To all the holy ones…at Philippi…·Grace to YOU and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ! ·…I thank my God ·…for all of YOU…,·…confident that he who has begun a good work among YOU will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. …·All of YOU…I have in my heart; all of YOU are sharers of my grace; …··…I long after all of YOU…·If there is any encouragement [Gr. parakleesis] in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender affections or merciful feelings, ·complete my joy so that YOU may be like-minded, having the same single-minded love of souls joined together. ·Judging nothing in accord with self-interest, nor in accord with empty conceit, but with mutual humility deeming ‘others’ to be better than one's own group,·each one of YOU must consider not only the things of one's own group, but the things of each of the others' groups as well.·For YOU should have this attitude among YOU which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippines 1:1-4,6-8; 2:1-5 PH)

Therefore, …not only when in my presence, …work out YOUR own salvation with fear and trembling. ·As God is the one working in YOU both to motivate and to energize that which is delightful, ·do all things without grumbling and disputation ·so that YOU may be blameless and harmless sons and daughters [Gr. tekna] of God. …In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation YOU shine… as lights in the world—·holding on to the word of life—so that in the Day of Christ I may rejoice that I have neither run nor labored in vain. …·Such things as were of great value to me, those I counted as loss because of the Messiah ·…because of the superior relationship with Christ Jesus my Lord…: ·so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection—and the fellowship of his suffering in being conformed to his death; ·that…I might come into the resurrection of the dead. ·Not that I have already… become fully mature, but I pursue…that for which Christ Jesus already has taken hold of me. …·I am single-mindedly letting go of the things that are behind and straining forward…·…in pursuit of the envisioned goal, the prize of the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus. ·Let this be our focus, as many as are mature ones. If YOU have a different focus God will also reveal this to YOU. ·Only let us be lining up under [Gr. stoikhein] that towards which we have come. …·To our God and Father be the glory—into the ages of ages. (Phil.2:12-16; 3:7-8,10-16; 4:20 PH)

In the middle of his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul gives a memorable and much quoted summary of how Jesus brought glory to God as Father by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension. Yet God is ‘our Father’ too, according to Paul, and Jesus' earthly life and death give us a model, for how we must live our lives as ‘sons and daughters’ of God who also reflect his glory. The first way we need to imitate Jesus is by living humbly with one another, not out of an imagined higher ‘spiritual’ status—either as God's chosen ones, or because we have greater biblical knowledge or spiritual gifts. Secondly, we bring glory to our Father like Jesus did by obeying him and doing only what we see him doing, even when it is painful or leaves us socially vulnerable to criticism and rejection. For just like with Jesus, it is through obeying the Father through times of suffering that we too ‘mature’ sons and daughters are ‘made fully mature’ (3:10,12,15; Heb.2:9-10, Med.#7).

Thirdly, we bring glory to the Father by serving others like Jesus did. Yet this does not mean being servile and always trying to meet the expectations of others. Jesus knew when to walk away, and when to just be silent (Lk.4:42-43; 23:8-9). He also spoke up sometimes when mistreated, like when a guard struck him in the face (Jn.18:22-23), even though he taught his disciples to ‘turn the other cheek’. Paul too follows Jesus' example and challenges some Jewish teachers in Philippi who are ‘pulling rank’ on the non-Jewish believers there—to intimidate them into accepting circumcision and a kosher diet (Phil.3:2-6,19). And when he does this, he is cooperating with a fourth way in which Jesus now brings glory to the Father.

Following his ascension, Jesus has been given the supreme position over all celestial, earthly and ancestral powers (Med.#44), so that ‘every knee’ will eventually bring glory to the Father by bowing to Jesus as Lord (Med.#94). The text Paul quotes from Isaiah is not just about individuals, but about fugitive groups being gathered from nations’ [Gr. ethne] all over the world. And when they come, Isaiah also sees them coming with their respective ‘tongues’ or ‘languages’ [Gr. glossas] (66:18 LXX). For Paul, the fulfillment of such prophecies has already begun in the church—where the ‘the nations’ [ethne], in Christ, are able to worship their Father together as ‘co-heirs’ (Med.#6, Med.#3 & Med.#70). Yet for all ethnic groups in the church to bring glory to the Father, the individual members of each group need to follow Paul's example by treating their relationship to Jesus as ‘Lord’ as ‘superior’ to any social power they might be able to claim within their own ethnic tradition (Phil.3:5-6,7). Being ‘mature’ sons and daughters of the Father in Christ means being humble like him in the way each of us regards fellow believers of other groups. And even spirit-filled leaders and apostles in the early church needed revelation and a challenge from Paul to overcome any natural group ‘self-interest’ and ‘empty’ sense of ethnic and linguistic superiority they might have grown up with (Med.#46 & Med.#28). Like Paul, all believers—having become adult sons and daughters of the Father—need to ‘line up under’ [Gr. stoikhein] the Holy Spirit in order to become even more 'mature' in Christ. And no longer line up under the ‘elemental powers’ [Gr. stoikheia] of our own family and ethnic groups (Med.#4 & #30).

