Make My Joy Complete
Oct 31, 2010 Phil. 2:1-4
Intro:
What would it take to make you truly happy? I don’t presuppose in the question that you are unhappy at the moment, but I want to get you thinking for a moment about that question, and locate at least the beginnings of an answer. And don’t worry, I won’t ask you to speak it publicly. What would it take to make you truly happy?
Context:
That question leads us into our passage of Philippians, as we reach the formidable milestone of finishing chapter 1 (insert cheers!). We don’t leave chapter 1 behind completely, because Paul’s command in 1:27 continues to set the topic – “Above all, as citizens of heaven conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.” Remember that when we looked at this verse, I explained that it was uncharacteristic for Paul to write of one thing “above all”, and that he usually piled up ideas and phrases together to make his point – this morning you will see what I meant… In chapter 2:1-4, Paul starts a new sentence and continues to explore what it means to live “as citizens of heaven” and “conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ.”
Phil 2:1-4 (NLT):
1 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
I want to re-read the passage now, but rather than doing what our translators have done in writing the sentence so that we could best make sense of it, I want to show you more literal translation that better captures how Paul wrote it:
Therefore,
if any comfort in Christ
if any encouragement of love
if any fellowship of the Spirit
if any affection and compassion
make my joy complete
that you may think the same thing
having the same love
joined in soul
thinking the one thing
nothing according to selfishness or empty conceit
but with humility regarding one another as more important than yourselves
not looking out for your own things
but also for those of others.
(from Silva, M. Philippians (2nd ed.) Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. 2005. p. 85-86.)
Piling On…
The passage begins with “therefore”, which takes us back to the “big idea” in the previous passage, of how to live as Christians. The main verb comes in the middle, our verse 2, with Paul saying “make my joy complete”. He leads up to that, and then flows out of that, and we see the overarching idea being the essential nature of unity that comes from choosing to put others ahead of ourselves. That is the main point of the passage – the unity that needs to characterize our life together as fellow citizens, and what that means in really tangible terms in verses 3-4.
But let’s start with the phrases Paul piles on leading up to the main verb, “make my joy complete”. There are four phrases, and Paul wrote them with an incredible rhythm – each phrase begins with the same two words “if any”, and then there are two nouns. What this does is create an energy, a build, a ton of emotion as he piles on these incredible, lofty, packed ideas, and it would have caught the Philippians up and been incredibly inspiring. Paul is tapping into the things they have experienced in Jesus – he is reminding them of the realities they have known and been deeply, deeply impacted by – comforted in Jesus, experiencing His love, being filled with the Spirit, knowing affection and compassion, and he gathers these up and writes them with this flow and rhythm and I can hear them shouting “yes! comfort in Christ!! yes! encouraged by his love!! yes! fellowship with the Spirit!! yes! affection and compassion!!”
And like a great writer/leader/motivator, Paul connects with those powerful forces deep inside and says, “ok then, since you identify with those things and they resonate deeply within you, come together for the sake of the Good News about Jesus. Be united, deeply – and again Paul launches into another list of four things, “that you may think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking the one thing”.
Jesus Prayer:
This focus on unity sounds a lot like Jesus, both in the characterization of what the people of God are to be as joint citizens of heaven, and also the purpose for which we are to be united. “20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. 22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” (John 17:20-23).
Where is this Unity Today?
Unfortunately that unity is not everywhere, and that is often what our world sees. A church in Dallas, Tx, got into a big fight – two rival groups, each trying to throw out the other and keep the building for themselves, each took each other to court, and the judge refused to pass judgment until the denomination had come in to try to find a solution, and when those officials dug down to the very origins of the fight it turned out that it started because at a church dinner, an elder was served a smaller slice of ham than a child seated next to him. That’s why we do buffet style here…
Paul starts by taking his hearers, including you and I, back to what we share that really matters. We belong to Christ. We’ve received His love. We have fellowship with the Spirit. we know of tenderness and compassion. And when we are reminded of those things that we have all experienced, it unites us. We need to get back to what matters, and to what we have in common. When I’m having conversations with people from outside our church and they ask what “religion” I am/we are, I almost always answer “Christian”. They usually say, “yes, ok, of course, but what kind… like I’m Catholic… what are you?” I don’t answer that way because I am at all ashamed of my heritage, but because I don’t want to start a conversation in the divisions but rather in the commonality. Usually in those conversations I find a place to say that I believe that the things that we agree upon among all Christians are far more numerous and far more important than the things that we disagree on, admitting that some of those are important distinctions and significant disagreements, but again wanting to call us past internal differences and into a unity that recognizes all who love Jesus are citizens of heaven, and our world needs to see us in the unity that Jesus prayed and that Paul writes about here.
