Philippians 2:1-3 March 2, 2008
In Dwight Pentecost’s commentary on the book of Philippians he refers to an occurrence of a church split in Dallas Texas. The church split was so bad that it involved a legal suit of one side of the church against the other over who had the right of owner ship of the church property. The case went all the way to the State Supreme Court. It was dismissed on the grounds that the State Supreme Court was not going to deal with inner church issues but they would have to be dealt with by the denominational church governing body. The matter was finally settled with one side being given the ownership rights to the property. During this period of time a local news paper reporter did some investigating on the cause of this church split. He discovered that it all started during a church dinner. Apparently one of the church elders was offended when the portion of food given to him was not as large as the young person next to him. This whole church split started because someone was offended over such a petty thing.
Before we get to our text in Philippians 2 let’s look back at chapter 1 verse 27
27 Only olet your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, pwith one mind qstriving together for the faith of the gospel,
As we start reading our text we will see that Paul is referring back to verse 27 when he starts out with the word therefore. He is about to elaborate on this idea of conduct worthy of the Gospel.
2 Therefore if there is any 1consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any aaffection and mercy, 2 bfulfill my joy cby being like-minded, having the same love, being of done accord, of one mind. 3 eLet nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but fin lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 gLet each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of hothers.
Therefore if there is any consolation (or encouragement) in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy
Paul is not questioning whether or not there are any of these things in Christ he is saying that because there are these things, consolation in Christ, comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, and affection and mercy we should fulfill his joy. Anyone who knows Christ experiences all of these things, so the first question we need to ask is what is his joy? Let’s look at how Paul describes his joy in 1Thess. 2:19-20 19 For kwhat is our hope, or joy, or lcrown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the mpresence of our Lord Jesus Christ nat His coming? 20For you are our glory and joy.
We see from this verse that Paul’s joy is that he will deliver to Christ a body of believers worthy of the King. He is not interested in telling as many people as he can about Christ so that he can offer numbers to God. His joy is in being a faithful teacher so that he can be proud of what he has done. Do not mistake this for vanity. He is proud of “you.” He is not looking for self gain his joy is in seeing the Church presented to Christ.
I once worked with a youth group that would not listen to a thing a said. When I first came to the church they, the youth, told me how they had got rid of their last youth pastor and I wouldn’t last long. These kids where the rudest group of youth I has ever met. They talked during Bible study, they would not show up for any ministry opportunities, and they were terrible in public. In order to try and get them working together I decided to start a youth choir. This was about the time that the song “I Can Only Imagine” came out and that was what we started learning. I am no music leader in the first place, but trying to get them to practice was like pulling teeth. In order to encourage them I scheduled a time for them to sing the song during a Sunday morning service. They still goofed of and played around. I could not even get them to show up for practice, so I started spending our entire class time on Sunday nights practicing with them. The day finally came and I was very nervous. To tell you the truth it wouldn’t have surprised me if they all snuck out the back door, or if they just sat there and stared at me when the music started. When they began to sing I was shocked. They were good. They were worshiping. I was so proud. Not of what I had done, but of what they were doing for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the joy Paul is speaking about.
In the next few verses Paul tells us how to fulfill his joy.
cby being like-minded, having the same love, being of done accord, of one mind. 3 eLet nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but fin lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 gLet each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of hothers.
1. “Being Like-minded, having the same love being of one accord of one mind”
Paul is not asking us to all agree on everything. Can you imagine what kind of animosity there must have been between the people of that church that split over the amount of food that was a man was given? I know that sounds completely ridiculous, but when we do not make a conscious choice to be like minded then people begin to hold things in until it explodes over something like this. The heart breaking part of this is that or like mind is to flow from the same love. This is referring to the love of Christ! When I saw that youth group singing to the Lord I imagined how God must enjoy their worship of Him. Can you imagine what God’s response is to His churches that love Him splitting for any reason? If you think that one side was right and the other needed to go then you need to repent of your self-centered attitude when we are to be a God- centered people.
2. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others as better than himself.”
Lowliness was the last thing he was thinking of when that older gentlemen looked over and saw that the younger man had received a larger portion than he did. What kind of food do you think it was? I am only guessing but I think that is was probably mashed potatoes and gravy. If the person next to me got more mashed potatoes and gravy than I did I would be upset. I love those things. It is amazing what we find when we study the meaning of this verse. It means that we are to look at our weaknesses while we look at others strengths. In our new age society we are tempted to say that it does not really mean to think of other people as better than us. It only means don’t try and make ourselves out to be better than others. Even if that were true many of us would need to repent today because we do tend to judge and look down on people we do not agree with. How many more of us are guilty when we realize the true meaning of this verse is to literally see others as better than ourselves. Jesus left heaven and His rightful place on the throne to become man even though He knew He would die for our sins. We all agree that Christians are to be like Jesus, but few of us ever think about what it means. Jesus, being perfect, came to die for all sinful people, yet we, as sinful people, will fight for whatever it is we perceive we deserve.
3. “Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.”
One of the commentaries that I read in preparation for this sermon put this verse this way. “A natural reading suggests a broader reference point than merely spiritual qualities. Any concerns of others were to become the concerns of all!” This is not just talking about the obvious things that we think of like; money, food and clothing. It is also talking about things like personal differences. So often people are ran out of churches because they question the way things are done. Music ministers are ran off for playing contemporary music. Pastors are ran off for preaching out of the “wrong” version of the Bible. Youth ministers are ran off for letting the youth have too much fun. This verse actually means don’t think your ideas or interest are the only ideas or interest. Now it is of course different if they are questioning doctrinal ideas. Even then we should not be so prideful as to run that person out, but instead we should do everything in our power to teach them in love. Another statement that I read made a great point about this verse. “The Philippians were to imitate Christ, and it seems unlikely that Christ focused on the good spiritual qualities of the people for whom he left heaven. He died in spite of the fact that they were not spiritually attractive. ” How controversial is that statement Christ died for people who were not spiritually attractive. It is important that we understand the implications that this fact has on us today. If we are looking to be kind to those who are kind to us, or to like those who like the same things as us then we are not living like Jesus.
Christians this message is for us today. It is not the responsibilities of a lost world to live for Jesus.
We are called to be like-minded.
If we are judgmental, prideful, arrogant, or self-centered then we need to repent today so that we will be the church God has called us to be.
I know these words seem harsh and most of us don’t think of ourselves this way, so here are a few questions that we need to answer.
When you see or hear about a Christian in sin are you thankful that you are not as bad as that person? If so you need to repent.
Do you regularly notice how much better someone is at something than you and thank them for what they do? If not then you need to repent.
If you disagree with something about a person do you just choose not to speak to that person? If so you need to repent.
If you have a problem with a person in this church today that has caused you to act in a manner unworthy of Christ then you need to repent today.
If every Church in the country would decide today to be like-minded and get along with each other despite our differences we would see a revival like never before. We know that it is not going to happen everywhere but it can happen here.
