Thus Chapter 2 begins.
1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
(((Joel Thoughts))) Paul continues his teaching on Christian unity and love as he sets up a conditional (if) statement that helps the reader examine his own life as he/she reads the letter. Paul’s logic goes as follows: If you are a Christian—>you are united in and with Christ. If you are united with Christ—->you will naturally have the Spirit’s encouragement, comfort, participation (fellowship) with the Holy Spirit, tenderness, and compassion. There is no separation between being a Christian and being synonymous with these traits. In a time where Christians are known for being judgmental, narrow-minded, and selfish……these qualities are “tell-tale” signs of the Spirit in our lives. Pray these things….fall in love with God more and more….experience Him and help others experience Him.
2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
(((Joel Thoughts))) Paul then appeals to the community of believers (Church) to all be of like minded in experiencing and knowing Christ deeper and deeper. To be like minded is not to be robotically turned in to intellectual conformists with other believers. To be of like mind is to have the end goal on the front of the action—to be of like mind is to move with one spirit, with one heart, with one passion. All believers are gifted with many different and unique spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12) that further the Kingdom of God, but the goal of all these gifts is to bring Glory and Fame to God.
3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
(((Joel Thoughts))) Paul is probably referring to his opponents who were preaching good news out of selfish ambitition in Chapter 1. Paul does not want the Philippians to be like that, but he wants them to act out of a radical humility that considers others better than oneself. This was a radical thought for both the ancient world and for today. Self interest is something that each human deals with day in and day out….is Paul saying that we can or should abandon our self-interest in regard to dealing with other people???
4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
(((Joel Thoughts))) Paul quickly answers my question. “each of you should look not only to your own interests”—so we are to look after our own interests, but we need to take a more holistic view. John Piper sells millions of books on this stuff! God has wired us to want the best for ourselves and seek pleasure. God knows that He is the greatest pleasure anyone could ever experience and our hearts our restless until they find rest in Him. God made us this way. We seek our self-interest and that is okay, but the Christian needs to broaden his scope to also consider his fellow man just as much as himself! This is a truly radical idea. Paul believes that this Christ-like attitude is what causes any sort of disunity in the body of Christ to cease. How do we stop disunity? We put aside silly personal preferences and remember the end goal of bringing glory to God and we take care of eachother and their needs just as we would ourselves.
Q. What does this radical humility even look like?
A. Christ.
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