One of the unique themes that lives behind most of Paul’s writing is conflict. We know that the Christians living in Rome dealt with conflict daily; they struggled to survive each day under Roman Rule and Law.
A quick trip through the Epistles and we come to Corinth—a church so conflicted that Paul needed write them two letters to help them through their struggle. Order of worship, roles in leadership, even the administrator of the sacrament of the Lord, Paul had to teach on each of these because the Corinthian church struggled to put aside their conflict and Become the Church that God intended.
Travelling to the end of the Epistles, we learn of Philemon and his former servant, Onesimus—a man who ran away from this life. His missing presence was so significant that Paul needed to step in and speak on behalf of the runaway to ensure his safety. That’s conflict, I think.
Even today, with Paul’s Christ Hymn before us, we should not forget that something had to prompt the Apostle to talk about the necessity of being of one mind, of being in full accord with one another. Something in his lived experience with these Philippians called to Paul to write in this way, and the name of that thing was conflict.
Regardless of our faith, regardless of how long we attended this, or any other church, regardless of how frequently we have read God’s Word and worked to assimilate it into our lives, conflict, and the feelings associated with it, enter our lives. Conflict enters our lives, and as it does, the feelings associated with the conflict color how we strive to be the people that God created us to be.
I wonder how will we organize our lives, how do we continue in our calling, when so many avenues exist to draw us away from God? The Apostle has an answer for this…
Move 1- Starting Point: the Mind of Christ
It does not matter who Paul writes to, the Roman Christians, one individual like Philemon, or if he writes to one church like in Corinth and today, Philippi, the resolution of these conflicts come only by having the mind of Christ.
Paul wants each person individually, and each church corporately, to reflect Christ no matter what we face or who we face. It does not matter how tough the conflicted-moment feels, it does not matter who long we have lived with the conflict, we are to reflect Christ. Even when reflecting Christ is hard, and feels impossible, Paul calls us to this behavior.
Now I know that this is a tall order. For if you agree with me that conflict comes in the community and in the workplace, if you agree with me that conflict can live in our homes confronting us as we enjoy our first cup of coffee in the morning, then being able to reflect Christ outward will be quite a challenge. But the Apostle gives us a way to continue our work of faithfulness.
In verse 1 there are four defining statements that Paul uses. Let’s look at them one at a time.
He starts by saying, ‘if there is any encouragement…” the root of this word is paraclete; it is the same word we have for the promised Holy Spirit by Jesus in the gospel and using the same root word hints at the importance of this idea for the Apostle. For Paul encouragement relates to ‘a call, an urging, done by someone close beside us.’
When we practice Paul’s call of encouragement, we see that there is a sense of intimacy here. We cannot urge someone onward who we do not have a relationship with. It is hard to encourage a total stranger. As we encourage one another, in Christ, our resolve, and their resolve, is strengthened. For we are all in this together and in this moment, we learn and experience this. But Paul offers more.
Next, Paul says, ‘any consolation from love…” In this clause we hear the same word as comfort and this word only occurs here in the New Testament. So whatever Paul is calling us toward, this consolation/comfort is unique and important. When we console one another a sense of soothing actions and words come along. We focused ourselves on being with the person who needs the comfort/consolation in their moment. I believe that this is an act of service. And again, there is solidarity in this posture and choice.
Think of who you have been close to, near, when they needed these first two ideas? Encouragement and consolation. They are not often total strangers but someone you value and someone who know God values them. Together you are doing something important to confront the conflicts of the day, but there is more in verse 1 to think about.
Paul then moves outward and says, ‘any sharing in the Spirit.’ Another word we often read in this place is: fellowship. This is where Paul grabs what is bouncing around in our hearts and minds, what we discern as God’s presence with us, and Paul calls us into action; into the work of community building.
This is partnering and it creates a sense of fellowship and union as a group. The person we might have been in conflict with, or the person experiencing the conflict themselves, finds rest with us. Yet Paul does not limit this work to the church alone and he does not make it a social, political, movement either. There is mutual sharing, mutual affection for God in a single purpose. We are sharing something deep together.
We end verse 1 with Paul offering words that help mend the conflict and bring us together: “compassion and sympathy.” In verse 1, we began in our mind with the call to encourage and comfort, we moved them into a place of partnering action, now we are back doing personal ministry. We cannot practice compassion, we cannot minister in a sense of sympathy, and not apathy, if we are not in a relationship with the people around us—even those we might initially feel we are living in conflict with.
I hope that you see how following Paul in verse 1 alone makes us different from the rest of the people that we see. Following Paul in this way helps us locate the mind of Christ.
Move 2- unity
For the mind of Christ is the mind that recognizes that it will see and experience a lot—even conflict. There will be suffering, as Jesus suffered. There will be isolation and ridicule, as Jesus dealt with both. We will work hard to be the church, and like Jesus, we will feel rejected by those we are called to care for.
But there is also something else: unity.
This is not unity as a social program or social gospel, but unity with us in Christ. When Jesus suffered and felt the conflicts of the day press down onto him, and they were many, He turned back to His Father and lean on their combined relationship, and this made the difference.
Jesus became humble; He became obedient to mission God placed before him (both ideas found in verse 8). He was first a servant and not a scorekeeper of wrongs (verse 7). Jesus came alongside of the people that God sent him to each day, and he listened and cared for them. He did not judge them even as they fostered a posture of conflict with him.
If our Savior could do this, if God revealed to Paul that this is how He wishes the Church to live and work, then I wonder what that means for our work and our interactions with people who we might feel conflict occurring?
Move 3- work out your salvation
No one is perfect in the Lord. No one can say that their practice of faith is exactly what God wants. But we are working on. We are all trying. And in that confession and affirmation, we come to a verse that holds a special place for many verse 12: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
God never said that the life of a faithful Christian or faithful church would be easy. In fact, God often stated the opposite would be true. But God promises to be with us in this work and with us as we discern how to put on the Mind of Christ each day. God promises to be with us as we listen to what it means to be the people of the Lord.
Theologian NT Wright says this to us in this moment as we look into our world, see the places of conflict, and try to minister as God wishes:
“The story of the church is the story of the ways in which, despite folly, [conflict], failure, and downright sin, God’s future has already bust in upon [us] what. . . leaving us a legacy of that bit of the past that is full not only of mistakes and culturally conditioned lifestyles but also patterns of new creation.”[1]
And we call this breaking in, this change, this transformational moment, putting on the Mind of Christ where we choose in the face of the struggles of the day to encourage, to console, to share, and to be compassionate.
This is the starting point for all the ministry that God orders and sustains and invites us to partner with him in. And this is ministry that each of us are called to participate in.
Conclusion
But it is not also a single moment. And so, I wonder about the places of conflict in your life… I wonder about how and where God calls you, even as you struggle, to find the Mind of Christ. It is the starting point for so much of who we are called to be.
DM
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