Title: Unity Through Humility
Scripture: Philippians 2:1-4
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, I want to begin by just posing a question. What do you think of when you think of the idea of a good church? When people say, oh, we go to a good church, how do you qualify that? Because I hear that from people all the time. I talk to a lot of believers everywhere and, you know, usually when I talk to someone I know they're a Christian, I'll say, oh, where do you go to church? And they say, oh, we've got a great church in such and such a place.
And so that's the question. What do you consider to be a good church? Well, I would submit to you that one key marker of a good church or a healthy church is a faithful engagement with the Word of God. The Word of God is proclaimed and taught faithfully.
In fact, show me a church that does not reverence and value Scripture and I'll show you a dead or dying church. I think it's that important because Ephesians 5.26 tells us Christ says that He sanctifies and cleanses His bride, the church, by the ministry of the Word of God. However, with that being said, it is entirely possible that you could have a church that teaches the Word of God, proclaims the Word of God, and yet still has serious problems, especially if they do not have love.
If their doctrine is good, but they don't have love, it might simply be dead orthodoxy. And there's a lot of churches, sadly, and that's not a judgment for me, but I have seen this, other people have told me about this, that they are very doctrinally astute, but when it comes to the unity and the love and the heart behind what's happening in the assembly, they are struggling. I remember attending a pastor's gathering a few years ago where the leader of the group, he gave the exhortation and he pressed the importance of all of us having healthy, happy churches.
Now, I had heard the expression from nine marks, nine marks of a healthy church, but I had up to that point never considered the concept of the importance of having a happy church. Well, especially when you consider the Bible's teaching, even in light of Philippians, it's hard to escape the conclusion that God does desire His church to be happy. Well, how do we think about the happiness? Because I don't think most people generally consider the idea of their churches being happy churches, but I think our perspective changes a bit when we consider that word by another synonym.
Even just a cursory look at the Scriptures reveals that God desires His household to be that which is full of joy. God wants a joyful church, and Philippians even highlights the importance of joy in the Christian life, which extends into the body life of the church. In fact, as we're going to see this morning, right into the church, Paul's deep desire was that they would, in their conduct and compassion, make his joy complete.
He wants to be joyful. He wants the church to be joyful. But that leads us into a more pressing question.
How do we become a happy, joyful church? Well, as we're going to come to see this morning, I believe it's going to come through unity, which comes through humility, which is what we're going to talk about today. So, if you haven't already turned there, please turn to Philippians chapter 2 in your copy of Scripture this morning. Philippians chapter 2, we're making our way through this wonderful letter.
I've been looking forward to this letter for quite some time. I've talked to many of you who've told me, oh, Philippians is my favorite book, and, you know, this passage is my favorite passage, this verse is my favorite verse, and so it's wonderful to be in Philippians in this season of the life of our church. Philippians is one of the Apostle Paul's prison epistles.
It was written in a time when he was awaiting trial in Rome, and while he was imprisoned, Paul recounts how the gospel of Jesus Christ continued to spread despite his imprisonment, even through his imprisonment, both through the ministry to those who were around him, even to the Praetorian Guard, but also through the courageous efforts of the in Rome who were emboldened by his ordeal in prison. But Paul here is confident that he's going to be vindicated. He believes it's very likely he'll be set free and released, and he's eventually planning on coming back to Philippi to visit the church in that city.
And yet, he has very specific directives for the Philippian believers, which he discloses to them at the end of chapter 1, verses 27 to 30, which we looked at last week. After talking about his own plight and the gospel progress through his own efforts and the future gospel progress, he tells them in verse 27, 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 that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but salvation for you, and that too from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear to be in me." And so, we talked about how the church, we're living as heavenly citizens, even though while we're on earth, we're living those lives that are worthy of the gospel, but they are not to live unto themselves, Paul tells them.
He says, rather, they are to be of one spirit with one mind. There's already inherent in that instruction the unity of mind and purpose and spirit. In other words, they're to be unified together in Christ.
But Paul knows that true unity, healthy unity, not just of the Philippian church, but any church, our church, true unity will not come without a key component added into it, and that is the component of humility. Humility, just to state that again, unity will not transpire, it will not be here without the practice of humility. And in chapter 2 verses 1 through 4, which is where we're going to be today, Paul encourages and exhorts the church toward unity through humility.
