there tonight please turn with me to the book of Philippians, the book of Philippians and chapter 2. And we start tonight with our first message in chapter 2, having done 6 in chapter 1, Philippians chapter 2 and we're looking tonight at the theme of The joy of true unity. We do have a worksheet there available if you need one, raise your hand. Okay, brother Dan over here, sister Christina here, brother Ferguson here. If you don't want to use it, you don't have to. I just, I hope, my hope and prayer is that it might encourage note-taking and help keep your brain engaged with the message and hopefully you'll get a little bit more out of it that way as well. Philippians chapter 2 and we're just going to read the first four verses tonight and then we'll get into the message for this evening. The Bible reads, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bows and mercies. Fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the Word of God tonight. We thank you for the privilege of being able to open it and to study it together. We ask now, Lord, that you would breathe your life and blessing into our moments together. Lord, just strengthen our hearts, our tired bodies, our minds, Lord, that we might be able to receive from your word this evening and we pray for your blessing upon it now in Jesus' name and for his sake, Amen. This really flows on from our last Philippians message last Sunday night. You remember we really honed in on the theme of unity because Paul exhorted them back in chapter 1 there to be striving together for the faith of the gospel. so in chapter 2 he really continues on with that theme of the need for the believers to be united together but he's going to steer their hearts towards the theme of having the mind of Christ and Philippians chapter 2 contains one of the most powerful or Christological passages in the New Testament, a wonderful description of Christ and his exaltation and then his humility in coming to the earth. And the whole point, of course, is to impress upon the minds of the reader, of the readers, the importance of having the mindset of Christ, He who is exalted, yet humbled Himself. We should also humble ourselves. And so, we will, Lord willing, in our next lesson, get into that passage of that we've been memorizing, verses five to 11, but tonight we just want to deal with these first four verses in chapter two. And it does appear, as you read and study the book of Philippians, that there was a threat to the unity of the church. You pick that up by the exhortations that Paul refers to a number of times, seeking to unite the believers together. And it appears that there was a twofold threat to the unity of the church. Firstly, there was false teachers coming in from without, so we could say there was a threat to the unity of the church from without because Paul warns about that in chapter 3 and verse 1, finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord and then verse 2, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. So there was a threat to the unity of the church from false doctrine coming in from without but then there was a threat to the unity from disagreeing members within and that's well, that's where the two sources of disunion tend to come from, don't they? It's either false doctrine coming in from without or maybe, you know, the devil stirring up people from within. So Paul clearly is addressing this problem. We know that Udais and Syntyche were involved there somewhere in the disunion and Paul writes his letter to encourage them in the Lord, to encourage them to rejoice in the Lord, but along the way he is clearly dealing with a unity problem. So in chapter 1, we saw that Christ was to be our life, didn't we? Christ our life, we could say, was the theme of chapter 1. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Well, if we wanted to pick a theme for chapter 2, we could say, Christ our mind. All right, Christ our life, chapter 1. Christ our mind, chapter 2. So important, isn't it, that we have the right mindset. that we have the mind of Christ dictating our thoughts and guiding our attitudes. So let's look at this theme of unity tonight and we see that this unity is connected to joy because Paul says in verse 2, So when there is genuine unity in the church, when there's genuine unity amongst God's people, that brings joy doesn't it? So, let's consider that under four headings tonight. Number one, the provisions for church unity in verse one, the provisions for church unity in verse one. Give credit where credit's due, the main points of this outline are my brother's, he's doing a series on Philippians as well, so I just borrowed that outline and then came up with my own sub points tonight. The provisions for church unity, remember Glenn Weeks saying once, he said, people say, is it okay to use someone else's material and being an ex-Vietnam War vet, he said, it's not a problem as long as it fits your gun, he said. okay to use someone else's material as long as it fits your gun. So there you go, this one I felt it fitted my gun so we'll use it. Okay, the provisions for church unity. We see that church unity is possible because of the provisions that we have in Christ. If there be therefore any consolation in who? In Christ. If any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies. Now let me just explain for a moment the word if. In English, the word if presents a scenario where it may or may not be true. But sometimes you find in the Bible, the word if is used in the sense of almost like since. So in Colossians 3 it says, if ye be risen with Christ, you are, essentially, if you be risen with Christ, it's a statement of reality, seek those things which are above. And we see that the word if used that way