For Paul, this required him to change from being past-oriented to being future-oriented instead of. Before surrendering to Jesus, he had only been zealous for the ‘traditions’ of his ancestors (Med.#28). But when Jesus took hold of him, he began accepting believers of all ethnic groups as fellow-heirs in Christ. And this meant considering ‘the things’ of other groups as well as ‘the things’ of his own own group[i], so that in the church, ‘the many and varied wisdom of God’ might already be revealed (Med.#6). So to make sure that the believers in Philippi understand how Paul sees them ‘all’ as already fellow-citizens of God’s heavenly city (Med.#44), Paul opens his letter to them using the word ‘all’ five times. All of them are holy; all are sharers in his grace, etc. All of their ethnic groups [ethne] have ‘glory and honor’ to bring into the New Jerusalem (Med.#92).

Yet it is important to note that Paul is including believers of his own Jewish culture. In making Jesus ‘superior’ to his own culture, he is only treating as ‘rubbish’, and ‘counting as loss’ anything from his own culture that created separation from, and superiority towards believers of other ethnic groups. For he still valued many of ‘the things’ of his Jewish heritage, and he saw his nation as one of the ‘remnants of the nations’ in the church (Rom.11:1-5; Act.15:17). What he preaches is a new corporate way of looking at things—the ‘single mindedness’ like ‘souls joined together’. Here he may have been thinking about marriage—how both husband and wife bring ‘things’ from their respective families that they will use in forging a new group life together. Yet to do so, they need to ‘submit to one another’, and no longer to their parents or to any other family ‘guardians’ from their childhood (Eph.5:21,31-32).[ii] This can be difficult when a woman's culture demands that she show greater respect to her father than to her husband, because she has been taught that: ‘a son is a son until he takes a wife, but a daughter is a daughter for the rest of her life’.

Yet we can only act graciously, love one another and maintain the ‘together-bond of peace’ in the Father's family (Med.#50) if we continue to first of all take time to receive his grace, peace, and love (1:2; Med.#52; Med.#79). Are you daily drawing power from your Father's love, grace and peace so that your words as well as your deeds reflect his glory? Or do you often argue because you need to be right, or complain when things don't go as expected? Are you taking responsibility to place the eternal glory of your Father and the lordship of Jesus above all the personal status and patriotic pride of your past? Or are there ways in which you and believers of your own social or ethnic group tend to act like your group's approach to cultural ‘things’ is superior to that of other groups? What can you do this week: to serve fellow believers of other social and ethnic groups in your fellowship, and to give recognition and value to ‘the things’ they also have to contribute?

Father, from whom every family, lineage or country [Gr. patria] on earth derives its name, I bow my knee before you, who in Jesus’ name has given us authority as your sons and daughters. (Eph.3:14; Jn.1:12; 2 Cor.6:18)

Glorify me today, so that I may glorify you—by serving others like Jesus did: being gentle with those who have been crushed, humble with those whose light is wavering, while faithfully bringing justice to the nations. (Jn.17:1-2; Phil.2:5-7; Isa.42:1-4[iii]).

[i] (Phil.2:4): ‘...not only the things of one's own group’ [literally in Greek: ‘not the things (plural) of own selves (pl.) of each one (singular)’], ‘but the things of each of the others' groups as well [literally in Greek: ‘but rather also the things (pl.) of ‘different ones’ (pl.), each ones (pl.)’. To promote unity in the church [‘among YOU’ (pl.)], Paul says, all (individuals and groups) are responsible to act out Jesus' attitude (2:5) toward ‘others’ who are different (both individuals and groups).

[ii] See also the talk on this passage in Ephesians that I gave at a recent wedding: ‘The Father &…a Christian Marriage’).

[iii] Members can view the sheet music or listen to Servant Song, in which two voices musically weave together Isa.42:1-4 & Phil.2:5-11.