And so, we pick it up here at the beginning of chapter 2, Paul is continuing on the thought, and he says, with all these things to be considered, 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.
We'll stop right there. Now, in the original language this was written, which is koine Greek, koine is common Greek, verses 1 through 4 comprise one full sentence in Greek, but there's only one main verb in the sentence, and that actually comes in verse 2. Some translations render this, Paul saying, complete my joy or fulfill my joy. One scholar, F.F. Bruce, likens it this way.
He says, fill up the cup of joy to the brim. I like that. That's the concept.
Fulfill my joy. The New American Standard, which is the translation we use here, he says, make my joy complete. Same concept.
And it becomes clear that joy is the driving impulse. Now, Paul is certainly talking about joy for himself, but he's not saying this out of a desire that is self-serving. He's not saying, oh, it's all about me having joy at your expense, but rather, Paul knows that his desire for rejoicing is based on the Lord's desire for rejoicing in the church.
In other words, if you're doing well, then I'm going to rejoice, so therefore, I want to rejoice, and I want you to do well. You see that? Paul's not selfish in this endeavor. He wants the best for the church.
And several times already in the letter, Paul is discussing the imperative for believers to rejoice. It becomes a punctuating theme throughout the entire letter, joy, joy, rejoicing, rejoicing. What does it mean to be rejoicing? Well, very simply, it's to be filled with joy, to have cause to exalt, to express genuine transcendent happiness regardless of the circumstances.
That's the essence of rejoicing. And so, Paul is already rejoicing that the gospel is being proclaimed. He says it in chapter 1 verse 18, but now he longs to be encouraged by the success of the Philippian church to excel in this humble unity, and by doing so, this will in turn make his joy complete.
It will fill up his joy to the brim. Well, how does he instruct them in this way? How are they to excel in this unity, in this humble unity? Well, he begins in chapter 2 verse 1 with this word, therefore, therefore. This signals a connection to the previous verses, right? It's a result.
It points to some kind of a result. So, he knows that based on the previous verses here, since he knows that they're going to strive together for the gospel, he knows that they're going to live worthy lives, and all of these behaviors that he knows that they're going to excel in, that will result in what he's going to be talking about. And so, he says, therefore.
But in verse 1 here, he lists four conditional statements that each begin with the word if. So, he begins with therefore, and then he says if four different times. Look again at verse 1. 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.
Now, to be very clear, Paul is not really questioning whether or not this exists. He's using a rhetorical device. That's what he's doing.
He's not doubting whether or not they're experiencing encouragement and consolation and fellowship because a quick read through the book of Philippians reveals to us that they are experiencing those things. Again, the church in Philippi is a good church. It's a happy church.
It's a healthy church. He doesn't really take any issue with them. There's a couple small things here, but this is not like the church in Corinth that's fraught with problems.
Philippi's doing well. So, we know that these things are not absent, but rather Paul is singling out these realities in order to focus on them. And we use the same kind of rhetorical devices even in our rationale and our own way of thinking.
Just one generic example. This is not anything specific, but just imagine for a second a wife talking to her husband, and she says, okay, if you love me, you'll take out the trash, right? Now, she's not calling into question her husband's devotion and love to her, right? That's not what she's doing. But rather, this is under the assumption that because he loves her, she's just reminding him of the things that he already wants to do, okay? I've been married 20 years.
I know how this game works, all right? But you understand the idea, right? We do that kind of thing all the time. So, the if realities here, it's not calling into question. Paul's not saying if these things are happening in the church.
Rather, he's saying something like because these things are happening, because these things are true, therefore, you can make my joy complete by responding in godly ways. But I want to look at these very quickly here. First, he says to the church, if there is any encouragement in Christ, this word for encouragement is the Greek word paraklesis, which is also a reference to comfort or consolation or even exhortation.
The idea of this word paraklesis is to come alongside someone and to give assistance. And actually, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit in John 14, 16 as the parakleton, the comforter, the helper, the one who comes alongside and assists. That's the idea.
There is this encouragement, this comfort that is tied to Jesus Christ. We might consider 2 Thessalonians 2, 16, now may the Lord Jesus Christ himself who has loved us and given us eternal comfort, paraklesis, and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. So, that's the idea here.
It is Christ who ultimately comforts the church. He encourages us. And yet, we know that he does this through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us.
When you're struggling, you know you have confidence in Christ. You know that you can lean into the Lord. You know that you can find comfort in him.
