(A) Introduction

In these four verses Paul addresses a major problem in the church at Philippi: disunity. Epaphroditus has told Paul of the trouble caused by Euodia and Syntyche. They have fallen out and others have taken sides. The pastor or elder does not seem to have tried as hard as he should to bring about a reconciliation between the two women. It is, however, a priority with Paul. He knows how damaging and dishonouring bad feeling and ill will are in a church.

Sadly most churches are not immune to the damaging consequences of disunity. Usually it has nothing to do with major differences on doctrine but everything to do with wounded pride, pique, jealousy, an unforgiving spirit, rivalry, thoughtlessness, arrogance and disloyalty. So what Paul has to say about the dispute between Euodia and Syntche, that has poisoned the atmosphere amongst the Philippians and robbed them of their joy, will be very relevant to a lot of us today.

(B) The appeal to the reality of their Christian experience.

Paul wishes the Philippians to reflect upon their Christian experience. Have they any:

(a) Encouragement from being united with Christ. v1. It should have encouraged them and it should encourage us to be united with Christ. The people of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean are united with Britain and as such come under our protection. This gives them much greater security than if they were a small, self-governing, state off the eastern seaboard of Argentina. It is an encouragement to the Falklanders to know that Britain is there to stand up for them and see off their enemies.

Christians are united with Christ. We are accepted by him, secure in him, protected from our enemies and will share in his victory over sin, Satan and death. Jesus said to his disciples and to all who follow him, "I will come to you. ..... Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John14v18to20.

If we have come to Jesus in the way the old hymn puts it:

Just as I am, without one plea
But that they blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come

then we are as much part of Christ as the branches are part of the vine. See John15vs1to17. We share in the Divine energy.

(b) Comfort from his love. We ought to take comfort from the love of Christ - that love which has brought us forgiveness, liberty and life. It is always reassuring to be loved just a little. I remember with pleasure going into a classroom a few weeks before I retired and smiling at a petite, dark haired, brown eyed, girl who was sitting on a desk. She smiled back and whispered, "Mr Reed, I love you." It is good to be loved, if only a little bit, by some of your pupils because you know they will never wish you harm. They will be anxious for your welfare and protective of your reputation.

Christians have proved the love of Jesus and can sing from experience:

Just as I am, of that free love
The breadth, length, depth and height to prove
Here for a season, then above
O lamb of God, I come

It is a wonderful consolation to know that Jesus is interceding with God continually for my spiritual well being and that he delivers me from evil and protects me from temptation.

(c) Fellowship with the Spirit. Paul has a wonderful passage about the fellowship of the Spirit in Romans8v15and16: For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. The Spirit testifies with our spirit - that is what fellowship with the Spirit is. The Spirit convinces us that we are sons of God and joint heirs with Jesus.

Sometimes we need the reassurance of a friend. The first year that I taught at Debenham High School was difficult. The children found it hard to adjust to my style and personality. My voice was too loud, my humour too coarse and my temper too explosive. I was grateful on the day the Head of Humanities, Mr Clear, said, "I think the boys and girls are beginning to accept you - their attitude has changed." His spirit was bearing witness to my spirit to reassure and encourage.

As I have written several times in these expositions, the Holy Spirit does direct us to passages of Scripture to help us. He has fellowship with us. John Sherrill, who, with his wife, collaborated with Corrie ten Boom to write, 'The Hiding Place,' had a problem with wine. He drank too much of it! Although it is quite legitimate to drink wine Sherrill came to see that he was abusing the privilege. He was taking unnecessary risks by drinking excessively and relying on God to come to the rescue. The Holy Spirit used, Mt4v7: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God," to help him with his problem.

(d) Any tenderness and compassion. It would be a sad state of affairs if we lacked tenderness and compassion. Three of the fruits of the spirit are love, kindness and gentleness. See Gal5v22. Jesus says,"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. John15v5. Tenderness and compassion are sweet fruit, sweeter than the finest Muscatine grapes. They are the best medicine for a multitude of ills. My old friend and fellow elder, Edward, has often sat at the bedside of the dying. He just sits and holds a frail, weak, hand. He is tender and compassionate and brings what comfort he can.

