Unity Of Attitudes - Philippians 4:1-2 Series

Now, are there some times when it is good to have arbitration – where two people just can’t come to agreement and so both sides agree to just let a neutral, wise third party make a decision on the matter? Sure. That is basically what we see in 1 Corinthians 6, where it says that instead of taking each other to court, let the church handle irreconcilable disputes. You find someone in the church – maybe your prayer group leader, maybe the elders, the deacons, or just some individual, and you say, “We both trust them, we both respect them – let’s just both make our case to them and let them make a decision, and we’ll both agree to whatever they decide.” If Christians would handle conflicts that way instead of going to court – not only would you tend to get a much better decision (because we have access to biblical wisdom and the mind of Christ), but it’s a whole lot cheaper. I am always amazed when some couple splits up and it comes time to divide the property, and by the time they pay the lawyers and take it to court, there’s hardly any property left to divide up! Why not let the church do that and get it done for free? That’s called arbitration, and it’s where we end up if all else fails.

But in this case, all else hasn’t failed yet. The goal at this point is to help these women have a Christ-like attitude of humility. And Paul asks the guy in verse 3 to help with that. That’s really going to help us, because how many of you know someone right now who is in some kind of conflict, and you wish you knew what you could do to help resolve it? That’s what we are going to learn how to do in verse 3. But before we do that, before we look at what Paul tells the yokefellow to do, let’s see what we can learn from what Paul himself does.

Paul’s Example

So, he’s telling us to stand firm in verse 1, but look at how much extra verbiage there is in that verse. In the original Greek, the statement that Paul makes in verse 1 about standing firm in the Lord is four words - thus stand in the Lord. And yet there are 15 words in the sentence. He addresses them six times with expressions of love in this one sentence. Literally it’s Therefore, my brothers, my beloved, the ones I long for, my joy and crown, stand thus in the Lord, my beloved! If I would have written that in my high school English class my teacher would have said, “You don’t have to say “my beloved” twice in the same sentence – it’s redundant.” This has got to be the most effusive expression of love in the whole Bible outside of the Song of Songs. Why is he laying it on so thick? Could it be flattery? Before you step into the middle of a fight between two women, you do all you can to butter them up so they don’t get too mad at you? Well, I think there is definitely some wisdom behind expressing love and affirming the relationship before giving a rebuke. That, in itself, is not flattery, it’s just wisdom – as long as what you’re saying is actually true. Flattery is when you don’t mean it. You say all kinds of complementary things to someone in order to gain their favor, but you don’t really believe the things you are saying. One thing we can be assured of here is that what Paul says in verse one really does reflect what is actually in his heart. Every word in Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit does not inspire lies. Everything Paul expresses in verse one is absolutely accurate. This is exactly how Paul feels about these people. He really does love them this much.