Philippians 2:1–4 | Resources
Discussion Questions
Summarize the phrases in verse 2. What pictures do these phrases paint for you? (Having the same love, united in spirit, and intent on one purpose.)
What would verse 3 look like practically? When have you seen it displayed?
What would our church/Small Group look like if we each lived humbly like verse 4 teaches?
Is it fair to say that the greatest threat to our churches is selfishness? Why or why not?
Have you seen selfishness be devastating to a church?
How do we grow in humility?
Memory Verse
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3
Devotional
We Americans love our rights that have been enshrined in the Constitution. The first 10 amendments to our constitution are even known as the Bill of Rights. It’s not just the big things like freedom of religion, speech, assembly and the right to bear arms that we cherish. We can even get pretty touchy about some relatively petty things like our favorite color, food, songs, and sports teams. In short, we humans love ourselves and our own way.
As Christians, however, we are called to pursue Christ’s purpose. In Philippians 2:1–4, Paul emphasizes the importance of unity, including all of the love and work that it requires. The necessity of unity is not new here. Christ himself prayed that for the church in John 17, right before He and His disciples went to the garden of Gethsemane. In His prayer, Jesus notes that this is how the world will know that God sent Him and that He loves us. Since our unity, “being in full accord in one mind,” is crucial so that the world knows Jesus and that He loves them, how do we achieve it? Paul gives us three important actions.
First, have the same love. It’s a lot easier to settle disagreements when we can first agree on our highest priority or primary objective. Our highest priority as Christ’s family is to love and glorify Christ.
Second, be humble and do nothing out of rivalry or conceit. This is less difficult when we have already agreed that our primary purpose is to glorify Christ as precious members of his family. I’ve purposely said it’s “less difficult” rather than “easy” because it is our human nature to be selfish.
Third, look out for the interests of others and not just yourself. Paul doesn’t say to only look out for others’ interests, but we are to be considerate of others. This could be broadly interpreted to include speaking in love and being thoughtful of their feelings, as well as the physical needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let us all strive to follow Paul’s encouragement to unity so that the world may know Jesus and His love. Then we can better reach out and expand His family. A healthy family is a welcoming family!