Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
My thoughts -
How can one follow Christ and be selfish or conceited? How can one follow Christ and have an inflated sense of self worth? How can one follow Christ and place their own needs above the needs of other? I don't know. But we, who claim Christ, do it all the time.
Jesus set an example for us, though, in that he, while equal to God and in fact God himself, became like one of us. We try to elevate ourselves to reach God. God saw this was impossible and lowered himself to reach us. Jesus, who was fully God, became fully human. And not only that, but he did not use his divine power in pursuit of status or wealth but instead served others and taught us to serve.
If there is a model for a lack of ambition, at least in the way that we think of ambition from a human perspective, it was Jesus. He gave up everything in order to serve. He even gave up his own life to serve God and to serve us in reconciling us to God.
The Incarnation and the Crucifixion are like the opposite of our idea of how to live. Jesus gave up heaven for earth, gave up status for poverty, gave up power for service, and gave up life to die in our place. If we have any ambition it should be to humbly do the same.
How do we live this example? Do we care about wealth and status? Do we care about power and stuff? Do we care about influence? Do we care about the corporate and political ladders? Do we care about success as defined by BMWs and gated communities and bloated salaries? Do we think that Jesus would?
Do we place our needs for material comfort over the needs of others? When we look at our lives, what we pursue, what we desire, what we aspire for, do we think these are things that Jesus cares about?
Do we serve others? Do we sacrifice for others? Are we willing to give up luxuries so others can be fed, clothed, and sheltered? Do we make their needs and concerns as important as our own?
If we don't live like Jesus did, if we don't aspire for godly things over earthly things, if we don't place the concerns of the needy above our own ambitions, if we don't sacrifice anything we can still call ourselves Christians.
But are we following Christ?
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