Philippians 2:1-11 - “Just one thing”
By James Galbraith,
Bethel First Baptist Church
Preached at First Baptist Church, Port Alberni, June 11, 2006
Text
2 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 others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Outline
vss. 1-2 - Unity in the body
vss. 3-4 - through humility towards each other
vss. 5-11 - as demonstrated by Jesus Christ
6-8 – humility of Christ
9-11 – victory of Christ
Background
Paul is writing from prison, his first Roman imprisonment,
- house arrest with company, as opposed to death row
- Timothy and others caring for him, gospel work proceeding, even expanding
1:14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
The letter as a whole is a thank-you letter for support,
much like a modern day missionary would send a letter to their supporters,
But Paul is also taking the opportunity to address other concerns
Paul has spent the first chapter thanking the Philippians for their love and support (1:3-11)
and encouraging them to remain faithful even through hard times.
He is now turning his attention to the health of their church.
Verses 1-2 a call to unity
“if’s - not questions, but rather confirmations.
like telling a child, “If you want dessert, than finish your peas!”
Paul is confirming that this list of qualities exist in the Philippian church.
“Encouragement from being united with Christ”
“comfort from his love”
“fellowship with the Spirit”
“tenderness and compassion”
“Encouragement from being united with Christ” can be understood on two levels.
One level is their unity of faith with Paul and the rest of the Christian community.
They have the encouragement of knowing that they are not alone,
that Paul is with them in spirit as are many other Christians throughout the empire.
The other level is that they are united with Christ in his suffering.
He suffered to bring them salvation,
and now they are suffering because of their belief in Christ.
In this way they are united with Christ in suffering;
he is a Saviour that can understand and relate to their pain
because he’s been through so much himself.
Now that may seem like little encouragement at first, but hold on.
I’ve been through painful times, as most of us have,
and there’s something about having someone to talk to whose has felt pain as well.
It is encouraging - it gives perspective to your own pain. Pain can really alienate someone,
and knowing that you’re not alone helps to draw you back into reality and face pain.
“Comfort from his love”
can refer to the peace they receive from God through being part of his growing community of believers.
But since the past paragraph spoke of suffering,
it is hard to see these words as unrelated to what has just been said.
They have comfort from being Christians, sure,
but they also have comfort from Christ’s act of love on the Cross,
suffering for their sins so that they would not have to.
Fellowship with the Spirit
Their Christian faith brings them into fellowship with the Holy Spirit,
God’s helper for his children.
He is with them always, in times of need and times of plenty.
Paul can’t be with them, because he’s in prison for his faith,
but the Holy Spirit will never leave them.
He is and always will be Jesus’ deposit of the complete salvation that is to come.
They also have tenderness and compassion.
Now, in the light of the other qualities, what does this mean?
Is Paul saying that they have been treated with tenderness and compassion
or that they are a tender and compassionate group?
They have demonstrated that they are a compassionate church through their treatment of Paul – later on he will mention how they alone have supported his needs while he’s been in prison.
Yet they have also been treated with tenderness and compassion in simply being introduced to Christ and allowed to build a church!
Since both are possible, and neither take away from the meaning of the text,
I go with both, and remain open to learning later that one is more correct than the other.
All of this is a lead-in to verse 2
2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded,
having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
He has spoken to them about his love for them already,
now he wants them to address a problem area that is sticking out like a sore thumb.
He says it three different ways, just to make sure that they get the point.
And he says it in the tone of an command, to show how very important this point is.
Be like-minded. Have the same love. Be one in spirit and purpose.
Now, since we tend not to react well to commands,
we need to look very closely at what this one says.
It is not a demand to be clones of each other.
Nor is it meant to stifle the creativity and richness that comes
with diversity of race, economic status, occupation or gender.
It is a call to serve the gospel together as one people,
without the petty squabbling that was festering amongst them. We know that the issues fought over were petty because they themselves are never brought up!
