There's a poem that I read this week that grabbed my attention because it seemed to speak so directly to what I wanted to share this morning with you from the scriptures. And the poem reads like this. I think that I shall never see a church that's all it ought to be. A church whose members never stray beyond the straight and narrow way. A church that has no empty pews, whose pastor never has the blues. A church whose deacons always deke, and none is proud and all are meek. Where gossips never penalize, or make complaints or criticize. Where all are always sweet and kind, and all to others faults are blind. Such perfect churches there may be, but none of them are known to me. but still we'll work and pray and plan to make our own the best we can. I hope that that poem reflects the kinds of heart that you have and I know it does my heart too. We have been studying through the book of Philippians and we come to the second chapter And if you've been following along, you may recall that last week in our study of Philippians chapter 1, the last four verses, that Paul had been engaging in talking about how his friends in Philippi ought to relate to the city, the society around them. And his first and primary admonition to them was that they needed to stand together. They needed to have a like-mindedness. They needed to have a unified front to present to the city of Philippi. So that any in the city of Philippi who might come to investigate the church might find that they did have a harmony, that they had a common bond and a goal, which would have been unique within that kind of a culture. Now, when Paul began to make this admonition, something came to his mind. Evidently, there must have been some concern that was bothering him in Rome, as he wrote, that he was sensing might also be a problem there in the city of Philippi. So for a moment, in verses 28, 29, and 30 of chapter 1, he digresses. And he begins to encourage them. with the kind of attitude of how to respond to the challenges and the accusations that they might face when they try to stand together and stand firm for their faith. And we spent the last part of last week's discussion of the scriptures looking at Paul's challenge to them to be not afraid, to be courageous, and to be bold. And so that was Paul's burden, which was sort of a digression from his major theme of standing together and standing united. Now, as we move into chapter two, it seems as though Paul finds himself returning to the primary thrust that he seems to have a burden for, and which will pop up in different points through the rest of the book. This burden that the church in Philippi maintain a distinct unity amongst themselves. Now, in chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, Paul provides for the church in Philippi what I see as several foundation stones upon which to build a corporate unity which will sustain, a corporate unity which will endure against the tests of being in a society that does not agree with what the church is seeking to stand for. And so to encourage them, he explains three foundations that they need to build on in order to have a permanent unity. He describes a foundation of spiritual resources that they have and that they need to depend upon. He describes a foundation stone of dedication, and that is a dedication that they need to have of their whole spiritual capacity. And we'll see that also. And then finally, he speaks of a foundation of proper behavior between one another within the congregation. So what I'd like to do is direct your attention to Philippians chapter 2 and read for you what Paul says concerning these foundations, these foundation stones for unity within the family of believers. Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 through 4. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. But in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. To begin Paul's discussion of the foundations for church unity, Paul begins by describing four relational benefits that come from being a Christian, come from being united to Jesus Christ. Might put it another way, there are four graces, four powers that come into the life of the Christian believer as a benefit of being a believer and being a part of a church. And these are resources that enable us to contribute as individuals to the total unity of our congregation. And Paul presents each one of these resources by introducing them with a very interesting grammatical device. Notice how he always starts in verse one with the word if. And you might, as you look at that, say, now is Paul saying to himself, it's possible these things may not be true, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ. Well, that's a possibility. But what he's really saying through this grammatical device is it is absolutely certain that there is encouragement from being united with Christ. The only question I have is, Philippians, are you plugged into that? Are you experiencing that to its fullest? And so he is not suggesting that it is not possible for some that they may have this resource and for others that they won't. What he's saying is the resource is available for all. Are you plugged in to the resource? And so, to begin with, he speaks of, in his theme of unity, he speaks first of all of a comfort or an encouragement of being united with Christ. Most of the translations that you'll read use the word encouragement. And that's a reasonable translation of the word parakaleo, which many of you have probably heard is the name for the Holy Spirit, the comforter. But