January 17, 2020 – Philippians 2:1-3

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Philippians 2:1-3.

The third verse of Philippians 2, touches every part of our relationships with others and echoes Matthew 22:39, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is impossible without first loving the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 22:39. 

Paul writes about his joy when he sees others growing in their oneness of love and thinking in those who follow Jesus.  In Him we learn the joy of affection and sympathy for each other. We may have diverse languages, skin color, gifts from the Father. Yet in Jesus Christ, we are one in the way we live, serving others and counting them more than ourselves.  When we live in Christ Jesus, we count the interests of others more than ourselves.

What made Jesus become a sacrifice for our sins even to the point of death on the cross? For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 4:4-8.