Unity, Humility, Unselfishness

It's good to be with you again, see so many of you here this morning, and my prayers and Muriel's prayers have been very much with you all as you have come to this historical occasion. Please turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians 2, 1 to 11, and as is your custom, I'd like to ask you to stand for the reading of God's Word. Philippians 2, 1 to 11. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and 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. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. 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. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So reads the Lord's Word. May He bless it to our understanding. Please be seated. Let us pray. Our Father, in the words of the anthem that the choir have just sung, It is our heartfelt prayer that once again the Word of God will fall upon us like the life-giving rain, and that the Word of God, under the unction and power of the Holy Spirit, will give spiritual life, spiritual renewal, spiritual quickening and growth. to all of us here today. We ask it for the praise of the glory of your grace and in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text this morning is Paul's exhortation in Philippians 2, 1-4 for unity, humility and unselfishness in the fellowship of a Christian church. These are marks of love. And by this, Jesus said in the upper room, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. I'm sure you've all heard those famous words recorded by Tertullian around the year 200 A.D. See how these Christians love one another. They were spoken in dead earnest by the pagans in that day. That is what they were saying. They looked in amazement at the love Christians had for one another. They saw how they cared for the deprived, for the elderly, the widows, the persecuted, as if they were brothers and sisters. And the pagans said, see how these Christians love one another. Unfortunately, however, these words have also been used sarcastically when unbelievers see how Christians bite and devour one another to use the Apostle Paul's words in another letter. For it is a fact that disharmony plagued some churches even in apostolic times. It was certainly so in Philippi, and in Corinth, and again in Galatia. The churches in the New Testament were not always the rosy fellowships that we often imagined them to be. Paul was continually urging them in almost every letter to love one another, to be forbearing, and to forgive one another. And in this letter, in the fourth chapter, he tells us that two faithful lady workers in the church, two women whom he admired, who were dedicated workers, were at loggerheads with one another, and he urges them to settle their differences. And of course, whenever there is a controversy like this in any church, it's not just the two people concerned who are affected, but camps will develop on the one side and on the other. So this was not just a dispute between two people, it was affecting the church. So, let's turn to Philippians 2, verses 1 to 4, and see what Paul has to say regarding the repairing of this breach in the fellowship of the Church. 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 and 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. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. The text, as you can see, has basically two parts. Part one consists of a series of four ifs. If there is this, that, the other, and the next thing. That's the first part. And the second part is made up of three exhortations. Fulfill my joy, he says, and do this, that, and the other. First of all, being of one mind. Secondly, humbly counting others better than yourselves. And thirdly, looking out for the interests of others. So, grammatically speaking, our text today is very simple to understand. If, if, if, if this is so, then do one, two, and three. And theologically, it's equally plain. By the four ifs, Paul reminds his readers of what they are. And in his three exhortations, he urges them to be what they are. First, he describes their Christian identity, and then secondly, their Christian duty which arises out of their identity. So, let's look at these two things this morning. First, our Christian identity. Philippians 2, verse 1. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if there is any comfort of love, if there is any fellowship in the Spirit, if there is any affection and sympathy. Now, these four ifs are not hypothetical. No doubt is cast upon the reality of these Christian truths by Paul's use of these four ifs. On the contrary, Paul assumes the reality of them. And one could almost translate his if with the word, since there is this and there is that and there is the other. Or better still, I think one could paraphrase it like this. If there is any consolation in Christ, which there certainly is, if there is any comfort of love, which there certainly is, and so on through verse one. The Apostle is asserting these four things as essential and undeniable parts of our Christian identity. Well, what are these realities? Let's look at these four marks of Christian identity. First, we have consolation in Christ. Jesus Christ is the greatest consolation or encouragement in the world. It's a very positive thing and encouraging thing to be a Christian. A Christian is a person in Christ. That is to say, a person united permanently, personally, and organically by faith. to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And if we are united to Christ, who is God, the God-man, then we are accepted by God and welcomed into his family. To change the metaphor, we have been adopted as his children. This encouragement is the great supporting thing, uplifting thing in our Christian lives. We no longer are the slaves of Satan to do his will. We've been given the right to be the children of God. And this is a tremendous ground on which Christ can appeal to us and encourage us to do God's will. For God's children long more than anything else to please their Father in Heaven. Secondly, we have the comfort of love. God is love, infinite and absolute, and we have become recipients of God's love through His Son. Indeed, as we know, God so loved us