May 12

Philippians 2:20–21 (NIV)
20 I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. 21 For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

Timothy evidently was quite a young man! Paul, the great apostle said that he had no one else like him! Everyone here could stand for a couple of people or a group of people or it could stand for people in general. Paul is not saying that everyone else in the world looks after their own interests, but I believe he is saying that people generally, in the humanity of their flesh look out for their own interest. We as born-again, Spirit filled believers don’t HAVE to be like that, but I hear in this verse the Holy Spirit’s reproof of those who are and His encouragement to live a greater life. The mark of someone who is mature in Christ, who has taken dominion is they look out for other’s interest before their own and (verse 4) and show a genuine concern for others.

In our busy and hectic lifestyle where busyness is the marker of importance, it is all too easy to slip into watching out for our own affairs and leaving the affairs of the church (as a group of people, not some religious organization), to others. In church language we call those people the twenty percenters, because twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work in the church. I think a change is in order! Let us be a people who care less for ourselves and more for others. We do not have to neglect ourselves, but putting ourselves in proper alignment we will have it said of us, I have no one else like him!