Philippians 2:1-4 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,… If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, etc. Notice - I. GENUINE SOCIALISM. Man is a social being, and his normal social condition is unity. Society is one body, and all men are members thereof, all animated by one life, and contributing to the good of the whole. This is the social ideal; but.. he alas! sin has created a schism. Instead of unity there is a division everywhere, and the divided parts become antagonistic. The mission of the gospel is to remedy this and to restore to perfect social unity. This unity, we infer from the text, includes three things, 1. Harmony of feeling to one another. "That ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." Having noticed this point in the preceding article, we have only to repeat that the harmony can only be realized by all having the one same object of reigning love. Two men, however different in the kind and measure of native talent, in the nature and measure of information, in the degree of culture, in the character of their opinions and beliefs, are indissolubly united in soul if their greatest love is centred in the same object. So of any number. The design of the gospel is to center all men's love on God in Christ. There is no other way of producing this harmony; no theological system, no ecclesiastical organization, no legislative enactment can do it; it is simply by this love that it can be done. 2. Humility of deportment among one another. "Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." "This verse expresses the negative result of this unity of soul - that nothing will be done in strife, that is, factiousness (the word used in Philippians 1:17), or 'vain-glory;' nothing, that is, with the desire either of personal influence or of personal glory. For, he adds, each will esteem other better than himself, or rather, will hold that his neighbor is worthy of higher consideration, and a higher place of dignity than himself (compare the use of the word in Romans 13:1; 1 Peter 2:13, of temporal dignity), for the idea is of the ascription to others, not of moral superiority, but of higher place and honor. Self-assertion will be entirely overborne. So he teaches us elsewhere that 'charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own' (1 Corinthians 13:4, 5)" (Dr. Barry). The proud, the haughty, the supercilious, are not only the disturbers or' social unity, they are the destroyers of it. According to the law of souls, they loathe and recoil from all arrogance and pretension in others, hence the exhortation, "Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory." 3. Generous concern one for another. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." This does not mean, of course, that you are to neglect your own things. There are things that every man must attend to for himself - his own physical health, intellectual culture, etc., he but it means that we are not to attend to our own things chiefly, and in such a way as to neglect the concerns of others. There is no real antagonism between the interest of self and the interest of others; on the contrary, we can only secure our own individual well-being or happiness by promoting the interests of others. It is only as men become generously engrossed in the interests of others that they can realize their own individual happiness and perfection. The man rises only as he becomes self-oblivious; thus Paul felt, "I am crucified with Christ, never-the-less I live." The ego must be swallowed up in the non-ego - the spirit of universal benevolence. This is genuine socialism, and it is here urged by - II. APOSTOLIC PERSUASION. "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded." "There are here four influencing motives to inculcate the four Christian duties corresponding respectively - that ye be like-minded, having the same love, of one accord, of one mind. 1. 'If there be [with you, as I assume] any consolation in Christ,' i.e. any consolation - but Ellicott, to avoid tautology, 'comfort' following, translates (parakless) 'exhortation,' Romans 12:8 - of which Christ is the source, leading you to console me in my afflictions borne for Christ's sake, ye ought to grant my request. 2. 'If there be any comfort of [i.e. flowing from] love,' the adjunct of consolation in Christ. 3. 'If any fellowship of [joint participation of] the Spirit' (2 Corinthians 13:14). As 'pagans' meant those who were of one village and drank of one fountain, how much greater is the union which conjoins those who drink of the same Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4)! 4. 'If any bowels [tender emotions] and mercies' ('compassions,' Corinthians 2:12), the adjuncts of fellowship of the Spirit. The first and third mark the objective sources of the Christian life - Christ and the Spirit; the second and fourth, the subjective principle in believers. The opposites of the two pairs into which the four fall are reprobated in vers. 3 and 4" (Fausset). A man like the apostle would not have urged this true socialism with such mighty earnestness had he not been impressed with its importance; and what can be of greater importance than this unity among the race? For this Christ prayed the night before his death, "that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, |
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