Balance

Philippians 2: 3 – 4

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

There are two sides to this coin. The first I think is obvious and was the thrust of Paul’s message. Namely, we are not to be so self-absorbed that we fail to be mindful and attentive to the needs of others. Paul wanted Christians to get themselves off their minds. Truly, this is a restatement of the love commandment.

Natural man is self-concerned. Self-preservation is a primitive urge that, in civilized society, has morphed into many other forms of self service. God, however, has called us out of our “natural” state and into the Kingdom of His son. In that Kingdom, each of us is cared for by the Father so we have no need to worry about our needs or even our wants. In the Kingdom, we turn our thoughts to others. This is the perfect order, the way of the King. This is a very simple and understandable message. The only difficulty is in execution. Fulfilling our divine order becomes possible when we intertwine with the Father. Then His ways become our ways.

The other side of the coin and the one not overtly discussed, but certainly implied is that we must give some care to ourselves. Do I contradict myself? No, not at all. Father has the care of you, but He may have told you to rest your body or your mind and you have forsaken His instruction. That is failure. Father has not asked us to martyr ourselves. He wants you to take care of yourself. He just doesn’t want us to be selfish ignoring other peoples’ needs in favor of our desires. We are to follow Him in all things. That necessarily includes obeying His instructions for our well being.

In the Kingdom, there is no selfishness. When we understand the Father and understand the Kingdom we will not feel the need to fight for our wants and needs. In fact, all of our needs are in the Lord. Partake of Him and you will be filled. Then you will be well able to meet the needs of others.

If all your resources are going to feed your passions, you may need to check in with the Father, but do not fail to listen to Him about your welfare either.