Phil Cooke talked the other day about the need for leaders to be concrete.

In short, start in the world of abstraction, but to reach your team, move quickly into the real world. Give them examples, illustrations, and real-life explanations that will help them understand your concept.

After I read that, I spent the day thinking a discussion I’ll have about Paul and humility and a letter he wrote to friends in Philippi with my Wednesday night group of friends. I wrestled with what concrete could look like for our discussion.

I read a familiar text:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

It’s a phrase that gets preached a lot. It’s a platitude that gets inflicted a lot. But what does it really mean to be humble? What does it look like? What counts?

And I read on:

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:4)

“All good,” I think. “That’s pretty clear. Good business looks at each situation as a win-win. If I help others, they will help me. I’m comfortable with that. That seems pretty concrete.”

But Paul was afraid that what he was saying might be comfortable, convenient, open to self-helping interpretation. So he decided to make “humble” very concrete:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5-7)

Bam.

If I want to understand humble, I can’t look at how serving I am. It starts with how serving Jesus was.

Paul shows the power of a concrete example.