Humility and Unity in Action

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Prayer

Our Lord and our God. We are grateful for this place where your Word is proclaimed. And we are grateful to you for the Word that is before us today. Please open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to it. Grant us wisdom and discernment that we may understand and apply the wisdom and instruction that you have given us, for our edification and for your glory. Please overcome my frailty and weakness so that I may faithfully and rightly handle and deliver your Word this morning. For the edification of your people and the exultation of Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

· Introduction

If you remember last week, we began with something of an opener to this series of being like Christ. Paul shares the fact that to live is Christ and to die is gain. We live in a win-win situation. And while the Lord tarries and we await His return we can suffer persecution for His sake. So, we find joy in living for Christ, being citizens of heaven, and suffering for Christ’s sake.

And not only that, it is a confirmation of the saving work of Christ and His righteousness having been applied to us.

We aren’t going to be persecuted for failing to share the gospel or live as Christ would have us. We can expect to endure persecution in this world. Some say that we live in a post-Christian age. And while I think there may be something to that, at least in the Western world, we seem to be living in an increasingly post-truth world.

There is no objective truth and certainly no objective transcendental morality. And in this culture, as we stand firm in the faith of the gospel as Paul has commanded us to do we must expect to suffer in some way. But let us take heart that this proves our faith and that it is not in vain.

· Section 1 2:1-2

At the beginning of chapter two we are met with the word therefore. I’m sure we have all heard the phrase that when we run into a therefore we have to ask what the, therefore, is there for.

Most commonly it is meant to draw our attention to a connection between what was presented before and what is about to follow. Sort of a “Because of thisdo this.” In this instance, Paul is looking back to what he has said about the Christian life.

It is our privilege to live for Christ, to stand firm for the faith, and to suffer for His sake, and because of that we are to live as follows. So where is Paul leading us? He continues by presenting his readers with an “if/then” statement. If there are these five things, which for the Christian there is, then there is no problem or difficulty in doing what Paul asks of them.

..encouragement in Christ. This word for encouragement is found throughout the Bible. Not only in the NT but also in the Greek translation of the OT, known as the Septuagint. This Greek translation is what is found to be used by many NT authors as they quote the OT in the NT. It is often used to refer to comforting and consolation. But in the NT it can be translated as encouragement or exhortation.

While it could go either way, in this context it makes more sense, given the previous verses of the comfort and encouragement we get from our union with Christ, to translate this as encouragement. So the question is do you have any encouragement by your union with Christ? And the obvious answer should be yes.

How could we as believers not be encouraged by our union with Christ?! Before Christ, we did not know the state of condemnation we were in or the depth of our spiritual deadness. But now having been washed by the blood of Christ and our eyes opened and our minds rejuvenated to see that truth, and to know that there is nothing on this earth or in heaven that can snatch us away from the hand of the Father we can be nothing but encouraged.

So again, if you’re a Christian and you’re breathing you should be encouraged by your union with Jesus Christ.

Paul’s next if, [read the text]. Now this word consolation has also been translated as comfort in other translations of Scripture. But it is interesting as it has the same force as the word for encouragementbefore it.

They are both words that are constructed by putting two words together, and they both begin with παρά. The word παρά, depending on how it is used, generally means beside or alongside of. And while it can also be translated as encouragement this is the only time it is used in the NT and also even in the LXX. But we gain some clues from extra-biblical writings such as those by Plato and Sophocles who use it to speak of consoling and comforting a person.

So, Paul is asking, “Is there any comfort or consolation for the believer from love, namely, the love of Christ?” And again, the obvious answer is yes. Christ loved us to the end in that He died for us, taking upon Himself the punishment and guilt that was ours. We have no greater comfort in this world or the next than in the knowledge that our Savior loves us and can never fail in that love.

And Paul now moves on to our relationship with the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit with another if.

[read the text]

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit is found throughout Scripture and refers to the indwelling of and relationship with the Holy Spirit. Just to list some of these places: Rom. 5; 8; 1 Cor. 3; 6; 2 Cor. 13; Gal. 4; 1 John 3.

The NT is not silent on the fact that the believer has and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And we must keep in mind that the Spirit is not some ethereal mystical power that is connected to the Father in some way. The Holy Spirit is a person, and more than that He is God.

The Spirit is probably the most neglected, misunderstood, and misrepresented person of the Trinity within the church. I remembered a study performed by Ligonier Ministries in 2022 and I looked up the results. When presented with the statement, “The Holy Spirit is a force but not a personal being,” 42% of Evangelicals said they agreed. 8% were undecided. 42% of Christ-professing Evangelicals said they did not believe that the Holy Spirit was an actual being, which throws His divinity out the window. Two things on this as it pertains to this passage.

