Philippians 2:1-4

 

The gospel: The banner we rally behind

By: Scott Grant

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Who called this meeting?

 

            A recent television commercial pictured some people in a company gathered for a meeting. An awkward silence fills the room until someone says, “Who called this meeting?” No one answers. Someone else says, “I’m out of here.” And they all leave. This is a very sad picture of what church is like for some people. We meet together over and over again. It becomes a routine to the point that we forget why we came together in the first place. Then some of us ask a questions like, “Who called this meeting?” No one has a good answer, so some of us say, “I’m out of here.”

            Who called this meeting? God did. Why are we here? We are here because we love the Lord Jesus Christ and want to know him and worship him and follow him until every tongue confesses that he is Lord. That’s a good reason for showing up, isn’t it? It’s also a vision worth uniting for. Philippians 2:1-4 gives us this vision. It places the gospel before us as a unifying force that leads us to look out for the needs of others in the community of Jesus.

            In this passage, Paul continues his treatment of unity, which began in Philippians 1:27.

 

            Philippians 2:1-4:

            [1] 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.

 

Basis for unity

 

            Verse 1 contains four conditional clauses that each begin with the word “if,” but it’s clear that Paul believes each of these conditions has been met. He’s saying, “If these things are true (and they are!), make my joy complete ... ”

            Paul probably has the Trinity in mind. He writes in 2 Corinthians 13:14: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The similarities between that verse and Philippians 2:1 are striking enough to make us think that just as encouragement comes from Christ in the first clause and fellowship comes from the Spirit in the third clause, love comes the Father in the second clause. (A literal translation of the second clause would not contain the pronoun “his.” It’s more likely a reference to the Father’s love rather than Christ’s love.)

            Each conditional clause appeals to something God has given us. Verse 1 comes to us, then, as exhortation to ponder these gifts of God.

            The noun translated “encouragement” (paraklesis) has a range of meaning, but, in light of Paul’s use of the verb (parakaleo) elsewhere, here it probably means “exhortation” (Romans 12:1, 15:30, 16:17; 1 Corinthians 1:10, 4:16, 16:5). Although the words are Paul’s in Philippians 1:29, it is Christ who challenges us to appreciate suffering as a gift. The Father’s love for us comforts us when we suffer. The third clause would be literally translated “fellowship of the Spirit,” which means the fellowship created by the Spirit. Our fellowship is with God and each other. In light of the previous three clauses, it is likely that tenderness and compassion come from all three members of the Trinity (Romans 12:1, Philippians 1:8).

            Have you found the exhortation you need from your relationship with Christ? Has he challenged you to live in a different way than you would otherwise? Where would you be if not for the challenge of Jesus? If you were not following him, what would you be following, and where would that path lead? Those of us who have come to know Christ have been — and continue to be — challenged by Christ.

            When you have suffered, have you ever felt comfort from the Father’s love? The simple fact that the Father loves us is comforting. Sometimes, it seems, that’s all we have to hold onto: the belief that the Father loves us. That belief can sustain us through many a dark hour. Can you remember a dark hour, and can you remember when the light of the Father’s love broke through?

            Do you have a relationship with God and have you been blessed by relationships in the family of God? That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. He creates and nurtures relationships. We can never stop giving thanks that the Spirit has introduced us to God and continues to bring us closer to God. And how about the family of God? Has the Spirit united you with brothers and sisters in a way that ministers to your soul?

            In these ways and in countless others, have you felt the tenderness and compassion of God? Isaiah says of the Lord, who would be seen in Jesus: “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young” (Isaiah 40:11). That’s a picture of the tenderness and compassion of God. God cradles you in his arms and carries you close to his heart. Have you ever felt him do that for you?

            These are some of the gifts the Father, the Son and the Spirit have lavished on us. Perhaps we haven’t consciously experienced all of them, but they are there to be experienced. Because Paul’s exhortation for us is based on our receipt of these gifts, it behooves us to acknowledge them, to ponder them and give thanks for them — and maybe, for a few moments, before we proceed, to experience them anew. Think  about how Christ has challenged you. Focus your mind on the thought that the Father loves you, and feel the comfort that comes from his love. Think of the relationships that the Holy Spirit has created for you — first with God, then with brothers and sisters. Picture Jesus, the good shepherd, cradling you in his arms and carrying you next to his heart. Open your heart. Believe that God has gifted you in these ways.