Others First: (vs. 3-4)
The next two verses point very clearly to what this takes and how we are to live this way. And this is one of those really blunt, really direct, really convicting passages of Scripture. “3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”
“The unity and harmony that Paul earnestly desires for his readers can be achieved only if they reject all forms of self-seeking and vainglory, and instead humbly regard one another as more important than themselves… The double negative… and the omission of a verb in the prohibition forcibly draw attention to its absoluteness; that is, ‘do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit’ is binding on all Christian lives at all times.” (O’Brien, P.T. The Epistle to the Philippians. The New International Greek Testament Commentary. 1991, p. 179.)
Now, the truth of this is just about as counter-cultural as we can imagine. And it is the key to unity. Our culture preaches self-centeredness; individuality is almost a prevailing religion. We are expected to fight for our rights, to speak up for ourselves, to be ambitious for our goals and desires. Many live in a very calculating way, giving only when there is a perceived benefit to them. I see this even in literature I read about volunteering and why people should give of their time – “it makes you feel good… it helps you make new friends… it gets you into your community which gets you recognized and feeling safer…” – whole long lists of why volunteering to help others is good because of what you get out of it.
Perhaps the most challenging piece here is Paul’s command about our attitudes – he is telling us to really believe that other people are better than us. “think of others as better than yourselves.” This is not at all about self-abuse or neglect, or about a focus on how rotten we are, or any of that grossly interior negative self-image garbage – that leads us to a self-focus which is the exact opposite of Paul’s point. Instead, it is about a way of living that is centered outside ourselves, on seeing all the great things about others not in comparison to ourselves or to see how we measure up or where we fall on the pecking order, but simply because in each person God has created some amazing characteristics and ideas and potentials. And when we get over ourselves, and choose to look at others, we’ll see those things and we’ll want to celebrate them and be excited by them. Really, it is not about you! It is not about me!! It is about God, about belonging to Christ, experiencing His love, fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, and being filled with affection and compassion. Then we start to focus on the things that really matter.
It is also clear from verse 4 that this binding, absolute command is not about completely ignoring ourselves and burning ourselves out. Paul commands us to rearrange our perspective, not completely abandon any idea of caring for ourselves: “not only for your own interests but take an interest in others too”. It is probably easy for most of us to read that and think “good, then I’m doing ok, I do take an interest in others sometimes also.” The hard part is in the rearranging of our perspective that says we should mostly take care of ourselves as long as we occasionally think of others, to a perspective that lives with others being first, and our needs being second. This is that external orientation we’ve been talking about in this passage, one that is made even more blatantly obvious in the verses that follow. But that really is the point of the passage: when we, the citizens of heaven, are living in a way that is worthy of belonging to Christ, knowing His love, having fellowship with the Spirit, affection and compassion, and are united in mind and soul together and cemented with a deep love, we can then live in the freedom that comes from not jockeying for position in this world – not striving to be “better” than others or “richer” or “cooler” or “thinner” or “smarter”, all those things that our world really believes will make them truly happy.
So what will make us truly happy?
Not so with us. Because we are citizens of heaven, and because we know Jesus, we see a different source of happiness, or (better) “complete joy”: being accepted, connected, and significant. That is what I see in this passage: we are accepted in Christ (vs. 1), we are deeply interconnected and together and united (vs. 2), and we are significant because we have been invited into a way of living that exalts others and finds the great things God is doing in their lives and celebrates and encourages that, and then walks away with a deep sense of significance because we were privileged to share one of those holy moments.
Applying the Passage:
So how do we apply this? If we only read it and apply it to our personal lives as individuals, we are missing the main thrust which is of unity. Of course it must start personally as we are each only really in control of ourselves, but Paul’s point is that we be “agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.” What, tangibly, does that mean in community? Well let me give you one example:
As part of our Wednesday night emphasis on creating a structure for us to be the people of God in a way that others outside our faith community can see something unique and powerful, we agreed this past week to work towards two “events” before Christmas – first a simple family games night, with coffee and cookies, with simple board games or card games or sports games, in a neutral facility (like a community center or neighbourhood school gym), and throw out a big invitation to anyone and everyone. Second is a Christmas Banquet for the community, perhaps themed around “An Authentic Canadian Christmas” which would be friendly to new comers to Canada, and that might present our kids Christmas pageant, and that would attempt to create a really genuine, positive, Christmas atmosphere that deeply reflects and lives out the incredible Good News we know, that Jesus has come in the flesh, because of His love for us. We hope these things will serve and bless, and I hope and invite us to see these as concrete examples to all come together and put others first, to “work together with one mind and purpose”, and pray that people that are not yet citizens of heaven will discover encouragement from belonging to Christ… comfort from his love… fellowship in the Spirit… and have their hearts transformed to be like Jesus’; tender and compassionate.