a number of times in the New Testament and it's reflecting its usage in the Greek. If can sometimes actually be a statement of fact or a statement of assumption, he's assuming that this is true. Theodore Epp explains it well, he says in English, So one could read this verse, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, and there is, so that's the implication, or because there is consolation in Christ. Because these four conditions are true in a believer's life, they become the fountainhead for the four flowing streams of actions. So he's saying, if there be any consolation, there is, if any comfort of love, and I assume there is, if any fellowship of the Spirit, and I assume there is, if any bowels and mercies, and there is, fulfill you my joy that ye be like-minded.' You say, well why does Paul employ the word if here? Well I think it gives it a certain thought-provoking quality doesn't it? makes you think, if there be any consolation in Christ. And as you think about it you say, yes there is. As I think about my life as a believer, is there consolation in Christ? Yes there is. Comfort of love, am I comforted in the love of God? Yes there is. If any bowels and mercies and so on. So it has that quality of making us think and to examine ourselves and to consider what God is doing in our lives. Now Paul outlines in this verse four resources that we have in Christ that make unity possible and so this verse is very foundational to his command that will follow. He's saying, by virtue of the fact that you have these resources, then you should be able to fulfil my joy by being like-minded. So let me give them to you briefly, there's four of them. The first one is consolation in Christ. Now the word consolation is made up, it's a compound word made up of two words, para meaning beside and kaleo, to call. So to call to one's side. We have reference in the New Testament, don't we, to the comforter, the paracletos, the one who calls alongside, the one who encourages, the one who comforts. So consolation has the idea of encouragement, of comfort and solace. In fact, it's often translated comfort in the New Testament, this same word, Acts 9 31, Romans 15 4, 2 Corinthians 1 4. Now, by the way, when I refer to other translations of the same word in the New Testament, I'm not doing that to cast doubt on how the King James translators translated it in this passage, okay? Just to clarify, in case you're wondering, I'm simply using the King James to give you a good understanding of how that word has different shades of meaning and that's where you find the The KJV has almost an inbuilt dictionary if you can learn how to do word studies, you can see okay this one word was translated these five different ways and it gives you the full picture of the meaning in that Greek word, it's very useful. But they've picked the right word here of course, consolation is something that refers to comfort and to assurance, it's a very powerful word. We use the word, don't we, when we talk about consoling someone? Can you please console that individual or so-and-so was a blessing, they helped, you know, he helped console this person. So to console someone is to bring comfort, isn't it, into their lives. And Webster's dictionary defines the word consolation as comfort, alleviation of misery or distress of mind, refreshment of mind or spirits. Now what kind of consolation is in view here? Well it's consolation in Christ. there be any consolation in Christ. And there is if you're saved, isn't there? Isn't there comfort? Isn't there assurance in the Lord Jesus Christ? If you know Him as your Saviour, that brings tremendous comfort to you, doesn't it? Think about it, God is called the Father of all comfort, the Holy Spirit is called the Comfortor and salvation is called, in 2 Thessalonians 2.16, an everlasting consolation. If you're saved, you have an everlasting consolation. That's assurance, isn't it? Isn't it wonderful tonight to know that if you're saved, you're saved forever? Isn't it wonderful to know tonight if you have Christ as your Savior, you can never lose that, that you are His and His forever? Doesn't that bring consolation? Doesn't that bring stability and solace and joy and strengthening to our lives? Absolutely. But what's Paul getting to here? Well, he's saying, well, if that quality exists in your life, then you should be able to be unified. Then secondly, comfort of love. You say, well, what's the difference between the word comfort and consolation? Well, there's not a huge amount of difference in their core meaning, but here we have the word love attached to it, the comfort of love. So we have consolation or comfort in the person of Christ, then we have comfort of love. It's another shade of comfort that we have from the Lord. This is the love of God, isn't it? The love of God is that constant source of comfort for the believer. and it is the love of God, isn't it, that is the glue that binds the hearts of believers together in the local church. Thirdly, communion of the Spirit. Communion of the Spirit, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit. we encounter the word fellowship back in chapter 1 and verse 5. It says back there in chapter 1 and verse 5, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. So the word fellowship, we've talked about that, it comes from the word koinonia and it denotes a sharing, a holding something in common. It means a joint participation in a common interest and activity. So fellowship is deeper, Christian fellowship is deeper than the fellowship the world enjoys. The world can have fellowship in the sense of, you know, they chat and have a bit of a cup of coffee together and that's a part of Christian fellowship, it's good to be able to eat a