Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Parallel translations
- WEB doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;
- BSB Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.
- NKJV Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
- NASB Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves;
- NLT Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Do nothing from rivalry or conceit; in humility consider others better than yourself. Humility is the antidote to division.
Overview
Selfish ambition and vanity are named as the great threats to unity. The remedy is humility, a quality the surrounding culture despised but the gospel honors. Counting others more significant than oneself reflects the mind of Christ Paul is about to display.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Rom 12:10Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
- Gal 5:26Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
- Eph 5:21Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
- Eph 4:2With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
- 1 Pet 5:5Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
- Jas 3:14–16But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
- Jas 4:5–6Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
- Phil 2:14Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
- Luke 18:14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
- Gal 5:15But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
- 1 Tim 6:4He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
- Prov 13:10Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.
- Col 3:8But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
- Luke 14:7–11And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,
- 1 Pet 2:1–2Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
- 2 Cor 12:20For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
- 1 Cor 3:3For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
- Phil 1:15–17Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
- 1 Cor 15:9For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
- Gal 5:20–21Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
- Rom 13:13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The one who, being in the form of God, emptied himself to the point of death on a cross and was exalted to the name above every name — the joy and prize of the believer.
How Philippians 2:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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