An author told of his daughter who one day jumped off the school bus as it stopped in front of her house and slammed her way through the front door. She marched defiantly up the stairs into her room and again slammed the door. All the time she was muttering under her breath: “People—people—people—PEOPLE!”

He went to her door and knocked softly. “May I come in?” She replied, “No!” He tried again, but she said even more belligerently, “No!” I asked, “Why can’t I come in?” Her answer: “Because you’re a people.”

All of us have lost our joy because of people: what they are, what they say, and what they do. What they don’t say, what they don’t do. And no doubt we have contributed to making somebody else unhappy…it works both ways!

But we have to live and work with people; we cannot isolate ourselves and still live to glorify Christ. We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. But sometimes the light grows dim and the salt becomes bitter because of other people. Is there any way to have joy in spite of people?

I have come to greatly appreciate the encouragement of Charles Hodge: “We need to stick with those we’re stuck with!”

Or Warren Wiersbe: “To live above, with those we love, Oh that will be glory. But to dwell below with those we know, well that’s another story.”

Paul’s Answer: The Submissive Mind. This chapter focuses on people, and the key verse says: Philippians 2:1-3 (NIV) If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²  then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

When Epaphroditus brought a generous gift from the church in Philippi, and good news of the church’s concern for Paul, he also brought the bad news of a possible division in the church family.

The Christian with the submissive mind does not expect others to serve him; he serves others. He considers the good of others to be more important than his own plans and desires.

The Thief that rob us of our joy (Jesus, Others, You)..PEOPLE.

There is selfish ambition. There is always the danger that people should work not to advance the work but to advance themselves. It is extraordinary how time and again the great princes of the Church almost fled from office in the agony of the sense of their own unworthiness.

There is the desire for personal prestige. Prestige is for many people an even greater temptation than wealth. To be admired and respected, to have a platform seat, to have one’s opinion sought, to be known by name and appearance, even to be flattered, are for many people most desirable things.

But the aim of the Christian ought to be not self-display…he should do good deeds, not that men may glorify him, but that they may glorify his Father in heaven. The Christian should desire to focus men’s eyes not upon himself but on God.

There is concentration on self. If a man is forever concerned first and foremost with his own interests, he is bound to collide with others. If for him life is a competition whose prizes he must win, he will always think of other human beings as enemies or at least as opponents who must be pushed out of the way.

Concentration on self inevitably means elimination of others; and the object of life becomes not to help others up but to push them down.

THE CURE OF DISUNITY

In face of this danger of disunity Paul sets down five considerations which ought to prevent disharmony.
1. The fact that we are all in Christ should keep us in unity. No man can walk in disunity with his fellow-men and in unity with Christ. If he has Christ as the companion of his way, he is inevitably the companion of every wayfarer.

2. The power of Christian love should keep us in unity. Christian love is that unconquered good-will which never knows bitterness and never seeks anything but the good of others. It is not a mere reaction of the heart, as human love is; it is a victory of the will, achieved by the help of Jesus Christ.

It does not mean loving only those who love us; or those whom we like; or those who are lovable. It means an unconquerable good-will even to those who hate us, to those whom we do not like, to those who are unlovely.

Richard Tatlock in In My Father’s House writes: “Hell is the eternal condition of those who have made relationship with God and their fellows an impossibility through lives which have destroyed love…. Heaven, on the other hand, is the eternal condition of those who have found real life in relationships-through-love with God and their fellows.”

3. The fact that they share in the Holy Spirit should keep Christians from disunity. The Holy Spirit binds man to God and man to man. It is the Spirit who enables us to live that life of love, which is the life of God; if a man lives in disunity with his fellow-men, he thereby shows that the gift of the Spirit is not his.
4. The existence of human compassion should keep men from disunity. Aristotle had it long ago: men were never meant to be snarling wolves but to live in fellowship together.
        5. Paul’s last appeal is the personal one. There can be no happiness for him so long as he knows that there is disunity in the Church which is dear to him. If they would complete his joy, let them complete their fellowship. It is not with a threat that Paul speaks to the Christians of Philippi but with the appeal of love, which ought ever to be the accent of the minister, as it was the accent of his Lord.

