The Perfect Antidote to Pride.

In Philippians 2:5-11, we have the most glorious meaning of deity as expressed in Christ’s attitude about himself as well as his manner of living and dying during his days on earth. This portion of scripture is also instructive of what we ought to be and how we should think about ourselves (thus verse 5: “your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus”-notice not “Jesus Christ” because Christ’s deity is emphasized here but in language which will speak about servant hood, submission, and suffering rather than power, majesty and glory. Because we are so afflicted with pride (in the sense of thinking of ourselves as more than what we are-see Phil. 2:3), this fundamental self orientation of Jesus stands as an affront to all human pretension and conceit and is the reverse of that Anti-Christ spirit which pervades the very fabric of contemporary society.

If anyone has any doubts about what Paul thought of Jesus, the former makes it clear right away that Jesus was in very nature God, all forms of arianism notwithstanding including “Jehovahs’’” witnesses (see verse 6) Yet Jesus did not insist on holding on to all the advantages of deity (the meaning of his not “grasping” his equality with God or constantly reminding us of his ultimate metaphysical being so that we may grovel in his presence) but he simply hid his majesty in public or “made himself nothing.” (Verse 7) He embraced servant hood and modelled what real greatness is. (See Matthew 18:4, 20:26-28). His absolute humility, his disarming simplicity (disarming to all that was proud, pretentious and self-exalting) and his majestic transparency (there was nothing false about him) made the rulers of his day uneasy, uncomfortable and exposed. They had to do away with him. And this they did by God’s permission because Jesus became in actuality, not just conceptually, the perfect Savior through suffering for yours and my sins. (See Hebrews 5:7-10)

All this is a study in contrast to that satanic spirit which was seen in the perfidious character of those pagan Old Testament monarchs like the Babylonian kings most notoriously exemplified in Beltshazzar (Daniel 5 and see Isaiah 14:13-15), the King of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:1-10) and the Assyrian kings like Shalmaneser (II Kings 19:20-28). Then this proud spirit is full blown in all its malignancy in the persona of “the man of sin” seen in II Thess. 2:4, and the Beast of Revelation 13, both of whom describe the last world ruler, the Anti-Christ, who in turn is toppled by the Son of God who in the end time “takes off the gloves” as it were and publicly reveals his Glory (I Thess. 2:8-12; Rev. 19). So he who humbles himself shall be exalted and pride goeth before a fall. We need to be vigilant in keeping ourselves in proper perspective; worship and praise make us predisposed to humility. That is why in heaven it is as natural to worship God as it is to breathe here on earth. (See Rev. 4 and 5) Another way of saying it is that worship is the perfect antidote to pride.