We are continuing to examine how Christ lived and served the Father.

Jesus lived and served the Father by knowing how to prioritize His life. Two weeks ago, we looked at Jesus’ first priority—He always prioritized the Father and His law first. “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38). Then last week, we looked at Jesus’ second priority—love everyone else second. “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39).

This is how Jesus lived—He place the highest priority on loving God. “Then Jesus said to them, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things’(John 8:28). Being that Jesus placed God first, He loved everyone else second, because He always did those things which pleased the Father (John 8:29). Since He spoke only those things which the Father taught Him, when Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16), it came from the Father and it pleased the Father. Immediately following Jesus’ baptism, the Father made it abundantly clear that He was very well pleased with His Son and all His actions: “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matt. 3:17). Therefore, Jesus loved everyone else second, because He was concerned for the wellbeing of their souls“for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

This week, we are going to look at the result of the first two priorities in the third priority of Jesus—denying self or loving self. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “ (Matt. 16:24-26). Before Jesus came to the earth and was born of a woman (Gal. 4:4-5), He was equal to the Father. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:5-7).

Jesus, because of our sin, had to deny Himself. In other words, He “made Himself of no reputation (Phil. 2:7a NKJV)” or “emptied himself (Phil. 2:7a ESV) in order to give us an opportunity to be saved. Jesus was willing to leave heaven and deny a portion of His Godhood to be tempted as we are (Heb. 4:15) because God cannot be tempted (James 1:13).

It was through living this attitude and being obedient as a man that the Father highly exalted Jesus and gave Him a name which is above every name. “And being found in appearance as a man (emphasis mine), He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore (emphasis mine), God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:8-9). Jesus did not leave His riches in heaven to be rich and pampered on this earth. Jesus loved Himself because He desired to do the Father’s will (John 5:30) and the Father’s will was for Him to deny Himself, love the Father, and love others the same as he loved Himself.

If we will follow His example—deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Him, we too will understand that our soul is the most valuable thing we have, and we will learn to see the value of the human soul the same as Jesus. Seeing the world as Jesus does and placing the same value on souls will cause us to stop valuing the world above our souls (1 John 2:15-17). Loving self is valuing your soul above the world’s goods.

Just something to consider.