A Study of Philippians 2:1-5
Introduction: I don’t know if you enjoy autobiographies, but Prince Harry has a blockbuster in the works. He and Meghan Markle have written an account of their lives, including the royal family. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Harry’s reportedly scrambling to have parts of the book rewritten so he doesn’t seem insensitive. Simultaneously, the Palace is looking into banning some of the contents.
Problems in the King’s family dominate all forms of the media.
It’s terrible when the King’s kids can’t get along.
Well, the King of kings has a family on earth too, and He doesn’t want us to be in the tabloids. He wants us to get along, to love each other, and to operate with a sense of unity, humility, and love. That’s a challenge for the King’s family. We all have seen unity and disunity in churches and homes. It’s been a challenge since New Testament days. How do we maintain sweet unity among Christians?
The apostle Paul addresses this throughout the book of Philippians, especially in the second chapter of his letter. Let’s read the first paragraph.
Scripture: Philippians 2:1-4
2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
1. Trinity
The first word of the chapter, which is therefore, links this paragraph to the one preceding it. In my opinion, the body of Philippians begins at chapter 1, verse 27, after the introduction, when Paul said, Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know you stand firm in one Spirit.
He told them to expect to struggle and suffer in this world, but to stand firm and united.
Therefore… because of that… for that reason, Paul is saying, draw on your spiritual resources. Since you have the encouragement of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit—take advantage of them.
Look at verse 1 carefully: Therefore, since—we can translate it that way—since you have:
- encouragement from being united with Christ
- comfort from love [The word “his” is not in the Greek].
- The common sharing [koinonia, fellowship] of the Spirit.
Dr. Gordon Fee, in his excellent commentary on Philippians, suggests Paul is using the same Trinitarian formula that He used in 2 Corinthians 13:14: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
In other words, since you have the grace, the union, the encouragement of Jesus Christ, and since you have the bottomless ocean of God’s love, and since you have the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, then you should know something of tenderness and compassion. These invisible, innermost resources from Heaven ought to energize us.
It wasn’t until the 1930s and 40s that electricity came to parts of rural Tennessee. A Chattanooga newspaper told about one old man who was so excited he scurried from room to room in his house turning the lights on and off. He was crying one minute and laughing the next. He looked at his wife, who was crying, and said, “Ain’t it wonderful!”
Another man was so overwhelmed he went into a trance and his wife used smelling salts to revive him.
One man said he was only five when the workers strung wires to his house. He was out playing with his brother when his mother called for them to hurry and come. He heard shouts, “We got lights! We got lights!” His mom was in the living room beaming with amazement, turning the lights on and off, and they ran to every room in the house turning the lights on and off. He said that moment was locked in his memory. It was as though it happened yesterday.
Their lives were changed.
That’s how it is when we discover the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly we have light, power, and warmth. We’re connected to the divine transformers of the Trinity—and that makes an irreversible change in our lives. We are electrified by Heaven.
2. Unity
One immediate effect of that is that we see ourselves and others in a new light. Romans 5 says the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This passage says we gain tenderness and compassion, and that leads to unity.
2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
Paul uses some synonymous phrases to describe the unity: …like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
This doesn’t mean we all have the same opinions about everything. It means that since we have the same opinions about the essential things, we can have more patience with what is nonessential.
The great British pastor and hymnist, John Newton, put it all together like this:
May the grace of Christ our Savior
And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor,
Rest upon us from above.
Thus may we abide in union
With each other and the Lord;
And possess, in sweet communion,
Joys which earth cannot afford.
It often confuses people when they discover that Christian homes, families, churches, schools, missions agencies and organizations—that all of these are full of people who have trouble getting along with each other.
It’s a problem that goes all the way back to the disciples in the Gospel, and to the argument between Paul and Barnabas in the book of Acts. And I think there are two reasons for it. First, Christians are people who are full of very deep convictions. We are very committed to what we know and believe. And second, we are a diverse group of people. In every church, for example, there will be men and women with different backgrounds, levels of maturity, and opinions. Not everyone in a church is spiritually mature. Some are infants in Christ. Some who think they are mature are truly not.
And that’s why we have to work very hard on being like-minded and of one spirit. I’ll give you an example. I’ve been a member of the same denomination for all seven decades of my life. My grandfather was a preacher in this denomination, and my father was the assistant clerk in our denomination. When I became a pastor and began attending our annual meetings as a delegate, things were very tense. There were a lot of arguments. There were divisive cliques.
