In most areas of life, we learn best when we can learn from the example of someone else. As infants, this is how we learn all of the basic skills of life. At that age, we obviously couldn’t pick up a book and read about how to do something—we had to watch other people in action and then imitate them. So one day as we were crawling around on all fours, we noticed the people around us walking, so we decided to give it a try. We heard the people around us talking, so we started to imitate their noises.
Later, when we’re a bit older and we’re ready to start playing sports, our parents and our coaches take us out on the field and show us how to play the game. They don’t sit us down with a book and say, “Here—read this. You’ll figure things out!” No! They model the motions for us and patiently work with us when we kick the ball a dozen different directions before we finally get it right!
Even after we’ve grown up, following someone else’s example is still the most effective way to learn many things. That’s why when a person wants to learn a trade, he has to serve as an apprentice for a while. The apprentice watches the master tradesman and learns how to hold the tools and how to handle the materials. Even in the professional world, a person is often asked to serve an internship before he or she is hired on as a full employee.
So it should be no surprise that the Bible calls us to learn in our spiritual lives by imitating others. And more than anyone else, the Bible calls us to imitate Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, we have a most profound example. Before Jesus, God could only ask us to “Do as I say.” God had not stepped into humanity with its frailties and temptations. But after Jesus, God can now ask us to “Do as I say AND as I have done.” Jesus has shown us a perfect human life, and has left us an example to follow as seek to live for God’s glory.
In our study of the book of Philippians today, Paul is going to call us to look to the example of Jesus to see what it means to have humility of mind. As we look at what Paul has to say, I want to focus your thoughts on this question:
What does Jesus’ example teach us about having humility of mind?
Would you turn with me please to Philippians 2:5–11? In verses 1–4, Paul called the Philippians to live with the same mindset toward one another. He pointed out the basis for their unity in their common experience with Christ, and he noted that the path to this kind of unity comes through cultivating humility of mind. Now he is going to point us to Jesus to see what it looks like to have humility of mind [READ 2:5–11].
Now over the years, theologians have probably used up an entire rainforest’s worth of paper in writing about just these verses. And there is a lot for theologians to write about when you look at what these verses say about Jesus, His relationship to God, and what took place when He stepped into humanity. Paul does use some very precise and careful language that offers a lot of food for thought, but its clear that his intent in these verses is not to give a theological lecture, but to use the example of Jesus to show us what it looks like to have humility of mind. So that will be our focus today as we answer the question—what does Jesus’ example teach us about having humility of mind?
I. We are not to cling to our own rights and privileges at the expense of the interests of others (2:5–8)
First, let’s break down what Paul says in verses 5–7 [READ vv. 5–7]. This is where theologians have spilled most of their ink over the years, in analyzing the language of these verses. And it is important for us as well to wade a little ways out into these deep waters, so let’s give these verses a little attention.
Now at the most basic level, Paul is making a simple contrast here, and his contrast is this—even though Jesus is equal to God, that fact didn’t keep Him from being willing to become a human and to serve humanity. Now Paul’s language is a bit more technical than that, so let’s take a closer look at it. If we can set aside the last part of v. 6 for just a moment, then Paul’s language reads like this: “although Jesus existed in the form of God, He emptied himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men.” Those last two phrases explain how Jesus “emptied” himself, so we can read it as “he emptied himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men.”
Now the technical term that sets up the contrast in these verses is the word “form.” What does it mean that Jesus existed in the form of God but then took on the form of a bond-servant? The Greek word that lies behind the word “form” refers to the external appearance of something which reveals its inner nature. So the contrast deals with how Jesus chose to externally express his inner nature. Apparently, before the Son of God came into this world his external appearance was that of a bright and dazzling light. We actually see a glimpse of that appearance in the event known as the Transfiguration in the Gospels, where Jesus allowed his disciples to see a bit of his glory. But when the Son of God came to earth, he externally expressed his inner nature by being human and becoming the servant of humanity. Thus, when people looked at Jesus during his earthly life, they saw simply an ordinary man. They didn’t see a man with a halo around his head or anything like that—they just saw an ordinary man. In fact, the prediction about Jesus in Isaiah 53:2 says, “he had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”
What an indescribable step down that Jesus was willing to take! Paul describes this here as “emptying himself.” I think the King James Version says it best when it says, “he made himself of no reputation”—that’s exactly what he did! It is staggering to think about how God himself chose to enter this world. Theoretically, he could have been born as a prince and lived in a palace. But he chose to be born to peasants who lived in a backwater town, in a country that wasn’t even free. His parents were too poor to offer the normal sacrifice that Jewish parents offered for their newborn children, so they had to offer the sacrifice prescribed for the poor. He wasn’t from a well-known family; he wasn’t from the priestly tribe. For the vast majority of his life he worked hard with his hands in a blue-collar job. He never owned a home and probably never had more than a few pieces of clothing.
What kind of attitude did the Son of God have that made him willing to do all of this? What mindset did he have, which we are called to imitate? It is described here at the end of v. 6—“he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,” or we might say “a thing to be held on to no matter what” or “a thing to be kept for personal gain.” You can almost picture a selfish child grabbing something and saying, “MINE!” That wasn’t Jesus’ mindset—when he considered his rights and privileges as God, he placed them below the best interests of his creatures. He didn’t consider his equality with God something to be exploited for his own benefit; rather, he considered his position to be a unique platform for service.
What a lesson for us about how we should view our positions and our rights and privileges. If I can think of this in the context of the church for a moment, it strikes me how easy it is to feel a sense of entitlement based on our positions within the church. Pastors can succumb to this temptation. We can start to feel entitled to many different things—maybe a nice salary, maybe unquestioning respect, it could be a lot of different things. You could succumb to this temptation if you’ve donated a lot of money to a church. You could start to think that your opinion should carry more weight than someone else’s because you’ve given more money. You could succumb to this temptation if you’ve taught Sunday School or lead some kind of program for a long time. There could be many different positions where we would feel this mindset of entitlement creeping in.
A feeling of entitlement is a sickness in the soul, and it is precisely the opposite of the mindset of Jesus. He was willing to lay aside his own rights and privileges to pursue what was in our best interest, and v. 8 describes the extent to which he was willing to go to serve us [READ v. 8]. Jesus paid for our sins by submitting to the most horrific and shameful method of execution that humanity has ever devised. The people of that time thought that there was nothing more humiliating than being crucified. The Roman orator Cicero once described what the Romans thought of crucifixion. He stated, “To bind a Roman citizen is a crime; to flog him is an abomination; to slay him is almost an act of murder; to crucify him is—what? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed.”*
The first thing that the example of Jesus teaches us about humility of mind is that it calls us to see to it that we don’t think of our own rights and privileges as being so important that we’re not willing to lay them aside to pursue the best interests of other people. And the second lesson is equally important and serves as a strong motivator for us to have humility of mind.
II. We can expect God to honor our willingness to humble ourselves (2:9–11)
In verses 9–11, we see how God the Father responded to the mindset and actions of Jesus—he responded by honoring his Son and giving him the name or the title of “Lord.” [READ vv. 9–11] These verses seem to tell us of a time in the future when all beings will have no choice but to admit that Jesus Christ is Lord—whether they like it or not! The book of Revelation tells us that human history is going to play out in such a way that Jesus will be vindicated, and his lordship will be evident to all beings.
So we can see here how God the Father honored Jesus for embracing a humble mindset and then acting upon it. But perhaps you’re thinking, “Okay, Tim—you just said that we can expect God to honor our willingness to humble ourselves. Where are you getting that from?” Well, it’s actually a consistent theme of Scripture that God will honor those who choose to humble themselves. Let me take you on a little tour of the Bible here so we can see how often this theme comes up. We won’t go around the world in 80 days, but we’ll go around the Bible in 10 or so minutes here to see how often God states that he will exalt those who humble themselves. Turn with me first to Prov. 18:12 [READ Prov. 18:12]
Then over to Prov. 22:4 [READ Prov. 22:4]
Then one more verse from Proverbs, Prov. 29:23 [READ Prov. 29:23]
Now turn over to the book of Isaiah and find Is. 66:1–2. These verses describe how God, as our Creator, cannot be contained by anything in his creation, but they also give a beautiful statement about which of his creatures he will take notice of [READ Is. 66:1–2]. What a great contrast in these verses! Here is God, so high and exalted, yet he takes notice of those who are humble and lowly.
