PONDERING OBSCURITY
“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.” (Phil.2:5-8 / The Message Bible)
The KJV says that Jesus “made himself of no reputation”.
Scripture instructs us to follow the example of Christ in this matter of drawing attention to ourselves, our rights, privileges, self-serving goals and personal aspirations. So, how come we don’t do that? Seems to me that’s a fair question to pose considering how totally different most of us approach our lives.
The call that our culture and the world system in general places before us is to climb the ladder of success all the way to the top if we can. We’re taught that by our well-meaning parents for the most part. That gets reinforced by our educational system, the social sciences, the entertainment business, and our media-driven culture. In fact, most every aspect of our inter-personal relationships seem to work more to our liking when we are the ones being pleased by how others treat us. I wonder what’s become of the “golden rule”? (see Luke 6:31).
I’ve been trying to come to terms with a passage from Scripture for the last couple of years. It continues to be a real struggle for me to reconcile my lifestyle to what it says. Ponder this: When we read Hebrews 11 we find a long list of saints who are presented to us as role models for their actions of extreme faith. However, toward the end of the chapter included in that listing there is a nameless grouping. As unidentified to us as they are, the writer of Hebrews goes so far as to elevate their status to a high and exalted level when he states in verse 38 that “the world was not worthy” of such people. Then he goes on to say that they all died “having not received the promise” of what they were living for.
Many today would say that these "faith heros" were failures due to not getting what they were after while they were alive here on earth. It would appear that they missed their entitlement(s). However, that’s not what the Bible says. That’s not what I would say either.
And you – what would you say?
