When I was in Japan years ago, I served in a very small church in Kofu, a city west of Tokyo.  One day, as I was with the pastor, he told me, “We’re such a small church.  Most of us are the only believers in our families.  Our families have disowned some of us.  Everybody seems to view us as a cult or a foreign religion – at home or work or in the neighborhood.   We all feel pressure to give up our faith in Jesus.  Still, in spite of all this external opposition, our biggest problem is infighting.“  In my months there, I witnessed that what he was talking about was true.

            As I’ve been reading through Philippians these past weeks, I remembered that young pastor’s words because it seemed that this would also have been the experience of the small group of Christians in Philippi.  The church was quite small – minority people in a city that worshipped the Roman emperor.  People (including Paul) were persecuted in that city because they followed Jesus.  Paul’s strong word to them in 1:27 was that, in that kind of situation, they had to “conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of the Christ who had been persecuted for their salvation.”  Paul said that when opposition comes, we must stand as one man together for Christ.

            To get Paul’s point, think of the children’s game, red rover.  A group of people is set up on one side of a yard or field and another on the other.  One side sets up a line of people linking arms and calls for one member of the other team to come over.  “Red rover, red rover – have Rochelle come over.”  And Rochelle then runs as hard into the line as possible while the team is holding arms as firmly as possible.  Her goal is to break up the unity.  And, Paul says, that line is not only to stand firm – but to advance by striving forward.  Jesus had said that his church will advance against the very forces of hell, which cannot prevail against what God does.  But… we must stand together.

            But, the greatest danger for the church is failing to stand together.  Can you envision what would happen in red rover if anyone gets mad, turns to a team member with folded arms (or turns the back in anger) while the opponent is running into the line?  Paul sees that very thing happening among God’s people so in 2:1, he shouts out, “Therefore…”  “When we follow Jesus,” Paul says, “we have been granted the blessing not only to believe in Jesus but also to suffer for him… Therefore…!”

            Therefore – what?  And this brings us to the 11 verses that are at the very heart of Paul’s letter calling for God’s people to live life in joyous unity together.  What he will call for is something that is found over and over again in the New Testament – from the words of Jesus in the gospels to the book of Revelation.  If we will conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, we must:

Be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind (2:2).

            This is exactly like Jesus’ command in John 13:  “A new command I give you – love one another.  This is how the world will know you are my followers – if you love one another.”  It’s like John’s very strong words:  “You cannot say you love God the Father is you do not love your brothers and sisters.”  But notice very carefully that the love and unity God wants from us is not uniformity.  When God freezes water, he makes snow – each flake unique.  When we freeze water, we make ice cubes, each one molded to look alive.”  God’s family is incredibly diverse – ultimately from every people group, language and nationality.  We have different tastes – different backgrounds – different gifts.  So, the miracle of God is that he brings us together (through Christ) and holds us together (through the power and presence of the Spirit). 

The “same love” we have been shown by the crucified Christ must be shown to one another.  The one “spirit” he calls for is a word that was well understood in the ancient world because Aristotle had said that deep and lasting relationships are characterized by different people having “one soul”.  Paul is declaring that the lasting relationships the world longs for is what Christ brings about in us – taking very different people who live as if one heart is beating within us.  But, the key – as we’ll come back to later – is this word that is found twice in v.2 and repeatedly in the larger text, i.e., like-minded… one mind… the mind of Christ (2:5).

#1:  How important our loving unity is to God:

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion… (2:1)

            Do you feel the passion in these four “if any” phrases?  Paul is a caring brother shackled in a prison making the strongest appeal he can muster up.  He appeals to what all true followers of Jesus have experienced.  He says, “Search your hearts and lives.  Let me ask you if you have ever experienced any of these things since you have come to know Jesus?”

1. 1)   Any encouragement in Christ -- Have you ever shown up in church and known that you have failed yet again in the past week and you know God knows all about what you have done.  But, then you hear that Jesus has not given up on you.  He is ready to forgive again.  You are united to Christ.  He is ready and anxious to give you a new start.  This is good news!  Have you ever experienced that?
2. 2)   Any comfort from his love -- Have you ever heard God say, “I love you with an everlasting love.”  It’s like the awe-inspiring lyrics of an old hymn:  Loved with everlasting love – led by grace that love to know…  Oh this full and perfect peace – Oh this transport all divine:  In a love that will not cease – I am his and he is mine.”  You may say, “I know myself and I don’t think I would love me.”  You may wonder if anyone truly does love you but you come to church and hear God declare without reservation, “It’s not that you first loved me – I love you!”  Hear him say it to you now.  Is there any comfort in that?
3. 3)   Any koinonia in the Spirit – I sense Paul saying, “Look around you at the people worshipping with you.  Do you see how different we all are?  Of course we are different – God has made us that way.  But, look again?  Do you see that you share so much together?  We share the kinds of things we have affirmed in our statement of faith – they all flow from the gospel.  We share that we have sought God’s forgiveness and found it – that we believe on Jesus – that we are involved in his mission together – that we all want to know God better…  Look carefully:  Do you see that God’s Spirit resides in us all?  Do you see that?
4. 4)   Any tenderness and compassion – In fact, have you ever experienced any tenderness from God and from his people – anytime, anywhere?  If anything at all is true about what we believe about Jesus, then be like-minded.  That’s the one thing, Paul writes, that I ask you to do.

