CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Philippians 2:1. Consolation in Christ.—Exhortation would be better, inasmuch as consolation anticipates the comfort of the next phrase. Comfort of love.—Encouragement which love gives. Fellowship of the Spirit.—“Participation in the Spirit” Meyer’s remark is, “This is to be explained of the Holy Spirit.” Beet intimates a widening of the idea—“brotherliness prompted by the Holy Spirit.” Bowels and mercies.—On the former term see Philippians 1:8. The word for mercies denotes the yearning of the heart, though, it may be, there is no ability to help.
Philippians 2:2. Fulfil ye my joy.—“Fill up” my cup of joy. See Philippians 1:4. Likeminded.—“General harmony, … identity of sentiment” (Meyer). On this verse, with its accumulations, Chrysostom exclaims, “Bless me! how often he says the same thing!”
Philippians 2:3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.—The verb is suppressed in the Greek, a construction more natural and more forcible than to connect the nothing with the preceding clause. “Partisanship and pomposity.” For the ruin of how many Churches are this pair responsible! In lowliness of mind.—A rare flower, scattering its fragrance unseen. “It was one great result of the life of Christ (on which St. Paul dwells here) to raise humility to its proper level; and, if not fresh coined for this purpose, the word (for ‘lowliness of mind’) now first became current through the influence of Christian ethics” (Lightfoot).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Philippians 2:1-4
Christian Unity an Occasion of Joy.
I. Christian unity is a striving after the Spirit of Christ.—“That ye be likeminded” (Philippians 2:2).
1. Manifested in loving consolation to those in distress.—“If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love” (Philippians 2:1). If the pagan expressed unity by those who dwelt in one village and drank of one fountain, how much more real is the union of those who drink of the same Spirit and practise the lovingkindness of the one Christ. A striking evidence of the unity of Christianity is seen in its sympathy everywhere for the poor, the sick, and the unfortunate. It is Christ-like to comfort and help the distressed.
2. Manifested in spiritual fellowship.—“If any fellowship of the Spirit” (Philippians 2:1). Christians are one by their communion together, flowing from their joint participation in the same Spirit. The union of hearts is more real and stable than the external union expressed by creeds and contracts. The Spirit is the unifying power of Christendom.
3. Manifested in compassion for the suffering.—“If any bowels and mercies” (Philippians 2:1). Christianity is a mission to the suffering. Before the Christian era there were no hospitals and infirmaries, no cure for the afflicted poor. Unselfish benevolence was almost unknown. Nothing is more remarkable than the spirit of tender compassion that Christianity has breathed into social and national life.
II. Christianity is opposed to a spirit of faction and empty boasting.—“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory” (Philippians 2:3). The message of the gospel is one of peace and goodwill to all men. It is foreign to its spirit to exalt the interests of party or of self; it seeks to promote a universal and all-pervasive charity. The Germans have a legend connected with the terrific battle of Chalons between the Visigoths and the Romans against Attila. The bloody work of the sword was done, the plain was strewn with heaps of the slain; but for three nights following—so ran the story—the spirits of the slain hovered over the scene and continued the strife in the air. The like has been done again and again in the party strifes and controversies of the Church. Unity is impossible where contention and vanity have sway.
III. Christian unity is strengthened by the maintenance of a humble spirit.—
1. In comparing oneself with others. “In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:3). The man who walks humbly with God, realising his complete dependence on Him, will not unduly exalt himself, and will highly esteem others, as knowing that they are equally with himself dependent on God for their abilities. Instead of fixing your eyes on those points in which you may excel, fix them on those in which your neighbour excels you: to do this is true humility. The excellencies of others are better known than their defects, and our own defects are better known to ourselves than to others. A sense of personal short-coming will keep us humble. Humility is a special product of Christianity. The whole Roman language, with all the improvements of the Augustan age, does not afford so much as a name for humility; nor was one found in all the copious language of the Greeks, till it was made by the great apostle.
2. In considering other people’s interests as well as your own.—“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2:4) The truly humble are thoroughly disinterested. The work of the meek and lowly Jesus is the loftiest example of disinterestedness. He looked to the things of others rather than to His own. In unselfishly seeking the good of others we promote our own. When Augustine was asked, “What is the first thing in religion?” he answered, “Humility.” “What is the second?” “Humility.” “And what is the third?” “Humility.” Speaking of pride, Augustine truly said, “That which first overcame man is the last thing he overcomes.” Humility is a strong bond of Christian unity.
IV. Christian unity is an occasion of great joy.—“Fulfil ye my joy” (Philippians 2:2). The weak spot in the disposition of the Philippians was a tendency to quarrelsomeness; hence he insists upon unity. They had given him joy in the other Christian excellencies they possessed; he asks them to complete his joy in cherishing the grace of unity. “Behold,” exclaimed tho rejoicing Psalmist, as he contemplated the union of the Jewish tribes, “how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” The bundle of arrows cannot be broken while it remains a bundle. Tacitus, an ancient Latin historian, says of the Germans, what sceptics and others find true of Christians, “Whilst fighting separately, all are conquered together.” The strength of the Christian Church lies in its consolidation.
Lessons.—
1. Christian unity is of supreme importance.
2. Is absolutely necessary to represent the Spirit of Christ.
3. Is the cause of much joy to the anxious minister.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Philippians 2:1-2. Unity and Concord in the Church.—
1. As unity and concord is necessary in itself and at all times, so is it most necessary in suffering times: the enjoyment of Christ’s presence, the reaping of any spiritual advantage by the communion and love of the saints, fellowship with God through the operation of the Spirit, depend upon it.
2. The success of the gospel will be matter of joy to a public-spirited Christian, even in the midst of his own crosses and sufferings.
3. That unity and concord among the Churches may be solid and lasting, there should be unity of will and affections, of designs and endeavours, and in opinion and matters of judgment.—Fergusson.
Philippians 2:3. Humility an Antidote to Contention.—
1. The lust of vainglory, whereby a man pursues more after the applause of men than to be approved of God, is the mother of contention and strife, and unfriendly to union and peace.
2. The grace of humility does not consist in an affected strain of words and gestures, but, being seated in the heart, makes a man think meanly of himself and of anything that is his.
3. So conscious should we be of our own infirmities, so modest in the esteem of our own graces and virtues. so prone to charity, that we ought to esteem any other, for what we know of him, to be better than ourselves.—Ibid.
Philippians 2:4. Looking on the Things of Others.
I. One school in which we learn the lesson of unselfishness is the home circle.
II. Another way in which God teaches us the same lesson is through the experience we gain in the intercourse of daily work.—We divide men into the selfish and the unselfish—those who work for self and think of self, and those whose labours are for other men.
III. We are taught to consider other men by the perplexities and confusion which arise when we think only of ourselves.—The modern philosophy is true so far when it says that man is nothing in himself, but only a bundle of relations, the meeting-point of many influences. Those who fix their attention upon the meeting-point forget what makes the man. Probably there is no more confused or miserable man than the self-analyst.—A. R. MacEwen.