PHILIPPIANS 2

Philippians 2

Philippians 2 is a lesson on Jesus becoming downwardly mobile. It is no coincidence that Jesus' teachings emphasize that this is to be the model for us, humbling oneself: “He who would be greatest must be servant of all,” “You must become as a little child,” and “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

But that's not how we usually keep score.

On the job: salary, title, size of office, and number of people reporting to you. In the company I worked for, the number of pictures you were allowed on your wall and number of windows in your office were determined strictly by your rank. Any of these were used as strong motivators.

School: GPA, SAT score, college attended and degrees attained

Family life: how your kids are turning out, what kind of a home you have, what neighborhood you live in. There is a large retirement community in our town, and I have been told that the first question a new acquaintance will ask someone there is what model house they have. In this way, they can rapidly size up your income.

Unfortunately, the situation is sometimes no better in our church life: for teachers it might be the size of their Sunday school class, whether they are a deacon or an elder or a committee chairperson, faithfulness in attendance or serving in the choir. Who demonstrates the most spirituality in prayer, who is the most knowledgeable in Bible study, etc.

Let's look at how Paul considered these ways of keeping score in one's spiritual life (The Corinthian church is a great negative example of this tendency).

I Corinthians 1:11-12 “I belong to Paul, etc.” We usually think of these verses only in terms of conflict between groups, but these verses reveal another type of score keeping: bragging about who your spiritual leader is. I Corinthians 3:21a confirms this interpretation: “So let no one boast about human leaders.” This is practicing second-hand spirituality.

I Corinthians 12-14 was obviously prompted by those who valued some gifts higher than others and bragged about it. However, all of them come from God, not ourselves. And God honors the less visible gifts higher than the more visible ones.

II Corinthians 10:11; 11:7 In these verses, Paul sarcastically makes fun of “Super apostles.” We can see how they kept score from two passages: who was the best in sermon delivery, who had the most imposing presence as a leader, and who charged the most for his services.

II Corinthians 11:16-23 Paul reluctantly demonstrates that he can play the same game as these “Super- apostles” who were claiming that they were superior to Paul. To do this, he runs through a list of different types of human score-keeping.

However, the strongest words in the Bible concerning our score keeping methods are found in Philippians 3:7-8:

Count your gains as loss – imagine multiplying all our accomplishments by -1. (salary, net worth, IQ, etc.)

Count your gains as dung. When we start competing according to our culture's standards, we are really bragging about who has the biggest pile of manure.

So how should and shouldn't we keep score?

II Corinthians 10:12 Stop comparing ourselves with others. That only leaves us and God.

II Corinthians 10:17-18 Boast in the Lord.

II Corinthians 12:9-10 Boast in your weakness

How can we boast in our weakness? And what does it mean to boast in the Lord?