Harmony in Philippi: Paul's Urgent Call for Unity

Well, as you know, we're in the book of Philippians, and we're in chapter 4, verses 1 through 5.

And we started out last week talking about conflict management, if you will.

And we looked at the first part of this. Today, we're going to wrap this part

up. But we come this morning to Paul's plea here.

We'll see that in this first slide. Paul's plea that Euodia,

and I love these names, by the way, and Cintiq are fellow Christians.

We've already established that fact. We've already seen that in Scripture,

but they are hardly in fellowship with one another.

I don't know about you. Do you like to be out of fellowship with other people? Who likes it?

No, because you want to be that fellowship, that connection flowing, right?

That love flowing and letting people know you love them and also just connecting together.

In fact, we see in this passage, we're going to look at it a little bit later

this morning, but of the same mind, right? having that same focus.

But we can infer here, though, in this passage that the whole church is affected.

Since Paul chooses to address the problem publicly, like we said last week,

he wrote it in the letter. It's in the Word of God forever, right?

Well, he urges these two ladies in chapter 4, verse 2, look at this again,

to live in harmony in the Lord.

Did you see it? to live in harmony in the Lord.

So in this verse, Paul actually uses the verb urge, right?

Which honestly, it double underscores the strength here, I think,

of his pleading with them.

And it would have been one thing if Paul had written, hey, I urge you,

Odea and Cintiq, as if speaking to them like collectively, but he singles out

each of them individually here in this passage.

He's urging, in other words, each woman separately.

And regardless of, look at it this way, regardless of how the other one will respond,

Paul urges each one of them personally and directly to act, to act.

In other words, you can't just be passive about this.

I mean, that word urge in the Greek there, parakaleo, It carries the idea of

a strong pleading and fervent imploring.

And so Paul is actually exhorting them with a warm-hearted appeal.

I mean, obviously, he's already shown he loves this church, right? He loves them.

And this is not a plea that they can afford to neglect. In other words,

they can't just ignore it. They can't let it just sit dormant.

And so specifically, we see that Paul urges them to live in harmony.

And that's actually just one word in the original Greek language, that phraunio.

And it means literally to exercise the mind.

The idea is to direct their minds to be together in addressing this problem that they have.

And Paul has used this word actually several times already in this letter in Philippians.

Back in chapter two, verse two, if you remember, he actually said these words.

He says, make my joy complete by being of the same mind.

In verse 5 of chapter 2, he said, have this attitude in yourselves.

In chapter 3, verse 15, he says, let us therefore, as many as are perfect,

or that means mature, have this attitude.

So Paul is saying that these women must have the same mind in this matter, in other words.

They must get in the same boat, if you will, start rowing in the same direction, right?

They got to adopt the same mindset.

They must adopt the same mindset, which is going to bring reconciliation and

restoration in their relationship.

So these two women, Paul actually adds, look at verse 2 again,

must live harmoniously, again, in the Lord.

And you got to think about this for a moment, Eastwood. This is the sphere in

which they were to find their harmony.

When he says in the Lord here, he means that the Lord must be their common ground.

So they're going to live this way. How? In the Lord, because he's your common ground, right?

Each must be in submission to who? The Lord.

Y'all, I don't know about you, but I found out when we are submitted to Christ,

a whole lot of things get right, right?

I mean, you talk about things falling together, and if you've got two people

who submit to the Lord, you have common ground, and if they will first be,

in other words, in alliance with the Lord,

then they will be in harmony with each other.

You see how that takes care of itself? The Lord is the common denominator,

in other words, who's going to establish true unity between these two women.

In other words, they both must first, get this, be right with God.

Just as Paul, if you remember, in the first part of this letter established

the basis for salvation, so too must these women build upon their common salvation

in the Lord to resolve this dispute.

Y'all, it's so important to think about this, are we right with God?

Have we spent time marinating and soaking in his word?

Do we have the same mind as Christ, right? I mean, we have to be right with

God, and it's up to us to repent.

