Philippians 2:1-11 –
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Introduction
Good morning, it’s my privilege and honor to be able to open up God’s Word to you today. We’ll be looking at the first eleven verses of Philippians chapter two. I’d like to ask you if you have any specific passages of scripture that have had a significant impact on your life? For me this is one of those passages.
The summer after my sophomore year of college I had the opportunity to serve as a counselor at a camp in North Carolina called the Wilds, and the book that we studied as a camp staff was the book of Philippians. The title or theme for the staff was “Unity through Humility”. So I’m borrowing that title for today’s sermon. When Matt and I were going through elder training with Dave and we got to the sermon part. Dave asked us to pick what passage we wanted to preach from and I knew right away I wanted to preach from Philippians. The problem was Matt picked first and he said Philippians so I had to pivot and do the next logical passage from Philippians which was turning to the book of Judges and preaching on the life of Gideon. It truly is my honor to be able to open up what I believe to be the passage that most sums up how we are to live and walk as believers.
Last week in Philippians 1:27:30 Matt fleshed out our heavenly citizenship and earthly citizenship. This is a quote from his sermon last week. “Earthly citizenship is in a dependent relationship with heavenly citizenship. Though ultimately citizens of the greater kingdom that is Christ’s, a life of fidelity to the gospel means being exemplary citizens of Caesar’s kingdom as well. The Philippians are truly earthly citizens. Their Christian citizenship informs and orients them to their earthly citizenship. Christian neighbors and citizens are to be the best neighbors and citizens.”
In our passage this week my desire is that we build off of what Matt fed us last week because of our heavenly citizenship this is how we will act. We as Christians and fellow church members are called to live in unity and serve one another. This only comes through hearts that are humble. Paul calls us to have the mind of Christ. Someone who lived in glory but left to come to earth and take on the form of a servant and being in human form He humbled Himself to death, even death on a cross. We are called to live like this, to be “carpet-minded” to live in the reality that it is a privilege to be called to serve like Christ served, and to live in light of that.
To start I’d like to ask you a couple of questions. If you had all the power in the world what would you do with it? Second, I’d like you to think about what it means to you to be humble? If someone told you to be humble, what does that look like to you? I have the opportunity to coach each of my boys in flag football and we had our first games yesterday. There were lots of touchdowns scored and jubilant little boys telling me that they were unstoppable and that I needed to just keep giving them the ball. Maybe some humility yet to be learned.
This is the dictionary definition of humility:
As defined by Merriam-Webster, humility is the state of being humble. Rather than self-deprecation or thinking less of yourself, true humility means thinking of yourself less. It shifts focus away from the ego and toward recognizing the value, needs, and contributions of others.
With all that being said let’s dig into our text.
Be of One Mind (v1-4)
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
This section of four verses is one long sentence in Greek. The sentence has an “if” (2:1)/”then” (2:2ab) structure, which is followed by a series of attitudes and actions showing how the Philippian believers are to live out the main idea of the section. Which is in order for Paul to experience fullness of joy, the Christians of Philippi must be unified (2:2ab).
Paul is not doubting whether these things that he’s listed are realities in Christ, what he is driving at is, are these things evident in the lives of the Philippian believers? This is why he uses the conditional wording of “if” these are there “then” you should be doing this! If you’re not, the church is going to have disunity and not be able to be, one, a blessing to its members, but two, if its members are in a place of disunity they won’t be able to have an effective ministry to the community they live in as a body of believers.
In the first verse the Greek word paraklesis, that is translated as encouragement here, can also be translated as exhortation. Maybe in my mind exhortation is a stronger word for calling fellow believers towards this, because you’re in Christ be pursuing the things of Christ!
In verse two, he is reminding them you have the same love, it’s the love that Christ has for you, it’s the love that I, Paul, have for you and it’s the same love that you should have for each other. The love of Christ that binds and constrains all fellow believers together. He then emphasizes or exhorts them to have the same mind. This is not to say that he’s calling them to be robots that have this intellectual uniformity; no rather he is calling upon them to use their unique God-given gifts in an agreeable and cooperative way with the end goal of bringing glory and praise to God almighty.
In verse three, Paul exhorts the believers at Philippi to not allow their own selfish ambition or vain conceit to rule their actions but he says “in humility count others as more significant than yourselves”. The selfish ambition here is the same word eritheia that is used in chapter 1:17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment”. Here it is used to describe the poor intentions of Paul’s enemies but in relation to the Philippian believers it is used for party squabbles or petty conceits. In our words we might translate it as “quarrelsomeness” however that doesn’t necessarily convey the hint of self-seeking which the word contains. In Philippians 4:2 Paul speaks to a specific case of disagreement in the church. Philippians 4:2-3 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. We don’t know what the disagreement was about with these ladies, maybe one preferred Costco and one preferred Sam’s Club for the kitchen supplies. Maybe one of the ladies felt that the other was getting more recognition than her for the labor that she was doing. We don’t know what the disagreement was over but Paul is exhorting them to agree in the Lord and asking others in the church to come alongside and assist with reconciliation.
