Citizens of God's Kingdom: Work with Unity and Humility
We saw earlier that there were several different reasons why Paul wrote this letter. It didn't necessarily have one single, overriding purpose as some of Paul's other letters do. But definitely one of the main reasons why Paul wrote this letter was to deal with division and disunity in the church. Later in the letter, we will learn about a specific conflict within the church, centering around two women. Had this division spread to others and was also threatening the entire church? Were there other separate divisions in the church? That was always a danger of division in the early church. If you go back to Acts, you will meet the first three members of the Philippian church: Lydia, a business-woman from Turkey and apparently a Jewish proselyte; a Roman jailer; and a Greek slave-girl. Early Christian churches were like that, composed of people from different nations, religious backgrounds, and different walks of life. In that kind of situation, there is always going to be a danger of disunity. For the matter of that, in any human institution, there is always this danger. The very first human family was torn apart by jealousy and murder and things have not improved much since.
And that was part of the reason why Paul wrote this letter--especially, why he wrote the passage we find at the beginning of Philippians 2. He wanted to exhort the people at Philippi to a certain attitude--an attitude which we should still have today. I've titled this attitude one of “unity and humility.” You have to understand that the humility Paul is speaking of here is tied intrinsically to unity. This isn't about being humble merely for the sake of being humble. There is a certain humility we should have because we recognize our dependence on God, but that isn't what Paul is talking about here. Rather, what he is talking about is related to what we saw earlier--the fellowship of the Gospel. D. A. Carson writes: “Christian fellowship, then, is self-sacrificing conformity to the gospel... [T]he heart of the matter is this shared vision of what is of transcendent importance, a vision that calls forth our commitment.” This is what Paul is talking about here. This is really just an echo and an application of the first chapter. If we are citizens of God's kingdom, dedicated to working for the cause of the Gospel, then that should change the way we live and the way we interact with our fellow Christians.
To understand this passage we need to notice something about its structure. Philippians 2:1-4 are a single sentence in Greek and it has a very definite structure built around the sequence IF... THEN... BY... The IF (found in verse 1) sets up a condition, the THEN (verse 2a) shows what should happen if that condition is met and the BY (2b-4) shows how the THEN is to be executed. The IF in verse 1 is rhetorical. Paul uses the word IF to catch their attention, to make them stop and think about what they have as Christians, about the benefits which God has given them.
IF
(1) “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ.” This word therefore ties the passage back to Philippians 1, where Paul had been talking about persecution and how in the midst of persecution, Jesus would be with them to comfort and encourage them and help them to stand strong. That seems to be the idea behind this word consolation. Paul is saying, have you have found strength and comfort from Christ in times of trouble? The word literally means A-coming-along-side, so you could put it: “If therefore you have found Christ at your side when you needed Him...”(2) “If any comfort of love” or, as some put it, any comfort that comes from love. It's not clear whether this means God's love for us or our love, as Christians, for one another. Probably both are included since, throughout the New Testament, God's love for us and our love for one another are treated as being inseparable. The idea is that if there is comfort in love, then love is something worth maintaining. Is love a good thing? Then we should be willing to make some sacrifices to keep it intact. As a man with a precious jewel would take great care in selecting and maintaining a safe to protect it, so if there is any comfort in love, we should be willing to take great care, great dedication for the sake of love.
(3) “If any fellowship of the Spirit.” This word fellowship we have seen before as being a keyword in Philippians. It is not merely friendship or camaraderie, but partnership or community. The word, according to Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, was used by Greeks to refer to people of the same town or community, those who drank from the same well and ate from the same fields. As Christians, we are all part of one fellowship, one organism, one kingdom. That's why it's important to note that it is the fellowship of the Spirit--a fellowship that comes from the fact that one Holy Spirit is at work in all Christians. One translation gives the phrase as "common sharing of the Spirit" (Weymouth's New Testament) Just as the various organs in the human body are one body because they are all under the direction of one human spirit, so all Christians are one body because they are all under the direction of Holy Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 4:4)
(4) “If any bowels and mercies.” If I said, “My heart feels for you” would you know what I mean? Of course, even though we realize that our heart is merely a muscle for pumping blood and is not necessarily connected to our emotions. In some ancient language, they connected emotions not to the heart but to the intestines. That is why Paul uses this phrase here. Other translations give it as “tenderness” or “affection.” Paul seems to be speaking of their relationship to himself. He is asking whether they feel any affection and sympathy for him. You could put it: “Does your heart feel anything for me? Are you concerned about my feelings?” Paul had been closely associated with the Philippian church, helping to found it even at great personal cost. Many of those who read this letter were Christians because of the ministry and self-sacrifice of Paul. That was why he could give this personal appeal. As Christians, we owe something to those who have helped us, those who have witnessed to us, those who helped us to grow and learn of God.