I know that Charles Dicken's Little Dorrit is too good to be true. Little Dorrit, along with her family, had once been in the Marshalsea, the prison for debtors. At that time Mr Clennam had been very kind to her. Circumstances changed so that Little Dorrit's family came into a fortune and Mr Clennan found himself, ill, in the self same prison. I can never read the reunion of Little Dorrit and Mr Clennan without the tears coming into my eyes. I think it is worth repeating here because it is the finest description of tenderness and compassion that I have read in fiction:

...the door of his room seemed to open to a light touch, and after a moment's pause, a quiet figure seemed to stand there, with a black mantle on it. It seemed to draw the mantle off and drop it on the ground, and then it seemed to be his Little Dorrit in her old, worn dress. It seemed to tremble, and to clasp its hands, and to smile and to burst into tears.
He roused himself, and cried out. And then he saw in the loving, pitying, sorrowing, dear face, as in a mirror, how changed he was; and she came towards him; and with her hands laid on his breast to keep him in his chair and with her knees upon the floor at his feet, and with her lips raised up to kiss him, and with her tears dropping on him as the rain from Heaven had dropped upon the flowers, Little Dorrit, a living presence, called him by his name.
"O, my best friend! Dear Mr. Clennam, don't let me see you weep! Unless you weep with pleasure to see me. I hope you do. Your own poor child come back!"
So faithful, tender, and unspoiled by Fortune. In the sound of her voice, in the light of her eyes, in the touch of her hands, so Angelically comforting and true!
As he embraced her she said to him, "They never told me you were ill," and drawing an arm softly round his neck, laid his head upon her bosom, put a hand upon his head, and resting her cheek upon that hand, nursed him as lovingly, and GOD knows as innocently, as she had nursed her father in that room when she had been but a baby, needing all the care from others that she took of them.

I especially like the fact that Little Dorrit came to one she loved in his great distress in her old, worn, dress.

(C) Christian experience should make for unity

There is a link between the 'if' of verse1 and the 'then' of verse2. Paul is saying that if we have had the experiences he refers to then we should strive for Christian unity.

(a) If we have been united with Christ then this is because he has been willing to accept us as we are. Paul says we should be likeminded- like Jesus. We should be prepared to accept other Christians as they are. Writing to the Romans Paul urges his readers to accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you. Rm15v7. I need to remind myself just whom Jesus has accepted - someone arrogant, sensuous, lacking humility and self control and prone to bitterness. Now if Jesus is prepared to take me on board with my many weaknesses I should be willing to overlook the failings of my fellow believers. We should be tolerant of the weaknesses of others. Jesus says,"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ..... Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Mt5v1to3.

I don't think we should condemn a person for one mistake. The law of our land operates like this when it comes to traffic offences. I know a Christian lay preacher who got into a muddle on a roundabout. He suddenly found himself going down the slip road to a motorway. This was not the way to his preaching engagement. He had visions of getting on the motorway and not being able to get off for miles and miles and being horribly late for his engagement. He panicked, did a U turn on the slip road and got back to the roundabout. Unfortunately another motorist reported him to the police. Now the magistrates didn't take into account that he: had driven for 40 years without committing a traffic offence of any kind, needed his car to take services at the little churches that relied on his ministry, owned up to the offence, was ashamed of what he had done and was a man of excellent character. No, they just banned him from driving for a year. I think our so-called permissive society is increasingly intolerant of mistakes. Mistakes do have terrible consequences but they are not blameworthy in the way that deliberate, wilful, immorality is. Christians are often very intolerant of mistakes. I know a farmer who never forgave a former minister because he didn't turn up to his wife's funeral. I was once banned from preaching in a church because I said I thought there were graver sins than smoking the occasional cigar. Another church banned me because I used Peanuts cartoons when speaking to the boys and girls. Christian folk are so fussy. If Jesus had been fussy they would never be Christians at all!

We forget sometimes what really matters. It isn't politically correct behaviour, playing safe, keeping all the rules and regulations or being super orthodox doctrinally; it is believing in Jesus. John writes in his gospel:Yet to all who received him, to those who believe in his name he gave the RIGHT to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband's will but born of God.

