Exhortation to unity.
I. St. PAUL'S ERNEST DESIRE FOR THE UNITY OF THE. PHILIPPIAN CHURCH.
1. He desires that unity because he loves them. His happiness is bound up with their spiritual welfare. "Fulfil ye my joy," he says; he had learned to look upon the things of others; his deepest joy depended, not on his own personal comforts, but on the spiritual progress of those whom he loved. The remembrance of the Philippians (Philippians 1:3, Philippians 1:4), the thought of their Christian love, brought joy to his heart. He asks them now to fulfill his joy, to increase, to complete it; and that not by gifts (gifts they had sent again and again), but by living together in holy love, by keeping "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
2. He desires that unity because Christ desires it. He longed for the Philippians "in the bowels of Jesus Christ." His life was Christ, "Christ liveth in me," he said; therefore he loved with the love of Christ, and Christ prayed for the unity of the Church. That unity (the Lord Jesus said) should be the mark and badge of his disciples (John 13:35); it should be the means of leading the world to believe in his mission, in his gospel (John 17:21, John 17:23).
3. He shows the earnestness of his desire by dwelling on the thought of unity. He repeats his exhortation again and again. "Mind the same things," he says; have the same motives, the same desires, the same circle of thoughts. Have the same love; set your love on the stone Lord Jesus Christ; regard for his sake with a common love all who are called by his Name. Let your souls be knit together in a similarity of affections, wishes, feelings. Let the central thought, the aim of your lives, be one; the one thing needful, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
II. THE MOTIVES WHICH SHOULD URGE CHRISTIANS TO FOLLOW AFTER UNITY. These are to be found in the inner experiences of the Christian life.
1. The indwelling presence of Christ. That presence stimulates, quickens, encourages. It is the life of the Christian soul; and that life is diffused through all the members of the out body, through all the branches of the one Vine. Their spiritual life is one; unity aids its development; discord checks its growth.
2. The felt comfort of Christian love. Love is the bond of unity; the mutual love of Christians binds together the Christian Church. the truest joy springs out of love. Love comforts, blesses with a holy joy, the heart that entertains its sacred influences. The experience of the blessedness of Christian love should draw Christians nearer to one another in ever closer union.
3. The gift of the Spirit. The one Holy Spirit of God, in whose gifts and graces all in varying degrees participate (1 Corinthians 12:4-12), knits together all the members of Christ into one communion and fellowship. The presence of that one Spirit in each individual Christian constitutes the inner unity of the Church. That inner unity should find its natural expression in outward agreement.
4. The tender feelings of the Christian heart. The life of Christ in the soul, the presence of the blessed Spirit, lead the disciple to imitate his Lord, to learn of him tenderness and compassion. St. Paul asks the Philippians to show their love, their compassion for him by living in unity. If these spiritual truths are real facts to you, he says, verified in your own experience, fulfill ye my joy; be one in spirit and in heart.
III. UNITY IMPLIES HUMILITY. It is pride, self-conceit, that leads to strife and debate; avoid party spirit, avoid vain-glory.
1. Party spirit ( ἐριθεία) is one of the works of the flesh. (Galatians 5:20.) Party spirit arrays men in factions against one another; they think more of their party than of Christ, more of party triumphs than of the progress of the gospel. This evil tendency soon found a place in the Church. Christians began early to say, "I am of Paul, and I of Cephas." "Is Christ divided?" St. Paul asks in indignant sorrow; there is one body in Christ.
2. Humility is essential for preservation of unity. Vain-glory must be wholly excluded from the motives and thoughts of the true Christian. Human ambitions are empty and vain; the one true ambition is to please God. We are ambitious ( φιλοτιμούμεθα), says St. Paul (2 Corinthians 5:9), to be well-pleasing unto him. It is vain-glory that distracts the Church and rends the body of Christ. So far as it intrudes itself into the motives, it destroys the truth and inner beauty of the religious life. Humility is a Christian grace, a product of Christianity. The example of Christ has shed a halo round a word which to the heathen spoke of meanness and cowardice. Holy Scripture has taken it and filled it with a new and blessed meaning; it suggests to the Christian the deepest piety, the inmost reality of personal religion. Humility lies at the very basis of the Christian character. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," is the first of the beatitudes. There is no true holiness that is not grounded on humility; for "God giveth grace to the humble." Therefore "let each esteem other better than themselves." The highest saints feel and own themselves to be the chief of sinners. The nearer they draw to the Sun of righteousness, the more clearly they see their own guilt and unworthiness. "He that abaseth himself shall be exalted." Hence the value of St. Paul's rule to esteem others better than ourselves. We are templed to magnify our own virtues and the faults of others. True wisdom reverses this. We are to consider others, not for self-exaltation, but for self-abasement. We are to look on our own faults to correct them, on the good points in others to imitate them.
3. True humility implies unselfishness. The Christian must not put himself first; he must not regard his own wishes, his own interest, as the one thing to be thought of. He must consider the feelings of others, their desires, their wants. Only true humility will enable him to do this. But it is a hard lesson; there is need of more than words; there is need of a strength not our own; there is need of the stimulating influence of a great example.
Lessons.
1. Learn to search your heart for the realities of Christian experience; you will find them there, if you are indeed living in fellowship with Christ.
2. Pray for grace to feel real joy in the religious progress of others.
3. Endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4. Be on your guard against party spirit and vain-glory. Strive to be first in humility and self-abasement; it is the secret of Christian joy and Christian growth.