Overcoming Divisons

Philippians 4:2–7 ESV

2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I find it ironic that today is mother’s day and the passage that God has for us is about overcoming divisions. Please do not read into this coincidence more than we should.

But it is true on a day where we honor our mothers, it is appropriate to think about relationships. In particular Paul is laying out how to handle division in the church and what habits and focuses the church should cultivate to move forward towards the high call of being like Christ.

Philippians 4:2–7 ESV

2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Division

What is shocking about the division Paul mentions is who is involved. These are not fringe church goers known for their bad tempers and loud mouths. Rather these are women who fought side by side with Paul for the gospel. They were on the front lines of evangelism and discipleship. These women are told to agree in the Lord which points to the fact that there is no heresy or immorality Paul is addressing. Reading all of Paul’s New Testament letters would prove that he is not timid in addressing such sin. Apparently the division is that these two women cannot get along. As all of us know, in every family there are times and places where it is difficult to get along. Think about brothers, and sisters, husbands, and wives, and even how those extended family relationships can get. In every group of friends or family there will come a time where conflict arises.

How does Paul address these two women who fought side by side with him for the gospel?

First, Paul Pleads With Them

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. He does not demand anything based on his authority or position as an apostle. The appeal is personal and passionate. There is not calculated shaming happening.

Can you envision an elderly father running in between two of his daughters that have been feuding. With tears in his eyes, and a tone of painful hope, he asks his daughters to stop the fighting and work through their issue.

Paul desires unity in the church because Jesus came that we might be one. Jesus prayed in .

John 17:20–21 ESV

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Jesus prayed for unity, Paul pleads for unity.

Second, Paul asks for someone to get involved.

There are times and places where simply sitting down over coffee will not result in working through a conflict. Often times the question, “Is there anything else gets over looked or not fully answered.” It is also true that when conflict comes often times a third perspective is needed to help everyone see the other persons perspective or work through things in such a way that miscommunication does not happen.

The person that Paul selects to help walk through this conflict is not named. All that is said is this person was a true companion. It would be someone who had a position of authority in the lives of these ladies and in the church. It might have been an elder or pastor. It could have been a leading figure like Epaphroditus. While the figure is not named, it is clear that everyone hearing this letter would know who it was.

Often times people don’t know who to go to when working through conflict. I would commend to you a few different places. If it is a marriage issue, your small group or bible study leader. And if you feel your shame is too great to open up to them, I would commend to you one of the elders and his wife, or perhaps a little know secret is that Pastor Dan is trained in Conciliation or conflict resolution through Peace Makers. I am always happy to help as well, but have seen Dan work through conflict with people and see true repentance and reconciliation.

Third, Focus on Agreeing in the Lord

The verb literally means to think or to set one’s mind on the Lord. Paul is not looking for unity at the expense of truth. They must agree on Jesus, and allow Jesus to be the common ground that their relationship is founded on. This is also not an agreeing on every subject. Paul does not expect them to agree on every single point of doctrine and how it applies to life.

Paul is rather looking for like-mindedness. Paul is appealing for a mental attitude that adopts the same basic direction as other believers, the same fundamental aim, the same orientation and priorites…a gospel of Jesus orientation.

Agreeing on the gospel and where we head with Jesus is simple. For our church we have defined the gospel this way:

The Gospel is the good news of the Kingdom of God that has come through Jesus.  Jesus is the Christ, the one and only Son of God. Jesus lived in perfect obedience, dying on the cross taking the punishment we deserve for sin, satisfying God’s anger, and adopting us into his family.  Jesus was resurrected, conquering sin, death, and the grave.  If we would repent of sin and believe the gospel, we will follow Jesus by the power of Holy Spirit all the days of our earthly lives, or until He returns to set all things right, and restore His creation.

Notice this definition and the scriptures in general don’t call for strict adherence to anything less focusing on the kingdom of God, the Christ, Jesus, and the sacrifice made to rescue sinners.