the Holy Spirit also has another ministry, and that is of conviction. And most of the students of this passage understand that what Paul is talking about here is not so much the comfort that comes from being united with Christ, but the conviction that comes from being associated with him. And that conviction would be the conviction or the sense of exhortation that we have an obligation to practice the Christian life. We have an obligation to live the way Jesus Christ lived. And so this is a sense of exhortation that is simply an obligation to practice the teachings of Christ. And no Christian wants to be a hypocrite. Anybody who lives a hypocritical life always, I think, feels sort of a sense of unhappiness. They feel, when they're out of line with the directives of the Lord, a certain sense of emptiness. They realize that they're not practicing what they claim. And so what Paul means here is that anyone who wants to enjoy the relationship with Jesus Christ. Anyone who is enjoying the connection that comes from Him will be motivated, will have a natural desire to be consistent in their walk with Him and to be unified with other disciples. Remember what Jesus said about unity, Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers. And in his high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, Jesus also prayed that the believers would be united. And so unity from the teachings of Christ is a central truth, which he endorses and encourages us to follow. If you are not a unifying force in your group, or let's say in your family or in the church, I think what Paul would be saying is, how is your relationship with Jesus Christ? Because it is normal that there would be this sense of obligation through your connection with Jesus Christ to live as he instructed us to live, and to live as he prayed that we would live, and that is to live in unity. But there's also a second resource that Paul speaks of besides simply having this relationship with Jesus Christ, which is the first step. He speaks also, secondly, of the love of Jesus Christ. There is the relationship, but there's also the love that comes as a result of that relationship. In our Christian walk, it's inevitable that we're going to sin, that we're going to err and get off the track. And as a consequence of that, other people will be hurt and our relationship with God will be hindered. But when we do, then God is dishonored and we find that others are hurt. But the love of God for the believer is there. And it is a resource that we must always depend upon to be encouraged and also to repent. His love comforts us because you can't deserve it. It's not conditional. And if you always say to yourself as a result of sin, well, now God doesn't love me, you are misunderstanding the love of God because it is unconditional. And there is nothing that you or any other believer can do to change the quality or the depth of the love that he extends towards you. You may be blocking it out through your attitude or through your behavior. You may be putting up barriers to it. and as a result experiencing it in a way that is not as full as he has intended. But the truth of the scripture is that God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were what? Sinners! Undeserving! God extended his love towards us, reached through the barrier of our sin, and overcame our sin and our faults, and saved us. Christ voluntarily took the place of sinners on the cross, your place and my place. And he died to take away sin. And the response that we have had as believers is to thank him for that. That's not something you've done. It's something you've simply received. And that's how the love of Christ is received. And the love of Christ prompts us to repent. Because what would we want to do to stab that kind of love in the back We wouldn't want to do anything to bring a reproach on the name of Jesus Christ, particularly since we recognize how he has loved us. So what is God's love like in your life? Is this a resource that you're tapped into? Are you sensitive? Are you aware of God's extension of love and unconditional care and affection for you? Does he reject you? when you sin? No. Does he desire your best welfare at all times? Absolutely. So the question turns to us, and that is, what is the kind of love that we portray toward others within our family here? Is it the kind of love that has an ability to overlook faults and shortcomings and to encourage others to grow in their relationship My sense is that if we really understand the heart of Jesus, we understand what he said to his disciples in John chapter 13 verse 34. When he said in the last night before he was to go to the cross, a new commandment I give to you, love one another. Because I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples. If what? if you have love for one another. If you're not a loving person, maybe it's because you really haven't understood the quality of the love that God has for you. Maybe you're trying to live on a performance basis. Maybe you're still trying to earn the love of God. It can't be done. It just can't be done. It can only be received and acknowledged with thanksgiving. Maybe you're Maybe you are still trying to perform for God. Stop and start thanking God. Maybe there is an area in which you are blocking it out and that's an area in which you can acknowledge to God your need for his help to overcome that. And so the second resource that Paul identifies for us is the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. And that love is