How to Be of the Same Mind

Philippians 2:1-12

St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
Juvenal Cervantes, Pastor
August 21, 2022

What is you could learn a principle that will enhance your interpersonal relationship including home, work, friends, and friends-yet-to-be? What if you looked at a passage of God’s word and never think of it the same way, found this to be relevant to your daily life?

To understand rightly the meaning of Jesus dying for us is not only relating to God in a new way, it is to find ourselves relating to one another in a new way exclusively.

Euodia and Syntyche have gotten crossed ways with each other.

They have some unresolved issue that they are steaming about and we don’t know what it is. Something that separated them from each other and along the way because of their influences has separated others in the church, probably.

Paul urges them to pay attention to what Jesus did for us and to let that reality affect their particular relationship.

We go back to chapter two, verses one thru four, hear this again in that context.

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, (that is, if being in Christ with each other has resulted receiving encouragement from each other, that’s been your experience!) any consolation from love (if you’ve ever been brokenhearted and a Christian brother or sister steps in and demonstrated consolation through the love of Christ, that’s been your experience!), if there’s any sharing in the Spirit (If you’ve ever been together in worship and you have joined your hearts together in the worship of God, that’s been your experience!), if there’s any compassion and sympathy (if you’ve ever walked alongside someone and seen them brokenhearted and given yourself to them, that’s been your experience!), then Paul says, “make my joy complete.”

Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition (Don’t be out to get your own way, to be right all the time) or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves (or more important than yourselves).

Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…

That, Paul says, is the way that Christ’s death on the cross has poured on ourselves and received the riches of Christ unto our lives. We’ve worshiped together in the same Spirit and we’ve served alongside each other in the same emotion and met needs out of compassion, if that’s true, then make my joy complete, by being of the same mind (that does not mean that we all think exactly alike), it means that we have a common purpose.

We’re minding, paying attention to the same things, which is following after Jesus Christ, and his mission in the world.

Be of the same mind, of the same love, mutual love for each other. Let this way of thinking be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, then there is that beautiful Christ hymn, “who being in the form of God” and it goes on.

There is a recent revision of the New International Version that translates the last phrase, “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, it translates in verse 5:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

In other words, Paul is urging them, and us, to get crossways with each other. Now, we know how to get crossways with each other, right? We get cross ways on our purpose, different ideas, we clash. We get crossways. But Paul points to Jesus and says, “I want you to get crossways with each other, I want the same mind be in you that was in Him, who had equality with God and did not regard equality with God as something to exploit, but he made of himself of no reputation. He took upon himself the role of servant, he humbled himself and became human, being in the form of the servant, he became obedient to God, obedient to death, even death on the cross.

And that’s why God has exalted him to the position of Lord. And so Paul says, “I want that mindset to be in you.” Crossways with each other; letting the cross and the example it provides, become the thing that guides our relationships when we get crossway with each other.

We’re going to do that. The question is how do we manage it? We do well in reading the story of these two women and consider what this would mean in our lives to get crossways with each other, in the right way.

We might think on the ways Christ has enriched our lives as in verse one. It is often translated, “If there is any encouragement” but the language in Greek is an affirmation of that. It could be translated, “because there is encouragement,” “since there is accoutrement” in Christ. “Since you’ve experienced these things” “Since when you reflect on your experiences as a Christian in the community of other Christians, you can recall that tenderness, and warmth, and encouragement, and consolation, and compassion and sympathy and worship in the spirit of God that you’ve all experienced together, let that be a period in the center of your mind, think about that. Be reminded of these riches that have come to us as part of the community in Christ, of God’s people.

And then he said, “Let those riches overflow into the relationships with each other, be like minded, have the same spirit, the same focus together.” When you are focused on your agenda and I’m focused on mine and those are cross purposes with each other, we both fail to be like- minded. We both failed to have one spirit, one purpose. What we like to do is to make the other person like mined, to believe like we do.

But there is a third way and that is that we go back to believing that we are together in the purpose to follow Jesus Christ, to obey Jesus Christ, to be engaged in the mission of Jesus Christ. And if there is anything else that is in your agenda or mind that is outside it is the thing that causes us to get crossway with each other.

What we need to do is to return to what is central, what is core, be like-minded. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or self-conceit,” he says. This is the way we let those riches overflow into our relationships, we let go of our agenda. We let go of our selfish ambitions, the desire to be right. The desire to have it my way at church. “My way,” “my way,” that’s selfish ambition, that’s vain conceit. It has to be surrendered, because Jesus did not hold on to that himself, but in humility, consider others and their needs.

Humility is a tough character trait. C.S. Lewis said, “It is the most slippery of the virtues, because just when you think you got it, you become proud and you lose it.” That’s right, you can’t brag about being the humblest person around.

Humility is a practice. Dallas Willard said, “There are three things that we can do to practice humility, to practice it, like you practice your music, or practice your speech, practice.” One of the things is, don’t push you have your own way. That will prop up occasionally, that’s the “selfish ambition” and “vain conceit.” Don’t push to have your own way. Every once in a while say, “That’s fine, we can do it your way.”

Richard Foster defined submission as “the capacity to be happy, even if you don’t get your own way.” So the practice of submission, the practice of not having my own way is saying, “It’s okay if we sing those songs,” “It’s okay if we don’t sing those songs.” “It’s okay if we do it that way,” “It’s okay if we meet this time.” “It’s okay, I don’t have to push my own way.” That’s the practice of humility.