Next, turn to the gospels and find Matthew 23:8–12. Just prior to this, Jesus is talking about the Pharisees and is describing how they love to be recognized and honored by other people, and then he says in v. 8 [READ Matt. 23:8–12]
Then over in Luke 18:10–14, Jesus tells a parable to teach this same lesson [READ Luke 18:10–14]
Then finally, just one passage from the epistles—1 Peter 5:5–6. In the context, Peter is giving instructions to different groups of people within the church. He says in v. 5 [READ 1 Peter 5:5-6]
So as you can see, over and over again we see this idea popping up in Scripture—that God will respond to the humble by giving them honor. What irony there is in this gift of grace! If we choose not to exalt ourselves, God will choose to exalt us at the proper time. Now of course, the proper time will be in his time—it may not even be until we receive our rewards after this life. But God will always be true to his promises.
So from the example of Jesus, we learn that we are not to cling to our own rights and privileges at the expense of the interests of others, and we can expect God to honor our willingness to humble ourselves. This is the mindset that we must embrace if we desire to have the unity that Paul has been calling for us to have so far in Philippians 2. If we choose instead to press for the rights and honors that we think we deserve from others, we will find ourselves to be a divisive factor within the church, unable to let go of the insults we think we’ve received from others who won’t show us the honor we think we deserve. Jesus shows us another way—the way of service, the way of self-sacrifice for the benefit of other people. Let’s choose to embrace his mindset.
*Quoted by Gordon Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 1995), 217.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Minding Each Other's Business--Philippians 2:1-4
Frank Sinatra is probably one of the most well-known singers of the last century. He had numerous hit songs during his career, and even though many of us didn’t live through his peak years, we can probably sing a few lines of his songs. One of his best-loved songs is a song called “My Way.” Let me read some of the lyrics of that song, and as I do I want you to think about the attitude that this song expresses. The song starts like this: “And now, the end is near/ and so I’ll face the final curtain/ My friends, I’ll say it clear/ I’ll state my case of which I’m certain/ I’ve lived a life that’s full/ I’ve travelled each and every highway/ And more, much more than this/ I did it my way.” Then after a couple more stanzas, the song ends with these words: “For what is a man? What has he got?/ If not himself, then he has naught/ To say the things he truly feels/ And not the words of one who kneels/ The record shows I took the blows/ And did it my way.”
Now I don’t intend to psychoanalyze Frank Sinatra here, but this song seems to capture a spirit of individualism and self-determination that we really prize in our culture. We celebrate people who seem to live life by their own rules, people who seem to be able to handle anything that comes their way simply through self-reliance. We cheer on TV and movie heroes like The Lone Ranger, Rambo, Wonder Woman, James Bond, and Jack Bauer.
But did you ever stop to think that even The Lone Ranger had a sidekick? Even Batman had Robin; James Bond always had Q inventing new gadgets that allowed him to do his work. So even when we’re creating characters who are the epitome of the solitary hero, we still can’t get away from the reality that these heroes need other people in order to carry out their work.
So the old cliché is proven true once again: “No man is an island.” We can never get away from the fact that we need each other, and we need to work together with other people in order to accomplish anything in this world. This fact is not simply true in a church, but in fact the church was designed this way by God. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul likens the church to a human body, with the idea being that we all have different abilities and functions, but nevertheless we form one cohesive group that only works when it works together.
In our study of Philippians today, we are going to hear another call to unity from the apostle Paul. In last week’s passage, Paul urged the Philippian believers to stand together like teammates in light of the opposition that they were facing. Today, we are going to see Paul describing the basis for their unity and telling them how they can achieve it. I hope you’ll see clearly today that:
Humility based on our common experience with Christ is the blueprint for unity.
Would you turn with me please to Philippians 2:1–4? In these verses, Paul is going to make a personal appeal to the Philippians based on their mutual relationship with him and with the Lord Jesus Christ. The result is a passionate appeal for unity. Let’s see what he has to say [READ 2:1–4]
In these verses, Paul outlines for the Philippians the basis for their unity and the path that will get them there. Let’s take a look at those two things. First, the basis…
I. Our common experience as Christians is the basis for our unity (2:1–2)
In verses 1 and 2, we find a loaded “if-then” statement from the apostle Paul. The force of this statement is to show us that the logical conclusion from our common experience in Christ is to live in unity with each other. Unity has to be based on some kind of common ground, and Paul is going to remind us that we have all the common ground we need.
Paul begins by connecting this “if-then” statement back to what he had just written about their suffering. He states, “therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ.” The Philippians, you may remember, were facing some opposition from people outside the church, so they were in a situation where they could probably use some encouragement. Paul reminds them here that they can all find encouragement in Christ. Christ gave them all forgiveness and love and a reason to believe that one day things were going to be better, and they all had that encouragement in common.
Not only did they have that encouragement—they also had the consolation of love. Paul probably has in mind here the fullness of the Christian idea of love, that love is something we receive from God which enables us to share it with others. And he describes the product of that love as “consolation,” something that encourages us in the midst of an otherwise discouraging situation. It is something that lifts our spirits.
Then he continues on to write, “if there is any fellowship of the Spirit.” Again, he probably has the full idea of fellowship in mind here—that we all have fellowship with the Holy Spirit that serves as the basis for our fellowship with each other.
And then it seems that he appeals to their feelings for him. I think with this last phrase he is saying, “if you have any affection and compassion for me, then make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” So now his request comes in—he asks them to fill up his joy over them by being united with each other, and he describes that unity with several different phrases. First, he tells them to be of the same mind. Now I don’t think Paul is saying that they have to have exactly the same opinions about everything, because in Romans 14 he writes that Christians may legitimately have different convictions about certain things. Rather, he is calling them to have the same mindset or the same frame of mind toward each other, and he clarifies what that mindset is with the phrases that follow: it is a mindset that points us to love one another, to be like one in our spiritual lives, and to pursue the same purposes and goals in the body of Christ. This kind of mindset will serve to draw us together and keep us unified.
I believe we can think about this mindset in much the same way that a magnet works. I have a basic refrigerator magnet here; now you may remember how a magnet works from science class. It works basically like this: each atom that makes up the magnetic surface has a magnetic field around it. When you hold the magnet up in the air like this, the magnetic fields around the atoms all point their forces in different directions, but when you put the magnet close to a metal surface, all of those magnetic fields start to point in the same direction, which creates a force strong enough to make the magnet stick to the metal.
Now my point is this: if we can all cultivate a mindset toward each other that is pointed in a godly direction, then we’ll have a force that will pull us together—just like the magnet and the metal surface. But if you have a godly mindset toward me, and I have an ungodly mindset toward you, we won’t have that bond because we’ll be pulled in different directions.
And so to go back to Paul’s words here, if we can get our love for each other pointed in the same direction, and our spiritual lives pointed in the same direction, and our goals in the church headed in the same direction, then we will stand together with the same mindset. We will have that unity that he calls us to have.
And then, in the next couple of verses, Paul gives us what really appears to be the roadmap to finding this kind of mindset…
II. Thinking correctly about ourselves and others is the path to unity (2:3–4)
In the next two verses, Paul is going to tell us how to correct our mindset. First he tells us what to avoid—“Do nothing from selfishness (and we know that means to think only about yourself) or empty conceit.” The King James Version uses the word “vainglory” there, which is really a great description—this is an attitude where you’re trying to bring glory to yourself, but in reality you’re just being downright vain. You’re trying to heap praise on yourself that you really don’t deserve.
I imagine its pretty clear why those attitudes would be disruptive to our unity in the church—they would lead us to focus on ourselves. But Paul gives us the antidote in the next statement: “but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” Notice how Paul focuses on the mind in this passage—in v. 2 he calls us to “be of the same mind,” and now he calls us to “humility of mind.” I think he’s really emphasizing our thoughts here because the way that we think about each other makes a huge difference in the way that we act toward each other.
