We Have It All In Christ

This week we continued the book of Philippians, looking at Chapter 2. Paul, under house arrest in Rome, and awaiting an audience before Nero, is writing to a church he helped launch about 10 years prior. Paul begins with four “ifs”:

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

Paul is suggesting that since there are these blessings in Christ to us, (encouragement, comfort from love, participation in the Spirit, affection and sympathy) then we should live in love towards others (verse 2). We have it all in Christ, so we have all we need and don’t have to live selfishly towards others. The church, which is to be a true community, is to be marked by selflessness, humility, integrity, and care for others.

What would it be like to live in a community where that’s how you were treated? Like Christ treated you? We can receive this by being that way towards others. Paul tells us to be of the same mind, one mind, count others more significant than ourselves, look not only to our own interests but to the interests of others. Paul wants our thinking to change, and that’s where humility comes from - from within. 

Looking to Christ, Matthew 20:28 Jesus tells us that “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And in John 13:3-5, we read that he served his disciples by washing their feet. Jesus truly was a servant. 

Stepping into verse 7, we see that He “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” He humbled himself, not by putting anything off. Not by subtraction, but by adding something. Taking to himself a human nature is how he humbled himself.

Meditate on that: Your God is so glorious, that the way he could humble himself, was by adding something lesser to himself. 

The infinite constrained to the finite. The immortal enfleshed in mortality. The one whose essence defines glory, put to utter shame. The fountain of life subjected to death. Bound to the grave.

Which immediately pushes us towards Paul’s goal: humble hearts that live outwardly like Christ.

Isaiah 53:3 says that Jesus was brought so low, the shame was unbearable to other people. There is no deeper, lower shame than the cross of Christ. He was stripped of his clothes, beaten nearly to death, mocked with a crown of thorns, nailed to a wooden cross, lifted high for all to see, and tortured to death. That’s what “even death on a cross” means, not to mention the curse of God that was upon him.

And he did this all for you, in your place. Doesn’t that foster awe in your soul? Jesus did this for you. So you don’t need to grasp for yourself.

And there’s something more. This pattern of humility and glorification isn’t just for Jesus, it’s the pattern he has established for us. Of course, we can’t serve in precisely the same way - we can’t make atonement for the sins of the world. And of course, we won’t be glorified to the heights of Christ. We do not have the name that is above every name. But, you have Christ, and, with him, everything. There is nothing to grasp after. You don’t need to use others for your advantage because there’s no more advantage to gain, you have it all. Only, act like Christ towards others. And his likeness, his character will be made manifest in our midst, and we can taste that glory even now.