Our Lord in the Valley of Humiliation

Our Lord in the Valley of Humiliation

(No. 2281)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1892.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 5,
1890.

"And being found in fashion as a Mian, He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." Philippians 2:8.

PAUL wishes to unite the saints in Philippi in the holy bands of love.
To do this, he takes them to the Cross. Beloved, there is a cure for
every spiritual disease in the Cross. There is food for every spiritual
virtue in the Savior. We never go to Him too often. He is never a dry
well or a vine from which every cluster has been taken. We do not think
enough of Him. We are poor because we do not go to the gold country
which lies round the Cross. We are often sad because we do not see the
bright light that shines from the constellation of the Cross. The beams
from that constellation would give us instantaneous joy and rest if we
perceived them. If any lover of the souls of men would do for them the
best possible service, he would constantly take them near to Christ.
Paul is always doing so–and he is doing it here.

The Apostle knew that to create concord, you need, first, to beget
lowliness of mind. Men do not quarrel when their ambitions have come to
an end. When each one is willing to be least–when everyone desires to
place his fellows higher than himself–there is an end to party spirit.
Schisms and divisions are all passed away. Now, in order to create
lowliness of mind, Paul, under the teaching of the Spirit of God, spoke
about the lowliness of Christ. He would have us go down and so he takes
us to see our Master going down. He leads us to those steep stairs down
which the Lord of Glory took His lowly way and Paul bids us stop while,
in the words of our text, he points us to the lowly Christ–"Being
found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the Cross."

Before Paul thus wrote, he had indicated, in a word or two, the height
from which Jesus originally came. He says of Him, "Who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." You and I
can have no idea of how high an honor it is to be equal with God! How
can we, therefore, measure the descent of Christ, when our highest
thoughts cannot comprehend the height from which He came? The depth to
which He descended is immeasurably below any point we have ever
reached–and the height from which He came is inconceivably above our
highest thoughts! Do not, however, forget the Glory that Jesus laid
aside for a while. Remember that He is very God of very God, and that
He dwelt in the highest Heaven with His Father. But, though He was thus
infinitely rich, for our sakes He became poor, that we, through His
poverty, might be rich.

The Apostle, having mentioned what Jesus was, by another stroke of his
pen, reveals Him in our Human Nature. He says concerning Him that, "He
made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a Servant,
and was made in the likeness of men." A great marvel is that
Incarnation, that the eternal God should take into union with Himself
our human nature, and should be born at Bethlehem, and live at
Nazareth, and die at Calvary on our behalf!

But our text does not speak so much of the humiliation of Christ in
becoming Man, as of His humiliation after He took upon Himself our
Nature. "Being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself." He never
seems to stop in His descent until He comes to the lowest
point–obedience unto death and that death the most shameful of
all–"even the death of the Cross." Said I not rightly, that as you
cannot reach the height from which He came, you cannot fathom the depth
to which He descended? Here, in the immeasurable distance between the
Heaven of His Glory and the shame of His death, is room for your
gratitude! You may rise on wings of joy, you may dive into depths of
self-denial, but in neither case will you reach the experience of your
Divine Lord, who thus, for you, came from Heaven to earth, that He
might take you up from earth to Heaven!

Now, if strength is given me for the exercise, I want to guide you,
first, while we consider the facts of our Lord's humiliation. And,
secondly, when we have considered them, I want you to learn, from them,
some practical useful lessons. I. First of all, CONSIDER THE FACTS OF
OUR LORD'S HUMILIATION.

Paul speaks first of the point from which He still descends–"Being
found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself." My gracious Lord, You
have come far enough, already, do You not stop where You are? In the
form of God, You were–in the form of Man, You are. That is an
unspeakable stoop! Will You still humble Yourself? Yes, says the text,
"Being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself." Yet, surely one
would have thought that He was low enough! He was the Creator and we
see Him here on earth as a creature–the Creator, who made Heaven and
earth, without whom was not anything made that was made, and yet He
lies in the virgin's womb! He is born and He is cradled where the
horned oxen feed! The Creator is also a Creature! The Son of God is the
Son of Man. Strange combination! Could condescension go farther than
for the Infinite to be joined to the Infant, and the Omnipotent to the
feebleness of a newborn Baby?