I don’t think we often do a great job of policing the way that we think about other people. It’s so easy to let our minds run wild with derogatory thoughts about others because we excuse ourselves by saying, “Well, I’d never actually say those things to so-and-so. I’d never tell them how I really think about them.” Well, maybe not, but we have to realize that even though we may not act out in hurtful ways against someone, our thoughts about them may keep us from acting in helpful ways toward them. We may not actually tear them down, but we probably won’t find ourselves building them up either.
The way that we act toward other people is a battle that is won or lost in the mind. It is a battle that is waged long before our mouths start to speak, or before our hands and feet start to move. To change our actions we must change our thoughts, and that’s why Paul calls us to have “humility of mind.”
Now we need to make sure that we have the right idea about what humility means, because its easy to have wrong ideas about it. We often associate humility with tearing ourselves down or belittling ourselves. Think of it like this: suppose that I entered a contest and I won the opportunity to play a game of one-on-one against Michael Jordan. Then imagine that we got together to play our game and he beat 40–0. He stole the ball every time I had it, and he dunked on me every time he had it. Then imagine that afterward we sat down to have a Gatorade together and I said, “Well, Michael, its pretty obvious why they call you the greatest.” And then he says, “Oh, I don’t think I’m really very good at basketball. You probably just had a bad day; I’m sure you’re really a lot better than I am.”
Now some people would say, “Oh, what humility!” That’s not humility—that’s insanity! Humility does not mean that we have to pretend that we’re not talented at something. The best biblical description of humility that I know comes from Rom. 12:3, which says this: “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” Humility means that you think about yourself accurately, with sound judgment—not building yourself up too much, and not tearing yourself down.
So the humble person is one who thinks about himself accurately. And that means that humility requires us to think about our relationship to others accurately as well. So Paul warns us against our usual mindset in v. 4 [READ v. 4]. Our usual temptation is to think that our interests, our needs, our opinions are the only ones that matter, and that causes us to focus on ourselves to the exclusion of others. And when that happens, our mindsets start to point in opposite directions again—I’m focused on what seems best for me, and you’re focused on what seems best for you, and all of a sudden we’ve lost that Godward focus that pulls us together.
So to live in humility of mind means that we need to think accurately about ourselves and others. We can remember that we’re valuable in God’s eyes—there’s nothing prideful about that. Yet at the same time we must remember that we are not more valuable than the people around us. We are called to love them as we love ourselves, so a humble mindset calls us to focus on being servants of others for their benefit and well-being.
If we are going to live in unity as a congregation, we must remember that our common experience as Christians gives us a solid basis for unity, and a humble mindset toward each other is the path that will get us there. We must think correctly about ourselves and each other, and a vital factor in the way that we think about ourselves is what we think about our relationship with God. If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you need to realize something very important about your relationship with God. The Bible says that humanity was created in the image of God, with a deep and intimate relationship with Him. But rather than live to serve God, we decided to serve ourselves; we have rebelled against Him and turned our backs on Him, and the Bible calls that sin. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Our relationship with God has been broken because of our actions, and because of that we are estranged from God in this life, and we run the risk of being separated from Him for all of eternity if we pass away in this condition.
But because of God’s love for us, He didn’t want things to remain this way. So He decided to do something for us that we could not do for ourselves—He decided to provide a payment for our sins, to send His Son Jesus into this world, God taking on humanity and dying in our place on the cross, then rising from the dead on the third day so that we might have the hope of eternal life. God now offers that hope to us as a free gift—if we will place our faith in Jesus as our Savior, he will forgive us of our sins and restore our relationship with Him, so we can enjoy the relationship with Him that we were meant to have, both in this life and the next.
If you have realized today that you have never accepted God’s gracious gift of forgiveness by faith, you can do that right now by placing your faith in Jesus Christ, believing that he has done everything that was necessary to pay for your sins.
Now I don’t intend to psychoanalyze Frank Sinatra here, but this song seems to capture a spirit of individualism and self-determination that we really prize in our culture. We celebrate people who seem to live life by their own rules, people who seem to be able to handle anything that comes their way simply through self-reliance. We cheer on TV and movie heroes like The Lone Ranger, Rambo, Wonder Woman, James Bond, and Jack Bauer.
But did you ever stop to think that even The Lone Ranger had a sidekick? Even Batman had Robin; James Bond always had Q inventing new gadgets that allowed him to do his work. So even when we’re creating characters who are the epitome of the solitary hero, we still can’t get away from the reality that these heroes need other people in order to carry out their work.
So the old cliché is proven true once again: “No man is an island.” We can never get away from the fact that we need each other, and we need to work together with other people in order to accomplish anything in this world. This fact is not simply true in a church, but in fact the church was designed this way by God. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul likens the church to a human body, with the idea being that we all have different abilities and functions, but nevertheless we form one cohesive group that only works when it works together.
In our study of Philippians today, we are going to hear another call to unity from the apostle Paul. In last week’s passage, Paul urged the Philippian believers to stand together like teammates in light of the opposition that they were facing. Today, we are going to see Paul describing the basis for their unity and telling them how they can achieve it. I hope you’ll see clearly today that:
Humility based on our common experience with Christ is the blueprint for unity.
Would you turn with me please to Philippians 2:1–4? In these verses, Paul is going to make a personal appeal to the Philippians based on their mutual relationship with him and with the Lord Jesus Christ. The result is a passionate appeal for unity. Let’s see what he has to say [READ 2:1–4]
In these verses, Paul outlines for the Philippians the basis for their unity and the path that will get them there. Let’s take a look at those two things. First, the basis…
I. Our common experience as Christians is the basis for our unity (2:1–2)
In verses 1 and 2, we find a loaded “if-then” statement from the apostle Paul. The force of this statement is to show us that the logical conclusion from our common experience in Christ is to live in unity with each other. Unity has to be based on some kind of common ground, and Paul is going to remind us that we have all the common ground we need.
Paul begins by connecting this “if-then” statement back to what he had just written about their suffering. He states, “therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ.” The Philippians, you may remember, were facing some opposition from people outside the church, so they were in a situation where they could probably use some encouragement. Paul reminds them here that they can all find encouragement in Christ. Christ gave them all forgiveness and love and a reason to believe that one day things were going to be better, and they all had that encouragement in common.
Not only did they have that encouragement—they also had the consolation of love. Paul probably has in mind here the fullness of the Christian idea of love, that love is something we receive from God which enables us to share it with others. And he describes the product of that love as “consolation,” something that encourages us in the midst of an otherwise discouraging situation. It is something that lifts our spirits.
Then he continues on to write, “if there is any fellowship of the Spirit.” Again, he probably has the full idea of fellowship in mind here—that we all have fellowship with the Holy Spirit that serves as the basis for our fellowship with each other.
And then it seems that he appeals to their feelings for him. I think with this last phrase he is saying, “if you have any affection and compassion for me, then make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” So now his request comes in—he asks them to fill up his joy over them by being united with each other, and he describes that unity with several different phrases. First, he tells them to be of the same mind. Now I don’t think Paul is saying that they have to have exactly the same opinions about everything, because in Romans 14 he writes that Christians may legitimately have different convictions about certain things. Rather, he is calling them to have the same mindset or the same frame of mind toward each other, and he clarifies what that mindset is with the phrases that follow: it is a mindset that points us to love one another, to be like one in our spiritual lives, and to pursue the same purposes and goals in the body of Christ. This kind of mindset will serve to draw us together and keep us unified.
I believe we can think about this mindset in much the same way that a magnet works. I have a basic refrigerator magnet here; now you may remember how a magnet works from science class. It works basically like this: each atom that makes up the magnetic surface has a magnetic field around it. When you hold the magnet up in the air like this, the magnetic fields around the atoms all point their forces in different directions, but when you put the magnet close to a metal surface, all of those magnetic fields start to point in the same direction, which creates a force strong enough to make the magnet stick to the metal.
Now my point is this: if we can all cultivate a mindset toward each other that is pointed in a godly direction, then we’ll have a force that will pull us together—just like the magnet and the metal surface. But if you have a godly mindset toward me, and I have an ungodly mindset toward you, we won’t have that bond because we’ll be pulled in different directions.
And so to go back to Paul’s words here, if we can get our love for each other pointed in the same direction, and our spiritual lives pointed in the same direction, and our goals in the church headed in the same direction, then we will stand together with the same mindset. We will have that unity that he calls us to have.