to be there for us to use as a resource to bind us together. But there is another resource that Paul speaks of. And that third resource is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And you notice how Paul speaks of that again in chapter 2, verse 1. if there's any fellowship with the Spirit. And again, there is no question in Paul's mind that there is a fellowship of the Holy Spirit. What he's saying to the Philippians is, are you sensitized to that? Have you tapped into it? Every Christian is indwelled by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit helps us to correctly understand how God wants us to live. He uses the Word of God to guide us, and he disturbs our consciences when we get off track, The fellowship of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives prepares us as individuals to participate in the fellowship of the congregation. And so the Holy Spirit is always working. He's inside of you, preparing you, motivating you, instructing you. And I always found it interesting, have you ever had the experience, and it's almost like I got an introduction this morning from Rich, have you ever had the experience when you maybe sat down on a plane or you bumped into somebody in a situation who you'd never known before. It turned out that they were a Christian. You had the opportunity for an ongoing conversation with them for a while. And the more you talked, the more you felt like you'd known them for a long, long time. That's really what Paul's talking about here, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Because see, as a believer, the Spirit of God produces a certain commonality, a certain similarity of experiences, of grace, of mercy, of God's love, of forgiveness, of the dynamic of being involved in a church. And on the other side of that coin, though, Have you ever had the experience, or maybe is this true in your life, that you grew up with someone, you lived in the same home, maybe a brother or a sister, maybe a parent, brothers or sisters, did you share the same room, did you go to the same high school, did you have the same friends, do the same activities, in the same town? But now, despite all those common things, there isn't the same kind of commonality anymore. There seems to be something, the relationship is just not as strong as it could be, despite the fact that there are all those commonalities. And when you would compare that to the relationship that you might have with someone who is a Christian, if this person in your family is not a Christian, if you were to relate that to the relationship you have with a Christian, you would say to yourself, it's so distinct, it's so different. I submit to you that that's the effect of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit who binds you together with your new brothers and sisters into a common experience and into a unity. And this is a resource that Paul says exists in the church to bind us together. The resource of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And then there's a fourth resource that Paul points us to as he says toward the end of verse 1, he says if there is any tenderness and compassion. And again, it is something that is real. It is not something that is just a hypothetical. And what Paul is urging is that we would be tapped into this spirit of tenderness and compassion that flows through the Christian community, or should I don't know if you watch much TV or if you go to the movies, but what are the kinds of attitudes and the kinds of emotions that they seem to play on? These days I see a lot of violence, I see a lot of anger, bitterness, resentment, vindictiveness, I'm going to get this person back, or there's a lot of greed. A lot of those negative emotions seem to be what Hollywood knows they can use to push our buttons. has a connection and an experience with emotions like that. And what Hollywood seems to know how to do is to put them into their programming to catch our attention and to cause us to pay attention to what they're saying. But what they've done is they're camping on all the negative vices and negative attitudes and all the harmful parts of our character. When Jesus came on the human scene, He brought a message that sought to stimulate a completely different set of values. He came to try to stimulate a completely different set of virtues and emotions. Jesus talked about the value of extending mercy. Jesus talked about sympathy towards people. Jesus demonstrated compassion toward the downcast and a gentleness towards those people who were weak. He spoke of humility as a virtue, right in the middle of a culture whose writers, all the writers of that age, the writers of the newspapers or the books or the plays that were being produced during that time, they saw humility as a vice. They saw it as a demonstration of weakness. But Jesus taught that it was a virtue. And Jesus taught his disciples the necessity of forgiving and not keeping scores. And so Paul refers to this final resource that we have for building unity within the church, the resource of other people who will treat us with tenderness and compassion because you see they have received tenderness and compassion from Jesus Christ. And this is the distinct value that comes when you commit your life to Jesus Christ is the reality of the affection that Jesus Christ has for you, a child, a brother of his, a child of God. And it is our obligation as a group of believers to openly share those kinds of attitudes and affections with one another. If you're a Christian, and