Humility of mind
Philippians 2:3-4 · Bob Eckel · Apr 1, 2012
Philippians (2012), No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492638246413

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're going to end the first four verses of chapter two, which is kind of a good partitioning point to what Roger's going to be teaching next week. I kind of envy him a bit for next week, because Philippians 2, 5-8, 5-7, really is a very, very special set of verses. Not that what we're doing today is unimportant, but it's really a great opportunity to really see the mindset of humility, which is the title of our lesson today, played out in Our Lord and Savior. Let's start at chapter 1, verse 27, and let's read down through Philippians 2-4. So that's about eight verses, I believe. So whoever has that, please feel free to go ahead and read that. Philippians 1-27 through Philippians 2-4.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel, without being threatened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with his spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Okay, thank you. Alright, so, title again, Humility of Mind. And Roger picked the title. You can talk with me about this. No, the title is very good.

So, first three then, letters implied, nothing implied begun through selfish ambition or conceit that in loneliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. In a linear Greek, doing implied nothing according to rivalry neither according to empty conceit, but in humility, esteeming one another above themselves."

So, the inter-religious Greek is probably there mostly to instruct us in terms of Greek grammar and how these ultimate words are brought together in the Greek language. Speaking of Vernis, it seems to me to be that the ILG is probably post post-interpretation really relates more to the King James. It's kind of set up and based on the King James. The ILG I've always looked at as maybe the final word in terms of the brief, but we may have had a King James mindset when people actually provided the ILG for us in terms of its interpretation. So it's not the perfect end-all, but it does put the grammar in proper sequence so we can best interpret it in terms of the original language.

So, nothing is, interestingly, is an adjective which is here to modify something to someone, and here it's someone doing, or better yet, who should be not doing. It says, don't really be focused on selfish ambition or conceit. So, it's kind of, you know, nothing is something that we shouldn't be focused on in terms of our own selfish ambition. And true according to is the same Greek word. Now, rivalry is used in the interlinear strife, selfish ambition all kind of imply the same thing and really relates to motive, doesn't it? So, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

So, you know, the question is, What's the metric for that and how are we measuring that? We'll come back to that here in a few minutes. Now, let's look at kind of the way this same word for rivalry, strife, selfish ambition is used elsewhere in terms of wrong motives. Let's split this around.

Wayne, why don't you take Romans 2.8.

Bonnie, 2 Corinthians 12.20.

Ruthie, Galatians 5.20.

Alan, Philippians 1.16.

And Margaret, let's do James 3.14.16. So let's look at these uses of self, ambition, conceit, focused on flesh, self.

OK, so remember the context of Romans 2.8. This is kind of the history that leads up to justification by faith. I mean, this is the power of the flesh really being demonstrated beyond the power of simply the world system around us.

Next verse, 2 Corinthians 12.20.

For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish, and may be found by you to be not what you wish. that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. Okay, who's Paul writing to here, Vanya? The Corinthians. Right, it's the Church, is it not? Okay, so this is again a potential kind of attitude of the Church that ultimately is not of the Spirit.

Next verse, Galatians 5, 20. Idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, self-ambition, dissensions and factions. In Galatians 5.20, ways of the flesh.

What is 1.16? The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. Doesn't seem like it fits, does it? Is that correct? 1.16. No, it says that one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds. So that's kind of the same atmosphere of strife, vain glory. And the James passage? Do you want me to read 14, 15, and 16? Yeah, put 15 in. 14 and 16 have the Greek term. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

Okay, so Paul in Philippians is challenging the church to be reminded that ultimately these things are flesh sourced. This is not the purpose of your existence and your walk with Christ. Okay, contrary, oxymoron. circle with a cross through it, right? This is not the behavior that's expected of the born again. Then the second thing that in terms of we're not to be doing or not let this influence us is ultimately related to conceit or empty conceit or vain glory.

So my question to you is what does this type of content look like? Isn't this always something that's being done to pat yourself on the back or to show everybody how great you are because you can do this? Maybe in part, but not entirely. I think that's partly correct. What else is this? What do you think of emptiness?

