Re:Verse reading–Philippians 2:1-11 (day five)
V. 8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient
All of Jesus’ choices, decisions, and priorities were grounded in obedience. Jesus would say His greatest desire is, “to do the will of Him who sent me”. (John 4, John 6) “For I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” (John 8:29)
Paul directly connects obedience with humility in this passage. Why? “Obedience is the best humility, laying yourself at the feet of Jesus, and making your will active only when you know what it is God’s will for you to do. This is to be truly humble.” – Charles Spurgeon
Jesus’ obedience and humility were grounded in His love and devotion to the scriptures as well as His time and faithfulness in prayer. He showed us how to obey God as a man. He not only discovered His purpose, but He lived on mission with joy and courage. Have you found God’s purpose and mission? Are you living it out with joy and courage?
Obeying God is safe and always the right thing to do, but it’s not always easy. It takes tremendous courage and humility to enable us to deal and face with setbacks and the challenges of day-to-day life. There will be always some forms of oppositions, challenges and setbacks so we need to have the courage and the humility to stand by our beliefs, our moral and ethical values and our convictions.
I believe and also my experience that we live in a world where many people don’t like to be told or to be preached as what is right or wrong and have very little caring and concerns for the welfare and the well-being of others or their surroundings. It takes tremendous courage and humility for strong believers in Christ to lead by obedience to God and to follow Christ’s examples to conduct our daily lives and hope that we, believers, can help influence non-believers and weak believers to act and to behave like Jesus did! We cannot change people’s mindset of disobedience when we are not in obedience ourselves. We only can lead by examples and by showing good deeds.
Obedience to God is the right path to a peaceful and joyful life. Our surroundings and the world will experience peace when we practice obedience to the right ones with the right authorities for the right actions and causes that are Godly. Jesus was smart to submit himself to the right authority who has all the power and the authority over all His creations and the earth–God the Father!!
Life is more fulfilled when we live and work with a purpose. Obedience to God’s commandments is a good goal to achieve. Obedience to God and not Satan will help us living and working with a purpose. My view is that if we stand by our Christian beliefs, our personal, moral and ethical values and convictions, and if we lead by doing good works and following Jesus’ examples in conducting our daily lives, we will and the world will experience peace, joy and happiness until Jesus returns.
What does obedience mean to you? Whom do you obey? Do you find a conflict between God and Satan in your day-to-day life? What are the pros and cons of obedience to God versus Satan? Do you have the courage and humility to explain why you are in obedience to God? What drives you to obey God? And Why?
“Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”~~Philippians 2:5-8
Humility, submission and obedience go together!