It's up to us to, if we have sin in our life or whatever it is or a bad attitude,

it's up to us to get that right with God because God is the ultimate one that

we offend, right, when there's sin.

Before we offend anybody else, we offend God first. and

so we get right with God and then we're able to be right

with other people we're able to reach solutions and so as they yield to the

Lord as we yield to the Lord he's going to give them patience he's going to

give us patience with and forgiveness as well for the other person,

right I mean isn't it neat how God actually works in the life of believers I

mean so So when you think about this, the Lord will give them the humility of

mind to bury the hatchet.

But they must confess their sin and each be responsible to be a peacemaker toward the other one.

Again here, we're not talking about putting problems under the rug, right?

And that's not what Paul's doing. He's telling them here, you got to address

this. In fact, we're going to see in a moment, he even calls on a neutral third

party to help them out, okay?

Because you've got to address it. Only in the Lord will this be resolved, is the point.

If there's not a true oneness in the Lord, this will not work.

It'll not work. And that really applies to each one of us today sitting here today.

It's an appeal for all of us as believers, every believer, to actually live

in harmony with others in the church, right?

And our conflicts are not spiritually neutral.

They undermine the church and they display a lack of submission to the Lord

by at least one or usually two parties, right?

And so we got to take it seriously. and we need to resolve our conflicts seriously.

And Paul's given us a blueprint here really for how to do that.

And so in resolving conflicts, we are never to be passive. I alluded to this earlier.

Waiting for the other to apologize or to change.

You know, I mean, you know, just sitting back, coasting along.

That's kind of like, right?

That's kind of like sweeping it under the rug, so to speak, right?

We're just passive about it, you know? And a person passes us by or whatever,

it's like, well, I'm not going to speak to them. I'm just going to be passive.

I'm going to wait. If they want to get it right, they come to me.

But is that living in harmony in the Lord?

No, right? And so we can't be passive waiting for the other person to apologize or change.

Through Paul, the Lord actually urges all who call upon his name. And all means what?

That means you and me, right? does together, all of us, every part of the church,

to seek reconciliation with each other.

And this is rarely easy. I thought I'd get an amen. It's rarely easy,

right? But it's always right.

It's always right. In fact, it is the Christian way.

But as I said earlier, there is help needed in this situation. Help needed.

Paul realizes here, it's going to be difficult for these two ladies to work this out.

Obviously, we've seen in the passage, these are very prominent ladies. They really serve God.

They've even served with Paul in the ministry, and they probably both have just

this go-get-it attitude, right?

And so Paul realizes it's going to be difficult to work this out,

and the wounds appear deep, and the hurt has presumably been there for some time.

I say that because otherwise Paul would not have heard about it.

Remember, he is in prison, right? And it's reached his ears all the way there.

And so consequently, Paul appeals to another member of the church in Philippi

to actually step in and act as a peacemaker.

A reconciler is needed here. He's going to bring these two women together.

And notice he says in verse three, take a look with me. He says this,

he said, But indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help.

And indeed, really, it introduces the strong affirmation that's going to follow here.

What he's about to say must be brought to pass.

And this peacemaker is a true companion, meaning basically he's genuine.

There's no fakeness about him. He's real. He speaks for real.

He's legitimate, in other words.

And there are other so-called companions who are not having a positive role in the fellowship.

But there are true companions. That's since forth he says true, right?

True companions who are true friends and true peacemakers.

And when Paul says companion, by the way, it's really unclear whether it's a

description of this person or this person's actual name.

Many commentators translate companion as a description of the individual,

but the stronger evidence here, according with the languages and everything

in Scripture, is that this is their name, believe it or not.

In verse 2, there are two names, Euodia and Sintiq, which with those names,

I can probably believe somebody has a name companion, right?

But in verse 3 here, the name Clement appears, placed in the middle between Euodia and Sintiq.

