By Mark W. Christy, PhD, Pastor of MBC in Channelview, TX
One of enemy’s preferred strategies to undermine the gospel ministry is to attack the Word of God. This includes our reliance on it. A second strategy is to lead the church away from its first love. A third strategy would be to lead God’s people into willful sin. A fourth strategy is to attack the unity of God’s people. Paul had this fear when addressing the Corinthians: “For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder” (2 Cor 12:20).[i] Instead of falling for the devil’s schemes, believers are to remain unified in obedience and love just like those in Acts were immediately after being indwelled by the Spirit:
“And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:44-47).
In his epistle to the Philippians, Paul was supremely concerned with the maintenance of unity among the church. Unity with a church is built on sound doctrine, obedience in line with that doctrine, and personal commitment to Christ above all. Given that the Philippians were largely commended for their sincerity, Paul’s concern was not about controversies over clear biblical teaching; rather, it seems to be over different interpretations, applications, styles, preferences that may lead to disunity when Christians fail to consider their own bias, potential to be wrong, and lack of knowledge.
At the time of writing, Paul portrays the Philippian Church as being relatively healthy. Despite being extremely poor, their generosity abounded as evidenced by Paul’s commendation in 2 Cor 8:1-5. When the epistle was pinned, they were suffering from persecution (Phil 1:27-30), being attacked by false teachers (3:2, 18-19), and dealing with feuding between two prominent women (4:2-3; cf. 2:1-4, 14). In the midst of all of this, their joy was overflowing so much so that this letter of Paul is known as the ‘epistle of joy’.
After greeting the church and offering thanksgiving, Paul begins his letter by mentioning his prayers for the Philippians. Like all of Paul’s prayers recorded in the Bible, he did not pray for church growth or physical needs. For the Philippians, he prayed that they grow in love, excellence, integrity, good works, and the glorification of God (1:9-11); furthermore, he reveals that each builds off of the other sequentially. This love, for which Paul prayed, does not grow through human effort of any kind; rather, it comes from the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of the redeemed (1 John 4:7-8, 10, 19; Rom 5:5; Gal 5:22-23; 1 Thess 4:9-10).
Even so, expressing the love (that was placed by God in our hearts and is continually worked on within us by the Spirit) requires intentional choices from us. We do not love based on our momentary emotions nor do we do so based on the apparent worthiness of the recipient. We love in obedience to the Lord’s command: “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 7:12; cf. Luke 10:30-35; John 15:12-13; Eph 5:1-2). In Philippians 1:9, Paul connects growth in love with growth of knowledge of God’s Word which enables improved discernment: “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.” As believers study and grow in love and discernment, they move on to excellence according Philippians 1:10.
In 1:27, he tells believers to continue to remain obedient, so that they will be unified in attitude (spirit and mind) and remain faithful to the gospel: “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” To this, he adds four motives for unity, four marks of unity, and four decisions to remain unified in Philippians 2:1-4:
“Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”
In verse 1, “Therefore” harkens back to 1:27 where Paul expresses his hope to hear of them “standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” The four “if[s]” introduce four divinely given motives of any authentic church filled with obedient Christians. For any given church, Paul’s words would certainly be presumptive as these attributes are to be found among those who are actively being filled by the Spirit (Eph 4-5). As believers submit to the Lord in obedience to His Word, they will receive the ongoing filling of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit will well up in and overflow from their hearts.
The first motive “encouragement in Christ” refers to the inner encouragement of the Holy Spirit. According to John, “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26).
The second motive “consolation of love” points to the consoling love divinely bestowed upon believers at the moment of salvation. Paul himself was consoled and motivated by this love: “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died” (2 Cor 5:13-14). Like Paul, all Christians experience a growth in their love as they faithfully follow Christ (cf. 2 Thess 1:1-4).
The third motive “fellowship of the Spirit” coincides with the ongoing submission of one’s will to Christ in obedient followership (cf. Eph 4-5). By faithful living, Christians will be continuously empowered by the Spirit (Acts 1:8; cf. Rom 15:19). When believers are in community with each other and in full submission to Christ, the unity of the Spirit will be obvious just as it was in the Acts 2 immediately after Pentecost (42-47). On the other hand, believers who are living disobediently will become disunified because they are not allowing the Spirit’s power to be made manifest in their lives. Instead, they will be guilty of grieving the Spirit (cf. Eph 4:30) and quenching the Spirit (cf. 1 Thess 5:19).
The fourth motive is “affection and compassion”. Affection refers to a genuine concern for one another that should be forming as healthy relationships deepen. Compassion is closely related to the idea of mercy. Believers should be ever mindful that each member of their fellowship is engaged in a battle with their own flesh. Instead of rushing to slander and judge, believers should rush to forgive and restore.
