Scripture Introduction
Lucian was a Greek satirist of the second century A.D. His ridicule of Greek mythology and of Christianity earned him the nickname, “the Blasphemer.” Even so, God caused him to leave something edifying for us. He said of the Christians in his day: “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator [Jesus] has put it in their heads that they are brethren.”
When Jesus was here, he said that “All people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (John 13.35). Not by our clothing, our liturgy, our knowledge of the Bible, or by our shining morality. What sets us off from the world and proves the reality of God’s life in us is heartfelt love for one another. May God renew this gift in us today!
[Read Philippians 1.3-8. Pray.]
Introduction
A young fellow asked a rich old man how he made his money. The old guy fingered his worsted wool vest and said, “Well, son, it was 1932, the depth of the Great Depression. I was down to my last nickel. I invested that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple, and at the end of the day, I sold it for ten cents. The next morning, I invested ten cents in two apples. I polished all day and sold them at 5:00 pm for 20 cents. I continued this work for a month, by the end of which I’d accumulated a small fortune of $1.37.” “And that’s how you built an empire?” the boy asked. “No, son,” the man replied. “Then my wife’s father died and left us two million dollars.”
We may feel like effort put into relationships with church folks only yields $1.37 in return when what we want is a two million dollar inheritance. Or to put it into the language of the Christian family, we hope God will bring different people to church, people we like and people like us. Then we can love without a supernatural work of God’s grace. But God brings whom he brings, that we might depend on him to enjoy one another in the midst of life.
The Bible prescribes twenty-six different ways to care for each other in the church. God gives twenty-six different “one-another” commands. Why so many?
First, because our relationships are central to the faith. Many Christians treat these as peripheral or even irrelevant (especially in comparison to knowledge), but how we relate to one another is of the essence of practicing the faith we profess. How else can we explain verses like 1John 3.17: “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” It is in relationship that we work out our faith and find if it is real. So this is key to the practice of the faith.
A second reason God speaks so often about how we care for one another is because relating well to sinners is difficult – it demands death to self and to selfish desires. God teaches more explicitly where we most doubt his blessing. And this is preeminently a work of faith, because we must believe that God’s commands are good, even when they cross our desires.
Today we learn five characteristics of those who enjoy other Christians: 1) Thankful Prayer; 2) Gospel Partnership; 3) Hopeful Confidence; 4) Grace Dependence; and 5) Heartfelt Love. First, please note that…
1. Enjoying Other Christians Requires Thankful Prayer (Philippians 1.3-4)
In a unified and healthy church, the people thank God for one another and tell each other that they do so. The enemy hates Christian unity, so he uses every means to divide us; we, on the other hand, resist his spite by filling our hearts, our minds, and our voices with thanksgiving. Of course, we often must ignore our own unpleasant situations in order to care deeply about the needs of others.
Pastor John MacArthur applies well this verse: “Like Paul, believers who possess Godgiven joy do not focus on themselves, even in the midst of pain or difficult circumstances. They are rather concerned about their fellow believers’ difficulties, hardships, failures, and sorrows, and they earnestly intercede for them. They joyfully pray for God to bless their fellow believers in every way, above all for their spiritual welfare. Later in this letter Paul expresses this personal trait in an admonition: ‘Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others’ (Philippians 2.4)…. It seems that throughout most of the history of the church only a minority of Christians have known the true, full joy that God gives to his obedient children. Lack of joy reveals itself in three ways: in negative thoughts and talk about others, in a lack of concern for their welfare, and in the failure to intercede on their behalf. Joyless believers are self-centered, selfish, proud, and often vengeful, and their self-centeredness inevitably manifests itself in prayerlessness” (MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Philippians).
So how do we believe this promise and engage in thankful prayer? I have five suggestions:
• Refuse to dwell on the faults and inadequacies of others, instead focusing on their best traits
• Itemize specific things for which we are thankful
• Speak (out loud) thanksgiving to God and to those we are thankful for
• Make thanksgiving in prayer as significant and frequent to us as intercession
• Add to worship services and prayer meetings
Dietrich Bonhoeffer pastored in Germany and was executed in 1945 under Hitler’s regime. Before his death, he described how Christian are to relate in his book, Life Together. “If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ”(29).
If we believe the Bible, we know that thankful prayer is one way God creates in us heartfelt affection for one another.
2. Enjoying Other Christians Requires Gospel Partnership (Philippians 1.5)
Bonhoeffer: “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity” (21).
