I. Introduction
A. The big danger that threatened the Phillippians church was that of disunity.
1. There is a sense in which that is a danger of every healthy church.
2. It is when people's beliefs really natter to them that you find them conflicting with each other.
3. The greater their zeal and enthusiasm, the greater danger you have of people colliding with each other.
B. In verses three and four, he gives us three causes of disunity.
II. Selfish Ambition
A. There is always a danger that a person would serve not to advance the work of Christ but to advance
themselves.
1. Ambrose was one of the great figures of the early church.
2. He was a great scholar and was selected to be Roman Governor over two provinces.
3. He governed with such loving care, the people looked upon him as a father.
4. The Bishop of those districts died and the question of his successor arose. In the midst of the discussion a child's voice was heard saying over and over Ambrose Bishop.
5. The whole crowd took up the cry. To Ambrose it was unthinkable. He fled by night to avoid the sacred office the church was offering him.
6. It took the command of the Emperor to make him agree to become the Bishop of Milan.
7. Great men are always filled with a sense of their inadequacy to fill a high and holy office.
III. Personal Prestige
A. Prestige for many people is an even greater temptation than wealth.
1. To be admired, to have a platform seat, to be recognized are for many people the most desirable things.
2. The aim of the believer should not be for self-display but for self obliteration.
3. We should do good deeds not that people glorify us but that they glorify our Father in heaven.
B. The Christian should not desire to focus men's eyes upon himself but upon Jesus Christ.
IV. Concentration on Self
A. If a Christian is most concerned about his own interests, he is bound to collide with others.
1. If for him life is a competition whose prizes. He must always win, he will always see others as competitors who must be pushed out of the way.
2. The object of life is not to help others up but to push then down.
B. In the face of this danger of disunity Paul sets down four things which can prevent disunity.
V. The Power of Christ's love should Keep us in Harmony
A. Christian love is that unconquered good will which never knows bitterness and never seeks anything
but the good of others.
1. It does not mean loving only those who love us.
2. It means we want to do good to even those who hate us and abuse us.
B. We are to love those who do not like us, this is the very essence of Christianity (Christ died for ungodly.)
VI. The Holy Spirit should keep Us From Disunity
A. Holy Spirit binds us to God but He also binds us to each other.
1. If we are out of harmony with each other, we break the bond that binds us to God.
2. That's what scripture calls grieving the Holy Spirit.
B. We cannot be filled with the Spirit unless harmony exists among believers.
VIII. Paul's Last Appeal is Most Important - Complete my Joy
A. There is no joy where there is factiousness.
1. We have all experienced that situation in a church.
2. Wherever disunity is tolerated, joy is extinguished.
B. Notice it is not with a threat that Paul speaks to the Phillippians.
1. It is an appeal of love - Paul was brokenhearted whenever there was any fragmentation among God's
people.
VIII. How Do We Maintain Unity (3-4)
A. Esteem others better than yourself - that's Christian deference. That is a spirit of humility.
1. In physics we learn of centripetal force and centrifugal force.
2. Centripetal force moves inward with everything directed toward the center.
3. Centrifugal force moves outward with everything directed toward the circumference.
B. When we look on our own things we are living centripetally
1. When we look on the things of others, we are living centrifugally.
2. One is self indulging the other is self enlarging.
3. One begins with selfishness and ends with discontent
4. One begins with self forgetfulness and ends with joy and satisfaction.