            If we appreciate that God has blessed us in these ways, we’ll be ready to respond to Paul’s exhortation in verses 2 through 4. The call is to unity, and the activity of the Trinity on our behalf is the perfect lead-in, for in the Godhead, we find the perfect example of community: Father, Son and Spirit — three in one.

 

Reason for unity

 

            Paul has already told his readers that he joyfully prays that the their love for each other would abound more and more (Philippians 1:4, 9). If they do what he says in verses 2 through 4, he expects his joy to be “complete.” Because Paul has loved them so much, they would be motivated to make him joyful. This is an indication of Paul’s heart for these people. He is so bound up in them that their well-being can bring him joy. The Apostle John says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 4).

            Having opened their eyes to four gifts that God has given them, Paul has four exhortations for them in verse 2. Literally, Paul tells them to make his joy complete by:

            — thinking the same thing

            — having the same love

            — being united in soul

            — thinking the one

            The particulars may be difficult to interpret, but the thrust of the whole is clear enough. Paul is advocating unity.

            The phrase “thinking the same thing,” or something very close to it, appears elsewhere in the writings of Paul (Romans 12:16, 15:5; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 4:2). In those instances, Paul is speaking of unity. The phrase “thinking the same thing” in verse 2 contains the only finite verb in the group. Paul defines what he means by this phrase with the following three phrases.

            To have the same love is to have the kind of love for each other that God has for us. To be united in soul is to be connected with one another. “Thinking the one” is probably another way of saying “thinking the same thing.” But what is the “one”? What is the “thing”? The unifying force in this letter is the gospel. In appealing to unity in the previous section, Paul told his readers to conduct themselves in a manner “worthy of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).

            In the 1991 movie “City Slickers,” Curly, an old cowboy, advises an advertising executive, played by Billy Crystal, to find that “one thing” in life. Curly dies before elaborating, and Billy Crystal is left in the dark as to what his “one thing” might be. The scriptures say we should think the “one” and think the same “thing.” For those who follow Jesus, the one thing we’re looking for, the thing we pour our lives into and devote our lives to, is the gospel.

            We must recognize what we’re uniting for. Sometimes we forget. If a community is to be united, it must have something worth uniting for. Most of us are looking for a cause and for a community. The church offers us both in the same package. It is a community that comes together for the cause of the gospel. We are to keep the gospel truth that Jesus is Lord and the gospel mission to proclaim the Lordship of Christ in the forefront of our thoughts. The gospel is the banner we rally behind. We must keep it front and center. The gifts of the gospel — exhortation from Christ, comfort from the love of the Father, fellowship from the Spirit — motivate us to line up behind the gospel.

 

Enemies of unity

 

            The enemies of unity are selfish ambition and vain conceit. Paul earlier wrote that some of the preachers who took his place were proclaiming Christ “out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains” (Philippians 1:17). To be motivated by selfish ambition is to seek to advance ourselves rather than the gospel and to view others as rivals. When we adopt such a mind set, the community suffers

            The word translated “vain conceit” (kenodoxia) would be literally translated “empty glory.” The verb “empty” and the noun “glory” are both used in connection with Christ in the following verses, but in a completely different way. Christ “made himself nothing” — literally, “emptied” (kenoo) himself — and God exalted him so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the “glory” (doxa) of God the Father (Philippians 2:7, 11). Christ sought for the glory of the Father, and in so doing, he was glorified.

            Having been made in the image of God but damaged by sin, we are being transformed, through our relationship with Christ, so that we reflect his glory — so that we become like him (2 Corinthians 3:18). But when we seek our own glory, seeking to establish a reputation for ourselves, it’s empty. It means nothing and has no lasting value. And, more to the point of the passage, it’s divisive.

            There may be within us a spirit of selfish ambition and vain conceit. If so, it’s a good desire gone wrong. To want to be glorified by God — to hear his “Well done, good and faithful servant” — is a good desire, and one that will be granted for those who know Jesus. Although we may sense within us selfish ambition and vain conceit, we don’t have to act on them. Acknowledge them, yes. Confess them, yes. Act on them, no. It is possible to want to act in a way that lifts yourself up and puts another down and, at the same time, not to act on that desire. It is possible, for example, to keep your mouth shut. Some of us simply need to keep our mouths shut.

            When I feel selfish ambition and vain conceit welling up within me, I remember passages such as this one, and I remember that the gospel of the kingdom is more important than whatever I think should be my place in it.

