Copying Christ.

Philippians 2

Imitating Christ's Humility

 ¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
 ⁶Who, being in very nature God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
 ⁷but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature of a servant,
      being made in human likeness.
 ⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
         even death on a cross!
 ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
      and gave him the name that is above every name,
 ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
      in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
      to the glory of God the Father.

Shining as Stars

 ¹²Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

 ¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. ¹⁷But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. ¹⁸So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

I have said before about what I am looking for from my Bible reading. The question that is endless to me as a Christian is what now? I have become a Christian and accepted Christ's wonderful gift of salvation. I am now one of his followers and want to know what now? I have Heaven to look forward to when I die or Christ comes again but the bit in between, my life, is still before me. When reading the Bible it becomes plain that this is not the end of the story. I am very aware that I am a sinner. I am aware that I will sin again. The Bible is quite clear that I am supposed to try to be better and the passage above is one I have read a few times because it speaks to me about how I should be living (even though I struggle).

1) We are not alone.

¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Who are we to be like minded with? Its our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes that does mean we should be working together with each other. We are not facing this alone against the enemy. We should be working together for the same purpose. As Paul would put it to run the race to the finish. So what does that mean practically? Well it means we have people to go to, talk to, be accountable to and they be accountable to us. It means we are a family facing things together not individuals going it alone. Church is vitally important not just for the songs, prayer and a bit of preaching. We have people to talk to, to share the truth about how we are getting on and to support each other when we need it most.

2) Copy Christ.

 ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
 ⁶Who, being in very nature God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
 ⁷but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature of a servant,
      being made in human likeness.
 ⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
         even death on a cross!
 ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
      and gave him the name that is above every name,
 ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
      in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
      to the glory of God the Father.

It is not like we do not have a good example. I remember the bracelets that were very cheesy that asked WWJD? What Would Jesus Do? While the world would find it easy to mock the idea our best example is Jesus. He is the only one who has managed to live a sinless life. He is the only one who we can base our lives on as he is the only one who lived it.

But the thing that we are most to copy is Christ's humility. Humility is not something we are good at really is it. We want to be noticed and to be praised by men. Christ is the best example because what he cared about was his Fathers will. Because of this God exalts him. It makes me ask the question who do I want to be impressed with me? If it is man then that is temporary and will pass and may even lead to Hell. If it is God I want to impress then I will humble myself as Christ did. I will care not about the praise of men but care so much more about what God thinks of me. If I did that truly every day and lived purely for God and humbled myself to his will what a difference this would truly make.

3) Shining like stars.

¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

I will admit that I do not like the bit about not complaining. I am human and when something is not to my liking a good whinge is often the way I go.

But the thing I notice is the part that says that we can be "blameless and pure" and "shine like stars". By following Jesus example in humility by stopping arguing and complaining that we will be noticed. We will shine like stars. I don't know about you but I am really sick of the fact that to be honest people only know I am a Christian because I say it. I need to live as a Christian so that people can see Jesus through me. Oh Lord help me to be humble and follow Jesus example. Help me to shine like the stars so that my life will be pleasing to you and let me, because of this, show my non Christian friends a good example of the difference Christ makes in my life.