The passage for May is Philippians 2:1-11:
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
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.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)
If you are new to this reading plan, follow the instructions on the right side of this page or click here to read the "Why Just One Letter" introduction article.
Throughout each month, we will post short articles to give some depth of understanding regarding our text (see the archive links on the lower right of this page for review). Today we will discuss...
The Big IF
The Apostle Paul has a lot of love for the church in Philippi. In chapter one he calls them Saints, Brothers, Partners and Partakers of Grace.
And with all of that confidence, Paul begins this next section with the word IF as a starting point for all that he is going to encourage the Philippians to do and as a starting point for everything he is going to tell them NOT to do.
And it's not, "if you get a chance to do these things..." or, "if it's not too much trouble, you might consider..."
No, the idea of what Paul is about to say is, "If You Are Christians..."
Is Paul saying that some of the people in the Philippians church might NOT be Christians? Is he questioning the truth of their confession of faith?
Maybe. There are other Bible passages that would cause any serious reader to investigate their heart after reading. For example, Paul writes to a church in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and directs them to:
"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (ESV)
And Peter, writing to whom he assumes are the elect gives them a command, but then reminds them that the command can really only be for genuine believers:
"So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 2:1-3 ESV)
And even our Lord Jesus warned against false assurance, saying that to enter the Kingdom of God, our righteousness must be greater than the most outwardly righteous people of that day (Matthew 5:20). That only happens by faith in Jesus as our righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). We cannot bring enough good into the equation on our own, not even with a bunch of religious activity. That's why Jesus warns:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’" (Matthew 7:21-23 ESV)
So, it is not unusual for the Scriptures to give us those kind of heart-checks. And while I do think it is good for every person to examine their heart and assure that they are placing their faith in Jesus' work on their behalf, I don't see this passage in Philippians to be that kind of warning text.
Instead, I think Paul is giving us a reminder of Jesus as fuel to keep us going before giving a command that is IMPOSSIBLE to fully follow without Jesus.
We'll examine the commands more throughout the month, but let's list them here and then just honestly ask how easy any of these are for you to consistently follow through with everyone in the church, and (where it applies) in the community you are a part of (this would also be a helpful topic to discuss with another Christian)...
— be like minded
— have Christ-like love for others
— live in agreement and unity
— don't do anything because of selfishness
— don't do anything out of pride
— consider others as more significant than yourself
— don't only look out for your own interests, but the interests of others
If you could place these commands upon any marriage, any church family or any community or nation's daily life, you could single-handedly bring peace and flourishing. However, when you look at any marriage, church family, community or nation, you see that we don't follow these commands.
Why, because they are impossible.
Impossible IF we do not keep Jesus as our central focus and motivation.
But, if IF!
IF there is any encouragement that you can hold onto because of Jesus' sacrificial life and death for you...
IF you have been comforted by the love of Christ for YOU...
IF you are submitting to and being guided by (participating in) the Holy Spirit's work in YOU...
IF the affection that Jesus demonstrated for you is spilling out as affection FROM YOU to others...
IF you can sympathetically look on other lost people like Jesus sympathetically looks at YOU...
IF all of that, then the commands will not be so hard.
Can you imagine your marriage, your church, your community, or your nation IF you simply tried to reflect Jesus' love for YOU unto others and if they did the same in response?
The truth is, in this broken world, we cannot expect a Christ-like response from non-believers. But we should be able to expect it from the church - and from our spouse (if we are married to a believer). Paul thought it was possible, by God, in Philippi. It is possible, by God, in Warsaw.
And as far as the not-yet-believers around us (in our home, in our community, in our workplaces, and in our nation)... as far as it is up to us, we can treat them with love, Christian encouragement, affection and sympathy as we are guided by the Holy Spirit.
IF Jesus is in You, Then take Him into every relationship He places you in today.
