Do Nothing

In my Sunday school class we've been going through Philippians. Sunday, we got to the verse, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves" We only got through the first part; 'Do nothing from emptiness or empty conceit". Whenever someone mentioned this verse, it would sort of just slide through my mind as something that I should do, and if you ever asked me what it meant, I would just say, "Well it means that we're supposed to be unselfish." It's a verse I've heard a million times throughout my life. Whenever I argued with my sister, my mom would quote this verse to me. It fits nicely into almost any situation, and so it's kind of like John 3:16; we just sort of glaze over it, or simply think, "Oh, yes! I want to be unselfish like that!" Or at least that's how I feel. But there's so much more there than we realize, as I learned yesterday.

Nothing. It's a fairly simple word. It means, well, it means nothing. It means nothing, not even one. But when you put that second part back into the verse, it becomes, "Do nothing not even one, from selfishness or empty conceit." We can't do even one thing for selfish motives. Not a single one. Not even when the thing itself is a good thing. Like when we, as girls, want to dress nicely. There's nothing wrong with wanting to look cute, but a lot of times we do it so that people will notice, or in the hopes that some one will complement our outfit. Which is done from selfishness. Or on Sunday mornings, when I search frantically for my favorite sharpie pen while the rest of my family wants to get out the door and to church on time. There's nothing wrong with me wanting to use a certain pen, but it's selfish of me to continue searching for it when my family is ready to go, and my Dad is starting to get stressed. Selfishness permeates so many of the things we do every single day. I realized that so many of my actions are done for selfish reasons, and I don't even realize it because the things themselves aren't wrong. 

Empty conceit. Pretty much the same thing. We do things so that it will make us look good and feel good. We take pictures of our drawings and paintings and such and post them on facebook, along with the photos we take, and we always get super excited when we get so many lies, or when people comment on our posts. Not that it's bad when some one likes your work, or that facebook is bad; (I have one, so I can't very well say it's evil)! But when we post these things, are we really doing it just for fun, or are we doing to try and get people to praise us and say we're so beautiful, or so talented, or whatever it is? So many times we do stuff out of "empty conceit" with out knowing it. After this lesson, I started imagining out a conversation in my head, something I do often, for no real reason. We were going to a friends' house that afternoon, and I imagined what I would say if my friend's parents asked me how Sunday school was. And I imagined myself replying, "It was really good, very convicting, but good" with a little laugh at the end. And I as I thought this out, I realized I'd just broken all my good resolutions about not being selfish and full of empty conceit that I'd made after Sunday school. Even if I didn't specifically acknowledge it to myself, my purpose in answering that way  would have been to make myself look good. There wasn't anything wrong with that answer, it was a good lesson, and I did feel convicted by it, but I was responding out of selfishness and empty conceit. If this conversation had taken place, (it didn't) I would have answered honestly, but I hope, after that thought, I would have done it with purer motives.

Basically, all that to say, I realized how completely, despicably selfish I am. Without even realizing it have the time. With out Christ, every single action, word and thought of every single day are motivated by selfishness. And that makes the fact that Christ would condescend to save me even more mind blowing. But the task He has set before  us, to "do nothing out of selfishness or empty conceit" is a daunting one. And while He's promised to help us through it, we'll never be able to achieve it completely, but our inability will help us keep in mind the joy of the knowledge of ultimate salvation.

Love,
Robin