meal together like they did in the New Testament times and that kind of thing but Christian fellowship goes deeper than that, it's the fellowship of the Spirit This is something the Spirit of God does in uniting our hearts in love one for another, but also uniting our hearts in that joint participation in a common interest. It's the Spirit of God that welds our hearts together and moves us towards the goal of the Christian life, to honour Christ and to share his word and to present the gospel to the lost. So, Paul and the Philippians experienced a fellowship in the gospel, chapter 1 verse 5, they experienced a fellowship in grace, talks about being a partaker of grace in chapter 1 verse 7, fellowship in the Holy Spirit, chapter 2 verse 1, fellowship in the sufferings of Christ, Chapter 3, verse 10, and also fellowship in giving. So Christian fellowship is more than just a cup of tea together, amen? It's the Spirit of God uniting us together in love but also urging us and moving us towards common goals, scriptural goals, and working together for the glory of God. So unity is really a work of the Spirit, isn't it? In surrendered hearts, the surrendered hearts of the believers. Evidently, some in the Philippian church were not living spirit-filled lives and that's a challenge to us. If we're not walking in unity then that would indicate we're not living spirit-filled lives. So true unity is something that the Spirit of God works from within as opposed to a uniformity that is pushed on us from without. You know there's a difference between unity and uniformity. Uniformity is the result of outward pressure, trying to make everybody look uniform. Unity is something that starts on the inside, it's the work of the Spirit of God binding us together, that's something that's genuine, that's what we want, don't we? True spiritual unity, not just an outward uniformity with no substance behind it, no heart. Fourthly, fourth resource, the provisions for unity, compassion of heart. compassion of heart, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels and mercies. We have two sides to brotherly compassion in this compound phrase, bowels and mercies. The bowels referred literally in those times to the intestines or to the inner organs like the heart, the lungs and the liver and over time the word came to speak of the affections, the heart or the seat of the affections. This same word is translated tender mercies, Colossians 3.12. Inward affection, 2 Corinthians 7.5. Bows of mercies, Colossians 3.12. And bows of compassion, 1 John 3.17. Then he uses the word mercy. So you say, what's the difference between bowels and mercies? Well, we could say bowels refers to the inner state of the heart. Mercies are the outward expression of that inner compassion. Okay, so you could say the bowels refer to the state of the heart, the inner heart condition. Mercies, plural, are the outward acts of mercy that are caused by that inner concern. So, we've experienced that in salvation, haven't we? We've experienced the tender mercies of God and if you've experienced the tender mercies of God and the compassion of God, then you should be able to, by God's grace, extend mercy and compassion to others in the local church and that will help you, that'll help unity, won't it? So there's the four resources, there's the provisions for unity. We have the provisions in Christ there to draw on in order for us to be a unified people. We have the consolation in Christ. We have the comfort of the love of God. We have the communion of the spirit, fellowship of the spirit, and then we have compassion of heart, something that God will work in us and through us as we allow him. That brings us secondly now to the plea for church unity in verse two. So we have the provisions for church unity in verse one, now the plea for church unity in verse two. Look at the personal in the plea. There's something personal in what Paul says here because he says, fulfill ye, whose joy? My joy. word for fill here means to fill full, to fill full or to complete. So Paul is not saying I don't have any joy, I need you to fill me right up with joy, he's saying I've already got a lot of joy essentially but it would really top it off for me, if you would be a unified people it would fill it to the full. would bring it right up there, we could say it would fill the cup to the top of Paul's joy. Paul was clearly already joyful in Christ, we can see that from what we've covered so far, but he says if there's consolation in Christ, and there should be if you're believers, if there's comfort of love and there should be if you're believers, If there's fellowship of the Spirit, and bows and mercies, and there should be if you're believers, then please fulfill my joy, fill it to the full, bring it up to overflowing by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.' And this desire that's in the heart of Paul is really a reflection of the desire of God, isn't it? God is working in the Apostle's heart to write this and so clearly Paul's desire for them to be unified is God's desire, it's God's desire reflected through the Apostle Paul and so we should take this to heart. God wants a unified people, something he wants in his Church. Fulfill ye my joy, bring my joy up to the top. Isn't unity in the church a blessed thing? Doesn't it bring joy? Isn't it a wonderful thing? You can understand why the Word of God says in Psalm 133 verse 1, Do you know what the word pleasant means? It means delightful. A delightful thing, a pleasant thing. It's a good thing for God's people to be unified. disunity in the church produces the complete opposite to joy, doesn't it? You ever been in a church when there's division going on? Carnal division? Splits? Factions? The joy just