1If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death —even death on a cross. 9Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (NRSVA)
Talk about extremes! The very best place to be is in a church that is unified and handling well the threats to unity. The very worst is a church that is splintered, full of cliques and getting worse each year. The unified church is a healthy, risk-taking place, where people dare to love unconditionally. In a splintered church factions center on personal preferences, rather than ministry.
Paul wrote to the Philippian believers, specifically requesting they be unified in their relationships and purpose. Paul wrote to humans; he knew there would be threats to unity. Common sense tells us that where there is good, evil will eventually clash. Throughout the last two thousand years churches have really had only one main problem – disunity.
God speaks to us today through the apostle’s plea – he advises:
To remain in God’s will you must be in unity.
Our question, of course is:
How in the world can we do that?
The answer to unity isn’t easy, but it can be easily stated:
TO HAVE UNITY, BE CHRIST LIKE!
…and so, in order to spell-out that which will lead to unity, our text gives us a description of what constitutes Christ likeness.
I. Communion
It is impossible to ACT like Christ if you do not WALK WITH Christ! This (above all things) could solve the problems of churches around the world in any age. Believers who get away from a close walk with the Master cannot reproduce Christ likeness in the flesh. Paul said that the encouragement (strength) the Philippian church had been from being united in Christ.
Belonging to Christ will produce a natural "belongingness" with each other that transcends our sinful nature. The spiritual principle is that it is impossible to be in genuine fellowship with the Christ, when you are out of fellowship with anyone for whom Christ died. It’s a syllogism you can state backwards or forwards; you can start with the negative or positive:
Love your brother/love Christ;
Hate your brother/impossible to love Christ.
II. Compassion
Tenderness and compassion are the same word in Greek. They are from the root word which in English is "spleen." That little organ helps purify your blood. It is located in the visceral area, and the ancient Greeks thought of it as the center or seat of emotion. After all, when you get upset, the first place you’re liable to feel bad is the mid-section.
Christian compassion is a matter of being vulnerable enough with each other and the needs of the world’s lost, so that we are moved viscerally and volitionally to do something about those needs.
You cannot be Christ like without compassion. Remember, it was God in Jesus Christ standing there looking out over Jerusalem, weeping over the people who’d disowned Him throughout the ages.
III. Cooperation
Cooperation is when you are one in spirit and purpose. Our methods may conflict at times, but our goal will always keep us united. Did you know that you can take 100 pianos and tune them to the same tuning fork, and each of those pianos will then be in tune with each other? They’re in tune NOT because they decided to be just like one another – but because they were all set to the standard of one tuning fork.
A.W. Tozer shared this in his wonderful little book The Pursuit of God, and he likened the pianos to worshippers in a church body: “…worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
Our stated purpose and mission is to witness of Christ’s grace and salvation to our families, community and the larger world. That should be our shared mission – shared by every member of this church! And we will do a better job of that as a unified congregation. And we will be better unified if we are tuned to the Master – if we keep our eyes on Him –instead of judging each others’ actions.
IV. Consideration
There are a few things that need to come to an end in any church that wishes to be Christ like. One is SELFISHNESS! The end of selfishness comes with the beginning of humility. The word "humility" comes from two words, "dust" and "midriff." You get the drift? You can’t call yourself humble unless you’re willing to crawl through the dust ...for the least of these my brethren.
To "look to the interests of others" doesn’t mean we ought to be nosy busybodies. It means we ought to see the needs of others, particularly the outcasts and the lost of our community, and press forward with actions that will be meaningful in meeting those needs.
In every church fellowship there are those who wish to be prominent, petted and pacified. I wish to serve notice that in everything we do here Bethany we will not seek to please anyone but Christ. All people here are treated the same – we are lost sinners, saved by grace; we are brothers and sisters. There are no special considerations other than what will please Christ. This is Christ’s church, not a social club. Consideration is a matter of putting your brother’s needs above your own preferences.
V. Cross-Bearing
Paul reminds the church that the man who died on Calvary wasn’t like any other man. HE was God! It says He "made himself nothing." The King James Version says he “emptied himself”. The picture is one of sacrifice. In the temple a sacrifice of an animal was made for sin. The blood and water were poured on the altar - an emptying.
God was in one form in heaven. Like a glass contains water and can be emptied, so God poured Himself into the form of a man and died for us. W. E. Orchard said, It may take a crucified church to take a crucified Christ before the eyes of the world.
If a church is to be Christ like (and therefore unified) it will be through cross-bearing.
• Our comfortable seats in our air-conditioned auditoriums are not cross-bearing.
• Paying our tithes is not cross-bearing.
• Serving on committees, workdays and kitchens aren’t cross-bearing.
Cross-bearing is dying for others.
• Do you have the Christ likeness to give yourself up for poor people in our community?
• How about people of different skin color?
• What about the unchurched and uncaring?
• What about the dirty street people?
VI. Crown-Wearing
Paul uses a play on the sound of words in verse 8 and 9.
8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death —even death on a cross.
9Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
The words "humbled" and "obedient" come from the same root; while "exalted" sounds just like them. There is a definite and proportionate relationship to these. The principle is as follows:
YOU WILL BE LIFTED BY CHRIST IN HEAVEN TO THE SAME DEGREE YOU HAVE LIFTED HIM HERE ON EARTH.
Cross-bearing and crown-wearing always go hand in hand. Jesus bore the cross before he wore the crown. Don’t forget that the spiritual issues of life far outweigh the material or natural, and in the spiritual realm things are always reversed from the way they were in the natural.
• That which was high will be made low.
• The first shall be last.
• The rich, self-indulgent man went to Hades, the poor beggar Lazarus went to Heaven.
• And "...whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Mt 16.25)
Christ likeness is the goal. If friends, or a family, church, or even a nation would be unified, enjoying genuine fellowship, then Christ likeness is what we seek.
Paul gave a ringing piece of advice for any member of any church, anywhere and at any time – work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. This isn’t a matter of how to get saved…it’s how you live once you’ve become a Christian. Working on genuinely living-out your salvation to the fullest is a matter of letting Christ have complete control of your heart…giving Him your life’s “steering wheel” so that His impact on you transforms who you are totally.
Back in the mid-90’s Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat stood on the White House lawn and shook hands. The worldwide press corps went wild over the Jewish and Arab leaders making peace. What they skipped over was “…the fact that the two leaders had been invited to have dinner together with the Clintons at the White House, and they refused. What matters in the Middle East is eating together. You cannot kill someone you have shared a meal with.” The handshake was a formality…and the last decade has proven that deception and hatred were still in their hearts!
In the same way, the church can settle for having shows of unity – OR we can push on to the real thing. Shows of unity are displays of handshakes and smiles and ceremonies. Real unity is when there is Christ likeness because we care more about pleasing God than man.
And if the church in America, and on this hill in Franklinville ever gets done with people demanding their own way, and looks to Christ for its marching orders, the unity we discover will cause the kind of tears of joy none of us have ever experienced before!
