Many years ago, Mac Davis sang a country song with these lyrics…
O Lord, it’s hard to be humble
When you’re perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
Cause I get better lookin’ each day
To know me is to love me
I must be a heck of a man
O Lord, it’s hard to be humble
But I’m doing the best that I can.
The lyrics of that song were close to the truth, but not quite spot on. According to the Bible, it isn’t hard to be humble. It’s impossible, humanly speaking.
I believe only Jesus can give us the power to be truly humble. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)
And what is humility? Dag Hammarskjold once wrote, “To be humble is to not make comparisons.” Or, as I like to say, “Humility is the belief that you are incomparable.”
What do I mean by that? I mean that you are literally incapable of being compared to anyone else because you are a unique creation of God. Have you ever noticed that children are humble until they get into school and start comparing themselves to others? When we stop comparing ourselves with others, then we begin to discover true humility once again. The person who is always putting themselves down is just as self-involved as the person who is always boasting. When we discover our identity in Christ that frees us to forget about self and begin focusing on Jesus and others.
At the beginning of Philippians 2 we saw how humility and helpfulness promote unity. Then Paul presented Jesus as an example of humility. Now, even though he doesn’t use the word “humility” in this section of his letter, I believe Paul gives us two more profiles in humility. Listen for God’s word to you from Philippians 2:19-30…
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. 20 I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. 21 For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. 23 I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. 24 And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. 26 For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad, and I may have less anxiety. 29 So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, 30 because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.
I invite you to examine with me first the life of Timothy and then the life of Epaphroditus as profiles in humility. I believe that Timothy’s life shows us at least four things we can do to grow in humility. First: learn from a mentor.
Timothy had a great mentor in the Apostle Paul. And Paul had a pragmatic purpose in mentioning Timothy at this point in his letter. Paul wanted to alert the Philippians to the fact that he would be sending Timothy soon to check up on them and to take them news of how he, Paul, was doing in prison. But Paul also had a teaching purpose in mentioning Timothy. I believe Paul wanted to present Timothy’s life as a profile in humility, further fleshing out his teaching on this subject.
Paul tells us that Timothy was of a like mind. Whatever Timothy would say to the Philippians would be what Paul would say. This was true because Timothy had learned well from his mentor, and both of them were centered in Christ, anchored in Jesus.
Let’s remember how Timothy first met Paul. We read in Acts 14 about the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. In the region of Galatia in central Asia Minor, they visited a city called Lystra. There, Paul healed a man crippled from birth. Because of this, a crowd gathered and began to worship Paul and Barnabas, something neither man could accept. Then some of Paul’s opponents from Iconium and Antioch came along, riled up the crowd, had Paul stoned, and left him for dead. But the Lord raised up Paul who then walked back into Lystra to preach again.
This was probably Timothy’s first introduction to Paul. Can you imagine? Timothy would have been a very young man, maybe even a teenager. He witnessed Paul’s courage, but also Paul’s humility in suffering.
Then, in Acts 16, we read about Paul’s second missionary journey when he returned to Lystra. Paul met Timothy on this journey and decided to take him under his wing as a traveling assistant.
Timothy had a Greek father and a Jewish mother. Paul, not wanting to stir up further Jewish opposition to his mission, had Timothy circumcised. Talk about humility—submitting to circumcision as an adult!
From that time on, Timothy continued to learn humility from his mentor, Paul. Timothy was thrust into challenging ministry situations, such as the time when Paul left Timothy behind in Berea to teach the new Christians there. Later, when Timothy joined Paul in Corinth, Paul put Timothy in charge of teaching the Greeks.
Suffice to say, if you want to learn humility—I would say—be willing to place yourself under a mentor. I am grateful for many good mentors I have had in my Christian journey. I would encourage everyone to seek out a mentor if you do not have one already.
Secondly, we see Timothy growing in humility by developing a concern for others. Paul says that Timothy was burdened for others. How did Timothy develop this concern? I believe Timothy did it by watching Paul and modeling his life after Paul. I am sure that this included praying for those entrusted to his pastoral care just as Paul prayed for people.
