Phil 2:1-3

Philippians 2:1-4

Two weeks ago I gave you a chemistry lesson and this morning we will start with a lesson in logic. Who is excited to begin?! Lest you plan on taking a thirty minute snooze, before we begin the logic lesson, let me complement you all. I believe that everyone here is already a master logician—not a master MAgician, but a master LOgician. You are all experts at logic and probably don't even realize it. For example, each of you, including children all the way down to newborns, masterfully use the form of logic called the material conditional. Everyone say this phrase together: material conditional. Now you can go ahead and forget it, because it’s not that important. The material conditional is the “if-then” clause. All wives are accomplished at this form of logic, as illustrated in the following phrase.

If my husband loved me more, then I would respect him more.

The second half is not true unless the condition of the first half is met. The wife will not show more respect for her husband until he begins to show more love for her. If he doesn’t love her more, she will not respect him more. The second part is conditioned, or dependent upon the first part. Husbands use the same logic in reverse.

If my wife respected me more, then I would love her more.

Already we can see why many marriages and relationship get into trouble because both the husband and the wife are waiting for the other person to act first. But this is not our topic this morning. Do you see, husbands and wives, how you are experts at logic without even being aware of it? The same is true for young children.

If you buy me that toy, then I will not throw a fit in Walmart.

Some children and even some teens use this form of logic to manipulate and train their parents to get whatever they want. Even newborn babies, a full year before they can speak their first word, use material conditional logic in this way.

If you feed me, then I will stop crying and fussing.

Although, in reality, a newborn’s logical statement looks more like this:

If you feed me, then I will stop crying and fussing…or then again, maybe I won’t.

We see how we all use the “if…then” statement on a regular basis in everyday life. You will easily see how Paul used the same form of logic in chapter two of Philippians.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

This entire four verse section is nothing but a material conditional clause—an “if…then” clause. Verses two to four are dependent upon verse one. If you have the things in verse one, then you should also have the things in the next three verses. Paul could have rightly begun with verse two. He could have said, Make my joy complete, have the same mind, the same love, don’t be selfish, be humble, look out for the interests of others.” He could have commanded these things because they are all part of what it means to live as a Christian. Verses two to four is a description of maturity and holiness and Paul had every right to demand and expect conformity to these standards.

But instead of starting with verse two, Paul did something quite risky—he linked these commands of Christian character in a conditional clause. In other words, Paul is giving us an out. In effect, Paul built in an excuse for not obeying these commands. For example, if we go back to our original statements about husbands and wives, we see that if the first half of the condition is not met, the person does not need to do the second half.

If a husband does not show more love to his wife, then the wife is not obligated to show more respect to her husband. Likewise, if the conditions laid out in verse one are not true, then we are not under any obligation to obey the commands in verses two to four. But you see, Paul is so confident that the conditions in verse one are true, that he risks the conditional phrasing of these commands. Paul is so certain that we have received encouragement from being united with Christ, and we have received comfort from his love and we have received fellowship with the Spirit.

Verse one could have been summarized in a single phrase—“If you are saved…then do all these other things”. All five of these phrases are related to our salvation. If you remove the words in italics, encouragement, comfort and fellowship, we have three different descriptions of our salvation.

1. We are united with Christ

2. We have his love and

3. We are with the Spirit

These are the brute facts of our salvation. But Paul did not stop with brute facts about salvation. He intentionally added the three adjectives to the facts of salvation. We are not merely united with Christ, but we have encouragement from being united with Christ. We do not just have love, we have comfort from his love. We don’t just have the Spirit, we have fellowship with the Spirit. Encouragement, comfort and fellowship—each of these is a very relational description. Each of these words speaks directly to the deepest relational needs of every man, woman and child.

I need encouragement because I am depressed.

I need comfort because I am in pain.

I need fellowship because I am alone.

If I had encouragement then I wouldn’t be depressed, if I had comfort then I wouldn’t be in pain and if I had fellowship then I wouldn’t be alone. But since I lack these things, then I am depressed, I am in pain and I am alone. Not everyone experiences depression, pain and loneliness to the same degree, but we all feel these in various levels at various times. Depression, pain and loneliness—just about very sin and selfish pursuit in the Bible come from the futile attempt to meet these needs. You can also see how these three overlap one another. Loneliness is itself painful, and the pain of loneliness can lead to depression. Some people are so afraid of being alone that they will seek companionship in the wrong places with the wrong people. Some people make really bad decisions about their choice of friends because they would rather have bad friends than no friends at all. Others make really bad choices about girlfriends and boyfriends and husbands and wives because they would rather take their chances with almost anyone rather than be alone.

