Christian fellowship required unity

Philippians 2:1-4                                                                                     

As the scripture said that, Unity is a precious gift of the Spirit. It is to be valued, to be required, and to be guarded at all costs. When it is lost, it is hard to regain. The Apostle Paul understood this truth well. He sensed that under the surface there were crack in the Philippians church that if it is not repaired the congregation may have a problem and they will be separated in two groups. Like any good builder, he wanted to repair those cracks while they were small and the crack easy to fill.

            Behind this fact lies a truth for us to closely consider. Today’s blessing doesn’t guarantee for tomorrow’s success. A church may do well for a long period of time only to go through a crisis that leads to a period of decline. I believe that Satan loves to attack churches and believers when they are doing well. If Satan can’t destroy from without, he’ll attack from within. If he can’t destroy the doctrine, he’ll attack the moral life of the leaders. If he can’t corrupt the moral life of the leaders, he’ll attack the unity of the body.

            Keeping this in mind I would like to entitle my message for this morning is “Christian Fellowship required Unity”

Introduction to Passage

            The passage has been read to us, the book of Philippians is written by Paul while he was in the prison (1:13). The church in Philippi offers an example for every such exercise. The key factors for the book of Philippians, on the human side were prayer, preaching, and concern for the individual and sacrificial commitment to the work of God. The church was quite literally born in the place of prayer, which following the initial visit, apparently became the daily focal point of the mission. The message preached was the unchanging apostolic theme of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Paul begins with a series of symbolic questions. It is as if Paul said, "Since you say, you are united with Christ, and you say, you have found great comfort in your relationship with Him and the work of His Spirit within you . . .then certain things should be true of your life."

            Paul says if these people are true believers, they will work together. They will love each other. And they will serve each other. Everyone will stay in one accord and taking good care to each other.  

For today meditation i have three points, my first point is…

1. Christian fellowship required unity in oneness with Christ

1 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,

            This passage is talking about the unity of the church. As we see Paul is talking about the Philippians church to be united in one accord.

            Our text begins with a reminder of what God has done for us. We can notice that verse 1 contains four “if” statements. Those “ifs” do not express doubt. In the Greek this particular grammatical form actually expresses a certainty, "If such-and-such is true…and I know that it is”   It’s like a commencement speaker at a Christian college saying something like this: “If you have been encouraged by your education here, if you have grown in the Lord, if you have discovered God’s will for your life here, then when you leave this place, don’t forget to pray for us and don’t forget to support this college financially.” The “ifs” of verse 1 express truths that the Philippians would readily assent to:

Yes, they had been encouraged by their oneness with Christ.

Yes, they had experienced God’s love.

Yes, they had enjoyed the fellowship of God’s Spirit.

Yes, they had received an outpouring of mercy from God.

            Before living in the life of unity we can lived in certain things which can be assumed as true about those who are to live at once. When he says ‘if there is…any participation in the Spirit’, or, better, (NIV) ‘any fellowship with the Spirit’, Paul is saying this: ‘the work of the Holy Spirit is to create a fellowship both between the believer and God, and between believers; if such a fellowship has been created in Philippi, then can you resist my appeal to live at once?’ The fact of a divinely created fellowship carries with it the implication of the church at one with itself.

            In order to have a Christian fellowship in oneness in Christ, first we need to look at our self, are we really follow the footstep of Jesus Christ to have a good fellowship with each others. If we narrow down it, do we have a good fellowship with our teacher? Are we talking to each other frankly with our friends to have a good fellowship? We must fight these tendencies in ourselves. We must pray for the Lord to change us. We must ask that God would help us to see beyond ourselves.

My second point is…

V. 2 Christian fellowship required unity in Unison

2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

            Verse 2 brings before us the three-fold requirement for unity. In point of fact the various phrases in this verse are very close together in their meaning.

We learn from this verse that true Christian unity means a deep sharing together.