Developing true concern for others seems antithetical sometimes to what our society advocates today. To take one example, think of the popular television show, Survivor. The show has been watched by millions. The very first Survivor episode was about the competition between 16 real-life, hand-picked castaways purposely marooned for 39 days on a tropical island in the South China Sea. While the diverse group of castaways banded together in alliances to “survive”, they also voted each other off the island until only one remained. The final survivor won one million dollars and a new car. The show reveals some things we don’t often like to face about our human nature. Bottom line: when push comes to shove, we are all consumed with looking out for number one.
How can we break out of the web of selfishness in which we all tend to get caught? One way might be to focus on cooperation instead of competition. Another thing we can do, that we learn from Paul and Timothy is that we can pray for one another. Paul and Timothy, who are jointly sending this letter to the Philippians, emphasize the importance of prayer right from the beginning of the letter. A third way I think we can grow in concern for others is by finding needs and filling them. I hope that First Church will always be a place where people don’t wait for someone else to ask them to perform a ministry. I encourage every one of you to look for needs, and if someone is not filling that need, start a new ministry to do it.
Thirdly, I believe Timothy developed humility by putting Christ first. Paul says, “For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.” Can anyone identify with that? I know that’s true of me, at least some of the time. But Timothy wasn’t like that. He put Christ first.
Jesus said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) If we put Jesus first, then we will find that everything else in life falls into place. Remember, putting Jesus first, Others second, and Yourself last is a great way to spell JOY!
A fourth thing I see here is that Timothy developed humility by learning to work with others. Timothy learned to work under Paul’s authority, but he also learned to serve withPaul in the work of the Gospel.
I wonder: how do things go when you are called upon to work with others, especially in the church? Do you have to be in charge? Does it have to be your project? Do you know how to work with someone who is younger than you, or someone who is older, of with someone who is the same age?
I love the hymn They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love. I remember singing it as a boy.
The song was written by a priest, Peter Scholtes. He wrote the hymn while he was serving St. Brendan’s on the South Side of Chicago in the 1960s. At the time, Peter was leading a youth choir out of the church basement, and he was looking for an appropriate song for a series of ecumenical, interracial events. When he couldn’t find such a song, he wrote the now-famous hymn in a single day. His experiences at St. Brendan’s, and in the Chicago Civil Rights movement, influenced him for the rest of his life.
As you know, one of the verses goes like this…
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we’ll guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
Learning to work with others is a great way to develop humility and to demonstrate love to a watching world.
From the example of Timothy, Paul moves on to give us another profile in humility—the life of Epaphroditus. We don’t know as much about Epaphroditus as we do about Timothy. But we do know that Epaphroditus was a member of the Philippian church sent to serve Paul in prison and deliver a gift to him on behalf of the church. I believe Paul tells us at least five things about Epaphroditus that can help us grow in humility.
First, Paul calls Epaphroditus a brother. If we want to grow in humility, then we need to discover or rediscover what it means to be brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.
“Brother” was one of Paul’s favorite designations for fellow followers of Jesus. It is a term of deep affection and endearment. I believe following Jesus creates brotherhood and sisterhood at the deepest level. Just think of the types of people brought together in the church at Philippi. There was Lydia, a wealthy businesswoman, and the Philippian jailor, a blue-collar worker, and then there was the slave girl out of whom Paul cast a demon. In Christ, the racial, sexual, socioeconomic, and ethnic barriers are broken down. We are one in him.
Second, Paul calls Epaphroditus a fellow worker. As we saw with Timothy, so we see with Epaphroditus. If we want to grow in humility we need to work together. “Fellow worker” is a term that Paul uses repeatedly to refer to those who labored with him in the work of the Gospel.
Serving together in the work of the Gospel can help us develop humility. It makes us realize we don’t exist just for ourselves. Even the church does not exist for itself. The church is the one organization in the world that exists for the benefit of nonmembers!
