Thoughts For 2012

Working Together for the Common Good
Phil. 2:1-4

Let’s turn in our Bibles this morning to Eccl. chapter four. It isn’t very often that the first day of the year falls on a Sunday, but since that the way it is this year, I thought it would be good to spend our time together focusing on a theme for the year. I want us to consider an issue that I’d like us to keep on the front burner all year long, and it involves the concept of synergy.

For those of you not familiar with synergy, synergy is not an increased capacity to sin. We hear the words “sin” and “energy” in there, and since it is something Murray is talking about in church, if you aren’t familiar with the concept you may be thinking that synergy has something to do with sinning with gusto, but it doesn’t.

The technical definition of synergy is when the result of an action is greater than the sum of the parts. A simpler way to say it is that sometimes one plus one equals three. The best illustration I have heard of synergy involves horses. Apparently, the average horse can pull a load of about 1000 pounds. Based on that you would think that two horses yoked together could pull somewhere around 2000 pounds, right? But guess how much they can pull? It is actually closer to 4000 pounds. Something happens in the realm of physics that multiplies the force they exert. In fact, I was reading about a horse pulling contest where the winning draft horse pulled a load of 5000 pounds, and the second place horse pulled a load of 4000 pounds. After the competition was over, they hitched the two horses together to see how much they could pull, and they pulled a load of 12,000 pounds! That is the concept behind synergy. When the result of an action is greater than the sum of the parts.

Of course there are always exceptions to this. Mark Twain is famous for the statement that if you have one boy working for you, you will get one boy’s worth of work out of him. If you put another boy to work with him, you will get one boy’s worth of work out of them. And if you put three boys together to work on a job, you will get no boy’s worth of work out of them. But generally speaking, a group working together can accomplish exponentially more than a series of individuals working alone. So the concept behind synergy is that it produces exponential growth as opposed to additional growth. 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10. But what is 2 to the 5th power? 32! That is the idea of synergy. Quite a difference between 10 and 32, right?

It is interesting to me that we can find allusions to this concept in several places in the Bible. Going back to the very beginning, in the creation account we hear God say, “it is not good for man to be alone, I will him a helper suitable for him.” There is an even clearer expression of this in Eccl. 4:9-12.
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: 10 If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. 11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

So, I think it is easy to see that this concept of joint effort is taught in the Bible, and this morning we are going to be spending our time in Phil. 2:1-4 where Paul is appealing to the believers in the church of Philippi to pull together for the common good. Let’s read these verses and see the basis for our theme in 2012.
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if [you have] any comfort from his love, if [you have] any common sharing in the Spirit, if [you have] any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Even with this quick reading it is pretty obvious what Paul has in mind. He is encouraging the people to maximize all the things they have in common, lay aside any self interest, and pull together. As I look at theses verses I see three things. First of all, there is a motive. In other words, there is a reason to work together for the common good. Then there is a mandate in verse two. This is where Paul actually issues the command. And finally, there is a method in verses 3 and 4. Paul tells us a specific way we can all pull together and accomplish great things for the cause of Christ.

I. The Motive

In verse one, Paul uses four clauses that highlight what followers of Christ have in common. When you look around this room this morning, you see great diversity.
Personality. We have everybody from the class clown to the wall flower.

Family history. Everywhere between excellent parenting with a warm family tradition to people who had terrible parents and do their best to forget their upbringing.

Education. We span the stretch from people who didn’t finish high school to people with Master’s Degrees.

Income levels. We have people who live very comfortably, all the way to people who barely make it from paycheck to paycheck.

Spiritual history. We run the gamut from people who have been saved for a very short period of time to people who have been saved over 50 years.

Spiritual maturity. We have people who are rock solid in the faith as a result of their serious pursuit of godliness, all the way to people who spiritual infants.

Commitment. We have people who are involved in every dimension of the church all the way across the spectrum to people who just show up on Sunday morning, and that’s it.