tends to disappear out of the church, doesn't it? It's unpleasant. You can cut the air with a knife. I was speaking to a pastor friend once, this is a number of years back, and he said, you know, he said they'd been through, just been through the the ringer with these people in the church that were causing all sorts of problems and trying to tear the pastor to pieces, but very faithful man, been very consistent over the years and just faithful servant of the Lord. And he said, he said, you know, it's really hard as a pastor, he said, you know, your wife, he said, my wife and I, we get in the car and we drive to church and we feel like we're driving into a battle zone every Sunday. And, you know, the temptation to throw in the towel and to quit. And so you can understand why Paul's saying, fulfil you my joy, be like-minded. What joy it brings to the preacher when he can preach to a unified people. What joy it brings to the pastor when the church is in a state of unity, and not just to the pastor, to the members as well. If you've been a member for any length of time, you know the kind of, how grievous division can be in the church. you know what it's like to sit through a service where the liberty's gone, where someone's sitting there and sour and they're angry and there's no joy in the service and there's division, that's why Paul says, fulfil you my joy, be like-minded. So there's a personal aspect to this plea. But look now, the practical in the plea, Paul gets very practical here in verse 2, fulfil you my joy, that's personal, that ye be like-minded. having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. So, the Apostle Paul exhorts them to have two things, essentially. Firstly, he exhorts them to have the same mind. And this concept is expressed in three phrases, or three words. He uses the word like-minded, He uses the phrase one accord and then one mind, so essentially that theme of having one, the same mind, one mind. Let's look at each of those briefly, we have the word like-minded, literally means to think the same thing. This same word, you find it over in chapter 4 verse 2, you might like to look at it, in the same book here, Philippians chapter 4 verse 2, he says, I beseech Judaeus and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. That phrase, same mind, comes from the exact same word translated back here in chapter 2, like-minded. So to be like-minded means to be of the same mind. This is unity of belief, isn't it? unity of doctrine, having the same mind. Now I think we all understand that there are things of a minor nature of opinion that we can exercise grace over. In fact, the Bible even highlights some of those in Romans 14. They're conscience matters, observance of days and dietary laws are not to be matters of judgment between believers, they're matters of conscience. there's always going to be a category of those things that fall into the realm of a matter of personal conscience, personal conviction, but we do need to be on the same page, we need to be of the same mind, don't we, when it comes to the Word of God. And that's the thing, we're not talking here tonight about a unity that is disconnected from the truth, we're talking about a unity that is based on the truth, that's true unity. Spurgeon once wisely said this, he says, it is not likely we should all see eye to eye. You cannot make a dozen watches all tick to the same time, much less make a dozen men all think the same thoughts. But still, if we should all bow our thoughts to that one written word, and would own no authority but the Bible, the church could not be divided, could not be cut in pieces as she now is. That's true, isn't it? This is where we all bow at the bar of Scripture. Amen? That's where we all bow the knee. We can have our little opinions and little preferences about things that are not clear doctrine and not clearly spelled out in the Word of God. We can have some little differences along the way, but when it comes to this book, there can't afford to be any differences. That's where we bow the knee. That's where we all submit. And when we all submit to this book, guess what happens? Unity. the result. So we're talking here about a unity in the truth, not a unity separate from the truth. So don't follow the ecumenical idea here that unity means we just need to love everybody. We do need to love everybody, but not in the sense of compromising the truth and holding hands and singing Kumbaya with everybody who says they're Christians. No. In fact, that's not real love. Real love will tell the truth and real love will separate from error. So we're not talking about that. Don't follow the new evangelical philosophy that some things are essential and some non-essential. Could I just say this? If the Bible speaks plainly, that's essential. There is no such thing as a non-essential doctrine in the Word of God. Who gives you the authority, by the way, to classify the Bible into an essential and non-essential category? Guess what happens when you start approaching the Bible that way, and we've seen it time and time again? more and more doctrines end up getting put in the non-essential basket. Oh the timing of the rapture, that's not essential. Oh well really, whether Israel's God chose people or not, that's... and more and more stuff gets put over here in the non-essentials basket. Who gave you the authority to stamp large sections of the Word of God as non-essential? So those little conscience matters aside, really there's not room for that. When we're talking about the clear declarations of Scripture, we've got to all be of like mind. Very important. And we have the phrase, one accord. One accord. This means agreement or harmony. It literally means joint souls or soul with