Zachary Peters

Philippians 2:1–4

We are in the book of Philippians. We have worked our way through chapter one, and now we are in chapter two. Hopefully, if you were paying attention two weeks ago, you remember that chapters one and two are connected. Paul is shifting from a focus on himself to the Philippian church and its problems, and he is issuing a command. If you got a chance to listen to last week’s message on Facebook, it is there—about twenty minutes—so go listen to it. But in short, Paul is commanding us to fight the temptation to let internal strife keep us from being who God wants us to be. We fight that primarily through humility and through service to one another. We use humility and the conviction that other people matter as tools to unify us against the drama that so often embroils a church and keeps it from functioning as it should.

I am not going to repeat last week perfectly, but this is essentially a continuation of what we have been covering. Paul has told the Philippians to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, and for Paul, that means living in unity, living with humility, living with a servant’s heart, and putting aside selfish ambition and conceit. With that, let’s read.

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 more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:1–4 (ESV)

Paul is saying: if what I have been preaching about over the past chapter and a couple of verses is true—and it is true—then finish my joy. Finish this process by putting away the selfish ambition and conceit that is creating division inside the Philippian church. Ask God for humility. Ask God to help you change your mindset and arrive at a powerful unity that grows this church. That, in a nutshell, is what we talked about last week.

I purposely left a good bit of material on the table, knowing I wanted to work through some of it with you in person. We are not going to dig line by line the way we normally do—I did that last week.

There was a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer—maybe you have heard of him. He was famous for several things. He wrote a couple of great books while he was still very young, but the thing he is most famous for is standing up to Nazi Germany when much of the church would not. He was imprisoned and eventually executed by the Nazi regime for standing up for what was right.

Bonhoeffer did a good deal of thinking about the practicalities of what Paul teaches here and of what Jesus teaches when He says, “Whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all.” That word slave is well chosen, because it is meant to stand out. No one wants to be a slave, and yet we are called to be slaves to the gospel.

It is that attitude that combats the destructive selfishness that can rise up in a church. Paul commands us, in the face of this temptation, to be humble and to look out for one another. But practically, what does that mean? What does it mean to be humble, to look out for others, to put others before yourself, to put away selfish ambition and conceit? In his book Life Together, Bonhoeffer gives us seven phrases that put practicality to Paul’s command. Christians should:

1. Hold Their Tongues

Christians should hold their tongues, refusing to speak uncharitably about a Christian brother or sister. James 4:11 says, “Do not speak evil against one another.” Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths”—a general principle, but one that certainly applies to how we treat each other in a church. And James 5:9 says, “Do not grumble against one another.”

Do not let negative talk or negative gossip thrive in this church. Cut it off. Do not be a part of it. Walk away. And if you have the boldness, tell someone else to shut it down when they bring it up—with love and truth, of course. Just because a piece of gossip might be true does not make it right. I have always heard the strange argument that it is not gossip if it is true. Yes, it is. It is not your job to talk to someone else about another person’s problem. Go to that person directly, or go with a pastor or an elder. That is how you deal with it. What happens in a church is not ammunition for entertaining conversation.

This bothers me, and maybe it is an every-church kind of thing: we will look at the sins of the world—we will look at this sin and that sin and rightly understand they have no place—and yet we can be riddled with gossip inside the church, which is just as much a sin. Do not let gossip become a poison that damages the unity of a church.

2. Cultivate Humility

Christians should cultivate the humility that comes from understanding that they, like Paul, are the greatest of sinners and can live in God’s sight only by His grace. In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul calls himself the chief of sinners—the worst of the worst. Romans 3:23 tells us all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Ephesians 2:8–9 reminds us we are saved by grace and not by works; we need something outside ourselves to lift us up out of the miry pit, to borrow the language of the King James Version.

So think about what Paul is saying about himself. Consider who Paul is, what he accomplished, what he teaches—and yet he has the humility to call himself the worst. If Paul says that about himself, what should we think about ourselves? This is not about being negative toward yourself; it is about being grounded. Take this the right way: it is grounding to know that Hitler, had he been saved, would have needed the same grace I received. There are real, practical differences between Hitler and me—but at the end of the day, to have a relationship with the Savior, we both would have needed the same grace. That is humbling.

