Keeping Harmony

Paul has been hammering the necessity of unity in this book. As he draws near the end of the letter he doesn’t let up. He wants the church to be at peace. Two times in this section he will mention peace.

In verse 7 he mentions the peace of God.

In verse 9 he mentions the God of peace.

Is his concern for peace in the church or peace in the individual Christians life?

Both. But peace must start in the individual’s life. A church that experiences the peace of God reflects Christians who are at peace with God and one another.

I like what Spurgeon said about peace. He said “The Holy Spirit is like a dove. Doves love quiet places; they do not come where there is noise and strife.”

A sure way to repel the Spirit of God is to remain in conflict and disharmony with our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

I don’t have to tell you that without the presence of the Holy Spirit we cannot have church. We can meet. We can go through the motions. Without the Spirit of God, we’re

just having a meeting.

We’re going to break these passages into two sections. It’s my prayer we will learn how to keep harmony in our personal life and the life of our church.

1. Paul addresses a problem in the church (2-3).

A. Two faithful women in the church were in conflict with one another.

What do we know about this situation?

We know their names: Euodia and Syntyche.

They were called out by name. This probably mortified them. I’m sure the church had been patient with them. They had plenty of time to deal with the issue themselves. Paul thought it time to deal with the situation once and for all.

They were hard workers in the church. Paul said they had labored side by side with him in the gospel. He knew them personally. These were ladies who loved the Lod and loved their church. They were faithful members.

This was not a moral issue or Paul would have mentioned that. One had not stolen the others husband or anything like that.

This was not a doctrinal issue. If there was false teaching involved Paul would have dealt with that as well.

This was likely a personal issue. Notice Paul says, “I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche.” He said the same thing to both ladies. He wasn’t taking sides.

They were out of harmony with one another. He tells them to agree in the Lord. That means “be of the same mind”. It wasn’t about them anymore. It was about the Lord. No matter what they could agree that the Lord was more important than their own opinions.

The situation was affecting the unity of the church. You might think “Well, they’re just two people.”

Two people can cause major problems in a church. With two people there are:

Two sides. We love to take sides.

Two husbands. These men may be tempted to defend their wives.

Two sets of children. These children may feel playing together would dishonor their parents.

Two sets of friends. Friends may think they are betraying one by being kind to the other.

Paul knows this. That’s why he is so passionate about the situation. The word “entreat” means to urge. He’s pleading with these women. He knows that it’s not only false doctrine that can destroy a church. The devil would rather use a Christian to do his work. He’ll pick a sheep over a goat any day.

He'd rather have a Peter than a Judas.

The devil loves to use the Lord’s children because:

It breaks the heart of God.

It puts a stumbling block for those considering Christ.

B. Paul enlists the help of another Christian (3).

Do you see the word “companion” or “yokefellow”. Instead of calling the man by his name he calls the man by what his name means. The man’s name is likely Suzugos. This is the Greek word for “companion”. Notice Paul calls him “true companion”. He’s saying this man truly lives up to what his name means.

Maybe this is an elder or just a mature believer in the church. The church knew who Paul was talking about. Paul asked this guy personally to intervene. He says, “help these women”.

This is one of the reasons we come to church. When we won’t deal with our sin the Lord will send people to help us.

Don’t get mad.

Don’t get embarrassed.

This is the grace of the Lord in your life.

James 5:19-20 says: “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

Galatians 6:1 says “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Why can’t disunity remain? Because sin spreads quickly. Sin is like a weed. It takes very little for it to grow. In fact, all you have to do is ignore an area of dirt and soon it will be overrun with weeds. That’s the nature of weeds. They want to be ignored because that’s how they flourish.

If these ladies had not dealt with their issues the problem would have only gotten worse. It was clear to Paul enough time had elapsed for them to deal with it on their own. Now Paul enlists a helper for them. He was to sit down with them and help them come to a godly resolution.

C. Paul reminds them they are part of the same family (3).

He said all their names were in the Book of Life.

This book refers to the redeemed of the past, present, and future. It is a registry of the people of God. It is mentioned many places in Scripture (Luke 10:20, Heb. 12:23, Rev. 3:5, 17:8, 20:12, 15, 21:27).

Is your name in this Book? I pray it is!

Listen folks, all Christians are eternally linked. Our names are in the same book. We might as well learn to get along because we are going to be with each other forever!

Look at the folks in this room. These are our brothers and sisters. Why do we call one another brother and sister in the church? We do this to acknowledge the spiritual reality of our eternal kinship in Christ.

2. Paul gives instructions to guard against disunity (4-9).

A. Rejoice in the Lord (4).

Notice Paul says this twice. Why?

Because we need to be reminded.

Because we make excuses for not doing it.

If your saved joy is your choice. You can rejoice. There is so much in the Lord to rejoice about.

Life is short. We can spend it mad if we want to. We’re gonna lose a whole lot of living from our life if we do.

Notice the word “always”. If there is a person you hold ill against when you are with them rejoice. Always!

Not around certain people

Not in certain circumstances.

Can you imagine the looks on Syntyche and Euodia faces when they were around each other. Probably made everyone feel awkward. But if those two ladies decided to wipe off the frown and rejoice around one another they would have probably gotten over their issues.

Rejoice!

It’s hard to be upset with someone who is happy. Joy will help guard us from disunity.

B. Treat others with gentleness.

The Greek word translated as reasonable is hard to translate into English. There isn’t an English word for it. It has such a deep and diverse meaning our language can’t capture it in a single word.