Vain glory. That can be self-focused. These two are connected, right? Don't do anything through selfish ambition or conceit. Could you say that it doesn't have anything to do with glorifying the Lord? Well, I think that's more down the path of thinking. It's emptiness, vain... Well, you know, vanity is sin, if you will, isn't it? We all think of the sins as listed in the Old Testament, but vanity shows up a lot, doesn't it, where we do a lot of stuff that just has no value, no glorifying potential or relationship to who we are in Christ Jesus. Okay, so this is conduct that is not conducive to glorifying God.

Do we always perceive this, do you think? Is this something we always account ourselves for? Conceit would tend to bring glory to ourselves, right? So that relates back to selfish ambition. Keep in mind, or conceit, these presumably, they're not presumably, they're different terms which have different interpretations, but they're very much connected, are they not? It's all self based, all focused on me, my circumstances, what people think of me.

And I think a lot of times we carry ourselves in a way that we don't even perceive this. And fortunately we have brothers and sisters of the Lord who can help us perceive this when it does occur. How about like the Green Movement, you know, where they take care of the earth. You know, very humanitarian efforts. There's a lot of Are you opening a rabbit trail? Okay, so let me get on that rabbit trail for a second. So how do we feel about the environment in which God has created that we live in? What's our response to that? We care about it. We do. Sure we do. We're supposed to be stewards of what the Lord created.

So for someone to say that Christians don't care about the environment, they just They don't even know anything about Christianity. First of all, they don't believe that the Lord created the earth in the first place. Okay, and you could be a non-believer and be more conservative in your view politically and still hop down that rabbit trail, right?

We talked about that coming to church this morning in terms of the litter along the highway. Margaret and I were saying, Colorado's a pretty clean state. I saw a piece of paper on the side of South Turkey Creek this morning. They said, gee, there's a little bit of litter, but overall we have people to clean up the highways. We live in a pretty clean state. You go through Arkansas or something, you may not see that type of climate.

So, do we care about the environment? Yeah, I think we all care about the environment. We don't want to unnecessarily destroy the green that we're emphasizing so importantly today. But the difference, I think, is that the green movement tends to worship that. They make that their god. That's going to show that I'm really empty pride. green movement person. Everything's focused on that. Or we're to focus on the creator who created the green we see.

And what did the Lord say to Adam about this earth that he'd given Adam? What was Adam's responsibility? Taking care of it. Taking care of it, I think, would make use of its resources appropriately to glorify God, right? I mean, that's the purpose of our creation. How we go on and on about glorifying God in our walk and our faith. So I think that's true of the environment. So, good point. Revitro concluded.

Alright, and how does the Holy Spirit work here in terms of this let nothing be done through self-ambition or vacancy? What? I mean if we don't perceive it, is the Holy Spirit asleep here? No. The answer is no. Okay? So, what goes on here? I don't have the answer. This is a question of the classroom. I mean, we all have our perspective here.

What's the Holy Spirit's job in our lives? Reveal Christ. Reveal Christ, right? Okay, so is the Holy Spirit asleep when this kind of self-ambition and conceit really manifests in our behavior? So, Roger thinks it is. Holy Spirit, wake up! April Fool! Your thoughts?

Well, if we're walking in the Spirit, if we're focused on Christ, then there's actually no room for this kind of behavior. But I think Paul points it out to us as a warning flag. If you see that kind of action in your life, that's not of Christ. And also the mystery of the Holy Spirit is to convince us or convict us of things that would not be an honor to the Lord, would be sinful or the wrong the wrong focus. Good, okay.

And let's look at Galatians 5.26 now as just another kind of example of the fact that this type of attitude is really not consistent with the principle of grace, which is really the foundation for our walk.

So, anybody, Galatians 5.26, let me get that. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another in being one another. Okay, good. Alright, so the contrary to this kind of life-based, self-ambitious behavior, vain conceit.

Here's the alternative, that we should walk in humility or lowliness of mind. Now this is tough because I think, how do we define humility? And I came up with some help from some commentators, just the concept that this is a deep sense of one's moral, what the commentator said that I used here was littleness. I don't like littleness. I like nothingness. Everybody okay with that?

