SERMON: From Selfish to Selfless | Philippians 2

Topic: humility, pride, selfishness
Text: Philippians 2:1-16
Takeaway: Think others first.

TENSION

I was driving down the 202 the other day with my family in the car during rush hour, and we are in the HOV lane. Because anytime I have the chance to get in that lane and move past all the poor single-occupancy drivers sitting in traffic, I’m taking advantage of that. Traffic is the worst. 

But traffic wasn’t even moving all that bad for everyone. And we got to the point on the 202 where the HOV lane ends and merges with the other lane. 

Now, I wish everyone knew this, but to execute a proper merge, the cars should go every other car like a zipper. And if you didn’t know that, repent and come to the light today because that’s the way it is supposed to be. But that’s not what the car behind me did. As we were all executing a beautiful zipper maneuver, folding into traffic, this bozo thought it would be a perfect opportunity to hit the gas, swerve around multiple cars and cut me off on the left side. I hit my brakes, nearly hit him, and then we all sat in traffic together while I stared a hole through the back of the guys car. 

How selfish! He risked it all, put my family and others in danger, just so he could get a few more cars ahead in line. For what? So he could get to his destination 3 seconds faster? 

Ugh. That stuff drives me crazy. 

Are people too selfish? I don’t have any statistics on this, but selfishness seems to be getting worse in our culture. Would you agree? 

We even have sayings like, “Look out for number one.” “Live your best life.” “Nice guys finish last.”

Just look at how cameras have changed. We used to point the lens at others, but now what is the most used camera on a phone? The back-facing camera that points at you so you can take a “selfie.”

It’s easy to see that everyone else is becoming too selfish. But here is another question: Are you too selfish?

The rise in selfishness is making us miserable. One study I read found that selfishness damages your physical health, psychological well-being, and relationships. But selflessness contributed to physical, mental, and relational health!¹

Amazing! It’s almost like God knows what he is doing when he tells us the best way to live.

God created us to live not only for ourselves but for others. Adam was created not for himself, but as God’s steward to work the garden. Eve was created not for herself, but for Adam as a helper and partner in life with him. 

In a perfect world, everyone would be selfless. That’s is the ideal. But selfishness is a result of sin. The first sin was entirely selfish. Adam and Eve didn’t consider others when they ate the forbidden fruit. They only thought about themselves. But consider the billions of people who have lived and suffered because of sin.

Theft is purely selfish. I’ll take from you so I can get ahead.

Murder is purely selfish. I’ll take your life because, in some way, it will benefit me.

Infidelity is purely selfish. Laziness is selfish. Greed is selfish. Pride is selfish. 

Sin says, “Me, me, me, me, me.” It’s hard to obey God when you’re so focused on yourself. It’s deceptive. Satan may not have to make you turn to a life of crime or hard drugs; he will take many people down by addicting you to the drug of self-centeredness.

So today I want to talk about how to swing the pendulum in our lives from selfish to selfless. It’s easy and natural to be selfish. That’s what everyone else does. You might even benefit from it in some ways. But it’s not good. On the other hand, it is hard and unnatural to be selfless. But it is good and right and a key to living a better life.

TEXT

If you have a Bible with you, today we will be in Philippians 2. It’s such a rich passage that I want to camp out here today. So turn or type to Philippians 2, and let’s get to work. 

Paul is writing to the church in Philippi from a Roman prison.

Philippians 2:1-16 (ESV) So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

He’s saying, if you are in Christ and want to encourage and comfort me, here is how you can complete my joy. Have the same mind in Christ, united in your faith. And if you do this, what will that look like? Look at the next section.

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

The word “conceit” here in Greek literally is two words smashed together “empty glory.” So stop glorifying yourself. That’s an empty glory, a meaningless pursuit. Some of you wonder why you feel so empty, could it be because you have been pursuing a life of selfish, empty glory? A life that is all about you is no life at all. It’s meaningless, empty, unfulfilling, and sad. You may attain all the pleasures and possessions in the world and still feel empty. Why? That’s not what God created us to do.

If you are of one mind in Christ, you should look out for others first. 

Notice, Paul doesn’t say be a doormat who never looks to your own interests. He says don’t only look for your own interests. Look also to the interest of others. 

Like everything in life, there are two extreme sides of the pendulum that you can swing to. Each extreme is an error. These two errors are complete selfishness on one side, complete selflessness on the other. You either become a self-indulgent narcissist or a self-destructive doormat. On one end is extreme self-love. On the other end is extreme self-loathing. Neither is healthy. 

The great commandment is to love your neighbor how? As yourself (Matt 19:19). If you hate yourself and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, where does that leave you? You’re just hating your neighbor, too. And if you love yourself and hate your neighbor, you fail the command, too. 

I love what the Pillar New Testament Commentary says about this: “Instead of being preoccupied with introspective, self-absorbed, egocentric thoughts, the mind turns outward to regard the value of others. This direction of thinking is not obsessed with negative thoughts about oneself; it is freed from thinking about oneself to consider others.”² It is neither thinking too highly or too lowly of yourself because you are freed of self-absorbed thinking so you can think of others. 

When we talk about not being selfish, some might object, “Brandon, sometimes you need to look out for yourself and take care of yourself.” To that, I agree. You shouldn’t be so extremely altruistic that you stop eating, stop sleeping, and give away everything you have to the point that you nearly starve to death or die from exhaustion. That doesn’t honor God because you could do far more good if you take care of your needs and live a long and generous life. You need to know your limits, manage what God has given you wisely, and be healthy because that also honors God. You do need to take care of yourself. However, this first error is rarely our problem today. Most of us could afford to swing the pendulum to be far more selfless and way less selfish. Most people are on the selfish side. 

