Attitude Check

Philippians 1:27-2:11

I had a lot of misconceptions as a child, but one of the most insidious was the thought that living a Christian life was going to be easy. I’m not sure exactly how I came to think this, and it sounds really nice – but there is only one little problem with it: it doesn’t fit with scripture. Paul is writing to the church in Philippi to thank them for their gift, which is sustaining him while he is in prison for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, and to encourage them during their own struggles. He just told them that he wants above anything to die and be with Jesus Christ face-to-face, because this is better than the best things on earth, but that because he still has a job to do for the church, he is still alive. He really wants to come and visit them again so their joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of him (Philippians 1:26).

In the meantime, Paul exhorts the Philippian church to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27). Now I know I said that Paul didn’t write Philippians to correct a wrong, but even while he was writing to encourage them, he knows that there are some issues. The issues aren’t huge, but they are significant. Last week we read that some of the preachers have underlying motives behind what they are doing – it sounds like there is some bickering and posturing going on. We might not acknowledge it, but it happens – when we want something to go our way, instead of showing how it fits with our desire to make new disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, we instead turn to our years of service or how much money we’ve given or how it might offend somebody or other.

So Paul tells them: Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. (Philippians 1:27-28a)

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, he tells them. Did your parents ever use the tactic where they would say, “I don’t care how they behave, but you won’t behave like that because you’re a Vinson”? Of course they did, because your parents had standards for you to live up to. We do this, we don’t do that. No matter where you go, you are still their son or daughter, so if you are at school, on vacation, out with your friends, there are still standards, and they are always the same.  This is kind of what Paul is talking about, but even more.

Philippi was an honored city in the Roman Empire. Philippi wasn’t Roman by location, but it was a Roman colony in Macedonia. Every Philippian was thus a Roman citizen. Likewise, the church in Philippi is a “colony of heaven” so to speak – so the members were thus citizens of heaven. Elsewhere, Paul calls himself (and those with him) Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.).

The picture here is like an embassy. When I was in Russia, we were instructed that if anything happened, we should go to the U.S. Embassy. Why? Because even though everything around it is Russia, once you are in the embassy, you are officially on U.S. soil. The embassy is part of the U.S. And though we live here, our citizenship is heaven, as Paul will get to in chapter 3.

So because the Christians in the Philippian church are indeed citizens of heaven, God calls them to heavenly conduct. Specifically, here, they are called to stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. (Philippians 1:27b-28a)

They are one unified body, no matter what comes against them. There are so many issues where Christians are not unified, and the world laughs at us. But when we stand together, the world recognizes it. Paul even tells the Philippian church that “this is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.”(Philippians 1:28b).

Oh, by the way, when that information is known, beware, because others won’t be happy with it. They’ll call it unfair or insensitive or exclusive, and guess what? Besides the ever true “life isn’t fair,” it’s not fair that we are saved – because we don’t deserve it. Nobody deserves it. So the fact that God would put some requirements on salvation shouldn’t be surprising to us; it’s all up to God, because nobody deserves it. This is why grace is grace. It is God’s unmerited favor. If someone wants to play the “fair” card, go ahead and live a perfect life and then there’s room to talk. But people don’t like this kind of talk, so it’s no wonder the Philippian church is undergoing persecution. In the meantime, they are called to be led by one Spirit – the Holy Spirit.

As we get into chapter two, Paul’s rhetorical expertise comes into play. Therefore, he says, and I learned as a kid that when you see “therefore” in the Bible, you have to go back and “see what the therefore is there for.” Paul is saying that since they are citizens of Heaven, standing together in the unity of the Holy Spirit, then this is what they are to do.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

This is a power-packed paragraph. Paul knows that the Philippian church has received encouragement from their unity with Christ. They have received comfort from his love. They share the one Holy Spirit in common. Of course they are tender and compassionate; he knows this because he has been the recipient of their care and love. So he asks them to step it up one more notch. He isn’t asking them to do something completely foreign. He isn’t asking them to do something completely out of character. He is just asking them to take it up a notch, being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. In other words, you’re really on the right path. Now, if we can only put down the silly one-upmanship stuff, the ridiculous rivalries, the selfish ambitions, the “let’s do this because it makes me look good” intentions…

He isn’t just talking to the Philippian church here, either. He is talking to us. Seriously, What would happen if we took it up a notch? What would happen if we stopped thinking about ourselves first and began thinking about how we could most effectively reach out to make new disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?