And Clement is this person whose name is Syzygos, he was probably one of the

overseers or elders here.

It mentioned that all the way back in chapter 1, verse 1.

And since one of the roles of leaders in the church is to what?

To shepherd the flock when disputes arise.

They are, you know, that personally or corporately harmful maybe to the fellowship.

So this spiritual leader here was being asked to step in and resolve the conflict

between these two women, a neutral third party.

In fact, this leader, according to this passage, is to help them live in harmony with each other.

And a third party is needed to reconcile them.

That help in Greek, that somombano, it's a strong, it's an active word in the

Greek. It means to seize or to grasp, to apprehend.

And so it can also mean to arrest or to capture or to take hold of.

And so this word was used for the arrest of Jesus Christ, by the way,

in Scripture, by the Roman soldiers all the way in Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

And it was also used to the arrest of Peter when he was arrested and when he

was in prison in Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

And so in Philippians, Paul is telling this person to take hold of the situation,

and to usher in peace between these two ladies.

And Paul addresses them positively as those, again, I want you all to make note

of this again in verse 3, who shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel.

They had worked in the ministry with Paul, whether by praying for him,

encouraging him, possibly giving to the ministry or showing him hospitality.

We don't know how they shared in Paul's struggle, but we do know,

according to Scripture that they did.

So it's all the more reason then why they needed to be reconciled.

In their struggle with Paul for the gospel, notice this.

We see in Scripture these ladies' commitment to the work of God.

These aren't lost people.

These are saved ladies in the church here.

So we know they're committed to the work of God. They were strong in convictions.

Personality, actions, and involvement in God's word.

And so we can assume that given these characters here in the story here,

when they clashed, they were also strong in their difficulties with one another, right?

They had strong personalities. And so Paul mentions another person by name,

Clement, like I said in verse 3.

We don't know who he is specifically, but he was obviously a well-known man of the church.

With spiritual influence. And he's cited here as working with these women and

the rest of my fellow workers, it says.

What does that sound like to you? Sounds like a team spirit, doesn't it?

He's kind of spearheading this, but it also says, with the rest of my fellow workers.

Doing it as a team that characterized this church in Philippi.

They were all involved together, right?

Nobody's wanting to sit on the sidelines. They're involved together.

After all, Eastwood, they're a family.

They're part of God's family.

And so these believers were not a series of islands, if you will,

disconnected from doing their own thing, from each other and doing their own thing.

Instead, they were shouldering the ministering load together in the church,

standing as one of the cause of the gospel.

And so consequently, because of this, the breach here between these two ladies

was affecting everyone in this tightly knit church.

Now, just think of it for a moment. Eastwood Baptist Church,

the wonderful, loving fellowship that we have here, the family atmosphere that

we have here, the welcoming atmosphere.

If we had two ladies who were strong in personality and were in conflict with

one another, don't you think in that kind of tight-knit community,

it would affect everybody?

And that's what was happening here in Philippi.

Paul concludes that by underlining that the protagonist's names are in the book of life.

Again, he's reassuring these ladies know Jesus.

They know the gospel. They're fellow workers. They're fellow laborers.

And that's really to underscore that these are true believers,

like I said, in the conflict.

And the Philippians are not to conclude that these two women are unbelievers whatsoever.

To the contrary, their names, like we saw, are written in the book of life,

haven't been chosen by the Father.

These are sisters in the Lord who must now work this out.

You know, I'm just telling you, there's no problem too big for God, right?

When we get right with God, when Judd gets right with God, you can put your

name there just right with God there is no difficulty no problem no conflict

that can't be worked out in the Lord.

So we have rejoicing here, church, despite the conflict. Now,

what a tall order. I mean, how could this happen?

Well, it's in light of the conflict that he just addressed. Think about it,

that we should understand what Paul says next in verse 4. What does he say? Look at it.

Rejoice in the Lord when you feel like it.

That's not right, is it? Wait a minute, let's try it again. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say rejoice.

