I read a Christian magazine this week that recently published a Research on some of the things that they sort of thought divide the church most Today, and they listed six things which I think we can add on to that list as well. They said homosexuality politics Universalism with the writing of Rob Bell's love winds book Surprising, maybe not surprising, the internet Evolution an old argument that we've always had and finally women or the role of women in ministry now those things as you think about them They really do divide us in terms of denominations. That's why we are Presbyterians and others are Anglican and others are Roman Catholic and United Methodist and all of that But there are some things that we can think of as a local church that divide us internally, right? Things that would divide us even though we are one body as a Presbyterian church or as a local church that would divide us. I feel things come to my mind. Think of the so-called worship wars. Should we be using drums and electric guitars in our worship? Or should our worship be, quote, and quote, pure, where we only sing the hymns? We talk about should we dunk the babies? And if we do, are we supposed to use, should we go to the ocean and dump them there, not dump, but dunk them in there? Should we use, should we use a cup or a glass, should we sprinkle or immerse? Are we only supposed to allow men that wear suits and ties when they walk into our churches? Should we be looking at the women and if you have a dress that doesn't reach below your knee, then you are out of this place? If I forget to get a haircut, what about preaching? Should Pastor Dan be preaching topical sermons? Or is that unknown? No. Only expositional preaching is allowed in a form of Presbyterian church. Nothing else will do. You can add on to that this can't you. What about sometimes when divisions are brought or caused by personal issues? What about when your friends, when your brother and sister gossip to you? What about when we have a difference of opinion on those things that necessarily don't have to be immoral things or sinful things? I think in our text this morning Paul is confronting this woman, two women who are at war with one another. They just could not get along with each other. This must have been such a huge disagreement, a significant disagreement because it goes way beyond Macedonia and Philippi and reaches Paul while he is in Rome in prison. We don't know what it was all about. Paul doesn't care to tell us. We have no idea whether it was a doctrinal thing or ethical, ecclesiastical or personal disagreement. But it was having such a huge impact in the church, it was dividing the whole church and so Paul reaches out to this woman and says, I want you to reconcile. And the question for us is when we are having a disagreement with someone in our family or believers, why should we care to get along with them, why should we care to reconcile with them? What is the reason that Paul is giving us that we should seek to be reconciled with them? And for that Paul, I think, in answering that question, it begins by addressing these two women individually. And he shows them how oneness in Christ, how oneness in Christ, begins from a personal level. Read verses two with me. I entreat the Odea and I entreat Syntarchy to agree in the Lord. We know from reading verses 1 of chapter 4 that this little church in Philippi held a very special place in Paul's heart. What does he describe them in verses 1, he says, this church was my joy and my crown. It is a place that he loves. But Paul is not blinded by that love, enjoyed that he has for this church. He is also aware of the problems that they have. He is aware of this women and how it is affecting the whole church. We know that there was a lot of women in this church. I am not saying that women are the ones who cause trouble. I am not saying that. But we know that the church in Philippi was filled with women that Paul loved and respected. Paul knew that they were helping him in spreading the gospel. We read in Acts chapter 16, the story of Lydia and others. They were strong and they were helping spread the gospel. But he points out, he singles out this two women and says, I want you to address the problems that you have. And so he says, I entreat you or rather some of the other translations you might have might say, I call, I plead, I summon, I exhort, I encourage, I strengthen with a purpose. It is besieging when it is calling someone aside with a clear purpose in your case here. He wants this two women to simply get along. Notice how Paul addresses each one separately. With the reputation of, I plead with you, I entreat you. You would think it is by accident, right? No. Paul is not doing this accidentally because he doesn't want to be favoring one side. He doesn't want to be taking side and saying, oh, Yodia was right and Sintaq is wrong. So Yodia, you go and apologize and vice and the other way around. And I think by even mentioning their names and repeating this words, Paul is basically showing compassion and love to this two women. He could have simply used his apostolic authority. I mean, this was Paul, the great apostle. He could have just said, you, I want to do this and agree with one another. But he doesn't do so. And the fact that Paul mentioned them, we know that in his letters, if you look at, you know, first Timothy, second Timothy, Falamin and all the other letters, Paul rarely mentions people in his letters. It's a sign of friendship towards them. He's not just mentioning them because they were the bad apple in this congregation. Really not because if you read the history of how they used to write letters in ancient times, bad people were rarely mentioned. They were left unknown. It's better to have them unknown than to mention bad people. And we also do not have a hint that this women were heretics or they had done something immoral. So Paul is not calling them the bad apple. He's simply singling them out and we shall see why. So he tells them, I want you to agree in the Lord. What does that mean, agreeing in the Lord? The first thing is, we know Paul is not talking about