Philippians 2:3

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 

Philippians 2:3 (ESV) 

Over the past six weeks we have discussed joy on multiple occasions. We have come up with many different definitions and examples for this three letter world. Whenever I think of joy, I am reminded of a series my youth pastor presented to the high school group. He titled the series, "The Fight for Joy." He defined joy as, "the exhilaration of the heart that comes from being right with God." This particular section in Philippians was titled, "Joy in Serving Others." In other words, we should have exhilaration of the heart that comes from being right with God while serving others. This verse specifically speaks about laying down the selfishness of your flesh by putting others above yourself.
One of the main words that sticks out to me in this passage is humility. Paul uses this word as a key to following the command he has instructed. Author, Andrew Murray, describes humility as, "the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue. And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin or evil." I love this description because it points out so clearly that humility is the antecedent of a virtuous life. There is just no way around it. The moments we think of ourselves higher than someone else, sin is an inevitable result.
So how can we avoid this sinful outcome? We need to avoid pride or selfishness in all areas of our life. We stand in church and sing things like, "take this world and give me Jesus," but we have to actually mean those words. Everything we do, everything we say, everything expose ourselves to, needs to be about pointing to Him. In the end, this will lead us to an exhilaration of the heart that only comes from being right with God.