The only way hearts can be softened to the point of burying the hatchet, as Paul is calling these believers to do, is a work of the Lord on their hearts. Part of these fellow believers assisting with reconciliation is they themselves having humble hearts, recognizing something in a fellow believer and taking it to the Lord in prayer before addressing it with the quarrelsome parties.
In my own life, God dealt with me on this at a pretty young age about having jealousy in my heart and the need for humility. My brother and I loved sports, I wouldn’t even say one was our favorite over the other. Probably whatever we were playing at the time was our favorite. I was a fairly good athlete but my brother Jonathan was special. He could do things at a very early age that my coordination level didn’t allow me to do. One such instance that so clearly sticks out in my mind was when we were playing grade school football and Jon was playing QB. He takes the snap, fakes the handoff and rolls to his left, spins out of a would-be tackler and throws a 30 yard rope across his body to a backside post route for a touchdown. I was so proud of my brother at that moment but then I had a coach look at me and say your brother’s amazing, why aren’t you doing that? In my heart I knew he was right, I could throw like that but I sure couldn’t have made that spin move. There was jealousy in my heart of the gifts God had bestowed on Jonathan. I knew it too, at bed time that night I was rather stoic. My mom knew something was wrong, she was able to drag it out of me. Praise God for one, a Godly mom, but in that moment also acting as an older sister in Christ who pointed me to the fact that I was fearfully and wonderfully made and I should not be jealous of my brother for God giving him different gifts than myself. When we were in high school Jonathan was lighting up the scoreboard in basketball and our coach asked me if it bothered me that he was better than me, I looked at him and responded no I’m so proud to be his brother. Thankfully God had done a work in my heart and my response was being genuinely proud of my brother.
Can jealousy creep into our hearts easily Grace if we’re not guarding them? Can we become jealous of other’s gifts? Maybe as an elder I’m jealous of the gifts the Lord has given to the other elders? Grace, we must protect our hearts and do what the end of verse three says, “and in humility count others as more significant than ourselves”, and then in verse four, “look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others”. We cannot in and of ourselves do this, we must be praying and asking the Lord to grant us hearts that are humble. Grace, may we be granted hearts like that of King Saul’s son Jonathan. By all accounts in man’s eyes the kingdom should’ve been inherited by Jonathan, being Saul’s oldest son. God chose differently and He decided to give the kingdom to a young man named David. As jealousy overwhelmed his father Saul’s heart, Jonathan loved David as his brother and did everything he could to protect who he saw as the Lord’s chosen king of Israel. What a testimony Grace.
As I read and reflect on these first four verses of Philippians 2 I cannot help but feel a tension arise up. Because of my own sinful wretchedness, how can I do any of these things that Paul is exhorting us towards? If I think about this in relation to just my marriage, let alone any other relationships, I fall so far short. You know, timing it up that just as the baby poops I conveniently have something else I need to do so I pass them off to my wife to change the diaper. Or maybe I conveniently volunteer to help a kid with something so I don’t have to walk the trash all the way to the end of the driveway the night before trash day. Paul has exhorted us thus far, that we be of one mind, united by love, and humility, and looking out for the interests of others. How can I do this? How can I be humble?
Have the mind of Christ (v5)
Martin Loyd-Jones said it this way: A friend was asking me the other day, “How can I be humble?” He felt there was pride in him, and he wanted to know how to get rid of it. He seemed to think that I had some patent remedy and could tell him, “Do this, that, and the other and you will be humble.” I said, “I have no method or technique. I can’t tell you to get down on your knees and believe in prayer because I know you will soon be proud of that. There’s only one way to be humble, and that is to look into the face of Jesus Christ; you cannot be anything else when you see him.” That is the only way. Humility is not something you can create within yourself; rather, you look at him, you realize who He is and what He has done, and you are humbled.”
This is exactly what Paul moves to next, he says look at Jesus and realize who He is and what He has done, and you will be humbled. In verse five he says, “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus”. What is that mind? When I spent that summer at camp, the final message of the week of staff training was preached by the camp director and he referred to this as being carpet-minded. He opened the message by telling us that we would not be able to be effective as counselors unless our hearts were humble and willing to serve our campers by allowing them to wipe their feet on us like a piece of carpet. Just as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ washed his disciples feet.
