Leading Roles
Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:3
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves…
Carl Sandburg wrote, “We all want to play Hamlet.” It is the nature of fallen man to desire to be the most important person in the room. Claudius Ptolemy wrote “Almagest” in which he argued for a geocentric view of the universe. Building on the works of those who preceded him, Ptolemy explained the structure of the universe has the sun and all the planets revolving around the earth. In his theory, the earth was the center of everything.
This Ptolemaic view was the predominant view of the universe for 1500 years. Ptolemy was no fool. He was an intelligent person with a great mind. He was explaining things as he saw them. Everyone agreed with him because it looked right.
Similarly, we tend to see everything as revolving around us. We are, so to speak, the center of the universe in our way of looking at the world. Hardly anyone pushes back against this common paradigm. It takes the grace of God and a repentant heart to break free from this kind of thinking.
To do what Paul commands in Philippians 2:3 is no small task for us. It is our default setting to do what we do out of selfish ambition and arrogance. We don’t naturally count others as more significant than ourselves.
The kind of attitude Paul calls for here is cruciform in its shape. This isn’t achieved in any consistent way by mere willpower. We won’t simply decide to reform ourselves into it. We must follow Jesus, carrying our cross, dying to ourselves, and humbly submitting to God. It is in crucifying our flesh that we can be free from selfish ambition and conceit and live humbly for others.
