The Gospel is…Humility
Philippians 2:1-11
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. 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.
4 Calls to Consider
• A Call to Suffering (Phil. 1:27-30)
• A Call to Unity (Phil. 2:1-2)
• A Call to Humility (Phil. 2:3-4)
• A Call to Remembrance (Phil. 2:5-11)
A CALL TO SUFFERING (PHIL. 1:27-30)
Sinclair on Suffering
“The question is not whether we will experience (suffering) or not, but how we respond to it.” (34)
“Suffering is the friction which polishes our graces. Without it we would be all the poorer as reflectors of the image of his Son.” (36)
~ Ferguson, Sinclair B. Let’s Study Philippians. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2003.
A CALL TO UNITY (PHIL. 2:1-2)
Philippians 2:1
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
What is Unity?
John 17:11
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
John 17:20-23
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Unity in Philippians 2:
• “One spirit”
• “One mind”
• “Same conflict”
• “Same mind”
• “Same love”
• “Full accord”
• “One mind”
John 13:35
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
A CALL TO HUMILITY (PHIL. 2:3-4)
What is Humility?
“Count others more significant than yourselves.”
“Don’t look only to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
“This way is first humility, second humility, third humility, and however often you should ask me I would say the same, not because there are not other precepts to be explained, but, if humility does not precede and accompany and follow every good work we do, and if it is not set before us to look upon, and beside us to lean upon, and behind us to fence us in, pride will wrest from our hand any good deed we do while we are in the very act of taking pleasure in it.”
~ Saint Augustine, to one of his students
“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”
~ C.S. Lewis
A CALL TO REMEMBER (PHIL 2:6-11)
Philippians 2:6-8
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.
G. Walter Hansen, The Letter to the Philippians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 140.
Philippians 2:9-11
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.
Community Group Questions
1) Read Philippians 2:1-11 together. Are there any words or phrases that jump out to you? Comfort you? Challenge or confuse you?
2) What does it mean to “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus?” Does it mean to think the same as one another? Does it mean to think the same as Jesus? Both?
3) Some scholars see an allusion in this passage with Isaiah’s Suffering Servant (Jesus in the OT). Read Isaiah 52:13-14; 53:3-4, 12; 45:23. What do you see? What does it mean to you?
4) What do you think about memorizing Bible passages? Have you ever done it? How has it impacts your faith?
5) Pray for each other, for unity in the body and humility in each mind.