You are not perfect, and neither am I. This puts us on a level playing field, and it builds unity. Just because I am the pastor does not mean I am better than you. Just because someone has been saved longer does not make them better than you. I might not understand your struggle or your failure, but I certainly understand the need for grace, because I need it in my own life. That lets us walk hand in hand, even when we come from different places, because we share the same grace.

3. Listen Long and Patiently

Christians should listen long and patiently, so that they will understand their fellow Christians’ needs. James 1:19 tells us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Proverbs 18:13 says that to answer before listening is folly and shame.

My wife, Tara, does this naturally. She is a gifted listener. People will talk and talk and talk, and she will listen and listen and listen. I will get up, go do something, come back, and she is still listening. It is a gift. It is not that I do not care about people’s struggles—it is that I lack patience. We have to grow to a maturity where we patiently listen to other people.

You might say this is the difference between hearing and listening: one is passive, and one is active. I can hear everything my wife says, but am I listening? Let’s be people who take the time to listen, so we can understand what others are going through and how we might help or guide them. We may have walked a similar road. But first we have to listen.

4. Refuse to Be Too Important to Be Interrupted

Christians should refuse to consider their time and calling so valuable that they cannot be interrupted to help with unexpected needs, no matter how small or menial. Luke 10:30–37 is the story of the Good Samaritan. A man is beaten by robbers, and the important people pass by—too busy, or unwilling to be bothered. Finally, a Samaritan stops. Remember that Jews and Samaritans did not get along, and yet the Samaritan takes the time to serve the hurting and the broken. Galatians 6:2 tells us to carry each other’s burdens.

Pray that we are not annoyed when people need help, but that we enjoy the chance to serve. Now, I am not asking you to get fired from your job to go serve—you have responsibilities. I am not telling you to leave your spouse at home with the kids and all the housework so you can run off and serve; serve your family first. But take joy in serving. How good is it that we can help each other? Fight the knee-jerk reaction when you are busy, and someone asks for help—the inward groan of oh, not again. Instead: God, thank you for letting me do this for my brother, for my sister. That attitude builds a unity we can use to do good things for the kingdom. And to be clear, while some of this applies to life in general, I am specifically talking about how we treat one another in the church.

5. Bear One Another’s Burdens

Christians should bear the burden of their brothers and sisters in the Lord—both by preserving their freedom and by forgiving their sinful abuse of that freedom. Galatians 5:1: for freedom Christ has set us free. Galatians 6:1: restore gently. Colossians 3:13: forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Romans 15:1, The strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak.

Again, this is about the church—not the world or the workplace, but the people we are connected to inside this body. There is a liberty we have simply by being created by God, which covers one hundred percent of the population. And when you are saved, there is an even greater liberty on top of that. Fight for that liberty. Celebrate it. Help other people walk in it. But also know that some people will misuse that freedom. They will make mistakes—just as you have made mistakes. Forgive them, help them, and let them keep walking in freedom.

Romans 15:1 is powerful to me because it acknowledges that churches have varying levels of maturity within them. Think of our children, who are not as mature or capable as we are. What if we gave up on them every time they made a mistake, instead of patiently teaching them? It is the same in the church. When we have young Christians who are not yet living up to the freedom they have, our job is to lift them up—not to tear them down or hold them back—so that in five or ten years they are ready to help the people coming up behind them. It is a process.

6. Declare God’s Word to One Another

Christians should declare God’s word to their fellow believers when they need to hear it. 2 Timothy 4:2: preach the word, in season and out. Ephesians 4:15: speak the truth in love. Proverbs 27:6: wounds from a friend can be trusted.

One of the most meaningful things that happened in the days after I lost my brother came from the group my wife and I were part of in college, Campus Choir. She was not my wife then, but we were both in it. They sent me a stack of seventy-five to a hundred note cards, each one with a Scripture written on it by someone in that group. On those lonely nights, I sat on the couch and read through those cards over and over. Did it make the tears go away? No. Did it make the discomfort go away? No. But I appreciated and loved it, and it made a difference. Those cards sat on the end table at my parents’ house for years. I do not know where they are now, but I know my mom went through them again and again, reading those encouraging words.

It does not have to be as dramatic or as painful as that. It can be a simple word of godly wisdom as you work through something at your job, or as you figure out how to discipline your child, or a word of encouragement in the middle of a really bad day—because we all have those days. And to share the word of God, you have to know the word of God. That is the double challenge: how can you share something straight from God and from the Holy Spirit if you do not know it yourself? Declare the word of the Lord to one another, and see what happens.

