Philippians 2:1-4
Unity and Humility
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Unity Through Humility
2 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Php 2:1–4.
Transcript
Welcome to God's Word for You, a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart.
Please open in your Bibles with me to Philippians chapter two. Congratulations! We've graduated out of Philippians chapter one, finally! And we're now at Philippians chapter two verses one through four. Philippians chapter 2, one through four, can be found on page 1043 of your Pew Bibles. And to get a little context we’ll be reading 1:27 through 2:4. Philippians chapter one beginning at Verse 27. Again, this is God's word. It's holy. Perfect. There's not a single error in it. It is worthy of your attention.
Philippians chapter one, beginning at verse 27, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which to them is a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.
“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
Please pray with me, “Lord, we thank you so much for your word, and we pray God that you would apply these words to our hearts, Lord, that we would receive them by faith and that we would live them out in our lives. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen.”
There are 250,000, roughly, Protestant churches in America. 200,000 of those churches, this is coming from a pastor out in Chicago, 200,000 of those churches are either stagnant or in decline. 4/5 of the churches in America. 4000 churches in America, 4000 Protestant churches every single year shut their doors. 3500 souls, individual people, every single day, walk out of the church, leave their faith and never come back. There's a whole lot of reasons, a whole lot of reasons for that. But this morning's text points out one of the things that Satan loves to use to break up the church and that's disunity.
There's something that happens in a lot of churches, where people forget that this is the place where God is worshiped and God's blood bought sheep are built up, and instead the church becomes a club. The church becomes a social organization where we forget what we're doing and why we're here. It's just a shake hands, and eat meals, and smile at people, and feel good going home on Sunday afternoon. But that's not what the church is. It's not what the church should ever dissolve into, just a social club. The church is not a club. The church is the place where we are forged together in the fiery trials of this world and the pounding pressures of life into the body of Jesus Christ. And it's under those pressures, it’s under that strain, it’s under those fires that we become unified.
And so your call this morning is to strive for unity. Strive for unity. Look with me first at verse two. “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one mind.” Our first point is, you need to know what unity is. Know what unity is. Paul defines it in a few ways here, but first Jesus tells us what it is to be those who dwell in unity. Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter five, that great sermon we remember, the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, when he says in Matthew chapter five, verse 19, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Unity starts with being a peacemaker. If you want to put sub points underneath this, this would be under “knowing unity,” point a, be a peacemaker. We must be those who are seeking peace, seeking unity. We must be those who are of one accord. We must be those who are like-minded, one intent, one disposition. We need to be those who are unified, not fighting. Satan loves when Christians fight and bicker over silly things. And there's nothing that will rip apart a church faster than in fighting. We must be those who are of one accord; peacemakers.
But second, under what it is to know what unity is, is loving Jesus and loving others. Loving Jesus and loving others. This is what it means in verse two when it says, “having the same love.” “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded.” Having the same love.
Turn with me over to First John chapter two, verse nine. First John, chapter two, verse nine. That's page 1082 of your Pew Bibles. First John, chapter two, Verse nine. Again, John is trying to get at who's a Christian, who's not a Christian. Do you have assurance of salvation? And this is one of those keys to knowing whether you're truly a member of the body of Jesus. “He who says that he is in the light,” that's John’s shorthand for saying, “He who says he is a Christian,” “and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
You cannot be a member of the church and hate the people in the church. It's impossible. You cannot say that “I love Jesus, but I don't love Jesus people.” It's not possible. If you love Jesus, Jesus loves his church, you must love his church. Jesus paid his own blood, the price with his own blood, to redeem his people. For the person sitting in the pew behind you or next to you or the person across the aisle who you don't exactly really like. Jesus paid his blood for them. You need to love them because they’re your brother or your sister. And this starts happening when we start focusing our same love on Jesus Christ and get our love off of ourselves. That's one of the things that the gospel does and it will come up again and again in this text is getting your attention off yourself and directing it towards Jesus Christ and his people.
Thirdly, under knowing what unity is, be of one mind. Verse two again, “fulfill my joy by being like-minded.” This is the idea of being a same soul. The word in Greek is being of the same soul. It's not just like “Oh, yeah, he likes the Cardinals and, well, I don't like the Cardinals.” It's not just that we like the same things, but it's that our souls are united together. The very foundation of the most important things in life, we agree on. Jesus Christ and the need for righteousness from him, that's what binds us together. Being like-minded, same soul. We have harmony instead of strife. We stand firm on the main things. On the main purposes of what the church stands for.
