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Written by Donald Macleod (1940-2023) a Scottish theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “A Faith to Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine.”

[Jesus] did not, as incarnate, live a life of detachment. He lived a life of involvement.

He lived where he could see human sin, hear human swearing and blasphemy, see human diseases and observe human mortality, poverty and squalor. His mission was fully incarnational because he taught men by coming alongside them, becoming one of them and sharing their environment and their problems. For us, as individuals and churches in an affluent society, this is a great embarrassment. How can we effectively minister to a lost world if we are not in it? How can we reach the ignorant and the poor if we are not with them? How can our churches understand deprived areas if the church is not incarnate in the deprived areas? How can we be salt and light in the darkened ghettos of our cities if we ourselves don’t have any effective contacts and relationships with the Nazareths of [our day]? We are profoundly unfaithful to this great principle of incarnational mission. The great Prophet came right alongside the people and shared their experience at every level. He became flesh and dwelt among us.

 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. [Philippians 2:5-7]