That doesn't mean we have this self-defeatist, kind of down-his-knee kind of attitude. I think in terms of the cross and all that it's done, in terms of sins being forgiven and sin nature being crucified, sometimes we can focus on the old man too much in terms of what his value is not, and get defeated, get kind of depressed about the fact that this old sin nature, saying, oh yeah, by the way, it's crucified, but I can't reckon on that on a day-to-day basis. I keep focusing on this old man and thinking he's never going to improve. I would contend that as the light gets brighter in terms of our walk by faith on a foundation of grace, that ultimately the darkness gets more revealed for what it really is. But I don't think that's where we get preoccupied. But we do begin with humility as a deep sense of one's moral, not littleness, but ultimately inadequacy. So, let's look at a few verses here. So, Jim, could you do Acts 20, 19. Gail, Ephesians 4, 2. Roger, Colossians 3, 12. And Ingrid, how about 1 Peter 5, 5. And we're reading these because they all complement what Paul's trying to espouse here.

Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which come upon thee through the plots of the Jews. With all lowliness and gentleness with one suffering, bearing with one another in love. Both those two relate to the sufferings that are part of the believer. Remember, the sufferings can be identifiable and agreed upon by all, but the sufferings to some extent need to be reflected on the perspective that we're here in earthly bodies for our citizenships in heaven. I think what Roger is going to be teaching in Philippians 2, 5-7 really relates to he left his heavenly throne and that was suffering in its own right to be ultimately made a man. In a sense, when we see ourselves as citizens in heavenly places, Suffering is the human existence and although from a day-to-day basis we don't seem to have much pain in the suffering, many of us are pretty secure here. I think ultimately that's a good view of humility because we're being taken out of our home at heavenly places and made to walk this earthly path where there's nothing but sin and strife.

I was thinking there's a dual purpose in there too because as we've been I know Holly Hills is not the end all, but as those identification truths start to sink in and you see Christ and what He did for us, that humility kind of kicks in because of who He is, right? There's the two sides. One, who we were in Adam, but then who He is today is incredible.

Well, and you realize, too, that you brought nothing to the table. And I think that's the hardest thing for us as humans in the flesh to kind of reconcile. Because I think of so much of Christianity, the Lord is helping us to achieve these things. And that's what they're taught from the beginning. And it's really a new concept for many people to realize that we bring nothing to the table. Nothing. He did it all. And that's, I think, once you come to that realization, That's really true. That's what I was going to say. Humility is really a correct assessment. That's great.

And that's nothingness, right? I mean, we are valuable to God in that He saved us, but we bring nothing to the cross. Nothing of value. And as believers, we bring nothing beyond the cross other than our belief in what He's accomplished, right? Keep in mind that there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

We're starting with a full deck. Isn't that great? Well, and the thing too, from last week's lesson, the one mind that we're talking about is the mind of Christ. It is. And with that in mind, no pun intended, how can we be humble to that? Because that's not us. It's His life. Yeah, Jim, go ahead.

As far as nothingness, there is that continuing person that's unique to each of us that as Christ is lived out in our lives, it is unique still, and that's just the fingerprint of God's unique creation in each of us, which is important to balance with the nothingness concept. Really good, because I think we all bring our personalities, our abilities, our skills that are neither positive or negative, just who we are. Margaret and I were actually talking about this coming down this morning. We had a lot of good conversations.

It's not that we use it though. It's a long ride, but it's purposeful. The concept is, I got saved at age 30. My basic personality isn't any different now than it was before I got saved, but my whole life perspective has entirely changed. So you don't take someone who's very passive and laid back and make them suddenly loquacious and very animated. I mean their personality, and Jim, good point, we're all uniquely created for his purpose. And that's why the body of Christ is a thumb, or a toe, or a nose, or an ear. We all complement each other. Back to Holly Yeltsin.