So in spite of the friction between Euodia and Syntyche and the two sides that they represent,

Paul urges the believers to rejoice in the midst of this conflict because such

a dispute can make rejoicing seem impossible. You can imagine it.

But Paul urges the believers to rejoice nonetheless.

In fact, this verse really expresses the central theme of the whole book of

Philippians. It's a call to believers to rejoice no matter what the circumstances are.

Come on, rejoice no matter what the circumstances are.

You can rejoice in the Lord. You might not can rejoice in this world.

You might not can rejoice in your circumstances, but you can rejoice in the Lord.

It's so important to Christian living is rejoicing that Paul repeats this command for emphasis.

And at the same time, it's a challenge to us, to this church at Philippi, to rejoice.

Given the turbulence that were created by these two women who were unreconciled

at the moment, rejoice is a present imperative verb.

It's a command, in other words, that requires continual, habitual rejoicing,

So these in-house differences, right, in the community of the believers A disagreement

should not prevent, Paul is saying, the Philippians from rejoicing in the Lord

And most likely, rejoicing together,

You ever thought about this?

It may just help heal the divide Because guess what?

Again, common ground, rejoicing in what the Lord has done for you.

Rejoicing in all the Lord is to us and for us, guess what each would?

It has the habit of introducing the correct perspective on everything else,

especially in conflict.

In other words, the circumstances may cause them to be saddened or less joyful.

After all, they should be grieved by what grieves the heart of God, definitely.

But they can rejoice in who God is as well as in what he's done,

what he's doing and will do on their behalf.

And that understanding of God is going to have a direct effect upon their experience of joy.

Wow. A high view of God, he's wood, produces overflowing joy.

But a low view of God yields little joy.

What about you? I serve a big God. I don't serve a little God who can't handle it.

Our God is big. Our God is awesome.

But I tell you, we're challenged here in this passage to live gently, living gently.

Now, some of y'all, look, y'all may just be natural, like, go-getters,

right? I mean, like, sometimes we have different personalities, right?

Different personalities represented. And some will be like, you know,

it's almost like that brash personality. You ever met somebody with a brash personality?

A lot of times that's kind of maybe they're not necessarily a bad person.

They're not mean, really, if you get to know them.

It's just they just speak their mind. But one thing about a brash personality

is they're going to tell you the truth.

You always know where you stand with them.

Man, I appreciate that about those with brash personalities.

You always know what they really think. They're not going to lie to you and

then go talk about you behind the back.

You may not like what they have to say, but they're right there.

But what I'm pointing out here is some of us may have a more gentle approach, right?

You may have a more friendly, so to speak, personality.

But given that this conflict exists, Paul makes this appeal.

Look at this, verse 5. This is to all of us, no matter what type of personality you have.

Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.

So even those of us maybe with brash personalities or gentle or whatever you

want to call it, the range of personalities,

he's saying here even to all of us, let your gentle spirit, you can still have

a gentle spirit, be known to all men.

In the midst of this relational storm here at the Church of Philippi,

the believers in the church shouldn't allow their emotions to escalate and intensify

and so become angry at others, possibly even reacting harshly to one another.

And because such times of friction, if you think about it for a minute,

it can bring out the worst in people.

Instead, they should show a gentle spirit.

Gentle That word gentle in Greek It means to be mild And reacting to one another,

Or to another In fact, to call for This is to call for patience With those who

would otherwise Maybe provoke a response of anger,

I don't know about y'all Let's come on Let's just talk about it for a minute

Sometimes there are personalities That don't mix well With other personalities,

I mean, some people are morning people You ever met a morning person? It's like, woo!

You know, the alarm goes off and it's like, hallelujah.

And other people are like, snooze, right?

I mean, and sometimes when you get different personalities together,

it's like, you know, can rub you the wrong way, right?

But this here call for patience by being gentle in spirit.

It's a call for patience that would otherwise maybe provoke a person in response

of anger, but yet you're going to have a gentle spirit in the Lord.

