Philippians 2:1-13 Commentary

The proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ always aims to be theocentric. Preachers’ primary goal is, in other words, not to tell worshipers what to do, but to point to the God who graciously adopted us as God’s dearly beloved children.

This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson is thoroughly theocentric. While it’s full of Paul’s summonses to Philippi’s Christians to faithfully respond to God’s grace with their obedience, the apostle grounds those calls in the nature and character of God in Jesus Christ. He reminds us we are obedient followers of Jesus because God has empowered us to faithfully receive God’s amazing grace to us in Christ.

In Philippians 2 Paul expresses his longing for the Christians in Philippi to “make” his “joy [charan*] complete [plerosate]” (2). This completion of his joy is, however, somewhat hard to understand. After all, it’s not as if Paul’s joy is somehow incomplete. The Holy Spirit has already filled the apostle with the joy that includes a calm cheerfulness. 

That’s why it helps to remember the Greek word plerosate (“complete”) has a variety of meanings. BibleHub.com suggests its root pleroo can mean “completely fill,” or even “verify.” So perhaps the apostle is asking his readers to confirm his joy by acting, talking and even thinking in Christ-like ways. 

But we want to remember the apostle isn’t primarily interested in convincing Jesus’ Philippian friends to verify his joy. No, he’s mainly interested in pointing them to Jesus Christ, our Lord and, by God’s grace, Savior. 

Paul precedes Philippians 2’s summons by asserting “It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggles you saw I had, and now hear that I still have” (Philippians 1:29-30).

The oun (“therefore”) with which Paul begins this Epistolary Lesson links it to Christians and the apostle’s suffering for Jesus’ sake. So it’s almost as if the Spirit prompted him to remind Jesus’ followers that the Jesus for whom they’re suffering helps us to faithfully respond to that suffering.

In verses 1-2 Paul says, “If (or perhaps more literally “since”) you have any encouragement [paraklesis] from being united with  Christ, if any comfort [paramythion] from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit [koinonia Pneumatos], if any tenderness [splanchna] and compassion [oiktirmoi], then make my joy complete.”

A faithful reception of God’s grace comes with genuine blessings. Union with Christ produces the grace that is paraklesis (“encouragement”). Various people and circumstances may discourage God’s adopted children. But the Spirit uses a faithful reception of God’s grace to encourage and strengthen us.

What’s more, Paul adds, an awareness of Christ’s unconditional love for us graces his friends with paramythion (“comfort”). Suffering for Jesus’ sake can easily lead to various kinds of grief. But the apostle insists the Spirit makes a faithful relationship with God in Christ a source of concrete comfort in the face of difficulties. This comfort is, in fact, tinged with the encouragement to which we just noted he also refers.

On top of that, Paul speaks of the benefit of a relationship with Christ that is a koinonia pneumatos (a “common sharing in the Spirit”). Christians’ faith may in some ways isolate us from our neighbors. Paul insists the Spirit graces Jesus’ naturally lonely friends with fellowship not just with our fellow Christians, but also the Holy Spirit. The Spirit graciously draws God’s people into community with the Spirit’s very self.

Paul ends this list of graces with a reference to splanchna (“tenderness”) and oiktirmoi (“compassion”). Those God blesses with union with Christ experience the blessing that is what The Message paraphrases as having a caring heart. The Spirit graces Jesus’ followers with a gentle spirit toward the people around us.

In other words, a faithful relationship with Jesus Christ doesn’t just “get us ready for heaven,” as it were. It’s never about just Jesus and us. A faithful reception of God’s grace blesses Christians with a Christ-like posture not just toward our suffering, but also the people around us. It, quite simply, positively impacts every perspective of Jesus’ followers.

Union with Christ, also, however, perhaps especially affects Christians’ relationships with others whom Christ has united to himself. Paul in some ways summarizes that relationship with a call to his brothers and sisters in Christ to be “likeminded” [phroneite ten auten], have the “same love” [autou agapen], and be “one in spirit” [sympsychoi], and “of one mind” [hen phronountes] (2). 