Because there's a lot of times when we feel alone, don't we, in the Christian life? Even if you're surrounded by a lot of people, you have friends around you, there are moments, there are times when you feel alone. Well, what do you do? Do you grab onto someone else and make them your comfort? Or do you lean into the Lord because he is the God of all comfort, 2 Corinthians tells us. And so, we know that we can lean into the Lord and that the Spirit of God will minister the comfort of Christ to us.
And we know that we have him because he was given to us at conversion. As soon as you believed, it was because the Spirit of God was working in your heart for you to believe. And so, he indwells believers and he administers this comfort, this encouragement of Christ to us.
Next, Paul says, if there is any consolation of love. This word for consolation is paramouthion. It's a very unique word.
It's the only place that Paul uses this word in any of his letters. But it's a synonym for the word comfort. It also is rendered in some places as solace, this idea of solace, tied together with the word agape, the consolation of love.
So, paramouthion of agape, which refers to God's divine, selfless, unconditional love. We see this picture here that God is offering this close personal comfort through His love. He's drawing us to Himself.
He is surrounding us with comfort and encouragement, and He's surrounding us with His love. In fact, Romans 5.5 tells us that even in the face of tribulation, even during trials and opposition, we are grown in our perseverance. We are grown in hope.
And how? What's the reason for this? He says, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So, even when you're going through difficult trials, difficult circumstances, even tribulation, opposition, persecution, depression, whatever the situation is, you know that you can be grown in perseverance, proven character, hope. And the Bible says hope does not disappoint because God loves you.
He's given you that love. Of course, we certainly experience the love of Christ. We understand the love of the Spirit.
But divine love is often portrayed as coming directly from the Heavenly Father. We can think about notable verses like John 3.16 that tells us that Jesus was sent into the world. Why? Because God so loved the world.
And so, in a very real way, even as the New English Translation, the NET Bible renders the phrase, we experience the comfort provided by God's love. And then Paul adds a third spiritual reality, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit. We've seen this word many times throughout the course of the New Testament.
The Greek word koinonia was translated here fellowship, but it also means sharing. It can refer to participation. And Paul connects this directly to the Holy Spirit.
Now, there's a few ways we could understand this fellowship of the Spirit. One way to read this is that we have been granted the blessing of fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit. We have the fellowship that comes from and belongs to the Holy Spirit.
And so, when a person is saved, when we're born again in Christ, the Holy Spirit, who is the third member of the Trinity, takes up residence within our hearts and indwells us. That's one of those mind-blowing realities for new Christians. When you tell a new believer, did you know that you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside your heart? And I didn't know He was here.
When did He get here? The moment you believed you've had Him in you, dwelling in you, helping you, encouraging you, binding you to Christ and to others. And so, this indwelling effectively binds us to God in a spiritual union and a joyful fellowship. You have fellowship with God because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in you.
But again, all this fellowship with the Spirit, it also produces a fellowship with other believers. There's another way to see this. And this occurs because, according to verses like 1 Corinthians 12-13, we are all brought together and baptized into one body and by one and the same Spirit.
Because we all share of the ministry of the exact same Spirit of God, we are bound together in Him. The Holy Spirit is like the divine superglue that binds us together with God and binds us together with each other. We're bound together.
You can't rip us apart as the body of Christ. We have the Spirit binding us together. In fact, that's precisely the fulfillment of the prayer in John 17-21 that Jesus is praying.
He speaks to believers. He's talking to the Father. So, this is Jesus before He goes to the cross praying to the Father.
One of the things He's praying for, He says that they, talking about all of the believers, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in Me, and I in you, that they may be in Us. Jesus is praying for this beautiful unity that is shared by the Father, the Son, and by virtue of the Spirit. He is praying that the believers that are around Him, the body of Christ, will be bound together with one another, but also bound together with Him.
It's a wonderful, amazing thing. Now, at this point, you might be noticing here there's something happening in this verse. There's something of a Trinitarian formula we see, don't we? First, we see the encouragement of Christ, and then we see the consolation of love, which we've noted comes by virtue of the Father, and now we see the fellowship of the Spirit.
I don't think that's an accident. In a very similar construction, the Apostle Paul pronounces a blessing for the church in 2 Corinthians 13-14. Some of you probably know this verse, where he tells the church at the very, very end of his letter, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Spirit be with you all.
Very, very similar phrase. In other words, every spiritual blessing that we receive in the Christian life comes through our God, our triune God. The members of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they are working together, blessing the body of Christ.
They are giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It's wonderful, and this becomes the basis of our love. It becomes the basis of our joy, our unity, even our humility.
What's great about this is that Paul isn't even done yet. After displaying the blessings round up in the Trinity, he adds two more spiritual blessings. He says, if there's any affection and compassion.
Affection is the word splanchnon, which is a weird sounding word. It doesn't sound lovely, splanchnon, but it actually refers to the inward parts, the inward organs, the heart, the organs, the liver, the inside body parts, and it's used to reflect the inward feelings. When you have that gut feeling, the inner deep recesses of your emotions, some translate this as tender mercy, some others as compassion.
It's the inner feelings that you have deep down in your soul. That's what splanchnon is, affection for other people. And then Paul uses the word compassion, oiktyrmos in the Greek.
It's a display of concern over other people's hurts. When you see someone else that's hurting, and I know you've experienced this, someone else is in pain, they're hurting, they're struggling, and you're just pent up with all those feelings of concern and love and tenderness, and you just want to reach inside and grab whatever is hurting them and take it away and put it into yourself. Husbands and wives feel that kind of compassion for each other, parents and their kids, deep friends, I mean even the body of Christ here.
We've seen other people inside this body struggle, and you just want to reach out and take away their pain. That's the sense of this compassion. And Paul says, if there is any affection and compassion, and we know that there is, the ESV renders this word sympathy, the New King James, mercy.
Now these are Christ-like qualities. These are things that Jesus demonstrates over and over and over again in the Gospels. Jesus would see people out there struggling and they'd be coming to Him, and there's a couple places where it says He felt compassion for them because He recognized that they were like sheep that were lost and without a shepherd.
And He just wanted to reach out and grab all of them, but a lot of them wouldn't even come. That same kind of heart that is set forth to other people, where you could just give your heart away, that's a Christ-like quality. And those are the kinds of qualities that we are meant to demonstrate in our love for other people.
And so verse 1 is painting a picture here, because Paul is about to call the church to unity and to obedience, to exercise that unity. But before he does, he wants to remind them of all that they have in the Lord. All the blessings that they have received from the Triune God.
And he wants to put those blessings in front of them. Again, he says if these things are all true, he knows they are. And he reminds them of the tangible love and the tangible compassion that they have for each other.
Again, if there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, if there's any affection and compassion, I know there is. Verse 2, then make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in Spirit, intent on one purpose. Again, this imperative to make my joy complete.
Complete, fulfill my joy. Well, what would complete or fulfill Paul's joy? He gives four more expressions. Four more expressions here.
All these four, they essentially illustrate one in the same reality, the unity within the body of Christ. He's going to express unity in four different ways, okay? He begins by exhorting them toward being of the same mind. Now, this word in the Greek for mind is phroneo.
It actually appears twice in the verse, even though it's not translated the same way each time. But this word is twice here. This expression begins by the Greek word that essentially is thinking the same way.
Some even render this initial phrase as being like-minded, that you're like-minded. Now, we understand that as Christians, because of the Spirit's influence, we have the mind of Christ. That's what 1 Corinthians 2.16 tells us.
We all in Christ have His mind. We think thoughts after Him. Well, how is this possible? How do we have the mind of Christ? Well, first of all, we all have the same Spirit who is giving us spiritual understanding.
We're all reading the same Bible, which the Spirit is giving us understanding to, and we all manifest the same heart desire to be together in our spiritual understanding. So, if you have a whole body of people with the same unifying super-glued Spirit that is keeping us together, and we're all reading the same Word of God, and we're seeking spiritual understanding together, we're going to have the same mind as one another, but we're going to have the same mind as Christ. That's how this all comes together.
Now, we're not robots. To be like-minded doesn't mean that we're carbon copies of one another. We all have very different thoughts about a lot of things.
There's even some doctrinal distinctives that are unique inside of even the body of Christ. Now, we have a doctrinal statement, which all of our members would sign on to, that are submitting to, but there are smaller points of doctrine that we don't always see exactly the same, and that's okay. It doesn't mean that we're not like-minded if we don't think the same thoughts, but there is something a little bit deeper.