When I read this, I think:  Why is this issue of our loving unity so important.  Why is it the single most important part of church life according to Paul and to Jesus?  What’s at stake? 

            *God’s name, i.e., God’s reputation in the world is at stake.  The Bible declares that God is the forgiving God – the peace-making God – the reconciling God.  If we say that God is all those things but cannot find a way to do life together in unity, the very identity of God is demeaned.  Many people may never read the Bible – but they will watch us.  We represent more than ourselves.  When we love one another, the name of God is upheld.  If we do not, he is demeaned.

            *Our children – In my many years of speaking on college campuses, I have met many students who grew up in church – and then seemed to walk away from the faith.  Almost always the story is the same:  “I experienced so much backbiting and negativity in the church that I cannot go that path anymore.”  I will only say that there is much at stake in this message. Nothing is more important.

#2:  Why we humans are inclined to fight:  (the problem of the flesh)

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit (2:3a).

            We tend to blame fighting on external things – bad politics, bad family background, bad economics.  And, all those and many other things can lead to fighting.  But, those things really are caused by something else deep inside our hearts.  This became clearer to me just after the Soviet walls fell back in 1989.  I was chairing the EFCA mission board at the time and was asked to visit the churches that had survived throughout the decades of communism in Germany and Czechoslovakia.  Articles were being written about how war may now at last be over – for good – now that democracy had prevailed over totalitarianism.  But, within months, tribal enmities that had been kept under wraps for four decades by government force resurfaced.  Each group thought that, “Now, at last, we can have a nation just with people like us!  Wars broke out.  The cruelest kinds of atrocities occurred.

            Let me be clear here:  Bad government like atheistic communism allow evil to fester.  But, that kind of structural evil has something at its heart – or, I should say, in our hearts.  And the Bible gives us remarkable insight into this in verses like Phil. 2:3.  There are two phrases here that instruct us.

*Selfish ambition (eritheia) – The word is used for the inner disposition that I have to win.  I have to have my way.  Used for a merchant – salesman – everyone knows is out for one thing – personal profit.  Reason goes out the window because the one who is like this simply has to have his way no matter the cost or the reasonability.  The Bible indicates that it often is right to fight to live – but people with this quality live to fight!  What “I want” governs my action – not the truth.

            *Vain conceit (kenodoxia) – The old KJV translated the word as vainglory.  Doxa, glory, had to do with something that had weight or significance.  Vain glory refers to the kind of person who simply must have his voice listened to or followed.   It’s the attitude that - I have to be the one that matters.  It’s a person starving for personal glory – for “my view” to have weight.

            In both situations, the problem is that we place ourselves at the center of things.  We can see this all over the world as politicians or CEOs or media stars make decisions that seem dumb – but really are simply self- centered.  And, since we are all still not yet complete in Christ, we who follow Jesus are susceptible to selfish ambition and vain conceit too.  In the church, this attitude of mind plays out in countless ways.  The toddler in the nursery sees a toy she wants – but a little boy beats her to it. She screams relentlessly until the nursery worker gets the toy from the boy and gives it to her – but then he screams louder and longer than she did!

            I’m sure we see it in student ministries.  The girl wants to go out with the new guy who has just started going to church – but he asks out another girl.  She’s hurt – angry…  And, she begins tearing down the other girl in every private conversation.  “That Frieda – she’s such a flirt.  All she does is…”  And, wouldn’t it be great if I could say we grow out of this selfish ambition and vainglory as we grow older. (LOL) When my family moved years ago to a new town in WV, we went to a new church.  There was one family in the church that seemed to be in charge of the music.  Every week, one family sang a solo in the service.  Others complained about this to the pastor, “Why do they get to have all the solos?”  So, the pastor decided there would be no more solos for some undisclosed period of time.  And, this musical family was mad!  When we would leave church, they would outside talking with people, “Did you hear that sermon?  I’ve heard that text preached before and it was never preached that way.  Don’t you think the pastor is teaching error?  And he’s boring too?”