soul. So we could say, as a chain, one soul must be linked together with another soul. So we're talking about real unity here. not just outward playing a game, some people are good at that, they, and you might know this, this time of year with Christmas, you have to play happy families, you know, and you have a family event you've got to go to and maybe there's unsaved there or, don't compromise by the way, if there's booze there you shouldn't be there, but you know, you have these family events that you have to maybe, or you have family over and they don't know the Lord and you don't have much really in common apart from the weather, you all have to sort of smile and pretend to be happy because it's Christmas time, that shouldn't be the way we approach unity in the church, where we kind of just force it because we have to, it's the right thing to do. No, no, we're talking about soul with soul, we're talking about a knitting together of our hearts. Isn't it wonderful how the Lord can do that? Do you love one another? It's amazing, isn't it, how God can actually give you such love for people that are not even related to you. But we are related spiritually, aren't we? We're brothers and sisters in the Lord. In fact, our bonds really in Christ go much deeper than just the natural ties of natural family. And God can make you to be a loving person even if you're not naturally inclined that way. Some people naturally ooze love and compassion, it just oozes out of them, okay. For some of us, we really need to cast ourselves in the grace of God to say, Lord, just enlarge my heart and help me to love. No, it's true, we all struggle. By the way, people who are naturally compassionate, if they're carnal, can be a real nuisance. compassion still needs to be under God's control. If you get a compassionate person who's carnal, guess what ends up happening? They end up on the wrong end of every fight in the church. Someone's bleeding over here, and they go and take on their offences. And someone's hurt and disgruntled over here, and they go and take on their offences. And it's kind of like when the dump truck goes down the road, and it's like they pick up the wheelie bin after wheelie bin, and just keep, you know, this next big lot of gossip, and they take that in. And next person's offences, they take that in. And they come in, and they're sour as grapes. You look at them, it's like you swallowed 100 lemons. So be careful with that, we're talking about genuine love here, not just a sentimentality and so on. So on accord, agreement, harmony, joint souls, that tells me that we actually do need each other, soul with soul. this whole independent mindset today of I'm just going to be an internet Christian at home and disconnect myself from any sort of connection to a local church and I'm just going to do my own thing, that is simply not scriptural. We need each other as believers, you need your brothers and sisters in Christ, don't have the independent spirit and just get connected to the internet and that's it. actually on the rise, did you know that? Many Christians, post-pandemic or post-lockdown, are not going back to church, it's all online. Now, online's a wonderful blessing, isn't it, when we need it. If your home's sick like some people are today, they can tune in and hear us, okay, and be blessed by that, that's good. I think my wife's on there tonight, probably wrestling with one of the children on her laps or something, but on her lap. But, you know, but we need one another, soul with soul. And that was one of the defining features of the First Church, wasn't it? Read all three Acts, one accord, one place. One accord, one place. Don't miss the one place bit. Do you know how hard it is to get all the saints in one place? What a challenge it is just to get everyone to land here for a Sunday. It is! One accord, One place! Very significant feature of the New Testament church and we need to be the same. Now, the word accord is used in English as a musical term, isn't it? Is that right Bianca? Accord? As I understand it, it has to do with, according to Webster here, the harmony of sounds. When there's accord, you have harmony of sounds, the union of different sounds, he says, which is agreeable to the ear, agreement in pitch and tone. So our orchestra, when they're all playing their different parts, but if they're playing them correctly, we have a... Is that the laugh of guilt? No. I think they're doing a wonderful job, by God's grace, but you get a union of... you've got different sounds coming out of this neck of the woods over here, but there's a unified sound, isn't there? So we're not all clones of each other, we're all different, but when we all are tuned, if we all tune ourselves to the Word of God, Amen? What do we end up with? A unified sound, with the Lord being glorified. So, as all the instruments in an orchestra conform to the written music score, hopefully, resulting in a unity of sound, so when God's people with their varying gifts, abilities and personalities submit to the written score, the Word of God, we present a unified voice. That's what one accord means, there's harmony. we have one mind. So what's the difference between like-minded and one mind? Well, as I understand it, like-minded means thinking the same thing, one mind means thinking the one thing. Okay, so like-minded means thinking the same thing, I believe that's referring to unity of belief. One mind means thinking the one thing, that's unity of purpose. unity of purpose. So we need to be on the same page when it comes to the Word of God, that's being like-minded. Then we also need to think the one thing which is unity of purpose. Unity of purpose, unity of goals. and we know what that's supposed to be, striving together