Philippians 2 -- Our Part In Unity

Paul was addressing selfishness, its effects on church unity, and how it doesn’t match up at all with the way Jesus lived.  My commentary said that unity is not uniformity, where we would all be made to believe the same thing.  “There may be minor matters on which we disagree, yet we can SUBMERGE our own opinions, where no real principle is involved, for the good of others.”

I think our real problem is this:  Our beliefs become our realities.  The same thing is happening in the lives of others.  Sometimes our reality doesn’t match others’ realities, and because ours was formed by our beliefs, we want to decide that others are flat out wrong.  They of course will probably be going through the same analysis.

So how do Christians in the local church resolve such issues?  Paul points us to Christ, who even though He was equal with God, chose to display love by not demanding His rights as part of the Godhead, but instead willingly chose to submit and to empty Himself out on the cross.  He made Himself nothing for us out of love.  We too often want to build ourselves up out of desire for self.  The thought of a church full of believers willing to do this is amazing!  Yet we would often rather fall far short of the impossible solely because we selfishly desire to build ourselves up.

Maybe that’s what Paul was hinting at in verse 12 when he spoke of working to complete our salvation.  We’re like a diamond in the rough that becomes polished by years of working outward the salvation we’ve received inside.  Someone once told me that this was the Second Great Commission, and we are to be about conquering our own Judea inside ourselves.  As my commentary noted, “People who are willing to die for others do not generally quarrel with them.”

Father, I know that I must decrease so that You can increase inside of me.  Our human selfishness fights us on every side about this.  Remind me to empty myself out, as Your Son did, especially on minor matters where our beliefs may have resulted in slightly warped realities.  Help me to see as You see.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford