being united

Recently the text in Philippians 4:2 came up about unity,

“I call on Euodia and I call on Syntyche to be of one mind in the Lord.”

These sisters were not just the first; Paul mentions them in the next verse “fellow warriors in the gospel, . . . fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.There was no doubt that they belonged to the Lord Jesus, loved Him, and in some way served Paul in the gospel.

And yet they are called to be of one mind. How about that? What had gone wrong then?

The same mind-set

The word "unanimity" also means "same mindedness," and that word "mindedness" appears in this letter in every chapter¹. It is fair to say that in the letter to the Philippians it is an important theme.

“After all, it is right for me to say this from all of you think, because I have you all in my heart as partakers of my grace, both in my captivity and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel." (1:7)

“(...) then make my joy complete, because you are of one mind, having the same love, being one in soul and one of feeling.”(2:2)

“Therefore let that disposition are in you, who was also in Christ Jesus, . . . ”(2:5)

“Let us then, inasmuch as we are spiritually mature, disposition have; and if you are anything else minded, that too God will reveal to you. But as far as we have come, let us walk by the same rule, let us united to be." (3:15,16)

“Their end is destruction, (…); she invent earthly things." (3:19)

“I call on Euodia and I call on Syntyche united to be in the Lord." (4:2)

“And I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that your think finally blossomed on me." (4:10)

Our thinking

If you put these texts together and oversee it, the first thing you notice is that attitude has to do with our thinking. The believer's mind must be concerned with the Lord Jesus, with the things of God and the heavenly things. There were many Christians in Philippi who "walked as enemies of the cross of Christ" (3:18) and it is said of them that they "invent earthly things' (4:19). But if it is right, a believer thinks “the things which are above and not those which are on the earth . . .” (Colossians 3:2). The reason is that we are concerned with the future that lies ahead, as Paul makes clear in the texts that follow.

“But our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also wait for the Saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our vile bodies, so that it may be conformed to His glorified bodyaccording to the operation whereby He can also subject all things to Himself.(Philippians 3:20,21)

“. . . for you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ is revealed, who is our life, you also be revealed with Him in glory.“ (Colossians 3:3,4)

That is why we do not invent earthly things: we are concerned with the future glory that will be our portion!

The question that then comes to us is, of course, whether that is really something we often think about: that our humiliated body will change into a glorified body and that we will be seen sharing His glory with the Lord Jesus.

Do you often think about the heavenly future? It makes us see our earthly life in a different, heavenly perspective and no longer think about earthly things. In addition, it gives us abundant reason to honor our God and Father and to praise the Lord Jesus for His work on the cross, which laid the foundation for that future glory!

The Mind of Christ

What occupies our minds determines our disposition, you might say. This is primarily focused on the inner self, but there is another aspect to the disposition and that is directly focused on our visible behavior. Between Euodia and Syntyche apparently tensions could be observed in their mutual interaction. So much so that Paul had heard of it and admonished them about it.

To understand what this is about, we need to go to chapter 2 of the letter to the Philippians, where we read in verses 5-8

“Therefore let that disposition be in you, who was also in Christ Jesus (…) He humbled Himself and is obedient become unto death, yea, even to the death of the cross.”

The mind of the Lord Jesus was that – although He was God – He humbled Himself, became man and went to Calvary in obedience to His God to die on the cross. That disposition led Him to efface Himself, to walk the path of suffering, and to sacrifice Himself.

Let that mind be in you

Paul exhorts us that the same mind should also be in us. That's quite something, wouldn't you be afraid of that? We may realize that believers who are persecuted need that mindset, otherwise how could they endure the suffering? But we in the (still) free west? How is that disposition expressed in us?

It is remarkable that the section in Philippians 2, which deals with the mind of Christ, is followed by a section in which Paul "exhorts believers to holy living². In it he begins by referring to obedience and he makes that very concrete in verse 14:

“Do all things without grumbling and contradicting (…)³”

If you think about this for a while and test your own actions against this, you will come to the conclusion, just like me, that you fall far short of this. Yet it is a command from God. Not to 'get better at it', but to act in this way 'all things'!

• Not grumble, which is being dissatisfied with circumstances. As Dutch people we are 'good' at it, but the behavior of the believer is characterized by the fact that he does not grumble.
• Not contradictThat is, when someone gives their opinion on something, we are ready to voice our own opinion. We like to show that we like something different. My own view is important, we teach children that at a young age. After all, without the necessary assertiveness you can't make it these days.

What you could also say is that disobedience starts with grumbling and ends with contradiction. With the people of Israel we see where grumbles⁴ eventually leads to: they died in the desert and were not allowed to enter the promised land of God's blessings (read Numbers 14). For us, too, grumbling and contradicting prevent us from receiving God's rich blessings and hinder our spiritual growth.

Christ's mind-set: obedience

The obedience that the Lord Jesus displayed in His life also meant that He did not grumble or contradict. He did not grumble about difficult circumstances and does not blame God for it. He accepted everything from His Father as the way He had to go down here. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He was impressed as never before with the suffering that would befall Him, He did not grumble but put God's desire above His own will (Luke 22:42-44). That was 'obedience to the death of the cross' (Philippians 2:8).

Christ's mind-set in Our Relationships

We must return to the mission of unity. What could we, like Euodia and Syntyche, learn from this? Based on what we have seen before, we can safely say that

• we are called first to conceive heavenly things. There is no unity as long as we 'think earthly things'. Each of us will have to deal with the Lord Jesus, the heavenly things and the glory to come. A living relationship with the Lord Jesus, nourished by the Word of God, whereby our hearts are transformed by the Spirit of God (2 Corinthians 3:18).
• then we will have to practice obedience to God's thoughts. "Lord, what do you want us to do?" will be the basic attitude of our heart to live our daily life without grumbling and contradiction. In everyday things, so that it is noticed that we are 'different': “blameless and upright, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15)

Would it not be that we would then also be able to live in unity with the believers? When we have the Lord Jesus as supreme before our spiritual eyes, we in obedience to God and in submission⁵[5] to one another (1 Peter 5:5), then it cannot but be there'unity in the Lord' among us.  

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Lord at Your feet 
 and focused on you,
 may we enjoy 
 of your teaching. 

Grant that we obediently,
 quiet at your feet
 listen to what you say
 and want to teach us. 
 
Teach us to understand, Lord,
 by Thy Holy Spirit,
 what is Your will for us,
 to do that the most. 
 
Grant us strength to act
 what Your Word shows us,
 so that all our lives
 You are committed. 

Spiritual Songs 259 (2016 edition) 

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Footnotes

1. Het vet indicated word is always the same word in the original language; it means "one in thought," "one in spirit. In 1:27, the HSV translation still has the word "one minded," which is slightly different and means "one of soul. This expression "one of soul" is also found in 2:2. ↩︎
2. As the HSV puts above the pericope of verses 12-18. ↩︎
3. Telos translation. The HSV has "Do all things without grumbling and disagreement”. ↩︎
4. In the Old Testament often called "murmuring" (Statenvertaling) or "murmuring" (HSV). ↩︎
5. To the concept 'submission' we have paid little attention to, but it has to do with authority. It is helpful to go through the places in the New Testament that deal with this and see what important lessons can be learned. ↩︎