Yet, this is not all. If the Lord of Life and Glory must be married to
a creature, and the High and Mighty One must take upon Himself the form
of a created being, yet why does He assume the form of man? There were
other creatures brighter than the stars! There were noble spiritual
beings, seraphim and cherubim, sons of the morning, presence angels of
the eternal Throne of God! Why did He not take their nature? If He must
be in union with a creature, why not be joined to the angels? But, "He
took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of
Abraham." A man is but a worm, a creature of many infirmities. Death
has written on his brow with his terrible finger. He is corruptible and
he must die. Will the Christ take that nature upon Him, that He, too,
must suffer and die? It was even so! But when He had come so far, we
feel as if we must almost put ourselves in the way to stop Him from
going farther. Is not this stoop low enough? The text says that it was
not, for, "Being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself," even
then.

What will not Christ do for us who have been given to Him by His
Father? There is no measure to His love–you cannot comprehend His
Grace. Oh, how we ought to love Him and serve Him! The lower He stoops
to save us, the higher we ought to lift Him in our adoring reverence!
Blessed be His name. He stoops, and stoops, and stoops and, when He
reaches our level and becomes Man, He still stoops, and stoops, and
stoops lower and deeper–"Being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled
Himself."

Now let us notice, next, the way in which He descended after He became
a man–"He humbled Himself." We must assume that He has stooped as low
as our humanity, but His humanity might have been, when born, cradled
daintily. He might have been among those who are born in marble halls
and clothed in purple and fine linen. But He chose not to be. If it had
pleased Him, He might have been born a man and not have been a child.
He might have leaped over the period of gradual development from
childhood to youth and from youth to manhood–but He did not. When you
see Him at home at Nazareth, the apprenticed Son, obedient to His
parents, doing the little errands of the house, like any other child,
you say, as our text says, "He humbled Himself." There He dwelt in
poverty with His parents, beginning His life as a workman's boy and, I
suppose, running out to play with youthful companions. All this is very
wonderful. The apocryphal gospels represent Him as having done strange
things while yet a child, but the true Gospels tell us very little of
His early days. He veiled His Godhead behind His childhood. When He
went up to Jerusalem and listened to the doctors of the law, though He
astonished them by His questions and answers, yet He went home with His
parents and was subject to them, for, "He humbled Himself." He was by
no means pushing and forward, like a petted and precocious child. He
held Himself in, for He determined that, being found in fashion as a
Man, He would humble Himself.

He grew up, and the time of His appearing unto men arrived. But I
cannot pass over the 30 years of His silence without feeling that here
was a marvelous instance of how He humbled Himself. I know young men
who think that two or three years' education is far too long for them.
They want to be preaching at once–running away, as I sometimes tell
them–like chickens with the shell on their heads! They want to go
forth to fight before they have buckled on their armor! But it was not
so with Christ–30 long years passed over His head and still there was
no Sermon on the Mount. When He did show Himself to the world, look how
He humbled Himself! He did not knock at the door of the High Priests,
or seek out the eminent Rabbis and the learned scribes! No, He took for
His companions, fishermen from the lake, infinitely His inferiors, even
if we regarded Him merely as a Man! He was full of manly freshness and
vigor of mind

and they were scarcely able to follow Him, even though He moderated His
footsteps out of pity for their weakness. He preferred to associate
with lowly men, for He humbled Himself.

