Philippians 4:2–9
2 I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to agree with each other in the Lord. 3 Yes, I beg you also, true partner, help these women, for they laboured with me in the Good News, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice!” 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honourable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things. 9 The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Commentary
Our reading today starts with the mention of four people about whom we know almost nothing. There is someone Paul calls his “true partner”. We can only guess at who this might be, and it probably doesn’t matter much. There is Clement, who is but a name, but mentioned in grateful love. But whoever these are, they form a strong counterpoint to Euodia and Syntyche.
These are both women’s names, but apart from their gender, we know nothing about them other than this: their main legacy in 2000 years of Christian history is that they were having an argument with each other. Paul added that these two women were co-workers with him in the Gospel, so they must have had a good record of godly service. But now, 2000 years of Christians remember them only as two people who couldn’t resolve their disagreement.
The fact that this quarrel is even mentioned by Paul suggests that these two women were significant workers in the local church. It is likely that they were both leaders in some way. If their tiff had been about whose Victoria sponge cake at the church fair was the tastiest, it would hardly have rated Paul’s mentioning it in his letter.
So the likelihood is, that these women were influential leaders – which we know was not uncommon in the early church. They were important to the witness of the Gospel, and their quarrel was holding the church back from the success it should be achieving.
How’s my legacy? How’s yours? How will people remember us a decade after our death? Will the good things we have done be overshadowed by our tendency to carp at minor things? That’s a question well worth asking. Being known as a person who was unable to resolve a disagreement is not one that I’d be dying to have. Remember Mark Antony’s oration at the death of Caesar? “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interr’d with their bones.”
So Paul urges these Christian women to agree, to be of the same mind, “In the Lord”. And there’s the thing! We might have disagreements with others in our local church on a range of matters. They can’t all be as sensible, wise and so clearly see the right thing as we do!! But we can agree to put our differences aside and agree in the Lord.
What does this mean, in practice? I suggest that it means at least that we recognise that we are all sinners saved by grace; that we have all done silly or wrong things, and believed silly or wrong things and thought wrong things about others from time to time. But despite our human frailties and stubbornness, God has forgiven us.
Given this level of self-awareness and God-awareness, we ought to be able to look at our brother or sister, with whom we still openly acknowledge that we are in disagreement about an issue or two, and choose to shake their hand (in a COVID-safe way of course) and worship and work together for the good of the church without bitterness and rancour.
Paul adds a second dimension to this matter, however, which we ought to take note of. He encourages other church members to take a part in the resolution of this quarrel. A rift between two members of the body of Christ is a rift in the body of Christ. It becomes the responsibility of all to try to help resolve it. We do not have the luxury just to step back and watch, or tut-tut, or think that it is not our problem.
The social media are perhaps our worst enemies here, and this is one of the main reasons I choose mostly to avoid them. Some people seem to be able to manage them for “keeping up” with their friends, while not getting caught up in the feeding frenzy.
I don’t mean that you have to avoid them – that’s just what I choose to do. I fear they would be a snare to me (Judges 8:27). Look up that last reference to discover an incident in the life of Gideon, and see what I’m referring to.
Social media tend to amplify and highlight our differences. They attract others into the fray, whose comments just worsen an already flammable situation. What could have been sorted out with a quiet word or two over a drink can suddenly become a dispute aired over several cities and even across international borders. Some people use forms of expression on social media that they wouldn’t dream of using to a stranger at the supermarket. It can so quickly degenerate into a vicious quagmire of human ugliness.
Choosing to agree “in the Lord” is far better than choosing to disagree over Twitter or Facebook.
If ever there was a really great passage to memorise, this week’s reading contains a doozy! It is most of vv4 to 8. I've copied the passage below, with just some minor paraphrase differences to make for easier memorisation. I know it’s long-ish, but I urge you to commit it all to memory.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, “Rejoice!” 5 Let your gentleness be evident to everyone. The Lord is always near you.
6 Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good reputation – think about these things.
With regard to the command to Rejoice! – we need to remember that it is a command, not an invitation. Perhaps we should think about it in terms of it being like a “Royal Command Performance Concert”. In a way, performers are invited to perform – but in another way, the Sovereign Majesty has invited them, so you don’t say “Oh, sorry, I think I’ve got a hairdresser’s appointment on at that time – I can’t come”.
As Christians, we are not meant to see this command to rejoice as being optional.