Paul hits us in the selfish gut when he says this: Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 1:4)

Now before we get to how we do this, we have to ask what valuing others above ourselves really means. There are some people who think it means they have to pretend. They say, “aw, shucks, it was nothing,” but they really expect you to go on and on about how great they are. There are others who think this means they have to downplay or devalue their gifts and abilities – that if they’re good at something, they shouldn’t do it too well because then people are going to complement them or think they’re looking to their own interests. Or if they are the expert in a field, deferring to others who don’t know anything about it, just to make sure that nobody thinks they aren’t humble. Some will even refuse to care for themselves and devalue themselves in an attempt at humility, but this is not what Paul is after in the least.

It can be tempting to use this passage for self-humiliation. To say, “I’m not worth anything; I should treat others as better than myself because they are better than I am.” But this kind of self-humiliation is destructive and pure deception.

We have to understand where our value comes from. If I pulled out a brand new fifty dollar bill, and asked what it was worth, you might say fifty dollars. But what would you say if I wadded it up into a ball, threw it on the floor, and stomped on it? How much is it worth now? It’s still worth fifty dollars not because of what it looks like, but because of what it is. Our government declares that a fifty dollar bill is worth fifty dollars, and by their authority, that’s what it’s worth, no matter how tattered or crumpled the bill is.

When God created humanity, God didn’t say, “Well, that Adam’s a mess. He needs to get in shape and needs to work harder to be a better dad and husband and he’d better prove his worth at the office. And Eve. She’s overweight and her hair looks terrible and her house is a filthy mess. And her kids are always fighting.” No, when God created them, God pronounced them “very good.” Furthermore, the Bible tells us that God made humanity in his own image.

So this is where we get our worth and our value from. It’s not from how beaten down the world has made us. How tired we are or how far we feel we are from the standard that we see around us. Our worth and our value come simply from who God made us to be and whose we are. And God, who made each of us in His own image, calls each of us “very good.”

So rather than putting yourself down, saying, “You’re better than I am,” we humble ourselves. There is a subtle difference here, but instead of a question of “value,” this is a question of “ranking.” Here we make the decision to put someone else first. And Paul looks to the ultimate example to explain this: Jesus Christ.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant [slave], being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Jesus is God. But Jesus didn’t use his nature or his status to lord it over others. He doesn’t deny his identity as equal with God, but instead he promotes the interests of others first. Jesus emptied himself and took the nature of a human slave. He came to serve, not to be served. How far was Jesus willing to take this? All the way to death, and even death on a cross, which was not only a horribly excruciating way to die, but also was considered to be a sign of God’s curse upon you.

Jesus did this to promote the interests of others. How does his death on the cross do this? Simply because we are not able to save ourselves and we need a perfect sacrifice. Because Jesus loves us so much, he did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

The reason Paul tells us all of this about Jesus is as the ultimate example to follow. This is why he prefaces this section by saying, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)

We are all due for an attitude check. There are things we like to do and other things we just don’t like to do. But if the goal is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, then we ought to be willing to step up, check our egos at the door, check our preferences and tastes, and do what might feel uncomfortable to us.

For example, one thing I do when I’m out running is I try to talk to everybody. I’ve even stopped and had prayer with someone on the bike path. One person I talked to told me that some people in our church are snooty and stuck-up. I know the people he was talking about, and I can assure you that they are neither snooty nor stuck-up. But this person’s judgment is driven by his perception – perhaps because the person he met didn’t say “Hi” to him or something. So maybe we could start by doing little things like saying, “Hi” to people or talking to the wait staff at the restaurant.

What might it look like in the church if we had Jesus Christ’s attitude? Though we have some outward-focused ministries, like our free meals and our involvement with My Brother’s Place, most of our focus is on meeting the wants of people who are already here. Most of our money stays here. When a church begins to focus outward, it gets uncomfortable. Suddenly you don’t know everyone, and that can be seen as a problem. In fact, I have had people tell me they didn’t want the church to grow specifically for that reason. Because they wouldn’t know everyone. Suddenly you start getting people who don’t understand the ritual. There are noisy kids where you expect silence. They wear clothes you wouldn’t call “church clothes.” They have tattoos and piercings. They might not look like, act like, dress like, or talk like “us.” They may worship in another language – don’t let me leading a couple of songs on the guitar confuse you – this is not contemporary worship by any stretch of the imagination. So what do we do? Choose things because they are what we like? Or angrily leave a church where they are doing different things?

It is a good time for a Christlike attitude check. Pray, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal where your attitude and His attitude aren’t in line. When you start to get offended, ask the Holy Spirit, “Am I right in being offended – or are you preparing me for a change in direction? Is my attitude that of Christ Jesus?”

When our attitude is the attitude that we see in Christ Jesus… well, then we will see the church doing our job. We will see the world transformed. It’s not about changing someone else’s attitude, because we can’t do that; it’s about the Holy Spirit transforming us, one person at a time.