7. Lead Through Service

Finally, Christians should understand that Christian authority is characterized by service and does not call attention to the person performing the service. Pay attention to this one. Mark 10:42–45 ends with Jesus declaring that whoever wants to be greatest must be a servant, and that the Son of Man came to serve. Matthew 6:1–4 warns us not to practice our righteousness to be seen—Jesus is teaching about prayer, fasting, and giving, and in each case He warns that these actions are meaningful only when done for the right reason. John 13:12–15 records Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, which was typically done by a household slave.

When I think back over my life, I think of all the problems born out of people handling their authority—assumed authority, and sometimes even God-given authority—in the wrong way. Here is the thing: some people go their whole lives without ever experiencing any measure of authority. Not at home, not at work, not growing up, not on a team or in a classroom. Then the moment they are handed a little piece of authority, it goes to their heads, and they misuse it, because they do not understand what authority is really for. Unfortunately, this happens in the church all the time, often from the very people who should be trusted and respected—pastors, leaders, Sunday school teachers, elders, council members.

Authority is not a bad word. I am not one of those people who believe power always corrupts absolutely. There is nothing inherently wrong with having authority. But you have to acknowledge the temptation to use it selfishly, because that temptation is real and has certainly hurt the church. When we look at the authority of Jesus, He was not a pushover—but He used His authority to serve. That was the function of His authority: not to lord over people, even though He is Lord, but to serve.

A bonus thought for the husbands. Ephesians 5:23 calls you the head of the wife—the head of your household, the authoritative figure. So maybe the homework is this: go home, and at some point soon, whether physically or metaphorically, wash your wife’s feet as a symbol that your authority is fixated on serving others. I do not want to see your work. I am not saying you are not the boss—you are, and you set the standard for service in your home. As the pastor of this church, I have a level of authority too. I hope I always use it to serve, never to make it about my personality, my dreams, or my desires. That stuff is trash. I am here for you. Parents, you are the authority in your children’s lives—serve them in a way that brings glory and honor to the gospel. I cannot tell you exactly how that looks in every situation; you have to work that out. But I do know we have to serve. If Jesus served, we serve.

Drawing and Pouring: The Kind of Church We Want to Be

These seven things are the tools of humility we need in the church. Do not talk about people, and do not entertain it when others do. Listen to people. Serve people. Understand that you exist for other people. Understand that you are not perfect—you have received grace, so you have to give it. Understand the power of freedom, and the fact that people will misuse it, so help them. Understand that, because we are human, there will be human struggle in a church—and these are some of the tools we use to walk through it. There is more we could mention, but these are practical ways to walk through church life humbly and with a focus on others.

I said this last week, and I know not everyone heard it, so I will say it again. If I walked into this room every Sunday or into one of our small group studies with the mindset that I am only here to receive, that would be a one-sided equation: I take, and everyone else gives. And if all of us walked in like that—take, take, take; consume, consume, consume—the equation would not work. The challenge Paul gives us in this passage is to walk into church ready to serve others. If I walk in ready to serve you, and you walk in ready to serve me, then we will both be served.

Think of the church like a water well. The goal is not for everyone to draw at the same time, but for some to draw while others pour in. If we all carry that mindset, the church will grow and be healthy. The fear I have heard people express is this: Pastor, if I am so fixated on serving others, who is going to take care of me and what I want? The reality is that if we all come in with this mindset, there is plenty of service to go around. That is the kind of church I want to be.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You. Thank You for Your sacrifice, for Your humility, for the fact that You did not come merely to lord over us in Your power, Your might, Your majesty, and Your authority. You came in humility to serve. I pray that You would give us that same attitude through Your Holy Spirit. Help us to be aware, to fight the urge toward disunity, to fight the selfish desires and the little things that crop up in any human group—and especially in a church, where we all have different preferences and ideas and come from different circumstances. Lord, help us fight the things that try to tear us down and rip us apart, so that we would be unified in service to one another and in humility, putting away selfish ambition and conceit and picking up Your example. Let us take joy in the ability to serve, and in the privilege of having one another. Lead us, guide us, and take care of us. I pray that every person walks out of this room blessed. In Jesus’ name, amen.