Second, don’t presume privilege for yourself. That’s vain conceit, to think that we’re so important that things ought to be done our own way, that we’re the most important person around. We presume privilege.

And he says, “Don’t presume to be something you’re not to impress people.” Learning to do those things, not pretending to be something we’re not, not pushing to have our own way, not presuming privilege, the practice of that shapes us until we actually become more humble.

And that’s where Paul says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but practice humility, consider others as more important than yourselves.”

“Don’t look out for your own interest,” he said, “But look out for the interest of others.”

There’s a story about two monks, desert fathers, and they had been serving in this monastery in the desert for a long, long time, and they were dear, dear friends, they had spent their lives together. And one day one said to the other, “You know, we should have an argument.” And the other one said, “Why?” “Well, I hear that’s what people do, they have arguments.” “How do you do that?” He said, “Well, maybe like this” and he picked up a stone and put it in between them and said, “I say, ‘that’s my stone’ and then you say, ‘no, that’s my stone’ and then we have an argument.”

“Okay.” So he put the stone there and he said, “That’s my stone” and the other guy said, “Okay, you can have it.” That’s living crossways, not having to have your own way.

Let the riches of your relationship to Christ overflow into the relationships with each other by having the same mind, the same purpose, focusing on the same thing, not acting on selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider one another as more important as ourselves.

And then, follow the example of Jesus. “Let this mind be in you that was in Jesus.”

There is a story in John chapter thirteen of Jesus being in the upper room. Jesus with his disciples. It was the night before he was going to be crucified, he was going to the cross. And the disciples were having an argument about which of them was the greatest. They dashed for the most important seats around that table so they could sit closest to Jesus in the most important place, John tells us that. But Luke tells us what Jesus did.

In their dash to get the most important seats, they had failed to wash their feet because they’re laying on the floor, leaning into the table and their feet are extended and Jesus, John thirteen, knowing that he had come from God, knowing that he was going back to the father, got up from the table. He took off his outer robe, he girded himself, he took a towel, and a basin of water and he went one by one to his disciples and washed their dirty feet.

It’s almost an acting out of Philippians chapter two. He who had divested himself of his divine robes, become human and dwelt among us, become a slave and became obedient to the point of death, and Jesus having washed his disciples’ feet, he said, “Do you know what I’ve done?” And they said, “No, we don’t understand.” He said, “If I, your master and Lord, that’s what you call me, and that’s correct, that’s who I am. If I am your master and Lord and have stooped to your feet, you ought to wash the feet of one another. You need to serve one another, you need to be servants to one another. You need to decide that other needs are more important than your own. You need to decide that your agenda is not the one that needs to be pressed. You need to understand what I’ve done.” He served.

Essentially, that’s what getting crossways with people really means. What was Paul implicitly telling Euodia and Syntyche to do?

Drop your selfish agenda. It is not about you. Be of the same mind, focus your attention on Jesus Christ together and on his purpose and then humbly serve one another.

We don’t have an outcome from that. But do you want to know what happened? If I was making the movie, this is what I would do. I don’t know what happened either. But after Paul gets to the end of chapter four, I would imagine Euodia and Syntyche glanced at each other across the room for the rest of chapter four. And then as it is read, as soon as there is an opportunity, those women embrace and apologize and say, “There is something more important than either of us and we need to serve Christ wholeheartedly. What do you need Euodia, what are your needs Syntyche, that I can do for you?

That’s the response he calls them to, to humbly serve each other. It is such a beautiful picture here. But you know, we don’t have to wait until there is a conflict until we get on getting crossways with each other.

We don’t have to have a problem before we start living this way. In fact, the more we live this way, the more we’re going to get crossways with each other.

So take this mindset of Jesus to your relationships all the time, husbands, get crossways with your wives, wives, get crossways with your husbands, humbly serve. Consider the others more important than yourself. Abandon your selfish ambition of vain conceit.

Parents, serve your children, care for them like Christ cared for us. Abandoning that and in humility serving. Those people you work with every day out in the world somewhere, serve them in humility. Consider their needs more important than your own. Your fellow students at school, are people that Christ calls you to serve. Your brothers and sisters in Christ in this church. It’s just a question, “Where are the relationships in my life that I need to take this word to most directly, where do I need to get crossways with people?”

Now if you do have a relationship where you got cross ways, you need to mend it, the best way to get crossway with them is to get crossways. That is to humble yourselves, to mend the broken pieces and if God points you to any relationships that way, don’t delay, take care of those accounts quickly.

We visited the cross this morning. We celebrate its vertical dimension, we recall the horizontal dimension and we understand that every person I meet is created in God’s image, someone for whom Christ died, someone for whom I am supposed to be crossways.

Let’s pray. “Holy Father, our hearts are selfish hearts, that’s why we needed your redemption in the first place and because we’re selfish, we think we’re right or only partially wrong. We push our own ways, our own agendas to make our lives more comfortable for us, and we easily overlook or ignore one another. That’s who we are, God. We ask you to shape our minds, our lives, more and more into the life of Christ Jesus. We pray, Lord, that you would help us learn to walk with humility, to walk in the light of the cross and to serve freely, and fully, and joyfully one another as long as we have opportunity. Father, for any relationships that are bruised right now in this body that you would bring those things into connection. We pray for the same things for our families, for our marriages, and our homes, and our neighbors, and our friends and our coworkers. Lord help us to learn to humble ourselves and to serve. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.”