A Plea for Unity

A Plea for Unity

Introduction

Today we get to examine one little nuance of Paul’s letter to the church as Philippi.
If you will turn with me in your Bible to Philippians chapter 4 we can begin our study together.
I must confess that Philippians in some respects is my favorite Pauline Epistle.
Perhaps I enjoy it because Paul wrote it as a thank you letter to thank the church at Philippi for their generosity in providing for his needs and as a result it has an upbeat feel.
Perhaps I enjoy it because it was the first of Paul’s epistles that I really began to understand and grasp when as a young adult I renewed a my commit to the Lord.
Perhaps it is because of the wealth of practical advice that is nestled away in the sentences that Paul gave us.
But in spite of my great love for this book I still face a dilemma. In fact I face this same dilemma every time I am asked to preach.
I am always torn because no matter what text I have the opportunity to preach there is always more material I would like to cover.
And furthermore no matter what text God has given me to preach I have difficulty figuring out where to start the message because I want to provide you the correct backdrop, historical or otherwise, that this passage fits into.
Inevitably while studying I begin to back up to try and correctly frame the context of the passage and in doing this I eventually find myself back at chapter one and verse one.
I have often thought my job would be simplified if I could start a book at verse one and then over a period of time take us through a book verse by verse.
But I don’t have the option available to me so what I am going to share with you is only a couple of verses from chapter 4 as Paul makes a plea to the Church at Philippi for unity among the saints.

Verses 2

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.
Paul is asking these two women to get along.
Some translation read that they should be of the “same mind” and others render it “live in harmony.”
Whichever translation you prefer it is clear that there is a problem brewing between these two.
Quite likely this problem has been going on for some time if it has now reached the ears of Paul who is far removed from their immediate presence.
We don’t know what the problem is or what it started over; the word of God does not share that detail with us.
Like many problems it may have started small and then as conflicts often due it grew larger and larger as it was allowed to fester.
Regardless though of what the problem was someone thought it serious enough to share it with Paul so Paul takes this opportunity in his thank you letter to address this issue.
Paul chooses not to mention the issue by name, I rather imagine that is because the original issue is no longer the real issue any longer.
Isn’t that the way problems often go in our lives today too.
Wives you’re mad because your husband won’t put the seat down in the bathroom when he is done so you take opportunity to “remind” him that the lawn hasn’t been cut.
Husband’s you are mad because dinner wasn’t ready at the time you thought it should be so you begin aggravating your wife by looking for buttons to push. You begin channel surfing during the news; or you intentionally drop your dirty laundry in the hallway.
Right?! This is pretty close to how we function when we are operating in the flesh instead of in the Spirit.
This type of behavior is so destructive, it tears friendships apart, families apart, nations apart and to Paul’s point here, it tears at the very fabric of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The words of Paul here are just as relevant for us today; if you are feuding with someone in this room or another church member here, you need to seek them out and make it right while you still can.
We have an illustration in Scripture of what happens when this type of attitude is allowed to prevail.
Genesis chapter 29 the foundation is laid for us. One of the patriarchs, Jacob, is living with his Uncle Laban and has agreed to work seven years in order to marry his daughter Rachel.
But as many of you know Laban tricks Jacob and on the wedding night sends his oldest daughter Leah into the bedroom chamber with Jacob instead of Rachel.
Well the light dawns the next day…and then the light really dawns on Jacob he knows he has really been duped.
So he goes back to Laban and Laban is ready to cut a deal. Laban says “Ok, finish out the week of celebration of your wedding and then you can marry Rachel; but you have to work for me for another 7 years.”
So Jacob does it. Poor Jacob; men you think your wedding was rough, about two weddings in 8 days; that is rough!
But now things start getting really interesting. Rachel knows she is loved and Leah knows she was forced on Jacob and she wasn’t really wanted.
However Leah is able to bear children and Rachel cannot. So Leah bears 4 sons for Jacob and Rachel has none.
So you can see the problem. Jacob loves Rachel for just being Rachel, he loves Leah because she is able to bear him children.
So what does Rachel do? She has to raise the bar, she has to escalate the bickering and fighting so she says ‘I can’t have children but I will give my husband my hand maiden as a wife and she can bear children for me.”
Now this family has already had a bad experience with this haven’t they?!
Remember Abraham and Sarah and how Sarah offered Abraham her maiden and the result was Ishmael. The nation of Israel is still suffering to this day because of that mistake.
It has been said that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Well that describes Rachel in this situation; she gives Bilhah to Jacob to try and get even with her sister.
Anger and envy cause us to do really stupid things don’t they?
So everyone can guess what Leah is going to do to get even with her sister for this move, she gives her maiden Zilpah to Jacob as well.
Now think about this; two sisters are married to the same man and they have to share him, in order to get even with each other they bring two more women into the circle so that Jacob is obligated to provide for all of them as wives.
Does that make any sense whatsoever? Of course it doesn’t but it shows you when you are blinded by rage what stupid things you do that have long term negative consequences.
So skip ahead with me, where does all this end? Rachel eventually does have two boys, Joseph and Benjamin but the other brothers are so envious of Joseph, including the sons of Rachel’s handmaiden that they attempt to kill him.
Judah steps in and they sell him to Ishmaelites who sell him into slavery in Egypt.
Well most of us know that Joseph later said that what you meant for evil God meant for good and the family was later saved from a famine.
But also remember it was this same event that led the family to Egypt where the spent 430 years as slaves too.
All the heartache that came from bickering
So back to the New Testament; Paul exhorts these women to live in harmony; nothing good comes of living in disunity, nothing!
Those of us that have been around churches most of our lives are painfully aware of how a few folks within a church that are bitter towards one another can reduce that church to an impotent empty shell.
Keep in mind this isn’t a new message at all.
Proverbs 6:16, 19 “Six things the LORD hates even seven are an abomination to Him”…then the last item in the list vs. 19 we read “One who sows discord among bretheren.”
Romans 13:13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry, drunkenness, not in lewdness or lust, not in strife or envy.
Strife and discord, are you noticing the list that these things accompany? Sexual sin, murder drunkeness
1 Corinthians 3:3 You are still carnal, for where there are envy, strife & drunkenness among you, you are carnal, and acting like mere men.
James 3:16 For where envy 7 self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing is there.
Every evil thing is there. That is why unity in a church is so important, it opens the door to every other problem imaginable.