These are the four IFs, the four conditional statements: if there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort from love, any fellowship in the Spirit, and any affection for me, Paul. As soon as they heard these words, the Philippians would have realized that, yes, all of these things were true. There was no question about any of these things. That brings us to the second half of this sentence:
THEN
“Fulfil ye my joy” Paul had great joy from the Philippian church as he mentioned in chapter 1. But his joy wasn't quite complete, because there were problems in the church. That why he asks, as Robertson puts it, for them to fill full the cup of his joy. It is interesting that he puts this in such a personal way. Paul could just as well have issued a command and told them that they had to do such and such. Paul was never afraid to tell people what to do. But instead, Paul put it on a very personal footing, asking them to complete or perfect his joy in them, to live up to his expectation. The words are almost like those of a father, speaking to his children. But how would they complete his joy? What were they failing to do which they needed to start doing in order to be all the apostle wished?
BY
“That ye be likeminded.” My two hands never fight or get in competition or have a falling out with each other. That's because they are under the control of the same mind, my mind. That's what Paul is asking for--that the Philippians would act in such unity that it would be as if they were all part of one mind. The idea here is of complete, unruffled unity in the church, a unity coupled with humility. Paul expands the picture in the rest of verse 2 by saying “having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” This seems to mean, 'loving the same things, feeling the same things, thinking the same things.'It is important to note that Paul is not thinking of abstract unity because abstract unity does not exist. For instance, it is futile for people to say about politicians that they should just work together--they cannot work together, because they are not working for the same thing. You cannot walk with someone who is going in the other direction. Some time ago I saw one of those inspirational posters which contain a picture and a short, inspiring thought. This particular poster had a picture of various marbles, and underneath this phrase: "DIVERSITY: Different sizes, different colors--same goal." Because all Christians have the same goal, they can have unity despite their individual differences. Many colors go to make up a painting, but they are all on one canvas, all put there by one artist. There are many kinds of soldiers in an army, but they all serve the same flag. There are many people in a country, but they are all citizens of the same nation.
Moreover, because all Christians are working from the same model they ought to have a unity of nature. That reminds of the phrase about the 'fellowship of the Spirit.' As one old preacher used to say, 'The Holy Spirit in me cannot argue with the Holy Spirit in you.' A. T. Robertson likens this kind of unity to two clocks that strike at exactly the same moment--if each one of us is synchronized with God's timing, then we should all tick together.
The other side of Paul's request is humility, and that is the main thought in verses 3 and 4. Humility is a necessary ingredient in unity. There are two things that keep us from being united generally speaking. One, as I said before, is a difference of goals. But the other is pride. If we work with other people, we must be willing to let them have their way sometimes; if they help us, we must be willing to give them part of the credit. And that is the real reason it is futile to ask the whole world to just cooperate and get along--this is impossible without humility.
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.” The word for strife has the connotation of intrigue or plotting. Several of the commentaries connect it with the idea of 'party-spirit' or sectarianism. A Sunday School Quarterly paraphrases the two things this way: "The Christian is to have no part of self-seeking that motivates intrigue, 'wire-pulling,' contentiousness, or factiousness, or self-esteem that resorts to self-praise and 'spiritual' conceit."
The word vainglory literally what it says. It is a combination of two words “empty” and “glory.” Thayer defines the adjective form of this verb as “glorying without reason, conceited, vain-glorious, eager for empty glory.” (#2755) The vainglorious man is the man who wants fame and glory without caring whether he deserves it or not. It the man who loves the sound of praise, who is hungry for applause in of itself. This attitude can be seen in certain modern celebrities who almost seem to love scandal and disgrace so long as it keeps their name in the public's mind.
Putting these two words together, we have a fairly clear picture of the behavior Paul wants the Philippians to avoid. The idea of plotting and scheming for one's own honor and empty praise, of pulling wires and manipulating events in order to bring one's self into the limelight--this is something we know. It is everywhere in modern media, in modern politics, and too often in the modern church--and clearly it was just as much a problem in the first century. That was why Paul was so insistent that this be removed from the Christian life, that the Philippians have nothing to do with this sort of thing.