            It was ripping the church apart.  At the heart was what the Bible calls sarx, i.e., the flesh.  It was selfish ambition and vain conceit.  And, it’s noteworthy that Paul says, “Do nothing out of it.”  Nothing!  We could imagine him saying, “Oh, Euodia is angry because had a tough week last week so give her what she wants this time.  She deserves it.”  “Oh, Syntyche hasn’t played a tambourine solo for a while and she’s been complaining to everyone.  Let her do it.”  No, he says, “Do nothing out of pride or rivalry.”  Selfish ambition and vain conceit were at the heart of Satan’s fall, of Adam and Eve’s fall and of every war in history.  When Christ reigns in a church, things must begin to be different.  As Paul put it in 2 Corinthians, “We no longer live for ourselves.”  For us to live is… getting my way?  No, it’s Christ.

#3:  Where change begins:  (change begins in the mind)

In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others (2:3b-4).

            “In humility – the Greek and Roman worlds did not value humility.  They condemned “hubris” – an exaggerated sense of one’s own superiority that people like Homer and Demosthenes said destroyed the gods, great heroes, and prosperous cities.  But, they condemned humility too because they considered it a sign of weakness.  And, it seems to me that we who live here in SoCal are much like the ancient Greeks and Romans in this.  “Do something for yourself,” we urge people.  “You deserve your way.”  Assertiveness and aggression are highly valued.  But, Jesus showed us a different way of thinking and living.  He showed us that humility is not being passive and it is not being weak.  It is living in such a way that our lives bring blessing to others.  It is a very strong and beautiful quality.

            And since our sinful sarx draws us to self-centeredness, when Christ is our Lord, he says it is in our minds that change begins – we move from selfish living to humble and shalom-filled living.  Paul’s letter to the Romans is very clear about this:  Be transformed by the renewal of your minds (12:2). Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so (8:5-8).

            So, to this wonderful church in Philippi, but one in which people were fighting, Paul says, “Be like-minded… Be one in mind… Have the mind of Christ…  In v.3, “Value others.”  The word he uses is for focusing the mind – engaging in a conscious mental process that will direct our decisions.  Instead of being driven by what “I want” (which is our natural inclination), consciously ask what would be important to others.  “Value others above yourselves.”  He’s saying that we have to consciously put ourselves in the shoes of the others in the church family and have their needs and wants surpass our own.  A church that says, “For us to live is Christ” must truly follow Jesus – considering the needs of others and sacrificing our own interests to bring them blessing.

            I will not forget a couple that came in to see me when I was a new (and very, very young) pastor up on the central coast.  They said, “We want to know who is making these decisions about what’s happening in our services and why we’re never consulted.  Both of our families have been here for generations.  And we want you, Pastor, to guarantee that “such and such” is going to happen in one of our services every week or we’re going to stop giving.  So, I read them this text in Philippians: Value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  And they said – they really said, “That’s just what we’re saying to you, Pastor.  No one around here is looking to our interests!”

            We will return to focus on this next week but let me simply say that the essence of living like Jesus is service to others.  As Rick Warren wrote, “It’s not about me.”  Or as Paul puts it in v. 5: In your relationships with one another, have the same mind/attitude/mindset as Christ Jesus had.  This is at the heart of a church that glorifies God.  If we at LAC can learn to obey this, our church family will be sweet – beautiful.  The world will see us and know that God must be in charge of this church.  How will it happen?  We must daily surrender to the humble Christ as the Lord of our lives.  And we must set our minds on service to others – looking to others’ interests as greater than our own. 

            As we close, I want to show you the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer applied this to churches in his day.  It’s found near the end of his book, Life Together.  Listen to his principles (as I’ve adapted them a bit) and see if they might help you begin to live with the mind of Christ:

·      Be slow to express opinions, refusing to speak uncharitably about church family members;

·      Cultivate the humility that comes from understanding that we, like Paul, are the greatest of sinners and live only because of God’s grace;

·      Listen “long and patiently” so that we may understand the viewpoints of others before expressing our own;

·      Intentionally refrain from considering our own time so valuable that we cannot be interrupted to help with others’ needs, no matter how small or menial;

·      Bear the burdens of our brothers and sisters in the Lord in ways respecting the dignity of the others even if their burdens are self-caused;

·      Understand that Christlike authority is always characterized by service and never calls attention to the person who is serving.

Be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind (2:2).