Philippians 2:3, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
Let nothing be done through strife (contention in anger) or vainglory (empty pride) – 1828 Dictionary. In other words – not ever, no way, no how, should we allow anger or self promotion to motivate our lives. Self cannot be allowed to be number one in our considerations.
This is so-o-o-o contrary to our nature. It seems to be automatic for us to make decisions on the ‘how does this affect me?’ basis. But, God says – NO. We are to put others before ourselves and we are to be kind while we are doing it. We are even to consider that others are better than we are.
God is instructing us here to be humble. God desires that we should be free from pride and arrogance. The Scriptures are full of God’s directives on how He wants His children to live, they are to be: kind, forgiving, loving, soft spoken, not argumentative, helpful, humble, not grumblers… I’m sure you can add many more desirable traits to this list.
God does have standards of conduct for our lives if we profess Jesus as our Saviour. Our desire should be to know these standards (by reading and studying the Bible) and then by striving to incorporate these traits into our lives. How we live is how we show to the world that God has made a difference in our lives.
We all know that we are not capable of making these changes in our own strength. But remember Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strentheneth me.” God is always near to help us – we just need to want to follows His ways and then ask for His help to do so!
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