Preachers might point to a few commonalities among these calls. Paul twice refers to a form of phroneo that we generally translate as “mind.” He, in fact, employs it again in verse 5’s call to Christians to have “the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” It’s as if he especially wants to remind God’s adopted children that our faith impacts our mindset toward each other. 

In verse 2 the apostle, on top of that, twice uses a form of the Greek word autou (“same”). He echoes that with its call to be of hen phronountes (“one mind”). In writing that, it’s as if he emphasizes how one of the chief graces of a relationship with Jesus Christ is not just unity with our Savior, but also with each other.

Preachers may even want to, further, admit that Paul’s calls feel like a huge “reach.” We’re so familiar with divisions in Christ’s Church and churches that it’s tempting to claim that we just can’t agree with at least some of our fellow Christians. Jesus’ friends may, in fact, deduce that like-mindedness is so impossible that we no longer even let the Spirit cultivate it in us.

Preachers might also note that genuine unity impacts not just our attitudes but also our actions toward our fellow Christians. In verses 3-4 Paul says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.”

Those who have received God’s grace with our faith don’t look down on our fellow believers. Further, we don’t assume our own interests and wellness are more important than theirs. Nor do God’s image-bearers, as the NLT paraphrases verse 4, try to impress other image-bearers.

Instead we concentrate on and work for the well-being of our adopted siblings in Jesus Christ. We, as The Message paraphrases this, put ourselves “aside,” and “help others get ahead.” God’s dearly beloved people don’t look to promote ourselves. We instead forget ourselves “long enough to lend a helping hand” (The Message).

Preachers can admit these calls to discipleship run completely counter to our natural inclinations. Even Jesus’ friends naturally push back against them because they may leave us wondering if such self-sacrifice exposes us to others’ abuse of us. Were they not both grounded in God’s character and empowered by the Holy Spirit, these summonses might cause even Jesus’ closest followers to despair.

That’s a reason wise preachers relentlessly ground these invitations in the person, work and power of Jesus Christ. In fact, Paul describes Christ Jesus’ exemplary attitude and actions in this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s famous verses 5-13. 

In verse 5 he begins it with a summons to in our “relationships” with “one another [to] have the same mindset [phroneite] as Christ Jesus.” We take our cues for our attitude toward each other not from our culture, but from Jesus.

While Christ eternally had everything, including a loving relationship with the other members of the Trinity, he didn’t cling to that privilege. He instead traded in all those “perks” for the status of becoming a human slave. Christ the slave then humbly lived a selfless life and died an obedient death.

God, however, lifted Christ out of death and his grave and raised him to the place of highest honor. Someday everyone will recognize him as not just a good teacher or example, but as the Master whose name is more important than any other name.

Knowing that, Paul concludes in verses 12 and 13, Jesus’ friends can “continue to work out” our “salvation with fear and trembling.” This is another summons that Christians sometimes misunderstand. Preachers can remind us that salvation doesn’t involve the kind of terror with which we sometimes associate “fear and trembling.” 

Instead Paul seems to be summoning us to a kind of reverent and energetic living out of our faithful reception of God’s grace. As the NLT paraphrases this, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence.” That hard work includes, in the light of verses 1-4, working for unity among God’s adopted children.

This is not just a goal, but also possible because of what the apostle goes on to assert in verse 13: “It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Jesus’ followers can love God by loving our neighbors because the Holy Spirit gives us not just the will, but also the ability to live in ways that both please God and bless the people God puts around us.

*I have here and elsewhere added in brackets the Greek words for the English words the NIV translation uses.

Illustration

The Silver Spring (MD) Christian Reformed Church shares its building with the Grace Indonesian Church and a Cameroonian Presbyterian Church. On each of the past five Pentecost Sundays the three churches have come together to worship the Lord. Each pastor as well as members of each church have helped lead those very meaningful worship services in their own native languages. The planning and actual execution of those worship services can be quite chaotic.  

But those services don’t just express Christian unity. They also require a certain amount of self-surrender among each worshiper. After all, not every worshiper understands every word spoken in languages that are foreign to them. But they give up their right to understand everything in order to affirm and express the unity they have in Jesus Christ.