You know what Brian Catalucci said to me at Bible study on Friday night? He said he can sense the fellowship here like no place he's ever been. There's not an elitist view here. We're privileged to have the theology we have and share because we're all on the same page and there's an opportunity there that I would pray could exist in the body of Christ as a whole. Good conversation. In conjunction with Jim's saying, we're going through First Corinthians on Wednesday night. and that unity of the body, that each person is fitted.

So what if you're not this great teacher or theologian or whatever? You know that God has placed you perfectly in that body and you're fulfilled there, or you can be fulfilled there. Don't you see that here? People would come from different backgrounds, different paths, different knowledge, different capabilities, and God uses that to minister to one another. Okay, the third verse, what was that now?

Colossians 3.12. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy, beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Okay, so that's a Christ-indwelled spirit.

Okay, 1 Peter 5.5. Young men, in the same way, be submissive to those who are older. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Okay, so this humility, this atmosphere that surrounds us as believers, Paul is not just talking to the Church of Philippi here, he's kind of represented that through It's the cross, which is nothing but humbling.

You got next week and then you got the week after. I have the next two weeks after that. OK, so anyway, spectacular text. It's before us. Let's read that right now and put it in perspective. So, Beth, could you read that course, Philippians 2, 5 through 8? Sure.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant. and being made in the likeness of man, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Now the point I was going to make just a few minutes ago, which is made here, Isn't the cross the great equalizer? Jim, back to your point. I mean, everybody's equal for the Calvary, are they not?

Or actually, on the cross itself. We think about black and white and tan, we think about men and women, we think of gay and those in a marriage situation that's self-righteous. I mean, the point is, it doesn't matter who you are or where you're at, the disabled, the walking well, People with congenital disorders that allow their mentation to be severely altered. I mean, on and on. Everybody's the same at the cross. The cross is the great equalizer of all time. No prejudices at the cross.

So the humility that the Lord went through, in fact, identifies that as truth. And this attitude's consistent with our identification. So this atmosphere of humility that's aspired in the believer is ultimately identification truth. seeing us co-crucified, buried with them with baptism unto death, risen in newness of life. We're new creations in Christ Jesus.

This is what the walk looks like. It's one of humility. And that doesn't mean self-defeating. Again, I think you can whip the flesh all you want. It's seeing ourselves co-crucified, risen, and we walk by faith. And that faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the alternative brings glory only to the flesh. So any walk that is not ultimately that of the Spirit, in His power in the new man, is ultimately one that is not one of humility. Contrast this with false humility. By the way, we're going to look at the same Greek term, but now we're going to look at it in the sense of where humility is presumably thought to occur, but actually is false.

Two verses. I was going to say, doesn't this fit your own experience at times? So Colossians 2.18 and Colossians 2.23. So someone please take a look at those and read them both. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those saints which he has not seen. vainly puffed up by his brushy mind. Okay, thanks Gail.

So, you know, this attitude of humility then has a connected part to it, and that's esteeming one another better than ourselves. Esteeming is, there's the Greek term, this is a present middle deponent participle, which basically means it's used in the active tense. So even if it's a middle kind of deponent participle, it's actually interpreted passive by some Greek scholars. But nevertheless, it's typically a term that's used in the active tense. And the idea of esteeming, that's something we need to be doing.

Not imperative, but I think it's consistent with a new life that we have in Christ. And esteem could be considered or deemed or account. And others now are made better than ourselves. So to be raised above means to ultimately be in a higher position or rank or power or superiority. Do we look at our fellow believers as superior to ourselves?

What's the applied concept here? That's what it says. Higher rank? Doesn't it really mean just to put other people's consideration for your own sometimes. I mean, I think that's what we're asked to do. That's what the verse says, isn't it? Is this some sort of a rank kind of deal? I mean, that term could be used in terms of the king of a kingdom or ultimately someone who's the president of a country.

Yes. I so often think of where it tells us not to forsake assembling ourselves together. that the fellowship of the believers and worshipping together is important. And it seems to me, and maybe I'm all goofy, but we're all gifted by the Holy Spirit.