Verse 3

Paul understood this well that is why not only did he implore Euodia and Syntyche to get along but he also invokes outside help in verse 3.
Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women
Now this phrase true companion in the ESV or loyal yokefellow in the NIV comes from the Greek word Syzygus.
The man’s name may have been syzygus or maybe this was just a friendly term that Paul used to describe him.
Regardless of whether Paul meant Syzygus (which means yokefellow or companion) as a proper noun or just as friendly greeting we can be certain that the person to whom Paul addressed it knew who Paul was speaking of as did the rest of the church.
What did these women need help with?
I bet if you asked either one of these women who caused all the bickering and fighting and whose fault it was they both would have said that the other started it.
Or then there is the Baptist way of assigning blame; we hold our head high and say proudly I know I have done some things but nothing even close to what so and so has done, I am probably about 10% to blame and they are 90%.
I don’t know why we even bother to do this; is it because we think that it proves we are being reasonable and we will approach a compromise?
Is it because we are so delusional we think saying this is honoring God because we are showing humility?
Whether you are doing secular or Christian based counseling whenever two people sit down and they have issues with each other when you interview them privately they both feel like the other is mostly or entirely to blame for the current state of affairs.
Party A says party B is 85% to blame and party B says party A is 85% to blame.
You know what this true yokefellow, Syzygus, has been called on to do here by the Apostle Paul? He has to show each of them a dead man in a casket and ask then ask each of them how many rights that dead man has.
I had the opportunity to walk someone through this just a few days ago.
This person said that “They fought like cats and dogs.”
I asked them why this was? I received rather shallow answers that had nothing to do with why they were arguing.
I then asked them if they thought selfishness could be the reason they fought but they were sure that wasn’t it.
So I had them list out for me all of the things they had a right to.
It was an interesting list to be sure, when we started column two on the piece of paper I had them taper off.
I then explained to them that every argument, every fight they get into is because someone violated one of the rights they had listed for me.
That in and of itself was something of an eye opener for this person.
Then I suggest to them if they wanted to reduce the number of fights they got into perhaps they should reduce the number of rights they had so I asked them to pick their top 5 rights and let’s just list those.
Once that was accomplished I asked them if they would be able to guarantee me that they still wouldn’t get into any fights or any arguments.
They thought about it and realized someone could violate one of these 5 rights and they would become angry again.
When I suggested they get rid of some more rights I got a pretty strange look let me assure you.
So I explained to them, we have but one right and that is to be…? (pleasing to God)
Picking up our cross daily to follow Jesus Christ means nailing our rights to the cross daily along with all our fleshly desires.
You see once you catch a vision of the practical side of having only one right and that is to be pleasing to God then Ephesians 5:21 makes more sense.
Paul tells us to: “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ”
The call here in Ephesians is to mutual submission. What does this mean?
It means we should think more highly of others than we think of ourselves.
Paul continues this thought in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 5 when he says:
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
This is also translated as gentleness or moderation
Sweet reasonableness is probably the most accurate translation.
The world sure you could use some more people like this couldn’t they, people who are known for their sweet reasonableness.
It is really hard to get in a fight with a person who no matter what you do to them or say about them they just continue to show their sweetness and their gentleness.
This is the supreme model, it obviously can’t be done on our own we need the Spirit living in and through us in order to be successful at this.
It is certainly no accident that we find 3 verses before Paul admonishes us to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” that Paul commands us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
There is no way this can possibly work if you aren’t filled with the Spirit.

Verse 3

You notice Paul never questions whether these ladies were genuine believers. He says clearly in verse 3:
…help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Paul didn’t tell them that they had shown their true colors and now they should be run out of the church. Instead he sends a loyal and trusted person into the situation to speak truth and to plead with these women that they reconcile with each other.
Paul’s description of these women is somewhat remarkable I think.
He didn’t mention that these women were good Christian women that baked a pie once year for the church-wide dinner and attended Sunday School and Sunday morning worship.
No these women were actively involved in Paul’s evangelistic ministry. It says they labored side by side with Paul in the gospel ministry.
They were busy spreading the good news about Jesus Christ and their names are written in the Lambs book of life.
But what had happened to their testimony, what had happened to their witness.
Quite likely it was all but gone. You see bickering and strife over the little things in life can rob you of the greatest things in life.

Conclusion

The person I spoke with this week about their rights, I shared with them that everything on that list of things they deserved, or had a right to could be taken away from them in an instant.
As I looked over their list I realized that many, many people who saw the worst that Hurricane Katrina had to offer had lost nearly all the rights on that list and in fact some had lost every right on that list.
Some lost everything but their life itself. Most of those people will battle bitterness for the rest of their lives.
Many of you in this room have had your rights violated.
Many of you have bitterness towards someone, maybe someone in this room because you lost focus of the fact that you have but one right and that is to be pleasing to God.
You didn’t nail your rights to your cross one day, maybe you haven’t nailed your rights to your cross for a long time and maybe you never have, today is that day.
Let me suggest right now you pray and tell Jesus you are nailing your rights to your cross right now. I want King Jesus to rule in my life and I will have but one right and that is to be pleasing to you.