The Mind That Was in Christ

The paragraph begins with a request that sounds ordinary. Paul wants the Philippians to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, to stand firm in one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith. He wants them united. He asks for it warmly, almost pleadingly: if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from his love, any common sharing in the Spirit, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Then he tells them how. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Value others above yourselves. Look to the interests of others, not only your own. And then, to make the instruction unmistakable, he holds up Christ. Have the same mindset. Here is what it looked like in him.

What follows is one of the most important passages in the New Testament. Christ Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. He made himself nothing. He took the nature of a servant, was made in human likeness, and humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Every line goes down. Every step is voluntary. Nobody took anything from him. He gave it.

The one idea for today is that unity in a church is not produced by agreement. It is produced by people who have stopped grasping. The Philippians were not divided over doctrine. They were, as chapter four will show, divided by ordinary human friction, two leaders who could not get along, and the ripples that spread from that. Paul's remedy is not a meeting. It is a mind, the mind of Christ, who had every right and let go of it.

The turn toward life is personal. What are you grasping this week? A position, an argument, a way of being seen, a right to be offended? The hymn does not ask you to pretend you have no rights. It asks you to look at Jesus, who had all of them, and to notice what he did. Then it tells you where that road ends: not in loss, but in the highest place. Sunday is a good day to loosen your grip.