It describes a humble and gentle attitude. The idea is when we are thinking reasonably about who we are and what Christ has done for us we will treat others correctly. Notice the end of the verse, “The Lord is at hand”.

The Lord is watching us. He is watching how we deal with people. Notice he says let your reasonableness be known to everyone. For Syntyche that meant let it be known to Euodia.

One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. God gives us power over our selves. When we think of a reasonable person, we think of one not controlled by their emotions. Our emotions will get in the way of us dwelling in unity with others. If you are saved, you have the ability to not be governed by your emotions.

You can love your enemies.

You can certainly love your brother and sisters in Christ.

There was likely no gentleness between these two ladies in the church. It was time that changed.

C. Replace worry with prayer (6-7).

When Jesus spoke about worry, He mentioned four categories of things humans worry about:

Physical appearance (Matt. 6:27)

Clothing (Matt. 6:28)

Food and drink (Matt. 6:31)

The future (Matt. 6:34)

He knew we worry about a lot of things. He told us not to worry. The natural response to worry is to complain or explain to others what we’re worried about. When we do that, we spread our worry around. Now others are worried. Instead of falling apart and telling everyone why we’re worried God tells us to speak to Him. We are called pray when we are tempted to worry.

Pray about everything

Tell God what we need (supplications)

Thank God

He says when we do this the peace of God will guard our hearts.

That word guard speaks of a soldier who stands guard over something. The peace of God stands like a soldier at our hearts and minds door destroying whatever tries to disrupt it.

Notice that the peace of God surpasses all understanding. The peace of God is greater than any knowledge we have.

It could be true knowledge. The knowledge of the death of a loved one or cancer.

It could be speculative knowledge. In other words, it may or may not be true.

Remember the old song:

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!

That calls me from a world of care,

And bids me at my Father's throne

Make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief,

My soul has often found relief,

And oft escaped the tempter's snare,

By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

The peace of God granted through prayer can calm our anxiety because it is more powerful than our anxiety.

Let’s tie this in with conflict.

Why should we be worried about resolving conflict? Pray about the situation then talk to the person you have conflict with. I promise you the peace of God will follow.

I’ve had experienced this even when the issue was not resolved. I knew I had done my part. God blessed me with peace.

D. Fill your mind with the things of God (8).

Paul gives a list of eight things we are to think on.

What is true

What is honorable

Whatever is just

Whatever is pure

Whatever is lovely

Whatever is commendable

That which is excellent

That which is worthy of praise

The truth is we don’t think on the things of God like we should. We think on the wrong things. We have become victims of headlines. What do I mean by that?

Have you noticed how our media uses headlines? A headline may or may not describe the story correctly. The media uses headlines to get your attention and to get you to click on a story. The problem is most people don’t click on the story, they just believe the headline.

I read a story this past week about a college football player who instead of playing in the playoffs with his team declared for the NFL draft. The headline said something like “Ohio State Receiver to miss Playoffs, declares for NFL Draft”.

That aggravated me because it seemed selfish. Then I read the article and it said the kid had only played three games all season and was not eligible to play in the play offs anyway because of an injury. That made things a lot different.

The headline was written to stir the emotions.

I ran over a squirrel the other day. What if there was a story written:

Local Pastor Kills Innocent Squirrel

That sounds bad, doesn’t it? The truth is it ran out in front of me. I tried not to hit it. I was cheering for it. It wasn’t my fault. I felt terrible.

Satan will throw headlines at us. He’ll take partial truths and throw them up in our minds. If all we read is the headlines the devil gives us we are in trouble!

How are we going to think about what is:

What is true

What is honorable

Whatever is just

Whatever is pure

Whatever is lovely

Whatever is commendable

That which is excellent

That which is worthy of praise

Stop meditating on the devil’s headlines and get into the Word of God!

E. Practice what the Word of God says (9).

They had learned, received, seen, and heard plenty through the ministry of Paul. Now they had to do those things.

For Euodia and Syntyche that meant they needed to stop the foolishness and bury the hatchet. If they would do this the God of peace would be with them.

What does that mean? I think in this context it means the blessing of God would be upon the church.

I want the blessing of the Lord on me and the church I attend. Don’t you want that?

We can’t keep conflict from happening. It’s going to happen. We live in a fallen world. We can’t keep conflict from happening, but we can keep disunity from happening.

I want to close with a personal story. I don’t remember much from when I was really small, but I do remember one thing that happened when I was in first grade. Back then my mama would drive me to school. Everyday it was the same. Just before I got out of the car she would give me a kiss and say “I love you.” I would always reply “I love you too.”

That’s just how it was.

One morning she made me mad. I don’t know what it was about but I’m sure it was something important. First graders have a heavy load to carry. I wouldn’t talk to her the whole way to school. When I got out, I didn’t stop for a kiss at all. She said, “I love you” and I didn’t say a thing back.

All day long I felt terrible for not telling her I loved her. It ruined my day. Of course, I went home and everything was fine. Moms forgive their children quickly.

But now, over 40 years later, I still remember that. What I don’t remember about that day is why I was mad to begin with.

Listen to me, whatever you are upset about today is likely not worth being upset about. If there is someone you need to forgive, forgive them. If there is conflict you need to deal with, deal with it.

The Bible tells us if we have a problem with our brother or sister we should not even give a dollar to the Lord until we go to them and handle it.

The Bible says not to let the sun go down on our wrath. In other words, don’t let a problem go for 24 hours. Deal with it. We know what the Bible says but it’s our responsibility to do what the Bible says. Whether we do or not determines if the peace and blessing of god will rest upon us.