Expelling pride

After Philippians 2:1-4

It is a cancer, this thing

called pride, a cancer

eating away at the body,

consuming healthy cells

and organs, choking off

life, because that is what

it’s called to do,

take a life.

destroy a life,

obliterate a life.

Its cure, sometimes

painful, always a hard,

different thing, is

oneness, or being 

of the same mind, having

and sharing the same love,

existing in one accord,

a unity not possible

without oneness of Spirit.

Photograph by Hannah Valentine via Unsplash. Used with permission.

How should we then live?

After Philippians 1:27-30

It’s clear: yes, we have freedom,

our spirits and souls unchained,

unshackled. But no: that doesn’t

mean anything goes. Instead,

we have a command: to live 

worthy of the good news,

because the “how” signals

good reports, indicates 

a standing firm together, shows

unity in striving side by side,

and no fear of opponents. How

we live tells opponents that

their destruction will come;

it’s no wonder they hate us,

and will hate us. Belief and

firmness of spirit is inevitably

accompanied by hatred, 

by the heaping of abuse, 

by suffering. This is not

your prosperity gospel.

Photograph by Aaron Blanco Tejedor via Unsplash. Used with permission.