Before proceeding, one must consider what the church would be if these attributes were not present. Such a church would certainly be powerless against worldly influences because of the lack of submission to God and corresponding filling of the Spirit. Members would be in a continual state of discouragement as each looked to his/her own interest and judged according to his/her own standard. Their love for God would have grown cold and a hardness of heart would have set in. This would lead to a rise in self-love and a prevalence of tension, anger, and strife among members. The Spirit would be grieved, and the working out of His power in and through the church would be quenched. Among the believers, judgementalism, disharmony, and slander of all kinds would prevail.
In verse 2, Paul follows up the four motivations for unity in verse 1 with four marks of unity. The mark of unity “being of the same mind” means to think the same thing and to be like-minded. Correct thinking, therefore, is essential for unity. It should be noted that Paul is not speaking about doctrine specifically; rather, he is discussing the attitude and effort required to develop doctrinal unity. In this context where unity is the main idea, “being of the same mind” means actively and humbly working toward agreement. The necessity of maintaining humility in regard to one’s understanding is made all the more clear in Verses 5-8 where Paul points to Christ’s supreme example of humility.
In Romans 5:5-8, Paul differentiates between a fleshly mindset and one controlled by the Spirit:
“For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
The fleshly minded are focusing on the things of this world and, for them, maintaining their own honor, pride, happiness, and thoughts is paramount. Their relations within the church and even with those closest to them will be marked by divisiveness, disunity, hostility, and all other forms of negativity. Unlike these worldly persons, faithful believers will exhibit joy and peace that is welling up from within them.
Believers are called to die to themselves and live for Christ: “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:2-3). While the Spirit of God does the inner work of growing our joy and peace (not to mention other fruits of the Spirit), believers are called upon to make an effort to develop and maintain a spiritual mindset. In part, this requires every believer to make a somber estimate of themselves and their current level of understanding: “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” (Rom 12:3). Along with this, the believer must make the study of Scripture a priority so as to continue to receive perseverance and encouragement from God to be of the same mind:
“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:4-6).
The second mark “maintaining the same love” builds off of the first. To love others the same, one must love equally. Obviously, this sort of love is not emotional in nature; rather, it is agape love, i.e. willful love. This love originates from a believer who has set their minds on loving others as Christ has loved them. This love is built upon and focused upon Christ. It flows out of a right relationship with Him. Just as Christ loved the believer regardless of their sin and imperfections, this “same love” loves others without taking thought of self. Such a believer will not be easily offended, judgmental, and condescending. They would not cut others off and box them out. Rather, they would honor one another above themselves and serve one another (Rom 12:10-13). Churches composed of such as these will maintain unity; conversely, churches filled with the unloving will be characterized by dissension and disunity.
The third mark of unity is being “united in spirit.” Literally, Paul is telling the Philippians to be one-souled. They are to be united in submission to God’s Word, so that they are living for themselves. Such people would be characterized by selflessness as opposed to selfishness. Selfish people are prone to quarrels, jealousies, strife, rivalries, slander, hate, etc.
The fourth mark of unity is being “intent on one purpose”. The word translated purpose shares the same root as the word translated as “mind” in verse 2 and “attitude” in verse 5. “[I]ntent on one purpose” literally means thinking one thing, so the meaning is similar to being of the same mind. The one purpose that believers should unite behind is the glorification of God:
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
Romans 15:4-6, as quoted before, also makes this one purpose clear:
“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In verse 3-4, Paul offers the Philippians five decisions for believers to make so as to maintain unity. As the root of all sin, believers must not act out of selfishness. Believers should carefully review their motives to determine whether or not their actions are being done to satisfy or glorify themselves. Among the NT churches, perhaps the church who struggled most with internal strife due to selfishness was Corinth:
“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,[a] in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you” (1 Cor 1:9-11).
The problem was so bad that Paul had to address them as if they were still unsaved:
“Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?” (1 Cor 3:1-3).
In this factious church, members would cloak their self-centeredness by arguing in support of their favored leader and creating subgroups to push their agenda. As John Macarthur states in his commentary on Philippians: “Rather than serving Christ and others in His name, they were serving themselves while using His name.”
Second, believers should put aside empty conceit, i.e. vainglory as the King James Verses translates it. Selfish believers not only pursue their own objectives, they also seek to rob God of His glory. With their minds centered around themselves, they become conceited, arrogant, and prideful. Such a person can only be unified around themselves and their own rightness. Unlike these, believers are to be unified around God in pursuit of His glory.
Third, believers should manifest humility of mind. With some sort of humility, believers will be more able to effect unity among themselves as they carefully study God’s word realizing their own potential to be in error in regard to their interpretations.
Fourth, God’s people should not look after only their own interests but instead look after the interests of others. Just as Christ and Paul care for their fleshly need such as food and sleep, believers are not expected to live an ascetic lifestyle of complete self-deprivation. With this in view, Paul is telling Christians to consider the interests of all the believing community. While some interests may indeed be valid, one should be willing to subject those interests to other interests arising from a different source within the church.
[i]All Scripture references are taken from NASB1995.