Why are you here? What is the church doing? Why do you walk in here every single Sunday? If it's not because you love God, you wanna worship God, because sinners are being saved here, because disciples are being built up, because grace is overflowing and mercy is abounding and the lost are being reached, if that's not why you're here, you need to think about why you're here. What are your motives for being here? Why do you want to join the saints in God's worship? This isn't a club. This is a church. A church of our Savior Jesus Christ. Why are you here, Christian?
There's a danger and that danger is false unity. There is a danger in false unity. If we know that what unity is, is being like-minded, same soul, agreed on the same main purposes, you've also got to be aware of a false sense of unity. This is something that is really dangerous for churches. Well, nobody's fighting, so everything must be okay. Well, that might be because we've traded relationship for relaxing. That might be because we've traded in our sense of needing relationship, instead of responsibility to each other. It might be because everything is going well because we aren't actually dealing with the real things going on in each other's lives. That's a danger to church unity.
It's easy to put on a fake smile for a few minutes. Shake someone's hand at the door. Sit down, get your Jesus fix, walk out the door and not be changed a lick. Not be an integral part of the body of Jesus Christ. We gotta be wary of this false sense of unity, this apathy towards getting deep and dirty in each other's lives. This Matthew 18 style Christianity, “When you see your brother sinning, you're able to go and say, ‘Hey, we need to work on this and I'm gonna come beside you about this.’” Or when you see your brother or your sister mourning and in pain, that you spend valuable time. Time you might not have. You might rob yourself of sleep to go comfort your brother or sister. It’s a harder thing for you. It's easy when it’s “you need to comfort ‘that’ person.” You need to help ‘that’ person. ‘That’ person needs help, but what about when it's you? And that's when we care more about our reputation than our relationships.
It's easy to wanna put on a Christian front. We’re a type of church where most of us don't just wear our jeans and our shirts straight out of the field in, and that's fine. But just because somebody puts on a polo shirt or somebody puts on a tie or somebody puts on a nice dress, doesn't mean you got it all together. Don't sacrifice relationship for your somehow wanting to have a prestige. You want to make it seem as if you've got it all together. You've got to be vulnerable with others as well.
But there's a second point, there's a deep joy. Have joy in unity. There is a deep joy that comes when brothers dwell in unity. When we look at each other and we’re able to say, “I love you and I'm concerned about your eternal well-being.” When there's a sense of unity, God is glorified.
Look with me at verse two again, “fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord.” Now, we need to take a step back here, and Paul's joy isn't just in the church being unified. Paul's joy, his ultimate joy, is in the Lord. But Paul, as we've been exploring earlier, Paul is still a pastor, isn't he? Paul loves these people. Paul has the Philippians in his heart. He longs for them with all the longing of Jesus Christ. And so when they dwell in unity, that's icing on the cake. That you guys are growing in Jesus and you're even getting along!? Praise God! Praise God when that happens. There is joy to be had.
You know what it's like to come into a church week in and week out where there's that tension. Where people are fighting. Where there's a constant pressure, there's a constant weighing down. When is somebody going to say something that's going to set someone else off? Versus when you go into church and things have been dealt with, sins have been repented of, people are growing in grace and brothers and sisters are dwelling in unity. You know what it's like to want to be a part of that type of church. This is how Paul feels about the congregation there, “fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love.” This is this is just icing on the cake for Paul and should be the cream of the cream for you. This is the best thing possible.
This is like that waitress, have you ever been to the restaurant before, where there's just a really overeager waitress who just really wants to give you good service? And it's like every time you take a sip out of your coffee cup, she's right back there, pouring more coffee in there. And she might get a little bit too excited and overfill your coffee cup on accident because she’s so excited. That's what Paul is saying. He's saying, “You're going to overfill my cup if you have joy.” Brothers, sisters, we should be those who are overfilling Jesus’s cup with joy, because he sees his children dwelling in unity.
There is joy to be had in unity, so we need to work together. This is where we get into some of the meaty stuff. We need to work toward unity. Your third point: “Work toward unity.” Look with me at verse three, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”
There's an easy way you can start building unity. Don't be conceited. Simple command. Don't be conceited. That's not Bryan speaking. That's God speaking through his word. Don't be conceited. Don't be all about yourself. If you're all about yourself, you're in the wrong place. The church isn't about individuals. The church is about the body of Jesus Christ. The hand needs the foot. The eye needs the fingers. You need each other. We build each other up. It's not all about you. It's not all about me. Don't be conceited.
