Count others more significant than yourselves.
Paul's instruction for humility. Not lower self-esteem — higher esteem of everyone else.
The episode in a glance.
- 01'Nothing from selfish ambition or conceit' names the heart issue.
- 02'Count others more significant' is a deliberate posture, not a feeling.
- 03Humility isn't thinking less of yourself; it's thinking of yourself less.
- 04The model in the next verses is Jesus — who emptied himself.
Read along.
Philippians 2:3 says, 'Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.'
Two things to do nothing from: selfish ambition (looking out for your own win) and conceit (looking down on others). Paul names them on purpose.
Then the alternative: 'count others more significant than yourselves.' That's a deliberate act of evaluation. You don't feel it first; you choose it first, and the feelings follow.
Humility, as Paul defines it, isn't self-loathing. It's not thinking less of yourself; it's thinking of yourself less, and of others more.
And the next verses give the model: Jesus, who was equal with God but didn't grasp at it. He emptied himself. That's the picture Paul wants you to imitate.