To insist on one’s own way in such things is sinful, because it senselessly divides believers.

It reflects a prideful desire to promote one’s personal views, style, or agenda. Believers must never, of course, compromise doctrines or principles that are clearly biblical. But to humbly defer to one another on secondary issues is a mark of spiritual strength, not weakness.

The “submissive mind” does not mean that the believer is at the beck and call of everybody else or that he is a “religious doormat” for everybody to use!

Some people try to purchase friends and maintain church unity by “giving in” to everybody else’s whims and wishes. This is not what Paul is suggesting at all.

Unity was manifested in the infant church following Pentecost. The thousands of new believers (most of them previously strangers and some perhaps even former enemies) “were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship …. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common …. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart” (Acts 2:42, 44, 46).

He Thinks of Others, Not Himself (Phil. 2:5-6)

⁵  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

Certainly as God, Jesus Christ did not need anything! He had all the glory and praise of heaven. With the Father and the Spirit, He reigned over the universe. But Philippians 2:6 states an amazing fact: He did not consider His equality with God as “something selfishly to be held on to.”

Jesus did not think of Himself; He thought of others. His outlook (or attitude) was that of unselfish concern for others. This is “the mind of Christ,” an attitude that says, “I cannot keep my privileges for myself, I must use them for others; and to do this, I will gladly lay them aside and pay whatever price is necessary.”

We expect unsaved people to be selfish and grasping, but we do not expect this of Christians, who have experienced the love of Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit (Phil. 2:1-2).

More than 20 times in the New Testament, God instructs us how to live with “one another.” We are to prefer one another (Rom. 12:10), edify one another (1 Thes. 5:11), and bear each other’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).

We should not judge one another (Rom. 14:13) but rather admonish one another (Rom. 15:14). Others is the key word in the vocabulary of the Christian who exercises the submissive mind.

He Serves (Phil. 2:7)

⁷  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Thinking of “others” in an abstract sense only is insufficient; we must get down to the nitty-gritty of true service.

Paul traces the steps in the humiliation of Christ: (1) He emptied Himself, laying aside the independent use of His own attributes as God; (2) He permanently became a human, in a sinless physical body; (3) He used that body to be a servant; (4) He took that body to the cross and willingly died.

He Sacrifices (Phil. 2:8)

⁸  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Many people are willing to serve others if it does not cost them anything. But if there is a price to pay, they suddenly lose interest.

His was not the death of a martyr but the death of a Savior. He willingly laid down His life for the sins of the world.

The person with the submissive mind does not avoid sacrifice. He lives for the glory of God and the good of others; and if paying a price will honor Christ and help others, he is willing to do it.

Paul gives us examples: Paul’s attitude (Phil. 2:17), Timothy’s (Phil. 2:20), and also Epaphroditus’ (Phil. 2:30).

It is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life that the more we give, the more we receive; the more we sacrifice, the more God blesses.

This is why the submissive mind leads to joy; it makes us more like Christ.

One of the most revealing instances of that humility was His washing the disciples’ feet during the Last Supper. The menial task of washing dirty feet was reserved for the lowest servants.

He was well aware “that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God” (13:3).

Yet in gentle humility He “got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded” (vv. 4–5). This act was especially poignant because the disciples, insensitive to Jesus’ coming suffering, were engaged in wrangling with each other over which of them would be the “greatest” in the Messiah’s kingdom (cf. Luke 22:24).

Afterward the Lord asked, “Do you know what I have done to you?” Knowing full well that they did not understand the significance of what He had just done, He did not wait for an answer but continued to explain: You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. (John 13:12–17)

He Glorifies God (Phil. 2:9-11)

⁹  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This, of course, is the great goal of all that we do—to glorify God.

The kind of rivalry that pits Christian against Christian and ministry against ministry is not spiritual, nor is it satisfying. It is vain, empty. Jesus humbled Himself for others, and God highly exalted Him; and the result of this exaltation is glory to God.