this does not mean that you are to put the wants of others above your needs. For some of us there is a temptation to do what other people ask of us regardless of the cost for us. We can easily think that this is what Christ wants us to and so we can find ourselves at the mercy of people who don’t understand our needs (or their wants for that matter). An important concept in life comes in here. The concept of boundaries. We need to understand what our needs are and make sure that we don’t kill ourselves trying to satisfy the needs of others. Needs that may actually only be wants. See vs. 4. We should look to others interests, as well as our own. We have interests too and they are important.
I think it is easy for us to want the acceptance of the people we esteem. We seem to so desire the approval and attention of certain people. Often these are the ‘popular’ people, who’s friendship can somehow make us feel accepted and wanted. Often though, these people are not the people we should be spending all of our energy on. They are often quite self sufficient (hence the attraction), or have quite a few people looking after them already. It is likely that there are others who need us far more.
Our sinful nature can tempt us to lay down everything to be trampled underfoot just so we can get the favour of those we so esteem. This is not good. Not only are we not really looking for our own needs, I don’t really think we are looking for the popular people’s needs either.
In contrast, apart from straight out doing what we are supposed to, spending your time and effort on people who really need it is extremely rewarding. The people you do this with feel loved, they are encouraged, and they, in turn, appreciate your efforts far more than people who receive heaps of encouragement on a daily basis. The body of Christ is built up and that is a great thing.

So, as you go about your week, who will you be thinking about? Will you think of how to impress someone. Or, will you think of someone who might be a little left out or under cared for, and invite them over for dinner or even just call them up for a chat. It’s the little things like that, that people notice and are thankful for.

As Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 25, verse 40. 40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’