STEP # 7 WORTHY CONDUCT #2 “UNITY THROUGH HUMILITY” PHILLIPIANS 2:1-2:4 Phil. 2:1... “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy.” The Philippians’ biggest battle was not with their external circumstances but with those internal attitudes that destroy unity. Paul had demonstrated his own refusal to let external circumstances control his attitude. (1-18). The therefore ties together his conflict and their conflict. If…If…If…If; The conditional clauses in this verse indicate certainties, not “Maybe’s.” Each If here expresses the idea of “since,” and each following clause may be considered to be true. “Fellowship:” Scripture teaches that our fellowship is not only with God the Holy Spirit as seen here, but also with God the Father (1 John 1:3) and God the Son (1 Cor. 1:9 and 1 John 1:3), as well as with other Christians (1 John 1:7). “Affection:” (1:8). “Mercy:” The Greek term means compassionate desires that develop in response to a situation and that stimulate a person to meet recognized needs in that situation. Q. How well do we believe, not just say it, but believe the “If’s” that are present in this verse? PA. God does console us in our times of need. He also comforts us as well. He is always with us and never ever leaves us shown by the power of the Spirit active within us. His love towards us is unconditional and never ending. His mercies were shown by the death of His only Son, and that He did not destroy us while yet still sinners. When you see ”If” it doesn’t mean, “If it is really true.” The word we would use today is “Since.” Since there is consolation in Christ, since there is comfort of love, since there is fellowship of the Spirit and since there is tender hearts of mercies… we can move on into verse 2... Phil. 2:2... “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” Since you remember how important you Philippians are to me, how important you are to God, how important your lifestyle and walk with God are; walk strongly in the Spirit, paying attention to what is going on. Since you know all that, fulfill my joy. Keep on going in the way you need to go. And that way is; being like-minded. Q. How hard have we each found it to be like-minded with a another person, be they in the church body, or being from the world around us? How can this be over come, and made much easier to do? PA. This can only be possible when we are indwelled by the spirit of God, and walking according to His desires, and will. We cannot be like-minded by anything this world has to offer us, as it constantly changes to meet mans desires and his pride-fullness. Paul is not saying we are going to think the same. Every one of us is in a completely different world when it comes to thinking. Our emotional state at this moment; our backgrounds; our mental capabilities; where we are in our walks with the Lord; put us in different places. One day you are going to be excited because you just learned something about Jesus and you run up and tell somebody and they are going to look at you and say, “Everybody has known that for thirty years.” You were thinking it was exciting. Don’t let it get to you. Everyone is in a different spot, so we are not going to think the same thing at the same time that often. Paul does not mean think alike, he means we should have the same goals. We should be working toward the same things, the things of Christ. Working as a team, towards the same ends. That is what Paul means by being “like minded.” Q. How hard is it to accomplish a feat of any sort, when the parties involved are not like minded on the issues? PA. God states that a house divided against itself will fall, fall apart, get no where, be defeated, accomplish nothing. To accomplish anything, we must understand the reason behind doing it in the first place, in order to do it with real heart felt attitudes and efforts. Thus, it is then done with little to no interference, with a higher spirit of each involved, because it is done with like-minded effort. Since there is consolation in Christ, in comfort of love, and fellowship of the Spirit, and hearts of mercies; you will fulfill my joy. Keep on going. Be like-minded on your, and their, goal in Christ. Lets look now at this part of the verse… “Having the same love.” Q. What does this seem to mean to you when you first look at it? PA. My first impression is that we should all love each other, like scripture says “Let us love one another.” But then I thought about the different types of love that are mentioned in scripture, Faleo, Pursuedo, and God’s love… Agape, and really had to stop and do some deeper thinking about what Paul meant for us here. Now that means loving one another, with an Agape type of love. The love that you and I know and work with on a regular basis is a love based on, “What about me?” That love is as earthly as you can get. What Paul is talking about is real love. God is Love, 1 john tells us, and that is the love Paul is referring to here. We should, first of all, be like-minded, playing on the same team. Secondly, we must have the same love, the love of God, and that for one another. The love of God here, means our love for Him should be unconditional in every circumstance. We should Agape Him, un-conditionally love Him no matter what life deals out to us. No matter what degree of suffering we must endure. We must love God unconditionally. Q. Can you honestly say you have done this in every circumstance that has came along in your life, without getting angry, without thinking why am I still trying to be a Christian when this stuff still can happen? PA. I