And then, in the next couple of verses, Paul gives us what really appears to be the roadmap to finding this kind of mindset…
II. Thinking correctly about ourselves and others is the path to unity (2:3–4)
In the next two verses, Paul is going to tell us how to correct our mindset. First he tells us what to avoid—“Do nothing from selfishness (and we know that means to think only about yourself) or empty conceit.” The King James Version uses the word “vainglory” there, which is really a great description—this is an attitude where you’re trying to bring glory to yourself, but in reality you’re just being downright vain. You’re trying to heap praise on yourself that you really don’t deserve.
I imagine its pretty clear why those attitudes would be disruptive to our unity in the church—they would lead us to focus on ourselves. But Paul gives us the antidote in the next statement: “but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” Notice how Paul focuses on the mind in this passage—in v. 2 he calls us to “be of the same mind,” and now he calls us to “humility of mind.” I think he’s really emphasizing our thoughts here because the way that we think about each other makes a huge difference in the way that we act toward each other.
I don’t think we often do a great job of policing the way that we think about other people. It’s so easy to let our minds run wild with derogatory thoughts about others because we excuse ourselves by saying, “Well, I’d never actually say those things to so-and-so. I’d never tell them how I really think about them.” Well, maybe not, but we have to realize that even though we may not act out in hurtful ways against someone, our thoughts about them may keep us from acting in helpful ways toward them. We may not actually tear them down, but we probably won’t find ourselves building them up either.
The way that we act toward other people is a battle that is won or lost in the mind. It is a battle that is waged long before our mouths start to speak, or before our hands and feet start to move. To change our actions we must change our thoughts, and that’s why Paul calls us to have “humility of mind.”
Now we need to make sure that we have the right idea about what humility means, because its easy to have wrong ideas about it. We often associate humility with tearing ourselves down or belittling ourselves. Think of it like this: suppose that I entered a contest and I won the opportunity to play a game of one-on-one against Michael Jordan. Then imagine that we got together to play our game and he beat 40–0. He stole the ball every time I had it, and he dunked on me every time he had it. Then imagine that afterward we sat down to have a Gatorade together and I said, “Well, Michael, its pretty obvious why they call you the greatest.” And then he says, “Oh, I don’t think I’m really very good at basketball. You probably just had a bad day; I’m sure you’re really a lot better than I am.”
Now some people would say, “Oh, what humility!” That’s not humility—that’s insanity! Humility does not mean that we have to pretend that we’re not talented at something. The best biblical description of humility that I know comes from Rom. 12:3, which says this: “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” Humility means that you think about yourself accurately, with sound judgment—not building yourself up too much, and not tearing yourself down.
So the humble person is one who thinks about himself accurately. And that means that humility requires us to think about our relationship to others accurately as well. So Paul warns us against our usual mindset in v. 4 [READ v. 4]. Our usual temptation is to think that our interests, our needs, our opinions are the only ones that matter, and that causes us to focus on ourselves to the exclusion of others. And when that happens, our mindsets start to point in opposite directions again—I’m focused on what seems best for me, and you’re focused on what seems best for you, and all of a sudden we’ve lost that Godward focus that pulls us together.
So to live in humility of mind means that we need to think accurately about ourselves and others. We can remember that we’re valuable in God’s eyes—there’s nothing prideful about that. Yet at the same time we must remember that we are not more valuable than the people around us. We are called to love them as we love ourselves, so a humble mindset calls us to focus on being servants of others for their benefit and well-being.
If we are going to live in unity as a congregation, we must remember that our common experience as Christians gives us a solid basis for unity, and a humble mindset toward each other is the path that will get us there. We must think correctly about ourselves and each other, and a vital factor in the way that we think about ourselves is what we think about our relationship with God. If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you need to realize something very important about your relationship with God. The Bible says that humanity was created in the image of God, with a deep and intimate relationship with Him. But rather than live to serve God, we decided to serve ourselves; we have rebelled against Him and turned our backs on Him, and the Bible calls that sin. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Our relationship with God has been broken because of our actions, and because of that we are estranged from God in this life, and we run the risk of being separated from Him for all of eternity if we pass away in this condition.
But because of God’s love for us, He didn’t want things to remain this way. So He decided to do something for us that we could not do for ourselves—He decided to provide a payment for our sins, to send His Son Jesus into this world, God taking on humanity and dying in our place on the cross, then rising from the dead on the third day so that we might have the hope of eternal life. God now offers that hope to us as a free gift—if we will place our faith in Jesus as our Savior, he will forgive us of our sins and restore our relationship with Him, so we can enjoy the relationship with Him that we were meant to have, both in this life and the next.
If you have realized today that you have never accepted God’s gracious gift of forgiveness by faith, you can do that right now by placing your faith in Jesus Christ, believing that he has done everything that was necessary to pay for your sins.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Redemption--Paying Freedom's Price
I would like to ask you to use your imagination with me for a moment. Imagine that you are at home in your bed, and you’re lying awake trying to get to sleep—except you’re not in the home that you live in now. Your home is a thatch-roof hut, with a dirt floor and small gaps in the roof that allow moonlight to shine in on your bed. You’re trying to go off to sleep, but the heat from the eighth-straight day over 100 degrees won’t allow you to get comfortable just yet. So you just listen to the sounds of the night—you can hear some kind of activity down at the river (probably some animals), and you hear the sound of something that almost sounds like footsteps approaching your hut.
Then suddenly your home is glowing from the light of torches, and as you turn to look toward the door you see men coming at you quickly and grabbing hold of you. You try to fight but then you feel a sharp pain in your head, and then nothing.
When you come-to some time later, you still don’t know exactly what’s happened, but you know its bad. You’re lying on your back, and its too dark to see anything, but you can tell there’s a board about six inches in front of your face. You can’t see anyone else, but you can hear their sobs and smell the odors that arise when people are kept in tight quarters. You can feel a slight rocking motion that tells you that you must be on a boat.
Well, after what feels like an eternity in this condition, the brightness of daylight suddenly floods the room, and men come down a ladder into the room and start forcing all of you to climb up one by one. You emerge onto the deck of a ship where you’re chained together with the person in front of you and behind you, and then you’re forced to march off of the ship into a crowd of people who look like they’ve gathered to see some kind of spectacle. And all of sudden it dawns on you—you’ve been kidnapped, and you’re about to be sold as a slave.
Imagine the feelings that would hit you in that moment—fear, despair, perhaps anger or rage. Your freedom has been stolen from you, and now you are in bondage, with seemingly no hope at that time.
Now imagine that as the bidding for you begins, one man steps out of the crowd, outbids all of the others, and buys you. After the man pays his money, he walks over to you. He doesn’t look like an ogre but you’re still not really sure. And then this man says to you, “I want you to know that I didn’t buy you to make you my slave. I bought you to set you free. I paid that price for you to buy your freedom, so don’t worry about what’s going to happen to you now. I bought you to rescue you from all of this, and not only to rescue you, but to help you as well. In fact, if you’re willing, I want to adopt you as my own child. I’ll provide for you, take care of you and watch out for you. I’ll teach you and train you and show you how to thrive in this new place. What do you think?”
What would you be feeling at that moment? What would you think of that man? I want you to keep this picture in your mind—this picture of freedom from slavery—because it’s the picture that lies behind the word that we’re going to talk about today. Today, we’re going to be looking at the word redemption. This is a beautiful word that conveys a beautiful idea about what Jesus has done for us. So we’ll take a quick look at what the word redemption means, and then we’ll talk about what it means that God has redeemed us.
I. What does the word “redemption” mean?
The word redemption conveys a picture like the scenario that I had you imagine in your mind a moment ago. Redemption is the act of paying a price to free someone from slavery or debt. We can see this very clearly in the way that the word is used in the Old Testament. First of all, this word was used in everyday life when someone was buying back some land that they had to sell [READ Lev. 25:25–27].
Second, this word is also used frequently to describe what God did when he delivered Israel out of Egypt. God used this word in his first encounter with Moses to announce what he was going to do for the people. In Exodus 6:6 the Lord commanded Moses to, “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” Notice the phrases that are parallel to the word “redemption:” bring you out from under the burdens, deliver you from bondage. That’s the idea that we’re talking about with the word redemption.