If you read verse 3 out of a King James Bible, you will notice that the words “let” and “be done” are in italics. That means those words aren't actually in the Greek NT and were added by the translators in order to help the sentence make sense in English. The NET Bible argues that this command does not merely relate to actions (as “be done” implies) but to any part of our life, to our thoughts and our intentions. The point being, these things--strife and vainglory--are to play no part in the Christian life, they should never be operative in a Christian in any way, shape, or form. “Just Say No”
Paul goes even further, striking at a fundamental and deep-seated human tendency. The American songwriter Oscar Hammerstein II wrote these words: “Now every star and every whirling planet/And every constellation in the sky/Revolves around the center of the universe/That lovely thing called I.” This is usually our attitude as humans, placing ourselves--our ideas, our plans, our needs--at the center of our universe, treating ourselves and our own interests as the primary thing, building and ordering all things around them, and, if necessary, sacrificing the good of others in order to achieve it. Sometimes this is caused by sin, sometimes by the carnal nature, and sometimes by habit and mere absence of mind. But Paul strikes a bold line against this attitude with the words of verses 3 and 4. The NET Bible translates them: “Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well.” As Christians, we are to place a value on the lives and interests of others, being willing to give preference to them, taking a genuine interest in their good and being willing even to sacrifice our own interests for their sake.
Despite the proliferation of social media, our modern society is an increasingly isolated and individualistic one. Paul's insistence is that the church not be like that. As Christians, we cannot be wholly warped up and interested in our own business or even our own spiritual concerns, but also in the good of other Christians and ultimately the entire church. Albert Barnes: “We are to feel that the spiritual interests of every one in the church is, in a certain sense, our own interest. The church is one. It is confederated together for a common object. Each one is intrusted with a portion of the honour of the whole, and the conduct of one member affects the character of all. We are therefore to promote, in every way possible, the welfare of every other member of the church... Every member of the church has a claim on the sympathy of his brethren, and should be certain of always finding it when his circumstances are such as to demand it.” (Philippians 2:4) The humility Paul calls for is not self-deprecation but rather a conscious awareness of the fact that we are citizens of God's kingdom.
Presbyterian philosopher R. J. Rushdoony wrote about the consequence of sin on a society: "But where man declares his independence from God, he will not hesitate to declare his independence from man also, and the result is radical anarchy... Every man becomes his own universe, and is at war with all other men." (The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum, 99) But as Christians, we know that we are part of God's universe and so must have a genuine interest, a genuine love for other people because they are members of the same body and are also loved by God. The foundation of humility is love--for God, for each other, and (in the Philippians' case) for Paul so that by having this kind of life they could bring joy to Paul.
Paul desired that the Philippians would work as partners in the gospel, would be dedicated to living as citizens of God's kingdom--by working in unity and humility. But to make sure they understood what he meant, Paul gave an illustration, an example of the kind of humility he wanted them to have. It should be noted that there are three people mentioned in Philippians 2 which act as examples or illustrations, but this is obviously the most important and is something more than an example. This example, found in verse 5-8, is the example of Jesus Christ.
The key verse here is verse 5--“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” This is significant because that is the whole of Christianity. To be a Christian means to have the mind of Christ, to have the same attitudes and disposition that Christ had. Paul is speaking here specifically of Christ's humility and dedication, but really he could have begun any exhortation with these words. As Christians, we are “in Christ” (one of Paul's favorite phrases) and Christ is in us, for if a man does not have the spirit of Christ he does not belong to Him. Our whole life is to be a quest to be more fully and completely in line with the mind, the will of Christ. And while this may be reading too much into it, this may connect back to Paul's earlier words about being "likeminded." We can all be of the same mind when that mind is the mind of Christ. The easiest way for an organization to achieve unity (in the short term) is to have a strong, charismatic leader who becomes the focal point of unity, with everyone agreeing and uniting with him and so with one another. But in human cases, that leader can only achieve so much unity and it usually all breaks up once he dies. But Christ is immortal and his mind lives within the mind of his disciples through the agency of His spirit.
It should be noted that instead of “in you” some translations have “among you” (see RSV) This would make sense given that Paul is specifically addressing their attitude towards one another. He is saying not just that as individuals you should be like Christ (though that is true) but that the mind of Christ should be in them all, as a body, and should govern their attitude towards one another. Someone gave the definition that a Christian is a person through whom Christ lives again. And that is true. But it is also true that the church as a whole is the body through which Christ lives again. The mind of Christ should be in us individually--but it should also be in us as a body. You may remember a passage in Ephesians 4 in which Paul describes the entire church growing up together into the image of God.
