Philippians 2:1-11

A new series begins this week: Counter-Culture for the Common Good.  That’s not just a mouthful; it’s also a mindfull and a heartfull!

Please take a moment or two now to read through this week’s passage, Philippians 2:1-11.  Take your time; I’ll wait …

Thanks!  There’s a lot going on in this passage: exhortation, instruction, theology …

… and a direct challenge to Imperial Rome.  A challenge that continues to this day and in our time.

The Good News in just three words: Jesus is Lord.  If Jesus is the world’s true Lord, then Caesar is not.  Caesar – and every age, every culture has its own distinctive “caesars,” including our own -- does not like this challenge and will take measures, including violent ones, to counter the Christian proclamation.

Paul wants the believers in Philippi to live theologically, not merely think theologically.  He begins our passage with a series of “If … then” statements, focusing on how the community of believers in Philippi ought to live (verses 1-4).

And why should they live like this?  Because of who Jesus is.  He is the King unlike any of the world’s caesars – and therefore, his people are to live like none of the world’s people. To represent King Jesus, they will need to become an entirely different kind of community.  Not merely a community that holds to different ideas and “beliefs,” but a community that lives differently.  In modern lingo, a Christian community is to be a counter-culture.

There are many ways to be counter-cultural: we can “drop out,” head for the hills and live off the grid.    We can become “culture warriors” of various stripes, seeking to reclaim and restore “the way things ought to be,” which is all too often the way we want things to be.  We can allow our identities and lives to be formed by and centered upon race, ethnicity, nation, politics, or a political or religious leader, defining ourselves more and more by what and whom we’re against.  None of these ways are the Jesus Way.

Jesus is Lord.  His counter-cultural community does not find its identity in Caesar-things (status, power, political/cultural allegiances and alliances), but in Christ-things (faith, hope, love; righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; intimacy with and obedience to Jesus). And we are to live these Christ-things not merely for our own good, but for the good of the world around us. 

We know how Caesar-worlds always go: coercion, inequality and injustice, excess for few, misery for many, violence.  We represent a different Lord, a King who doesn’t grasp onto power and position, but empties himself, becomes a servant of all, and trumps every caesar’s ultimate power, the power of death, by the power of his resurrection.

Jesus is Lord!  What is one way in which you (and we) are living this out?  What are one or two ways in which our lives are not yet well-aligned with our confession – and how might we pray about that?