Here is one of the hardest doctrines taught in the Bible. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each ESTEEM OTHERS BETTER THAN THEMSELVES” (Phil.2:3). My friend if you don’t think that works contrary to the flesh just put it into practice. What peace and harmony it would bring to the Church! It would eliminate criticism. Someone said the man concerned with demoting others is usually concerned with the promotion of himself. Blowing out the other fellow’s candle doesn’t make yours shine any brighter. The critic who begins with self doesn’t have time to take on outside work. Someone said, “I would rather play with the forked lightning, or take in hands living wires with their fiery current, than speak a reckless word against any servant of Christ.” The Church has from the very beginning had its ill plague of Diotrephes’s with its “green death of preeminence.” Oh when will we truly behold “Christ is ALL,” and ourselves as nothing at all?” I personally pray, God deliver me from this sickness. The worst enemy we have is our flesh. Augustine used frequently to pray, “Lord, deliver me from that evil man, myself.” All the fire which the devil can bring from hell could do us little harm if we had not so much fuel in our nature. It is the powder in the magazine of the old man that is our perpetual danger. When we are guarding against foes without, we must not forget to be continually on our watchtower against the foe of foes within. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit must contend for the mastery within us, and though He is Lord over our hearts, yet there is an evil power within our members strongly bent on mischief. Our Lord Jesus dwelt in His body only for thirty years or so; but the blessed Spirit of all grace dwells in us evermore, through all the days of our pilgrimage; from the moment He enters into us by regeneration he continues in us, making us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He looks at us from within and therefore he sees the chambers of imagery where hidden idols still abide. He sees our actions; not from without for there they might be judged favorably; but he discerns from within, in their springs and in the pollution of those springs; in their main currents and in all their side eddies and back waters.* It is amazing that the blessed Spirit does not leave us in our anger; we lodge Him with such opposition and honor him so little. He receives so little of our affectionate worship that He might well say; “I will no longer abide with you.” But no, he is our helper and will help us as we do nothing through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind esteem others better than ourselves. “And every virtue we possess, and every victory won, and every thought of holiness, are His alone.”
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