Paul has given us in verse five the call to have the mind of Christ, in verses six through eight the example of Christ making Himself low, the celebration of His humiliation, in verses nine through eleven we will see the response from God and the celebration of His exaltation of Christ.
The Christ Hymn (v6-11)
In verse six, Paul declares that Christ though He was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Christ is in glory with the Father, in Colossians 1:16-20 Paul speaking about Christ states that by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.
This Christ the last Adam, unlike the first Adam who in Genesis 3:5 listens to the serpent and desires to be like God, the last Adam does not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but what does He do?
Verse seven, He empties Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Second Corinthians 8:9 says For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Christ not only gives up His privileges to come to earth and be born as a man, but He comes to earth and is born in a barn. We sometimes in our western world glaze over this fact and romanticize the barn by picturing this perfectly clean place with fresh cut hay and the animals all gathered around mooing and baaing soft lullabies to Jesus. Grace, I don’t know how many barns you have been in but they are about the most distant place from which I would desire to see my children be born into but yet this is the place where the Son of God is born. The family that He is born into is a poor family. We know this from His parents bringing two pigeons or turtledoves to offer as sacrifice after Jesus is born. The law allowed this for families that were too poor to offer a lamb in sacrifice. Make no mistake Jesus is not born into a family of affluence, He is raised the son of a poor carpenter but because of His love for sinful mankind He humbly comes to live as such. It is remarkable enough that Christ, the Son of God would humble Himself and take on human form but what is described next in verse eight should drive us to our knees in humble adoration.
Being found in human form He humbled Himself by becoming obedient unto death, even death on the cross. Death on a cross was reserved for the worst of the worst criminals, the lowest way to die. In his commentary on Philippians, Ralph Martin says this, “Death on a cross must be understood from two points of view. It would have special meaning for the Christian readers who were resident in a Roman city where revulsion against this form of capital punishment would be strong. This cruel and most hideous form of punishment is the way it is described by Cicero, who expresses his feelings about crucifixion as follows: Far be the very name of a cross, not only from the body, but even from the thought, the eyes, the ears of Roman citizens. It will also be remembered that the writer here Paul was a Jew to whom death by Roman crucifixion came under the rubric of Deuteronomy 21:23 and meant that the victim was outside the pale of Israel, and that he was under a ban of excommunication from God’s covenant. It was this thought which proved the stumbling block of the cross to the Jew; but to Paul the Christian, it became the very nerve center of his doctrine of the cross and reconciliation.” Jesus was obedient not just to death but to even the lowness of dying on a cross. How can I be proud when my Savior set this example for me?
Verses nine through eleven then is the celebration of the exaltation of Christ, the head of us Grace. Listen to this, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Because of His obedience Christ is exalted, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He who stooped so low is now lifted up to the glorious rank of equality with God! The enjoyment of that dignity that was ever His by right but He had never clung to as His personal possession. His elevation is due to the submission and sacrifice of His earthly life and specifically relates to His Lordship as King of the universe.
Application for Us
I touched briefly on being carpet-minded earlier in the sermon. When this passage was preached during that staff training my heart was smote by that. One of the things we had to do as counselors was write a cabin cheer and do that with our campers during the week. To this point I could not think of a more dumb thing to do. I couldn’t see how this was going to point kids’ hearts to the gospel and I had said as much to the program director. When this passage was preached though it was the first thing I thought of. I bowed my head and prayed to the Lord and said if loving my campers well means doing these cheers I’ll do it.
Men, Husbands, Dad’s what are areas you’re holding onto and refusing to serve and love in? When you come home from work and your kids come barreling out the door to come play with you how do you respond? Are their interests higher than yours? Does your interest in resting on the couch win over the interest of your children’s desire to play with you? Maybe your wife doesn’t seem to reciprocate your actions to her so you stop serving and loving her. She doesn’t love me back. Why should I do that for her? Do we forget that the command to love our wives isn’t contingent on her actions?
Ladies, Wives, Moms, have your children so frustrated you that you forget to love them as Christ loves you in the midst of your failures? Do you joyfully and humbly submit to your husbands even when he’s being a schmuck and doesn’t deserve it but you do it because the Bible commands it? Are you tending to the interests of your family above your interests?
Kids, do you obey your parents in the Lord for this is right? Even when what they’re asking of you seems so unfair but you do it because it’s what the Lord asks of you?
For us all, God is not a grasper but a Giver, He gave His only begotten Son that we may have eternal life. How are we living as a church? Is your first thought when coming to church the interests of others? How may I give of myself today to the body? How may I be a piece of carpet to my brothers and sisters in Christ? Grace may we have eyes that are fully fixed on Jesus on who He is and what He has done for us and may that stir up hearts that are truly humble and desirous to serve one another.