Paul gave an example of Christ’s humility and told the Philippian church to be humble like Christ. The word he uses for humility literally means “lowly mind.” The sense of the word means to not think more of yourself than you should. Having a “lowly mind” or mindset doesn’t mean you beat yourself up and have low self-esteem. Rather, it means to keep from letting your mind get inflated about how you view yourself.
Paul says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. . . ” (Philippians 2:3-5 ESV). Paul goes on to say that Christ humbled and emptied himself, coming to earth as a servant and was obedient to the point of death on a cross. He did not retaliate or use his status as the son of God to get out of punishment. Instead, he humbly served the very people who were going to ultimately take his life.
Paul agrees elsewhere. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says that we no longer regard anyone from a human point of view. Life is different for Christians, and the way we regard others is different too: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:17, 18). Our duty is to reconcile people to God, and to do this with all humility and grace.
