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21st July 2024
SundayReflection
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John Piper shares
founder and teacher of desiringGod.org
'The Mind of Christ'
Looking Out for the Interests of Others
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Wisdom rises in relationships of humility and love and servanthood, rather than jealousy and selfishness.
Wisdom is not the ability to memorize specific biblical rules of behaviour.
Wisdom is needed because so many of our decisions are not explicitly regulated by specific rules in the Bible.
How do you decide how to apply your personal priorities in what you do with the minutes of your days - eating, working, exercising, sleeping, reading, entertainment, conversations, evangelism, praying?
There are no specific rules in the Bible that dictate the proportion of your time that go into these things.
I invite you to turn with me to Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 2.
It's stated most clearly in verse 4, and then it is illustrated in the lives of Jesus, Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus.
I don't mean incidentally illustrated; I mean that Paul intentionally illustrates verse 4 by bringing in Jesus, himself, Timothy, and Epaphroditus the way he does.
Look at Philippians 2:4
"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."
The word "interests" is a filler.
In the original, it's open-ended.
All that is specified is "your own (something)" or "the other's (something)."
So it could be,
"Let each of you look not only to your own financial affairs, or your own property, or your own family, or your own health, or your own reputation, or your own education, or your own success, or your own happiness - don't just think about that, don't just have desires about that, don't just strategize about that, don't just work toward that, but look to the financial affairs and property and family and health, and reputation, and education, and success, and happiness of others."
In other words, verse 4 is a way of saying the words of Jesus, "Love your neighbour as you love yourself".
That is, make the good of others the focus of your interest and strategy and work.
Find your joy in making others joyful.
One of the keys to this radical way of living is in the second half of Philippians 2:3
"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves."
Or as the old King James says, "Let each esteem others better than themselves."
"The point was not what others are. The point is what you count others to be."
Will you count them as worthy of your help and encouragement?
Not are they worthy?
But will you count them as worthy?
And where does that other-oriented commitment come from?
Verse 3 says,
"In humility count others more significant than yourselves."
It comes from humility.
Literally: "lowliness."
This is the great opposite of a sense of entitlement.
Humility is the opposite of "You owe me."
Paul said,
"I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish" (Romans 1:14).
In other words, they didn't owe him. He owed them.
Why?
Why do Christians walk through life feeling a humble sense that we owe service to people, rather than them owing us?
The answer is that Christ loved us and died for us and forgave us and accepted us and justified us and gave us eternal life and made us heirs of the world when he owed us nothing.
He treated us as worthy of his service when we were not worthy of his service.
He took thought not only for his own interests but for ours.
He counted us as greater than himself:
"Who is the greater," he said, "one who reclines at table or one who serves?
Is it not the one who reclines at table?
But I am among you as the one who serves".
That is where our humility comes from.
We feel overwhelmed by God's grace:
bygone grace in the cross and moment-by-moment arriving grace promised for our everlasting future.
Christians are stunned into lowliness.
Freely you have been served, freely serve.
So the crucial relational mark of the culture of our church should be Philippians 2:4
"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."
This is the "mind" or the "mindset" that we should have in life together.
This is the relational atmosphere where God will grant wisdom for the perplexing work of living in this world.
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This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
'John Piper'
is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy.
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