But over the years it seems to be we’ve learned the wear and tear that causes us in our own spirits. Maybe it helped that some people left; but the rest of us—including me—decided that having an encouraging, cooperative spirit was much better than fighting.
The same thing happened once in my own church. We had a terrible argument that lasted nearly a year, and it just about sent me to the grave. Maybe it helped that some people left; but the rest of us—including me—decided that having an encouraging, cooperative spirit was much better than fighting.
3. Humility
But that requires something. It requires all of us to learn to be humbler. Look at the passage again:
2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
This is Paul’s version of the Golden Rule of Jesus. Love is being more concerned about someone else’s needs than about your own.
Let me tell you the easiest way to become a humble person. Begin acting like a humble person. I don’t mean to do it artificially. I don’t mean to run yourself down and develop an inferiority complex—that’s not humility. I mean that if someone needs to cut in front of you on the highway to get into your lane, tap your brakes and let him. When someone wants to talk to you, give them your full attention without looking at your phone. When you and your spouse want to go out to eat, let the other person’s wishes prevail. When you enter the restaurant, hold the door and let the other person enter first. Be very pleasant to your server, and leave a generous tip. If you stop at the grocery store on the way home, return the shopping cart to the rack.
I read about one person who happened to see a famous man washing his hands in the public restroom. The observer was amazed that the man took pains to use paper towels to clean up the sink and dry off the counter before he left.
My favorite quote about humility is this one—and I’ve forgotten the source. I heard it years ago: Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It’s not thinking of yourself at all—and of Jesus more and more.
Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus—and in the next passage, the apostle Paul is going to write the most exalted thing he ever said about Jesus to show us the most remarkably humble man who ever lived.
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Conclusion: In closing, I want to tell you about a man with whom I don’t always agree. But I appreciate one aspect of his story. His name is Richard Paul Evens, and he’s a New York Times Best-Selling writer.
Richard and his wife’s marriage had turned angry and sour. Both husband and wife had become argumentative, defensive, and they had stopped communicating except for arguments. They were on the verge of a divorce.
Richard had another terrible argument on the phone and his wife, Keri, hung up on him. He was alone, frustrated, and angry. So he began screaming at God.
Finally he sat down and started to cry. And through his tears, he said, “If I can’t change her, God, then change me.” He said, “I prayed late into the night. I prayed the next day on the flight home. I prayed as I walked in the door to a cold wife who barely even acknowledged me.”
The next morning Richard rolled over in bed next to Keri and asked, “How can I make your day better?”
“You can’t,” Keri said. “Why are you asking that?”
“Because I mean it. I just want to know how I can make your day better.”
She told him if he wanted to do something to clean up the kitchen. He did. The next morning, he woke up and asked the same question: “What can I do to make your day better?”
Her eyes narrowed, and she said out of spite, “Clean the garage.”
He did. The next morning he woke up and asked the same question: “What can I do to make your day better?”
“Nothing,” said his wife. “You can’t do anything. Please stop saying that.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” said Richard. “I made a commitment to myself. What can I do to make your day better?”
“Why are you doing this?” Kari asked.
“Because I care about you. And our marriage.”
He kept this up for two weeks, and then a miracle occurred. He asked that question, and Keri’s eyes filled with tears. She broke down crying. “Please stop asking that,” she said through her crying. “You’re not the problem. I am. I’m hard to live with. I don’t know why you stay with me.”
Richard lifted her chin until she was looking in his eyes and he said, “It’s because I love you. Now, what can I do to make your day better?”
“I should be asking you that,” she said.
“You should, but not now. Right now, I need to be the change. You need to know how much you mean to me.”
She put her head against his chest and said, “I’m sorry I’ve been so mean.”
Richard just said, “I love you. Now what can I do to make your day better?”
She said, “Can we maybe just spend some time together?”
And that was the turnaround.
My friends, since we have the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit—since we’ve been electrified and energized—since we’ve gotten light and warmth and power—let’s be tender and compassionate to one another in our marriages, homes, churches, communities. Let’s be like minded and of one heart and spirit. Let’s do nothing through selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in lowliness of mind be more concerned about the other person than about ourselves. Let’s have the mind of Christ.
Because on this hostile earth, the King’s Kids need to stick together.