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It has come to Paul’s notice that some members of the church have become discouraged, prompting him to remind them of the encouragement they can find in Christ. He does this by posing the rhetorical questions, “Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? (vs. 1a) Paul is encouraging the people to remember that they belong to the Lord and to find comfort in his love for them.

Discouragement may come from other members of a community. Just as it did for the people of Israel as they listened to a report from the scouts after their exploratory visit to the new home land God had promised them.

Caleb tried to encourage the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

But the other men who had explored the land with him answered, “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread discouraging reports about the land among the Israelites. “The land we explored will swallow up any who go to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt like grasshoppers next to them and that’s what we looked like to them.” (Numbers 13:31-33)

Discouragement may also come from sources outside like the time when the people of Israel were rebuilding the temple and the wall around Jerusalem.

Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work. They bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their aims. This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne. (Ezra 4:4-5)

They were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could break our resolve and stop the work. So I prayed for strength to continue the work. (Nehemiah 6:9)

The Lord Jesus must be so grieved when he sees the emergence of disunity among his people. For he prayed earnestly for their unity as the time of his sacrificial death approached.

I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father—that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.

I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are—I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and understand that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:20-23)

Paul appears to be concerned for the church in Philippi as he poses another rhetorical question for them, “Any fellowship together in the Holy Spirit?” (vs. 1b) The answer he would have expected would have been for the church to acknowledge that of course there is unity when the Holy Spirit is present. Disunity grows among members of a church when different groups are intent on promoting their own particular programmes, when the gifts of other members of the church are not recognised, the leading of the Lord is not sought, and when everyone does what they think is right. Like the people of Israel did on so many occasions. For example during the times of the judges.

In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. (eg. Judges 17:6)

Paul’s concern as he senses the growing discouragement, coldness in member relationships, and the potential disunity now causes him to write,

Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving 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.” (vs. 2-4)

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. (John 15:9-13)

But Paul hints at his concern that there were signs that this may not be evident among the members of the church in Philippi when he asks “Are your hearts tender and sympathetic?” (vs. 1b) The answer expected to this another of his rhetorical questions would have been ‘No!’ The church in Ephesus became known for the lack of love among its members. They were correct in their doctrine, but it was a cold and aloof correctness, prompting this rebuke from the Lord …

“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first. If you don’t, I will come and remove your lamp stand from its place among the churches.” (Revelation 2:4-5)

While drawing attention to the emerging warning signs that the church may be losing its way, Paul reminds its members of some principles to follow if drifting away from the Lord is to be turned around.

Paul’s reference to “working together with one heart and mind”, (vs. 2) raises this question, ‘What goals may he have been thinking of?’ Several of Paul’s goals in life emerge in some of his other letters.

- There is his goal of finishing the race, not pulling out part way along the track. He writes of his joy as he draws near to the end of the race, the reaching of the goal.

As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his glorious return. (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

So everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ. We warn them and teach them with all the wisdom God has given us, for we want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. I work very hard at this, as I depend on Christ. (Colossians 1:28-29)

- Am I being driven by selfish ambition? Paul advises against such a motive when he writes, “Do nothing out of self ambition or vain deceit.” (vs. 3 NIV) The Greek word translated ‘selfish ambition’ is ‘εριθεια’ (eritheia). Barclay[1] explains the meaning of this interesting word.

Originally it simply meant working for pay. But the man who works solely for pay works from a low motive. He is out solely to benefit himself. The word therefore came to describe a careerist, out for office to magnify himself. And so it came to be connected with politics and to mean canvassing for office. It came to describe self-seeking and selfish ambition, which was out to advance itself and did not care to what methods it stooped to advance its ends. So there were those who preached the harder now that Paul was in prison, for his imprisonment seemed to present them with a heaven-sent opportunity to advance their own influence and prestige and lessen his.[2]

- Is personal prestige what I am really after? Am I wanting just to impress others? Such a desire is based on a fanciful opinion of oneself. The word translated ‘vain deceit’ is ‘κενοδοξια’ (kenodoxia). The meaning contained in this word is that of vanity. It leads, as the NLT puts it, to wanting “to make a good impression on others.” (vs. 3)

Paul writes, “Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.” (vs. 3) Show interest in what others are doing. Think of them as well qualified and gifted in the service the Lord has set them aside for. Hendriksen[3] writes of such an attitude as fostering a “genuine mutual regard and appreciation for each other.”

‘Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had,’ writes Paul. (vs. 5)

- He was not demanding of his rights. (vs. 6) He laid these aside for the sake of completing the ministry for which he was appointed. He did not snatch at, or take by force what was rightfully his. For example, as the time approached for him to become “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), he put to one side his rights as the Son of God, as he himself explained.

Don’t you realise that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?” (Matthew 26:53)

- He accepted the role of servant. (vs. 7, cf. Isaiah 42:1-4) Jesus himself said,

“For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)

- He had a cross to bear. And so will his followers. In giving his life for the salvation of others Jesus had a cross to bear. ‘… he obediently humbled himself even dying a criminal’s death on a cross.’ (vs. 8) As the time drew near for him to die as our substitute, thus making the forgiveness of our sins possible, he was left to carry his own cross, helped for part of the walk by Simon from North Africa. The picture becomes clear as we put these separate records alongside each other.

Then Pilate gave Jesus to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away. Carrying the cross by himself, Jesus went to the place called Skull Hill (in Hebrew, Golgotha). (John 19:16-17)

A man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the country just then, and they forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon is the father of Alexander and Rufus.) (Mark 15:21)

As they were on the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and they forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Matthew 27:32)

The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the king of Israel is he? Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him!” (Matthew 27:41-42)

Likewise, there is a cross for his followers to bear, as Jesus once said to his disciples,

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

Those who would follow Christ need to be willing to suffer for him just as he did for them, because, as Paul reminded Timothy,

“ … everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12)

Paul continues his letter with this reminder, “God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father.” (vs. 9-11) There is no hope in any belief system that rejects the resurrection of Christ. For, as Paul writes in another letter,

And if Christ was not raised then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished! And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world. (1 Corinthians 15:14-19)

But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spiritual without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. (2 Corinthians 5:1-4)

There remains another possible time however when we as believers will receive our new heavenly bodies. This will be at the time of Christ’s return if that was to occur while we are still alive on earth. Paul explains for us …

But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die.

When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:51-55)

Paul writes that God has given Christ “a name that is above every other name.” This name is none other than the name Jehovah. God revealed this to Jeremiah when he said, “I will place a righteous Branch on King David’s throne … And this is his name: The LORD [Jehovah] Is Our Righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:5-6) Solomon tells us, “The name of the LORD is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.” (Proverbs 18:10)

There is salvation in no other name. Peter made this clear as he preached to a crowd of people in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection. And then again a few days later to the nation’s leaders who were meeting in Jerusalem.

“Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this … and anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved …There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them.” (Acts 2:14b, 21; 4:12)

[1] Barclay, THE DAILY STUDY BIBLE, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. (p. 23)
[2] Refer also to Philippians 1:17, Romans 2:8, and James 3:13-16, where the same word is used.
[3] Hendriksen, William. PHILIPPIANS. London: Banner of Truth Trust. 1963. (p. 101)

A CHURCH IN DANGER OF DRIFTING (2:1-11)