For Love's Sake, Practice Humility

“Never Knew Love” by Charles Jenkins and Stephanie Mills is a remix of Stephanie Mills’s hit song from the 1980s. It’s an upbeat, classic R&B song, and for me, very nostalgic. It reminds me of my adolescent days, as my mom would often listen to the unique voice and songs of Ms. Mills. But this version is about the love of Christ versus the original version, which was written about romantic love. Before the choir begins their part on the updated song, Jenkins says, “The highest form of love is not affection; it’s sacrifice.”

This lyric perfectly ties to Philippians 2. The Apostle Paul encouraged the church at Philippi to be “like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” (Philippians 2:2). He then says in verse 3, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” Paul not only tells us to have love for one another, but he tells us how to do it.

Paul says to love through lowliness of mind, or in other words, through humility. Love requires us to be humble. Often, we are only willing to be humble before God … as we ought. If we are going to be humble towards anyone at all, it should first be to God. Understanding God’s power, might, and authority is enough to humble us before Him. One of the most humbling scriptures I have ever read was God’s response to Job’s questioning.

God said to Job, “Prepare yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me … Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor … look on everyone who is proud, and humble him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low.” (Job 40:7,9-12) God revealed that He alone had the power to humble people and that only He could be adorned with the power and might that He possessed. As you continue to read God’s response to Job, it reveals just how humble mankind should be towards God.

Yet, in this text, Paul called the believers at Philippi to be humble towards one another. He told them to do nothing out of selfish ambition but in lowliness of mind to esteem others better than themselves. Essentially, Paul said everything we do should be for God and others. If we examine the words of Christ when He told us what the first two commandments are, we see that Paul was right.

The first command is to love God, and the second is to love others as ourselves. Neither one of these commands has anything to do with self. This is not to say that we shouldn’t love or care for ourselves. Loving ourselves is implied in scriptures. God expects us to love ourselves automatically. That’s why the second command is love others as yourself .

In Ephesians 5, husbands are told to love their wives, and verse 29 states, “no one ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.” Self-love, in most cases, comes naturally. God, in normal circumstances, does not have to command us to love ourselves or to look out for our best interests. We tend to do that without being told to do so.

But love for others is not necessarily innate. Loving others requires us to humble ourselves towards others. Love requires, as the song states, sacrifice. And that sacrifice begins with humility. The world view of humility is to have a low view of one’s own importance. But that’s not God's view of humility. In Christ, we do not have a low view of ourselves, or at least, we shouldn’t. God thought we were worth dying for; so, our worth, is the costs of the King’s Blood. Our worth is immeasurable.

So, humility to us is not about having a low view of ourselves. Humility is about sacrificial love. Paul wrote, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)

Paul said let this mind be in you which was in Christ. What mind you may ask? A humbled mind. A mind that knew exactly who He was but was willing to decrease for the sake of others. Only love would drive anyone to become beneath who they are for the sake of others. Christ lowered Himself for love's sake.

We are called to lower ourselves—not our worth—but ourselves for love’s sake. We are called to lower our flesh to increase our love for others. Paul said to “esteem others better than yourself”. (Philippians 2:3). Loving others in this way does not come naturally. Our flesh will war against loving others in such a way because we typically only love ourselves and our loved ones … and we normally are only willing to sacrificially love those closest to us. It simply isn’t in our nature to love or put others before ourselves.

Therefore, we must be intentional about loving others. We have to seek out loving others even when we don’t want to, just as Christ was intentional about seeking death for the sake of His love towards us. His crucifixion was a sacrifice that He did not want to make, but it was one that He needed to make. (Matthew 29:39). It was a sacrifice for Him to love us enough to get on that cross. And it will be a sacrifice for us to love one another in the capacity that God is calling us to love others.

Loving others at such a high volume is not something we will want to do, but we can always pray about it. When Jesus did not want to make that sacrifice for love’s sake, He prayed to God the Father. And God helped Him. God gave Him the strength to be the sacrifice that mankind needed.

So, let’s pray about this. Ask God to help you love others sacrificially as He has called you to. One way we can start our sacrificial love towards others is by praying for others—sacrificing our time to bring other people’s burdens to God is sacrificial, especially if we pray for them in the way that we pray for ourselves.

Reader, that’s all I have for you today. In the words of Paul, let this mind be in you. Let the mind of Christ, a mind of humility towards God and others, be in you. For others’ sake—for love’s sake, may we all practice humility, even until the point of death.

May God bless you and keep you! Until next time, take care.

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Quin Arrington is a Christian wife, mother, writer, and author. Her Write On! Wednesday articles are posted every Wednesday at noon. Browse the website for more articles, books, and merchandise. The Now That's A Word! YouTube Channel is here: https://YouTube.com/@nowthatsaword

Thank you for your time, and may God bless you.