Philippians - More Joy Less Stress

So if there is any encouragement in Christ , any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy Philippians 2:1 “Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you.” William Arthur Ward (an often quoted writer of inspirational maxims) Back in verse 27, the Apostle Paul has made this point: that we are to live a life that fits the gospel. That's what he means when he says that he is urging us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, and the whole center section of this book is about that. Paul in Philippians 2:1-4 gives us four motives for spiritual unity, he gives us one exhortation, and then he gives us three specific aims (or ends, or purposes) to shoot for as we seek to follow out the exhortation. We deal with the first of the four motives today.  The first one is encouragement in Christ. The word “...

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:1-4 CS Lewis’ autobiography is called “Surprised by Joy”. Before he was a Christian he was always trying to find joy in other things and before he became a Christian he binged on things that gave him joy. The first time he read an Icelandic saga he loved it. He reads every Icelandic saga, and learns old Norse so he can read it in the original. As he works through it he realizes it isn’t paying out as he’d hoped. Then he gets a friend and binge on the friend but then the friend backs off. At one point he starts to realize that there’s a God...