 

Ally of unity

 

            The ally of unity is humility, which begins with the proper assessment of ourselves as creatures dependent on the Creator. Both James 4:10 and 1 Peter 5:6 tell us to humble ourselves before God. How can we exalt ourselves over another when we are dependent on Another for our very next breath? When we humble ourselves before God, we see that we are valuable in God’s eyes, yes, but no more valuable than anyone else. All bear the divine image. Humility was viewed as a weakness in the Graeco-Roman world, as it is in our world. In the kingdom of God, it’s a virtue.

            Such humility, then, enables us to do the seemingly impossible: consider others better than ourselves. This does not mean that others are more important you are. It does not mean that you don’t consider your own needs. It means, as verse 4 indicates, that you consider others’ needs more important than yours.

            A literal reading of verse 4 would have Paul’s readers “not looking out for the interests of themselves but also for the interests of others.” The word “also” implies that we are looking out for our own interests, but the command is to look out for the interests of others. The biblical assumption is that we will look out for our own needs. When the scriptures say “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 19:19), it’s not a command to love yourself. It is assumed that you do love yourself. We don’t have to be told to look out for our interests. We naturally do so. We feed, clothe and shelter ourselves. What we don’t naturally do is look out for the needs of others. God wants to change that. God will meet our needs (Philippians 4:19). That liberates us to meet the needs of others.

            The words “consider” and “looking out” imply application of the mind and intention of the will. Based on the biblical imperative, we conclude that others’ needs are more important than our own, and we actively look out for their needs. The verb that would be literally translated “looking out” (skopeo) is related to the noun skopos, which was used of a military guard, spy or scout. We are to be like a guard, a spy or a scout, looking outward and asking God whose needs we should meet. Paul considered his life “necessary” for the Philippians progress in the faith (Philippians 1:24-25). His “need” was to meet the needs of others. That is our need as well. We need to love others. Our needs actually get met when we meet the needs of another. And when we meet the needs of another, we meet the needs of the community. Nothing nurtures unity like humble, self-giving love that expresses itself in meeting the needs of others.

            Anne Lamott in her book “Traveling Mercies” writes of the time she, as a single mother with a baby, began attending a church in the North Bay:

            “And then almost immediately they set about providing for us. They brought clothes, they brought me casseroles to keep in the freezer, they brought me assurance that this baby was going to be part of the family. And they began slipping me money.

            “Now, a number of older black women live pretty close to the bone financially on small Social Security checks. But routinely they sidled up to me and stuffed bills in my pocket — tens and twenties. It was always done so stealthily that you might have thought they were slipping me bindles of cocaine. One of the most consistent donors was a very old woman named Mary Williams, who is in her mid-eighties now, so beautiful with her crushed hats and hallelujahs; she always brought me plastic Baggies full of dimes, noosed with little wire twists.1

            That’s a church whose members look out for the interests of others.

            How about our community? We have a great group of dedicated musicians who put a lot of time and thought into leading us each Sunday. How might we look out for their needs? If you had practiced and prayed really hard that God might use you to lead people to his throne, and when you got up to do just that half the people weren’t here yet, what kind of feelings might you have to fight off? If we looked out for their needs, they wouldn’t have to fight off any feelings. We can meet their needs by making an effort to arrive on time. We could even meet the needs of others by arriving early to see who we might greet. And how about after we finish on a Sunday morning and talk with one another and go to lunch? Let us look out for the needs of people who are new to our community or seem to be on the outskirts and make efforts to include them. How about during the week? Can you give someone a call, write someone a note, invite someone to a gathering — someone you’ve just met or someone you don’t know very well? This doesn’t seem to come naturally. It requires active consideration and perception.

            Some verses in scripture, even in this passage, are difficult to interpret. Verses 3 and 4 are not. We may wish they were difficult to interpret, but they are not. Our problem is that it is all too obvious what they say. Consider others better than yourselves. Look out for the interests of others. Can you imagine what would happen in a community whose members thought and lived this way? People say sometimes that they “feel the Spirit.” If someone walked into a community that, in the manner of Philippians 2:3-4, loved each other and everyone that entered into its midst, she’d be able to feel the love that the Spirit created. It would be palpable. And irresistible. And if a whole lot of people feel that kind of love, what would that mean for the advance of the gospel? We can only imagine.

            I ask: Why not this community? Why not this church? Why not you?

 

The gospel advances

 

            Understanding the gifts of the gospel — exhortation in Christ, the comfort of the Father, the fellowship of the Spirit — leads us to unify behind the gospel. If we understand God’s love for us and keep the gospel front and center, selfish ambition and vain conceit are held in check, humility and love and community win the day — and the gospel advances.

 

SCG / 12-16-01

 

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