Being of the Same Mind

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

September 27, 2026

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Philippians 2:1–13 (ESV)

¹ So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ² complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Last week we began looking at Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we continue with that letter today. While studying the past few weeks, I learned a few things I did not know before. Philippi was not like many of the other communities that received letters from Paul. They were not facing some crisis or living within some moral failing. Instead, they were encouraged and praised for their devotion. They were not being persecuted, but were freely living their faith and were in a position to enable Paul and others to extend the ministry. This however does not come without warnings. The people of Philippi although faithful, have something that is concerning. It has not yet made itself evident in the expression of their faith, but it is lurking in the background.

While studying, I learned about the demographics of this community. This community was near the sea but situated inland. It was not a major port, but it was close enough to the port to have access to it. We do not think too much about that as most of us do not live near a port city either. But there are things that go on in ports that do not happen in other communities. There is a constant flow of people boarding and disembarking ships. Cargo is being loaded and unloaded. Money is changing hands, and money is being spent. And the sailors that have been living without comforts of home often overindulge. The over indulgence is something that is often spoken about in Paul’s other letters, and the activities associated with meeting those indulgent demands. Philippi is not on the coast, but it is near. They do not face the crime nor the immoral binges. But there is something they must watch out for, comfort.

This city became an ideal place for retired soldiers to open the next chapters of their lives. They have citizenship, they have estates, they have comfortable economic status, and they have a voice. They are near enough to the Empirical capital to participate in governance if they are needed, but they are also far enough away to avoid much of it. But these are people of means, living within communities of means. This does not mean that there are not poor among them. Jesus said that the poor will always be among us. The poor are not necessarily economically poor, instead to be poor means that there is a lack. A lack of influence, a lack of opportunity, a lack of security, as well as a lack of wealth. There are poor among the people of Philippi, the poor of Philippi may not look like the poor in Israel, or some other region because by in large this is a prosperous community. But there are still people that lack something, as the poor are always among us. The question is if we are willing or able to see it.

Paul says, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

I want us to let those words percolate in our minds for a bit. I want the words to slowly filter through our minds. What is Paul speaking about? Empathy.

I sat with these verses, I have considered the demographics of Philippi, and I began to see some parallels. Philippi is very similar to many placed we might call first world nations. They had access to everything they wanted, yet they did not necessarily have to see what was behind the scenes of getting it there. Philippi is like the suburbs. They have access but do not experience the full toll of human cost to obtain the goods and services they desire. We could easily replace the name of their city, with Kansas City, the United States, London, or Germany nearly all of these first world places also have a similar experience. Do we know what is required to really get our morning coffee from Starbucks? We complain about the need to tip those that serve the cup, because it forces us to consider a bleak reality. The need for tips means that the cost of our cup of coffee does not fully cover the needed wages for an individual to survive. But that is just one small window into the lack within that Starbucks cup.

Do we know what it costs to grow the beans that are ground and roasted for our morning brew? Do we know if the people that grow those beans are being paid fair market value, or are the processing corporations using some exploitative practice to maximize their profits while keeping the price per cup low? The reality is that we are not paying full price, we know we are not paying full price because of the need for a tip, and we complain because we are paying more for things.

Our cell phones are another great example, our clothing, even the gas we put in our cars. All of these things have some aspect of poor or lack attached to them, and we often cannot or do not want to see it.

I speak in economic terms because that is often my understanding of things. Before I became a pastor, I loved science and economic. In my mind these things could explain just about everything I needed to know. I majored in crop science with the hopes that I would someday get a job working in some genetic research facility. As I went through school, I also took nearly every economics class I could. I will honestly say there is a lack of economic understanding. And that lack of understanding is frequently seen in the lack of empathy we have for people.

The world sees economics as the buying and selling of goods and services. But there is more to it than that. Economics is a tool people can use to understand those around us. When John the Baptist was preaching on the river banks, he cried out to the crowd if any of you have two shirts, give one to the person that lacks. We might just see that as charity, but it is economics. One person has a surplus and the other is lacking, the transfer provides equilibrium within the community. When homeostasis is lacking within a system, something will eventually break. When the ones with a surplus continue to hold the surplus and the lack begins to multiply eventually markets are forced to change. Usually the price rises, but there are times where things become more drastic. Riots, labor strikes, the invention of an alternative, or maybe a boycott.

People start to blame others for their problems, they want to pin their lack on someone or something, because clearly the system is not working.

Paul saw this brewing in the people of Philippi. It was just something small, but there was something there. If they did not start to make changes, it would eventually grow into a problem. He was seeing empathy diminishing.

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit. If this is what you say you are, if this is what you experienced and claim in faith, “complete my joy by being of the same mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition of conceit, but in humility count others more significant they yourselves.”

These people were not immoral people in the eyes of the world. The people within their society would probably call them good people. Just as most within our society would call themselves good. Yet they were not good. They were selfish, some might call them grifters. They were looking out for themselves with little to no regard to the people around them. As long as they had what they needed, that is all that mattered. But there is lack within the society. If we cannot see the disequilibrium eventually the system will break.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant…”

This community is filled with retired soldiers. When a soldier was honorably discharged they would get paid, they were given a plot of land, and legal status. This is an honorable thing to provide to those that dedicated their lives to the empire. They served and they have been rewarded. They served, and because of that service they desire and demand some honor from those whose livelihood they protected.

