The Paradox of Submission (All Is At Rest)

We are continuing our series on the Fifth Commandment.

Our text today is Philippians 2:1-11.

Text

Philippians 2:1–11 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Prayer

Our Father, we give you our worship and praise this morning aware of how much we have missed the mark. We confess our sins of disobedience, where we have failed to walk in the ways Christ called us to walk. We confess our sins of disobedience and selfishness, but lay hold of that forgiveness and cleansing that you promise through Jesus. Thank you for this forgiveness, Lord, and we pray that you would bring us, further up and further in, to a place of greater obedience. For your glory, by your Spirit, and in Jesus name, Amen.

Sermon

The Same Mind

What’s helpful about this text is that the Apostle is speaking to all of us, here.

The Apostle Paul is explaining how we ought to live our lives, and he explains that we are to “have the same mind.”

We are, each, to have the same ultimate goal in life.

Wherever we are, whatever relationships we have with each other; no matter our life circumstance, we are to be united in the pursuit of one, common goal.

Here’s how the LSB renders it.

Philippians 2:2 LSB

2 fulfill my joy, that you think the same way, by maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose,

This may seem weird, as we might think this means:

“Each of you must have the same thoughts in your head, love the same things, and agree on everything.”

This would impossible to achieve, nor is it even God’s design.

So we’re obviously not quite getting what it means, yet.

We ask, “How can a variety of people think similarly, love similarly, be united in spirit, and dwell on a single purpose?”

The short answer is simple. By seeking to glorify and enjoy the same God, together.

A people will think similarly as they molded by the same Word of God.

A people will love similarly as they are shaped by the same Spirit of God.

A people will be united in spirit as they drawn by God the Father and given to the Son of God.

This same people, by God’s grace and through his power, will get up each morning, facing the cuts and slices of a broken world—undaunted and unbroken—each for the same purpose.

To meet God on that final day unashamed and welcome.

As each of us, together, seeks to glorify God and enjoy him forever, we will look like what verse 2 is describing.

That’s the short answer.

The long answer is much, much longer, and is fatal to learn (it’ll take your life to learn it).

Life Is Outward

Look at verses 3 and 4.

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

This verse is telling us that life is lived outward. It is not, ultimately, inwardly focused.

This short life we have is not solely about accumulation. It’s not solely about accomplishment or reputation. Each of these, though important in its place, will fade away.

This short life is about one thing, and one thing only: glorification.

You see in the word itself that it is about the giving of glory to something.

It is a verb. To glorify something is to take something from you and transfer it to something else.

Every dollar you receive is loaned to you by God, and he will take it back again sooner or later. That dollar can be given in a way that glorifies him, or glorifies you.

Every talent you were created with is also loaned to you by God, and he justly expects a return. If you are a musician, he expects you to play. If you are an artist, he expects you to draw or paint.

Every minute you are given is ultimately loaned by God, and we won’t get them back. The task before us is to “redeem the time, for the days are evil” (Eph 5:16).

Selfish ambition wants these things to be squandered on earth, rather than invested in heaven.

Dollars, talents, and time—each of us has some amount of these things.

And all of us will be tempted to drive them inward, according to our passions, when they ought to go outward, to bless others.

Life is meant to be lived outward.

Capability, Privilege, and Blessing

And in an era where ideas such as “self-care” and “treat yourself” are thrown around as virtues, this is going to be utterly foreign.

What’s the most well-known phrase that people think is in the Bible, but isn’t?

“God helps those who help themselves.”

Self care, so called.

No, not even a little bit.

God helps those who were hell-bent on destroying themselves.

God helps those who overflow with selfish ambition and ooze conceit.

The Gospel shines out on stinking dead people and makes them alive again.

In Christ, we have not only the capability of thinking outside ourselves, but the privilege and the blessing to do so.

This privilege is following the royal footsteps of Christ.

This blessing is what God fills faithful obedience with.

God amazingly, actually helps those he loves through the faithful obedience of his people—blessing all of it abundantly.

So the paradox of considering others as more important than yourself is that, in doing so, you actually bring about, in you, a more blessed state.

Matthew 5:8 ESV

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

At this point, we’re teasing at both indicatives and imperatives (remember those?). “This is true, and here’s some implications.”

Let’s lean, now, into the key indicate—the key truth of today.

Submission Is Christ-like

Submission is Christ-like.

Children, to submit to your parents is to honor them by imitating Christ.

Wives, to submit to your husband is to honor them by imitating Christ.

Husbands, to submit to Christ as representative of your family is to both honor and imitate him.

Employees, citizens, church members: submitting to your authorities honors them and imitates Christ.

Submission is Christ-like.

A small aside, here—there is a text in the Gospel of John that I first came to know as it relates to the doctrine of God’s sovereignty. And that is certainly there. However, as time has gone on, and I return to this text, I notice other things.

This text in the sixth chapter of John has been one of my favorites for a long time, and now for more reasons than just one.

Let me read it to you.

John 6:35–40 ESV

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Here, where Christ is speaking of unspeakable things—disclosing to human minds the infinite will and boundless love of God—we see it.

John 6:38–39 “38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”

It was the will of the Father to send Jesus as the bread of life.

Bread is consumed, and nourishes the one who eat.

But bread is also broken, that it may be eaten by many.

