In Philippians 2:3-4 we can see how Satan accomplishes division within the body of Christ as Paul warns against “Selfish ambition” and “conceit”. The recipe for division in the church always starts with these two ingredients. Get two folks in the flesh where they are selfishly ambitious and conceited and you will soon have a war. Saints, you will never see a fight where these two things aren’t present! Ah but Paul offers for us two things that if applied personally will counteract the effect of these two things.
•Lowliness of mind: That’s another way of saying humility but Paul doesn’t just stop there he tells us how to apply humility by “esteeming others better than our self”. I love this prescription of Paul’s because it doesn’t deal with the symptoms of division, it deals with the only real area you can change, “yourself”. Paul doesn’t say, “Well start with negotiations, then move to compromise.” Instead he says, “Skip all of that; don’t focus on how the person is different from you, focus on treating them better than you would treat yourself.” I suggest that when there is a division between you and someone else that you look them over real well and say to yourself, this person is better than me and I’m going to treat them that way no matter how they treat me.
•Look out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others: Did you notice that in Paul’s prescription for “selfish ambition” and “conceit” that he offered the pill of humility for conceit before dealing with selfish ambition? I believe the reason for this is that we need to have humility at work against conceit before we can deal with selfish ambitions. Having taken the humility pill you can ask yourself this question and get the truth: “How much time am I giving to my own interests and agenda and how much time am I giving to the interests of others?”
• Paul doesn’t say that it is wrong to look out for your own interests; he says that you have to also consider how that will affect someone else’s interests. In doing this you will no longer be only acting selfishly, but you will be acting with everyone in view in a way that betters everyone and not just yourself.
As noted before: If I consider you above me, and you consider me above you, we will have a community where everyone is looked up to, and no one is looked down on!