unity at the expense of the truth. We know how Paul confronts Peter and others when they do not get the truth. So he's not saying, I don't care about the truth. He's not saying either that doctrine does not matter. So whether this argument was a doctrinal thing or not, he wasn't saying, I don't care about doctrine. He's also not asking them to agree in everything about life. We cannot agree with one another in everything in life. Can we? Is that possible? But I think it's what D. A. Carson points out. And I quote, he says, he's appealing for mental attitude that adopts the same basic direction as other believers. The same fundamental aim, the same orientation, gospel orientation and quote. That is what Paul cares about. Paul cares about unity in the gospel. And we know that Paul has used this language before of agreeing being in the Lord. Remember chapter two verses two Paul says, I want you to be of one mind which goes along with what he's been saying all this time around. And Paul wants this to women to simply do what? To simply drop their interests and count the other one as more significant than they are. But how will their unity come? How will they reconcile? Is it by human ability? Is it on their own grounds? I think that's why Paul uses that language of saying in the Lord that you agree in the Lord, not just on your own accord, but in the Lord. They should seek unity. Why? Because they are united with Christ. They belong to Jesus. They are one with Christ. And because of that, because they are united with Christ, they have been equipped with the tools that they need to settle their differences as we sang this morning. It's only by His power. It's only because of Christ, because of us being united with Him that we can actually settle our differences with one another. Is it possible though that the disunity that we see in the church in Philippi was caused by these two women? Or again, we wonder why would these single them? Why would he call these two ladies and ask them to reconcile? We know that the letter was read to the whole congregation. At one sitting, it's only a four chapter. There are no chapters in the Greek, but we know it was read all at once. We don't know whether they were the ones who caused the division in this church, or what we know is this, that Paul considered the disagreement in an unusually significant one. It was a huge disagreement, and for that, they needed to reconcile. But Paul doesn't even care to tell us to mention why or what the dispute was, because to him, he is a tragedy. Your disagreement is destroying the unity that is supposed to be existing in the whole body. Your disagreement is being scandalous. Remember Paul has been talking about unity. The one great chapter that we looked at in Philippians 2, chapter 6, to 11, we talked about Christ, giving the church the keys to unity. He said, what was it? He was the humility of Christ, and he says, Christ would not even consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he laid himself down on the cross for you. Paul is saying, you too, Yodia and Sintiki, you church here at Grace, I want you to have the mind of Christ, who did not consider that equality with God a thing to be considered, but in humility lay down his life for your salvation. He is saying, I want you to put that into practice. I like what James Garmary-Boys actually, when he is talking about this unity and commenting on this passage, I like the way he draws the picture. Mental picture now minds, he says, that the Christian church is like a triangle with a strong base, and that the apex of that triangle is the individual. That's you, right there, that's you and me. And the fact that in that triangle, the thing that people see, the thing that the world sees is on top, that the world sees you. When we talk about the church, the world is seeing you as an individual. So the question for us, what do we believe about Christian unity? What do we believe? Do we believe that our Christian unity helps us? Or the way we view it should be reflected in how we live our lives? You know, sometimes I feel like the best way to unite might be spending more time in prayer and reading scripture. Have you ever thought about that when you had a disagreement with someone and you pointed them to scripture and you said, can we just sit down instead of focusing on what divides us? Let's sit down and look into scripture. I want to know why you think the way you think, and I want you to know why I think the way I think. Do we ever do that? Because I think when we do that, we're allowing ourselves and our attitudes and thoughts to be ruled by God's word. And I'm not saying that it's okay for us to go ahead and start telling people, you know, when we use comments and manipulation, like, oh, you know, your stance on this particular issue really hurts my feelings. What am I supposed to do with that when you tell me that? But when we draw and when we go into God's word and look at what the Bible is telling us, and we try to reason with others, try to think, why is so and so caught up in this thought? Why do they think this way? I think the point that Paul is trying to make for us is, for us to look into those things that we have in common with one another, working on matters that are most important, and we have plenty, don't we? Think about the gospel, think about the Word of God, think about the glory of Christ, think about the beauty of holiness, think about the uglyness of our sin, especially your sin, especially my sin. We can focus on those things. I like the way Dei Carson again continues that he says this quote, personal differences should never become an occasion for advancing your party, for stroking bruised egos, for resorting to cheap triumphalism, for trimming the gospel by appealing to pragmatics and quote, in my own personal favorite, do not settle your scores on Facebook.