When He went out to speak, His style was not such as aimed at the
gathering together of the elite–He did not address a few specially
cultured folk. "Then drew near unto Him all the scribes and Pharisees
for to hear Him." Am I quoting correctly? No, no–"Then drew near unto
Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him." They made an
audience with which He was at home–and when they gathered about Him,
and when little children stood to listen to Him–then He poured out the
fullness of His heart, for He humbled Himself. Ah, dear Friends, this
was not the deepest humiliation of the Lord Jesus! He allowed Satan to
tempt Him. I have often wondered how His pure and holy mind, how His
right royal Nature could bear conflict with the Prince of Darkness, the
foul fiend, full of lies. Christ allowed Satan to put Him to the
test–and spotless purity had to bear the nearness of infamous
villainy! Jesus conquered, for the Prince of this world came and found
nothing in Him. But He humbled Himself when, in the wilderness, on the
pinnacle of the Temple, and on the exceedingly high mountain, He
allowed the devil to assail Him three times.

Personally, in His body, He suffered weakness, hunger, thirst. In His
mind He suffered rebuke, contumely, falsehood. He was constantly the
Man of Sorrows. You know that when the head of the apostate church is
called, "the man of sin," it is because it is always sinning. And when
Christ is called, "the Man of Sorrows," it is because He was always
sorrowing. How amazing it is that He should humble Himself so as to be
afflicted with the common sorrows of our humanity, but it was so!
"Being found in fashion as a Man," He consented, even, to be belied, to
be called a drunk and a wine-bibber, to have His miracles ascribed to
the help of Beelzebub, to hear men say, "He has a devil, and is mad;
why do you listen to Him?"

"He humbled Himself." In His own heart there were, frequently, great
struggles. And those struggles drove Him to prayer. He even lost
consciousness of God's Presence, so that He cried in sore anguish, "My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" All this was because He still
humbled Himself. I do not know how to speak to you upon this great
subject! I give you words, but I pray the Holy Spirit to supply you
with right thoughts about this great mystery! I have already said that
it was condescension enough for Christ to be found in fashion as a Man.
But after that, He still continued to descend the stairway of
condescending love by humbling Himself yet more and more!

But notice, now, the rule of His descent. It is worth noticing–"He
humbled Himself, and became obedient." I have known persons try to
humble themselves by will-worship. I have stood in the cell of a monk,
when he has been out of it, and I have seen the whip with which he
flagellated himself every night before he went to bed. I thought that
it was quite possible that the man deserved all he suffered–and so I
shed no tears over it. That was his way of humbling himself, by
administering a certain number of lashes. I have known persons practice
voluntary humility. They have talked in very humble language and have
decried themselves in words, though they have been as proud as Lucifer
all the while! Our Lord's way of humbling Himself was by obedience. He
invented no method of making Himself ridiculous! He put upon Himself no
singular garb which would attract attention to His poverty. He simply
obeyed His Father and, mark you, there is no humility like
obedience–"To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the
fat of rams." To obey is better than to wear a special dress, or to
clip your words in some peculiar form of supposed humility! Obedience
is the best humility–laying yourself at the feet of Jesus and making
your will active only when you know what is God's will for you. This is
to be truly humble!

In what way, then, did the Lord Jesus Christ, in His life, obey? I
answer–There was always about Him the spirit of obedience to His
Father. He could say, "Lo, I come: in the Volume of the Book it is
written of Me, I delight to do Your will, O My God: yes, Your law is
within My heart." He was always, while here, subservient to His
Father's great purpose in sending Him to earth! He came to do the will
of Him that sent Him and to finish His work. He learned what that will
was, partly from Holy Scripture. You constantly find Him acting in a
certain way, "that the Scripture might be fulfilled." He shaped His
life upon the prophecies that had been given concerning Him. Thus He
did the will of the Father.

Also, there was within Him the Spirit of God who led and guided Him, so
that He could say, "I do always those things that please the Father."
Then He waited upon God continually in prayer. Though infinitely better
able to do without prayer than we are, yet He prayed much more than we
do! With less need than we have, He had a greater delight in prayer
than we have, and thus He learned the will of God as Man, and did it,
without once omitting, or once transgressing in a single point.

He did the will of God, also, obediently, by following out what He knew
to be the Father's great design in sending Him. He was sent to save and
He went about saving–seeking and saving that which was lost. Oh, dear
Friends, when we get into unison with God, when we wish what He wishes.
When we live for the great objective that fills God's heart. When we
lay aside our wishes and whims–and even our lawful desires, that we
may do only the will of God, and live only for His glory–then we shall
be truly humbling ourselves!