As Christians, we should have the mind, the attitude, the spirit of Christ. You could talk about a lot of different ways in which that is true, but Paul is speaking of something very specific here--he is speaking specifically of Christ's humility, though we could also describe it as meekness.
We should first note what Christ had; who Christ was. Verse 6 says that He existed in the form of God. The Greek word here is morphe. A teddy bear is a teddy bear because it is made in the form of a teddy bear. A plush horse is a horse because it is made in the form of a horse. The basic materials could have been made into something else, but in this form, it must be this thing. Of course, a teddy bear could be more than a teddy bear--it could secretly be a clock or a bomb or a robot if something was planted inside it. But that wouldn't change the fact that it was a teddy bear. So long as it has that form, that is what it will be. That is its morphe.
To say that Jesus existed in the form of God is to say He was God. Everything you could say to describe God would have described Jesus. Any attribute of God would also have been an attribute of Jesus. Everything God is, Jesus is.
This is made even clearer in the other thing Paul says about Christ which is that he had equality with God. When two things are equal, they have the same value. To that Jesus was equal to God is to say that He was just as good as God, that He had the same value that God does--which is to say that Jesus is God.
So this is the key point to understand--Jesus was and is God, of one nature with the Father, true God of True God, light from light eternal. When we use the word "God" in a sentence, we can just as well put in "Jesus" and it would mean the same thing. Everything that God is, Jesus is.
That shouldn't be anything new to you and it wasn't anything new to the Philippians. They were already partners in the Gospel, citizens of God's kingdom, and so they were familiar with the Gospel which Paul had preached, which was the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord. But what Paul wanted them to remember was Jesus' attitude towards His own position. People talk about trying to make it to the top or trying to reach the highest rung on the ladder. As God, Jesus was, by definition, at the top. And yet... "he thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Now, there's some debate about what this means. Some people take it as emphasizing that Jesus was God. For Jesus to claim to be God was not "identity theft" because He was God. But there is another way the phrase can be understood.
What is a robbery? It's when someone wants money or other possessions so badly that they steal it from someone else. Robbery is the desire to grasp something for oneself, to possess something--regardless of the cost to others. But Jesus, who had everything, had exactly the opposite spirit. He didn't hold unto His own rights, His own prerogatives, His own position in the way a robber holds unto his loot. Instead, he did the opposite. He gave it up.
There is a progression here. Verse 7 says that Jesus "made Himself of no reputation." The Greek is literally "He EMPTIED Himself." He laid aside and gave up the things He had as God. What does it mean to say that Christ emptied Himself? The rest of verse 7 and verse 8 explain that.
There are three phrases here. First, he "took upon him the form of a servant." Remember that word morphe? That's the same word here. Jesus became a servant by taking upon Himself the form of a servant. He became a servant as truly as He is God. Second, he "was made in the likeness of men," and third, he was "found in fashion as a man." There seem to be slight differences between these different phrases, but together they point to the same reality. Jesus was God and yet He became a man, taking on Himself a human body, a human mind, a human soul, so that He was fully God and fully man, without mixture and without confusion. Christ "emptied himself/by taking on the form of a slave,/by looking like other men,/and by sharing in human nature." (Philippians 5:7, NET Bible) Not only did Jesus become a man, but He became a poor man living in a poor nation.
So not only did He EMPTY Himself, giving up His place in Heaven and His rights as God to become man, but as a man He HUMBLED Himself. If He was going to become a man, He would have had the right to be the most powerful man on Earth, to be the mightiest king, the richest sovereign. But we know that wasn't the case.
Though He was God, yet He was willing to become Man. And though He was Master, He was willing to be made a servant. Though, as God, he had the right to command all the service of mankind, yet He took on himself the life of slave--spending His life ministering to other people. (See Matthew 20:28) He spent His time healing and teaching people who had done nothing for Him. His whole life was symbolized in that act during His last supper when he took up the role of a slave and washed the feet of His disciples. Though He was the one by whom and for whom all things exist, yet He chose to act the part of a servant to the people whom He had created.
