Following Christ

"You must have the same attitude 

that Christ Jesus had.

Though he was God,
 he did not think of equality with God
 as something to cling to.
 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
 he took the humble position of a slave
 and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
 and died a criminal’s death on a cross."

Philippians 2

These few verses are some of the most difficult in the Bible.  They begin with these words, "have the same attitude..." and what follows is the model for how we are to live out our lives.

Instead of glory we are to choose obscurity.

Instead of the first place we are invited to sit in the lowest place.

Instead of ruler we are invited to be the servant, the slave.

We are invited to humbly serve God and the ones he puts in our path....just as Christ Jesus did.

This is the most difficult call to discipleship in all of scripture.  This invitation challenges us to put to death our pride, our desire for glory, fame, success and humbly serve.

And to what point? To what outcome?  The example Jesus gave us is to the death, to the point of giving all we have and are for the souls of those around us! This is our model, this is our invitation, "you must have this same attitude..."   It's the attitude of a servant not seeking anything except the approval of the master.

Everything about following Jesus is counter to the way our culture works.  It's a call to being nobody in this world so Christ can be seen through you.  It's an invitation to put pride to death and serve without a "thank you", without acknowledgement, without reward....to the death.  

That's our model.  Setting aside everything we want, desire or claim so that God can work though us and glorify his name.  This is the highest calling in all of human history...the call to be nobody so that Christ can be seen and glorified through us.

How wonderful it would be to be completely unknown, living a life of anonymity so God can be seen through us, so those who watch us want to know this God we serve.  Could there be a richer life than that?