Consider Others As More Important Than Yourself

Consider Others As More Important Than Yourself

Zac Poonen

Jesus identified Himself totally with man. He was not ashamed to be a man. The Bible says He's not ashamed to call us His brothers. Sometimes we feel superior to some other human being. We feel we are more educated or we belong to a higher class of society. All this is because of the perverted pride that has infected us ever since Adam sinned. Jesus came to demonstrate that essentially all human beings were equal, irrespective of race, family, education, intelligence, culture, position in life, or whatever. He came and became one with the least and the lowest in the social level in His day, in Israel. He came below everybody because that's the only way He could be the servant of everybody. You cannot be the servant of another if you're not willing to go underneath him. If you want to lift somebody up, you got to go underneath him. That's how Jesus came.

Now, the Holy Spirit has come to make our mind like Christ's, in other words, to make our way of thinking exactly like Christ's. What are the thoughts you think about yourself when you're all by yourself? Do you think of yourself as a good-looking person perhaps, or very clever, or fortunate to be born in a rich family or things like that? Then you can see how much of your thoughts are like Christ's and how much of your thoughts are like the devil's. If you're comparing yourself with others and considering yourself superior, that's exactly the type of thoughts that went through the mind of Lucifer who became the devil. The Bible says that we must regard others as more important than ourselves, Philippians 2:3, and Paul goes on to speak in that passage about Jesus Christ being our example. He once said in Ephesians 3:8, that he was the very least of all the saints. Paul had been so gripped by the humility of Christ, that as he thought about himself, he saw himself as the absolute lowest among all the believers.

The Bible says in Philippians 2:3 to consider others as more important than yourself. Jesus considered others always as more important. And that's why we see Him taking a bucket of water, and washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper. You know, that was the job done by servants in those days. If you went to a home, and the master of the home - if he's a rich man, he had slaves. Slave means people who are bought, who did not get any wages. They were lower than servants. And the slaves' duty was when a guest came to the house, to take a basin of water and wash the dust from their feet, remove their sandals and wash the dust from their feet. And so wherever there is a supper or anything, there would always be a basin of water near the door. And so when the disciples and Jesus came to this Last Supper, there was no host there because they only had an empty room, but the basin of water was kept there. Now the question was, who was going to do the job of washing the people's feet? And each disciple must have thought, "Well, I'm not going to do that." Peter may have thought, "Well, I'm just going to be the leader after Jesus goes away. How can I do such a thing?" And Matthew may have thought, "Well, I'm an educated accountant; I can't go washing the feet of these disciples." And like that each of those disciples may have thought of how they were superior to the others in some way, and therefore they couldn't possibly do a slave's job. It's better it's not done. And then Jesus took up that basin of water and began to wash their feet. Why? Because He said, "Well, you're all more important than me." They were not more spiritual than Him and He didn't think so. But He treated them as more important. He really considered Himself, genuinely. It was not an act put on just to show that He was humble, you know. There can be people who act humble, who do things just to show that they are servants and they are humble. That's all hypocrisy. God hates it. Jesus was genuine. He really took that place of being nothing before His Heavenly Father. And this is what humility really is, to take the place of being absolutely nothing before God. Lord I am nothing. Everything that I am, You have made me. Who made you intelligent? God made you. There are so many children born into this world that are retarded. You could have been born like that. You could have been born with a defective brain, or a defective body, or you could have been born with or got polio - or you could have been born with some congenital disease like many children are born into this world, and what would you be then? It really is proper for us to be thoroughly humble when we think of our condition. Lord, what do I have which I have not received? Only a foolish man is proud.

It is written in Luke 2:51 He came to Nazareth and He continued in subjection to Joseph and Mary, and that went on for 30 years. Now were Joseph and Mary perfect? Far from it. They were no better than any couple today. Think of an average Christian home today where husband and wife fight with each other once in a while at least. Well, Joseph and Mary were like that. They were not perfect people who never sinned. There's nobody like that. They were sinners. They were imperfect. They did not know everything. And in their home lived Jesus who was sinless, who was perfect, and never did anything wrong. So who should submit to whom? One would think Joseph and Mary should submit to Jesus, right? The one who is imperfect, that's Joseph and Mary, should submit to the one who's perfect, that's Jesus. But it wasn't like that. Jesus submitted to an imperfect foster father and mother. You know it's not easy for us to submit to those who are inferior to us. Can you submit to somebody who is inferior to you? But if you're genuinely humble you'll have no problem. You'd submit to anybody because you would realise you're nothing. And humility is the secret. We have no problem with anybody when we're humble. Jesus was quite happy to be a carpenter. When He went out to ministry, He never took any title. He never called Himself Reverend Jesus or any such thing. He never wanted any position or title or anything that would exult Him above the common people whom He came to serve. He became like His brothers in all things. When they wanted to make Him a king, He ran away. He never did anything to get honor from men. If He healed a sick person, He'd tell that sick person not to tell anyone. Do you see His humility? He wanted all the glory to be given to the Father. He never wanted to draw anybody to Himself. His healings were not publicity stunts to draw attention to Himself. What a beautiful picture we have of what man is supposed to be!

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