Community is Work

Introduction

Review

It has been a while since we have been in Philippians. Let’s take a short minute to review what we have learned to this point.

Philippians is Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. The letter is one between close friends and full of exhortation, commendation, practical advice, and love. Paul has expressed his appreciation for the Philippians for their support and, also, the fact that Paul and the church are both undergoing persecution at the moment.

Paul reports that the Gospel is advancing and being preached in Rome and that brings him joy. He then goes into an aside where he describes his intense feelings of wanting to be with Christ but knowing that he has more to do on this Earth. He concludes by being obedient to stay and continue working with the Philippians in their progress and joy in the faith.

The verses we are considering today are part of a longer passage that starts at 1:27 and goes through 2:30. In 1:27 through 1:30 we saw the exhortation for the Philippians to live in a manner worthy of Christ. Living in unity of spirit and purpose and not frightened of those outside the church for suffering for Christ is as much a part of being a Christian as our faith in Christ has saved us.

Chapter 2 begins in the same vein. Verses 1 - 4 speak of unity in mind and love. Practically, the Philippians are encouraged to live in humility and consider the needs of others before their own. This leads into one of the most famous and beautiful passages of the New Testament - verses 5-11 - where Paul shows the Philippians the true meaning of humility. That meaning is found in Christ incarnated, dying on the cross, so that God would be glorified.

Up to this point, the ideas of obedience and working for the Kingdom have been present but hidden in the background. That brings us to today's passage where Paul makes them explicit. But, before we begin, I think this small tale from Charles Swindoll speaks to many who call themselves Christian.

Illustration

“Company President

Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, “Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip.”

Everyone agrees. He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess--weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, “What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?” You say, “Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ‘letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters.”

I think the president would then ask, “But what did you do about my instructions?” And, no doubt the employees would respond, “Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!””

Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 242

Obey

Our illustration is cute but it is also to the point. Just as that fictional company cannot survive and flourish without working to fulfill the CEO’s plans; so too, God’s Kingdom will not flourish in our lives without obedience to His will and working according to His plans.

Christ’s example

In the previous sermon, and in the verses immediately before these, we learned about the ultimate example of not only humility but also obedience and work. The Son of God, Jesus, was obedient to the Father and came to Earth to live as one of us. He was so obedient that he also died as one of us. His perfect obedience brought so much glory to the Father that now the Father has glorified him above all.

Though it is not made explicit in this letter, we know that Jesus did not come to sit cross-legged on a mountain top and dispense the wisdom of the ages. He did not come, as so many of our teachers do, to teach what he could not do. He came to work and do the will of the Father.

Manner of

After Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, Luke records Jesus announcing his ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth. There he read from Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,”

When John the Baptist questioned if Jesus was truly the Messiah what was Jesus response? Matthew 11:5 “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”

Jesus called twelve disciples by name to follow him, learn from him, and hear the words of God from him. There were many other disciples that followed Jesus whose names we do not know. But one thing we do know, all of what Jesus did was in obedience to his Father’s will. A will that was given to man throughout the Old Testament. A will that we abandoned in the Garden and run away from today.

Reasons for

In using Jesus life and death as the example of true obedience, Paul points out to the Philippians, and us, that we are called to no less. Jesus expected the original disciples to be obedient to God and to his teaching. We are not called to do more but we can do no less than our Savior. So many times we act as if we don’t know what we are to obey. Jesus stated it forthrightly in John 14:15-17 ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

And what are Jesus commandments?

John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

John 15:9-17 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

What did Jesus say was the greatest commandment?

Matthew 22:37-40 “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

The last words Jesus spoke to the disciples imply obedience.

Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

Work Out

In the Philippians’ lives

Something we will hear about later in Philippians is there is internal strife in the community. Not only are they facing opposition and persecution from unbelievers but they are dealing with fractures within the church. Paul tells them they not only need to be obedient but they need to work out the practical aspects of their salvation.

Now, this verse, Philippians 2:12 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” has been pulled out of context as a proof text for those who claim we must work for our own salvation. That, somehow, we must do our best and then let God do the rest in order to be justified before God. That is, most definitely, not Paul’s point.