Again, not thinking the same things, but rather thinking in a similar way. A similar way. And the desire to be like-minded is born out of this second virtue.
What motivates this like-mindedness? He says, maintaining the same love. Maintaining the same love. The love that we've received from God already.
The love that has been poured out to us in a merciful way. It's given us mercy. He's forgiven us by His love.
He's blessed us by His love. He's helped us. He's saved us.
He's comforted us by His love. That same divine love that we have received is the love that we desire to share with other people. I think one of my favorite verses is in Ephesians 4.32, where he talks about being kind to one another, being tender-hearted, and then he says, forgiving one another.
Why? Because God in Christ has forgiven you. So, if God has forgiven you, and loved you, and blessed you, then you have no business withholding those same things from other people as well. So that's the idea that God has poured out this love on us.
The love of God that has been so profound that He sent His Son to die for us. And so the love of God has been poured out on us and into us. So therefore, we can pour that same love out to other people.
We maintain that same love. After all, Jesus commanded us to do that, didn't He? John 13, 34, He says, love one another. Love one another.
Now, there's a lot of things that we're commanded to do, but the overarching command, the biggest command above all of that, love God and love one another. Everything else kind of takes care of itself inside of those two things. And so, as Christ has so loved us, we ought to love one another.
And in our doing so, our unity is then grounded in maintaining that same love. If you love one another, you're going to lean into being like-minded. You're going to want to be united in that way.
But that leads us to another aspect of this. Paul says, this makes us united in spirit. Now, this is really cool.
The Greek word, literally means fellow-souled. Fellow-souled. In other words, joined together in soul.
We have a similar soul. That's the idea here. Now, again, doesn't mean we're exactly alike.
We're far from that in some cases. But there is a sincerity. There is an earnestness.
There's a quality of joy and hope that marks out the soul of every Christian believer. We have a similar heart. We're more alike in Christ and different from others in the world, right? But there's a way that we can tell.
And I know you've experienced this in the past, I'm sure of it, because there's an expressible quality of the Christian heart. Maybe you've met somebody in the past, and you're talking to them for a few minutes, and you can just tell by the way that they're speaking, the things that they say, the way that they're behaving and acting, and what they… the joy that they have inside, the actions. And you start to kind of pick up on something, and you're like, I think they're a Christian.
Ever experienced that before? And they haven't said anything to you, but you're just… you're observing, and you kind of see what they're like, their soul. You can read into their soul. And you say, after a few minutes, you're like, are you a Christian? And they'll go, yes, I am.
And immediately what happens? Unity, right? You get excited because you've found your fellow soul now. And you recognize that. You're united in spirit.
That's the sense of it. And then Paul adds one more. He says, intent on one purpose.
That's where he brings back the word phaneo, mind, but the translation, the rendering, literally it means the one thing thinking in the Greek, the one thing thinking. But NASB, the New American Standard, translate this as intent on one purpose. That's the sense of it, I think, and that's accurate.
It's that their hearts and their minds are geared in the same direction. We're all after the same thing, the same goal, the same directive. John MacArthur summarizes this verse.
He says, in this one verse, the Apostle Paul presents a full circle of unity from one mind to one love, to one spirit, to one purpose. These four principles are complementary, overlapping, and inseparable. Ultimately, that's what the church should be striving to do, to abound in a single-souled loving unity.
That's what we're after, isn't it? When we talk about how do we have unity in the church, that's the essence of it. In fact, Ephesians 4.3 tells us that it has already been forged in us by the work of the Spirit, and we are tasked to be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. The Bible doesn't tell us to create the unity ourselves, to make it out of thin air.
We are called to be diligent to preserve what we've been given. Because remember, we're all of the same Spirit. I don't have to go put the Spirit in you and create unity.
We have to hold on to it and manifest it and help it along and cherish it. And yet, we no doubt experience obstacles to true unity. Every church does.
Our church is no exception. There have been seasons where unity has been harder for various reasons. There are times when individual relationships create problems in unity.
But perhaps the greatest hindrances to church unity are pride and selfishness. All the time, pride and selfishness. When my church experience becomes all about me.
When it's about what I get from the service. When it's about what you can do for my kids. When it's all about how the church can help me and make me feel a certain way.
When that begins to take over, that's when problems arise. But Paul attacks this way of thinking head on. Look at verse 3. Paul says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.
Paul first begins with the negative. He says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. This first Greek word, eritheia, is the word for selfishness here.
