“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 2:5
When Paul wrote the words in our text, he was summing up what it takes for believers to enjoy the comforts, delights and fellowship of being in Christ.
In other words, there is a warning inferred, that a Christian can sadly miss out on the comfort and blessings of Christian living if we allow our wrong attitudes to hold sway over how we relate to people and circumstances.
We can have a bad attitude or a good, Christ like attitude. In the context of our text, selflessness falls into the good attitude category, while selfishness is in the bad.
Attitude is expressed in many ways and soon becomes what we unconsciously rely on to guide and direct through life. As a matter of fact, how we live our entire lives rides on the back of our attitude within. For example if we have an attitude that tends to selfishness, the general focus of life will be inward, (all about me) and that will negatively affect the way we respond to difficulties, trauma, loss, success, family etc. Then on the other hand, if our attitude is bent toward selflessness (like the attitude of Jesus Christ) this will positively affect the way we respond to the same issues of life.
So to have a right attitude is vital for Christian living. This is not only pleasing to God, but the bonus for us is, that it allows the believer to enjoy the comforts and blessings of being in Christ here on earth - no matter what the circumstances. Chuck Swindoll said it correctly: Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitude toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.
Let us work on our attitude, so that our responses to life will be more selfless than selfish!