Philippians 2:6–8 ESV

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Christ’s perfect submission to the will of the Father, facing all the terrors of his wrath, gave us our salvation.

“What a love What a cost We stand forgiven at the Cross!”

Submission is Christ-like.

The Paradox of Submission

Christ was obedient unto death.

Christ was born to pour his life out in service to others, and died for their salvation.

The King of the universe entered into his creation and received humiliation, betrayal, abuse, slander, privation, sickness, and death.

Why would he do this?

Hebrews 12:2 “2 … Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

In his submission, Christ bore not just the weight of his flogged body on the cross, but the infinite mass of sin.

Philippians 2:8 ESV

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Obedience to God led him to this place.

But see what is said next.

Philippians 2:9 ESV

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

The paradox—the mystery—of this deathly obedience is that it was worked to bring about the highest name. The highest exaltation. The highest honor.

Philippians 2:10–11 ESV

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This deathly obedience was worked to bring about the highest glory.

The paradox—something that seems to not make sense on the surface, but upon closer examination actually does—is this:

That what is powerful, glorious, and beautiful is not authority, but selfless love.

God showed his love for us that, even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Ro 5:8).

And the flow of Philippians is such that, Christ obeyed unto death, and therefore God highly exalted him. It was in through his obedience that this glory was revealed.

And it was through this obedience that..

Philippians 2:11 ESV

11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The highest glory on the other side of obedience.

Strength For Today

When you became a Christian, the credits didn’t start rolling. The story didn’t end.

Your life after coming to Christ is not a waiting room.

It is a construction zone. It is a battlefield.

There are things to do, things to build, and enemies to wage holy war against.

In every battle, there are different roles. In every construction site, there are different jobs.

Each of us has a role and a job to do in life. Though they look different, they are all pointed in the same direction. Remember the beginning, “having the same mind.” We are all seeking to glorify God and enjoy him forever, which entails submitting to his will (which is for our good).

For those who are in Christ, all things work together for good. We have this guaranteed future and a hope. That promise of heaven for the end of our lives, which is like knowing that, after a long and grueling day of work, you will be able to sleep, rise, and never toil again.

“Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow; Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”

How can we all, with the same mind, live an outward-facing life that submits as Christ did?

I’ll close with some thoughts.

Closing Thoughts

As I’ve been talking to people throughout the week about the fifth commandment, the thought that keeps occuring to me is this:

The fifth commandment is given without qualification.

Honor your father and mother (by extension, honor those in authority). Period.

This means we should always be approaching these relationships with the default stance of, “How can I honor this person?”

Do you have family members who are off the proverbial reservation?

Fight back the temptation to spite or scorn them, or sever all ties unless absolutely necessary. And the list of righteous reasons to sever ties with family is very small.

1 Timothy 5:1–2 ESV

1 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

This culture of honor is one this is pure, and it’s pure because the motives and intentions of the hearts involved are pure. They seek each other’s wellbeing. They absorb the hits and blows of life in a broken world, being quick to forgive, and quick to encourage.

If Christ pursues the lowly, then so should we.

Are you resistant to direction from those who are in authority over you?

Setting aside all unlawful direction from authority, which we are to reject—we obey only as directed by God—what kind of spouse, child, citizen, employee, or church member are you?

When you are asked to do something, what is the instinctual response of your heart? Annoyance, contempt, jealousy? Or acceptance, cheerfulness, and joy.

I’m not necessarily talking about these things at 100%, cartoonish levels.

I’m also talking about the beginning stage/seed-sized version of these things.

Thoughts like, “Well, I don’t see what I have to do that,” multiplied by 100 without being taken captive to Christ, will set fire to the forest.

And, again, extreme examples are not the only helpful ones.

A steady, normal routine of diet-disobedience will rot the gut, too.

This is made worse when both parties are disobeying.

When the husband and the wife are sinning against each other, and both refusing to submit—her to him, and he to Christ.

When the state is in open rebellion and the citizen flubs their taxes—both reject their lawful authority—God over the state, and the state over the citizen.

At the end of the day, the point is: two wrongs don’t make a right.

If we thought this way, we would be scorning our Lord. He was wronged in unimaginable ways, yet obeyed the command of the Lord, honored earthly authorities, and kept the Law.

We are to follow in his royal, obedient footsteps.

Epilogue

A final meditation on this point would be this:

God is not surprised by whatever challenges we might be facing in life regarding authority. He knows every molecule of our life. So, if this is true, and God is for you, and he is working all things for your good, what, then, is the purpose of this challenge?

It could be to shape you, to discipline you in righteousness—to remind you of your need of him. To humble you in your pride. Ultimately, to draw you closer to him.

If you were an outside observer to your life; If you were reading the story of your life and you were in this chapter—what would you want you to do?

What character do you want to be?

Look to Christ, the model.

Take the matter to him in prayer. Confess your sins and toss their mind-altering burden away.

In fact, follow the Lord’s instruction:

“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Then, with clearer eyes, ask the Lord to give the wisdom needed.

To see how you ought to proceed.

James 1:5 ESV

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Praying to God, asking for wisdom, is, itself, a sign of submission. It shows that we are submitted to his wisdom and power—he knows best, and can do all things.

And that’s what Satan wants to destroy in our lives. He wants to corrupt our obedience. He wants to degrade our submission to God.

In your current battlefield, perhaps submitting to God in prayer is what you need most.

James 4:7 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.