Imitate The Humility Of JESUS

"Though HE was in the form of GOD, HE did not regard equality with GOD as something to be grasped, but emptied HIMSELF, taking on the nature of a servant, made in human likeness, and in HIS appearance found as a man.  HE humbled HIMSELF by being obedient to death, death on the cross.  That is why GOD exalted HIM and gave HIM the Name which outshines all names, so that at the name of JESUS all knees should bend in heaven, on earth and among the dead, and all tongues proclaim that CHRIST JESUS is the LORD to the glory of GOD the FATHER." - Philippians 2:6-11  

(Unity is often supported by a shared feeling of being the best. or the strongest or having to contend with another group:  in that way many religious groups maintain their strength, their discipline and the efforts and sacrifices needed for this.  All that is also found in Christian groups, but it should not be, for we have another spirit.  With us, unity will follow from much humility and understanding of others.  Here, Paul gives the secret of Christian co-existence:  look for what is humble and do nothing through rivalry or for glory.

 

In a hymn which is a sort of creed, Paul proposes the example of CHRIST:  HIS path from GOD to man, from rich to poor, from first to last, from master to servant.

 

The LORD JESUS desired to identify with the humblest, the most afflicted, the most despised.  such were JESUS' attitudes, and they must be those of HIS followers, the Christians.  A desire to identify with the humblest and to share with them is the motivation for a truly evangelical life.

 

In this we must differ from the majority of people who are mainly interested in their personal or family fulfillment.  Their ambitions are legitimate, and who among us does not share them at least partly?  Yet they have been devalued by CHRIST by the simple fact that HE took the opposite way.

 

HE did not claim equality with GOD:  the mystery of GOD's Son who became a mortal man and gave up GOD's Glory, although HE could have preserved it even in HIS human life.  Since CHRIST was to be the New Man, glorified by GOD and placed above everything, HIS being subject to misery and limitations was a way of being reduced to nothingness.

 

GOD exalted HIM.  The humiliation and obedience of CHRIST were the condition for receiving HIS glory.  HE gave HIM the Name [of GOD], that is, HE made HIM fully enjoy in HIS human nature the divine Power [or Name].)

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