As somebody once said, sharing the good news about Jesus is all about one beggar telling other beggars where to find the bread of life. When I try to do this, it keeps me humble. The work of the Gospel reminds me I am a beggar too, just as much in need of spiritual bread as anyone else.
Many years ago, in Columbia, South Carolina, I started a C. S. Lewis book discussion group as an outreach from our church. I chose a Barnes & Noble bookstore as our meeting place and advertised the group in the State newspaper. We had thirty people show up to our first meeting and we had to divide into two groups! But my efforts were not without opposition. I had a member of another church call me up one day and ask, “Why are you meeting in a Barnes & Noble bookstore? That’s a secular bookstore. Don’t you realize some of the terrible books they sell?” My response was: “That’s exactly why we are there! We are taking the good news of Jesus to a place where it needs to be heard.”
Thirdly, Paul calls Epaphroditus a fellow soldier. Paul believed and taught that all of us as followers of Jesus are involved in a spiritual battle between good and evil. If that is true, and I believe it is, then it sure is a good thing that we don’t fight in the battle alone.
Did you know that before Roman times men often fought on the battlefield individually? With the Roman army the idea of fighting together as a team was more deeply emphasized than it had been before in human history. Roman soldiers would move into what was called a phalanx formation, where they would stand shoulder to shoulder. Then at the appropriate moment they would be instructed to raise their shields together. We talked about this when we examined what Paul calls the armor of God in Ephesians 6. This is just one more reminder from Paul that we need each other in the battle of life.
Fourthly, Paul calls Epaphroditus a messenger. Epaphroditus was a messenger from the church at Philippi to the Apostle Paul. The Greek word that is translated “messenger” is the word ἀπόστολον. Epaphroditus was an apostle, one sent by God, a man on a mission.
I wonder, do you view yourself as an “apostle”, as one sent by God? Do you have a sense of mission, of purpose in life? When you discover your purpose in Christ, no matter what age you are, it transforms everything. That is one reason why, a few years ago, we read The Purpose Driven Life as a church. It is a wonderful book that has literally helped millions discover their purpose in Christ. I commend it to you if you have never read it. We have multiple copies in our church library.
Finally, Paul calls Epaphroditus a minister. The word in Greek is λειτουργὸν. From it we get our English word, liturgy. Now, usually, I know people think of liturgy as simply being the format of a worship service conducted by a clergy person. But that is not the fundamental meaning of the word. Literally, the word means “work of the people”. And Epaphroditus was doing “the work of the people” on behalf of the church at Philippi. Specifically, Epaphroditus brought funds to Paul from the church in Philippi to meet Paul’s needs in prison.
I love the word “minister”, but it is so misunderstood in our day. People think of the clergy as the only ministers and that is a mistake. Ministry is the work of all the people of God together.
Howard Hendricks once compared the local church to watching a professional football game. He said, “You’ve got twenty-two people on the field, badly in need of a rest, and forty thousand in the stands, badly in need of exercise.”
The church ought not to be that way. We ought to all be in ministry together. That’s why I prefer to be called a pastor rather than a minister. If we are going to give anyone that title of “minister” it should be given to all the members of the church. As we read in Ephesians 4:11-12 earlier this year, Christ gave “some to be pastors and teachers, to quip God’s people for works of service.” That’s my job—to be an equipper. But we are all in ministry together; we need to throw our lives into this work together.
Paul says that Epaphroditus “almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life”. We don’t know exactly what Epaphroditus did to risk his life, but whatever he did, he did it for Christ.
Paul has an interesting play on words here. Epaphroditus was named for the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Among other things, Aphrodite was the goddess of gambling. And Paul says that Epaphroditus gambled his life to make up for the help that the Philippians could not give because they lived so far away. Here is the ultimate humility—the willingness to risk one’s life for the work of Christ.
Winston Churchill once said, “Play for more than you can afford to lose, and you will learn the game.”
And Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
These two profiles in humility, the lives of Timothy and Epaphroditus, issue us a grand invitation—not to keep our lives for ourselves—but, in humility, to throw away our lives for Jesus. And when we do that, we find our lives richer than they ever were before.
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