Philippians 2 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin

For many years, this has been one of my favorite chapters in the Bible for it speaks so wonderfully of the work of Christ and of the work of the Spirit in the life of a believer saved by grace. It begins in vv.1-2 with Paul’s plea to the believers to share the same mind, the very mind of Christ, and to have the same love, the very love of Christ, not only for the Lord, but also for one another. Here, Paul speaks of the encouragement, comfort, fellowship, affection and sympathy each believer receives from the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, through their time in prayer and God’s Word, and Paul urges the believers to share these spiritual blessings with one another.

Then, in vv.3-4, Paul seeks to steer them away from the repugnant love of self that hinders such spiritual fellowship. When one thinks so much of himself and looks out mainly for himself, he cannot love others with the love of Christ, so in vv. 5-11 he shows us the mindset of Christ in his love for the church. Even though the Son of God is higher and better than all of us, and, in fact, equal with God, Jesus didn’t focus on what he was entitled to, nor did he look even to preserve his own life, let alone to seek to advance his own life. Rather, he condescended so low in taking on our weak, human flesh and He served the Lord by serving us, His own sinful creatures, even dying for us on the cross.

How, then, could we possibly look to serve our own interests when he didn’t? How could we demand respect and seek our own selfish ambition when even Jesus was willing to die for us? If we only understood that our desire for glory can only come through suffering like Christ, we would be so much more willing to take on the mind of Christ. But it is our very foolishness and weakness that leads us to praise the name of Jesus and bow our knees before him as Lord, for, indeed he is worthy of all our adoration and praise, since we are nothing like him in our flesh.

But for those of us who have any encouragement and fellowship with Christ through the Spirit, we now can grow in this mindset and grow in this divine love for God and for others, but only as the Lord works these desires and abilities within us. So Paul tell us to work out our salvation—or really, sanctification and holiness—with fear and trembling because the Lord is working these very things in us in order to spread the fragrance of Christ everywhere we go. We cannot, of course, change ourselves even an inkling apart from the Holy Spirit, but the love of Christ now dwells within us, and as we seek to take up the mind of Christ through God’s Holy Word, the Spirit will confirm these truths to us and in us causing us to look outside of ourselves and to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.

At the conclusion of the chapter, the apostle Paul gives the Philippians two great examples of the love of Christ in action showing them that it is possibly through the Spirit to grow in love in this way. This time he points not to himself but to two of his coworkers, Timothy and Epaphroditus. Both of them seek not their own interests but the interests of Christ and their brothers being genuinely concerned for their welfare. Paul says to receive such men and to honor them, for they not only are good examples of the love of Christ, but will be of great benefit to you through the love of Christ.