And when we gather together, each of us brings our gift or gifts, and we may not know what those are. But we bring them and we share them as we fellowship with each other. And so each of us has something not only to gain from the others who are here, but each of us, no matter who we are, no matter what our mentality or intelligence or anything else, we have something to offer to one another as believers that builds us up. Right, so the atmosphere as we interact as a church, a body of Christ together, is ultimately to look at others as ultimately providing something far beyond what we ourselves can give. We have something to offer, but we don't take credit for that. We give the glory of God.

I look in a door at Sir Wayne or Roger or all of you in terms of what you bring to the body and esteem that, lift that up above what I myself might contribute. That's the atmosphere. we're talking about here. A series of verses that look at this position of being higher up in the realms.

We're not going to look at those now because of time. Define better than, from whose perspective? We're kind of talking about that now. Better than, I mean I think it really fits to what we just said, didn't it? Also I think too, when you look at another believer, you're actually seeing Christ's life. It's not You know, I mean, if you see us as believers, that's how we have our unity of mind. Because we see Christ in each other.

Always good. Always good. And by the way, just looking at others better than ourselves, we also have an atmosphere of the spirit world that's ultimately very forgiving, isn't it? I mean, if somebody else is flawed in terms of their walkway. It's easy to forgive because the theology is on the right page. We see one another as identified with Christ, positionally secure, and ultimately the flesh shows up at times. We're in a position to esteem them thinking that, gee, I can fall short too in my walk. All right, so a couple of verses, there are only a couple of verses, or a couple of verses actually that reflect the better than scripturally. And here they are, and I have them written for you.

Romans 3.9, what then, are we better than they? Not at all, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. So this concept of self-centered betterness is not what we're talking about.

And then the other time is a verse we all kind of know, Hebrews 1.4 talks about the angels. having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." There we're looking at better than as ultimately some sort of superiority from God's perspective, right? We're higher than the angels.

In fact, that came up in Bible study a couple of times ago. I remember somebody made a comment here that ultimately thought that the angels were above us, that scripture said ultimately God sees us as better than or higher than the angels, position one. All right, let's keep going here. So the walks in Christ. So the walk in Christ is one that exemplifies humility, making others and esteeming others better than ourselves. It's got to be a view that we continue to maintain.

An example of that is Romans 12.10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honor of preferring one another. That means over yourself.

So Romans 12.10 puts the shoes on is what that walk really looks like. And again, this isn't something we measure. If you don't get your yardstick out, how am I doing here? Ultimately, the walk itself will be exemplary of this verse played out by the power of the Spirit in our lives. This is who we are. Therefore, let's walk by faith. It's not something we try. It's who we are. That's the way Christ sees us.

Remember, Paul in almost all his epistles, in the first part of the Epistles of Doctrine, And then the second part is apply. Here Paul is introducing the applied concepts a little bit earlier than usual. Let's turn to verse 4 then. Let each of you look not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. And that verse in many ways says what the previous verse says and now just expands upon it to some extent. ILG, not the things of themselves every person looking at, but also the things of others, each person. Notice only is not in the ILG.

And so is this important? What do you think? We're going to drill down to minutia here. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others, is what the Nicene James says. Well, probably not important only if we go back and look at the verse again. If we leave only out, let each of you look not only for his own interests. So what if we say this? Let each of you look not out for his own interests, leaving only out, but also for the interests of others.

Doesn't it also imply that you may be looking at your own? So I think this is wordsmithing to some extent and probably not very relevant to the interpretation. Could that be like three is more of a self-examination and four more of an examination of others?

I think a couple people come to mind that are able to identify needs in the body and they're there. taking care of things. Would that apply in that instance? I didn't think of it that way. What are the thoughts here? So you think four is more applied? So say again what you said Donna.

Three seems like it's more of a looking inward, you know, let nothing be done to you. You know, an internal And then four, let not every man on his own things, but also on the things of others. So you look out on who's around you, and you're looking for needs or ways that you can help outwardly. It's not like four, it's like application. This is how it works out. You're looking out for their interests and not for your own. Okay, so in a sense the first may be more positional in terms of who they are and who we are, and the second is more, if you will, conditional in terms of looking at those needs and how we might be meeting them. I never looked at it quite that way, but that could be very, very nice to interpret it that way. So the idea here of looking out for yourself, was Christ ever preoccupied with himself? What's the only thing you can think about Christ in terms of maybe being preoccupied with himself?

