Philippians 2:1-4 (NIV)
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, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Paul understands that true unity, unity of heart, of mind, of purpose, can’t be manufactured by potlucks and fellowship times. It has to come from much deeper commonalities.
The Philippian church was a gentile-majority church, and there would have been good reasons for separation among the people: there were Jews in addition to the gentiles, rich and poor, slave and free, men and women. Culturally, it would have been very easy to go with the societal norms and have several congregations based on these social distinctions. It would have been the “easy” way.
But the Philippians were united in ways that overcame the normal societal categories. They had all been saved and transformed by the same Messiah. They had all been touched by his agape love. They had all received the same Holy Spirit in their hearts. And they had all been integrated into God’s key purpose: to make disciples of everyone, whether those people were like them or not, whether they were near or far away.
All of these were powerful forces that moved people together instead of moving them apart. But the seal that bonded them together most powerfully was God’s agape love flowing into and through every one of their lives.
Agape love is, by its nature, other-centered, unlike human-based love, which is focused on self, what I want, how I feel, what I need. Agape love focuses on the needs and interests of others. It is a self-sacrificing love, the same love that put Jesus on the cross to suffer and die for the sins of others , even though he had not a single sin of his own that deserved that suffering.
God’s agape love lives in the hearts of all those who live in Christ, who live by God’s Spirit, who are part of the body of Christ. It just needs to be given the freedom to motivate and empower in order to begin its work of transforming every life and heart that it touches.
Father, in our society today, we are taught to be self-focused, self-centered. We are bombarded minute by minute with ads and infomercials telling us that we need what we want, and that we are the center of our own universe. Even news programs are no longer content with telling us what happened. They also tell us what it could mean to us personally (even though they don’t actually know us), and how we should feel about it. In this day and age, more than ever, we need the unity that comes from the understanding that we have been saved and transformed by the same Messiah, that we have all been touched by the same agape love, that we have all received the same Holy Spirit, and that we have been integrated into your key purpose of making disciples of everyone. Oh, Lord, help us turn away from the priorities of the world to your priorities. Help us to drink deeply of your Spirit and help us to let Him use your agape love to unite us in your mission today, and on into the future. Amen.