Others might object, “But selfless people never get ahead. They become a doormat for everyone to walk over.” Again, I would say that you could take it to the extreme. But we are not talking about being passive and weak. Don’t confuse selfless with weakness. Let me ask you this: Was Jesus weak when he willingly went to the cross? Was he weak when he sat there and took the nails in his hands and his feet?

No way! 

It took incredible strength for Jesus to not summon a legion of angels, step down from the cross, and call fire from heaven to rain on every last person who spit on him, mocked him, and hammered a nail through him to that cross. 

It’s easy to be selfish. Everyone is doing it. It takes a strong person to be selfless and use your strength and willpower to care for people around you even if it costs you dearly. 

And that is the point that Paul makes next. 

In the next few verses, Paul writes some of the most beautiful poetry in the Bible. Some scholars debate whether it is his original work or he was reciting an early Christian hymn. This hymn is six verses (or six stanzas), broken into two halves of three verses each. The first half (v.6-8) is about Christs humility and the second half (v.9-11) is about his Christ’s exultation. 

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Just for a moment, try to fathom the humility of Christ here. Jesus who was in the form of God did not try to grasp equality with God (v.6). What does that mean?

Christ did not “grasp” or cling to his equality with God, which he had, but he let it go in humility to serve. The Greek word here literally means to snatch or wrestle away something for your own advantage. He could have selfishly clung to his exulted state in heaven as the second person of the Trinity. He did not have to go out of his way to do anything for us. 

God took on human flesh and humbled himself to the point of death. He died a death he did not deserve for a people who did not deserve it. And it wasn’t just any death. He was crucified. I don’t know if you know this, but the Romans were really good at killing and torturing people. They invented crucifixion as the most horrifying and disgraceful way they could imagine to kill someone and make an example of them to others. Yet Jesus endured it all for you and for me and all who will simply believe in him so that we could be spared from a far worse fate. 

And what was the result of Christ’s great humility? His exultation (v.9-11). 

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Everyone will bow the knee and acknowledge Christ as Lord, either on this side of eternity in worship or the other side of eternity in judgement. You get to choose. I’m sure you can guess which one is the best choice.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of selflessness. This is the example that we are called to follow. 

So what do we do with this? It’s easy to say “Don’t be selfish. Be more like Jesus.” But how? Most people stop after reading this verse, but Paul doesn’t. He tells us what to do. In light of the glorious humility of Christ, our example, Paul continues,

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

So what do you do? You obey the Lord and work out your salvation. What does that mean? “Work out” means to work to bring something to completion. Not your salvation, but active and obedient pursuit of sanctification (being more like Christ)

God is the one who works in you for your salvation. You can’t save yourself. And as God works in you, he will give you the desire to do good and obey him. So if you don’t have the desire, pray that God would give it to you! 

In fact, as I’ve been talking about selfishness, God has been working on many of your hearts, convicting you of something. That’s the Spirit of God working in. Don’t ignore it. If God is convicting you, respond and work it out. 

Then Paul says,

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Why does Paul jump to grumbling and disputing? He isn’t jumping to a new topic. This is part of how you apply the humility of being like Christ. Grumbling and disputing come from selfishness. It takes humility (selflessness) to let these things go!

Whenever you grumble about something or dispute something, it is often because you are focused on yourself. You grumble because things aren’t going the way you want them to go. Maybe you aren’t getting what you want or you have to do something you don’t want to do. What’s the center of that problem? You are!

Maybe you argue with someone because you want what you want or you aren’t getting your way or they are doing something that is inconveniencing you or causing your life to be more difficult… Again, it can quickly all come back to yourself. 

Selfishness leads to sin and even things that seem more minor like grumbling or constant disputes with other people. These are symptoms of a deeper problem. 

And here is the point Paul makes in the end: live a Christian life focused on others above yourself and you will be a shining light in this world. Hold fast to this promise of life in Christ. And Paul, even in prison, will be content and filled with joy because all of his labor and suffering for the church then and even us who are following in his footsteps nearly two thousand years later, made all of his self-sacrifice and suffering worth it. If Paul could come back, he would do it all again. 

TAKEAWAY

Selfishness (fueled by pride) is competitive and divides. Selflessness (fueled by humility) is sacrificial and unites.

If you get nothing else, get this: Think others first.”

Remember, after all, what Jesus said in Matthew 23:12, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” 

Avoid those who are selfish to the point where it is destructive to everyone around them. And pursue a selfless life. A life where you love God and love others. Consider others more significant than yourself. 

So how do you do that? Three things:

First, look to Christ. He is our model for humility and selflessness. 

Second, look inward. Do you have a selfish heart? Where are you most tempted to be too selfish?

At work, are you trying to climb the corporate ladder at the expense of others? At home are you trying to act like the king or queen of the castle by making everyone else serve you, or are you serving others?

Third, work outward. Focus on doing a selfless act every day. Whenever you make a decision, pause and think about how it affects people around you.

Maybe it’s putting away the shopping cart at the grocery store so that poor kid who collects the carts doesn’t have to be in the heat as long. Maybe it’s holding the door for people behind you on your třway into the restaurant and letting them be served before you.

Here is what I want to challenge each of you to do: Do something today that attacks your most selfish tendencies. Don’t wait, do it now while it’s fresh in your mind. 

The secret to living your best life is realizing that it’s not about you. When you put others first, all studies suggest that you will feel better physically, mentally, and see your relationships thrive socially. But most importantly, you will be more like Christ.

What can you do today to attack your most selfish ambition? 

Swing your pendulum from selfishness to selflessness. Think others first.

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1. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044145 ↩︎
2. G. Walter Hansen, The Letter to the Philippians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 115–116. ↩︎