that He made the greatest sacrifice possible for us. He gave His only Son to die on the cross of Calvary as a sin offering to bear the punishment that your sins and my sins justly, rightly deserved. Moreover, in Romans 5, Paul tells us that God has poured out His love for us. That is, an awareness of this great love of God for us. He has poured it into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. And friends, this assurance that the Spirit convicts us of puts in our hearts that God loves us. is also a tremendous incentive for us to be what God wants us to be. The Greek word, yas, is very interesting. The word comfort is made up of two words, the word beside and the word speech. In other words, the comfort of God is like a word that comes alongside us to stimulate us. In other words, it is an incentive, and that is how the Revised Standard Version translates this word. There is an incentive from God's love in our lives as Christians, an incentive, a stimulation to love God and his people because he first loved us, unlovable creatures that we are. And then thirdly, we have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And this too is a fundamental part of being a Christian. You cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit indwelling you. A Christian is somebody who has the Holy Spirit residing in his or her personality. He is the Christian's teacher. He is the Christian's guide. He is the Christian's helper and comforter. He is the one who gives us the power and the love and the wisdom to serve God by serving his people. Which brings me to the fourth truth about a Christian's identity. We have affection and mercy because We are partakers of the divine nature. Affection is the inward emotion. Mercy or pity is the outward expression of that emotion in compassionate service to others. So, this couplet of affection or mercy seems to describe the Church as it ought to be, a loving, caring, compassionate, supportive community. Well, here is a four-fold definition of our Christian identity. First, we are united to Christ who gives us the great encouragement of being the children of God and acting as such. Second, we are loved by God, whose love is a constant incentive to love and serve Him by serving His people. Thirdly, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who imparts to us the life and the wisdom and the power to serve God's people. And fourthly, we are bound to each other by mutual affection and sympathy, which is the fruit of the divine nature that has been given to us in Christ. Friends, that's what we are. It's beautiful, isn't it? But is the claim true or bogus? Is it an empty boast or is it a solid reality in our lives? These are the questions Paul wants us to answer. He is saying in verse 1, if you claim these things, which I hope you do, then prove it. Let it be seen in your behavior. If this is what it means to be a Christian, make it visible. Show it. That's his argument. He begins, I say, with our Christian identity. And then in the second place, he goes on to our Christian duty. If Paul's description of our Christian identity is an accurate one, then what sort of people ought you or I to be? Well, Paul mentions three essential characteristics. First, we must be marked by unity in the fellowship. Verse one. Fulfill my joy, he says, by being like-minded, having the same love. And then he repeats what he has just said. In other words, being of one accord, of one heart, and of one mind. It's a reference to Christian unity. But what does it mean? It cannot possibly mean that Christians ought to agree about absolutely everything. The church would be an assembly of robots if that were the case. It would be very artificial to pretend that we all dot the same I's and cross the same T's. Why, in the New Testament self, the apostles encouraged Christians to exercise freedom of conscience in secondary matters of Christian duty. Paul and Barnabas, you remember, disagreed over John Mark's usefulness, but only over some period of time. They came again to recognize his true value. But there was initially disagreement. We must give one another some measure of liberty in understanding what the will of the Lord is in particular matters that are not specified plainly in the word of God. But having said that, we are nevertheless to be substantially agreed in those matters that are spelt out to us in the Word of God, in Christian belief, in Christian unity. Because these great truths in the Bible about His Word, about God, and about His Son, and about the Holy Spirit, and about the Church, they are very plain. The Apostles taught these truths with a united testimony. And as members of the Apostolic Church, we should be of one mind about these things. They are essential beliefs, and our faith is one faith. Moreover, we should have the same love for each other. And that means we must avoid factions and favoritism. in our church family. We need to love each other with the same love, the same degree of love. We don't love these more than those. The world must see that we are one in our heart, a heart of love, and one in our mind, our belief in the truth. That's the first thing that should characterize us as a church, Christian unity. The second thing that Paul calls for is Christian humility. Verse 3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition to please yourself or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Now, we need to think very carefully about these words, especially the last phrase, that each esteem others better than himself. For it's not really possible to obey that command literally, is it? It's not possible. to retain our Christian identity and integrity and count everybody else morally better than ourselves when we know very well that some of them in some categories aren't. If I am friendly and somebody else is very aloof, then I cannot retain my integrity and count him or her better than myself in that regard. Again, if I am generous and he or she is stingy, then I cannot again regard them as better than myself in that matter. Again, if I am able to keep my temper and somebody else in the church fellowship is prone to lose their temper, then it's not possible to regard that person as morally