And it refers to self-seeking. Self-seeking. The ESV translates this as rivalry.
Others have translated this as selfish ambition or even vanity. There's many different flavors to this. But essentially, this word amounts to this.
It's doing what's best for me. Doing what's best for me. This is the same error that's made by the gospel preachers in chapter 1 verse 17 who proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition.
They didn't preach Christ because they loved Christ or they wanted to see people saved. They preached Christ because they wanted to look good. It was good for them somehow.
Somehow it served them well. It was advantageous. But Paul warns against that.
He also warns against the second thing, empty conceit. This is an interesting word. Canadoxia.
The word doxia is glory. So this is literally vainglory. Vainglory.
So not just doing what's best for me, but this is doing what makes me look good. Doing what makes me look good. And so in the context of the church, it's when we engage in doing things not because it honors Christ, not because it's good for other people, because it looks good for you.
You get credit. You get glory. You're able to serve in visible ways and get the attaboys and the pats on the back and all that.
But what is that? That's conceitedness, and it's empty. I mean, just think about what that is. And just to be very clear, we're all tempted that way.
Every single person, I don't care how humble you are, there's always that little nagging voice that says, boy, I hope somebody notices what I just did. We all play that game. I'm not saying that to throw you under the bus.
I'm saying this is a plague in the church everywhere. This is a huge problem. Doing what makes you look good.
But Jesus, Matthew 6-2, He talks about this, the Pharisees who are blowing a trumpet when they give money. I'm about to go give some money, and they make a big scene about it. And He says, don't be like them.
Don't blow a trumpet when you give that you could be honored by men. Don't chase after praise from other people. He says when you do that, you have your reward in full.
Whatever praise and attaboys and pats on the backs that you're going to get, that's going to be the extent of it. There's no more blessing for you beyond that. So, if that's what you're after, the praise of man, well, drink it in because that's all you're going to get for what you've just done.
It's empty. It's an empty endeavor. And here's, this isn't in my notes, but just thinking about the concept here, it's an empty endeavor, but it doesn't satisfy.
Because when you start to become an egomaniac, then the more people praise you, it's never enough. And then you just begin to chase it more and more and more, and you're looking for the praise of man. And when they give it to you, you want more and more, and you just, you become a junkie, a pride junkie.
You're just seeking praise, seeking praise, seeking praise. And the more that you seek it, and then the more that you get it, and then when it's not enough, you get empty. And then you get depressed because you're not getting praised enough.
It's a vicious cycle. It's one of the factors of spiritual depression. So, pride has two sides.
Pride is either thinking that you're so great and being boastful, or being down on yourself because you think you're so great, but no one else does, and so you get depressed. These are just insidious problems. This is the sin nature, friends.
This is what sin does to you. But Paul says, do nothing this way. The Greek here is very strong.
It's as if he's saying, don't even think about doing anything that is motivated by selfishness. Don't even let that thought enter your brain. But rather, he says, instead of doing that, fight that, he says, instead, with humility of mind, regard others as more important than yourselves.
This phrase, humility of mind, it's a compound Greek word, tepeinophrosine, tepeinophrosine. It's used seven times in the New Testament. It refers to humility.
Colossians 1, 2, 18 refers to it as self-debasement. But this notion, this notion of humility of mind, this is not a notion that was well-liked by Greek philosophers. They didn't like this idea, and nor was it valued in Roman culture.
Because this is a lowness of self, and a culture that was very proud of itself, it didn't value humility, even in our culture. I mean, think about the things that we value. You watch TV, you watch commercials, look at the catchphrases.
It's all about self-esteem, and self-worth, and self-care, right? It's all about the self. And it's amazing to me that a culture that is suffering from a mental health crisis is one which thinks so highly of itself. There has never been a culture in this country that has thought so much of itself, and yet been so depressed.
Why is that? Because what we're seeking is empty. It's empty about making me feel good. It's empty.
You'll never have enough. No one will ever like you enough, praise you enough, give you enough. It's a bottomless pit.
But humility, humility, Paul says, is a mindset. It's how you think. He says in verse 5 a little bit later, it's an attitude.
It's an attitude. It's a mindset that specifically does not think highly of oneself. Now, Paul's not saying, you know, be self-deprecating.
He's not saying self-pity. Oh, I'm nothing. Nobody cares about me.