The people of Israel also used this word to describe what God had done for them in freeing them from Egypt. In a prayer to God in Psalm 74:2, Asaph writes, “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance.” So both God and the people of Israel understood that deliverance from Egypt in terms of redemption.
Third, the Old Testament also introduces the idea that we need to be redeemed from our sins. Psalm 130:7–8 says, “O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” So the idea here is that our iniquities (or our sins) have placed us into some kind of bondage, some kind of slavery or debt that we need to be released from, and it is in fact the Lord himself who can redeem us.
Now please notice that this is different from the way that we often use the word “redemption.” If you follow sports you’ll often hear people talk about how a team has a chance for redemption when they play a team that beat them earlier in the season. Well, that’s really closer to the idea of revenge than the biblical idea of redemption.
So again, the biblical idea of redemption is the act of paying a price to free someone from slavery or debt, and the New Testament tells us that this is exactly what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. God sent His Son into the world to redeem us, but what exactly does that mean for us?
II. What does it mean that God has redeemed us?
A. He has set us free from our slavery to sin and our debt to Him—Col. 1:13–14
Follow along with me if you would as I read these verses [READ Col. 1:13–14]. Take a closer look at the language of these verses. The first part of v. 13 speaks of spiritual slavery. First Paul writes that God rescued us, which tells us that we were in danger. Without Jesus, we are only fooling ourselves if we think we are safe and secure, because in reality we need to be rescued. And rescued from what? The domain or power of darkness. Darkness is a word picture for sin and the separation from God that it brings, and before we accepted Jesus we were under the domain or under the power of sin. We were in bondage to it, but by redeeming us God broke the chains of sin and cast them from us, making us free to come into the kingdom of His beloved Son, into a new domain with a new Lord—one who rules over us for our good and not for our destruction.
So God set us free from our slavery to sin and he also set us free from our debt to Him. We see this in the last part of v. 14 when Paul writes that through Christ’s redemption we have also received the forgiveness of sins. The idea of forgiveness brings up the concept of a spiritual debt that we owed to God, and Col. 2:13–14 tells us that our debt has been forgiven [READ 2:13–14]. Now friends I know that people get excited on The Dave Ramsey Show when they get out of financial debt, so I think we can get a little bit excited when we can look to Jesus and say, “We’re debt free!” “Jesus paid it all—all to Him I owe—sin had left a crimson stain—He washed it white as now!”
By redeeming us, God has set us free from our slavery to sin and our debt to Him. But what’s more…
B. He has purchased us to adopt us as His own sons—Gal. 4:4–5
Turn with me to Gal. 4:4–5 [READ Gal. 4:4–5] I imagine many of you are familiar with the old Westerns where one man would save a town from a group of bandits. The plot usually goes like this—one day in a small, out-of-the-way frontier town, a renegade gunslinger comes riding in. Now the gunslinger is really just passing through on his way to another town until he crosses paths with a beautiful, eligible female who tells him that the town is oppressed by a gang of outlaws. But the gunslinger still isn’t totally convinced to take on the outlaws until he discovers that it’s the same group of bandits who left him for dead 10 years ago. So a final showdown is set-up for high noon wherein the gunslinger kills all of the bad guys and liberates the town from their oppression. The townspeople then want to make him their mayor, but he refuses, and when the beautiful, eligible female begs him to stay, he tells her that his heart is far too restless to be tied down, so he kisses her and then rides off into the sunset.
Well, it makes for a great story that the gunslinger freed the townspeople, but have you ever realized that afterward, he leaves them to fend for themselves. Yes they’re free, but they’re still unprotected from future threats. Now friends my point is this—when God redeemed us, He not only set us free, He also stuck around to take care of us. In fact, Gal. 4 says here that God adopted us into His own family. Like the man in our opening story, God not only purchased us out of slavery, but He went on to make us part of His family, so that now He has promised to be a Father to us—to provide for our needs, to protect us, to teach us and train us to be like our spiritual brother, Jesus Christ. What an incredible act of grace that God has performed for us—to receive us into His own family.
So how are we to respond to all of this? What should our attitude be toward God?
C. He is worthy of our utmost honor and respect because of the price that He paid for us—1 Peter 1:17–19
Turn with me to 1 Peter 1:17–19 [READ 1 Pet. 1:17–19]. When I was in high school, we always had a fundraiser that was called “senior slave day.” This was a day where the seniors would sell themselves as slaves to underclassmen to raise money for their party on the night of graduation. This was always a great time and it was always fun to see how much the underclassmen were willing to pay to buy one of their friends in the senior class. Every senior wanted to go for a high price because it was a badge of honor.
Well spiritually speaking, we have a badge of honor in the price that God was willing to give to redeem our souls. Peter stresses that we were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold—this is the best that the world has to offer, and yet in the end it just tarnishes like everything else. Oh no—God didn’t give something as invaluable as silver and gold. He redeemed us with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. God was willing to send His own Son into the world and to have His Son shed His blood to redeem our souls. And Peter says that remembering Christ’s precious blood should lead us to conduct our lives in the fear of God, which is an attitude of the utmost honor and respect.
So where does all of this leave us today? First, we can rejoice in the freedom from sin that we have in Christ. Jesus has set us free so that we don’t have to give in to our sinful desires anymore. Sin is no longer our master and we no longer have to live under its command.
Second, we can remember that rather than a harsh master we now have a loving Father in God. Our heavenly Father loves us and has promised to take care of us, and He has shown us the right way to live and helps us walk in it. And because of the tremendous price that He paid to make all of this possible, we should show Him honor as our Father and redeemer.
Then suddenly your home is glowing from the light of torches, and as you turn to look toward the door you see men coming at you quickly and grabbing hold of you. You try to fight but then you feel a sharp pain in your head, and then nothing.
When you come-to some time later, you still don’t know exactly what’s happened, but you know its bad. You’re lying on your back, and its too dark to see anything, but you can tell there’s a board about six inches in front of your face. You can’t see anyone else, but you can hear their sobs and smell the odors that arise when people are kept in tight quarters. You can feel a slight rocking motion that tells you that you must be on a boat.
Well, after what feels like an eternity in this condition, the brightness of daylight suddenly floods the room, and men come down a ladder into the room and start forcing all of you to climb up one by one. You emerge onto the deck of a ship where you’re chained together with the person in front of you and behind you, and then you’re forced to march off of the ship into a crowd of people who look like they’ve gathered to see some kind of spectacle. And all of sudden it dawns on you—you’ve been kidnapped, and you’re about to be sold as a slave.
Imagine the feelings that would hit you in that moment—fear, despair, perhaps anger or rage. Your freedom has been stolen from you, and now you are in bondage, with seemingly no hope at that time.
Now imagine that as the bidding for you begins, one man steps out of the crowd, outbids all of the others, and buys you. After the man pays his money, he walks over to you. He doesn’t look like an ogre but you’re still not really sure. And then this man says to you, “I want you to know that I didn’t buy you to make you my slave. I bought you to set you free. I paid that price for you to buy your freedom, so don’t worry about what’s going to happen to you now. I bought you to rescue you from all of this, and not only to rescue you, but to help you as well. In fact, if you’re willing, I want to adopt you as my own child. I’ll provide for you, take care of you and watch out for you. I’ll teach you and train you and show you how to thrive in this new place. What do you think?”
What would you be feeling at that moment? What would you think of that man? I want you to keep this picture in your mind—this picture of freedom from slavery—because it’s the picture that lies behind the word that we’re going to talk about today. Today, we’re going to be looking at the word redemption. This is a beautiful word that conveys a beautiful idea about what Jesus has done for us. So we’ll take a quick look at what the word redemption means, and then we’ll talk about what it means that God has redeemed us.
I. What does the word “redemption” mean?
The word redemption conveys a picture like the scenario that I had you imagine in your mind a moment ago. Redemption is the act of paying a price to free someone from slavery or debt. We can see this very clearly in the way that the word is used in the Old Testament. First of all, this word was used in everyday life when someone was buying back some land that they had to sell [READ Lev. 25:25–27].