It's a call to overlook the faults of others, a call. In fact,

you probably heard the verse. You probably, some of you have memorized it.

Proverbs 15, 1, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.

See, this gentle spirit must be shown to who in verse 5?

To all men, women. I mean, you know what that means when it says that, to all men and women.

In fact, the intent is probably that the Philippians should demonstrate loving

patience to all who are being polarized in the church.

Of course, y'all already know this, but such gentleness must also be exhibited

towards unbelievers as well, right?

Outside the church, obviously, but given the context, Paul's appeal in this

passage is surely directed toward believers right here.

It's toward the believers in the church of Philippi who are being pulled in

the dispute between these two women.

Basically, if you want to just look at it in the common language,

they got to show a level-headed response to all involved.

Because, y'all, it can be easy to say sometimes in a conflict like this,

Well, I'm on Euodia's side. I agree with Euodia.

No, I'm on Syntax's side, right?

And it's like, you know, you want to pick sides out of human nature.

But if we're going to live in the Lord and we're going to live in harmony,

who's on the Lord's side?

See, I don't need to be on either side. I need to be on the Lord's side because

that's where I'm going to find the common ground in the Lord.

That's where I'm going to find the power through the gospel to resolve any conflict,

any hurt or any hurt feeling or whatever might have happened.

We don't know the story here, but I want you to know that the Lord is close.

The Lord is close. As we look at this last slide or next to the last one,

it says, In fact, to conclude this section, Paul reminds the church in verse

5 here that the Lord is near.

The Lord is near. It's not a statement concerning the second coming of Christ.

That's not what he's talking about.

But rather, it's an affirmation that the Lord is near to his people in order

to give his joy to troubled hearts.

You see, Eastwood, we always remember that the Lord is present. He is near.

The Lord is present as reconciliation between these two disputing women.

And this is sought out here. It's a simple reminder of Christ's closeness to

his people in a time of unrest even, a time that may not be pleasant,

to grant his peace and to calm hearts.

And such closeness by the Lord to his people is also a reminder that all of

us need today. Jesus assured his disciples, you think back to Matthew 28,

Matthew 28:20

verse 20, I am with you always.

Remember Great Commission? I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

This is what the Lord spoke to Paul amid his difficulties in Corinth,

if you remember, in Acts chapter 18, I am with you.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

After all, when Jesus came to earth, Emmanuel, God with us.

God plus one always makes the majority, right?

I mean, David testified, Psalm 34, 18, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted.

Asaph took comfort in this truth The nearness of God is my good He said in Psalm 73 verse 28,

Psalms 73:28

That's the point that Paul's making with the Philippians In fact,

today Eastwood As we find ourselves in a situation of strife With other believers

And it will come It may not be here today,

But it'll come It's natural It's part of being a family We need to remember

We gotta respond with a gentle spirit A harsh word only provokes anger, right?

Instead, let us be peacemakers who take confidence in the closeness of Almighty

God to His people, to reconcile disputing people and parties, all of it.

Conflicts will come, for the church is a collection of sinners, right?

Saved sinners, but selfish sinners nonetheless, right? But conflicts have to be taken seriously.

Confronted by those involved, Paul is saying, and those around. It's a team effort.

And when conflict occurs between believers, by definition, get this today,

what they have in common in the Lord is always greater than anything that's driving them apart.

And those who will spend an eternity in joyful unity and peace ought to start living in it now, right?

I'm just saying These two ladies are going to be glory And I pray all of us

here Is going to be glory If you've repented Put your faith and trust in Christ

So you might as well get used to living in unity today Because you're going

to spend eternity Hanging out with each other,

So Our prayer today is May the Lord draw near And maintain the unity of the

Spirit In the bond of peace,

that's our attitude that ought to be our attitude today y'all at Eastwood every

church this is what we want we want the Lord to draw near and maintain the unity

of the spirit in the bond of peace.