you've experienced the mercy and compassion of God in your life, remember that what did you deserve? You deserved the opposite. You deserved hell. But God had mercy and he gave you and he gave me salvation and he gave us new life. And if in our fellowship you don't find yourself a contributor to the process of building up unity by displaying to others these kinds of values that Jesus brought to us, compassion, understanding, tenderness, patience, encouragement, then I urge you to look again at the condition from which he brought you when he drew you to himself and expressed his love to you. We need to be a people who can extend understanding rather than criticism. And we need to be a group of believers who have compassion instead of callousness. All of those things of callousness and hard-nosed, hard-driving attitudes and impatience, that's what's out there. We need to be a place where people can come and let down their guard and be free with one another. So to be successful in standing firm, Paul has told the believers they need to be united and they need to use these resources and a lot of these resources are simply a reflection upon the relationship that they have with Jesus Christ and the dynamic things that he brings as a result but having these three resources or these four resources is not enough to secure the unity of the church they are there but even as Paul uses the if word to suggest There may be a lack of their application. He then brings in a discussion of three areas that we must exercise dedication in. And this is what I call the anatomy of unity. And we'll see that as Paul goes on. Notice how he moves in verse two. He says, then, make my joy complete by being like-minded. What Paul is saying here is that I have joy in thinking about you Philippians. But you know what would really fulfill my joy? It would be if I can have the confidence of hearing that you really do exercise a spirit of like-mindedness in the church. And that's really the main burden that Paul has as he's presenting, as he's writing to the Philippians here in this part of chapter 2. He is burdened that they would have a like-minded spirit. And in order to build a like-minded spirit, Paul says there are three areas that need to be dedicated. There are, in a sense, three disciplines, three non-optional aspects of our spiritual life that have to be focused in and dedicated. And the first one he speaks of is, he says, having the same love. Notice, he begins, make my joy complete by being like-minded. That's the major goal. Having the same love is one of those areas of dedication. What he's talking about here is the heart. He says, I want you to have a heart of love. This is the kind of love that doesn't wait for someone else to set the pace. This isn't the kind of love that says, well, somebody else treats me lovingly, then I will respond. And what Paul is saying here is that we need to have a dedication to take the initiative and express love to others. It reaches out to support, to serve, to help, to teach, to encourage, because that's what Jesus would have done. In fact, that's what Jesus has done for you and I. And so he speaks here of a heart devoted. And I think an excellent exercise on a regular basis is to read the quality of the love that he's speaking about here. The agape love, which Paul defines in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If we all memorize this chapter, I think it would be an excellent exercise in cultivating this kind of devotion of heart that Paul is speaking of in this segment. But there's another aspect of our spiritual anatomy that Paul says must be dedicated in order that we might have unity. Not only the heart, but he also moves to the soul. That is where the affections are, the emotions, and the will, and the volition. And he says that we ought to be like soul. Notice how he reads that we be like-minded. And then in verse having the same love being one in spirit. Now, most of the translations like the word spirit, being one in spirit, that we have sort of a kindred spirit is their thought. But really the original word means that we be like soul, that we have a common bond in our souls. I think this means simply that we emphasize the things that we have in common rather than our differences. I think this means that we look to discover qualities in one another that we respect, qualities that we admire, qualities that we appreciate. There will always be qualities that turn us off. There will always be things that make us frown, that make us impatient. But what Paul is saying is, be like soul. Be unified in your souls. And you know, that requires a dedication in our attitude to look for the things that are positive. Look for the good qualities that will attract us, not the things that repel. You can always find those. But it takes an exercise, a dedication, a commitment to look for the things that join us together. I think this is an especially important principle for those of you who may struggle even at work, not in a Christian arena, as well as here in the church with such attitudes as, say, jealousy or frustration with someone at home or someone in your small group, someone at church, someone you have to work with. You need to speak with that person perhaps directly or What you may be needing to do is begin to seek out in their lives the kinds of qualities that you approve of, the kinds of things that you can respect. And then there's a third part of the spiritual anatomy that Paul points out to us that we need to have dedicated to the unity of