Lesson 7

A year ago, a pastor called me and asked, "What do you think is the greatest need of the church?" After I answered, he asked if I would preach on that theme at a Bible conference which he was holding at this church. What was my answer?

I believe that there are 2 things which a church must constantly work at maintaining. They are holiness and harmony. Every church is in a constant struggle to maintain purity, both doctrinal and moral. And every church must work at having unity. These are the two greatest needs of the church. One involves our relationship with God (holiness) and the other involves are relationship with each other (harmony). When Jesus spoke about church life (and He did only once in Matthew 18) it was these two themes that he spoke of. He said when a fellow Christian sins, you are to confront him, alone, then with 1 other person, then as a church, calling him to repentance. That is maintaining holiness. He went on to say that when a brother repents, you are to forgive him over and over. That is maintaining harmony. (John 17:15-21). That same theme is expressed in other passages of scripture (I Thess. 4:7,9). And as we shall see today, that seems to be the concern of Paul as he writes to the Philippians.

Today's message actually concentrates on the second of these two themes, that is, the harmony and unity within a church.

ILLUSTRATION: I visited a home this week, where a lady told me that their family had left one church because of the divisions. They had visited our church and some others in the area. They had finally joined a church and now, just a couple of months later, it looked like that church was going to split.

It is a sad thing to say, but most Christians who have been in church any length of time have witnessed internal church problems. Many of you have gone through those kinds of heartbreaking, gut-wrenching situations. When I was a teenager, that happened in my church. I felt like I had been the victim of a divorce. It was as if my family was dissolving. It was very painful. In my lifetime, I've seen a lot of little problems develop in the church and result in hurt feelings, and several families leave the church.

Allow me to make one observation. It seems to me that a healthy church which holds forth strong convictions about right and wrong, truth and error, sin and righteousness, is in greater danger of being threatened in the area of unity. Liberal churches don't have problems as often with unity. After all, if you don't stand for anything, then no one every gets offended. But when a church really believes something, and people in the church have convictions that really matter to them, they are more apt to get upset with each other. The more enthusiasm a church or an individual has for the things of God, the greater the danger of a collision. So just because we regard doctrine highly and are zealous about the things of God, doesn't mean that we will be protected from discord as a church. The fact is, these things may make us more likely to have discord. This kind of church must be more vigilant about securing harmony and unity.

The scriptures are replete with evidence that this is not a new problem. Throughout history believers have had difficulty with maintaining harmony. Abraham and Lot, David and Absalom, in the Old Testament. The disciples argued about who was the greatest (Lk.9:46-48). Paul said that they were "biting and devouring one another in the Galatian churches (5:15). The church at Corinth was riddled with divisions (1:10-11; 3:3; 11:18). Even this beloved church at Philippi had a problem with its harmony (4:2; 2:14; 1:27; 2:1-4).

Disharmony is a serious problem in a church. It disrupts genuine worship, it destroys true fellowship, it discourages new Christians, it damages our testimony to unbelievers, it distracts our attention away from spiritual priorities (inward instead of outward), it deprives us of spiritual power, it brings about the disdain of the world. Oh, how we need unity and harmony within the church. Oh, how vigilant we must be to guard against factions and divisions within the church. Harmony doesn't happen by itself. We must constantly work at having it. The 2 things that I pray the most for in our church, is that we would be holy and that we would be in harmony.

Harmony was one of Paul's great concerns for the church at Philippi. In our text for today, 2:1-4, Paul pleads with this church about harmony. This text is, perhaps, one of the most concise and practical explanations of unity given in the New Testament. Paul gives us insights into the essential elements of unity - the motives for unity, the marks of unity, and the means to unity in a church. This flows out of what Paul has just said (1:27) and continues down to (2:16).

Paul begins by making a very emotional appeal to the church. His plea is not based on threats and warnings; it is on the basis of tenderness and love. Paul mentions 5 motives for unity.

A. Consolation - "If there be any consolation is Christ". The word consolation means comfort. It means to come along side, to encourage.

B. Comfort - "if any comfort of love". The word for comfort here is different that the word for consolation. It means to whisper is one's ear. "Does Christ give you an incentive to love?"

Fellowship means sharing. "Do you participate in the Spirit?"(I Th.5:19; Eph.4:30)

D. Compassion - "if any bowels and mercies". Do you have deep feelings of affection and compassion?

These are legitimate motives for unity. What I want you to understand is that the compulsion or motivation for unity is not from an external force but from an internal force. ILLUSTRATION: Picture a bag of marbles. The marbles are held together by an external force, a paper bag. If somebody tears open the bag, the marbles will go everywhere. And no pastor wants to lose his marbles. Now picture a magnet surrounded by steel ball bearings. The force that holds them together is not external but an internal magnetic field. What holds a church together? Not simply some external force, but internal forces, consolation in Christ, comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, bowels and mercies, the desire to make a spiritual leader have complete joy. It is what we have in Christ and in the Spirit and what we feel for our spiritual leaders that deeply affect us, that move us, compel us and motivate us to unity in the church. The motive for unity is the goodness of God.

Having expressed the motives for unity, Paul now goes on to describe the marks of unity. How will we know if we have unity? What is the nature of unity? What is the index of leading indicators of unity? Verse 2 gives 4 marks of unity (these overlap).

A. Have The Same Perspective - "likeminded". If I say, "You and I are like-minded" I mean "We agree, we look at things from the same perspective." We then church are suppose to agree, we are suppose to look at things from the same perspective. We are commanded to be likeminded (4:2).

B. Have The Same Passion - "having the same love". In other words, we are suppose to love the same things. If we love different things, then we won't agree.

D. Have The Same Person - "of one mind". The idea expressed here is that we are so much in agreement that it's as if there is only one person, only one mind. We have the mind of Christ!

What does unity look like? It is marked by people with the same perspective, the same passion, the same purpose, as if they are the same person. (see Acts 4:32-33).

The final element of unity is addressed in verses 3-4. Having explained why we should have unity and what true unity is, Paul tells us how to have harmony. Paul approaches this from both the negative and the positive. He tells us what not to do and then what to do.

1. Strife - rivalry, self-ambition. We are not in competition with one another. We must not concentrate on making ourselves look better than everyone else.

2. Vainglory - conceit. Insisting that your right when you are really wrong. Have you ever met someone who can't be wrong about anything?

2. Unselfishness, 4 "Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also forthe interests of each other" (2:21).

ILLUSTRATION: Chinese Christian and author Watchman Nee tells about a poor Christian rice farmer whose fields lay high on a mountain. Every day he pumped water into the paddies of new rice. Every morning when he would return to his field, he found that one of his neighbors, an unbeliever who lived down the hill, had opened the dikes and let the water leave the Christian's field and fill his own. For a while, the Christian ignored the injustice. But at last he became desperate. His own rice would die if this continued. He took his problem to his fellow believers and together they prayed, asking for a solution. The answer came! The Christian farmer rose early in the morning and first filled his neighbors field with water, then attended to his own. The result was that when the unbeliever saw the great demonstration of Christian love for others, he eventually became a Christian.

Paul pleads for unity in the Philippian Church. He explains what motivates true unity, what marks it, and how to have it. I plead for unity in our church. We must be watchful and work hard at guarding harmony within our church. Harmony is always under threat. My desire today is to make you sensitive to unity, its motives, its marks and its means. (Eph. 4:3).