Title: Living Together / Philippians 2:1-4
Content What is a church? We are a community of faith living together. The church is a place where Jews and Gentiles, civilized and barbarians, Asians and Westerners live together. It is also a place where the rich and the poor live together, the healthy and the sick, the haves and the have-nots. The church is a community of faith where the good and the bad, the learned and the ignorant, and the sinner and the righteous live together.
British Bertrand Russell once said, "Material and spiritual civilizations are always inversely proportional." In other words, when material civilization develops, mental civilization falls, and when mental civilization develops, material civilization lags behind. If so, then, in a time when material civilization is extremely developed like today, it goes without saying that the spiritual civilization is declining, and at the same time, the Christian faith is also gradually declining. For this reason, it can be said that the idea of personal interest that only I can live well is prevailing rather than the idea of the public interest living together.
We can examine some principles of 'living together' through the text of Philippians 2:1-4 in this day and age.
1. The first secret to living together is to live with the same heart.
The word 'one heart' appears in Philippians 2:2, which means the same mind, and the same mind means the knowledge of the same faith. The knowledge of the same belief means doctrinally agree. In other words, when we believe in the same doctrine, we can always have the same mind, even if we have different faces, different personalities, different tastes, different backgrounds, different educational levels, different regions of origin, and different nationalities. That is why we confessed the Apostles' Creed in the order of professing the unity of faith at every worship service.
If you have two religions or two beliefs in the same family or church, you cannot have the same heart.
Next, 'one heart' is a heart that is created when we have the same love. Love is the most difficult word in the world to describe. We can understand the love of God, but it is difficult to understand what people say about the love of people.
The love of God is the love of salvation, the love of atonement, and the love of giving the only begotten Son. However, people's love cannot be understood and the limits of love cannot be understood. Sometimes, when you see people love like animals and fight like wild beasts, it seems that people's love is something that cannot be understood. In particular, the love of Westerners seems to be even more so. Even while waiting for a signal, you can see them kissing and fighting miserably if the numbers are wrong.
The same love means loving each other without showing partiality to each other. One unfortunate love is recorded in the Bible. As for Isaac's family, his father Isaac loved his eldest son Esau, and his mother Rebekah loved his second son Jacob. In order to live together like this, there must be no favoritism.
I've never hated others so badly. If so, then you seem to be a person of love. However, no one loved unconditionally. Recently, while testing whether I have love or not, I tried to define what love is, and I realized that love is generosity. Whether I have love or not can be defined by the presence or absence of generosity. Love is generosity. The United Nations has designated 1995 as the 'Year of Tolerance'.
And if we want to live together with one mind, we must live with the same will. The same meaning means 'congruence of will'. Among the sports events, there is an interesting game called the Two Persons Triangle (二人三脚). It is a game in which two people tie one leg at a time to make three legs and run with them. If they don't agree, they will trip over each other's legs, so they run with slogans 'one two one two', keeping in mind each other.
2. The second secret to living together is to consider others better than yourself.
The most difficult thing to do in the world is to consider others better than yourself. People are usually sympathetic to the weak, but challenge those who are better than them. So, in Philippians 2:3, the Apostle Paul tells us three things to be careful about if we want to consider others better than ourselves.
First, he told me not to do anything through contention. To not do it out of strife means not to do it out of selfishness. Living together is a life of letting go of selfishness. A person who has given up selfishness is a happy person. Likewise, a family free from selfishness and greed is a happy family and a peaceful family.
Second, we were told not to do anything in vain. What does 'vanity' in the text refer to? This is 'kenodoxia' ( ) in Greek. This word is derived from the adjective 'kenodoxos' ( ), which means 'strong conceit' or 'strong vanity'. Its meaning is 'vain glory' and 'conceited'. And the Greek word kenos ( ) means 'empty', 'empty', 'false', 'empty', etc. If we are greedy for useless things with vanity, it will greatly hinder our life together.
Third, living together means living a humble life.
In 1 Samuel 17, the Philistine general Goliath is mentioned. How arrogant and arrogant was he? What did you say to the shepherd David? "Did you think of me as a dog and come to me with a stick?" and cursed David in the name of their gods. But David said to Goliath, "You come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the name of the armies of Israel, whom you have insulted." David threw the stone in his pocket and struck Goliath on the forehead. The proud Goliath was defeated by the humble David.
The golden rule for Christians, taught by the Lord, is found in Matthew 7:12. “Therefore, whatever you would like others to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Who in the world is more humble than Jesus? We must learn and live the humility of Jesus. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in spirit, and your hearts will be at rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29,30). When we learn the humility of Jesus, we can live together.
3. The third secret of living together is not only to look at your own work, but also to look at the work of others.
Among the early churches in the New Testament, the church that had the most problems was the church in Corinth. The Corinthian church did not care about the circumstances or circumstances of others at all. They even discriminated among themselves. There was a dispute among them. Also, they did not look after their poor brothers.
"First, when you gather in the church, when you hear that there are strife among you, I generally believe that there must be a division among you so that those who are approved among you will appear. Each one eats his own supper first, and some are hungry and some are drunk. Do you have no house to eat and drink? Do you despise the church of God and shame the needy? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? I do not commend them" (1 Corinthians 11:18-22).
What is living together? We need to put away our selfish thoughts and adopt an altruistic mindset that cares for each other. Then the joy of one another will be full. Paul says, "Each one should look at his own work, but also look at the work of others, so that my joy may be full." What does "my joy" mean? These words presuppose not only the joy limited to the apostle Paul, but also the joy of all the saints.
The church is a community. Because the church is a community, we share our sorrows and joys. When one person's joy is shared, the joy is multiplied. Sharing sorrow reduces that sorrow. In Romans 12, Paul said, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).
When one person's suffering is shared by all the alumni, it decreases to 1/10 or 1/100, and when one person's joy is shared by all the alumni, it increases tenfold or a hundredfold. A church is like bluebirds and yellowbirds living in different forests, gathering in one place to make a nest and sing. The church is, so to speak, an orchestra.
It is said that the best place to make money these days is karaoke karaoke. Some people call this karaoke a fake orchestra, but the church should be a real orchestra church, not a fake orchestra. If you go to karaoke, you have fake fun, but when you go to church, you should be truly filled with joy.
It will be said that the greatest achievement of man's business is to live harmoniously with people, and that people win people. To achieve this greatest business achievement, we need to live well together.