You're not Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, right? That's not it. That's not humility of mind. Because that, again, that's the other side of pride.
Self-pity. Oh, nobody likes me. You want someone to say, oh yes I do, right? That's not humility of mind.
Humility of mind is a mindset that just doesn't regard oneself as being the most important. It's not that God doesn't care about you. He does care about you.
He cares about you infinitely more than you could even imagine. And yet humility says, listen, don't focus on that. Don't think about yourself above all else.
Think about other people as being more important than you. There's so many other people around you who have needs and they're important. In fact, he goes farther and says the humility of mind specifically regards or counts or considers others as being supremely important.
Hupyrecho in the Greek is super, above, excelling, higher priority. It's when you place other people's needs, other people's feelings, their trials, their preferences, their goals, their desires, whatever is important to somebody else, then becomes important to you. Well, what do you love? Well, I really love this.
And it's a noble thing. You say, you know what? Well, I'm going to help you fulfill that. I love that too.
I mean, that becomes the core of a healthy marriage, doesn't it? It's not about just getting what you want all the time. It's about loving the other person. Ever notice that the more you outdo each other in love, when they become more important than you and then you become more important than them, what happens? Your love just grows and grows and grows.
But so many times I've done marriage counseling where I just see it over and over again. You're trying to pull from each other and you're focused on self and you're both empty because you're not in it for Christ. You're not in it for the other person.
You're in it for you. And when that tank becomes empty, you're miserable. Why don't you love the other person? Put them first.
Put their needs first. Consider them to be more important than yourself. Scripture affirms this.
Romans 12 10. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Then he says this.
Give preference to one another in honor. Give preference to one another in honor. Galatians 5 13.
You were called to freedom, brethren. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. Don't use your Christian liberty for you.
He says, but through love serve one another. Take your liberty that you have in Christ and use it for other people. Ephesians 5 21.
Be subject to one another out of the reverence for Christ. Because you love Christ, be subject to other people. Let their motives and directives and preferences, let them be important to you.
Again, this is all an example of just selfless humility, but it's a mindset. It's how you think about the world around you, about your life, about other people. What do you think about others? And let me ask you the question.
Just ponder this. Are other people important to you? And if so, how important are they to you? Or are you the most important person in your life? Culture tells you that you should be. But Jesus says that's not true at all.
Other people are more important. What about the church? Other believers? Is church just all about you? Are you here for you? Or when you have needs that arise around you, when there's opportunities to love and help and serve other people, do you put them first? I'll tell you one of the ways, and this is not a commercial, it's just an observation. There are ministries happening right downstairs right now.
We have kids down there, probably about 50-60 kids downstairs. And many of you are on a rotation to go downstairs during the worship service and serve those kids. That's not just babysitting.
They're teaching. They're encouraging. They're praying with them.
They're singing with them. They're doing crafts with them. They're trying to build them up.
They're building relationships with those kids. And they're helping them to worship God, to learn about God. It's selfless.
And I know the feeling. I don't want to give up a Sunday. I get it.
But do you consider other people to be more important than yourself? And I'll tell you, I've talked to so many people who serve in ministries like that, and they're joyful because they see what God's doing. And they're excited to see those kids' eyes light up with excitement and joy. Verse 4, he says, in addition to all that, do not merely look out for your own personal interests.
Pause there. It's not bad that you have personal interests. It's not bad that you need help and need things and need to do what you have to do.
The Bible's not saying you don't matter at all. That's not what it's saying. But it says, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
You have to keep other people in your mind and in your heart, especially within the church. It's very easy to advocate for your own personal interests. What I want, I want to do things my way.
Well, my last church did it this way, and I like that. And I want you to do that all the time, right? We're a melting pot here, aren't we? Is it all about you, or is it about other people? How often do you consider the interests of others? First Corinthians 13.5 says that true biblical love does not seek its own. It doesn't put self first.
Not only is this a mark of humility, it's also a mark of maturity. Romans 15.1. Now, we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and listen to this, and not just please ourselves. It'd be very easy to do that.
I'm just going to do my thing, live my life, and I'm just going to make myself happy. The Bible says don't focus on that. If you're doing well, don't just be happy and doing well.
Focus on other people. Build up those who are around you, especially if they're struggling. If they're without strength and they're hurting, help them.
Don't just do it for yourself. Do it for them. Lift them up.