the body, and that is he speaks of our minds. Notice in verse 2 again, that should be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. What the translators have done is they've taken the idea of mind and they've translated it purpose, because really the mind focuses on a purpose, on a goal. But the thought here is that in order to cultivate unity, we need to be devoted in our minds to the process of pursuing after similar goals. We need to be sort of like a choir that sings in unison, is what Paul is saying. Be thinking the same things. And when you're talking about the same things, what he's saying is not that everybody thinks the same way, but that everybody is committed to a goal, committed to the overall task of the church. And in considering that overall task, I'd like to remind you of an experience that Jesus had. There was a day in which some of the Sadducees gathered around the Lord Jesus, and it was their plan to try to catch him in a theological error. It was their plan to give him a theological problem that he would be caught in a catch-22. And if he spoke one way, he could be accused of of being wrong. If he spoke another way, they could catch him as being inaccurate and dismiss him as unqualified to serve as a teacher. So what happened was they gave him a trick question, but what Jesus did to the Sadducees on that day was he rebuked them because he said, you don't even understand the scriptures. Your question is not legitimate. And as a result, all the multitudes, the scriptures say, were astonished at Jesus' wisdom. And look with me at Matthew chapter 22. We find a story in Matthew chapter 22 of this encounter that Jesus had with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And following this encounter with the Sadducees, the Pharisees came along. And they felt that while the Sadducees had failed in catching Jesus, that what they would do is they would set forth one of their most experienced lawyers, one who was most experienced in the details of the law and served Jesus another question and see if they and their class of scholars could catch the new rabbi in an error. So in Matthew chapter 22 verse 36 the lawyer sent by the Pharisees says this, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. And I think that Paul had in his mind this which would have from the lips of Jesus been the most important commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. And that's exactly what he's telling the Philippians to do. He's saying dedicate yourself and your heart and your soul and your mind to this task of being unified And of course, Jesus followed up by saying this, along with love your neighbor as yourself, which Paul will speak of next, fulfills the whole law. There it is. It's very straightforward. And so Paul says we need to have a united focus that involves our hearts and our souls and our minds. And the one great focus or purpose, I believe, is that we would know Jesus Christ. and naturally after knowing him you would want to make him known to other people. John chapter 17 verse 3 Jesus said this is eternal life that they may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. In Matthew chapter 11 Jesus said come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. And then in Mark 16, 15, Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. The anatomy of unity is a commitment, a dedication of heart and soul and mind to the Lord Jesus Christ first, and then out of that relationship and dedication to him will flow the kinds of attitudes that are necessary for maintaining and bolstering the unity of our congregation. And then finally, after reminding us of our resources for unity and challenging us to devote our hearts and souls and minds to unity, Paul gives each one of us three specific commands. Then he starts to get very specific and close to home in the last two verses of this segment. And these commands I find in my own personal application of the passage are best framed sort of as a question. So when I look at these commands, I look at them and I ask myself several questions. First of all, Paul refers to an attitude that usually applied to politicians. I think it still applies to politicians today. Notice how he says in verse 3, be nothing out of selfish ambition. Well, this is actually a word that would describe those who are in Roman politics, sometimes in the military, oftentimes in the Senate. but in the Republic who would use intrigue and leverage and intimidation and all those underhanded techniques in order to work themselves into a position of power and authority and financial gain. And so this was a common word that would be used of those kinds of people and the methods that they had employed. And so Paul was saying this, Don't be like those people. Avoid that. And so I ask myself the question, do I have ambition that's selfish? Do I want something that will make me happy, but in the process not serve the interests of the whole church? Do I have selfish ambition in my heart? And if the answer is yes, or if you take the time and the spirit of God impresses you that maybe you do, Paul would say acknowledge it, reject it, and suppress it, control it. But not only that, there's another area immediately that Paul speaks of. You notice he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Vain conceit is a little bit different from ambition. You see, vain conceit is not the desire to get into a position where you will have power and control. Vain conceit is more of a personal desire to be well thought of, to have the chief