might not have thought this in this direct of a way, but my actions and feelings going on inside me may have been saying to God, “God I am very frustrated and angry right now, and I’m hurting inside a bunch.” and I was short of having the required or desired love mentioned here. Lets move to the next phrase… “Being of one accord, of one mind.” Be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord. And that is not a Honda car like some people might think one Accord is. “One Accord” is harmony, having nothing to do with music, but having to do with true like-mindedness. Being in Harmony. We are not going to be able to reach out to the city, the lost, if we cannot get along with each other. We need to be like-minded, not thinking exactly alike, obviously, but working towards the same goal and working in harmony, in one accord. We see in the book of Acts, that the disciples were all in the upper room, in one accord. They were not gossiping or fighting. They were there for a single purpose; To worship God. You may be at a church down the street, or you may be at that church across the ocean, or you may be at that church way down south; but as a body, we should be working towards the same goal. Not saying, “my ideas are better than your ideas.” God has set up the idea, so we go for that. Now a lot of people think, “yeah, but my idea is better.” Don’t worry about it, whatever idea God begins to move on that is biblical, that is what we all get behind in one mind and go with that idea. Do you see now why the church is having troubles today? Q. What reasons do you now think the church world wide is having today negatively, and how could they make things much better? PA. When man tries to make it about his denomination, or about him and his ideas, the church divides, but when they follow closely the Word of God, and do what He tells them to do, the church grows and is stabilized. Okay, lets move on to verse 3 and look at the strife in our walks… Phil. 2:3... “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better then himself.” Q. According to the first part of this verse, what attitudes are the opposite of “selfish ambitions” and “vain conceit?” PA. Wanting only their way, or think they are the only smart one in the group and let you know it. Strife does not mean fighting each other. Strife is to put one’s self forward. If you have ever seen horse races, the jockeys try to get over towards the inside, near the rail. They fight to get themselves on the inside rail where there are tighter turns, so they can cut their time down. They are jockeying for position. That is strife. Trying to get the inside lane, so you can get to the finish line faster. Let nothing be done among us that way. Putting yourself forward. Or if you like, not looking at individuals, putting one’s party or group forward. How often do churches get themselves into arguments because one of the assistant pastors feels his way is better than the pastor’s? And then they start to promote their way. Or, you get a home fellowship going and the leader of the home fellowship will start to promote their way as a little bit more solid than the pastor’s. You have strife, you have teams. You should never have a church that says, Well, we’re on so and so’s side.” If you have that, you have strife going on, you are being disobedient to the Word of God. Nothing should be done through strife, never. Lets move on to the word Conceit, or Vain glory… Vain glory, the word in our language is “Conceit.” Trying to make a name or reputation for yourself. That is Vain glory. Someone starts to teach a bible study and two people show up. Someone else starts a bible study and ten people show up. So, the person that had two, they quit theirs. “Mine’s no good.” What is that? That is vainglory. Did God call you to teach? “Well, yeah.” Then teach! “But only two are coming.” How many do “you” want? What is this all about? Q. What are some other ways you can think of that reflect “Conceit or Vain glory,” through other methods and ways? PA. Quite often people who are not the leaders, want to be viewed as more knowledgeable than the leader, and talk more than they should by dominating the discussion times. Others, tend to try and over correct other members who are attending when they are speaking, or answering a question unjustly. Correction is needed, but must be done humbly. Nothing should be done through strife, you and I trying to get better positions and get in on the inside. And nothing should be done through Vain glory or Conceit. We are not building us a church, we are not building us a ministry, and we are not building us a kingdom. We are not doing this for us, but we are doing it for our God, and for His glory. All else is sin. Lets move on to Lowliness of mind… This area can be stated as being “Humble and lovable.” Lowliness of mind is what we call humility. Humility is not something people seem to do naturally. Now, we might think we are all basically humble. Like Bullwinkle Moose said, “when it comes to humility, I’m the greatest!” That is what we all think of ourselves. Remember Underdog? “I’m humble and lovable.” We are all basically not humble at all. And that is where our problems are, none of us are humble. There may be a spark of humility every once in a great while that flashes from us, and people say, “What humility!” Don’t worry, it wont last. Humility is something that has to be worked on by the power of the Holy Spirit, ALL THE TIME. Q. How much of a shock is to you, or do you not believe these findings to be true at all? PA. All I have to do is