for the faith of the Gospel, keeping the Lord Jesus Christ central and honouring Him and so thinking the same thing, that's unity of belief, thinking the one thing, that's unity of purpose, all focused towards the same scriptural goals. Let me give you an illustration of what it means to be, to have the same mind. You remember in the Old Testament when the men of Israel came to make David king, we see that they were of one heart to make him king. In 1 Chronicles 12 verse 38 it says, That's really an example of thinking the one thing. We see here the men of Israel uniting with one heart and one purpose to make David King. Could I just apply that to the New Testament Church and say this, if we make the focus on making sure that Christ is King, amen, making sure that Christ is central and Christ is preeminent, that will bring us together. There's that oneness of heart, that oneness of purpose. Effie Meyer writes, the deepest thought in Christian fellowship and that which makes us truly one is the desire to make Christ King, that he may be loved and honored, that thousands of souls may bow the knee and confess that he is Lord. So, that's the practical aspect of the plea. He wants us to have the same mind, expressed there with the word like-minded and then those two phrases, one accord, one mind. But he also wants us to have the same heart. Look back at the verse, fulfil you my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same, what? You there, verse 2? Having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. So, he says, I want you to have the same mind, I also want you to have the same heart, the same love. So that's unity of affection, isn't it? That means allowing ourselves to be a channel of love to one another and we've talked about that, how God can use us to love each other. That means that we're not going to show partiality. Now it's impossible for you to spend equal time with everybody in the local church, it's not possible, but we should have the same love. each one by God's grace, not showing partiality, extending Christian love to each other without selectiveness. Selectiveness is a terrible thing in the local church where you select out a few people that are your favourites and you just, you know, you make them the special objects of your affection but you exclude others. That's not right, that's not godly. Thirdly tonight, the posture of Church unity. So we've looked at the provisions for Church unity in verse 1, what we have in Christ to make this possible. We've seen Paul's plea for unity in verse 2, now look at the posture for unity in verse 3, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness, that's the posture, taking the low road of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. And we have in this verse a negative and a positive aspect to the command. And firstly, we have the attitude that should be absent. It's the negative side, the attitude that should be absent from us. Verse three, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory. Nothing. Don't miss that word. Nothing. you're saying that in the local church, vainglory and strife is not to be a part of anything we do. You got it, you got it. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, nothing in the local church, nothing, nothing. Your interactions in that church ministry, nothing with strife or vainglory. That business meeting, nothing. Nothing is to be done through strife or vain glory and we need to be careful not to be disobedient there. Nothing be done through strife or vain glory. Let's consider those two words for a moment, let's drill in and consider what they mean. The word strife means contention and it refers to a selfish, competitive spirit. We encountered that back in chapter 1 where some were preaching Christ even of envy and strife, remember that? preaching from the wrong motive. It was a word that was used to describe the self-seeking pursuit of political office, party squabbles or of the jockeying for position. So you want to get an example or you want an illustration of what the word strife means, just turn on the news or read the paper and read what's happening with the politicians. Perfect example of strife, self-seeking pursuit for political office, stabbing one another, jockeying for position, pushing others down to make oneself greater. Could I just say, don't blow out someone else's candle to try and make yours shine brighter. You don't make your building taller by taking a floor out of someone else's. should have no part of the local church. This word strife is used to describe the apostles' argument over who would be the greatest, Luke 22, 24, and there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest? What were they squabbling over? What was their strife over? Well it was over this debate, who should be the greatest? Jocking for position. Don't assume that that attitude can never exist in a local church. It can. Because we're sinful creatures, we still have the old nature and it's human nature and just be aware of this, self can so easily creep into our service. So easily. Who's higher than me in the pecking order? You know, where do I fit on the flowchart? there is no flowchart, we're all one in Christ. There's authority structure in the local church but that's as we talked about this morning and authority structure doesn't mean that one is greater than the other. We're all levelled at the cross, aren't we? So strife, competitive spirit, vain glory, Vainglory is made up of, it's the word keno-doxia, keno meaning empty and doxia glory, so empty glory or empty pride. So we could say vainglory is the root, strife is the fruit. Vainglory is the inner heart condition of being puffed up in pride, strife is the outward result of that. It