Thus, I have shown you that Jesus did descend after He became man, and
I have pointed out to you the way and the rule of His descending. Now,
let us look, with awe and reverence, at the abyss into which He
descended. Where did He arrive, at last, in that dreadful descent? What
was the bottom of the abyss ? It was death–"He humbled Himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." Our Lord died
willingly. You and I, unless the Lord should come quickly, will die,
whether we are willing or not–"It is appointed unto men once to die."
He needed not to die, yet He was willing to surrender His life. He
said, "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of My Father." He died willingly, but,
at the same time, He did not die by His own hands. He did not take His
own life as a suicide–He died obediently. He waited till His hour had
come, when He was able to say, "It is finished." Then He bowed His head
and gave up the ghost. He humbled Himself, so as to die willingly.

He proved the obedience of His death, also, by the meekness of it, as
Isaiah said, "As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not
His mouth." He never spoke a bitter word to priest or scribe, Jewish
governor or Roman soldier. When the women wept and bewailed, He said to
them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves
and for your children." He was all gentleness. He had not a hard word
even for His murderers. He gave Himself up to be the Sin-Bearer,
without murmuring at His Father's will, or at the cruelty of His
adversaries. How patient He was! If He says, "I thirst," it is not the
petulant cry of a sick man in His fever–there is a royal dignity about
Christ's utterance of the words. Even the, "Eloi, Eloi, lama
Sabachthani," with the unutterable gall and bitterness it contains, has
not even a trace of impatience mingled with it! Oh, what a death
Christ's was! He was obedient in it, obedient not only till He came to
die, but obedient in that last dread act! His obedient life embraced
the hour of His departure.

But, as if death were not sufficiently humbling, the Apostle adds,
"even the death of the Cross." That was the worst kind of death. It was
a violent death. Jesus fell not asleep gently, as good men often do,
whose end is peace. No, He died by murderous hands. Jews and Gentiles
combined and, with cruel hands, took Him and crucified and slew Him. It
was, also, an extremely painful death of lingering agony. Those parts
of the body in which the nerves were most numerous, were pierced with
rough iron nails. The weight of the body was made to hang upon the most
tender part of the frame. No doubt the nails tore their cruel way
through His flesh while He was hanging on the tree. A cut in the hand
has often resulted in lockjaw and death, yet Christ's hands were nailed
to the Cross. He died in most exquisite pain of body and of soul. It
was, also, a death most shameful. Thieves were crucified with Him. His
adversaries stood and mocked Him. The death of the Cross was one
reserved for slaves and the basest of felons–no Roman citizen could be
put to death in such a way as that–hung up between earth and Heaven as
if neither would have Him, rejected of men and despised of God! It was,
also, a penal death. He died, not like a hero in battle, nor as one who
perishes while rescuing his fellow men from fire or flood–He died as a
criminal. Upon the Cross of Calvary He was hung up. It was an accursed
death, too. God Himself had called it so–"Cursed is everyone that
hangs on a tree." He was made a curse for us! His death was penal in
the highest sense. He "bore our sins in His own body on the tree."

I have not the mental, nor the physical, nor the spiritual strength to
speak to you aright on such a wondrous topic as that of our Lord in the
Valley of Humiliation. There have been times with me when I have only
needed a child's finger to point me to the Christ and I have found
enough in a sight of Him without any words of man. I hope that it is so
with you tonight. I invite you to sit down and watch your Lord,
obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. All this He did that
He might complete His own humiliation. He humbled Himself even to this
lowest point of all, "unto death, even the death of the Cross."

II. If you have this picture clearly before your eyes, I want you, in
the second place, to LEARN SOME PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM OUR LORD'S
HUMILIATION.