And not only did He EMPTY Himself and HUMBLE Himself, but He OBEYED. Hebrews 5:8 says: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." Just as we, as humans, have to obey God, so Jesus obeyed God, even though He was God. The king put Himself under the yoke of His own laws. That wouldn't be that big of a deal on its own but notice the extent of His obedience. It was UNTO DEATH. Jesus did just obey when it was easy; He obeyed God even when, even fully knowing that it would lead to His death. "One may readily and cheerfully obey another where there is no particular peril. But the case is different where obedience is attended with danger. The child shows a spirit of true obedience when he yields to the commands of a father, though it should expose him to hazard; the servant who obeys his master, when obedience is attended with risk of life; the soldier when he is morally certain that to obey will be followed by death... No profounder spirit of obedience can be evinced than this." (Barnes, Philippians 2:8) He humbled Himself from the glory of God to become man, but He was not merely a man, but a servant. And He was not only a servant, but He went so far as to become a dead servant. He was willing to take on Himself not just a terrible life, but a terrible death.
Not only did He obey unto death, but even to the DEATH OF THE CROSS. He didn't just go to death, but to the cross. We speak of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb, but he wasn't killed with honor and ceremony as a sacrifice is killed. He was hung on a tree and left to die. Not only is crucifixion one of the least pleasant ways to die, it was also the most shameful. If I understand correctly, a Roman Citizen, regardless of what crime he committed, could never suffer crucifixion. It was a form of death reserved for slaves and the very worst of criminals, for the scum of society.
So here is the progression. Jesus was, by right, the equal of God and possessed all the privileges and rights of Godhood, but He did not count that as something to grasp but instead emptied himself by becoming a man, by stooping under the yoke of obedience, by going all the way to death, even to the death of the Cross. A. T. Robertson calls this "The bottom rung in the ladder from the Throne of God. Jesus came all the way down to the most despised death of all, a condemned criminal on the accursed cross." (Philippians 2:8)
When Paul used the word "humility," this example was what came first to his mind, the example of Christ. Christ willingly abased Himself, giving up His own rights and privileges and taking up suffering and disgrace and shame. But the important point to note is why He did this. Jesus did not go through this descent as an arbitrary, meaningless act, nor because there is any intrinsic value in self-abasement. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9) The reason why Jesus did all this; the reason why Jesus was willing to become a man and die on the cross, was for us, was so that we could be saved. Irenaeus wrote: "Because of His boundless love, He became what we are in order that He might make us what He is."
This, then, is the humility of Jesus. It was a total dedication to God's will and to bringing salvation for mankind, no matter the cost; it was a willingness to surrender anything, to sacrifice anything, to endure anything in order to help those who needed help. Jesus, as God, had a right to everything; He had a right to remain in Heaven and never come to Earth; if He had come to Earth, He could have had the best possible human life, a life of riches and comfort. But if He had done that, He could not have brought salvation to mankind. And so He willingly gave up His rights, going through a life of poverty and suffering, bearing the rejection and ridicule of sinful men, accepting the insults and betrayal of family and friends, and dying as a criminal--He did all that, to bring about salvation for us. The writer to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) The humility of Jesus was not humility for its own sake, but a humility for our sake. Rather than hold on to His own rights, He set them aside for our sake.
And so when Paul says that we should have this mind in us, what he is saying is that we should have the same attitude--the same willingness to give up our own rights, our own prerogatives, our own glory for the sake of those we love. Rather than exalt ourselves, we should be working to exalt others, just as Jesus lived His entire human life for the purpose of helping man. The humility of Jesus did not mean that He went around all the time berating Himself and saying how terrible He was and that He didn't deserve anything--because that wouldn't have been true. His humility was in giving up the things which He did have, which He did deserve--and He did it for us. Hannah Hurnard described the joy of the waterfall as it cast itself down to bring water to the valley and imagined it singing: "From the heights we leap and flow/To the valleys down below,/Sweetest urge and sweetest will,/To go lower, lower still." That might summarize the feelings of Christ. He was willing to go to the lowest place so that He might bring us salvation. And as followers of Jesus, that should be our attitude as well. A willingness, even a joy, in giving up our own position and rights in order to help others. We are probably often wrong about our own achievements and rights; we may be mistaken in what we think we deserve--but that is not the point; the point is that we should be willing to give up even that which we do justly deserve, give up even the rights which we legitimately have, if that's what is necessary to help others, to fulfill God's will, to maintain unity in the church--for remember that unity is still Paul's main theme here. If Christ willing to sacrifice everything in order to bring the church into existence, we should be willing to sacrifice something in order to maintain the unity of the church. This does not mean never taking a stand on certain issues. Both Jesus and Paul clearly did take stands that caused division. But it does mean a willingness to give up our own personal interests and rights in order to protect the church. “In the Philippian Church there were men whose aim was to gratify a selfish ambition; the aim of Jesus was to serve others, no matter what depths of self-renunciation that service might involve. In the Philippian Church there were those whose aim was to focus men's eyes upon themselves; the aim of Jesus was to focus men's eyes upon God.” (Barclay, 40)
This is the kind of dedication Paul was exhorting the Philippians to have--a dedication to humility and self-sacrifice. But there is something extremely counterintuitive about this command. One would think that the way to accomplish anything worthwhile in life would be by pushing ourselves forward. W. S. Gilbert expressed the view of the humanity when he wrote: “If you wish in the world to advance,/Your merits you're bound to enhance,/You must stir it and stump it,/And blow your own trumpet,/Or, trust me, you haven't a chance!” From the world's viewpoint, the kind of humility and self-sacrifice Paul is presenting here would spell defeat. You would think someone who lived like this would be doomed to failure, to be forgotten. But Paul reminds us that this was not the case for Jesus Christ, for Christ was ultimately exalted, which is Paul's theme in verses 9-11.