I think it's a shame. I think it's a huge shame. I am so disappointed. When I think about what's going on in this country, when I think about what happened in Baltimore, when I think about what happened in Ferguson, and I think about my Christian brothers and sisters on Facebook, where we trash each other and speak the most vile and horrible things that we can say to one another. I don't care what you think is right and true. I don't care. I'm sorry. I don't care. You know what I care about? I care about Jesus Christ and the gospel that's being advanced when we, as brothers and sisters, agree. I agree on one thing that sin affects each and every one of us. It affects me. It affects cops. It affects poor people. It affects wealthy people. Who was right? Who was wrong? Are you using your words to love one another? Are you using Facebook to spread the gospel? Not to try and show, oh yeah, so he was. Oh yeah, so she was. It doesn't matter. That really frustrates me when we try to settle scores and pick on one another on Facebook of all things. Why can't we talk to one another? I had to say that. It was not on my notes. I do like what we did today this morning, though, that John decided being led by the Holy Spirit that we should recite the Apostle's Creed because it's right here on my notes. If we believe in the Holy Catholic Church, if we believe in the Holy Communion of Saints as we just declared, then when relationships in church are broken, when relationships between you and your brother is broken, we must work for reconciliation. How else can we confess the words of the Apostle's Creed and refuse to fellowship with your brother and your sister? And again, our quote passed to Dan, we will be stuck in heaven together forever. We might as well try getting along now. So how do we correct one another? Do we do it by showing how right we are? No, we do it in gentleness. Even hand in this. That's what Paul did here. He treats this woman equally. And I think the one thing that we don't do most of the times is listen. I know I don't most of the times. But the most important thing is this, reconciliation. It's a unity. Ask being one. Even when you're the victim, Paul is saying, I want you to be the one who takes the responsibility and goes out and seeks out after your brother and your sister. And we can use words like this. Even when we don't understand that someone is wrong, that's when we don't even get it. You can say, you know, it's pretty clear that I have hurt you. I am sorry. Let the realities of the gospel forbearance and gentleness be brought to our aid. And I know sometimes it's difficult. I think it's even more difficult when trust is completely broken when you're just having a hard time to reconcile with someone that you're having a disagreement with. And a third party is needed to help you out, which is what Paul is getting into in the next verse as he calls this true companion. And so Paul is showing that one is in Christ is not just personal. It's a corporate matter. And for that reason, he appeals to the church. He appeals to the congregation to come to the aid of this woman. He says in verses three, yes, I ask you also true companion. Help this woman who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Paul is reminding us that unity begins with us. It begins with me. It begins with you. And understanding that I have been united with Christ, that I've been made one with Christ. And because of that, my call is to be united to my brother. But again, he says that this is a corporate thing. And if we get to a place where we're able to reconcile with one another than the church, the congregation, our brothers and sisters are called to come to our aid and help us to agree with one another. He doesn't tell us who this true companion was or mediated, if you will. But the church knew him. The church knew him well. He probably is the person who received the letter and then delivered the letter and was able to read it to them. And they could hear some people have speculated it was probably Luke. It could easily have been a papal dentist. Remember, he's the man who's given the letter and he takes it back to the church in Philippine. Possibly, we do not know. But what we do know is this. That this was a man that was yoked with Paul. He had worked with Paul. He par trusted him. He was a yoked fellow, if you will. And they're united in a relationship together with Christ. And they were serving together to spread the gospel. And then Paul ends up mentioning clement. We don't know why he mentions clement. Probably maybe because he wants to exhort the whole church. He wants to encourage everyone of them. Like, I don't want to leave anybody out. You might not be having a fight or disagreement with anybody, but it's inevitable because when we're living as a family, there's always friction that happens. And so he wants to exhort everybody, the whole congregation. I want you to know that you're supposed to come to the aid of one another. And so it's this unidentified third party. It's loyal yoked fellow. That Paul is calling to adjudicate because Paul sees the church. The unity of the church is something extremely important. But the sanctity and oneness of the church is not a private thing. It's not a private thing. And it's so important that it shouldn't be left to these two women. So come to their aid. And I think we can easily minimize this disagreement and just think, oh yeah, this was just something that was between these two women. And really makes out the big picture here. But their disagreement, as we said, is causing all sorts of problems for the whole congregation. This was a corporate matter. And it required a corporate effort for them to resolve their problem. And so Paul argues that those who are in Christ, he says, you should agree because your names, all of your names are written in the book of life. What does he mean by the book of life? Well, this title was actually used back in Daniel chapter 12 and Revelation chapter 3 that was titled to those who suffered persecution but remained faithful to the end. And we know, of course, reading in Revelation that it applies to God's elect, those who belong to Jesus Christ, whose names are written in the book of life. They are the bride of Christ of Christ. What challenges me is when we think about how is the church? We think about things that are outside. We focus too much on what is outside of