The first is, learn to have firmness of faith in the atoning Sacrifice.
If my Lord could stoop to become Man and if, when He had come as low as
that, He went still lower, and lower, and lower, until He became
obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, I feel that there
must be a potency about that death which is all that I can require.
Jesus, by dying,

has vindicated law and justice. Look, Brothers and Sisters, if God can
punish sin upon His own dear Son, it means far more than the sending of
us to Hell! Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin, but
His blood was shed, so there is remission! His wounds let out His life
blood. One great gash opened the way to His heart. Before that, His
whole body had become a mass of dripping gore, when, in the Garden, His
sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. My
Lord, when I study Your Sacrifice, I see how God can be "just, and the
Justifier of him which believes in Jesus." Faith is born at the Cross
of Christ! We not only bring faith to the Cross, but we find it there.
I cannot think of my God bearing all this grief in a human body, even
to the death on the Cross, and then doubt. Why, doubt becomes harder
than faith when the Cross is visible! When Christ is set forth
evidently crucified among us, each one of us should cry, "Lord, I
believe, for Your death has killed my unbelief."

The next lesson I would have you learn from Christ's humiliation is
this–cultivate a great hatred of sin. Sin killed Christ. Let Christ
kill sin. Sin made Him go down, down, down–then pull sin down, let it
have no throne in your heart. If it will live in your heart, make it
live in holes and corners, and never rest till it is utterly driven
out. Seek to put your foot upon its neck and utterly kill it. Christ
was crucified–let your lusts be crucified! And let every wrong desire
be nailed up, with Christ, upon the felon's tree. If, with Paul, you
can say, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world"–with Him you will also be able to exclaim–"From henceforth let
no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus."
Christ's branded slave is the Lord's freeman!

Learn another lesson, and that is obedience. Beloved, if Christ humbled
Himself and became obedient, how obedient ought you and I to be? We
ought to stop at nothing when we once know that it is the Lord's will.
I marvel that you and I should ever raise a question or seek a moment's
delay in our obedience to Christ. If it is the Lord's will, let it be
done, and done at once. Should it rend some fond connection, should it
cause a flood of tears, let it be done. He humbled Himself, and became
obedient. Would obedience humble me? Would it lower me in man's esteem?
Would it make me the subject of ridicule? Would it bring contempt upon
my honorable name? Should I be elbowed out of the society wherein I
have been admired if I were obedient to Christ? Lord, this is a
question not worth asking! I take up Your Cross right joyfully, asking
Grace to be perfectly obedient by the power of Your Spirit!

Learn next, another lesson, and that is self-denial. Did Christ humble
Himself? Come, Brothers and Sisters, let us practice the same holy art!
Have I not heard of some saying, "I have been insulted. I am not
treated with proper respect. I go in and out and I am not noticed. I
have done eminent service and there is not a paragraph in the newspaper
about me." Oh, dear Friend, your Master humbled Himself, but it seems
to me that you are trying to exalt yourself! Truly, you are on the
wrong track! If Christ went down, down, down, it ill becomes us to be
always seeking to go up, up, up! Wait till God exalts you, which He
will do in His own good time. Meanwhile, it behooves you, while you are
here, to humble yourself! If you are already in a humble position,
should you not be contented with it, for He humbled Himself? If you are
now in a place where you are not noticed, where there is little thought
of you, be quite satisfied with it. Jesus came just where you are–you
may well stay where you are–where God has put you. Jesus had to bring
Himself down and to make an effort to come down to where you are.

Is not the Valley of Humiliation one of the sweetest spots in all the
world? Does not the great geographer of the heavenly country, John
Bunyan, tell us that the Valley of Humiliation is as fruitful a place
as any the crow flies over and that our Lord formerly had His country
house there, and that He loved to walk those meadows, for He found the
air was pleasant? Stay there, Brothers and Sisters! "I should like to
be known," says one. "I should like to have my name before the public."
Well, if you ever had that lot, if you felt as I do, you would pray to
be unknown and to let your name drop out of notice, for there is no
pleasure in it! The only happy way seems to me, if God would only let
us choose, is to be known to nobody, and to glide through this world as
pilgrims and strangers, to the land where our true kindred dwell, and
to be known there as having been followers of the Lord.