Was the prayer for his benefit all the prayer that we see him engaged in, or was the prayer ultimately the communication and fellowship with his Father? He wasn't praying for the Lord to give him some special break here. I mean that prayer I look at, I mean in a sense you could say that Christ prayed so much to get the benefit of prayer, well, but he's one with God, right? And so that's a matter of fellowship. And so there was no example in the scripture that I could see that Christ was ever preoccupied with himself. It was always that of others. So are we to be like Christ? And the answer to that is no, we're in Christ.

Trying to walk his walk and be like him is really just, if you will, it's polishing the old man. And that polish wears off pretty quickly, doesn't it? That's WWJ anyway. Alright, let's go on here. But also is in the second phrase in this verse, which again I would imply that if it's also in the second phrase, that we don't need the only in the first part, because if it's also, that means we may be ultimately preoccupied with ourselves. I don't think only is necessary here. Does this imply that we are and can be concerned with ourselves? And again, I just answered that.

I think that's true. So here, look, meaning observe, mark, contemplate, not. This is a negative. Don't look at yourselves. And that's imperative here. We're told not to do this. So get your focus off yourself, everybody. Of course, personalize that first of all and only, actually. But do it, meaning for others. So let's kind of look at it.

But you know, the way we do that is we focus on the Lord. And when we focus on the Lord, then we're not focused on ourselves and He brings those other needs to us and he brings that to mind and he allows us to focus on other people because there's no way the flesh is going to do that. The flesh is only interested in itself. But Margaret, what about that list you have on the refrigerator?

That's for you. Alan, you're dismissed. Let's talk privately a little bit. Okay. I think we can conclude the question. On his own interests or things. Okay, so himself or themselves. Philippians 2.21, for all seek their own but the things which are Jesus Christ. So that's kind of the natural way of doing things. For or on the interests or things of others. Tough grammar here, by the way, and I hate to call Vernon this name. Here's the problem, maybe Jim or Roger or others can help us out here.

On the things is simply the article O, which means this, that or these. So things is not a noun, it's an article. And of others is actually an adjective. And I said, does an adjective modify an article? I mean, it just wasn't making sense. I think article the or a or something like that. So it didn't make a lot of sense to me.

So it implies that the things of others is really something that is really looking on as implied here. It's kind of like this very oxymoron in terms of interpretation. So vertically, there's no plural in English of the article. And so these things is the plural in the Greek that we can't gather from the English translation. And Jim, any further thoughts on that? We use the word interest in some translations, too. But still not a noun. Still not a noun. But it is used in the Philippines to 21, like you said, and it kind of the context of usage in.

So, Bernd just said that he, we went back to multiple versions of the Bible in terms of looking at this, and actually the King James itself is the best literal interpretation. I won't read that. The New King James is what I have there, which is not so good, actually. I didn't go back and change it afterwards, but just understand that the interpretation that's here doesn't make sense from English grammar perspective, but it does get translated appropriately.

So, we're not to be looking at the things of ourselves, but those of others. This attitude is one of interest and encouragement and fellowship. It's not looking at the things of others in some sort of condemnation perspective or it's not looking at it in any other way to be lifted up others in terms of their walk being more important than our own. Self-gain is not the motive or a parent here. The idea of esteeming others is better than ourselves and looking at their walk ultimately is ultimately to lift them up. Romans 12, 15, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.

So it's kind of ultimately being available and understanding their needs. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify one another. So that's the concept here. Concept is a body that lives as an organism and we ultimately feed one another in terms of building up the body. Always to bring glory to God, of course.

What about being a busybody? Okay, 1 Peter 4.15, but let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Notice that Peter really is pretty blunt here, isn't he? He puts a busybody, evildoer, murderer. So the question to the class, what's a busy body?

