If you missed Sunday's broadcast, please catch up by following the link below. (For the foreseeable future, we will be running our Sunday morning services digitally. Please go to our website on Sundays at 10:30 to join in)
The danger of disunity
There is a danger of broken relationships in the church as our text implies,
‘…Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’ (Philippians 2:2-4)
Pride brings division, humility brings unity. Pride is summed up in the words ‘selfish and ambition’ and ‘Vain conceit’; selfish ambition is to want to be above others in status and power; vain conceit is to have a high opinion of ourselves without justification. Put simply, it means to desire to be served rather than, like Jesus, to serve others. At its root, pride forgets that it has been saved by grace and this is why Paul, in this section, is outlining the way that Jesus - the true God - has served us.
Have the same mindset as Jesus
God reminds us that our relationships with one another are to mirror how Jesus has served us. Paul continues,
'In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage…’ (Philippians 2:5-6)
We are to ‘have the same mindset as Christ Jesus’ - the same attitude as Him.
God, through Paul, is reminding us that we have been loved and served by Jesus who is God and is truly worthy of our service.
Jesus was ‘in very nature God’. The word ‘Morphe’ from which this is translated, means the true and exact nature of something, possessing all the characteristics and qualities of something. Men and women are in the ‘form’ of mankind. Jesus is fully God.
And yet Jesus ‘…did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage…’ Put simply, this means that Jesus did not use His great power to avoid suffering service for us.
RESPONSE
Seeing the worth of Jesus and how He has served us inspires gratitude and humble service. Do you understand that God, in Christ, has served you? Perhaps it might be helpful to spend time meditating on the worth of Jesus from the opening passage of John’s gospel.
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.’ (John 1:1-2)