All manner of sin is the result of trying to cover up depression, pain and loneliness. Drugs, alcohol, sex and pornography are the most obvious and most common ways to dull the pain, but there are a whole host of less obvious “painkillers”. Some people run into bad relationships to dull the pain of loneliness, others run away from people to mask the pain of a bad relationship. Movies, TV, sports and entertainment can all dull pain and depression. Internet chat rooms, websurfing and excessive time on facebook can do it as well. Others try to kill the pain with food, shopping, hobbies, work, kid’s activities, and even ministry. Some of these things can be good things, they can be neutral, or they can be idolatrous ways to meet our needs that only God can fill.

But this passage is not about a generic type of encouragement, comfort and fellowship, but about how these needs are fulfilled through our salvation. We have encouragement from being united with Christ, we have comfort from his love and we have fellowship with the Spirit. We completely miss the force of this passage if we separate the relational aspect from the salvation benefit. We don’t receive a generic type of encouragement and we don’t receive the brute fact of being united with Christ. Instead, we have received encouragement precisely because we have been united with Christ, and this God-driven encouragement covers our depression. We don’t have generic comfort or the brute fact of love, but rather comfort directly related to his love for us, and this love covers our pain. We don’t have a generic type of fellowship, but an intimate fellowship with the Spirit, and this fellowship covers our loneliness.

When I put these three phrases in parallel, do you see something that is missing?

encouragement from being united with Christ

comfort from his love

fellowship with the Spirit

We have Christ and the Holy Spirit, but the middle phrase just says “love.” In fact, in the original, the word “his” is not present. Even though it is not explicitly stated, I am convinced that Paul meant the love from God the Father. This salvation description is also a Trinitarian formula.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in an eternal, perfectly intimate relationship with one another. The very essence and character of God is relational. God has never existed outside of a relationship among the members of the triune Godhead. The absence of salvation is fundamentally an absence of relationship with God and salvation is the restoration of this broken relationship. Therefore, there are three different ways that relationships are emphasized in this one verse—through the relationship of the Trinity, the relational nature of salvation and the relational adjectives that describe salvation.

Now that we are beginning to understand this first verse, the next question is as follows: do we have these things? Do we have encouragement from being united with Christ? Do we have comfort from the Father's love? Do we have fellowship with the Spirit? Remember, if verse one is not true, then we are not under any obligation to obey the next three verses. We had better be certain that verse one is true because in the next three verses, Paul is going to attack the very roots of our enormous selfishness.

Do you remember the controversy between Whitefield and Wesley that we talked about last week? There were actually two major controversies: Whitefield believed in election and Wesley did not, and Wesley believed in sinless perfection, but Whitefield did not. Let me show you a very practical reason why a belief in sinless perfectionism is so troubling and dangerous. What if a typical day went like this. While commuting to work, two different drivers cut you off in traffic. When you get to the office you see that no one took the time to make any coffee. Next, you open up your email and see that your boss is a little upset with you because yourt project is running behind schedule. At lunch, all of your co-workers are ragging on management so you put in your two cents. In the afternoon you realize that you missed an appointment because your secretary forgot to tell you about it. Then on the way home from work, three people cut you off in traffic. When you walk in the door, the kids immediately begin to drag you into a family argument. Finally, you look over at your wife cooking dinner and she gives you this look of frustrated desperation. If I go throughout my day and have all manner of difficulty with other people and all the while I have a firm conviction that I am free from all sin, guess who gets the blame for all of my troubles? Not me! I'm OK, but you're not OK. I'm OK, but my problems are with everyone else; the other drivers, the person who didn't make coffee, my boss, all of management, my secretary, more careless drivers, my kids and my wife.

OK, I understand that no one here actually believes in sinless perfection, but even if you don't officially believe in this theological heresy, chances are that you tend to live as if you do. How do I know that? Because you still come to the end of that day and think that all of your troubles were brought on by other people. It could have been that you went through that entire day completely lost in your own selfish desires and weren't even aware of it.

