Nothing Out of
Selfish Ambition

These two verses are among the most quoted and least practiced in the entire New Testament, and it’s worth slowing down enough to feel how demanding they actually are.

Start with the word nothing, because Paul doesn’t leave room for a percentage. He isn’t asking us to reduce selfish ambition down to a manageable level. He’s describing a life where it isn’t one of the operating motives at all, which is way more than most of us ever signed up for.

“

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Then there’s humility, which the ancient world didn’t regard as a virtue in any sense. In Greek and Roman thinking, the word Paul uses here described lowliness in a demeaning way, something much closer to being servile. Christianity took a word that meant weakness and made it mean strength, and it could only do that because of what Christ did, which is exactly where Paul is about to go in the very next verses.

Now notice the definition Paul gives, because he doesn’t leave humility vague. Value others above yourselves, and look to the interests of others. Humility here isn’t thinking poorly of yourself, and it’s certainly not the performance of self-deprecation that we sometimes mistake for it.

It’s knowing what someone else is carrying this week because you actually asked them. Notice Paul doesn’t ask us to think less of ourselves, which is a common misreading, but simply to think of ourselves less often than we currently do.

Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself less often.

That definition is a relief, because it means humility isn’t a feeling you have to manufacture before you can act. It’s a practice you can begin today. You don’t need to feel humble to ask a better question, remember what someone told you last week, or let another person’s need reshape your afternoon.

Here’s the test that cuts closest. In your last real disagreement, could you’ve stated the other person’s position in a way they would’ve recognized as fair? If not, then you weren’t looking to their interests at all. You were building a case.