The Significance of Insignificance

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” - Philippians 2:3

Have you ever felt insignificant? The interesting thing about insignificance is that there is always a comparison. As human beings we have an innate nature to compare ourselves constantly to everyone and everything. For example, the majesty of nature many times can make us seem insignificant, or sometimes when we have negative self images we compare ourselves to others and the feelings of insignificance come. I don’t want to say it is wrong to feel this, I actually believe it is quite a good feeling when it is compared to the right person, and that person is Jesus Christ. The significance of insignificance is what we see in Biblical humility.

In the passage we see in Philippians 2:3 the word humility can be defined as an inside-out virtue produced by comparing ourselves to the Lord rather than others. This word humility also implies living on total dependence on the Lord with no reliance on self. A few verses later we see that Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus came down to our level and lived a life of total dependence on his Father. In a culture that constantly bombards us with entitlement, the idea that we deserve to be served we often forget to count others more significant than ourselves.

A good friend of mine once told me, “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” We often times take ourselves way too seriously. We think God needs us, we don’t compare ourselves with an Almighty, Holy, Loving, Gracious, Merciful, Sacrificing, God. When we allow our minds to be transformed and our perspective to shift we then begin to understand the significance of insignificance. What or who are you comparing yourself to? The only standard of measure we have is Jesus Christ and we all fall short of the glory of God. Thanks be to God for the humility of Christ Jesus to be the sacrificial atonement for our sins that we may have the righteousness of Christ applied to our account. I pray that today we would walk in humility and count others more significant than yourself.

“The fear of the LORD is instruction and wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” - Proverbs 15:33

Further Reading: Philippians 2, Acts 20:17-38