Second, this word is also used frequently to describe what God did when he delivered Israel out of Egypt. God used this word in his first encounter with Moses to announce what he was going to do for the people. In Exodus 6:6 the Lord commanded Moses to, “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” Notice the phrases that are parallel to the word “redemption:” bring you out from under the burdens, deliver you from bondage. That’s the idea that we’re talking about with the word redemption.
The people of Israel also used this word to describe what God had done for them in freeing them from Egypt. In a prayer to God in Psalm 74:2, Asaph writes, “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance.” So both God and the people of Israel understood that deliverance from Egypt in terms of redemption.
Third, the Old Testament also introduces the idea that we need to be redeemed from our sins. Psalm 130:7–8 says, “O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” So the idea here is that our iniquities (or our sins) have placed us into some kind of bondage, some kind of slavery or debt that we need to be released from, and it is in fact the Lord himself who can redeem us.
Now please notice that this is different from the way that we often use the word “redemption.” If you follow sports you’ll often hear people talk about how a team has a chance for redemption when they play a team that beat them earlier in the season. Well, that’s really closer to the idea of revenge than the biblical idea of redemption.
So again, the biblical idea of redemption is the act of paying a price to free someone from slavery or debt, and the New Testament tells us that this is exactly what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. God sent His Son into the world to redeem us, but what exactly does that mean for us?
II. What does it mean that God has redeemed us?
A. He has set us free from our slavery to sin and our debt to Him—Col. 1:13–14
Follow along with me if you would as I read these verses [READ Col. 1:13–14]. Take a closer look at the language of these verses. The first part of v. 13 speaks of spiritual slavery. First Paul writes that God rescued us, which tells us that we were in danger. Without Jesus, we are only fooling ourselves if we think we are safe and secure, because in reality we need to be rescued. And rescued from what? The domain or power of darkness. Darkness is a word picture for sin and the separation from God that it brings, and before we accepted Jesus we were under the domain or under the power of sin. We were in bondage to it, but by redeeming us God broke the chains of sin and cast them from us, making us free to come into the kingdom of His beloved Son, into a new domain with a new Lord—one who rules over us for our good and not for our destruction.
So God set us free from our slavery to sin and he also set us free from our debt to Him. We see this in the last part of v. 14 when Paul writes that through Christ’s redemption we have also received the forgiveness of sins. The idea of forgiveness brings up the concept of a spiritual debt that we owed to God, and Col. 2:13–14 tells us that our debt has been forgiven [READ 2:13–14]. Now friends I know that people get excited on The Dave Ramsey Show when they get out of financial debt, so I think we can get a little bit excited when we can look to Jesus and say, “We’re debt free!” “Jesus paid it all—all to Him I owe—sin had left a crimson stain—He washed it white as now!”
By redeeming us, God has set us free from our slavery to sin and our debt to Him. But what’s more…
B. He has purchased us to adopt us as His own sons—Gal. 4:4–5
Turn with me to Gal. 4:4–5 [READ Gal. 4:4–5] I imagine many of you are familiar with the old Westerns where one man would save a town from a group of bandits. The plot usually goes like this—one day in a small, out-of-the-way frontier town, a renegade gunslinger comes riding in. Now the gunslinger is really just passing through on his way to another town until he crosses paths with a beautiful, eligible female who tells him that the town is oppressed by a gang of outlaws. But the gunslinger still isn’t totally convinced to take on the outlaws until he discovers that it’s the same group of bandits who left him for dead 10 years ago. So a final showdown is set-up for high noon wherein the gunslinger kills all of the bad guys and liberates the town from their oppression. The townspeople then want to make him their mayor, but he refuses, and when the beautiful, eligible female begs him to stay, he tells her that his heart is far too restless to be tied down, so he kisses her and then rides off into the sunset.
Well, it makes for a great story that the gunslinger freed the townspeople, but have you ever realized that afterward, he leaves them to fend for themselves. Yes they’re free, but they’re still unprotected from future threats. Now friends my point is this—when God redeemed us, He not only set us free, He also stuck around to take care of us. In fact, Gal. 4 says here that God adopted us into His own family. Like the man in our opening story, God not only purchased us out of slavery, but He went on to make us part of His family, so that now He has promised to be a Father to us—to provide for our needs, to protect us, to teach us and train us to be like our spiritual brother, Jesus Christ. What an incredible act of grace that God has performed for us—to receive us into His own family.
So how are we to respond to all of this? What should our attitude be toward God?
C. He is worthy of our utmost honor and respect because of the price that He paid for us—1 Peter 1:17–19
Turn with me to 1 Peter 1:17–19 [READ 1 Pet. 1:17–19]. When I was in high school, we always had a fundraiser that was called “senior slave day.” This was a day where the seniors would sell themselves as slaves to underclassmen to raise money for their party on the night of graduation. This was always a great time and it was always fun to see how much the underclassmen were willing to pay to buy one of their friends in the senior class. Every senior wanted to go for a high price because it was a badge of honor.
Well spiritually speaking, we have a badge of honor in the price that God was willing to give to redeem our souls. Peter stresses that we were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold—this is the best that the world has to offer, and yet in the end it just tarnishes like everything else. Oh no—God didn’t give something as invaluable as silver and gold. He redeemed us with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. God was willing to send His own Son into the world and to have His Son shed His blood to redeem our souls. And Peter says that remembering Christ’s precious blood should lead us to conduct our lives in the fear of God, which is an attitude of the utmost honor and respect.
So where does all of this leave us today? First, we can rejoice in the freedom from sin that we have in Christ. Jesus has set us free so that we don’t have to give in to our sinful desires anymore. Sin is no longer our master and we no longer have to live under its command.
Second, we can remember that rather than a harsh master we now have a loving Father in God. Our heavenly Father loves us and has promised to take care of us, and He has shown us the right way to live and helps us walk in it. And because of the tremendous price that He paid to make all of this possible, we should show Him honor as our Father and redeemer.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Teammates for the Faith--Philippians 1:27-30
Unity is recognized as an absolutely essential quality whenever a group of people are working together toward a common goal. Sports teams know this all too well. A team that is unified can often find a way to beat a team that is more talented but lacks unity. That’s why we observe things like what just happened in the recent NFL draft—a highly-talented quarterback fell into the middle of the second round because of concerns about his attitude. Teams worried that he would disrupt their unity, so he was taken much later than his talented suggested he would be taken.
But people recognize the need for unity in every area of life. During the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin stressed to the Continental Congress that, “We must hang together or we will certainly hang separately.” He knew that there was no way that the colonies could defeat a force like the British unless they were unified amongst themselves.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced how important unity is for the groups that we’ve been involved in. Maybe you’ve been part of a board or a club that wasn’t unified. You probably remember how much you dreaded going to those meetings, because nothing was ever accomplished and people just bickered with each other. Maybe you’ve experienced some fighting in your family. There’s nothing that can ruin Thanksgiving or Christmas like a good fight, right?
As we continue in our study of the book of Philippians, we’re going to be entering a section today where Paul is going to begin stressing the need for unity within the church. He’s going to tell us why it is important, and then beyond that he’s going to tell us how we achieve unity in our midst. What we will start to see from Paul today is this:
Living as one is goal number one in the life of the church.
Would you turn with me please to Philippians 1:27–30? Last week we looked at Paul’s tagline for life, the one statement that summed up how he looked at everything: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He was pondering whether his imprisonment might end up in life or death, and he concluded that God would allow him to continue to live because that would be beneficial for the Philippians. But as we’ll see in today’s passage, Paul knew that there was a possibility that he wouldn’t see them again. Even if he was released, other things might come up that would keep him from going back to Philippi, so Paul now instructs them about the main thing that he wants them to focus on, whether he ever sees them again or not [READ 1:27–30].
From these verses let’s focus on two perspectives on standing together:
I. We must stand together as teammates in light of the Gospel (1:27–28)
Let’s take a look first of all at what Paul says in v. 27 [READ v. 27] Paul uses a couple of meaningful word pictures to get his point across here. The first lies behind his command at the beginning of the verse to “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” His word picture is a little tricky to convey in English, but a very literal translation of his word picture would say, “act like citizens in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Paul was apparently drawing on the idea of Roman citizenship and the concept of living up to the standards of a citizen.
