A Word in Season: The Mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5)

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Selfishness is a killer. It destroys churches and it destroys people.

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The apostles knew that and so, speaking from Christ, they pleaded with God's people to avoid anything that smacked of that kind of self -centered arrogance and suspicion, disdain of others and a trampling down upon them.

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In this, they were running utterly contrary to the spirit of the age. The ancient world, much like our own, tended to celebrate personal achievement.

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In fact, you should boast of boasting to some extent. You should be proud of your pride. Real people did look down on others.

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Great people were defined in part by the fact that they were greater than others and had little regard for them.

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It was almost expected that you should trample upon others on your way up the greasy pole.

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How different then is the spirit of the kingdom of Jesus Christ? In Philippians chapter 2, here is the apostle pleading.

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A man, remember, who knew what it was to once seek to have the preeminence in all things and whose discontent when anybody seemed to better him, whose envy and whose covetousness for the top spot once consumed him.

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Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy, and he's already now pleading that the blessings that they have received from Christ Jesus would grip them, would constrain them, that if there's any real comfort and goodness that you've received, if there's any fellowship in the spirit that you enjoy, if there's any affection and mercy characterising you, let this bind your heart.

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Then, fulfil my joy. He wants them to understand that his heart also is for these things, who preached the gospel to them and who has loved them and has cared for them ever since.

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He says, fulfil my joy by being like -minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

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He's pleading not for a sort of a crass uniformity where everybody just marches in lockstep, but for a true unity where shoulder to shoulder

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God's saints march as one. Let then nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, an absolute prohibition.

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Selfish ambition and conceit are to have no part in your motives and your deeds, but rather in lowliness of mind.

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Let each esteem others better than himself. Rather than looking down on others and stamping on them, look up to them and help them.

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Let each of you look out not only for his own interests. There is some legitimacy in that, but also for the interests of others.

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And how is Paul going to cinch his argument? How is he going to bring this to a pinnacle?

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How is he going to drive this home into the souls of these men and women? And there's evidence in the letter that there are tensions and difficulties even among them.

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Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

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Chapter two and verse five of the letter to the Philippians. He says, if nothing else has yet constrained you, if nothing else has yet compelled you, if nothing else has yet gripped your soul, then take this into account, that what

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I'm pleading for you to show, what I want you to be characterized by, the person that I want you to follow, the model that I want you to adopt, is

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Jesus Christ himself, he who was rich and yet became poor, he to whom the glory of God belonged and yet who became a man, suffering and dying even to the death of the cross, he who gave all in order that you may have all, that you may be saved, that you may have

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God. My friends, we need to dwell upon Christ, the great sacrificer and the great sacrifice.

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We need the mind that was in him, who though he was so great in himself, did not look out for his own interest, did not grasp after what truly belonged to him, but gave it all in order that he may be a blessing to others.

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Let us plead by God's grace that the same mind that was in Christ Jesus might be in each one of us.