Bonhoeffer is simply stating in other words what Paul says in Philippians 1.5: everything flows from our partnership in the gospel. We might ask, though, why is the gospel necessary? Can we not be united by reformed theology or our form of worship or some doctrine or practice? Obviously, we can come together around something other than Jesus and his gospel. However, when conflict or disagreement arise, only the grace of God working through the Spirit of God sustains the love of God in our hearts for each other. Only the Gospel knits hearts together sufficiently to resist the ripping force of sin. Bonhoeffer offers a reason why: “Without Christ we would not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego. Christ opened up the way to God and to our brother. Now Christians can live with one another in peace; they can love and serve one another; they can become one…. Not only the other person who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seeking brotherhood, must I deal with in fellowship. My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from his sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ” (23- 26).
People are united by many common causes and needs. Football teams by the desire to win games; students by shared classes and career goals; political parties by agreed upon agendas. What sets the church apart is the grace of God enabling sinners to truly enjoy the fellowship of the redeemed.
3. Enjoying Other Christians Requires Hopeful Confidence (Philippians 1.6)
The Philippians were not a perfect church. But Paul remained hopeful: “I am sure of this….” The word for “sure” could also be translated “confident”; it means, certain: “I am sure, certain, confident, dear Philippians, because of what God has done, that you will continue to progress in faith and maturity.” Paul holds to hope, rather than focusing on failures.
But you might say to me, “Pastor, these people are sinners; I’m not sure I can trust them.” The Bible is not asking us to trust them; do we trust God?
Bonhoeffer: “We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what he does give us daily. And is not what has been given us enough: brothers, who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of his grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day? Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Christ Jesus? Thus, the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by the one Word and Deed which really binds us together—the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ” (28).
Christians enjoy one another, not by dwelling on past failures, but by confidence in future graces. Such hope can change the very culture of a church, if our constant mantra is “God has worked in your life—I have seen it. Therefore I am confident that you will continue to grow in his grace, changing to be more like Jesus!” God-centered confidence empowers the enjoying of one another.
4. Enjoying Other Christians Requires Grace Dependence (Philippians 1.7)
The old King James Version incorrectly translated the middle of this verse: “ye all are partakers of my grace.” As if Paul had shown them grace. But ESV is correct: “you are all partakers with me of grace.”
James Boice: “It is not that Paul’s grace is shared with them. It is rather that all alike, from the great apostle to the most humble believer, are participants in the grace of God. No truth will more quickly overcome divisions among Christians than the truth that we are all equally sinners and all equally recipients of grace.”
We will enjoy each other more as we are convinced that we stand only by marvelous mercy. Whenever and wherever we see fellow believers struggle, we must know that our shared hope is God’s forgiveness. Without that common conviction, our fellowship devolves into selfrighteousness, self-promotion, and self-protection. “But by the grace of God I am what I am,” so that all cause for boasting is removed.
The Philippians did not see Paul in jail and wonder how he had messed up, angering God. They knew their own need, and the grace God had shown them, and they trusted God’s working out all things for good, for Paul, for them, and for their life together.
5. Enjoying Other Christians Requires Heartfelt Love (Philippians 1.8)
I have been told that in the military, you salute the uniform and not the man. That may be wise, since discipline and control better not fall apart if one of the officers is unworthy of his title. But does the same hold true in the church? Is it enough, if we do not really like the people, to put up with them because they are members with us?
That does not seem to be Paul’s standard. He does not merely tolerate the Philippians, does he? He yearns for them with the affection of Christ. He misses them and he can’t wait to see
them again.
I wonder if we have settled for less than this high ideal. My experience in the church is that few of us expect, or strive, or maybe even want this kind of relationship. When you are away
from here for a week or two, could you honestly write this to the folks sitting in the next row? “God is my witness: how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”
I think we must do more than salute the uniform; I think God asks us to love the people in it. That requires true revival; but only then will we enjoy each other as God promises.
6. Conclusion
Her husband slipped in and out of a coma for several months, yet she returned to the hospital each morning to sit at his bedside. One day he came to consciousness and motioned for her to come nearer. As she sat by him, he whispered, eyes full of tears, “You know what, Ethel? You have been with me through all the bad times. When I got fired, you were there to support me. When my business failed, you were there. When I got shot, you were by my side. When we lost the house, you stayed right here. When my health failed, you were still by my side. Do you know what I think?”
Her heart overflowed with warmth and affection, as she remembered her faithfulness and expected his praise. She gently asked him, “No I don’t know; what do you think, dear?” “I think you’re bad luck.”
That is kind of funny. What is not as amusing is that I have been told virtually the same thing. Not that I was bad luck, but that the problems this church has basically boil down to hiring the wrong pastor.
In addition to the hurt I feel from that remark, I would add that it is unbiblical and unhelpful. I would say that it is not “bad luck” that any of us are here. God controls all things by his good and sovereign will, so that he ordains all things that come to pass. We are here, you and me, because God wants us, together, to learn to love and enjoy one another. Then the world will know that we belong to Christ, for he put it in our heads that we are brothers. Will you think about that?