And when you think about the tremendous diversity in a single body of believers, what is it that enables us to work together for the common good? It is the four bedrock truths that all followers of Christ share with each other. Let’s read them again in verse one.

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any
comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion.”

1. We have a common advocate in Jesus – seen in the word “encouragement.”

2. We have a common benefit from His love – His love for us is what compelled Him
to go to the cross for us.

3. We have a common source of power in the Holy Spirit – the same Holy Spirit that lives in you lives in me.

4. We have a common demonstration of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The motive we have for pulling together to get the job done is our common experience in Christ. And when you think about all the differences we demonstrate in a group of this size, the only thing that could possibly keep us from splintering and each going our separate ways is these four common experiences.

So in verse one we have the motive for working together, in verse two, we have the mandate.

II. The Mandate

Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Do you see the concept of unity? Like-minded. Same love. One in spirit. And I’m using the word “mandate” here in the sense of a command. We see this command in Paul’s use of the imperative. In the Greek language, the imperatives are the marching orders. They aren’t suggestions or recommendations, they are expectations. And Paul expects a sense of unity in thinking, love, and spirit. Let’s look at each of these a little more closely.

First of all, when Paul says we need to be unified in our thinking, he isn’t saying that we all have to see every issue the same way. Believe it or not, there is some room for diversity of opinion in Christendom. I know the road to heaven is straight and narrow, but it isn’t so narrow that I have to line up behind you in order to get there. What Paul is after is that we all think the same way, not that we all think the same thing. Does that make sense to you? How is it possible to do that?

It is possible to think the same way by thinking biblically. The Bible is our standard. If there is something we have to do, or a decision we have to make, or a direction we have to head, we need to all be committed to thinking it through in a biblical way.

Secondly, we are commanded to be unified in our love. What does that mean? It means that we have a common standard of love. We all aspire to loving our neighbor the same way God loves us. Just think about how much God loves you (Jn. 3:16), and what that love looks like (1 Cor. 13). That is what Paul is calling us to in this verse. We are to be unified in our love.

And finally, we are commanded to be unified in spirit and mind. What does that mean? It doesn’t have reference to the Holy Spirit, it has reference to the manner in which we carry out God’s work, the spirit with which we serve. We don’t serve with an eye to a reward. We don’t serve for the sake of recognition. We don’t serve in hopes that we will earn crowns in heaven. We don’t serve when we “feel” like serving. We serve heartily, as unto the Lord (Col. 3:23); we serve to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), we serve in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:17). So Paul’s mandate in verse two is that we need to be unified in how we think, how we love, and in the spirit with which we carry out God’s plans for our church.

Now, I really like verses 3 and 4, because when you think about it, he really is setting a pretty high standard. Practically speaking, how are we to accomplish
this lofty goal he sets up? The answer in the two final verses where he outlines the method.

III. The Method

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

The key to unity, and even synergy, is to think about others more than you think about yourself. Isn’t that simple? But if you’ve ever tried it, you know it is much more difficult than you would think, because at heart, we are all selfish creatures. By default, by virtue of our humanity, because of the old nature we inherit from Adam we tend to look out for ourselves, and our own interests more than anything else.

And that is precisely what squelches synergy. When we focus on our personal agenda, and our personal methods, and our personal comfort zones, and our personal time frames, God’s work suffers. As I look back on over 20 years of involvement in church work, selfishness is at the root of almost every conflict, every battle, every offense, every disgruntled member leaving in a huff. Rarely are the conflicts over substantive, important issues.

If we are going to accomplish God’s plans for this church this year, we are going to have to lay “self” aside, focus on what we all have in common, and put our shoulders together and get the job done.

So here we have Paul’s treatment of synergy. To the degree that we are all on our own trajectory doing our own thing, staying secure in our own little comfort zone, insisting that people conform to my way of doing things, we will be inefficient. But to the degree we put self aside and all work together, we will do great things for the Lord. So our theme verse for this year is Phil. 2:3-4: “Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”