Obedient to the Point of Death

Philippians 2:1-8 ESV

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

We who are followers of Jesus Christ are all to be of the same mind, which is the mind of Christ. And we are to have the same love, which is the love of God/Christ, which prefers what God prefers. Therefore we will be those who do what our Lord says we must do as his followers. We will leave our lives of sin behind us to follow our Lord in obedience and in surrender to his will, and we will commit our lives to his service to doing whatever it is he has called us to do and to be, and we will live holy lives, pleasing to him.

We will view our lives as belonging to the Lord and no longer to ourselves, and so our life choices will not be based in selfish ambition but in a desire to obey the will of God for our lives. We will not be selfish people, thinking only of ourselves and what we want out of life, but we will care about the needs of others and how we can serve them, too, according to the will of God for our lives. And this is not saying that we will do this perfectly all the time but that this will be the central focus of our lives to walk in the love of God.

For we who are followers of Jesus Christ are to have the same mindset as Christ, and so we are to humble ourselves, and empty ourselves of self, and we are to serve God with our lives, and we are to serve other humans, all within the will of God for our lives. For we are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but we are to think of ourselves with sober judgment. And then we will not consider ourselves above others or them below us. But we will willingly lay down our lives to show the love of Christ to others.

For Jesus Christ, who is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – willingly left his throne in heaven and came to earth and was born as a human baby to a human mother but conceived of the Holy Spirit and not of man, so God the Father was Jesus’ birth Father. So when Jesus walked this earth he was fully God and fully human and fully the only begotten Son of God. And he suffered as we suffer, and he was tempted as we are tempted, but he did not sin. He remained sinless.

And during Jesus’ life on this earth, and during his three years of earthly ministry, his life was dedicated to God the Father and to ministering to the needs of humans, and to healing their diseases, and to raising the dead, and to casting out their demons, and to feeding the hungry, and to comforting the sorrowful. His life was all about service to God the Father and to ministering to others. But his main ministry was in getting out the truth of the gospel to the people so that many would be saved from their sins.

And he wasn’t afraid to tell people the truth, either. He wasn’t afraid of their rejection of him nor of their mistreatment of him when he told them the truth that many of them did not want to hear. For loving them was not about making them feel good about themselves in their sin. Loving them was willing to be hated and even put to death by them in order to tell them the truth that would save their lives from hell and that would free them from their slavery to sin so that they would now serve God with their lives.

And this is the way we are to love the people of this world and those who profess faith in Jesus Christ. We are to care more for their salvation and for where they will spend eternity than we care about being liked by them. So we will not shy away from telling people the truth of the gospel, even if we are hated and rejected and persecuted in return. And the truth of the gospel is the same gospel that Jesus and his NT apostles taught. And it is not this watered down “gospel” that so many are teaching today.

Jesus taught that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Jesus we deny self, and we die daily to sin and to self, and we follow him in obedience, then we have the hope of eternal life with God. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING God’s will.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

My Sheep  

An Original Work / June 24, 2012  

Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.

They listen to my voice and obey.

I call them and lead them.

They know my voice, so they follow me.

They will never follow strangers.

They will run away from them.

The voice of a stranger they know not;

They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that

I am the gate, so you enter in.

Whoever does enter

Will find forgiveness and will be saved.

Nonetheless whoever enters

Not by the gate; other way,

He is the thief and a robber.

Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,

Who laid his own life down for the sheep.

I know them. They know me.

They will live with me eternally.

The thief only comes to steal and

Kill and to destroy the church.

I have come to give you life that

You may have it to the full… 

They know my voice, so they follow me.

https://vimeo.com/114938263