Philippians 2:1-4

Philippians 2:1-4

Put People In Their Place!

I.                    If we’re united together in Christ, we must be united together by Him in life; that means we must live out who we are in Him (Vv. 1-2)

a.       For the church to stand firm and work together to live an existence worthy of the gospel and be properly oriented towards others in the world, we must be united together in Christ by living out our identity in Him. So Paul says “if” or really “since I’m certain it’s true”, you’ve experienced Christ in these ways, then you must express this reality in your lives. (v. 1)

1.       Encouragement in Christ—No matter what circumstance we face we know that Christ comes alongside us, never leaving us, reassuring us He’s all we need.

2.       Consolation of Christ’s love—Christ’s love comforts us because it’s extended even when we don’t deserve it and can’t earn it. We must extend undeserved and unearned love to others even when they don’t extend it to us.

3.       Fellowship in the Spirit—We are supernaturally united with God in Christ and united together as believers in His body through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. 

4.       Affection and Compassion in Christ—Jesus expressed His emotional love and compassion over His friends and those who rejected Him. He feels compassion for us in our sin and difficulties, so we must feel the same compassion towards others.

b.       Paul says that when the Philippians express these things in their lives that his joy will be filled to the brim simply because God’s people will be united in Him and for Him! Expressing these realities of Christ must also inform our pursuit of the completion of joy. (v. 2)

1.       Being of the same mind—We must share the same objective, not the exact same thoughts and opinions. The objective is unity, not uniformity.

2.       Maintaining the same love—The love of Christ is self-sacrificial and loves the unlovely. We must love others the way Christ loves us, especially when they’re unlovely.

3.       United in spirit—Not free from differences, but committed to reconciliation, agreeing on the main thing, the Person and work of Jesus Christ.

4.       Intent on one purpose—Our hearts must be set on one thing above all else, seeking God’s greatest glory on earth, making disciples of all nations.

c.       In order to live joyfully, peacefully, purposefully, fruitfully, and united, we must live out who we are in Christ by understanding and expressing our identity in Him in our lives. (Vv. 1-2; Prov. 18:24; Matt. 9:36; 28:18-20; Luke 23:34; John 12:35; 13:34-35; 14:16; 1 Cor. 2:14-16; 3:16; 6:19; 12:12-13; 2 Cor. 1:3-7; Eph. 4:1-6; Heb. 13:5b-6; Jas. 4:1-3; 1 John 4:19-21)

II.                 If we’re united together in Christ, we must be united together by Him in life; that means we must put others before ourselves (Vv. 3-4)

a.       Paul describes how we practically live out who we are in Christ to build unity in His body and glorify Him in the world through a series of negative and positive statements about selfishness and selflessness. Negatively we must not be motivated by promoting ourselves and building our own importance, or seeking our own interests, which usually means tearing others down and either ignoring or exploiting their interests for personal gain. This approach never satisfies, and produces polarity not unity. Positively, we must be motivated from an attitude of humility. We must see ourselves as God sees us, as imperfect and sinful, but valuable, loved, and worth sacrificing Himself for to restore. Humility is not thinking less of yourself it’s thinking of yourself less, and seeking to increase Jesus in your life and the world. Doing that requires us to regard others as more important than ourselves by making a calculated and continual effort to put others before ourselves at home, work, school, church, and everywhere else. We must regard others as more important than ourselves with our thoughts, words, and actions, especially in our responses to how they think, speak, and act towards us. That means we must not look out for just our own interests, but also pay careful attention to examine and intentionally notice the other’s interests. This applies both to how we treat others in the body of Christ and others in the world. He says we have to put people in their place! But that place is before ourselves. By doing this we exemplify Christ in the world, free ourselves from the burden of selfishness, and free ourselves to experience joy, peace, purpose, fruitfulness, and unity. (Vv. 3-4; Ps. 73:1-28; Isa. 6:1-8; 66:2; Matt. 7:1-5, 12; 20:25-28; 25:31-46; John 3:30; 5:44; 13:1-17; 15:4-5, 8-13; Rom. 12:1-21; 15:1-2; 1 Cor. 4:7; 9:19-23; Gal. 2:20; 5:13-23; 6:1-10; 1 Pet. 5:6-11)