Philippians 2

Tonight I was reading Holy Scripture and came across an important passage at the beginning of St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, Chapter 2. Paul says, "Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others." Sometimes this is really difficult to do because we live in a society that pushes making ourselves comfortable and looking out for number one, "me." This is what we in America have been taught in our society since I can remember. The commercials on television and the radio, magazine ads, etc., all push satisfaction and comfort for ourselves, while ignoring others. As a whole, America is the #1 nation to reach out to other less fortunate nations of the world when it comes to helping the poor and those suffering from disasters, such as the earthquake victims of Haiti. But, individually, we do not do very well.

I would hope that those of us with Christian backgrounds and those of us following Christ seriously, would look deeply inside of our hearts, and always put the "other guy" first, before ourselves. This means offering our time to make life easier for others. It means donating clothing to the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores. It means taking time to make life nicer for lonely people. And it also means offering prayers and even offering to suffer for the souls of others. This is where discipleship becomes truly Christlike because this is when it becomes difficult. Christ's ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross, was the most unselfish act anyone could do and it was this unselfish, loving act that brought us our salvation. It was an act done out of complete love. He was humbly thinking only of us, and not at all of Himself. He put us before himself. This was all but easy. We need to model ourselves daily after Christ. How different the world would be if everyone threw away their selfishness and replaced it with Jesus' holy and uncompromised love for others.