But the power of dissent doesn’t need the support of a credible cause to do it’s work.
This week I re-read a TRUE story of a B****** church in the suburbs of Boston where a brawl broke out in the middle of the Sunday morning service!
The congregation had broken into two factions - one to keep the pastor, and one to get rid of ‘em. These groups, provoked by a heated exchange between the pastor and the deacon leading the charge to oust him, actually began a full riot in the sanctuary! The police had to come and settle everything down.
Ironically, the Judge that tried the main combatants was a Jewish man, and before he dismissed the charges he said to the group,
“Your Jesus Christ may allow this sort of thing in His followers, but the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will not permit fistfights as a regular order of church service”
Fair words? Probably not. But this is the kind of black eye the church gets when it allows disunity to fester and go unchallenged.
Paul knows that dissent a killer, and commands the Philippians to unite in their faith.
Now, having called them to unity, he tells them how to achieve it together.
vss. 3-4 Unity achieved through humility
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,
but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Selfish ambition - a drive to have everything in one’s life centre around one’s self.
It’s like having the mindset of a two year old in an grown up brain and body.
You work for yourself, you rest for yourself, you act for your own interests
- you are basically the centre of your own universe.
For a child this is a stage in development, for an adult it is the triumph of the survival instinct over the development of a mature, healthy person.
Vain conceit is akin to the fool who takes pride in his foolishness.
Conceit is bad enough when it comes from a source which, under normal circumstances, may be entitled to some respect.
I used to make the joke, “I’m not conceited. Conceit is a fault, and I’m faultless.”
But vain conceit is hollow, empty boasting.
It’s the bully who glories in his brutality, or the joker who gets laughs only from himself.
Ultimately, it is pride rooted in nothing of substance or significance.
Both of this attitudes are killers for unity,
because they prevent us from acting in a way that brings people together.
They isolate people from the whole and distract us from seeing the needs of others.
What we need to do in order to work together is to pay attention to each other,
and that is exactly what Paul calls us to in the rest of this first paragraph,
…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 others.
Paul is calling us to regard others as more important than ourselves.
That’s not easy to hear, but the words are right there in front of us.
Now, we have to be careful that we read all the words,
and not get so consumed by one or two that we miss the whole point.
First, the apostle Paul would never see one group as more important than another.
It is he who has also written that there is no Jew or Greek or man or woman or slave or free, all are one in Christ. So this is not a call to devalue ourselves or regard ourselves as contemptible in anyway.
Nor does Paul advocate not taking care of your own needs.
He’s obviously taking care of his own, and accepting gifts from the Philippians to do so!
He is simply saying that to work together
we need to be ready to put the needs of someone else ahead of our own.
We need to be ready allow someone else’s idea to take the day or do the job or lead the group.
Sounds simple, but in practice it is not easy.
Especially in a church, to whom Paul was addressing these words.
People get used to things being a certain way, and done by certain people.
If you deviate from “the way things are done” you’re bound to step on someone toe’s.
What Paul is saying is that the church is to be a place
where we put aside petty differences and strive for a common goal.
We do that by working together,
giving when we can, taking when we need to
and looking out for the best we can give for others,
and not the best that can be done for ourselves.
We bring ourselves to the church the way God made us,
but we make each other the target of our efforts,
all for the sake of the gospel and it’s source, Jesus.
We practice forgiveness! The people of Jesus, who taught us to pray “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us” , should be known for their willingness, their eagerness, to forgive.
And we do it with humility. The quality that allows us to simply concentrate on what is best for others. Not false modesty that comes out of hidden pride, nor an acquiescence that grovels to everything that confronts it.
Humility is a mindset and way of life that truly seeks the best for others
and is willing to put one’s self in the background to accomplish it.
Paul knew that this would be hard to accept in a society that elevated personal achievement, so he points to the one example that no believer could argue against.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
And what was his attitude?