            A. The Shared Mind. The NIV speaks of “being like-minded” while Peterson says “agrees with each other.” Being like-minded touch what we believe. To be of one mind is to let the mind of Jesus Christ be in you. That permits differences of expressions in our fellowship with Christ. Unity begins with a shared statement of faith.

            1. We should major on what we have in common. Here we can say that we have faith in Christ, those who have faith in him will have fellowship with him.

            2. We should respect their right to disagree. When we are respect with each other we have fellowship with each other. So let us respect our fellow friends.

            3. We should hold our conviction in love. Here we need to have confidence in whatever we deed and also we need to have love each other in Christ.

            B. The Shared Heart. Paul speaks of “having the same love.” This touches how we feel about each other. How we care about our fellowship with our friends and our neighbor.

C. The Shared Soul. The NIV says “being one in spirit and purpose.” I like Peterson’s translation: “Be deep-spirited friends.” This touches how we relate to each other. The Greek literally means “same-souled.” It has the idea of such a deep unity that our souls are “common” in their love and respect for each other.

            Let me give an illustration from the football team. On any football team there are many players and many positions. You have a halfback, a tight end, linebackers, split ends, safeties and defensive ends. You also have those huge guys on the line who like to knock people down. Put them all together and the many players make up one team.

            The best coaches the ones who win in the long run stress that the team wins together and loses together. If one player does well, everyone celebrates. If one makes a mistake, the whole team suffers together.

            It's similar to the way things are in athletics. If you play on a team the goal must be the team and not the individual. Sometimes the running back must block. Sometimes the big hitter needs to sacrifice the runner along; sometimes the star shooter has to pass the ball to a teammate. The goal is the team. When they work together in unity they will win the match. If they win they all win and if they lost they all lost.

            That’s the kind of unity Paul calls us to in verse 2. We are to have a shared mind, a shared heart, a shared soul. Let the church remember that we’re all in this together. When one wins, we all win. When anyone loses, we all lose. In God’s family there are no higher or lower. We are all same in the sigh of God. We all have a role to play, to have fellowship with each other.

My third point is…

V. 3-4. Christian fellowship required unity in Harmony/Agreement

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

            Phi 2:3 -Better than himself (huperechontas heautôn). Present active participle of huperechô in intransitive sense to excel or surpass with the ablative, "excelling themselves." See Ro 12:10.

            Phi 2:4 - Looking (skopountes). Present active participle of skopeô from skopos (aim, goal). Not keeping an eye on the main chance for number one, but for the good of others.

            In this Verse 3-4, Paul tells us that we will “consider others to be better than ourselves.” The principle is not hard to understand. Paul is not saying that we are “lesser” to others. His command has nothing to do with the kinds of narrow-mindedness that is so much a part of our society. We are not to consider others better than us because of their race, their socio-economic status, their gender, their experience or age. We are to consider others better than us because we don't know their heart . . . . but we do know ours.

            The true servant is so aware of their own spiritual state that they would never presume to point their finger at another. They are so humbled by God's grace to them that they are eager and willing to share it with others.

Rather than seek our own glory and pursue our own agenda, the servant of God is concerned about only one thing . . . honoring the Lord. The true servant doesn’t care if they get the credit as long as God gets the honor.

            We are to be violent and painfully honest in looking at our lives while giving the benefit of the doubt for others.

I know that I often do things for selfish motives.

I know that my thoughts sometimes are not honoring to God.

I know that sometimes I am doing something only because others are looking.

I don’t know the same about you.

            As we see in this passage that Paul is telling to the Philippians church to have unity, and to have one mind in their believing. What about you and me, are we united with our fellow friends, classmate, our roommate, our teacher and people who are living beside us. So if we are not still practicing all this things. So this is the right time to think ourselves and try to have fellowship with them and united through Christ. That is, what Paul wants the Philippians church to do? As well as we the theologian also need to follow and obey what the Bible teaches us to do. Now is the right time to confess and have fellowship with our friends and teachers and so on. It is the right time to have reunited with Christ our savior.