“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.” Philippians 2:3-4 NIV
Paul is talking with the church in Philippi about how to live as a Christian, being like minded and having the heart of a servant. My mother was the epitome of this verse. She was always doing for others, buying things for others before she would get something for herself. She didn’t like to go through a food line until everyone else went through. The normal for her was to try and help those around her who looked like they needed help. The thing was that most of the time, by anyone else’s standards, she was the one who needed help more than those around her that she decided needed help.
Towards the end of her life, she did not walk very well. She would ride those electric carts through the store, but when we got outside she would insist on walking by pushing the cart to the car. As we walked out of the store with her groceries, she would be looking around to see if anyone needed help. As soon as she saw someone who looked like they needed help, she wanted to help them. Again towards the end of her life, she was not able to help them since she did not walk very well herself. Since she could not get to them, she would nudge me to go help them. This meant leaving her with the cart that she was barely pushing on her own and going to help the other person. The times that I tried to resist this and stay with her were usually not pleasant for me because she would scold me and I would end up going and helping the other person. Her love of others and desire to see them not have to struggle was more important to her than her desire to not struggle herself.
Throughout my life, this was how she operated. We did not have a lot of money but each holiday she would notice a family that had less than we did and she would invite them to share in our meal. Her value of others above herself showed me how to value their needs before mine.
When we value others above ourselves, we are not saying that others are better than us, we are saying that we love others enough to want to see their needs being met before our needs are met. After all, we do not deserve to be saved, but Christ valued us more than Himself when He died on the cross for us. When we put others first, we follow His instruction of loving others more than ourselves.