Philippians 2

Lessons on striving together for the faith of the gospel......

"Is there any encouragement from belosing to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other loveing one another, and working together with one heart and purpose.

Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing."

This chapter has a lot to chew on and I personally have can gleen alot from it. I know in our work and ministry we have seen "striving" and we have seen the "conflict" of where our thoughts, eye and motives should be properly fixed.

For those who might just be reading Philippians for the first time in along time let me just catch you up to speed on the letter Paul wrote. He is writing to the Philippian church and he begins to address or mention the striving that is going on in the church and possibly among the many believers there in Philipi. I would venture to say that the "striving" isn't confined to one church but many. Phil. 1:27-30 helps to give some indication that there was something going on and that they needed to be reminded of the "greater cause". Phil. 1: 30 " we are in this fight together". Paul is suggesting that suffering for Christ is a given and that some of what is happening is just part of the life they now live. But now in Chapter 2 he is hitting to not just the "striving" with the lostness of the world and the life they now live for Christ which includes suffering but he also addresses the issue of "striving" with believers. How can this be?

So as you read Phil 2: 1-4 what things really stood out to you? For me there were several key things- the first 3 are the questions that Paul asks those to whom he was writing to.

1. Is there any encouragement in Christ?
~ security in knowing I'm His
~ no need to prove myself
2. Any comfort from His love?
~ unconditional love
~ peace that He loves me no matter how bad I can be/ being forgiven ....
3. Any fellowship together in the spirit?
~ the great gift of kindred spirits ( fellowship with believers who meet for the first time- there is just a kindred spirit there)
~ no need to put on airs /we can truly be who we are and not have to worry about who's better


I personally took some time to just reflect on these and I was thinking about how easy it is to just forget these things. I just couldn't help but think wow there is so much encouragement, comfort and fellowship just in my relationship with Christ. This should be an outpouring of my own spirit to those around me.

I would encourage you to just sit down and write out all that you think of when you ask yourself these questions. You can see what I wrote and maybe it will get you thinking too.

Well, then Paul goes on to ask a rhetorical question: " Are your hearts tender and sympathetic?" Then Paul continues with : "Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other loveing one another, and working together with one heart and purpose. "

I don't know about you but the final question in my opinion as important as the others. " Are your hearts tender and sympathetic?" I can't help but think about conflicts I've been in and in processing this chapter I've come to realize that when conflicts have happened that have truly turned out BAD- it was when I or the other person didn't have hearts that were tender or sympathetic. When those two qualities were present in other conflicts the conflict was resolved and in almost every situation I can think about the relationship was restored.

So where am I going ? Well, the real question is where is Paul going or better yet- the Holy Spirit since he was guiding Paul as he was writing.

Let's look at the final portion of 2: 1-4 " Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing."

For me this week, this really sums it up:
* have a tender heart toward others
* be sympathetic toward others
* don't be selfish
* don't live to make a good impresson on others
* be humble
* think of others as better than yourself
* be interested in what others are doing

These are just great reminders of how Christ lived out these very character traits and we ought to also do the same......


This week I just pray that you will be challenged to change and be transformed in to Christ's image...

Lord, I pray that you would help me to be mindful of my actions, my heart, and my relationship with others. I pray that we would all be more aware of our need of You and to desire the qualities that will produce Your Righteousness.

It is in Your Name I pray,
the name of Jesus,
Amen.............