Learning to Yield

Learning to Yield

Yielding is usually associated with driving, and a failure to yield may cause accidents or frustration at a four-way stop. But the Bible reminds us that yielding is crucial for our relationships with one another. In the current polarized climate of western culture, learning to yield promotes healthy relationships and the good news of Jesus.

Genesis provides two accounts of creation. First, Genesis 1:1-2:3 provides an orderly account of all of creation. Second, Genesis 2:4-25 retells God's creating activity focusing on humanity. All of creation is declared good by God except in Genesis 2:18. It was not good that Adam, the first human, was alone. God's very nature is social, revealed in Trinity (Genesis 1:26). It is not surprising that humans, made in God's image, are social beings, and it is not good for social beings to be alone.

The picture in Genesis is of a relational God who communes with humanity as humanity communes with one another. The perfection of creation is destroyed in Genesis 3:1-7. Humanity sins, rebelling against God. Humanity's sin severed their communion with God and with each other. The story of humanity spirals into indifference toward God and each other.

1. The Problem of Indifference

Every human being is created in God's image and has dignity, value, and worth. As Christians, we recognize every human dignity, value, and worth because they are created and sustained by a loving God. Yet our sin-severed connection with each other often leads to indifference. Indifference distorts how we see ourselves and others. Indifference reframes the world around our interests, desires, and needs treating others as objects or tools. Jesus highlights our proclivity for indifference through the good Samaritan story (Luke 10:25-37). The good Samaritan story highlights the consequences of indifference toward those who are different, marginalized, or oppressed (James 1:27). When we are indifferent toward others and their circumstances, we reject the image of God in others, ignoring their dignity, value, and worth. The problem of indifference is widespread and affects us all; indifference occurs in families, friendships, churches, communities, and around the world.

2. What does it mean to yield?

The solution to indifference is not complex. Paul writes to the church in Philippi, teaching them to "do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). Paul directly addresses the issue of indifference in our daily lives with a guide to yielding to others.

Yielding or deferring to others is the opposite of indifference. To learn to yield to others, first, we guard ourselves against being focused on "me." The individualistic culture of the United States emphasizes a me-first approach to life. Christians are called to live a counterculture of serving others and not ourselves (Matthew 20:28).

Next, Paul teaches us that we are to approach others in humility.

Humility is the intentional lifting of others. Through humility, we engage others based on their concerns. Individualism asks, "What can you do for me?" As Christians, humility asks, "What can I do for you?" Humility in relationships with others is the practical expression of our trust in God. If we trust that God will care for us (Matthew 6:25-34), we are freed from indifference to serve others, honoring their God-given dignity, value, and worth.

In Philippians 2:4, Paul envisions a way of life in which people mutually yield to one another, and everyone's needs are addressed. Yielding or deferring is mutual. Yielding is not ignoring your needs while you meet the needs of others. Yielding is a two-way street on which we recognize that God provides for us through others even while we are caring for others. When we do not accept the ministry of others into our lives, we slip back into indifference. Yielding means we serve others, and we allow others to serve us.

3. Yielding is the Gospel Story

Learning to yield is learning to live the gospel story. The greatest picture of yielding in the Bible is seen in Philippians 2:5-11. Paul tells the gospel story through the lens of yielding. We are called to yield to one another because Jesus yields to God the Father. But the story is even greater as Jesus yields to humanity and on our behalf, Jesus yields to death. But the story doesn’t end with death. God raises Jesus to life and exalts Jesus, the victor of sin and death.

Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11, NLT).