There is a wealth of other instructions in this short passage. We are not to appear as immoderate or harsh – our “gentleness” is to be our mark. In ancient Greek literature, this word was used to mean that point where justice and mercy came together. Sometimes in life you have to go beyond the letter of the law – you have to show yourself to be merciful, kind, gracious.
We are to avoid anxiety. Of course, we will still plan and sometimes be in a hurry to get things done – but we need not be anxious about those things that we can do nothing about. By submitting to God those things which are beyond our control, we may then access peace such as would be humanly impossible.
I've experienced that peace on a couple of occasions in my life, where I had absolutely no control over the matter, and I’ve committed something really important to God. I recall being overcome with such a deep peace that I would not have imagined to be possible. This is God’s gift of peace that passes all understanding.
Finally, we are to focus our minds on those things that are honourable, good, kind, lovely, pure, right, of good reputation. I can’t help but come back to social media again. On those rare occasions when I look at someone’s Facebook pages that they have shown me, or when I read of things that people have put up online, I am reminded of this.
Here’s a pretty big challenge from Paul and the Philippians to us: if we cannot honestly and truthfully say, as we scroll through a string of pages of our social media sites, that they are generally things that fit this list of bolded adjectives above, then why are we still allowing them on our phones? What about the music we listen to, and the shows we watch on Netflix?
Again, from my own personal point of view, (I can’t legislate this as your practice) I find that the older I get, the less I want to watch anything that is even moderately violent or impure. Just about every teleseries these days has the obligatory tumble in bed with someone else’s wife or husband, the gay sex kiss, and the angry F-word. I have taken to just turning them off. They don’t help my spiritual condition, which I have enough difficulty trying to keep sound without these distractions!
I don’t know about you, but I find plenty of things that tempt me to sin. I don’t need to pay a streaming service to beam them into my loungeroom.
When we see or read or listen to material that is not honourable, good, kind, lovely, pure, right, of good reputation, we are failing in the test of Christian character that Paul has set up for us here. Can we truly say that we are “pressing on to receive the prize of the high calling in Jesus Christ” if we allow our personal media environment to be polluted with images, words and ideas that fail this test?
Students or readers of philosophy will recognise in this question a discussion that harks a long way back in history – through the medieval Schoolmen, Aquinas, Augustine and even to pre-Christian times with Socrates. Thinkers have long pondered the question of how to deal with things which are not deeply wrong in and of themselves, but which may nevertheless, be detrimental to human flourishing.
The Renaissance scholar, Petrarch, raised this question, asking whether his generation might be focussing too much on the seeking of new knowledge, to the detriment of seeking out our place in the moral universe: For what, pray, will it profit to have known the nature of beasts, birds, fishes and snakes, but to be ignorant of, or to despise the nature of man - why we are born, whence we come and whither we go.
That’s not a perspective on the Renaissance that you’ll often hear quoted, and Petrarch was no dummy.
We who claim the name of Jesus Christ ought to ask, following this careful reading of Paul’s letter and encouragement to focus on what is honourable, … lovely… of good reputation, how our media environment adds both to our human and our spiritual flourishing.
We are meant to flourish, not to decay – that is the abundant life that Jesus promised to bring to us. Neither the church nor any writer such as I can presume to dictate terms in these matters – but we can and should ask the questions to make us all think.
Paul gives us a golden promise: Do these things and the God of peace will be with you.If we have felt that this God of peace is somewhat lacking in our life recently, then perhaps this might be a good place to start some spiritual spring cleaning.
Group or Individual Questions for Reflection
1. Share with your group about some moment of division amongst a church or a group of Christians finally was resolved – or not.
2. Do you know of a current issue that needs to be resolved? How might you help to achieve that?
3. What would you like your legacy amongst your friends and family to be?
4. Have you been encouraged to wonder about your social media presence? Is there anything that you think needs to be addressed?
5. Discuss how you could deal well with a post that comes to you from a friend that fails the test of being honourable etc.
6. Can you rejoice in your present situation?
Passage for Memory:
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:7.
Prayer Time:
1. Ask for grace to help you resolve any differences that you have between you and another believer.
2. Ask for the quality of gentleness and moderation to present and noticeable in your life.
3. Pray for the grace to deal well with your media environment.
Children’s colouring task created by Anna-Mieke Mulholland follows below.
