“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves;” Philippians 2:3.
This post is the first of a five part series discussing how we should view others in relation to ourselves. I will be starting each with the above verse with a specific relationship added to the end. I am not saying we should be viewing ourselves negatively, for our focus verse is not saying that. We all need to see where our heart is in all our relationships. In this post I will be looking at our focus scripture as,
“With humility consider God as more important than yourselves.”
This first post in this group will look at one that should be self-evident. Many probably are thinking, “I am a Christian, I always look at God above myself.” However, do we really? This is a great time to have some self-examination. Let us first look at who God is.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.
God is the one who created everything there is. Before Him has no meaning for He has always been, having no beginning and will have no end. The word Genesis, the name of this Book, is a Hebrew word meaning ‘beginning.’ Genesis 1:1 describes the beginning of everything, aside from God who again, has no beginning. And when we look near the end of Genesis 1, we see that part of His creation was man.
“Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:26-27,
Everything He created prior to man was made for the benefit of man. We are His ultimate creation, and we were made to live in a loving relationship with Him, the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent one who has no beginning and will have no end. What a beautiful thing.
However, while in the garden, God gave man one command.
“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17
God in His sovereignty gave this command to them. He could have made us such that we could do nothing but obey, however, He chose to allow us to obey Him willingly. Did they? We then read in Genesis 3 that Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. And what was their reason?
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God really said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ The serpent said to the woman, ‘You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:1-5.
And what happened next?
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6.
The serpent, also known as Satan, tempted Eve with the idea that God was holding out on them. And they succumbed to this lie. Think about this. The all-powerful God, who provided everything they would ever need, who spent time with them daily in the cool of the day because He chose to, who loved them so much more than they could ever love Him, was ignored because of something they could gain, something they knew was wrong but wanted it anyway. In essence, in arrogance, they looked at themselves more highly than they looked at God.
Now, let us ask ourselves this question. Have we done the same? I can only answer for myself, and it is not the answer I want to give. How many times have we chosen to do something we knew would displease God, yet did it anyway because we knew it would be enjoyable or we would gain from it? Ouch! I wish I could say less than once, but that would not be the correct answer. We have free will to obey or disobey Him just as Adam and Eve did. But just because we are free to drive our car off a cliff does not mean it is a good idea.
Again, we were made to be in a loving relationship with God. And He showed His love sending His Son to die a horrendous death for our disobedience/sins. He paid the full penalty for our sins, which was death and separation from the Father. Remember, when Jesus was on the cross, He Himself died and felt separated from His Father.
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, Lema Sabaktanei?’ that is, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?‘” Matthew 27:46.
For the first time ever in all eternity, in order for us to be made right with God, Jesus His Son was out of communion with the Father because He paid for the sins of all mankind. He willingly submitted to this ‘separation’ for our sake because He and the Father loved us and still do. Jesus, the Son of God, willingly put us first because He loved us that much.
And this is the love we should have for God. A love so great that we would be willing to give up even our very lives for Him, because we count Him more significant, more important, more worthy than we could ever be. We should be willing to give up whatever it takes to get to know Him and what pleases Him.
In closing, we should set aside time to spend with Him in prayer, worship, adoration and love. We should get our minds off ourselves and devote ourselves to God and what He desires of us. Before we do anything we should ask ourselves is this something God would approve of? He will let us know, once we are open to hearing it. His Word is full of what He desires of us, and what He does not. We just need to dive into it and learn both. Doing so is one way of putting Him first. Our lives are His, not our own. Therefore, we must give ourselves to Him completely; putting Him and His ways absolutely first. And we must be open to hear His voice as His Spirit speaks to us. He will say yes or no, do or don’t, I approve or I do not. And we should agree wholeheartedly with Him. This is the type of relationship He desires, and we should desire it as well. We must think of Him more highly than we think of ourselves. And when we do, we will find a peace and contentment that goes beyond any understanding.
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