As it has often been said, Jesus is the only common ground we need. When Jesus is not enough is when we are adding to the gospel and becoming a Pharisee ourselves. We don’t want to add a thing to the gospel because Jesus plus anything ruins everything.

It is true however that many disputes in the church go unresolved. Often it is the case that those in these disputes never take the time and energy to study scripture together to have them centered together on the one thing that is true. In some cases a hard heart sets in and neither side wants to be corrected or sharpened. Both sides become so convinced they are right that mere facts will not sway them, the priority then becomes winning at any cost. In other cases emotional black mail is employed with a phrase like, “Your stance hurts my feelings. Don’t you trust me?” This is a manipulative way to handle conflict and shows a lack of Christians maturity. D.A. Carson said it best, “ Where there are disagreements of principle, argue them out. Take out your Bibles, think things through, find out why you are disagreeing, and be willing to be corrected.”

Where there are disagreements of principle, argue them out. Take out your Bibles, think things through, find out why you are disagreeing, and be willing to be corrected.

In every case we must identify what take absolute priority and begin with that. Focus on what you have in common. Once again DA Carson said it best, “Personal differences should never become an occasion for advancing your party, for stroking bruised egos, for resorting to cheap triumphalism, for trimming the gospel by appealing to pragmatics. Focus on what unites you: the gospel, the gospel, the gospel.”

Where there are disagreements of principle, argue them out. Take out your Bibles, think things through, find out why you are disagreeing, and be willing to be corrected.

Carson, D. A. (1996). Basics for believers: an exposition of Philippians (p. 103). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Carson, D. A. (1996). Basics for believers: an exposition of Philippians (p. 103). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Carson, D. A. (1996). Basics for believers: an exposition of Philippians (p. 103). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

So how does one keep unity in the church, what should we do to keep conflict in check and move forward agreeing in the Lord?

Rejoice in the Lord

Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians Resolve Always to Rejoice in the Lord (4:4)

According to Acts 16, he and Silas were arrested and thrown into prison. Beaten, bruised, their feet in stocks, they displayed not a whiff of self-pity. Far from it; they began a midnight chorus of praise. Now Paul finds himself in prison again. He is not writing this epistle from a chalet in the south of France or taking a few minutes out from the happy pleasures of paddling in the waters of the Bahamas. He is under arrest. And what does he say? “Hang in there, brothers and sisters, as I am trying to hang on myself”? Not a chance! “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

This command to rejoice is so simple it is embarrassing to have to be reminded of it. What is ironic about this command is we would think all of us in Christ would want to rejoice in the Lord, yet we rarely do. I want to meddle just for a moment. When you sing praises to the Lord do you smile? When we come to the time of repentance and forgiveness in the worship service, do you feel the joy of forgiveness? We focus so much on the temporary and the circumstantial that we cannot rejoice in the eternal and the present reality of Jesus with us.

Our sins have been forgiven!

We have been declared righteous!

Someone else has born our guilt.

We have the Holy Spirit!

We have the downpayment guaranteeing our inheritance!

We are adopted into a family!

In this world we have trouble, but we have one who has overcome the world!

If we fail to respond with joy and gratitude at these statements it is ether because we have not grasped the depth of our own sinfulness and the curse that we have been freed from. Or it is because we have not looked around and realized the the heights to which Jesus has raised us.

We are to rejoice in the Lord. The style of rejoicing is not the focus but the content of the rejoicing is the focus. The grounding of many people’s rejoicing however is circumstantial. If your primary ground for rejoicing is life’s circumstances you can tell by seeing how you react when things change. When our circumstances change…we become miserable. We the ground we rejoice in is the Lord, He is the rock upon which our lives are built and there is not shifting shadow or variation. When the waves comes, as Jesus spoke about, the house stands because the foundation is firm.