First, the Spirit is our Comforter. He is the one who came in the absence of our Lord after His ascension to be with us until the Lord returns. He is the one who applies our redemption to us. And He is the one who lives within us and fellowship with us. One cannot have fellowship or relationship with a thing or a force. I don’t have an intimate relationship with the force of gravity because it is not a person. To misunderstand the Holy Spirit is to lose so much of our relationship with God and appreciation for what he has done for us.

Second, we have got to get our theology right especially when it comes to the Trinity. I like to give the benefit of the doubt on things like this and that this shrinking of the person of the Holy Spirit is not done out of maliciousness or on purpose to make Him obscure. But it comes from our lack of proper study of the Bible. Scripture is clear that the Holy Spirit is a person, is God, and indwells us. He is not a mystical force; this isn’t Star Wars. If we are to know God, we must know Him in His entirety and that includes His Triune existence.

And the reason I rant on this is because Paul presents us with another clear and simple statement. Are you a Christian? Then you have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, pure and simple. The Spirit is not something you receive weeks, months, or years into being a Christian. At the moment of conversion, you have the Spirit.

And Paul finishes this verse with a search for affection and compassion. This word for affection has a graphic basic meaning. It literally refers to one’s inward parts. It is something that is deep down in your gut, or as older works might say the bowels. And it refers to deep empathy and compassion. It’s the same word used in Luke 1:78 where it speaks of the “tender mercy of our God.” It is a deep compassionate love.

And compassion is just that. It is the sense of merciful love and something of a repetition of affection, in a way. And this brings us to verse 2.

Paul has laid out these 5 if statements in a manner that is basically asking the question: You’re a believer, right? Well if you have all of these, then yes! You have these characteristics because you belong to Christ. And if that is the case, then there shouldn’t be any problem in doing the following. Here’s what he says [read text].

Now the ultimate purpose of living in this manner is not to make Paul’s joy complete or to please him. While that will be a result, ultimately, we are to live in this manner to the glory of God. But Paul is saying, “If you walk in obedience and love in this way it will fulfill my joy.” What parent, spiritual or actual, does not have joy when they see their children living a Christlike life?

The Apostle John says exactly this in his 3rd epistle in verse 4, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.”

And Paul repeats, in a sense, what he stated beforehand in 1:27. He wants believers to be of one mind, maintaining the same love, united in the same motivation and characteristic, with one goal.

And what Paul is driving at here is the unity of the body of Christ. Now this naturally raises the question if we are to be united, and if we are indeed united, why are there so many denominations?

I don’t want to park on this too long but it should be addressed because it does cause some confusion not only among detractors of the Christian faith but even among the church. Why are there seemingly countless denominations? I think the simplest answer is, that we’re sinful.

By that I mean we cannot perfectly interpret Scripture and its commands without error. Now we have to be careful in saying that because much of Scripture is very clear to us, particularly when it comes to the process of salvation and essential matters. But secondary and tertiary matters tend to be approached from various angles, hence we have Baptists, Presbys, Methodists, Episcopalians, and non-denominational.

But believe it or not we are united. We are united by the core truths of the Christian faith. That of our Triune God, salvation by grace through faith, and other tenets that are necessary for salvation. Even in the time of the early church when they still had the Apostles and ongoing revelation factions and what could be called denominations existed.

This should not discourage us when it comes to the unity of the body of Christ. We of course cannot extend this to some so-called denominations that claim to be Christian and are not. But the true body of Christ is united in thousands of churches around the world.

And we are to be and act united since the body of Christ cannot be divided. Paul exhorts us to be united with our brothers and sisters in Christ within our own church building and with those across the earth. And this brings us to the second point, that of Christ-like humility and our practice of it.

· Section 2 2:3

[Read 2:3a]. Paul begins by giving us the negative, what we are not to do. And he is clear that we are to do nothing according to selfishness or conceit. Nothingis all-encompassing in this case. It means nothing. There is nothing that we should be doing in our lives that finds its source in selfishness or self-centeredness. Parents say it all the time, “The world does not revolve around you.”

We see this word used earlier in 1:17 and it is translated as selfish ambition there. The point Paul is making is that when we do what we do, whether it be business, friendship, recreation, church matters, anything. Our priority cannot be, “How will this benefit me the most even at the expense of others.”

We also are not to do anything from empty conceit. This word in Greek is a compound word and combines the words empty and glory. Some translations render this as vainglory. This is the only place in the NT where it is used in this form. Its use as an adjective is only used once in Galatians 5:26 where it speaks of prideful boasting. But if you look into apocryphal writing from the OT, we see it used to speak of the useless pride in worshipping idols. So, what we come away with here is the idea of puffing oneself up in pride, sort of to the point of self-idolization in one’s ambitions.

