Philippians 2:3-4

New International Version (NIV)

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your interests, but each of you to the interests of others.

For Meditation

1. Do you know that selfishness, like cancer, is the basic disease of mankind – a disease that snuffed life out of man in Eden, and still fights to maintain its stranglehold on us?
2. Have you observed the ugliness of selfishness at work, and the carnage it leaves behind in relationships, homes, boardrooms, workplaces, the marketplace, and everywhere decisions are made? Observe its ruthlessness in the court of Solomon, when the two prostitutes brought their case before the young King (1 Kings 3:16-27).
3. Can you hear the mantra of selfishness in the words of the second women, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!” (26b). Does that sound familiar? Have you said it before? Has the force of its cruelty hit your face before?
4. But hear the voice of selflessness through the first woman, “Please my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” (26a). In other words, “I know the living baby is mine, but I cede my right to her for the life of my baby”. Isn’t that wonderful!
5. Which of the two voices is sweeter and welcoming to you? Which of the two faces would you love to see in your relationships at all times? Are you not glad, then, that before time began, the redeeming face of selflessness showed up in the court of heaven in the person of Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:4; Phil. 2:6-7; Heb. 2:14-15)? Have you embraced His finished work on Calvary for you? Can you selflessly share your life with others for His sake?

I pray you remember that the enemy always selfishly shows up to, “steal and kill and destroy”, like the second woman in Solomon’s court; but praise the Lord, Jesus selflessly died to give us life, “and have it to the full (Jn. 10:10) – not one cut in two (1 Kings 3:25).

So: May we do nothing out of selfish ambition in our relationships with one another (Phil. 2:3); but in humility, may we give ourselves away to make others better, just as Jesus has selflessly done for us.

Shalom