Let's go back and look at the same day to see how it may have been different. Those two drivers who cut you off, really didn't cut you off, but you were driving a little too aggressively yourself. The person who was supposed to arrive early and make coffee was actually you. You promised your boss you'd be done with that project a week ago, but you conveniently forgot that fact. At lunch, you were the main perpetrator in complaining about management. Your secretary did leave you a note about your appointment but it got lost under the mound of paperwork on your desk. On the way home you were driving too aggressively again. When you walk through the door and your kids tug you into an argument? That one was actually their fault. Finally, your wife gave you a look of frustrated desperation because you came home an hour late.

Most of the trouble you had all day long was not due to other people, but instead it was due to your own selfish desires. Without even being aware of it, all day long you were seeking encouragement, comfort and fellowship. You were looking out for your own interests and not the interests of others. You considered yourself better than everyone else and you dropped subtle hints of your superiority all throughout the day.

We are intensely selfish people and part of maturing in Christ is to replace that intense selfishness with immense humility. But in order to do that, we have to give up the exclusive pursuit of our own interests. We have to consider others better than ourselves. We have to lay down our own rights, we have to lay down our right to be right, we have to lay down the protection of our rights and put others before us.

Do you know why this is so difficult? Because we think that when we give preference to others and serve them first, that it is a win-lose situation. If I consider someone better than me, then the other guy is going to win in the deal and I'm going to lose. How many of us want to intentionally walk into a win-lose situation? We all like to win. We all like to come out on top. I think that if God asked us to once in a while consider others better than ourselves, we could swallow this truth a little easier. If the other guy is going to win and I'm going to lose, then it's OK if that happens from time to time. But God is not asking us to live in this kind of humility on an occasional basis. Paul is painting a lifestyle of humility where we always prefer others before ourselves.

And that is the really frightening part of this passage. How can I enter into every relationship where I will lose and the other guy will win? I have my own needs after all. I can be depressed, in pain and alone myself, so why should I always look out for the other guy? Remember our “if-then” clause? “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit,” then live a life of humility, consider others better than yourselves. Here's the whole force of the passage. Since we already have encouragement, comfort and fellowship, then it's impossible to have a lose-win scenario in our relationships with others. We might feel like we are giving up or losing something when we give preference to others, but Paul is telling us that it is impossible to give up anything. Inherent in the gospel, as part of our salvation, we already possess these relationally based, salvation blessings. When you live a life of humility, there is no such thing as a lose-win situation—there is only a win-win. You win because you already have these blessings and the other guy wins because of your humble actions toward them.

Many of you probably know the famous quote from martyred missionary Jim Elliot. “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot was willing to give up his earthly life—something that he could not hold on to—in order to gain hold of eternal life—something he could never lose. That sentiment is wrapped up in eternal truth, but my point is that there is no loss to living a life of humility. I cannot possibly give away more encouragement than I already possess. I cannot share more comfort or fellowship than I already have. I cannot possibly be humbled before others any more than Christ was humbled for my sake. There is no loss in humility, there is only the gain that we already.

But that's not entirely true. A life of humility requires us to give up one thing. We do have let go of something of tremendous value to us—our pride. For every person sitting here this morning, our pride is probably our single greatest treasure. We love it, we feed it, we nourish and do all we can to help it grow up big and strong. Why do we do this? Almost every bit of trouble we have ever had has resulted from our own, stubborn pride. Why would we want to nourish and cling to something that has caused us so much pain? I'll tell you why—because of overwhelming fear of letting it go.

The fear is that we will let go of our pride and have nothing left. Our pride causes us trouble, but it is also the last piece of self-worth we can hang on to, and it scares us to death to let go of it. This is why Paul took the risk that he did with his if-then clause. If you have all of these things through our salvation, then you can humble yourself by serving others.

This reminds me of the rope/challenge course that I was part of many years ago. One of the challenges involved climbing a twenty foot platform, standing on a tiny little ledge and then jumping straight ahead about eight feet in order to ring a bell. Would you do that? Understand that you have not one harness attached to you, but two. You feel like you’re going to fall the twenty feet and land flat on your face, but you won’t. This is the problem with our pride. It feels safer to hold onto our pride than to leap into the air and flee from it. But you see, you are harnessed into safety. When you let go of your pride, it is not a lose-win situation, but a win-win. You still have the encouragement, comfort and fellowship that you seek.

Rich Maurer

November 16, 2008