What Paul is telling us is that the self is not the most important thing there is. And Christ is our example of exhibiting this ideal. Now this does not mean that Christ is not ultimate and the object of our love and worship, don’t misunderstand me. But He perfectly exhibited this characteristic of selflessness when he came in the flesh and suffered for His people, we’ll get into that next week.

But we see the One, Christ, from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, stooping to our level, taking upon Himself flesh which does not belong to the divine, and not only that but living and suffering as a servant. The actual center of the universe came and served. That is our example.

So, we have the do not, and now Paul gives us what we are to do. We already know that this statement is covering whatever it is we do in life. So with that same all-encompassing view in mind, we are to live our lives with humility of mind regarding others as more important than ourselves.

This humility is meant to be a characteristic that is set in contrast to pride. Especially given what Paul just said. A biblical, Christian humility places oneself at the back of the line. It is the application and practice of realizing the truth of what we just said that the world does not revolve around us.

But we have to be careful, this is not a call to masochism or self-punishment to keep our pride in check. There have been many societies, many in medieval times but some still today, that as a show of humility, they must dress a certain way, abstain from certain foods, and even physically harm themselves in order to remain humble. This is a twisting of Scripture and frankly is adding to it.

I think the translators specifically rendered this humility of mind because it is an attitude and characteristic of the person, which we then act out in our service to others. And Paul doubles down on this in the next verse.

But continuing, we see that previously mentioned selflessness of Christ in regarding one another as more important than yourself. This verse drives a stake through our ego with this triple assault. Selfishness is out. Self-centered ambition is out. And treat others as more important than you.

I know how hard it can be to exhibit just oneof these qualities driving down I-4. But Paul is laying the groundwork for the believer’s behavior toward others as he builds up to the ultimate example of humility later on in this chapter. And Paul continues this groundwork in this next verse.

· Section 3 2:4

o [Read 2:4]

I think the ESV translates this a little better. The ESV reads, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Paul is still speaking to the individuals here regarding their behavior in the church. He is making sure that the individual members of the body of Christ are getting this. But there is a crucial detail that we can’t afford to miss here.

Paul specifically mentions not to neglect oneself in the process. Just as was mentioned previously, it is not our goal nor our calling to become self-denying monks to the point where we live in poverty and sickness, that is not what we are supposed to do. In fact, to purposely deny yourself basic needs when you have the means of doing so is being disobedient to the Law of God. Yes, we live humbly. Yes, we give selflessly. But we also need to provide for ourselves and our loved ones. Denying ourselves bread when we have the means to do so, even as we serve others, is wrong.

What Paul is saying, as he clarifies this further at the end of this verse, is that while we live, work, and provide for ourselves, do not forget your brothers and sisters in Christ and serve them. This portion of Scripture could be summed up as saying, “Because you belong to and are in union with Christ, and have been transformed by Him, do not live with yourself on a podium, but humbly serve others.”

· Conclusion

The life of a Christian is one of humility. It is one of placing others before ourselves and not just our fellow believers, but even those whom we have difficulty getting along with. And this is true because of the one to whom we belong, Jesus Christ. It was He who, having no need of anything or anyone, came in the flesh not to be served but to serve.

He went amongst those who not only despised Him but desired to kill Him and brought them the truth of the Gospel, regardless of whether or not they would accept it. If anyone had the right or privilege to hold themselves above others it was Christ. Instead, He humbled Himself before others, regarding them as more important.

We see this on display in the upper room when the Savior took the role of a servant and washed the dirty feet of not only those who would go on to serve Him faithfully and even die for Him. But He washed the feet of the one who would deliver Him over to His enemies. I admit myself that this is often that hardest service to render at times. To be humble before those that hate you or wish the worst for you.

I think Sinclair Ferguson, in his book Lessons from the Upper Room, captures this hard truth about ourselves very well when he writes, “Some Christians feel uncomfortable at the thought that Jesus washed Judas’ feet. Surely Jesus didn’t, couldn’t do that? Not Judas’ feet! Does this reflect the fact that there are dirty feet they themselves would never wash?”

We can see where Paul is leading us in His exhortation to be like Christ. May we ourselves endeavor to love and serve others as Christ does. Let us pray.

· Prayer

Our Lord and our God. We thank you for this instruction given in your Word. You not only provided us with a Savior but with an example, though He is more than that. Cause these words to take root within our hearts. Humble us to adhere to them and live them out in our day-to-day lives. Not so that we ourselves would be elevated but that we would place others before us just as your Son has taught us. We ask all this in His name and for His sake, amen.