This is actually one of the great sins in Galatians. Turn back in Galatians with me. Galatians chapter five. That's 1-2-3 pages back. Page 1037 your Pew Bibles. Galatians chapter five, verse 20. Paul is talking about all the sins that characterize unbelievers. These are all a whole list of sins. Not comprehensive, but it's a long list. A whole list of sins that we shouldn't have. And verse 20 says, “idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies.”
This idea of jealousies and selfish ambition is what Paul is getting at in verse three of Philippians two. We cannot be those who are jealous. We cannot be those who are about our own ambition, right? Just please look with me at 2:3 again in Philippians. This is Paul talking to the Galatians, and here Paul is talking to the Philippians and he says the same thing. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.”
This idea of conceitedness was the same idea that was brought up earlier, when Paul is talking in verse 16 that there are those who are preaching the Gospel of Christ “from selfish ambition not out of sincerity, supposing to add affliction to my chains.” Those false preachers were preaching out of selfish ambition and conceit. Get rid of conceit. Get rid of conceit. Get rid of “It's about me” not to have a sense of rivalry in the church. It's not “Oh, puff up my chest, I'm better than you are.” And there's a whole litany of silly ways that that can look in the church, right? You've seen it before, haven't you? With people who fight over some really silly stuff. I mean, just foolish stuff, and you might not even have to say it. But there are people who, “Well, my theology is better than yours. Well, my devotional life is better than yours. Well, my whatever Christian thing is better than yours.” And instead of them being worried about their holiness because they want to bring God glory, for them it's nothing but a badge on their chest that they've got something better than their friend. Get rid of conceit and rivalry.
The next command. Don't be vain. Right? If conceit is on one, the other is vain. Don't be vain. I hate to speak to you, all so crassly. But this is how Paul speaks in these commands to the Philippians. Don't be vain. Don't be after self-glory. Don't be after a vain glory. Verse three, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition.” That idea of selfish ambition is vain glory. It's literally, that's the best way to translate it: vain glory.
What's a vanity? Vanities aren't too popular among my generation, but vanity is where you would sit down and what would you do? You'd have a mirror, and you would have your makeup and you get your hair done and you put on your makeup. But why was it called a vanity? Because you're caring about how you look in the mirror. It's vain. So a vanity is a nice name. Oh, it's a pretty little thing, right? But the idea behind calling it a vanity is, someone who is vain looks in the mirror and only cares about how they look. That's what the word here is talking about with selfish ambition. Don't be worried about how you look. Be worried about how Christ is righteous. Be worried about the work that Jesus Christ is doing in you to wash you clean from every stain that you have. He’s doing that for your brother and sister in the pew next to you. When we get rid of conceit, when we get rid of vanity, unity starts developing. Instead of it being of all about me, me, me, the Christian life should be about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Get the attention off yourself.
You know it's amazing if you watch interviews from people, especially during World War Two that were given the Medal of Honor, I love watching these, just interviewing what happened and what made you do that? I have yet to find a video where a Medal of Honor recipient said, “Oh, I wanted the Medal of Honor.” No, typically, the Medal of Honor was given to someone because they cared about the lives of other people more than they valued their own life. And so they were willing to do absolutely insane, nutso, crazy stuff like jump on grenades and run through sinking ships. And even though they were shot up with bullets, carry people out of the jungle because they cared more about that person's life than their own life. You're to care about other people's lives more than your own life. That's what valor is. That's what's honorable. That's what's good. That's what brings unity.
So those are the things we’re to put off conceit and vanity. But what are the things we’re to put on? Scripture constantly tells us about putting off the deeds of the flesh, putting off the old man and putting on the new man. So if we're so take off those old things and to put on new things, what are the new things we’re to put on?
Well, the first is humility. Right? So this is still point 3. We've talked about conceit and vanity as the things to put off. Now we're talking about what to put on, and that's humility. Look with me again at verse three. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind esteem others better than himself.” This is a dirty, crass, bad word in Greek literature. Only here in the Bible is this ever used in the Greek in good sense. If you were to read Plato, if you were to read Aristotle, if you were to read any of the ancient Greek philosophers, the words that Paul writes here, they would say fools act this way. Fools think about others instead of themselves. Fools think about these things, fools debase themselves. Those who are in power rise above others. But this is exactly how the gospel turns the world on its head through humility. And next week, we're gonna be spending all sermon next week just looking at how Jesus is our model of this humility.