Most modern commentaries look at this as Paul speaking to the entire church, not individuals. They are not called to work to save themselves but they are called to put their salvation into practice. James 2:17 “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” As with obedience, Christianity in community is a work of faith. In the context of what we have been studying Paul is asking the Philippians to be unified, to be humble, to put the needs of others before themselves (in the church), in short, to follow the example of Christ and his working.

Where Christ was God, Paul assures the Philippians that they are not alone in the work. As Jesus worked for God’s will and good pleasure, Paul tells Christians that God the Holy Spirit is working in them and through them for to give us the will and ability to work for God’s good pleasure. We are not on our own and we aren’t left to our own devices when it comes to working out the practical aspects of our salvation in community.

But whether Paul is speaking to individuals or the entire community we know that this obedience and work will not be successful without individual obedience and work.

In our lives

We are called to the same obedience and work as the Philippians. We are called to:

One mind, one spirit, striving for the faith.

Philippians 1:27 “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,”

One mind, one love, in humility

Philippians 2:2 “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

That one mind is the mind of Christ.

Philippians 2:5-8 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

We all know the silly stereotype of churches splitting over the color of the carpet. Silly or not, there is a reason for that stereotype. In our own day, pastors are fired for not speaking out about politics, or they are fired for making the wrong comments about politics, or they are fired for just mentioning politics. Church member are shunned and ostracized for any number of minor differences of opinion, lifestyle, dress, color, manner of speech, you name it. It doesn’t matter if it is politics or homelessness or vaccinations or taxes or insert your favorite soap box hobby horse here. What Paul is telling us, truthfully what God is telling us through Paul is that the kingdom is far more important than those things and we should spend our time and effort working for the Kingdom.

I have seen instances in the past few years of how this really works. In one instance, a church youth leader sent a text message that was far from Christian in its content to the youth of the church. The message was intended for an entirely different audience. Now, the person could have said, “Oops!” Sorry, didn’t mean to send that to the kids. Won’t do it again. And besides, that’s the way we talk at work so it’s really no big deal. Instead, he understood that in his position that type of language was unacceptable in any context; that he had betrayed the trust of the youth; that it was serious.

He humbly apologized to the church, stepped down from his leadership position, put himself into an accountability partnership, and, from what I understand, left the job he was in so to reduce the temptation and stress that caused him to use that language.

In another case I know a person that loves children. Actually, would prefer to be around children more than adults because children actually exhibit a childlike faith. However, a new family came to the church and felt uncomfortable with this person’s behavior around their children. We don’t know why they were uncomfortable but they were. They brought their concern to the pastor who had a talk with that person.

Now, these concerns were unfounded. The new family did not know that person well and did not see how they conducted themselves around children in order to preserve their innocence. They made no effort to approach the person and discuss their concerns with them. In today’s society even the hint of misconduct around children is enough to ruin a person’s life and ministry.

That person had every right to be upset; to protest their innocence; to push back on the family and point out their failures and mistakes in how they handled the situation. They would have been fully justified in the eyes of the world and other Christians to exhibit righteous indignation and anger.

Instead, that person took the advice of the pastor. Humbly thought of the needs, real or imagined, of the new family and changed their behavior patterns and their contact with children so that family would feel safe.

In either case none of this was easy, none of it was without pain and heartache, none of it was without the thoughts of what about me and my rights! But both instances are small examples of what Paul says in Philippians about obedience, working out our salvation, and the manner in which we do so.

Conclusion

Next week we will look at the byproducts of living in obedience and working out our salvation in community. Today we all must ask ourselves, “Where do I fail at this?” “Where do I let the concerns of the world and the society around me take the place that belongs to God and His Kingdom?” It doesn’t matter if it’s a marriage, a family, a church, a school, a business. Where ever there are Christians in community that takes precedence over any consideration of the world around us. God’s Kingdom will not flourish in our lives without obedience to His will and working according to His plans..