remember that last argument I had with anyone, or decision I had, or others and myself had to make and I would quickly agree with these words of wisdom, and humbly admit I need the Holy Spirits help all the time. Now on to the next part… “Let each esteem others better than himself.” “To Esteem,” means to count or to consider someone else greater. Did you just cringe? Now you might as well admit it, how often do you or I, ever say, “Yeah, their ideas are greater. They are smarter anyway.” We think the opposite. “mine are just as good as theirs.” “How come he is singing with the praise band? He’s got a voice like a bird… a vulture.” “How come that bible study is growing and mine isn’t?” I can’t teach the bible!” All this is not humility. That is the opposite of humility, which is what you are naturally going to do! Q. Have you ever actually thought about someone being higher than you, in any kind of circumstance or position? PA. God is easy to think of that way. But to actually think about another person as being actually higher than me open mindedly, not really, as we are all sinners. But to consider their needs and ideas placed before me to act upon, I have no problem doing that. When someone talks to me, I listen intently, and I deeply consider what they are sharing. Why they choose me in the first place I find even more humbling, as it is a heavy responsibility to carry. God told us to consider others higher than ourselves, and He gives us many guidelines to follow to do this biblically. The God head, is the only one to be exalted, all others are suppose to be servants, right. Lets look at the word “Others.” With lowliness of mind, esteem Others better than yourselves. The key to the Christian walk is right here; Others. “Others” is the key word in Christianity. If you do not believe it, watch Jesus in the Gospels. He lived for others and He died for others. He did not live or die for himself. Do we? Most of the time we do not. Why? Because it is not natural to us. We do not think of others most of the time. Every once in a while we do think of others, and we are very proud of that, and we want everybody to know we we’re thinking of others. Why? Because we want them to see us, which is not living for them, it is living for me! “Hey, look at what I did! Isn’t someone going to thank me, pat me on the back, or give me a medal?” Jesus lived and died for others. “Do not let anything be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, humility of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves.” Here is the challenge for the rest of our lives; Will We, or I, commit to esteem everybody else as more important than me? We have a tendency to say. “He’s the janitor, make him clean it up.” “She made her mess, let her pick it up.” We should just bend over and pick it up ourselves, shouldn’t we? Q. Do you have a little mental lock inside that says, “I am only called to do this, and that is all that I am going to do?” PA. We all fall into that type of thinking at times. And then we are not living for others anymore. We are living for ourselves, we cannot do that and be found pleasing to God and abide by His word. Lets move on to verse 4 now… Phil.2:4... “Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.” “Do not look every man on his own interest, but look every man also on the interest of others.” Don’t worry about what’s going to happen with you, start giving some thought to what is going to happen to others. Q. How often do you thinking of someone else, and/or their needs? PA. I hope I’m very in tuned with what is happening with others around me, especially with those who are a part of my immediate family, then the church family, and any others who are a part in some kind of other way. Two people fall in love, they can’t see they don’t know anything yet, they are walking a foot off the ground, they are useless to mankind. If the weather is miserable and they are holding hands, they say, “Isn’t it beautiful outside?” “Outside what country? What’s wrong with you?’ we would quickly say to them while shivering all over, or running for cover. They think to themselves. It is a thrill, they like it. After they have been around each other for a while, they will make noises they had not expected from one another and all of a sudden, they are fighting. Impressive. They are not thinking of others, they are thinking of themselves. It is how we have been brought up, it is natural, it is what we do. We have to change our hearts, our minds need to change. Paul says. Without vain glory, without strife in lowliness of mind, thinking of others as greater than myself; How is that going to happen in my life? How is it possible? Q. What do we have to do to get this “Other mindedness” in our walks? PA. By applying ourselves to do so at each and every opportunity. This is more easily said than done. Learned habits are hard to break, but need to be broken. Asking others to help and remind you when you are not doing so. Humbleness is first and foremost to obtain any Godly attitude and life style, and will come with much discipline and prayer and reality on the seekers part. Is there any other questions or thoughts about our study in Philippians 1:27-2:4, or any ideas you might have had come to mind you care to share? Please send them to me on my email address, not on FB, so as not to distract others from the study at hand. Pastor Jay McLaughlin FB Study; solid bible studies. Email; jaybigmack@aol.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 02:37:16 +0000
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