The Connection Between Humility and Community

“In humility count others more significant than yourselves. . . . He made himself nothing.”  Philippians 2:3, 7

Ray Ortlund:

How does community work?  By love?  Well, okay.  But that isn’t Paul’s point in these verses, which are all about how community works.  And we can do horrible things in the name of love.  We can walk into a social situation with love as our purpose only to destroy that situation by our clueless good intentions.

The key word is humility in verse 3.  The measure of humility is the word nothing in verse 7.

“He made himself nothing.”  That is threatening to us, but it has this advantage.  It works.  When we make ourselves nothing, willing to wash each other’s feet even while being scrutinized for our performance — see Peter above — we are becoming what proud human touchiness cannot resist.  Heart-level connections form when people can see, “He isn’t out for himself.”  And community starts to work.

Let’s not trust our love.  It can be self-exalting.  Let’s try humility.  Let’s become nothing, as the Son of God did.  He knows what works.