our little congregation or churches. This church would have thought. And thinking about other people's sins, thinking about other people's problems, thinking about other people's disagreements and lack of unity. And we forget to focus on what is happening to us. We tend to focus more on other people's sins and lose out and miss to see the login or very own eyes. And I think when we do that, we're forgetting that how many from within is what gives us unity for us to be out there, to be a true witness of the gospel. Because desunity really church, we all know weakens the church. If we are not together, if we are not one, you bet we're going to be weakened. And our fight as we try to witness the gospel to the wall, as we try to fight evil and wage war on the outside, if we're doing it from a divided place, you can be sure we're not going to win. I remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16 reminds us that we are not our own. That I am not my own. I was bought by a price that Christ Jesus paid on the cross for my sin. And because of that, Paul, I think means that I ought not to be always looking at my own rights, that I'm not supposed to be always looking for to have my own way, especially when I'm in disagreement with others. I'm not always insist on my way that sometimes most of the times I need to care for the needs of others more than my own. Remember what Christ did, again I mentioned chapter 2 verses 6 and 11, that Christ lay down his life and he wants us to have that mind of Christ to lay down all lives for the sake of others. I think Paul is really a man that we can learn from because Paul understands what unity and disunity is. Remember Paul was a Pharisee or Pharisees, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a prideful man from the tribal Benjamin as we saw. And he knew that the Gentiles were outside of the covenant family. They were separated. But now he sees them as people that have been brought together both Jew and Gentile. I've been brought together by Jesus Christ and His blood. They now have one common grace, one common love, one common Christ that they are worshipping and for that, they need to be together. That they share one calling, that they share one citizenship as we saw last week, citizenship in heaven. And he's saying don't let those rictions that come your way, be the ones that destroy your unity. See, if I think if the church is willing to be a replica of the church in heaven, then we cannot entertain this unity, can we? The church that's been redeemed by Jesus Christ, the church that's been saved and united with Christ, we cannot be sitting here and confessing unity in heaven when we get there and yet practice disunity when we are here. We cannot do that. We have to agree in the gospel because it's of great importance. I like what Silva says in his comment on this book. He says, a church processes a single task laboring side by side in the gospel and agreement in the gospels of great importance. To agree on what the gospel demands in its proclamation to the world is to cement unity by common action. The singleness of the task ought to be reflected in the singleness of the work. The singleness of the task ought to be reflected in the singleness of the workers end quote. And here again Paul is showing us that the church is to be marked by mutual help on us. What else would he say and besiege this true companion, immediate and say help this women and help this women agree with one another? That we should take it upon ourselves, that it's my responsibility, it's your responsibility to intervene and help when our brothers, when our sisters are not doing well, when they're disagreeing. Isn't that what church discipline is all about? I think it's a great reminder for us this morning that Paul is reminding us that Christianity will only occur when we surrender ourselves to him, when we seek God's will, when we let the Holy Spirit intervene in our lives. And begin to make us the kind of man, the kind of women, the kind of young people, the kind of children that he would have us be. I love the beautiful words of John 17, 2021 as Jesus offers for us this wonderful prayer. He says, I do not ask for this only, but also for those who believe in me through their word. That they may all be one, just as you, Father, I in me and I in you. That they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Church, how would the world know Jesus if the very people that he's called to himself and saved and united to himself cannot agree with one another? Church, how would we speak of forgiveness and reconciliation, restoration, humility, gentleness, love, peace, compassion to the world that's aching and in need of it if we stand divided? Church, Paul is reminding us this morning, reminding you and I when we have disagreements for us to lay down our insecurities and our need to be validated. Even on Facebook, our needs to always want to be right, our needs to always want to have our way, our needs to always want to show how intelligent and how smart and how we've got all things together. What is more significant to you? What is more important to us? I think it is to be united in Christ. It is to get along with one another because we belong together. We are one family. We are bound together by the precious blood that Jesus shed on the cross and that makes you, makes me, makes all of us one. Are we going to have differences? You bet. Are we going to have differences, opinions, every single day? Are we going to have people that we don't like that much, even here? Sure. Christ wants us to do this. He doesn't want us to let the sun set on our anger. So we'll do the right thing and get along with one another. Pray with me. Dear Lord, we ask you to bless your word that we've just shared this warning that you would help us as we seek unity with one another that you would give us the mind of Christ that we need to have, an attitude of laying down all lives for each other and seeking to be one, seeking to build upon the one family that you have made because we belong together. You make this true of us. In this church and beyond, we pray in your holy name. Amen.