The Value Of Unity

We continue the study of Philippines and move on to Chapter 2. 

Philippians 2:1-3 says, ‘Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’

The verses above are the focus of discussion today. It is important to act and behave a certain way as someone part of the body of Christ. It is important to be humble and have a mentality of service always. The Bible is not a storybook, it is a practical book with practical ways of living. It is not easy to live exactly the way the Bible has advised us to live. And this is only possible with the Holy Spirit residing in us. We cannot do anything that sustains our spiritual life and our spiritual being without the help of God and the Holy Spirit. 

In the book of Philippians, Paul talks about practical ways of living a Christian life. The church of Philippians was growing strong, with several people joining this community of believers. As the number of people increased, the number of opinions also increased. So, how do we build a community of believers, keeping in mind the challenges that come with a growing group of believers? Paul talks about this in Philippians. He focused on practical advice for believers to lead a good Christian life. 

Paul advises the believers in Philippi to be Christ-like. It is only when one is Christ-like can they remain in unity. 
As you read through Philippians Chapter 2, Paul focuses on how the Church can retain unity between believers and how one can attain Christ-likeness. Paul also focuses on the necessity of unity and character qualities of a true believer. 

Paul highlights how the encouragement through unity in Christ is important. In the verses of Philippians 2, he talks about how it is not in God's nature to put someone down. In the story of the woman caught in adultery, when she was going to be stoned by the crowd, Jesus stood up for her. He questioned the crowd and their moral standing. The woman clearly did not walk the path of righteousness, yet, God chose to not point his fingers at her, but instead questioned those who dared to stone her. After everyone left, Jesus advised her not to sin and did not put her down in front of others. This does not mean that Jesus will not discipline us. 

Paul urges the believers to live in unity with one another. And this is no small feat. If you look at a traditional church, you see that the people who are part of this community are generational, where their forefathers attended the same church. Hence there is a sense of familiarity and commonality that is present. Whereas, for a church like ours, people from different backgrounds attend our services. They may speak a different language, born into a different religion, could have lived an unlawful life and such. It is such people who have so many differences that come together to celebrate and worship the true Lord under one roof. Jesus himself was accused of eating and spending time with tax collectors and sinners. Therefore, just because we pray and worship the same Lord, it does not mean that there will not be any differences between us. But where we succeed is when we come together in the unity of the spirit. A true metaphor of unity in nature is the flying patterns of migratory birds. These birds fly in a V shape with a bird leading the flock against the wind. The bird who leads the flock is cutting against the wind and experiences the greatest amount of resistance. When each of the birds flying follow after the leading bird, they are able to stay in the shape and there’s a 70% chance that they will succeed and move faster to their destination. There is rotation that happens where the bird leading the way moves back once it gets tired, the next in line takes charge. God teaches us a great lesson through this. They take the path that God has laid out for them and succeed in their flight. If a bird loses its way and flies away from the flock, then it gets tired faster and moves slower. This is the strength and fruit of unity. Unity is not flying solo but flying in formation for the sake of Christ. A result of unity is harmony. Among a group of people, if there is a lack of consent and different opinions, and a general lack of harmony, then it will disintegrate and break up. Hence it’s important to work towards maintaining harmony to resist disintegration. A violin that is dusty and dysfunctional becomes harmonious when a master or an expert works on tuning it. In the same way it is only when Christ puts his hand over his church and the Holy Spirit 
descends upon them that harmony comes into play. When the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the upper room, they spoke in tongues and praised the Lord in one accord. They prayed in unity of spirit. 

The next aspect Paul focuses on is the comfort from Christ’s love. Love is the lubricant that eliminates friction among people. It is when there is love, there is harmony and when there is harmony there is unity. He then focuses on fellowship with the Holy Spirit. It is only the Holy Spirit that binds the Lord with people, and people with people. Paul only goes on to talk about tenderness, compassion, like-mindedness among people and such. A lighthouse helps a person understand where the land is, it acts as a guidepost at sea. When two people work at a lighthouse, they have to work in total harmony, where they work round the clock, schedule breaks timely to ensure that the lighthouse is always functioning properly. Being like-minded is key to this successful collaboration. In a storm, unity is our anchor and Christ our captain. We have to work towards ensuring oneness in spirit and oneness in purpose through the Holy Spirit that resides in us. What we must never forget is that these qualities ultimately come from Christ and we can only achieve like mindedness, harmony, unity and everything else through him alone. Satan will always try to bring discontent and disconnect between people. But remember Christ did not die for us to build walls, but to break them and surpass them. Christ died for us to make us one.