Philippians 2:1-11

Be United and Care for Each Other

1Is there any way in Christ that I can ask you to do something? Does your love make you want to comfort me? Do we share together in the Spirit F12 ? Do you have mercy and kindness? 2If you have these things, then I ask you to do something for me. This will make me very happy. I ask that all your minds be joined together by believing the same things. Be joined together in your love for each other. Live together by agreeing with each other and having the same goals. 3When you do things, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble and give more honor to other people than to yourselves. 4Don’t be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of other people, too.
Learn from Christ to be Unselfish
5In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.
6Christ himself was like God in everything. Christ was equal with God. But Christ did not think that being equal with God was something that he must keep.
7He gave up his place with God and agreed to be like a servant. He was born to be a man and became like a servant. 8And when he was living as a man, he humbled himself by being fully obedient to God. He obeyed even when that caused him to die. And he died on a cross.
9Christ obeyed God, so God raised Christ to the most important place. God made the name of Christ greater than every other name. 10God did this because he wants every person to bow for the name of Jesus. Every person in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth will bow. 11Every person will confess (say), “Jesus Christ is Lord (Master).” When they say this, it will bring glory to God the Father. heartlight.org

Whew! This took me awhile! I am so sorry for the delay; I have truly been wrestl.ing with Satan to get this done and I can certainly see why he does not want this study to continue, This is such as powerful passage! I was studying more on it this morning in my quiet time and I was just blown away by Paul's urgency and the simplicity and purity of this message. Very simple but we let Satan make it hard to understand.

I want to first of all, thank Denise for her continued support as I have been going through this struggle. I haven't conquered my fear completely yet but I am not letting Satan get ahold of me. Thanks so much, Denise, you are a true friend.

Well, here are my notes on this amazing passage of scripture:

vs.1- Many people live only to make a good impression on other people or to make themselves feel good. This is selfishness and it causes upset, tears, and discord in God's family.

vs.2- Paul is asking the Philippians (us, as well) to LOVE one another and to strive together in Spirit and in purpose.

vs.3-5: We should care for the problems of others as if they were our own. By putting others first we will have unity.

vs.3- Selfishness can ruin a church but true humility can build it up (NLT)

Being humble does not mean that we should put ourselves down but that we should see the truth about ourselves and put others before us.

God saves us by Grace, but Hedoes save us, therefore, we DO have GReat worth!

We are not to be selfish. We are to treat each other with respect.

To become more Christlike we must put others interests above our own. This is humility as shown by Christ Jesus.

vs4 (Acts 16) gives us an indication of the diverse makeup of this congregation.

(a) Lydia was a Jewish convert from Asia. (b) there was a slave girl, (c) a native Greek and (d) jailer serving the empire, probably a Roman.

Unity must have been very difficult to have and keep. THe church's unity had to be safeguarded (3:2, 4:2)

We are to safeguard against any selfishness, prejudice, or jealousy that may cause strife. We are to show genuine interest in others to maintain unity among us.

vs5- Jesus gave up his rights in order to obey God and serve people (us). We should, strive to be Christ like and serve people. Serve out of love for God and for others.

We can choose the attitude that we will put on. We can expect to be served or we can look for opportunities to serve. (Mark 10:45) Ouch to Julie! This has been stepping on my toes for months now!

THE INCARNATION

The preexisting Son of God voluntarily assumed a human body and nature. He did not stop being God, but He became a human being, a man called Jesus.

He did not stop being God, but He sat aside the right to His glory and pwer. He submitted to His Father's will and limited his power and knowledge.

He became subject to most of our limitations. However, He was free from sin. (John 1:1-14, Romans 1:2-5, 1 Cor. 8:9, 1 Tim. 3:16, Heb. 2:14, 1 John 1:1-3)

Some things listed in the NLT study bible about Christ

1. Christ has always existed with God.

2. Christ is equal to God because He is God. (Colossians 1:15-19)

3. Though Christ is God, He became man in order to fulfill God's plan for all people.

4. Christ did not just appear to be man- He actually became human to identify with our sins.

5. Christ voluntarily set aside His rights and privileges out of love for His Father.

6. Christ died on the cross for our sins so we wouldn't have to face eternal death.

7. God glorified Christ because of His obedience.

8. God raised Christ to His original position at the Father's right hand. Where He reigns forever as our Lord and Judge.

How can we do any less than to praise Christ as our Lord and dedicate ourselves to His service? (NLT)

We so often excuse our selfishness, pride or evil motives by thinking that we deserve what we want. That we are right. That we know it all.

But, as believers, we should have a different attitude, one that enables us to lay aside our rights and our self righteousness so that we may serve others.

To follow Christ means to live as He lived. WE should have his attitude of humility.

How amazing is it that the perfect man should die the most shameful death for us lowly sinners, so that we would not have to face eternal punishment?

EVERY KNEE WILL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whether you believe or not, you will have NO CHOICE; if you do not bow and confess now; you will when Jesus returns; are you prepared?

Blessings,

Julie

There is much more commentary on these scriptures that I would Love to share with you but I find myself engrossed and I do have children and a husband to take care of so I will hopefully be able to share more of this with you as we go along. I will just have to read a little at a time. Heartlight.org has some great commentary and study guides.

For tomorrow, we will be reading vs. 12-18. I will, hopefully, post on it tomorrow morning. lol. See you then!

Have a great Thursday!

Love,

Julie

*PS: Thank you so much Sarah for your sweet comment, I needed those scriptures today! Thank you for praying for me!