A Slippery Slope Seeking Unity

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philipians 2: 3-4

I read this passage recently on an early morning. Another letter from Paul to another church. Given our current political and social state, this one feels even more current. It offers advice that we have surely heard before, read before, believed before.

But in the rising light of the morning, it touched me anew. This is something we want to do. Something we want to believe. But somehow ambition has become such a positive. Not selfish ambition, obviously, but how do we even know selfishness when we are fighting to be successful? It is good to find achievement, good to do things to our best. But that line between good and selfish is so blurred and so faint. Vain conceit? Do we even know what that means? Arrogance and self-importance. But what if we are arguing for the right things, like justice and equity? We can be arrogant for what any one of us believes. We slip into that easily, too. According to Paul’s letter, it is too easy to say, “I know what the right things are.” That’s vain conceit.

Paul’s advice to the church he loved is rich in its simplicity. Value others
before yourselves. Direct and to the point. It is what he found in the church. Partnership, financial support and gifts as he was jailed away from them, as they shared his suffering and the challenge to the mission to spread the gospel. His joy was in unity with the church; their unity with each other and in Jesus. This is exactly how we are called to do our work. All our work. It is the first step of loving others as we want to be loved.

We see that, but more than that, too. It is the first step in loving. Pure and simple. Paul was talking to his community. To all the members equally because if everyone is looking out for the interests of others, then everyone’s interests are met. Working that way builds love. And in that love is joy. The joy of encouraging others in partnership to carry the light of Christ. It becomes Community. The unity together that Jesus asks of each one of us. Everyone together, each using individual gifts in harmony for the unity of one body in Christ. True joy. And, true peace.