Author: Kristen Kansiewicz, LMHC

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

These verses are perhaps the most counter-cultural verses that Americans could read in the Bible. Before you read too fast and gloss over the depth of meaning here, let’s take a minute to soak in each piece of this verse.

We’ll start with re-writing these verses, but instead of conveying the same message we’ll write the opposite. These are the American values we are told in commercials and movies every day:

1. Look out for number one — if you don’t take what you need no one is going to give it to you.

2. Make sure you “wow” everybody — if you don’t stand out in this world you’ll go unnoticed.

3. Keep up with the Joneses. If your neighbor has something, make sure you have it too.

4. Protect your own interests. In fact, in business and as a country we need to prioritize our own profits instead of giving away all our stuff.

Isn’t that the American way? We have to perform, impress, keep up and protect ourselves. But what are these verses saying? Don’t be selfish, don’t impress, put others first, walk in total humility, genuinely care about others. In order to do all these things, we have to start from a place of security. God is not talking about beating ourselves up and self-deprecating here (“Oh, I already think of everyone as better than me because I’m so awful…”). Rather, we are unselfish when we are able to let go of ourselves and freely give to others generously.

We are able to be humble when we are properly aligned with God and we don’t have anything to prove to anybody. Sit in his presence day after day until you are so secure in his love for you that selflessness, humility, and care for others simply flows out of your understanding of God and yourself. Don’t try harder, sit in the presence of God longer and more deeply.

“Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.”

In today’s passage, Paul is asking, “What good is the work of Christ if it isn’t going to radically change our lives and relationships for the better?” Paul writes this chapter starting with a list of rhetorical questions — the answers should all be, “Yes! Of course!” He’s really setting them up to call them out on disunity, making sure that they are applying their rational understanding and belief about Jesus to their real life interactions with each other.

So what about you? Do you have any encouragement from belonging to Jesus? Does his love bring you comfort? Are you united with other believers in the Spirit? Is your heart tender as God does a work in you? If you are answering, “Yes, yes, yes, and yes!” then challenge yourself to a deeper commitment to unity.

The Spirit will lead you into greater levels of agreement (which comes with a gradual release of your own opinions as the most important ones). The Spirit will deepen your love for others which will lead you into serving them sacrificially (which means it will hurt sometimes). And the Spirit will lead you together into a mission greater than you have ever known. The only way to win this spiritual battle we face is to fight in the same direction together. That starts with a soft and tender heart.

“Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.”

Being part of something bigger than yourself means that you are never alone. Loneliness comes when we are self-focused and connected only to our own universe. Following Jesus is about being on a mission greater than yourself — you can’t spread the Gospel to the world by yourself. Even Paul understood that. We are citizens of a supernatural world that’s only visible in glimpses right now. When we all put our pieces of the kingdom of God together, the picture comes in just a little more clearly.

No enemy can stand against the unified, global church. When facing life or death situations, Paul didn’t back down. He saw that standing up to his enemies is precisely what gave them a heads up about their own destruction. Most haters are just posers, and when their tactics don’t work it gets inside their heads. Satan is the prime example. When Christians aren’t threatened by him, it only serves to remind him of his coming demise.

Faith is a struggle. It was a struggle for the early church and it is a struggle today. Living a life worthy of the Gospel means that we rise up together. We fight together. We stand together. We love together. Jesus himself prayed for this level of unity in John 17. Is this what you think of when you see Christians interacting with each other and the world? A united group living out the good news of Jesus on a daily basis? Sadly, not all “Christians” are living as heaven-citizens. What would it look like for us to stand together, loving the world with a supernatural power against which no enemy could stand? That is the true power of the church if we will rise to our calling.

“For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live. Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith. And when I come to you again, you will have even more reason to take pride in Christ Jesus because of what he is doing through me.”

In yesterday’s post, we saw how Paul had risen above the haters who were trying to put him to shame. He continues here by saying that there will never be any shame in preaching the Gospel. If people want to kill him, fine. If he lives and keeps preaching, awesome. I wonder if there is a bit of sarcasm here as Paul leaves it up to his mockers and haters to decide whether he lives or dies. Either way, the Gospel is worth it.

Nevertheless, Paul has a sense that he will live. He seems to have a prophetic understanding that he will continue to help the Philippian church mature. He has faith that he will see them again and when he does he will see the fruit of his mission. We actually do not know if Paul ever actually made it back to Philippi (read about Paul’s possible fourth journey here, but the book of Acts ends with Paul’s imprisonment in Rome during which time he wrote this letter).

Paul has a very acute understanding of the reality that he is not in control of his own life. Remember the opening of this letter to the Philippians? He’s a slave of Jesus. Kill him, don’t kill him. Either way you will not stop God’s purposes. The mission isn’t about Paul, and it’s not going to be stopped by earthly threats. The Gospel will be spread to the whole world. Paul is sure that he will be alive to see the fruit of his work with the Philippian church. Whether or not that was true in an earthly sense, it was certainly true in the end. Paul was confident that death could not be the end of his story. For eternity, Paul will see far more fruit from his missionary journeys than he probably could have dreamed possible. A couple years in prison is a small price to pay for that eternal reward.

“It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.”

Have you ever been in that place where you feel like you are working harder and facing more hardship than everyone else, yet they seem to get all the glory? Paul would have every right to complain about how hard his ministry is and how people seem to keep hating him. Well, haters be hating and preachers be preaching whether they have the right motives or not. Doesn’t matter to Paul, if the Gospel is spread in the process he’s not keeping score.

I warned you that Philippians is all about attitude adjustment. If I were in prison knowing I had a call on my life to preach and other people were out there stealing all my thunder, I would most definitely not take it well. We don’t know what kind of wrestle Paul may have had to do to get to this place, but he sees it all as a part of the mission. He has no rivals because he’s unwilling to participate in petty rivalries.

Paul makes a deliberate choice to rejoice in the midst of persecution. It’s not just the non-believers that are against him — it’s the bad-attitude Christians! But God can spread the Gospel through anybody, pure motives or not. What we can learn from Paul here is how to align our perspective with God’s. Paul’s mission wasn’t about himself. It was about telling people about Jesus. Therefore, if other people are talking about Jesus too then the mission is working. One way we can tell if we are off-mission is when it becomes all about us. Jealousy when others have success or an inner pity-party may be signs that your mission is more about you than it is about Jesus.