The truth is we all give in to the temptation to not rejoice because life’s circumstances distract us. We all shift our focus from the creator to created things. We move our eyes from the eternal to the temporary. We focus on circumstance rather than the cross. But there is forgiveness and grace. It is a great a glorious thing to repent and believe the gospel so that our eyes shift from the creation to the creator.

For how long and when should we rejoice?

Always…in reference to the conflict above, rejoicing like this cannot lead to being a backbiter or a gossip. One who rejoices in the lord will not become proud or filled with conceit. One who rejoices will be constant in prayer, constant is sharing the gospel, constant in all good things.

What Paul is declaring to us is this, focus on rejoicing in the Lord always, this is the greatest thing we can ever do. It is loving God first and best, it is glorifying the name of the Lord.

Be Known for Gentleness

The word gentleness refers to the opposite of self-seeking, the opposite of contentious spirit. It literally means self-effacing. It might be an over translation to call it self effacing, because that can lead to one being the center of attention, but we get the point Paul is making.

What is it that most people want to be known for?

good looks

quick wit

sense of humor

wealth

family ties

prayer life

skill as a teacher

hard worker

Scripture teaches that we should be known for gentleness.

Self sins are the easiest to pursue because each of us wants to be as important as God. We want to be known and recognized, so the call to gentleness goes against the way we are wired.

It is easy to be:

self righteous

full of self pity

self confident

self sufficient

self loving

egotistical

self promoting

In fact promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is so common most of us never notice it is happening.

The humbling thought in this verse is the idea that the Lord is near. The one who holds the highest position. Each of us can feel like hot stuff in what we are good at until someone truly great walks in the room. I can feel confident about my bible knowledge till any one of my seminary professors walks in the room. You can feel confident at your job until your boss walks in the room. When the greatest at something walks in you immediately relegate yourself to the position of self effacing because you are in the presence of true greatness and that is the case with God Himself.

You are always in His presence.

Don’t be Anxious but Learn to Pray

To aid in keeping conflict at bay and aid in our rejoicing, we must not be anxious about anything but learn to pray.

Paul is not saying that you will not face anxiety. Paul is not saying you cannot be diagnosed with anxiety. What is the root cause of not being anxious…God is near.

It is almost like our society and the Philippian churches circumstances demanded that we worry. For us, in particular, the amount of news, locally including neighborhood apps and city apps, national news, international news, bills, social media news, the radio, and tv…we are bombarded by everything. And what sells is what is scary, heart wrenching, and all the rest. Our current state of communications demand we worry about everything.

Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians Resolve Not to Be Anxious about Anything, but Learn Instead to Pray (4:6–7)

Pressures mount and surround us and bully us, until even the Christian who hears the injunction of this passage (“Do not be anxious about anything”) smiles half bitterly and mutters, “You don’t understand; it can’t be done.”

What we overlook is that Scripture here tells us how to overcome our anxieties. “Do not be anxious about anything” is not a naked prohibition; the alternative is immediately provided: “but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (4:6).

Those of us who have been born into the family of God know about these things. But knowing about them and finding them true in our experience are two different things. When was the last time you prayed explicitly and at length over the things that worry you, trouble you, plague you? Did you take them out and recount them to God, one by one, laying your burdens on him?

None of this should be misconstrued as a Pollyannish approach to life. Christians are not ostriches with heads carefully buried in the sand. None of this means that our paths will be smooth and edged with the sweetest smelling roses. There is no hint that we shall live above the pressures of other mortals by escaping them. Far from it. It is precisely in the context of the pressures we all must endure that we find our rest in God. If you worry little simply because Providence has so far blessed you with a relatively easy passage or if you worry little because you have a carefree personality, you know little of the truth of this passage. This passage does not deny the existence of anxieties, it tells us what to do with them. It does not tell us that if we have the right personality, we can live above tension; it tells us where we find strength and grace to help in times of need.

I have yet to meet a chronic worrier who enjoys an excellent prayer life.