The Tenderness Of God - Philippians 2:1 Series

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Philippians 2:1 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.

Introduction

How many of you grew up singing that song “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”? It is good to know that Jesus loves you because the Bible tells you so, but could you also sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know, because I have felt his love”? I know he loves me because of the encouragement and comfort I have received from his love. We have been studying through the book of Philippians, and we come this morning to chapter 2. Take a look at verse 1.

Philippians 2:1 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…

Before we finish that sentence, let me just ask you – have you? Have you experienced Christ’s tenderness and compassion and comfort and encouragement? Do you feel loved by God? And what are the implications if the answer to those questions is yes or no?

Review

The main purpose of the book of Philippians is unity in the church. Unity requires a right perspective on suffering, and a right emotional response, and so Paul taught us how to do that by his example in chapter 1. Now in chapter 2 he is going to give us the secret to unity in the church. It’s very simple: selfless humility.

2 make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose, 3 doing nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility considering others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

A thousand problems in the church and in your marriage and in your friendships and in your family relationships would disappear if you could simply put those verses into practice. But to do that, we need motivation. Here is the structure of the argument in ch.2:

Verse 1 verses 2-4 verses 5-11

Motivated by Jesus’ love - be humble and unified - by following Jesus’ example.

So before we start with the motivation in verse 1, let’s take a quick look at the command in verses 3-4, because the motivation will mean more to us once we understand what Paul is trying to motivate us to do.

The Command: Be Humble

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Let go of pride and embrace humility.

4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Each of you should look not only to your own budget and financial stability, or your own family, or your own health, or your own reputation, or your own education, or your own success, or your own happiness—don’t just think about that, don’t just have desires about that, don’t just strategize about that, but think about and desire and work and strategize for the financial wellbeing and health and family and reputation, and education, and success, and happiness of others.” In other words, Love your neighbor as yourself (Mt.22:39). If you buy or sell something, are you as concerned about the other person getting a good deal as you are about you getting a good deal? If you are watching TV and your child says, “Would you play with me?” don’t just think about how tired you are. Think about the interests of your child. When someone does something that is insulting to you or irritating to you, don’t just think about yourself. What are their interests? What would benefit them the most right now? What can I do and say that will make them put their head on the pillow tonight and say, “This was a good day”?

That almost sounds impossible, doesn’t it? How could I ever get to the point of having that kind of humility and selfless love? It’s going to require some very powerful motivation. And that is where verse 1 comes in. Our motivation is the tenderness and kindness of God toward us.

The Motive: God’s Tenderness

Understatement

Verse one is made up of four “if” statements. And in the Greek, there are actually no verbs in the whole verse. Literally it is: