Chapter 2, verse 3. Let's begin reading
in verse 3. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Now, moved
by God the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul is writing here to believers.
He begins there in verse 1 and he says, If there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, any comfort in Christ, if any comfort
of love, if you're assured that God's love is in Christ and that
His love is everlasting, that He chose you and loved you not
because of anything in you, but purely by His grace. And the
same is true of your brethren. He says, if you have any fellowship
of the Spirit, if the Spirit of Christ has made you one with
Christ, one with your brethren, so that you truly endeavor to
keep the unity of the Spirit. He says, if any bowels and mercies,
if God's given you a heart of mercy, so that you see that He
reserves mercy towards you in Christ, for Christ's sake. And
He's given you a heart of mercy towards your brethren, so that
you want to express a hearty, a tender, a compassionate love
for them, both temporal and spiritual, in temporal matters and spiritual
matters. If this applies to you, in other
words, if you're a true born-again believer, he says verse 2, fulfill
you my joy. He loved these brethren and he
had great joy in them, but he said this is what will make my
joy full. Verse 2, that you be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. The
triune God we serve is of one accord, of one mind, toward each
other, in the persons of the Godhead and towards His people. And He says, I desire for you
to have the same mind and the same accord and the same love
toward God and toward one another. Now, how are we to do that? How
are we to have that one accord, that one mind, that same love
toward God and toward one another? First of all, He says in verse
3, let nothing be done through strife. that nothing be done
through strife. Now remember, remember this.
This is not a word for me to examine how you are treating
me. This is a word for me to examine
how I am treating you. And the same for you. You understand
that? It's not for me to look at others
and say, boy, I hope they're hearing that. It's for me to
hear it about myself and you to hear it about yourself. Alright,
to strive is to work against one another. It's to work against
our brethren instead of for our brethren. Now what causes strife? If you want to look to Proverbs,
I've got several things to show you that Scripture says causes
strife. Proverbs 11. We'll begin there. Proverbs 11. Hatred is the cause of strife. I'm sorry, Proverbs 10, verse
12. Proverbs 10, verse 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes, but
love covereth all sins. You see that? Hatred stirs up
strife, but love covers all sins. We see what the opposite of strife
is right here too. The opposite of strife is to
cover sins. Strife stirs up and reveals those
sins. Hatred likes to uncover sins
in my fellow brethren. Satan hates God. That's why he's
called the accuser of the brethren. He wants to constantly accuse
the brethren. Now, if I begin to accuse my brethren of not
treating me how I think they ought to treat me, it is the
hatred of my flesh. It's the hatred of my flesh.
Love is from God. And love of God in our hearts
makes the believer want to cover the sins of our brethren because
we see that's what God did freely for us. He came to where we are
and put away our sins and covers our sins. He doesn't upbraid
us with our sins. He doesn't pass over our sins
in the sense that He just ignores when we go out of the way and
in the wrong way. He leads us back into the right
way. But He doesn't upbraid us with our sins. He put our sins
away legally. We're justified before God by
the blood of Christ. Now this is so of the believer.
Because Christ fulfilled the law. Because Christ came and
put away our sins. He abolished hatred between God
and His people. And then when He works the work
of grace in our hearts, He abolishes the enmity between brethren and
brethren. Let me listen to this. Ephesians
2.14 says, He is our peace who hath made both one and has broken
down the middle wall of partition between us. He just been talking
about Jew and Gentile, but this applies to to our brethren whether
they be Jew or Gentile or whatever other background and it applies
between us and God. He's our peace that's broken
down the middle wall between us and God and between us and
our brethren. And it says, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity. What was that enmity? Even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances. for to making
himself of two, one new man, so making peace. See, he's taken
the law out of the way. He's fulfilled it for us. So,
thereby, God's not angry with his people anymore in the sense
that they had broken his law, which is the sense in which he
was angry with his people. And his people are angry with
one another in the sense now that we're going to build back
up the law, that which is destroyed, and start saying, now, this is
how you ought to be acting. This is how you ought to be acting.
because he's abolished that. He's taken it out of the way.
And so where grace is in the heart and we know that, the same
peace we have with God, we have with our brethren. Alright, here's
something else that causes strife. Proverbs 13.10 Proverbs 13.10 Only by pride cometh contention. But with the well advised is
wisdom. Pride causes strife. Only with
pride, only by pride cometh contention. But with the well advised is
wisdom. Now if I start exalting myself
over you, and I start esteeming myself better than you, you can
be sure pride is the cause. It says only by pride cometh
contention. Now believer, what have we been
well advised of? We've been well advised. We've
been counseled by our counselor, Christ the Lord. What have we
been well advised of? We've been well advised that
in my flesh dwells no good thing. Nothing. Nothing good in me.
And so, if I believe God's counsel against my flesh, then I'll be
wise not to exalt myself over my brethren. And then he says,
grace advises me of this, Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. I'm chief. Now if I believe God's
counsel, that I'm the chief of sinners, I won't be exalting
myself over my brethren. If you're the bottom, you're
at the bottom, you can't exalt yourself over another. That's
being advised by God, by counsel to be made wise. Grace has advised
me that as Christ is, so is my brother and sister in this earth
right now. He's made them as He is right
now. Perfect, spotless, harmless,
undefiled, with His spotless garment on, they're as perfect
as He is. So am I going to find fault with
my brethren who He doesn't find fault with? He does find fault
with them. Christ my King advises me that
in so much as you have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, you've done it unto me. So that makes me wise to
know that if I find fault with my brethren and esteem myself
over my brethren, I'm doing it to Christ. I'm exalting myself
over Christ is what I'm trying to do. And because He's counseled
us in our hearts, He's made us wise to know I don't want to
do that. You don't want to do that. Alright,
look at Proverbs 26, 21. Proverbs 26, 21. A contentious spirit is the cause
of strife. Look at Proverbs 26, 21. As coals
are to burning coals, And wood to fire, so is a contentious
man to kindle strife. You think about that. Coals that
are put to burning coals. You know what happens to them?
Those coals become one with those burning coals. And they make
the fire. They fuel the fire. When you
take wood and you put it in fire, that wood becomes like the fire. It becomes one with the fire.
and it kindles, it fuels that fire. And he says, so a contentious
man is like that wood. He sees strife flame up, he becomes
one with it, and he fuels it. That's a contentious spirit.
A contentious spirit. And that man's not happy. He's
not happy. He's burdened. He's always burdened. And he makes everybody else unhappy
and burdened. What happens when the Prince
of Peace rules in our heart? He gives us one spirit. He that's
joined to the Lord is one spirit. And when He gives us that one
spirit, showing us what great things He's done for us so freely
by His grace, blessed are the peacemakers, happy are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. He makes us
peacemakers. He has a spirit that wants to
strive for peace, not for division. Alright, look at Proverbs 29,
22. An angry heart is the cause of
strife. 29, 22. An angry man stirreth
up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. This
is who the old man of flesh is. He's enmity against God. He's
anger. That's all our flesh is. Flesh
desires to stir up strife. The sinner whose only flesh,
whose only flesh in every relationship is angry. He's angry. and stirs
up strife and blames everybody but the one common denominator
in all those relationships is self. But the angry fleshly man
won't ever blame self. Won't ever blame self. We didn't
blame ourselves and confess our sins to God in our flesh, brethren. We did it in the Spirit when
He made us a new man. It's the new man that confesses
what we are, not our flesh. Our flesh will defend flesh and
defend self till it has to be destroyed. What's the opposite
of anger? The opposite of the flesh. What
is it? The fruit of the Spirit. That's
the opposite of flesh, the fruit of the Spirit. And it's love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
Alright, look at... Well, you hold your place in
Proverbs. Let me give you this one. This is from 1 Timothy 6,
4. Foolish questions stir up strife. He is proud, knowing
nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof
cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings. Here's a good
question. What think ye of Christ? That's
a good question. Christ asked that question. That's
a good question. What think you of Christ? He's my life. He's my light. He's my wisdom. He's my righteousness, He's my
peace, He's my sanctification, He's my redemption, He's my all
and my in all. Now I can spend all my life asking
that question, what think you of Christ? And looking in to
how the scriptures answer how He is each one of those things
to me. And the Scripture answers those questions. And I can look
and take my time and spend all my time studying how He's my
life. Study how He's my light. How He's my righteousness. Study
those things and I can spend my whole life doing it. I can
spend my whole life doing it. And that's a good endeavor. But
questions that cannot be answered by the Scriptures, they're just
foolish questions. At the end of the day, you're
going to say, maybe. Because it can't be answered
for sure. So they're a waste of time. And they stir up strife. They stir up strife. Alright,
where does strife come from? Look at James 3. James 3. Where does strife come from?
Look at James 3, verse 14. If you have bitter envying and
strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, it didn't come from above, but is earthly, it's sensual,
it's devilish. For where envying and strife
is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that
is from above, now here's that wisdom that is from above, it's
first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be untreated, full of
mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy,
and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that
make peace. You're not going to sow in strife
and make peace. You're not going to point a finger
at your brethren and be trying to chop their legs out from under
them and make peace. Peace is going to be made by
sowing peace. By sowing peace. By sowing Christ our peace. That's
the seed that we sow, Christ. So God says through Paul, let
nothing be done through strife. Now look here secondly back at
our text, Philippians 2. He says, and to be of one mind
we must do nothing for vain glory. For vain glory. Vain glory is
this. It is glorying in myself. That's what vain glory is. Because
myself and yourself is vanity. That's all we are. And so to
glory in myself is vain. It's vanity. It's vanity. All glory in our salvation and
all glory in the believer's life, everything that we, every aspect
of it, the glory goes to God, not to us. If there's anything,
any good work that a believer does, The believer has no room
to glory in it. It's of God. God gets the glory. Not us. God gets the glory in
everything. God elected the people into salvation
by grace. Christ came and redeemed his
people from the bondage of the law, purged us of our sins by
grace. We've been regenerated by the
Holy Spirit and made new creatures in Christ Jesus by grace. Now we're going to be grown in
grace by grace. And we're going to be kept by
grace. So we don't have anything to
glory in whatsoever. Now listen to me. It's impossible. It's impossible to put down a
fellow believer without glorying in myself. It's impossible to
esteem myself better than my brethren without vain glory without
engaging in vain glory. Now if I criticize my brethren
or I desire to be recognized over them, I may not boast in
myself expressly in words. I may not say it in words. I
may not put it into words and say, man I'm wonderful. But that's
expressly what I'm doing when I criticize or when I try to
exalt myself over another. That's expressly what I'm doing.
The disciples came to Christ and they said, Lord, who's the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven? That's what they said to the
Lord right before that. You know what they were saying?
I'm going to be better than you. That's what they were saying.
That's what they were saying. And by doing that, they were
offending one another. And they were causing great strife
and great division in them because they were vainly glorying in
themselves. And Christ pulled this little
child up and he set him in their midst and he said, except you
become like this little child, this little infant, this little
toddler. He's not striving with anybody.
He's not trying to exalt himself over anybody. He's dependent
on everybody. And he says, except you become like him, you can't
enter into the kingdom of God. And then he tells them, he said,
and whoso shall offend one of these little ones that believes
in me. He's talking about believers.
Who offends one of these that's been converted and been made
like a little child so that all his confidence is in me. Whoever
offends one of these, it's better for him that a weight was put
around his neck and he was thrown into the depths of the sea. And
so Christ says, so here's what you do. When your eye starts
being critical, cut the thing out. When your hand starts being
critical, cut the thing off. When your mouth starts speaking,
tongue starts speaking criticism or boasting, cut the thing out. Now don't literally cut it off,
but cut it off literally. In spirit, cut it off. Cut it
off. Now, this is what we're truly
saying by criticism of our brethren. You know, you don't say expressly,
you don't say the words that I'm better. But you just criticize
them. Here's what you're saying. I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all I possess. That's what we're saying. So,
any person that loves to have the preeminence is an injury,
an injury, and does great harm to the comfort and harmony of
saints. And so the Lord says, let nothing
be done through vainglory. Now, thirdly, here's how we're
going to be of one mind. In lowliness of mind, let each
esteem the other better than himself. Alright, what's this
lowliness of mind? Look at verse 5. Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He was
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Now,
lowliness of mind doesn't mean that I use false humility to
deny the gifts that God has given to me. Christ was God. He was equal with God. He never
denied the fact that He was equal with God. He never did that.
Whenever we see Him on the Mount of Transfiguration and there
all of a sudden in this brilliance, He shines whiter than white and
His glory shines through. That's what Christ was all the
time while He walked this earth. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in Him bodily. That's how He was the whole time
He walked this earth. But lowliness of mind means I
make myself of no reputation. It means I empty myself of glory
before others. And that's what he did. It says
he had no form, no comeliness, that when we shall see him there's
no beauty that we should desire him. Instead of coming in a form
that we would desire and we would esteem, he didn't. He came in
the opposite. Instead of exalting self, Christ
highly exalted God. Wherefore, verse 9 says, God
also highly exalted him. And so he tells us, humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you
in due time. See what I'm saying? He'll exalt
you in due time just like he exalted Christ when Christ humbled
himself under his hand. And then lowliness of mind takes
the form of a servant. Rather than take a form that
would appear comely and beautiful, he took the form of a servant.
Strife and vainglory wants to be served. Strife and vainglory
says, you ought to prove your love to me more. Lowliness of
mind just serves the other more. Christ did that for God's elect
even when we didn't love Him. When we exalted ourselves in
pride over Him while we made ourselves a reputation and esteemed
Him not, Christ still loved us and served us. That's humility
of That's lowliness of mind. So Christ says now to us, you
love one another as I have loved you. Even when your brethren
hate you. Even when they're crucifying
you. Love them. Love them. Lowliness of mind
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Lowliness of mind doesn't begin
and then stop based on how others treat me. No, no. Lowliness of mind continues in
humility toward God. Trusting God. That's what true
humility is. Trusting God. Even when I'm crucified
by those that I love. And even when my father turns
his back on me and forsakes me. Still keep on right unto death.
Now, do I really want to criticize my brethren about a lack of humility? And do I really want to exalt
myself and say I'm more humble than they are? when I hear what
true humility is, what true lowliness of mine is. You know what I need
to do? I need to take a long look at
Christ on that cross. Hebrews 12 tells us, when we
start suffering, we start looking at ourselves, and we start feeling
sorry for ourselves, and we start exalting ourselves over others,
we get a bitter root springing up in us. He said to cure that,
you lay aside all of that you're focusing on, put your eye on
Christ, and focus on His suffering until your suffering becomes
utterly insignificant. Listen, He says, He says, "...for
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. You
have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin." If I want
to exalt myself and say, I'm better than others, I'm better
than my brethren striving against sin, have you strived against
sin to be in lowliness of mind, in humility to God to the point
that your capillaries have busted and you've sweat blood? Have
you strived against sin to the point that you hung between heaven
and hell with everybody forsaking you and yet you remain faithful
to God and would not turn away from them that you love? Christ did it for sinners who
in turn are so proud of our humility that we don't esteem Him but
focus on us. And yet He keeps on loving us.
He keeps on loving us. Instead of that, he says, let
each esteem other better than himself. He says, let each do
it. That means let me esteem you
better than me and let you esteem me better than you. That will
end all strife and vainglory. You think about that. Think about
it. Strife and vainglory cannot exist where the other is esteemed
better than self. Think about that. Think about
it. If instead of thinking, they don't love me as they ought to.
If instead of thinking that, I think, they love me so much
more than I love them. That ends all strife and that
ends all my vainglory. If I, instead of thinking, they
don't bear my burdens as they ought to. I think, they bear
my burdens so much better than I bear theirs. That ends all
strife and all vainglory. And you might say, well, but
what if they don't? He don't put no qualification
on that. He just says, esteem them better. Just esteem them better. Well,
what if they're not better? They are. They are. They are. Strife and vainglory
can't exist where the other is esteemed better than self. He
said, the Bible never tells me how others are to treat me. It
only tells me how to treat others. That's all. And that ends me
being critical of how you treat me, and it makes me to be critical
only of how I treat you. See what I'm saying? Now, and in the event you behold
your brother's not treating you as Scripture says he ought to,
Now this applies to other things, but in the event you see your
brother is not treating you as you think he ought to. Verse
4 says, Look not every man on his own things, but every man
also on the things of others. That doesn't mean now look at
him and criticize him and find fault with him. Here's what it
means. Look back at Philippians 1.29. Unto you it is given in the behalf
of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for
His sake. It's given to us by His grace
to believe on Christ. Faith is a gift of God. And it's
given to us on the behalf of Christ to persevere by His grace,
to endure by His grace in suffering even when it's our brother and
sister at whose hands we're suffering. To endure means when I start
suffering at your hands, I don't cut and run and leave you high
and dry. If I'd have done that, I'd have
done it a long time ago. If God would keep me, and it's
only by God keeping us, only by Him keeping us. So if my brothers
esteem themselves better than me, I ought to take it as an
opportunity to bear their burden, and to restore him to Christ
in the spirit of meekness and so fulfill the law of Christ.
So fulfill the law of grace and of love. Instead of boasting
of how much I love, by boasting of my brother's lack of love
toward me, I should take it as an opportunity to love that brother
more and love him to Christ. Love him to Christ. And Paul
says, and let every man prove his own work in this. that every
man prove his own work, then he shall have rejoicing in himself
alone and not in another. It means by bearing the burden
of your brother's fault, by restoring him. If you can do that, if you
ever do that, it's going to be because God is upholding you
by His grace and making you to do it. That's the only reason
you'll do it. So that you can have some rejoicing
that Christ loves you because He's upholding you to love your
brethren. That's right. And the next verse
says, because we're going to bear our own burden, it means
we're going to all give account of ourselves to God. And in Romans,
I believe it's 14, he says, we're all going to give account of
ourselves to God, so don't be judging the other brother anymore.
Just judge yourself. See what he's saying there is
this is looking on things of theirs to take care of them in
love and bear their burden. That's the burden. The burden
is they're acting all proud and acting all haughty and acting
like they don't love me like they ought to. So I'm not going
to cut them down. I'm going to love them anyway.
I'm going to love them anyway. And if I decide, I'm done with
that. I'm not going to do it anymore.
I throw up my hands. I'm not going to do it anymore.
Then just stop for a minute and think about it. How many times
a day does God do it for you for Christ's sake? How many times
a day does God bear with me for Christ's sake. Now, so this is
what Paul said. Let all bitterness, this is from
Ephesians 4.31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And
be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Peter said, but Lord, how
often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven
times? And the Lord said, not seven
times, but seventy times seventy. Don't ever stop. Don't ever stop. The day you want God to stop
forgiving you, then you can stop forgiving your brethren. The day you get to the point
where you think you're above sin, and you don't need God's
forgiveness anymore, just go on and quit forgiving your brethren.
Christ said if we don't forgive those that trespass against us,
we won't be forgiven. And He means by that, if we don't
forgive those that trespass against us, we're proven, we don't have
any part in this grace of God. That's what grace does. It makes
us esteem the other better than ourselves in lowliness of mind
and look out for the other one to bear their burden. Amen.