P.T. O'Brien says a distinguishing mark of love is that it is not self-seeking. This is not all about us. About me.
How often do you seek others' good before your own? Or is everything all about you? If we truly belong to Christ, if we really have received His encouragement, if we really have been given His love, if we really have the fellowship of the Spirit, if we really belong to the church and there's a love for the brethren, if we really have compassion and affection for other people, then we'll think a little bit differently than the world, won't we? We're going to be humble-minded. Humble-minded. Again, humility is not a posture.
It's a way that you think. But more than this, we won't just be humble-minded. We'll be Christ-minded because Paul is going to zero in on the One who demonstrates this and personifies this to perfection.
We're not going to cover all this today. I'm just going dip our toe in the water here. Verse 5, have this attitude, talking about humility of mind, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
If you're wondering what humility looks like, look at Jesus Christ. Jesus had every right to live for Himself. Think about this with me.
He could have come here, been born of the Virgin Mary, lived up, grew up in Israel, got into ministry at 30 years old, said, all right, here I am, God in human flesh, now worship me, serve me, give to me. He could have done it. He had every right.
This belongs to Him. He is the author and creator of what we stand on and who we are. Did He do that? Not even close.
Mark 10, 45, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Our Lord didn't even come to be served by us. Jesus came here for the sole purpose of giving Himself for us.
If that doesn't humble you to the ground, I don't know what will. So, if our Lord considered others' needs as more important than His own and gave up His life on the cross, then certainly we can bend and flex a little bit for each other. Certainly we can give to one another and regard each other as being a little more important than ourselves.
Because we're called to have this attitude that's in Christ. Christ didn't just act humble. He embodied humility.
He embodied selflessness. And the pinnacle of that selflessness was that He gave up His own life. He went to the cross to pay for our sins.
He took away the sin that was killing us, that was condemning us. And He took it on Himself. And He put it to death.
And He satisfied the wrath of God. And He walled us off from the judgment of God. Put up a force field and said, no judgment of God is going to touch my children.
And He humbled Himself. And He gave us not only forgiveness in Him, but He also gave us life at the resurrection. And not only that, He gave us a seat next to Him.
We were adopted as children. We're seated in the heavenly places in Christ, the Bible says. We weren't just forgiven and let go.
We were forgiven and blessed. He considered us far more important than He even needed to because of His love for us. And so if you have received the blessing of salvation, if you're in Christ, remember your salvation.
Remember the price He paid for you. But if you're here and you don't know what I'm talking about, if you've never received the gift of salvation, maybe you've been in church your whole life. But if you've never turned away from your sins and your selfishness and put your faith in Jesus Christ to find salvation, do that now.
Stop living for yourself. It is empty and it is dead. You will never find peace.
You'll never find life chasing self. But you will find life chasing Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful. We haven't even begun to look at Jesus Christ in this passage, which just fills me with anticipation, excitement for the next coming weeks, Lord.
But Father, we just have a little window into what true unity and true humility looks like. That we are not the center of the universe, that actually you are. And you didn't even consider yourself to be of high regard when you were here giving your life for us.
But Father, here's the problem. Our sin hijacks us constantly. We are self-addicts.
We just want what makes us feel better. We just want to do what's good for us. We are plagued by the selfishness and the pride that you despise.
And so, we would just pray, humbly pray that you would convict us of these kinds of sins. And not just convict us and forgive us so we can confess and be forgiven, but also help us, oh Lord. Help us to think about other people.
Help us to think about you supremely. What does God want me to do? What does God want me to think? How does God want me to love this other person? Help us to be selfless and humble. And in so doing, find our true unity together in you.
Lord, we need so much help. And yet, we could be encouraged that we have the encouragement of Christ and the consolation of love and the fellowship of the Spirit. We have all of these, not because we have loved you first, but because you have first loved us.
And so, oh Lord, we are so grateful to you that you had mercy and that you loved us first. That you sent your son to die for us, to give his life in humble sacrifice so that we would have life eternal. What an amazing gift.
We're grateful. And so, Lord, as we turn our attention to this time of communion, let us remember. Give us cause to think and ponder our own condition, the sins that we have to confess right now, or that we would find forgiveness that you offer, and that we would start to consider other people, consider your desires above our own.
Have mercy on us, oh Lord, help us as we turn to these moments here. We thank you for your goodness to us, in Jesus' name.