For us in America today, we don’t really think about our citizenship very much. I think every person in this room was probably born as an American citizen. That wasn’t true in the Roman Empire—even if you were born in the Empire, you weren’t automatically a citizen. Citizenship was an honor that was usually awarded for some kind of heroic or notable act—though like anything else it could also be purchased if you had enough money! Now most of the people in the Philippian church were Roman citizens because the emperor Octavian had granted the inhabitants of the city citizenship after he won a major battle there against the men who assassinated Julius Caesar. Roman citizenship was very desirable because it gave you certain legal rights, but it also had certain responsibilities that you were supposed to live up to as a good citizen, and it seems that Paul was drawing on that idea in this word picture.
He’s going to remind us over in chapter 3 that we are now citizens of heaven, but along with that come certain obligations. We have new obligations toward God. For example, God has adopted us into his spiritual family, so we are to act as obedient children. We also have a new master, the Lord Jesus Christ, so now we are supposed to serve Him rather than our sinful impulses.
We also have obligations toward each other since we are all united by our faith in Christ. If you want to do a challenging Bible study some time, do a study of all of the “one another” commands in the New Testament and look at all of the things that we are called to do for each other. We are supposed to love one another, forgive one another, bear one another’s burdens, submit to one another in proper channels of authority, be kind to one another, etc.
So it seems that Paul is saying that we need to live up to the obligations that we now have since we’ve accepted the Gospel, and he goes on to stress that a key aspect of that is standing together in and for the Christian faith. In the last part of v. 27, he writes of his desire that “I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Now in the Greek behind the words “striving together,” Paul uses a word picture from the world of athletics. He actually uses the verb athleō, from which we get the English words “athlete” and “athletic.” So when he calls us to “strive together,” with his word picture he is calling us to be like teammates for the faith.
What a great picture for us to imitate as we live and serve together as believers—we are teammates. Teammates rally together behind a common goal—in our case, our common goal is to honor God by living as His ambassadors in this world. Teammates are supposed to place their egos under this common goal, so that achieving the goal is more important than getting our own way. Teammates cheer each other on and celebrate when they have victories—just think about when a player scores a touchdown in football; the quarterback might go running down the field to chest bump with his wide receiver or the running back might hug the linemen. What a great way to think about each other—as teammates for the faith!
And unity like this is all the more important when opposition from outside comes our way, as the Philippians were apparently facing. Paul tells them in v. 28 to be “in no way alarmed by your opponents.” You might remember that when Paul first visited Philippi, he was thrown in jail because some residents of the city felt that the message of Christianity was a threat to the Roman way of life. Some of these same residents may have still been harassing the Christians there, so Paul tells them to stand together as teammates and to not be unsettled by their opponents. Paul says that such a show of confidence would be a sign or a demonstration of two things. First, it would be a sign of destruction to the opponents. By remaining fearless, the believers would show their belief that God was going to take care of these opponents. Whether its now or at the final judgment, God will bring wrath against those who oppose His people. What an omen for the opponents! But for the believers, a confident stand would be a sign of salvation. Their faith in God would shine through like a light in the midst of the darkness of persecution.
So a united front against this opposition would send a strong message to their opponents AND it would be a strong encouragement to the believers. And the mention of opponents brings us to our second perspective on standing together:
II. We must stand together in light of the persecution that God may graciously allow (1:29–30)
In verses 29 and 30, Paul puts persecution in a perspective that in some ways is mind-boggling, particularly for us in a country like the United States where persecution is so foreign to us [READ vv. 29–30]. In verse 30, Paul refers to his imprisonments—the Philippians had seen Paul in prison when he was in Philippi, and now they were hearing about his imprisonment in Rome. And Paul states that they were experiencing the same conflict, which could mean that some of them had spent time in prison because of their faith.
So they were suffering because of their faith, and Paul referred to that as a gift that they had been granted by God. And notice that he puts it on the same level as the gift of faith in Christ! So if we think that believing in Christ is an honor, suffering for His sake is an honor on the same level!
I have to admit that its hard for me to wrap my mind around discussions of suffering like this, and I would venture to say that this might be true for you as well. I mean, I get what Paul is saying here, but persecution is so foreign to our experience in the United States that I think its difficult for us to relate to passages like this. As a result, I’m not sure that we always respond to the idea of persecution in the best ways.
I think commentator Gordon Fee summarizes our reactions well. He writes, “the content of Paul’s explanation is something contemporary Christians hear reluctantly, either out of guilt that so many of us look so little like this, or out of fear that it might someday really be true for us.”* Let’s think about both of those reactions for a moment. First, I think there can be at times a temptation for us to feel guilty over the fact that we don’t really face much persecution to speak of in this country. We might be tempted to think that we’re mediocre Christians because we don’t face the persecution that is a reality for many of our brothers and sisters around the world. But I don’t think the Bible gives us any reason to feel guilty about the religious freedom that we enjoy. Jesus did say in Matthew 5 that we are blessed if we endure persecution for His sake, but the Bible never tells us to seek persecution or desire it. Persecution is under God’s control—He may choose to allow it and He may not; we just need to make sure that we stay faithful to Him no matter what.
But let’s think about this second reaction for a moment—the reaction of fear. I think this is probably a more common reaction for us. We hear about the persecution that’s going on right now in places like China and Sudan and we become fearful that those same things may one day start to happen to us here in the United States. And then we often feel that what we need to do is expend our energy ensuring that America remains a comfortable place for Christians to live. But I’m not sure that’s the proper reaction either, because I don’t think it seriously wrestles with the passages like this that talk about the blessings that can come from persecution.
So how should we respond to verses that talk about persecution when its not a daily reality for us? Let me suggest two ways. First, we can stand together with our brothers and sisters who are facing persecution right now. Because of the atrocities of Hitler and Stalin and Chairman Mao in China, the 20th century was the deadliest century in history in terms of Christian persecution, and much persecution continues today. Hebrews 13:3 says, “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body [of Christ].” Organizations like Voice of the Martyrs do a great job of keeping us informed about how we can help Christians who are suffering persecution right now. So we can stand together with them!
Second, since we don’t face much persecution, we should be even more diligent to make sure that we don’t get distracted from being dedicated to Christ. Let me explain what I mean. I will never forget what I was told by a friend of mine who pastors a church in Kansas City. A few years ago he attended a meeting where he met an elderly Christian woman from China who talked about the persecution that she had faced for her faith. She had been in and out of prison several times for witnessing to others, but she told my friend that Christians in China pray for us because they believe it must be extremely difficult to live for Jesus in the United States when we have so many things to distract us—things like leisure, wealth, comfort, entertainment, etc. So they pray for us that we would be able to keep our focus on Jesus and not be distracted by other things.
For those believers, persecution is an external factor that forces them to stay focused on Jesus. But since we don’t really have an external factor like that, we have to be more diligent for ourselves to make sure that we stay focused on Christ.
And you know friends, standing together can help us do that. Paul wanted the Philippian believers more than anything else to focus on standing together, and that lesson is just as important today as it was back then. We are teammates for the faith, so we need to seek for a unified team spirit. We should encourage each other when we see someone doing something well. We should pick each other up when we’re hurt. We should celebrate together and cry together and rally around the common goal of bringing glory to God. This will help us stay on track, and it will give us strength if persecution ever does come our way.
But people recognize the need for unity in every area of life. During the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin stressed to the Continental Congress that, “We must hang together or we will certainly hang separately.” He knew that there was no way that the colonies could defeat a force like the British unless they were unified amongst themselves.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced how important unity is for the groups that we’ve been involved in. Maybe you’ve been part of a board or a club that wasn’t unified. You probably remember how much you dreaded going to those meetings, because nothing was ever accomplished and people just bickered with each other. Maybe you’ve experienced some fighting in your family. There’s nothing that can ruin Thanksgiving or Christmas like a good fight, right?
As we continue in our study of the book of Philippians, we’re going to be entering a section today where Paul is going to begin stressing the need for unity within the church. He’s going to tell us why it is important, and then beyond that he’s going to tell us how we achieve unity in our midst. What we will start to see from Paul today is this:
Living as one is goal number one in the life of the church.
