Good day, Purposeful Hearts! Last week, I introduced our leadership mini-series designed to help you develop your leadership competence. Today we officially dive into the first step, which is knowing your Savior and why he is the standard of effective leadership.
The three core aspects of knowing your Savior in terms of leadership include knowing Christ as the standard of leadership (which we’ll cover today), the source of our leadership, and the one who sustains us in our leadership efforts. We’re going to take a look at Philippians 2:5-11. I’ll share these verses below, and I’d like you to look at the evidence for Christ as our standard of leadership:
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).
Let’s take a look at Jesus’ behaviors as our standard of leadership. First, He led is earthly life in submission to the Father. Consider all of the submissive phrases in Philippians 2: “did not consider equality, made himself nothing, humbled himself.” What a phenomenal starting point for us to consider, especially in a world of individualization, achievement, status, and pride!
In that same vein, verse 7 describes Jesus as taking the nature of a servant. Look at the image of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. In order to serve in this way, Jesus had to physically lower himself below his followers. He had no issue with confronting what we might consider the dirtiest, least pleasant part of the body. Do we always have that same servant attitude toward our followers?
(How many of you would feel comfortable standing up and saying “I have fantastic feet!” How many of you spent as much time caring for your feet this morning as you did putting your makeup on or choosing your outfit? Jesus took the part of the body that is literally the farthest from our normal awareness and made it the center of His world to teach us an amazing lesson.)
Verse 7 continues by clearly stating that Jesus made himself into human likeness. This is one powerful example of empathy, identification, and sacrifice for followers!
Philippians 2 also points to Jesus as the model of desired behavior. While living in submission to the Father, serving all of humankind, and taking on human form, Jesus confronted the sinful ways of man with His perfection. He showed us in a spiritual, relational, and empathic way that even the most difficult followers deserve to be treated like God’s own creation. What a powerful message that is for us on those days when we are frustrated with those around us!
Jesus truly is our standard of leadership! But He didn’t stop there. No, Jesus empowers each and every one of us on our journey as Christians and as leaders. Next time, we’ll take a look at some evidence from Philippians of how Jesus acts as our source of leadership and sustains us in the process.
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