Those verses describe the exaltation of Jesus. But note that word at the beginning of verse 9: “Wherefore.” Jesus was not exalted as a separate, unrelated fact from His humility. It was for this reason--because He was willing to be humbled, willing to sacrifice himself to accomplish God's will--that is why God exalted Him. Of course, Jesus is God--and is therefore by definition worthy of all honor anyway. But the New Testament repeats over and over that there is a special exaltation which the Father has given to Jesus because of His work in the plan of redemption.
God recognized Jesus' identity. Paul says that God gave Jesus “A name which is above every name.” The Jews treated the name of God so carefully and sacredly that they would avoid saying it whenever they could. It was “The Name”, the name above every name. This is another way of saying that Jesus is God, of one nature with God the Father. But the point to notice is that God gave Him this name. Jesus was willing to give up the rights of God and became a man, seemingly no different from any other man. He did not claim all the rights of God and, during His time on earth, only told a handful of people who He really was. But God recognized Him for who He was--giving Him that name which is above all names.
Many people make a point of pushing their own merits or achievements, fearing that if they don't, no one will know. But Jesus willingly humbled Himself, knowing that in due time God would recognize him. It would be as if a royal prince went on a secret mission among his own countrymen, disguised as an ordinary person. The people around him would not recognize his authority, they would not look up to him or respect him. But he would know that once he returned to his father, the king would recognize him as his son.
Paul expressed this kind of faith in God in 2 Timothy 1:12: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” He knew that the things he risked and gave up for the sake of God's work would be kept safe--and that was the same truth with drove the life of Jesus. He gave up His identity and glory, knowing that the Father would return them.
And the other part of this is that God brought Jesus' life to fruition. From a human point of view, Jesus' life was a failure. He lived a short life, had only a few years of actual ministry, had only a handful of followers, never started an organization, and died an ignominious death. Humanly speaking, Christ's life was a failure.
But what was the final result? “At the name of Jesus everything knee should bow... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” It is not just that Jesus received exaltation. This picture Paul gives us here hints at something Paul would later develop in his letter to the Ephesians. This picture--of Jesus receiving worship from all things--is a picture of the final consummation of reality, the thing for which God has been working since the beginning of time, the mystery of the gospel, the final end of all things. It was this that Jesus was born for--and it will come to pass. Because Jesus was dedicated to fulfilling God's will, even at the cost of great humiliation and sacrifice, God, through Jesus, is fulfilling His will. We can dedicate ourselves to working for God's will, for God's kingdom, knowing that if we do our part, God will bring His will to fruition, even if from our perspective, it seems that our work comes to nothing.
This world is riddled with disunity. At this point in world history, human ingenuity and knowledge have reached such a point that you would think anything is possible, you would think that a nearly ideal human society could be created on this earth. And if anything, the opposite is true. There are many reasons for this, but one very large one is the fact that so few people have this quality--the dedication to put aside their personal agenda, needs, and rights in order to work together for a common end. That the world lacks this quality is only to be expected, though. As the church, we should be able to show the world what this kind of humility is like. Many bricks may go into a building--they may be different sizes, sit at different levels and different angles--but they all work together for a common end because they all belong to one building. Many notes may be in a piece of music, each with their own distinct pitch and timing, but they work together for a common end because they all belong to one song. And we can all be different and yet work together for a common end if we all belong to the same God. But to do that, we must be willing to give up our own rights and take whatever position God assigns us, even if it means that we do not recognition and glory that we think we deserve--because we care more about God's work than our own rights and we know that if we submit ourselves to God, then God will fulfill His will in our lives.
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