describes, vainglory describes one who is ambitious for his own reputation and advancement. Self can so easily creep into our service, you know, on the surface sometimes vainglory can even seem spiritual. I would liken it to a balloon. Balloons look very, can look very shiny and very impressive, can't they? But if you get a pin and pop them, is there much inside? What's inside a balloon? Nothing, really, except air. That's vainglory. Vainglory, blowing, and the more you blow yourself up, the bigger pop you're setting yourself up for. But, you know, that's exactly what it is. It's inflating oneself in pride, but it's empty. It's empty, there's nothing to it, it's nothing that honours the Lord. I think Deotrephes was an example of that, wasn't he, in the New Testament? A man who's consumed with having the preeminence in the church, 3 John 1, 9, terrible thing if that creeps into our hearts. In the Believer's Bible commentary it says this, wherever you find people who are interested in gathering a clique around themselves or in promoting their own interests, there you will find the seeds of contention and strife. true isn't it? So there's an attitude that should be absent from the believers, let nothing, not anything, be done through strife or vainglory, that's the negative side of the command. Now let's look at the positive side, but here's the contrast, verse 3, in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. The attitude that should be present. So, there's an attitude that should be absent from our lives, strife and vainglory. There's an attitude that should be present in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Could I ask you a question? Can you genuinely rejoice in the advancement of someone else? And when you think about that, can you genuinely rejoice in the success, the growth, the progress of another person? Never forget this one young lady that was in our church in Bathurst and she was able to play the harp quite well and she needed to make some money to help her pay her way through university. And she was very gifted, harp player, and so she wanted to teach this girl harp lessons, this girl who was interested in learning the harp, she wanted to teach her harp lessons so that she could help fund herself in uni. And her mother, talk about vainglory, her mother did not want her to teach this other girl because she didn't want this other girl to ever become as good as her own daughter on playing the harp. was trying to stop her from giving lessons to someone else because she wanted her to be the best heart player, essentially. Something along those lines. Shocking, isn't it? That kind of thing can exist amongst Christian people or in people's hearts and lives. Learn to esteem others better than yourself. That doesn't mean that we sort of indulge in some sort of morbid self-loathing, self-loathing, it means we have, in a sense, in the right sense of the word, we have a humble low opinion of ourselves and we have a high opinion of others. That's a great way to approach the Christian life, isn't it? Lowliness of mind, low, lowliness. low. We need to be low, don't we, in the Christian life, keep our heads down and be humble. Humility is the pathway to true greatness in the Christian life. This word, lowliness, interesting snapshot from history here, was used by an ancient writer to describe the River Nile at its low stage. Perhaps you see a river or a stream and at a certain time of year it reaches its lowest point This word lowliness was used in the ancient world, at least in one example, by a writer to describe the River Nile at its low point. So there's a little mental picture there for you. Lowliness is being low, being humble. esteem others better than themselves, let each esteem other better than themselves. The word better here literally means having above or to be superior. It simply means we hold people in higher regard than ourselves, we consider them to be more important. It doesn't mean that that you don't have certain skills that someone else doesn't have, that would be dishonest. If you have a qualification in engineering and you're dealing with a brother in the church who's not an engineer, it would be dishonest for you to say, oh he's better than me in engineering, well he clearly is not, okay. No, no, no, that's not what it's talking about there, it's talking about having that high esteem of the other brother where you see them as being more important, really they take priority over you, that's the sense here. they are superior to you, you hold them in higher regard than yourself and you're willing to put them first. That's what it means to esteem other better than yourself. I think the Apostle Paul exemplified this attitude, didn't he? He referred to himself as the chief of sinners less than the least of all saints. Fourthly and lastly, let's look at the perspective of church unity briefly, the perspective of church unity. Verse 4, look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others. So we need to have the right perspective in in church unity. We have the provisions for church unity in verse 1, God has given us the resources we need to make unity possible. There's a plea from the Apostle there in verse 2 to be unified, there's the posture of unity in verse 3, we need to be humble, take the low road if there's to be unity. By the way, you think about that, at the source of contention, at the root of contention is pride, isn't it? What does Proverbs say? Only by pride cometh what? Contention. So, you can see why lowliness of mind helps deal with that. There's always pride involved somewhere when there's conflict in the local church. The perspective now of church unity though, we need to have the right perspective, verse 4. And we need to have the right perspective in relation to ourselves and in relation to others. Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others. The word behold there means to fix one's attention upon. Our English word scope is derived from this word. Use a scope, some of the men here do some shooting, you have a scope on top. What's the scope for? Well it's to focus very specifically and accurately upon one object isn't it? It's to fix your eye on something, to scope in on that. what is it, bunny rabbit or something? Sniff, sniff, poor bunny. Bang. But the scope, so that's the point there, so to behold, behold, so not behold, look, look, not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others. So look means to behold, means to fix one's attention upon. Now, We need to have the right perspective in relation to ourselves. Now, notice it does not say that we are not to give any consideration to ourselves. You say, how do you know that? Well, there's a little word there that qualifies this. It says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also. The little word also there is important. So we do have to give some consideration to ourselves, don't we? We have responsibilities. it would be wrong for me as a father to say, oh well, I'm not to look on my own things, I'll just, you know, God will take care of the wife and the kids and I'll just focus on others, I'll just completely focus on others and the Lord will take care of my family. Uh-uh, that's not right. So we do have to give some attention to ourselves, we have responsibility to family, we have responsibilities to various things in our lives, various people, So it's not saying you can't have any consideration for your own needs and own duties but it's simply, we're simply being exhorted not to give exclusive attention to ourselves. Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others. And that's important, sadly some Christians are very self-centered, spending most of their, if not all of their time and efforts on themselves with barely a thought to the needs of others. is a problem, isn't it? We do have to give consideration to some things in our lives, needs and things, but there's something wrong if that's your exclusive focus. Do you understand? That's your exclusive focus, if you're focusing your attention exclusively to yourself and your own needs, then there is a problem. You need to also consider the needs of others. I've seen that before, sometimes where you might have a young man, a young woman who are very vibrant serving the Lord, then they get married and it all becomes all about them and they stop serving the Lord. That's just one example I've seen before and so that's not right, is it? Yes, when you get married you've got to give consideration to one another, you've got their certain needs that have to be taken care of but there's something wrong if your home and your marriage doesn't contribute somewhere to the service of God. So, we are to give certain consideration to ourselves, appropriately, but not having an exclusive attention to those things. So, we need to have the right perspective in relation to ourselves and in relation to others. But every man also, on the things of others. Interesting, isn't it? As we think about joy, in Chapter 1, we see that the Christian life is about Christ. chapter 2 there's a very strong emphasis on others. What is joy? I'm sure you're familiar with the acronym joy? Jesus first, others second, who comes last? Yourself last. J-O-Y spells joy. Chapter 1, Christ our life. Chapter 2, consider others at the mind of Christ and what will the result be? Well, there'll be joy. Theodore Epp writes, it does not honour the Lord for a believer to neglect himself or his affairs, but it is self-centred and uncharacteristic of the mind of Christ if the believer is concerned only about himself. When a believer loves his neighbour as himself, as the Scriptures command, he will be concerned about whatever needs his neighbour has. Do you give any consideration to others in your life? Or is it all about you? And your needs? And your life? Things to take care of? Yes. But amongst all of that, make sure you include the also. Look every man also on the things of others. Can you see how that contributes to church unity? Because at the heart of disunity, usually there's selfishness, isn't there? Me? Me. The temperature's not right tonight for me. It's too cold. It's too hot. me. No, no, others. Thinking about others, when you have an others-centred, when you're others-focused, then that will contribute greatly to unity. So, the joy of true unity, fulfil you my joy, that you be like-minded, says the Apostle, being of one accord, of one mind. We have the resources, don't we, in Christ. it's ours to appropriate and to apply in our lives, let's pray. Father, we pray that you would indeed help us to be a unified Church. Lord, I want to thank you for the sweet spirit of unity that is here in this place at this time and we do say with the psalmist how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. But Lord, we would not be foolish to believe that this unity that we have could not be disrupted, we know that Satan would love to do that, And we pray, especially in this time when there is a lot going on in the world and there are many things that could become wedges between us, we pray, Lord, that we would adopt the mind of Christ, that we would be humble, that we'd have a low opinion of ourselves and a high opinion of others. Lord, that we would be gracious, that we would be filled with the love of God. We pray that you would knit our hearts together, soul with soul, link us together, give us that love and concern for each other, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.