Humility of Christ in Philippians 2:5-11 and its Implications for Christian Leaders

Abstract

The problem of disunity among the members of the body of Christ is one of the problems that need urgent attention because of its great advert effect on the body of Christ. It has been observed that this is often occasioned by leadership tussle among the Christian leaders. The society and those that are watching from outside are wondering if the Church are really adhering to the teaching and life of Christ, the founder of the Church. The division in the Church is also making preaching Christ difficult and also makes it look like that the church is not living to her true calling which is to be like salt and light to the world. To address this ugly situation, this paper adopts an exegetical analysis of Philippians 2:5-11 and relates it to the problem of leadership tussles among the Christian leaders. In this epistle, Apostle Paul commended the Church for their initial spiritual progress and after revealed the main purpose of writing to them which was on the problem of division among them occasioned by the tussle of leadership, egoism, pride and self-centeredness. To arrest this problem Paul told them the way out which simply was by putting on the Christ-like humility which He demonstrated in his kenosis. Adhering to Paul’s teaching on the need to put on Christ-like humility, the church then was able to resolve the problem of disunity among them and lived to Christ expectation. Drawing inference from Paul’s teaching on Christi-like humility, this paper recommends that the church should teach, preach and encourage Christ-like humility as demonstrated by Christ in his kenosis. This will serve as antidote to the problem of disunity informed by leadership tussle among some leaders in the body of Christ.