Consider One Another Better Than Yourselves (Philippians 2:3)

The Wrong Attitude: Selfish Ambition and Vain Conceit

The church at Philippi was in many ways one of the strongest in the New Testament — keenly involved in outreach, extremely generous in giving, and deeply loved by Paul. Yet it was not as united as it should have been. Some members were looking down on others; squabbles had broken out, particularly between two women Paul names in chapter 4, Euodia and Syntyche. The tension was threatening to divide the church. This is a healthy warning for every congregation: even the best churches have problems. If it could happen in Philippi — a church founded by an apostle and flourishing under God's blessing — it can certainly happen anywhere.

Paul identifies two destructive attitudes. The first is selfish ambition — a word related to being a mercenary. A mercenary has no loyalty to any cause; he serves whoever pays the most. It is the spirit that asks before every action, "What's in it for me? How is this going to benefit me? Does this suit my agenda?" Many Christians treat the church as consumers: they take the bits they like and opt out of the rest. But being a member of Christ's church is not about what you get — it is about what you give.

The second attitude is vain conceit, which literally means "empty glory." It describes people who think very highly of themselves without any cause. Glory is worthless when it comes from yourself. Paul is warning that these two attitudes — the mercenary spirit and the inflated ego — are poisonous in the church. They lie behind every huff, every refusal to support the church's ministries because they are not being done our way, every decision to opt out because something does not suit our taste.

The Right Attitude: Humility

In place of selfish ambition and vain conceit, Paul prescribes humility — or more precisely, humble-mindedness. The Greek word tells us that this is first and foremost about how we think, not what we do. Humility is an attitude of mind, and that distinction matters. It is perfectly possible to do humble things and not be humble — to take on the lowliest jobs while being eaten up with pride, or to speak words of false modesty while fishing for compliments.

Dickens captured this brilliantly in the character of Uriah Heep, who introduced himself with the words, "I am a very humble person. I am well aware that I am the humblest person going. My mother is likewise a very humble person." Every other word from his lips was "humble," yet inside he was arrogant, self-seeking, and proud. Paul is not telling us to act humbly or to speak humbly but to think humbly — and if we have a humble mindset, our actions and words will follow.

What does humble-mindedness produce? Paul spells it out: "In humility consider one another more important than yourselves." This does not mean thinking of others as more godly, more gifted, or more committed than you. It means putting their needs first. Someone has put it brilliantly: humility does not mean thinking less of yourself — it means thinking of yourself less. That is the antidote to selfish ambition and vain conceit.

In practice, it looks like this. Perhaps you are not getting much out of the worship services, or you do not like how things are done, or you are tired after a busy week. Selfish ambition says it is all about you. Humble-mindedness asks: will it encourage other Christians if I go along and participate? Or perhaps there is someone at church who is on their own — a bit odd, a bit dull, or whose English is not great. Selfish ambition calculates that spending time with them means missing out on the fun in the other corner of the room. Humble-mindedness says their happiness and comfort are more important than yours.

This attitude cuts the root of envy. If you genuinely consider others more important than yourself, you can rejoice sincerely when they succeed. And it is the key to a happy marriage: too many marriages become a battleground where husband and wife each fight for their own corner. This verse says: forget about your own happiness, put yourself last, and in humility consider one another more important than yourself. If both are doing that, the result is pure joy. How many quarrels in marriages and in churches would disappear overnight if we took this verse to heart?

The Best Motivation: Christ's Example

How can we develop this humble-mindedness? Paul's answer, in one of the most glorious and profound passages in all of Scripture (vv. 5–11), is to think about the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only person in history who had the right to please Himself. He could not have "vain conceit" because He was the Son of God and all the glory in the universe belonged to Him by right. Yet when the Father asked Him to carry out the most terrible mission imaginable — to become the sin-bearer for His people, to take liability for every single sin that every Christian who will ever live has committed — He did not say, "Why would I do that for them?" He considered us more important than Himself. He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, and humbled Himself to death — even death on a cross.

Dennis Avey was a British prisoner of war held in a camp next to Auschwitz. He wrote a bestselling book, The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz, about how he twice swapped places with a Jewish prisoner so he could record evidence of the Holocaust. That was remarkably courageous. But imagine he had permanently swapped places — imagine he had gone into the gas chamber to save that man. That is what Jesus Christ did for His people. In staggering humility, He gave up His life to save us. Are we really going to say we are not prepared to count our equals in the church as more important than ourselves, when Jesus did this for us?

In the first-century world, humility was not a virtue — it was a dirty word, an insult, something weak and slave-like. Paul's teaching flew in the face of everything the world believed. It still does today. But can you imagine a church full of humble-minded people, where every single member considers everyone else more important than themselves? That sounds like heaven on earth. And by God's grace — not in our own strength — we can move in that direction. Let us strive to make this the ethos of our congregation: to do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but to develop humble-mindedness and consider one another more important than ourselves.

This sermon is part of the One Another Commands series at Covenant Christian Fellowship, Galway.