How do you like that picture? The kid is just a few weeks old, and already has attitude. Any of you who have been around babies know that it is true. We are born with attitude. It is part of the sin nature. Attitude can be a virtue, or a vice. When it is a virtue, it is usually prefaced with a word like, “good” or “great”, as in, “She has a great attitude”. When one refers to another person as having “attitude”, they usually mean it in a negative way.
The Bible has something to say about the kind of attitude that followers of Christ should have. Philippians 2:1-7 says, “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of the others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus:”
Jesus’ attitude was one of humility and it is his example that Paul set before us as the attitude we should adopt.
Being “like minded” means pretty much the same as, “having the same attitude”. The apostle Paul was teaching the Philippians how important unity is for believers.
The attitudes of selfishness and conceit are self centered and destroy unity while the attitude of humility places the interests of others ahead of self and builds unity.
Your attitude is your choice. Victor Frankl said, “The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitudes.” People sometimes like to play the blame game to justify their bad attitudes. The following quote from Charles Swindoll lays the blame squarely on the individual.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude to me. It is more important than facts, it is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. We are in charge of our attitude.
Our attitude will either draw others to Christ, or cause others to turn away from Christ. It seems the choice is ours.