Paul writes a beautiful description of Christ’s humility in the next 6 verses.
vs. 6-8 Humility of Christ
Being in every way God,
Jesus did not consider this to be something that he had to cling to for dear life.
There are people who clutch everything that comes their way.
They rely on their status or occupation or possessions or achievements to define who they are, and letting go of anything causes them to feel like less of a person.
Jesus, having everything, was willing to let it all go.
He poured himself out, reducing himself to a servant in human likeness.
Likeness meaning “the same as”, not “an imitation” or “copy”.
This transition is simple incomparable.
We can try to understand by imagining Bill Gates, the richest man in the world,
giving up everything and living in a monastery.
We can imagine a human voluntarily reducing himself to the form of an ant, or even a single-celled animal.
That gives us the concept of what Christ did, but not the magnitude.
The magnitude has no appropriate comparison; it’s simply unmatchable.
His next step was to reduce himself even more.
We see from the life he led that he could have been any kind of man he wanted to be.
He healed people, taught people, performed miracles
- he could have marched away with anything he wanted.
The people thought he was going to take the kingdom over
- that’s why they lined up on the road to Jerusalem to welcome him as a king!
But taking over was not his intent.
He came to earth with the purpose of restoring mankind’s peace with God,
and he did this by giving his life on the cross.
Crucifixion was the death reserved for “non-people”.
Even criminals of Roman citizenship were spared this humiliation - but not Jesus.
All this to achieve one thing - our freedom from sin.
I Timothy 1:15 - “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”
Romans 5:8 - “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
What incredible love! What incredible humility! What incredible obedience!
And how did God react to all this?
Verses 9-11 – Victory of Christ
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
There is so much to look at in these three verses,
but for the sake of time I will limit myself to sharing the bottom line.
He restored Jesus to his rightful place,
gave him supremacy over all things,
and replaced all of creation everywhere –
in heaven, and on earth, and under the Earth, back under his rule.
In other words, he was vindicated for his humility.
He served to free man from his sin, and God moved to restore Christ to his fullness.
The implication is that we, too, will be vindicated for our obedience if we act in humility.
Putting ourselves before others, is a difficult thing, but if and when we do,
God will not let our humility go unrewarded.
We will not be elevated to Godhood as Christ was - that is not the idea of salvation.
But we will be made whole
- as we should have been all along
- as God designed us back in the beginning.
How then, should we react to Paul’s word’s to the Philippians?
WE SHOULD SEE WHAT WE HAVE IN CHRIST
- just as Paul recounted all the positive qualities of the Philippians,
so to should we, as a community of God’s children, see and appreciate what we have.
Look at what you have in your church today…vibrant youth ministry, strong musical talent, dedicated members, a facility with so much potential…
and be thankful, truly thankful for who God has brought together here and what he is able to do through you!!
But in being thankful for what God is doing,
we must be ever vigilant that we do not allow dissent to fester amongst us…
WE SHOULD STRIVE TO BE OF LIKE MIND AND SPIRIT
- not duplicates, clones, or imitations, God does not want copy-cat Christian just pretending to be like their favourite pastor or Christian leader.
But he does want us to keep our eyes focused on what is truly important, instead of our own prides and prejudices.
We are servants of the King of Kings, and not self-seeking consumer Christians.
We learn and grow as Christians by serving each other, not ourselves.
WE DO THIS THROUGH THE PRACTICE OF HUMILITY,
which Christ so powerfully demonstrated for us in his selfless coming to earth and sacrifice for us.
If Christ can come and walk amongst us, surely we can let another person’s idea have a go!
If Jesus gave his life for us, cannot we not try giving up a personal preference or two?
AND WE SHOULD DO THIS WITH HOPE ROOTED IN FAITH AND CONFIDENCE
that God will see our efforts and that they will not be in vain.
If we are ready to allow serving Jesus to be our unifying vision, and then serving him by serving each other in love and humility, he will do great things here!
Who here’s ready to see what God can do? I am!