This points to another aspect of imbalance within the system. Those that served and those that did not. Those that have that status and those that lack it. This status is something that Paul also speaks of. He is telling the former soldiers do not think too highly of yourselves. Instead, have within you the same mind as Jesus.

Jesus, at this point in time, had already been seen as more than a mere man within the Christian community. Paul says, that he was in the form or the essence of God. Jesus had the greatest status of any being. Yet Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

The last time I spoke out of this passage, I mentioned that the word grasped, could be seen as taken or even stolen. It is to take by force. Jesus cannot take equality with God by force, because he is the essence of God. What this points to is the demand of recognition.

We have all had managers or supervisors at work that demand respect, but have done very little to deserve that respect. They walk around with a clip board, bark out orders, but everyone knows that they really do not know anything. I have been reprimanded by managers like that. This particular manager was not a bad manager, but he was a manager that did not understand, and could not retrain when error occurred. Many of you know that I am hearing impaired, and within one of my annual reviews I said that I had trouble communicating with people that had heavy accents. This manager did not take the time to ask why, he simply determined that my trouble with accents was discrimination. The reason is I cannot hear, I need a hearing aid, but I cannot afford one that will actually assist with my form of hearing loss. But since I did not have a hearing aid, he deemed it prejudice. I was given a written action plan and for the next six months, every action of every day was scrutinized till eventually I got tired of it and found a different job.

That manager, demanded recognition. And if it was not given he found a way to make sure it happened. Might is right, is the colloquial term. If you have the strength and the authority to force, you have the right to do so. This is often how the world works. We see it between nations, within the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and our own foreign policies. We assume we have the might so everything we demand should be what everyone else submits to.

Jesus has the power and the authority. Jesus fed the five thousand, he walked on water, he raised Lazarus from the grave. These are miracles yes, but Jesus did these things to show the world that he had the power, and they loved the power. Imagine if Jesus led the armies of Israel, the only war with no casualties because Jesus would simply heal the wounded and raise the dead. Imagine an army where the supply chain was not necessary to protect because Jesus could simply make all the bread the army needed out of thin air. This is what the world was thinking when they saw the power of Jesus. If he could only use that for us to gain power over those we see as enemies.

Jesus did not use his power for that cause though. Instead, Jesus humbled himself. He being the essence of God, was born in the likeness or the essence of man. He took on our flesh, and he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Not just death, he suffered the humiliation of the cross.

These former soldiers were trained to be mighty. They were commanded to use that might to compel obedience. “The rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,” Jesus taught us. (Matthew 20:25) They lord it over, they demand allegiance to their authority, because might is right. It shall not be so among you.

Jesus had the power, but he did not use it for himself or to extract loyalty. Jesus became a servant, even though he was the almighty God through whom all things that were created were made. He willingly served, he bent down to wash the feet of his own disciples. Our faith is not just words we say, it must be a life lived. Our focus should be encouraging everyone, to empower those around us to strive for something better. We should do this not for our own good, but for theirs.

Paul saw within the people of Philippi something that could eventually pose a problem if it was left unchecked. Friends, we also have the same concern around us. We are comfortable, and in that comfort we begin to see anything that poses the slighted inconvenience as being oppression. We complain about the tipping culture, yet we should be demanding that fair wages are paid so that tipping can go away. There was another culture that was in a similar place a century ago. That nation was an engineering powerhouse, filled with technological innovation, and industrial precision. That nation was predicted to become the greatest nation of the 20^th century. The nation being spoken of at the dawn of the 20^th century was Germany. It went from being the most innovative with unprecedented economic potential to something else. Germany was not only the leader in technology at that time, it was also a leader in other academic areas, including theology. Today Germany remains one of the most important voices in theology, and if you were to obtain a doctoral degree in theology you are required to learn German because many of the leading academic journals are published in German.

I know many people like to throw around comments comparing our contemporary era to the mid 20^th century German experience. Germany was a leader not only in the economy and technology, but they were a leader in theology. They went from leading, from being a beacon of hope, to something dire and evil. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this in his book Cost of Discipleship.

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

(https://joshbenner.org/2018/05/02/dietrich-bonhoeffer-cheap-grace-vs-costly-grace/)

Germany fell from grace. They had everything, yet they failed to see. They failed to see the poor, because they were seeking their own good. They failed to encourage and empower, because they were seeking their own ambition. They failed to understand true discipleship, because they did not want to humble themselves. Jesus came, he was born, lived, taught, suffered, died, was buried, and rose again not so we can be comfortable. He did this so that we could understand that all humanity bear the image of God, and are loved by him. Jesus experienced, and humbled himself not so everyone can go to heaven, but so we could recognize the areas of lack and abundance within our society. And he is calling us to make the abundance available to those that lack. We are called to bring equilibrium into our system. Or in the economy of God, we are to bring justice. This is work, it is a sacrifice, it is not something that will come easy or be widely praised, but it is what a disciple of Christ is, that is what a Friend of Jesus is. Someone who loves God, embraces the Holy Spirit, and lives the love of Christ with others. I pray that we will make his joy complete by being of the same mind.