position, to be in the spotlight, if you will. And what happens when somebody has vain conceit? You've seen it. What they usually do is when there's somebody who is Performing well, successful, achieving in the area where you would like to be in the spotlight. Typical methods used to satisfy my own conceit would be to bad mouth, to put down, to undercut, to criticize. But of course, you would never do it in front of that person. And these are things that Paul is saying, oh, don't do that. Get that under control. And so the second question I ask myself as I look at this area is, do I have a desire to exalt myself? And this is so subtle. And I think that's why Paul brings it up. The Philippian church wasn't a bad group of people pushing their own agendas and exalting themselves, but it's always there as a potential. Do I want everybody to think and see me as important? Do I want attention and prominence? Am I willing to disrupt the unity of the Church to get it? If there is even a hint in your heart that the answer is yes, Paul says, get a hold of that, acknowledge it, deal honestly with God in your heart, and then reject it, because it's not what God wants you to do. And then control it, and submit it to the Holy Spirit. Jesus, I'd like you to also turn to Matthew chapter 23 just to reinforce this thought. Matthew 23, Jesus spoke about the leaders in his day. He gave us a picture of those who were prominent in his day. And this is a very direct picture that speaks of what Paul is concerned about in the Philippian church. Matthew chapter 23, Jesus begins in verse 1, then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything that they tell you, but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels of their prayer shawls long. They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have men call them Rabbi. But you are not to be called Rabbi. For you have only one master, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth father, for you have one father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called teacher, for you have one teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servants. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Woe to you, teachers of the law, Pharisees, you hypocrites. a very direct statement that Jesus made with respect to this issue of self-exaltation. Another point that Paul makes in very practical application in verse 28 is he says, I'm sorry, in verse 2 or verse 3, do nothing of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but with humility consider others better than yourselves. And simply put, what Paul is saying is, does my attitude see others as more important? Or you could put it a different way, do I see myself as expendable? If you see yourself as essential to God accomplishing what he wants to accomplish in a congregation, you are not thinking the way Paul is saying you ought to think. You may be guilty of thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to. We're all expendable. God desires to use us, but if our attitude isn't right, we're not useful to him. And then finally, Paul says in verse four, each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. The Greek word that most of the translations translate interests is a very general word. It could mean a lot of things. It could also be translated needs. Each of you should look not on your own needs, but also on the needs of others. It's a very general word, but the flow of the context would suggest that interest is an excellent way of putting it. The real stress here is on how you look, how you see. Now what Paul is trying to say here is, Are you so preoccupied with your own needs, your own interests, that you just cannot see the needs or interests of others? Have you ever had it happen to you that it never occurred to you that someone might have a difficulty or a problem? Maybe you were so preoccupied and your vision was so short as you looked at your own needs and wants and desires that you just couldn't even see what the other person's needs were. Paul says each of you should look not on your own interests, but also on the interests of others. He's not saying you should totally disregard your responsibilities, not at all. Paul's a very strong advocate of managing your responsibilities, taking responsibility for your own affairs, but what he's saying here is be careful that you're not so preoccupied that you can't see that anybody else would have a need. When I disagree with someone in the church, do I try to see things from their point of view? Again, how do I see things in the church? William James once said, whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is. How true that is. And when you consider there are also many situations in which we as believers in trying to do what Jesus has called us to do are going to find ourselves in a situation where people will step all over you and you'll feel like a doormat. Trying to do what Jesus called me to do? You get stepped all over. I think it's important to remember first of all your resources in a situation like that. the love of God, the fellowship of the Spirit, the tender compassion that you receive from others who have dedicated minds, hearts, and souls to Jesus Christ. But also remember that the more grasping and the more determined a person like that is to get ahead at your expense, to climb over you in order to get what they want, to gain their own power, their own prestige, to have their own needs fulfilled at your expense, Just remember, it's probably a sign of tremendous...