Dang it, Bible!

This is what I'm thinking through today. I'm pretty sure I'll be thinking about it for awhile, though.

Philippians 2:3 - Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;

Dang it, I don't want to read this one. It calls all my actions and motives into question. How deeply has the cultural idea that you've got to look out for yourself affected me and my interpretation of Scripture?

Where does "Stand up for your rights" meet "regard one another as more important that yourselves?" I don't want to be a doormat, but I also don't want to disregard a mandate of Scripture just because it's counter-cultural.

Regarding others as better than me is not too difficult - until they regard themselves as better than me too. Then my pride kicks in. But another person's action or attitude doesn't excuse me from obedience. So I should treat others as better than me, even when they're jerks. Dang, that's rough. But how much better than me?

The verse doesn't say to consider yourself worthless or value-less. It seems to me that the Bible affirms an inherent worth in every human, so I don't think denying yourself that worth is appropriate or biblical.

But, again, when are we entitled to stand up for our rights and when should we just choose humility? If, say, our own inherent human worth is about a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, then can we be justified in standing up for ourselves when we're treated like a 4 or below? Or does it have to be significantly below our worth? 3? 2? 1? Are we ever biblically justified to stand up for ourselves?

We are to follow Jesus' model, right? This guy was the Son of God, and yet He was beaten, tortured and killed. That's like going from an inherent worth of 1 million to being treated like a 0. And yet He never fought back. Even when what we would consider basic human rights were violated, like the right to a fair trial.

So what do we do? Half of me wants to find a loophole - some reason I don't have to interpret this verse this way. It wants to find a valid, justifiable "yeah, but" so I can go on living in the way I already do. There's another part of me, though, that seems to think that there is no "yeah but" that will do; there's no excuse or reason good enough to get me out of this one.

Dang it, Bible! Whey do you have to go off and make me think?!