Hello friends!
Welcome to our series, “A Letter From Prison: Choosing Jesus Over Our Circumstances”. During this series we will be taking a bird’s eye view of the letter of Philippians, exploring Paul’s imprisonment, his hardships and circumstances and his example of seeking and choosing Christ inspite of his burdens. Each week during the month of November we will tackle and work through a chapter of Philippians.
This week we are looking into Philippians 2, probably one of the most famous passages in the New Testament and perhaps the greatest description of who Jesus is and how we as His people are called to live!
Work It Out
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.” —Philippians 2: 12 - 18
So one fact about me that you should know is that I like to be nonlinear in how I watch TV shows and how I study and teach scripture. Which is why we are looking at Philippians 2 a little out of order haha! Another fact about me is that Philippians 2 is one of my most favorite passages of scripture, containing one of the most applicable directions in all of Paul’s writings!
Paul commends and commands us to work out or work through our salvation, or as we talked about in last week’s sermon of Philippians 1, to PROGRESS AND ADVANCE our salvation! Now, this doesn’t mean that we are “saving ourselves” or “earning our salvation” or that we are constantly losing our salvation and must keep trying to get it back. This is really important and confuses a lot of people so DON’T MISS IT! When you believe and trust and put your faith in Jesus, truly, that’s it! It is finished! You are sealed with the Holy Spirit and FOREVER SAVED AND LOVED AND MADE WHOLE BY GOD! Nothing can ever stop that or take it away from you.
What “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” does mean is that God is constantly saving us or “sanctifying us”: progressing and advancing us to look and act and speak and live more like Him! And so the work isn’t us trying to earn our salvation or God’s love, it is us responding to God’s love for us by seeking to love others like He does, and thereby becoming like Him. And boy, that does take some real work sometimes!
As Paul continues by giving us some idea of what this “work” may look like, I personally get stuck right at the very top with “Do all things without grumbling and disputing”, let alone getting all the way down to verse 17 where he talks about being “poured out like a drink offering”. Paul is saying, to respond to God’s love by loving others the way He does, we must strive to live at peace with those around us, to cease disputing with others, to be a “sacrificial offering” by giving up our preference for others. God’s “work” saves us and allows us to be like Him. Our “work”, made possible by God’s work, helps to shape and grow us to live and love like Him. So what’s the key to this living and loving like Jesus, this sanctification, this work? Well, we now have to go back to the begin of Philippians 2!
Choosing Others Over Ourselves
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” —Philippians 2: 1 - 4
So at the beginning of this, Paul is actually employing a small bit of humor with the believers that he just finished gushing on in Jesus in ch. 1. IF we have experienced any or even the slightest bit of love or goodness or comfort or grace or power from God (which of course as believers we have), then our response should be pretty simple: WE SHOULD SEEK TO THINK AND LIVE OUT THE SAME GOODNESS OF GOD ON THOSE AROUND US! God has loved us so deeply and so well, He has provided us with the presence and power of His Holy Spirit, He has given us His mind and heart, so that we as believers would all have the same mind and heart! Why has Jesus lavished His love on us and given us all the same mind and heart? So that we would choose others over ourselves.
Choosing others over ourselves is no easy task. Deep in the DNA of our humanity is the instinct of self-preservation, the need to choose and save ourselves over all others. And even after Jesus has rescued us, the progress and advancement of becoming more like Jesus is challenged by our humanity. And so we come this passage, which is often seen through the lens of humility, and that is very much a correct lens! But humility is only the surface. To get over our instinct of choosing ourselves, Jesus not only wants us to have a humble attitude but to live out humility to its fullest extent. And so we must practice this choosing of others.
Paul is imploring us, because Jesus has implored us to live out His example of humility and choosing others by being unified as a church. Even among believers, choosing others can be challenging. We don’t have to agree on every single small detail of our lives, but in giving us the same mind and heart of Jesus, God is allowing us the opportunity to show the world what it looks like to disagree but still love one another. Its so easy to get embroiled in arguments of theology and politics and methods and money and forget the love that unites us! How can we hope to count our neighbors as more significant than ourselves, to look to the interests of those who think and believe differently than us, and love our enemies who live and act and speak against us, if we cannot even choose others over ourselves within the Church? So how do we do this? We look to the ultimate example of this choosing others.
Poured Out
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” —Philippians 2: 5 - 11
Without a doubt, this is the most excellent and famous look into the humanity and sacrifice of Jesus. (As an extra side-note, read this alongside Colossians 1: 15-20 for a more full view of who Jesus is and what He has done for us!) How can we choose others over ourselves? Why do we seek to pour ourselves out as a sacrificial offering? Because Jesus, in His full Divinity as God, chose God over Himself and chose us over Himself. Jesus emptied Himself of His divine rights and privilege from being in the form of God and took on the form of humanity with all of its self-preservation instincts and became a servant to all. As God, Jesus chose us over Himself. As a man, Jesus still chose us over Himself. And it is because Jesus did this that we are saved. It is because Jesus did this that we have the opportunity to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, to be sanctified and be like Jesus. It is because Jesus did this that our neighbors and families and friends and enemies have the opportunity to know and experience the same love of God that we have. And it is because Jesus did this that “every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Here are some questions I would encourage you to think through this week:
1.) How have you experienced the love and grace and power of Jesus in your life?
2.) Do you find it hard or easy to choose others over yourself? Why?
3.) Who in your life do you need to choose over yourself this week? How can you?
Do you know that you are chosen and loved and empowered by God? I hope you do. Because you are!
You are loved, Believe it!