better than myself. So what can Paul mean? You see, humility is not a game of blind man's buff, of turning a blind eye to other people's faults and pretending they are not there. Humility, I say, is not another word for hypocrisy. Humility is another word for honesty. And the key word, I think, to understanding this verse is to be found in the meaning of that little word, better. For it does not mean morally better. That's not what the Greek word means. The Greek word literally means something that stands out, or something that rises above the level, like a ship. standing out above the ocean on the water. It was particularly used of a tall person who stood head and shoulders above the crowd because they are so tall. And so metaphorically it came to be used of people who are prominent, who stand out in society, like our rulers and judges, people whom we call our superiors. They may not be our betters morally speaking, but they are in their standing and in their office in the community. So I want to suggest this morning, that we should translate the word better here, not as morally better, but more important than ourselves. Conceit. Do nothing by conceit, says Paul. And conceit is an exaggerated view of our own importance, whereas humility is a balanced view of the importance of other people. And we need to keep reminding ourselves, friends, of the worth of other people as people who have been created in the image of God and for whom Christ died in love. For when we see people like that, they are going to grow in our estimation. We will see the dignity and the importance and the worth of these people, and we will count it a privilege to be their servants. Let nothing be done out of rivalry or vain conceits, says Paul, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others more important than himself or herself. So that's our second duty of Christians. We are to be characterized not only by unity, but also by true humility. But Paul hasn't finished yet. The third thing he requires is Christian unselfishness in the church. Verse 3, let nothing be done through selfish ambition, and then verse 4, but Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Sometimes, for example, we can monopolize the conversation and talk compulsively, nineteen to a dozen, with no thought for what the other person thinks or wants to say. Sometimes we can become engrossed with our own work and with our own hobbies that we have no time to serve other people because we are serving our own interests primarily. But surely when we see the worth of other people as those who are created in the image of God and those for whom Christ died because He loved them so much, then we will want to put their interests above our own. Vanity or conceit is the root of selfishness, whereas humility is the root of unselfishness. Here then are the three essential Christian duties Paul wants to see in every church family. Unity, verse 2, being of one accord and of one mind. Humility, verse 3, counting others more important than ourselves. And unselfishness, verse 4, looking out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others. Now let me conclude with just two quick things. May I ask you again to notice the pattern of Paul's argument. Four ifs and three exhortations. It's who we are. as Christians that determines how we should behave. Doctrine and ethics, belief and behavior, theory and practice in Christianity go hand in hand. Now, much unbelief in the world today is due to the credibility gap that often yawns between what Christians profess to be and what they are. If we claim we have found encouragement in Christ, stimulus from God's love for us, fellowship with the Holy Spirit who indwells us, and affection and mercy or pity because of the new nature we have been given, then friends, let's show it. Otherwise, we will deserve the ridicule of the world outside, the unbelieving world, who will say, you? Are you Christians? You go to church and say you know Jesus Christ? You claim the Holy Spirit dwells within you? Well, look at yourself. You're quarrelsome. You're proud and selfish. You're a fraud. That's what you are. And that's what people outside the church sometimes say, and we have to give the lie to that, because we must keep closing the gap between our profession and our performance. The last thing I want you to notice is not only the pattern of Paul's argument, but the source of his joy. Verse 2, fulfill my joy. Paul, you will remember, was in Rome. He was in custody. He was under house arrest. He was confined to his house and chained by the wrist to a Roman soldier. And yet, it wasn't this that brought him sadness. It wasn't his chains. It wasn't his loss of liberty, or personal discomfort, or humiliation that made him sorrowful. It was the disunity in some of the churches, the quarreling and fighting that was going on among Christians. And so he says, yo, to the Philippians who were dealing with this problem, fulfill my joy. The New English Bible renders it, fill up my cup of happiness. The question is, how? How would his joy be made complete? Well, it would be made complete if the Philippians became integrated Christians, as psychiatrists call it, and narrowed the gap between what they claimed to be and what they were. Fulfill my joy. Friends, If Paul felt like that, how much more our Lord Jesus Christ, the supreme head of the church, who walks among all its branches, what great joy it would give him to see every local church of his growing in unity, in humility, and in unselfishness. May God enable us to fill up Christ's cup of joy. Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the encouragement we have in Christ. for the stimulation of your love for us, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit who indwells us, and the affection and mercy of the new nature you have given us. But Father, all of us this morning are conscious of some gap between what we are and how we sometimes behave. Please forgive us, Lord, and Help us by the Holy Spirit to work every day on narrowing the gap until, in heaven, we enjoy perfect unity, humility, and unselfishness with all the saints in glory. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for His sake we ask it. Amen.