Disunity and Persecution

There’s a reason for what Paul writes. Two issues he is addressing—one happening at the time he writes and one imminent.

We are in the middle of something important here that Paul wishes to get across to the Philippians—something pastoral, something vital in regards to two situations that Paul has in mind. The first situation is happening right now. The second is imminent.

Think with me. Paul is under house arrest in Rome, waiting his day before Caesar Nero. Epaphroditus has just arrived in Rome from Philippi with a gift, 800 miles as the crow flies, a love offering collected and placed in his trust by the church at Philippi, to be taken to Paul to care for his needs and to be used on his mission. We will find out before we get to the end of this chapter that Epaphroditus almost died on his trip to Rome with this gift. This letter we’re reading is the response to that gift. Paul was instrumental in the founding of the church at Philippi. He has overseen their care for a long time. They have contributed to his mission work since the very beginning. Paul cares for them as a shepherd. Here in this letter, he’s doing just that.

If we consider Phillipians as a thank-you letter sent by Paul for the gift, we’re not far off the mark. But the letter is more than that. It’s also pastoral in nature. In fact, one imagines that as Paul is under house arrest his thoughts go to all the churches he has been instrumental in founding—and he prays for them. Listen to these words from 2 Corinthians 11. In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul is recounting all the hardships he has gone through in his endeavors to fulfill the will of Christ in his life. It is a long list of hardships. It’s an impressive list. He concludes the list with these words.

2 Corinthians 11:28 ESV - And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

That tells you everything you need to know about where Paul’s thoughts were while he was under house arrest in Rome. By the way, when we get to chapter 4 I’m going to remind you of what he said there in 2 Corinthians. When he says, “Be not anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.…” Don’t worry, pray? Well, Paul struggled with anxiety, too. He just admitted it.

So Paul’s mind, his thoughts, are on the churches. When Epaphroditus shows up with a gift from the church at Philippi, his beloved Philippian church, you know that Paul sat him down and immediately questioned him about everything going on at the church. And when Paul wrote this letter he had those things in mind. One of the big problems at the church of Philippi was a lack of unity, probably having to do with a lack of humility, or at the very least having to do with people emphatically seeking to have their own way, in pursuit of their own ambitions or their own name, at the expense of the unity of the church. Paul will even name names before this letter is over. This is the immediate situation he addresses that I referred to earlier—disunity in the church. It has to be fixed because of what is coming—the imminent problem. Paul knows what’s coming and that is persecution. It’s already happening. The Philippians have begun to experience it, and it’s going to get worse. And if they don’t get a handle on this silly, selfish, ridiculous, disunity they’re not going to make it when the persecution really hits the fan.

But Paul is very loving, very gracious, very patient. And he rebukes, not in a blunt way, but in an encouraging way. He starts by pointing out right there in chapter one verse one that he and Timothy are nothing but servants, bond slaves of Christ. They weren’t traveling Christian celebrities—slaves. He was pointing out that he and Timothy are nothing but servants.

He also points out that his being imprisoned, his being humiliated (think about that) has furthered the gospel. Some, he says, are even preaching Christ from selfish ambition. Remember that he’s glad they’re preaching Christ, mind you. But see what he did there. He laid the foundation for rebuking that selfish ambition in the Philippians later. Then in verse 27 of chapter 1 he says…

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, (ESV)

The two verses we are going to cover this week, verses 12 and 13 of chapter 2, are a reiteration of this call to unity. Paul does not know whether he will be released from prison to minister to them again. Paul may die, right there. But whether he is able to come see them or not, he wants to hear of them, that they are united and focused on the purpose Christ has given them for existing, their calling. So he tells them that persecution is coming. And he commands them explicitly that no one of them is to do anything through selfish ambition or conceit. He does not want them to be like those in Rome who did the right things for the wrong reasons. It’s important that they do the right things for the right reasons. So he commands humility. Humility is the opposite of selfish ambition and conceit.

As the supreme example of this, Paul gives them Christ and the hymn to Christ.