Optimist Roundtable

In the New Testament book of Philippians, the apostle Paul writes a lot about attitudes and about humility. He tells us to “ do nothing out of selfish ambition and vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interest of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ.”

Probably most people agree that we sure do you live in a “selfie” world today. Social media is filled with photos of people taking selfies and that can be a concern. So in this passage in Philippians, chapter 2, Paul talked about loving and serving others, as Christ wants us to follow His example of putting others first. We are to be full of grace, just like Jesus. We are to value all people as worthy of acceptance and we are to introduce them to the One who died in their behalf and in our own behalf. Paul reminds us that Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on the cross to pay for our sins.

In verse 12 of this passage, Paul reminds the Philippian people, and us, to work out their salvation. He also reminds us to be careful about what we believe and how we live out that belief. God never lets us alone to do His work. He wants to be right beside us and we need to let Him be in control.

Balancing our lives is not easy sometimes, because we do think of ourselves. That is just human nature, but we need to give credit to Jesus for all that He has done for us and all He has given us.

Through God‘s power, our hearts and minds can learn to love Him more than ourselves and have that same mind that Jesus had to care for others and to not only think of ourselves. Paul is telling us that we need to exemplify those same qualities so that we can reflect Christ’s light and acquire that same unselfish attitude.