WEEK TWO
Day Three
DAILY SCRIPTURE
Philippians 2:2
LEADER GUIDE QUESTIONS
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Know: Read Philippians 2:1-2
Note: Read slowly, carefully marking keywords.
Mark: fellowship of the Spirit, in Christ, like-minded, same love, of one mind, fulfill my joy
Observation:
How can the church be like-minded?
Why would Paul desire the church to have a unified purpose?
What: How can you grow in greater unity and love with people in your life?
“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind.” Philippians 2:1-2
I have a cute children’s book on my shelf that I used to read to my kids called The Seven Silly Eaters. It is about a mother named Mrs. Peters who had seven children who wore her out because they were each particular in their eating preferences. One son only drank warm milk, the next only drank homemade pink lemonade, the third only ate applesauce, the fourth ate smooth oatmeal, the fifth ate homemade bread, and the sixth and seventh only ate eggs- one poached, the other fried. Poor Mrs. Peters was a hot mess trying to please them all. They were never happy unless she made their food exactly; she grew tired of the daily chore of pleasing them.
On her birthday, while she slept, the children devised a plan to make her a cake using the ingredients they each loved. As they worked together, a mess emerged until the kitchen was a complete wreck. Knowing Mrs. Peters would be horrified, they tried their best to clean up but didn’t quite succeed. They gathered the sloppy mess into a bowl, threw it into the oven, and went to bed.
The next morning, while they slept, Mrs. Peters wearily got up at her usual early time to make her kids their food. As she descended the stairs, she smelled a smell that shocked her. She began dancing around, laughing, and crying, waking the kids. They came down to find her excited over a beautiful pink birthday cake that their mess had become while it sat in the oven.
Her weariness disappeared as she realized that her children made her a birthday cake! Oh, the joy and pleasure as she hugged and loved her kids and celebrated their ingenuity. The unity of bringing all their favorite food into one giant cake was beyond exciting. From then on, that was the only meal the family ever ate, and Mrs. Peters was once again a happy mother.
Bringing a persnickety family together through one unified cake brought boundless peace.
Unity is beautiful when believers can unite. It seems laughably impossible considering the theological differences among the church, such as worship songs being banned among some circles and hymn books being discarded. Some circles teach that signs and wonders ended after the apostles, while others regularly operate in them.
How is it possible for believers to walk in unity as Paul urged the church to do?
The answer is to focus on Jesus Christ and the good news of His finished work.
In the following passage, Paul sums it up in a poem. In today’s passage, Paul approaches the issue of unity from every angle: the motivation for unity, the inner life of unity, and the practical application of unity.
The motivation for unity
In verse one, Paul implies that they should want to live this way because of the Christ in them. If we are in Christ, then Christ is in us. The Spirit of God living in us wants unity. God is love, and his love, which dwells in us, seeks to love and unite. It is a love that sustains, cheers, and causes us to love one another. As “glory-carriers” of the spirit, that spirit seeks to work together in one direction, producing human, earthy affection for one another.
Within a church, unity allows that body of believers to build upwards. There are so many different “flavors” within a church—the musicians, the teachers, the children, prophetic people, evangelists, etc. Within a healthy church body, there should be a place for each person to express how God wired them, but not without the other preferring one another. In other words, when it’s time for the musicians to shine, can the body celebrate them? When it’s time for the teachers to shine, can the rest of the body honor them? When Christ is the focus, and each member awakens to Christ within themselves, the love of God allows each member to honor one another when the other.
I have found that offense occurs when someone begins to grumble about the lack of time they are expressing or when someone feels like their pet doctrine is not getting enough air time. There will be disunity whenever the focus is not on Jesus and His finished work and expression flowing from that fountainhead. There will not be unity when one’s motive is to be seen or heard.
Imagine how challenging it is to bring people together to be a church body, but each member wants their way. A leader can become quickly discouraged and worn out trying to please everyone unless the unified purpose for that church is firm.
Being like-minded; of one mind
If Mrs. Peters had gotten all her kids to like what the first child enjoyed eating, all of her troubles would have been solved. Isn’t that what causes trouble within the church body? The leader wants everyone to think like him, but the problem is nobody thinks like him.
Isn’t that where couples get into disagreements? There are two schools of thought that both want to express their minds. Each believes their idea is better than the other.
Whenever trouble flared up in my marriage, the root reason was that we each thought and saw things differently.
My husband is an organized man. He cannot function in disorder. When we were first married, I habitually left things out as I used them. I would get a glass of water and drink it in the bedroom. When I went to the kitchen, I would get another cup and leave it in the living room instead of getting my cup from the bedroom. When dressing for the day, I would try on multiple outfits, leave them on the bed for days, grab the entire pile, and throw it in my closet after a few busy days. My bathroom space had the same pattern, so you can imagine the room. My husband was patient for a couple of months, and then he would begin making passive-aggressive comments that would get on my nerves.
Instead of asking me to put my things away, he would say, “How many cups do you think you’ll use today?” or " Do you think you have enough clothes?” His approach did not sit well with me.
I prefer to be told bluntly. He thought he was being nice. He and I discovered that neither of us felt as similarly as we believed when dating. We both had some relearning to do. Thankfully, we both made adjustments for a happy medium. I’m pleased to add that my messiness has been tamed. I have become much more organized to help my husband's sanity with a slight flair of mess to keep me feeling like I’m being stifled.
When our children came along, we had to have a semblance of like-mindedness in our marriage, or things would unravel. We would have pitted our children against each other and caused irreparable damage to our family. We both learned to communicate in such a way as to have a unified agreement and then brought our children into that agreement. This is how a family can be like-minded.
In a church, like-mindedness happens when leaders have a unified vision, where Jesus and His finished work are the fulcrum of every ministry branch. When the church flows from Christ, how they express Him is unified.
Like a play being acted out, each artist has a unified goal to make the story come to life. The story is Jesus and His work. We are the actors in this divine drama. We each play out a unified goal to make the story come to life, but the ultimate purpose is that Jesus is glorified.