I think that we should also learn from our Lord's humiliation to have
contempt for human glory. Suppose they come to you and said, "We will
crown you king!"? You may well say, "Will you? All the crown you had
for my Master was a crown of thorns–I will not accept a diadem from
you." "We will praise you." "What? Will you praise me, you who spat in
His dear face? I need none of your praises." It is a greater honor to a
Christian to be maligned than to be applauded. Yes, I do not care where
it comes from, I will say this–if he is slandered and abused for
Christ's sake–no odes in his

honor, no articles in his praise can do him one-tenth the honor! This
is to be a true knight of the Cross, to have been wounded in the fray,
to have come back adorned with scars for His dear sake! O despised one,
look upon human glory as a thing that is tarnished, no longer golden,
but corroded because it came not to your Lord.

And, O Beloved, I think when we have meditated on this story of
Christ's humbling Himself, we ought to feel our love to our Lord
growing very vehemently! We do not half love Him as we ought. When I
read the sentences of Bernard, half Romanist, but altogether saint, I
feel as if I had not begun to love my Lord! And when I turn over
Rutherford's letters and see the glow of his heart toward his Divine
Master, I could smite on my breast to think that I have such a heart of
stone where there ought to be a heart of flesh! If you hear George
Herbert sing his quaint, strange poetry, suffused with love for his
dear Lord, you may well think that you are a rookie in the school of
love! Yes, and if you ever drink in the spirit of McCheyne, you may go
home and hide your head, and say, "I am not worthy to sing–

"Jesus, lover of my soul,'

for I do not return His love as I ought to do." Come, seek His wounds
and let your hearts be wounded! Come, look to His heart that poured out
blood and water, and give your heart up to Him! Put your whole being
among the sweet spices of His all-sufficient merit, set all on fire
with burning affection, and let the fragrance of it go up like incense
before the

Lord!

Lastly, let us be inflamed with a strong desire to honor Christ. If He
humbled Himself, let us honor Him. Every time that He seems to put away
the crown, let us put it on His head. Every time we hear Him
slandered–and men continue to slander Him–let us speak up for Him
right manfully–

"You that are men, now serve Him,

Against unnumbered foes.

Your courage rise with danger,

And strength to strength oppose." Do you not grow indignant, sometimes,
when you see how Christ's professed Church is treating Him and His
Truth? They are still shutting Him out till His head is wet with dew,
and His locks with the drops of the night. Proclaim Him King in the
face of His false friends! Proclaim Him and say that His Word is
infallibly true and that His precious blood, alone, can cleanse from
sin! Stand out the braver because so many Judases seem to have leaped
up from the bottomless Pit to betray Christ again. Be firm and
steadfast, like granite walls, in the day when others turn their backs
and fly like cowards.

The Lord help you to honor Him who humbled Himself, who became obedient
unto death, even the death of the Cross! May He accept these humble
words of mine and bless them to His people, and make them to be the
means of leading some poor sinner to come and trust in Him! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON PHILIPPIANS 2:1-18.

Verses 1, 2. If there is, therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any heart and
mercies, fulfill you my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind. Paul did not mean to doubt that
there is "any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any
fellowship of the Spirit, any heart and mercies," for no one knew
better than he did how those blessings abound to them that are in
Christ Jesus. He put it by way of argument. If there is consolation in
Christ, since there is consolation in Christ, since there is comfort of
love, since there is fellowship of the Spirit, be one in Christ. Be not
divided. Love one another–"be like-minded, having the same love, being
of one accord, of one mind."

3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. "Nothing." Never
give to exceed other givers. Never preach that you may be a better
preacher than anybody else. Never work in the Sunday school with the
idea of being thought a very successful teacher. "Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory."

3. But in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than
themselves. There is some point in which your friend excels you. Notice
that rather than the point in which you excel him! Try to give him the
higher seat. Seek for yourself to take the lowest place.

4. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others. Have a large heart, so that, though you care for
yourself in spiritual things and desire your own soul's prosperity, you
may have the same desire for every other Christian man or woman.

5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What an
example we have set before us in the Lord Jesus Christ! We are to have
the mind of Christ and that in the most Christly way, for here we have
Christ set out to the life.

6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
with God. For He was equal with God.

7. But made Himself of no reputation, emptied Himself of all His honor,
of all His glory, of all His majesty. And of all the reverence paid to
Him by the holy spirits around the Throne of God.

7, 8. And took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled
Himself. He had not descended low enough, yet, though He had come down
all the way from the Godhead to our manhood–"He humbled Himself."

8, 9. And became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him. He stooped, who can tell how
low? He was raised, who shall tell how high? "Therefore God also has
highly exalted Him."

9, And given Him a name which is above every name. He threw away His
name. He emptied Himself of His reputation. How high is His reputation
now! How glorious is the name that God has given Him as the reward of
His redemptive work!

10, 11. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. Now is He higher than the highest! Now everyone must
confess His Divinity! With shame and terror, His adversaries shall bow
before Him! With delight and humble adoration, His friends shall
acknowledge Him Lord of All–"that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." See how the
greatest Glory of Christ is the Glory of the Father. He never desired
any other Glory but that. The highest honor you can ever have, O child
of God, is to bring honor to your Father who is in Heaven! Do you not
think so? I know you do!

12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling. Get out of self. Work out your
salvation from pride, from vainglory, from disputations and strife.

13. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His
goodpleasure. You may very well work out what God works in. If He does
not work it in, you will never work it out–but while He works within
your spirit both to will and to do, you may safely go on to will and to
do, for your willing and your doing will produce lowliness of spirit
and unity of heart with your Brothers and Sisters.

14. Do all things without murmuring and disputes. Do not say, "You give
me too much to do! You always give me the hard work; you put me in the
obscure corner." No, no! "Do all things without murmurings." And do not
begin fighting over a holy work, for, if you do, you spoil it in the
very beginning–and how can you then hope for a blessing upon it? "Do
all things without murmurings and disputes."

15. That you may be blameless and harmless. None finding fault with you
and you not finding fault with others– neither harming nor
harmed–"blameless and harmless."

15. The sons of God, without rebuke. So that men cannot rebuke you and
will have to invent a lie before they can do it–and even then the
falsehood is too palpable to have any force in it–"without rebuke."

15. In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine
as lights in the world. You cannot straighten them, but you can shine.
They would destroy you if they could, but all you have to do is to
shine. If Christians would give more attention to their shining, and
pay less attention to the crooked and perverse generation, much more
would come of it. But now we are advised to "keep abreast of the times"
and to, "catch the spirit of the age." If I could ever catch that
spirit, I would hurl it into the bottomless abyss, for it is a spirit
that is antagonistic to Christ in all respects! We are to stay clear of
all that and, "shine as lights in the world."

16. Holding forth the Word of Life. You are to hold forth the Word of
Life as men hold forth a torch. Your shining is largely to consist in
holding forth the Word of Life.

16. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in
vain, neither labored in vain. God's ministers cannot bear the thought
of having labored in vain. And yet if some of us were to die, what
would remain of all we have done? I

charge you, Brothers and Sisters, to think of what your life-work has
been. Will it remain? Will it abide? Will it stand the test of your own
departure? Ah, if you have any fear about it, you may well go to God in
prayer and cry, "Establish You the work of our hands upon us; yes, the
work of our hands, establish You it." Paul cared much about God's work,
but he did not trouble about himself.

17. Yes, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your
faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. If he might be poured forth as
a drink-offering on their behalf, or offered up as a whole
burnt-offering in the service of the Savior, he would be glad. He could
not bear to have lived in vain–but to spend his life for the glory of
his Lord would always be a joy to him.

18. For the same cause also do you joy, and rejoice with me. To live
and to die for Jesus Christ with the blessing of the Father resting
upon us–this is a matter for us to joy in unitedly and continually.
God help us so to do!