We're told here ultimately, aren't we, that we're to look at the things of others. That's an imperative. The Greek term is one who takes the supervision of affairs pertaining to others, a meddler in men's affairs. Now can't you see that there could be potentially at times a fine line between esteeming others and looking at their things and what's going on in their lives to being a meddler?

The interest of others into account is that Philippians 221 really brings to mind a lot, because here Timothy's going to come. He says, I can think of no one that takes the interest of others in such a way that Timothy does. Because Timothy is focused on the interest of Christ, the things of Christ. And so somehow this interest of others is tied to the interest of Christ.

And that's a qualification that Timothy has. we're going to be looking at down the road. And so, in my mind, you've got all these interests like someone's welfare, and someone's upkeep of their home, and all these meddling types of opportunities, but you have the things of Christ in their life that you concern yourself with, and all of a sudden, the interests of how you focus on another person get very specific. It's like, gospel? Do they need the gospel? Are they clear on the gospel? Are they in fellowship? Do they need encouragement? And so these things all come out of a not treat someone in this way. You might pray for Barbara. I mean, after the lunch, there's a woman I work with at work whose husband, just like yours truly, is talking about diabetes.

I presume, but we're not sure, may have had an insurgent riding his bike to work about three or four months ago and was hit by a bus. And he's now quadriplegic. Actually recovering a little bit of function in his upper extremities, but he's wheelchair bound. He has a great attitude.

We're not sure whether that in terms of the Lord. So we're probably going to stop by and see them after the church's mind, but the whole perspective here, I mean, they said they were going to church and we were going to be in touch after the service, but the point I want to raise here is in terms of things of them, first of all, are they saved? I think that's number one. And secondly, if they are, which I don't know, and I doubt, but they're going to church and maybe they are saved.

I just don't know her well enough to know about this aspect of her life, but I mean, Glorifying God for their circumstances, she's very stressed out about the situation. She has a full-time job, she has small children, she's got a husband now who's paralyzed for the rest of his life, and the circumstances are not anything any of us would choose.

So the question is, in terms of ministering to them, the things in their lives and esteeming them, ultimately, that's the power of the Spirit to help them recognize what their needs are and how to deal with it. It's so hard to know what other people's needs really are, their interests. Are we to be interested in their interests? No. Christ's interest in their life is our interest in their life.

And if they're not safe, that perspective can't be expected to be gathered at this time, right? But at least it could be a seed that's planted. We'll see. So again, think about it as we go forward. So the motive is self, not others, when we, in fact, are busybodies, right? I mean, if we're getting involved in people's lives for selfish reasons, that shows itself, and it's kind of ugly, actually. And many times it's perceived by the individual. And we may not really know it. But it actually intrinsically is self-motivated in that when we're trying to meddle, and also may find out things about people that is unnecessarily glorifying to God to enhance them and to build them up in the body.

So the take home message of today's lesson is very simple. Christ's others, you could cross out self, but I think we put self in the equation because the spirit is alive and well in each and every one of us. Again, there's not a measuring stick to see how we're doing, but the walk is evident for what it is. When we walk in Christ, we don't take credit for ourselves. We don't put ourselves first or second, we put ourselves third and last and ultimately look at the Spirit to in fact lift us up in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is kind of a mental thing a little bit, but it's really not It's supposed to be an intellectual process. The more intellectual aspect you put to this truth, the more I think you're going to fail, because then you're trying to empower your flesh for a performance that's mind-bent. This is a hard thing, and it's a scriptural thing, and I think that's where we need to walk by faith. further back to the previous verse is having this attitude that you just talked about, which is where?

So you don't have this list, this behavioral modification list, that I used to do. I used to look and say, oh, I've got to have humility. It's like, check, check, check, oh, not check. You know, go to my private prayer room and get my behavior back in line.

It's like, you have the attitude that is in Christ. You're in Christ, these things happen. Not in Christ, they don't It's pretty simple. Jim, thanks for cracking that door because I've always kind of lumped 5 with 8, 6, 7, and 8. But it's nice to reflect 5 back to what we just covered in 1 through 4. For a time of the mind of humility, let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. Nice. Good concluding comments. So, Wayne, could you close us in third, please? be in that attitude of humility because