(b) If we have been comforted by the love of Jesus we should have the same love. Paul writes, love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1Cor13v17. Love always protects or, to put it another way: love does no harm to its neighbour. Rm13v10. Love tries to protect a man from his weaknesses. A Christian friend of mine has a great uncle with no teeth. He took a perverse delight in serving him raw carrot as part of a salad lunch. He told me with great glee that his uncle was still masticating carrot at tea-time. He just could not get rid of it. Now I have to say I didn't find it funny. My poor old father found it difficult to eat. I did everything in my power to make it easy for him. I cooked meals I knew he liked. I cut things up small. I never put too much on his plate.... and so on. I loved my father and tried to protect him from his weakness. It should be the same for other weaknesses. If a person is very short tempered it isn't kind to deliberately stir them up to get a laugh when they explode. If a man is prone to jealousy one needs to be very careful how one treats his wife.

Love perseveres with awkward, difficult, unfriendly, people. I may have used this story elsewhere in my expositions but my brother Philip, who sadly is not a Christian, set a good example in the way he dealt with a crabby old man in Exning. Philip was the village policeman. He used to bicycle around Exning as part of his duties. Most days he would pass an elderly man in his garden who hated policeman. When Philip called out a cheerful, "Good morning," the man spat. My brother persisted. He saw the man as a challenge and so whenever he saw him he gave him the same happy salutation. After six months the man no longer spat. After a year he nodded. After 2 years he responded with an equally cheerful, "Good morning." After 3 years he was my brother's greatest admirer and staunchest supporter.

The fact is: Jesus perseveres with us in spite of the many times we fail and disappoint him. We are rarely a credit to him! There are times we spurn the overtures of his Spirit. If Jesus perseveres with us, and we know he does, we should persevere with others.

(c) If we have enjoyed the fellowship of the Holy Spirit we should be one in spirit and purpose. The Spirit convinces us that we are all the children of God and members of the same family. As children we should be united in our desire to please the Father. The Spirit reaffirms that we are all members of the one body and that Jesus is the living head. As members of such a body we should be under the control of the head.

It is very important to have a common purpose because it does unify. The cricket club I belong to is very, very, tolerant of an individual's weakness so long as he contributes to the team's success. We will put up with a great deal from a member who helps us to win. The Brockley team is one in purpose.

A successful army is one in purpose. It's main aim must be to defeat the foe and win the battle. Internal dissent is fatal in the armed forces. That is why mutiny was the most heinous of crimes in the British navy. Sadly the Christian church is not united. Divisions occur at all levels: between denominations, within denominations, inside the local church and between as few as two individuals like Euodia and Syntche. Of all the divisions the last is the worst. The hatred is very real and raw between children who fall out.

Paul is pleading with Christians to consider their relationship with Jesus. Christians know that they need to be forgiven. They cry out for forgiveness. They are assured, over and over and over again, that they are forgiven. Why then are we so slow to forgive those who trespass against us?

(D) There should be some evidence that we are concerned for unity

Paul writes: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. I think that when we are tempted to congratulate ourselves on the progress we are making as Christians this is a good text to bring us down to earth. There are some forms of Christians service that are very difficult to perform in humility and without vain conceit. Preaching, teaching, playing an instrument, flower arranging, singing, reciting and even preparing a meal can all foster vain conceit. All the activities listed are creative. It is ironical that in an area where we are most like God we are so liable to temptation. I am least liable to selfish ambition and vain conceit when I am doing chores! I experience no vain conceit and satisfy no selfish ambition when I cut the graveyard grass, empty the gutters, write up the church minutes, book the Sunday speakers or organise games at the youth club. Perhaps that is why God has give me so much of this sort of work to do!

In Christian service it is a good rule of thumb to think more of what others need than of what you need. The important thing, is not what I would like to do to serve God but what others need me to do. Insofar that creating this web site is something that I wanted to do and not what anyone needed me to do is, perhaps, courting disaster.

Paul also tells the Philippians: look not to your own interests but also to the interests of others. I was talking to my old friend Pastor John Skull about a mutual acquaintance, yesterday, when we were out walking along the banks of the Deben estuary. Our Christian brother used to be a pastor and worked hard in the ministry. Now that he has retired our brother is here, there and everywhere - packing in as much travel as he can. I asked, "Has he no obligations to his church?" "No," John replied, "nothing to keep him at his church on a regular basis." Is it right when we reach retirement age to spend so much time enjoying ourselves on what are, after all, leisure pursuits? Is it true that when we reach the age of 60 or 65 we can refuse a regular commitment to local church work so that we can please ourselves? Paul pulls us up sharp when he says look not to your own interests but also to the interests of others.