But in the church, in the church in America, there is something amazing that happened in the 1700s, in the first half of the 1800s. We know about slavery and slavery was a despicable, horrible institution that should never be justified. The chattel slavery that happened, ripping families apart and kidnapping people and murdering people without any right, is evil and wrong. But there was one institution that could break through that barrier in the Antebellum South. And that was the church, because in the church, when the slave master came and his slave walked in, the master had to call the slave “brother.” And when the slave walked in, the slave had every right to call the master “brother.” The gospel cuts through the thickest of barriers because of humility. And evil men in the 1800s, we can talk about this some other time, but the evil men in the 1800s didn't want their slaves to be baptized because of this. If you've ever wondered why we have an African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, it's because of sinful people not wanting their slaves to have this because they knew that then the slaves would have to be able to tell their masters “you’re my brother, and you need to repent from this sin.”
That's exactly what the gospel does. The gospel humbles us, every single one. It doesn't matter if it's King David or Uriah, you or me, Trump or the king of Saudi Arabia. The gospel looks every man in the face and says, “Humble yourself before God.” We must be those who are humble.
I remember when I first became a Christian. I became a Christian when I was in the Navy and my master chief, I was an E4. My master chief is an E9 in the military. That's about as big of a rink gap as you can get. But it was my master chief, that E9, who shared the gospel with his lonely petty officer. And I remember going into church and I was talking to Dan over coffee break one time and he asked me something. And I, you know, for years, every time I talk to him, there's a rank structure. And so I would say, “Yes, Master Chief” and I remember standing there. We both had coffee in our hands and we weren't in uniform. And I had never talked to someone like this before and he asked me a question. I said, “Yes, Master Chief.” He said, “No, no, no, no, no. Here you’re Bryan. I'm Dan.” The next day he was back to Master Chief. One of our elders was a vice admiral and he was Dave and I was Bryan. He was a blood brother, bought sheep, and I was a blood bought sheep. And they humbled themselves in the house of God because they knew where they stood. Who was in charge there? Jesus Christ. The King. So we need to be humble in the church. Others need to be bigger. Others need to be superior. Others need to be greater than ourselves.
But it's not just being humble. It's also looking out for the needs of others. Look with me at verse four. “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” This isn't complicated. This is Paul saying love each other. This is the exact language he uses in First Corinthians 13:5 about what love is. Turn over there with me. First Corinthians 13:5. It's worth reading. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you know yourselves? That Jesus Christ lives in you, unless indeed you are disqualified. Test yourselves. Do you love others? Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is gentle. Love does not seek its own. Test yourself. Are you seeking your own or are you seeking the good of others? Test yourself. Test yourself.
But all of this, everything that's been said is great, fine, and dandy. Good moral sermon. Whatever. What good is it going to do to me? I can't possibly do this on my own. Every single one of you, I will fail this, you will fail this. We will never live completely humble. We will never live completely self-sacrificially. That's where the final point is. You need to look to the foundation of your unity. Look to God for the foundation of your unity. You can't do this on your own. Verse one, “Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if there is any comfort in love, if any fellowship in the Spirit if any affection and mercy,” then do all these things. Brothers and sisters, if you try to do all of this without thinking upon the mercies of God, upon the faithfulness of God, upon everything good and perfect in God, apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your life, this will be a great moral sermon, and you'll still go to Hell.
Because being unified, because you treat each other well, won't appease your father. It's because of what Jesus Christ has done in history, in the past, and is doing in your life. Now if there is any encouragement and Christ, if you have been saved, if you are encouraged by the price that Jesus Christ has paid for your soul, then do these things. If there is any comfort in God's love for you, you do these things because God has comforted you in his love. That's how you show humility. He has loved you, a sinner. And so how can you not love the people who are with you? If there is any comfort in his love, do these things. Not out of good morals, but because his Holy Spirit is in you. If there is any fellowship in the Spirit. If there is any sense in which the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you, Christian, you can do these things. Perfectly? No, no. But can you? Yes, you can strive for them. Can you recognize when they're lacking? Can you implement them? Can you reignite the desire to want to live in unity? Yeah, absolutely, you have to, because there is a fellowship in the Holy Spirit. And if there is any compassion and tender mercies, again this idea, this compassion is again deep down in your kidneys. If you know it down in your bowels that Jesus Christ loves you and has taken out your heart of stone and given you a heart of flesh...
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Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for his word as well as your love for his people. Until next week. God bless you.