Would you turn with me please to Philippians 1:27–30? Last week we looked at Paul’s tagline for life, the one statement that summed up how he looked at everything: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He was pondering whether his imprisonment might end up in life or death, and he concluded that God would allow him to continue to live because that would be beneficial for the Philippians. But as we’ll see in today’s passage, Paul knew that there was a possibility that he wouldn’t see them again. Even if he was released, other things might come up that would keep him from going back to Philippi, so Paul now instructs them about the main thing that he wants them to focus on, whether he ever sees them again or not [READ 1:27–30].
From these verses let’s focus on two perspectives on standing together:
I. We must stand together as teammates in light of the Gospel (1:27–28)
Let’s take a look first of all at what Paul says in v. 27 [READ v. 27] Paul uses a couple of meaningful word pictures to get his point across here. The first lies behind his command at the beginning of the verse to “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” His word picture is a little tricky to convey in English, but a very literal translation of his word picture would say, “act like citizens in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Paul was apparently drawing on the idea of Roman citizenship and the concept of living up to the standards of a citizen.
For us in America today, we don’t really think about our citizenship very much. I think every person in this room was probably born as an American citizen. That wasn’t true in the Roman Empire—even if you were born in the Empire, you weren’t automatically a citizen. Citizenship was an honor that was usually awarded for some kind of heroic or notable act—though like anything else it could also be purchased if you had enough money! Now most of the people in the Philippian church were Roman citizens because the emperor Octavian had granted the inhabitants of the city citizenship after he won a major battle there against the men who assassinated Julius Caesar. Roman citizenship was very desirable because it gave you certain legal rights, but it also had certain responsibilities that you were supposed to live up to as a good citizen, and it seems that Paul was drawing on that idea in this word picture.
He’s going to remind us over in chapter 3 that we are now citizens of heaven, but along with that come certain obligations. We have new obligations toward God. For example, God has adopted us into his spiritual family, so we are to act as obedient children. We also have a new master, the Lord Jesus Christ, so now we are supposed to serve Him rather than our sinful impulses.
We also have obligations toward each other since we are all united by our faith in Christ. If you want to do a challenging Bible study some time, do a study of all of the “one another” commands in the New Testament and look at all of the things that we are called to do for each other. We are supposed to love one another, forgive one another, bear one another’s burdens, submit to one another in proper channels of authority, be kind to one another, etc.
So it seems that Paul is saying that we need to live up to the obligations that we now have since we’ve accepted the Gospel, and he goes on to stress that a key aspect of that is standing together in and for the Christian faith. In the last part of v. 27, he writes of his desire that “I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Now in the Greek behind the words “striving together,” Paul uses a word picture from the world of athletics. He actually uses the verb athleō, from which we get the English words “athlete” and “athletic.” So when he calls us to “strive together,” with his word picture he is calling us to be like teammates for the faith.
What a great picture for us to imitate as we live and serve together as believers—we are teammates. Teammates rally together behind a common goal—in our case, our common goal is to honor God by living as His ambassadors in this world. Teammates are supposed to place their egos under this common goal, so that achieving the goal is more important than getting our own way. Teammates cheer each other on and celebrate when they have victories—just think about when a player scores a touchdown in football; the quarterback might go running down the field to chest bump with his wide receiver or the running back might hug the linemen. What a great way to think about each other—as teammates for the faith!
And unity like this is all the more important when opposition from outside comes our way, as the Philippians were apparently facing. Paul tells them in v. 28 to be “in no way alarmed by your opponents.” You might remember that when Paul first visited Philippi, he was thrown in jail because some residents of the city felt that the message of Christianity was a threat to the Roman way of life. Some of these same residents may have still been harassing the Christians there, so Paul tells them to stand together as teammates and to not be unsettled by their opponents. Paul says that such a show of confidence would be a sign or a demonstration of two things. First, it would be a sign of destruction to the opponents. By remaining fearless, the believers would show their belief that God was going to take care of these opponents. Whether its now or at the final judgment, God will bring wrath against those who oppose His people. What an omen for the opponents! But for the believers, a confident stand would be a sign of salvation. Their faith in God would shine through like a light in the midst of the darkness of persecution.
So a united front against this opposition would send a strong message to their opponents AND it would be a strong encouragement to the believers. And the mention of opponents brings us to our second perspective on standing together:
II. We must stand together in light of the persecution that God may graciously allow (1:29–30)
In verses 29 and 30, Paul puts persecution in a perspective that in some ways is mind-boggling, particularly for us in a country like the United States where persecution is so foreign to us [READ vv. 29–30]. In verse 30, Paul refers to his imprisonments—the Philippians had seen Paul in prison when he was in Philippi, and now they were hearing about his imprisonment in Rome. And Paul states that they were experiencing the same conflict, which could mean that some of them had spent time in prison because of their faith.
So they were suffering because of their faith, and Paul referred to that as a gift that they had been granted by God. And notice that he puts it on the same level as the gift of faith in Christ! So if we think that believing in Christ is an honor, suffering for His sake is an honor on the same level!
I have to admit that its hard for me to wrap my mind around discussions of suffering like this, and I would venture to say that this might be true for you as well. I mean, I get what Paul is saying here, but persecution is so foreign to our experience in the United States that I think its difficult for us to relate to passages like this. As a result, I’m not sure that we always respond to the idea of persecution in the best ways.
I think commentator Gordon Fee summarizes our reactions well. He writes, “the content of Paul’s explanation is something contemporary Christians hear reluctantly, either out of guilt that so many of us look so little like this, or out of fear that it might someday really be true for us.”* Let’s think about both of those reactions for a moment. First, I think there can be at times a temptation for us to feel guilty over the fact that we don’t really face much persecution to speak of in this country. We might be tempted to think that we’re mediocre Christians because we don’t face the persecution that is a reality for many of our brothers and sisters around the world. But I don’t think the Bible gives us any reason to feel guilty about the religious freedom that we enjoy. Jesus did say in Matthew 5 that we are blessed if we endure persecution for His sake, but the Bible never tells us to seek persecution or desire it. Persecution is under God’s control—He may choose to allow it and He may not; we just need to make sure that we stay faithful to Him no matter what.
But let’s think about this second reaction for a moment—the reaction of fear. I think this is probably a more common reaction for us. We hear about the persecution that’s going on right now in places like China and Sudan and we become fearful that those same things may one day start to happen to us here in the United States. And then we often feel that what we need to do is expend our energy ensuring that America remains a comfortable place for Christians to live. But I’m not sure that’s the proper reaction either, because I don’t think it seriously wrestles with the passages like this that talk about the blessings that can come from persecution.
So how should we respond to verses that talk about persecution when its not a daily reality for us? Let me suggest two ways. First, we can stand together with our brothers and sisters who are facing persecution right now. Because of the atrocities of Hitler and Stalin and Chairman Mao in China, the 20th century was the deadliest century in history in terms of Christian persecution, and much persecution continues today. Hebrews 13:3 says, “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body [of Christ].” Organizations like Voice of the Martyrs do a great job of keeping us informed about how we can help Christians who are suffering persecution right now. So we can stand together with them!
Second, since we don’t face much persecution, we should be even more diligent to make sure that we don’t get distracted from being dedicated to Christ. Let me explain what I mean. I will never forget what I was told by a friend of mine who pastors a church in Kansas City. A few years ago he attended a meeting where he met an elderly Christian woman from China who talked about the persecution that she had faced for her faith. She had been in and out of prison several times for witnessing to others, but she told my friend that Christians in China pray for us because they believe it must be extremely difficult to live for Jesus in the United States when we have so many things to distract us—things like leisure, wealth, comfort, entertainment, etc. So they pray for us that we would be able to keep our focus on Jesus and not be distracted by other things.
For those believers, persecution is an external factor that forces them to stay focused on Jesus. But since we don’t really have an external factor like that, we have to be more diligent for ourselves to make sure that we stay focused on Christ.
And you know friends, standing together can help us do that. Paul wanted the Philippian believers more than anything else to focus on standing together, and that lesson is just as important today as it was back then. We are teammates for the faith, so we need to seek for a unified team spirit. We should encourage each other when we see someone doing something well. We should pick each other up when we’re hurt. We should celebrate together and cry together and rally around the common goal of bringing glory to God. This will help us stay on track, and it will give us strength if persecution ever does come our way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)