Likeminded With Christ
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 14th June service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Php 2:1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Php 2:2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Php 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Php 2:4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Likeminded With Christ
Last time we saw how the Apostle Paul had called upon believers to follow the pattern of Christ in the gospel and live accordingly, telling us, ‘only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ’. Paul knew that when a sinner is converted their desire is to love, honour and serve their Saviour. Certainly our ambitions fall short because of indwelling sin yet the desire to imitate the Lord Jesus is always present in the soul of a new creation. Jesus said, ‘The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak’.
A holy argument
Paul knows it is not easy to live as becomes the gospel. He can testify from his own experience, ‘to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not’. Nevertheless, the Apostle is not deterred from pressing his holy argument. In our verses today he stresses in grand and passionate terms how believers are inspired by the divine graces they have personally enjoyed in Christ and how these should motivate us to reproduce like-virtues in our dealings with others.
For Christ’s sake …
The Apostle lists several spiritual blessings bestowed by the Lord on His people. He believes the renewed souls to whom he writes will be able to recognise and relate to each experience in a felt, personal way. Prefixing ‘if’ to each statement does not imply doubt but reinforces the effect or consequence of grace. It is because we enjoy these godly experiences personally and since we know the Lord’s gracious blessings intimately that we are able to share Christ’s dealings with us to those around us.
The love of God
Paul gives four examples of God’s kindness to His elect people. He uses these to recommend and enforce everything he is about to encourage in the Philippians. They are, the consolation of Christ, the comfort of love, the fellowship of the Spirit and the bowels, or sympathies and mercies of God. His argument is simply that believers who have enjoyed such blessings in Jesus Christ under the gospel will exhibit similar qualities in their own lives and treat one another accordingly.
Christ our Enabler
Note again the Apostle’s emphasis upon the Lord Jesus as both the Example and Enabler of our Christian life. Believer’s live by faith in Jesus Christ. Christ, not Law, is our measure of conformity to the divine will of God. Christ is God’s good and perfect gift come down from above to reconcile, regenerate and transform His church. He is joined to His people and indwells us by His Spirit. All that is good and perfect within us comes from Christ and having Him we have all His gifts and graces. We have been granted His consolation, His comfort, His love and fellowship. Thereafter, having freely received we should freely give.
A source of joy
Paul has already spoken about the joy he shares in his fellowship with the saints in Philippi and again he speaks of the pleasure he will draw from seeing the evident grace of God exhibited in the attitudes and actions of his brothers and sisters in Christ. He is looking for the same love, the same union and fellowship amongst the Lord’s people that they receive from their Saviour and Head. Like-mindedness with Christ cannot be suppressed in those He fills and its presence in these saints will surely fuel the Apostle’s joy.
Christ our Example
Again, Christ is our Example. Our Saviour did nothing through strife or vainglory. He was always gentle and kind. Meekness and service characterised His dealings with all men. He would converse with Pharisees and publicans alike. So, too, lowliness and patience, humility and forbearance become all who confess Christ. Pride and self-conceit have no legitimate hold on a believer’s thinking. How can we be proud when we know what we are by nature and were before Christ saved us? There is nothing good in us that we have not received and therefore we have no grounds to boast of ourselves. We were, ‘without Christ, … having no hope, and without God in the world’.
Honourable service
Brotherly love becomes the Lord’s people and Christ’s spiritual gifts adorn our Christian witness. Our old nature seeks to prioritise our own needs and satisfy our own desires. Our new nature has a higher, more honourable goal. The Saviour’s life and death have taught us lessons of self-abasement, humility and sacrifice. The Apostle is not suggesting that we neglect those things that rightly concern us, and our families, as good stewards of God’s provision. He is, however, advocating Christ’s honour, care for His church and actively serving the wellbeing of our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Amen
Hymn 1131
“If two of you agree … it shall be done.” Matt. 18. 19
S. Turner L.M.
1
We have thy promise, gracious Lord,
Thou wilt be where thy people meet;
O, then, fulfil thy gracious word,
And make our happiness complete.
2
Thy promise is to two or three,
Who meet together in thy name;
That for whatever they agree
To ask, they surely shall obtain.
3
We ask thy gracious presence here,
The sweet enjoyment of thy love;
From worldly thoughts O keep us clear,
And set our hearts on things above.
4
We ask thy Holy Spirit’s aid,
Whilst we’re engaged in prayer and praise;
We ask from our great living Head
To be supplied with every grace.
5
We ask for faith a sweet increase,
To find our doubts and fears removed,
To feel the powerful reign of peace,
And every sinful thought subdued.
6
We ask to feel a union sweet,
We ask a blessing on thy word;
We ask – but all our askings meet
In this – we ask thy presence, Lord!
Hymn 258
Christ’s Example. Phil. 2. 3-5; Ps. 133. 1
R. Burnham 8.7.
1
Jesus, Source of our salvation,
May we now thy nature know;
Then more bowels of compassion
We to thy dear saints shall show.
May the grace thou hast imparted,
In relieving our complaints,
Make us kind and tender-hearted
To the feeblest of thy saints.
2
When they are severely tempted,
We their sorrows would assuage,
Knowing we are not exempted
From the tempter’s furious rage.
If by sin they’re overtaken,
We’d their faults to them declare;
But in strains of much compassion,
Lest we drive them to despair.
3
Keep us from a proud appearance,
In whate’er we do or say;
Fill us with divine forbearance;
Then how happy we shall be!
Hand in hand we would be walking,
Eyeing Jesus’ new command;
Of his love we’d e’er be talking,
Till we reach fair Canaan’s land.
The gospel is God's promise to save His people by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is the message of redemption accomplished and applied by the grace of God alone and experienced by the gift of faith alone. It is to the gospel we look as believers for all our acceptance with God and to Christ on the cross for all our example of how to libe in this world.