Philippians 4:1-9
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.
Over the past eight months or so, I’ve been pretty religiously weight-lifting. I try to lift as heavy as possible, since the science says that’s the best way to get stronger and healthier. And as I’ve continued on this journey, I’ve learned some of the basics of how muscle mass grows; and one of the ways muscle grows by way of weightlifting, is by creating tension in your muscles, resulting in tiny little strains called micro-tears. During rest time, as your body works with your natural hormones and miracles had a cellular level, it’s in these repairs of the microtears that cause your muscle to grow. And since I’ve been weight lifting, I’ve learned to really embrace these tiny injures, the soreness that I wake up with the next day. I’ve learned to really appreciate lifting until failure, as they say, until I can’t anymore because I know if I’m struggling, that means I’m lifting heavy enough to creating meaningful growth and strength.
And whether or not one lifts weights, I think we would all do well to take this mentality into life outside of working out, outside of our private lives. We would all do well to take this mentality into our interactions with other people, into our public lives at work, here at church, wherever we may be when we’re out and about. Because embracing some of that discomfort, some of that conflict is key to being a human in the world, and for us, it is key to being member of a Christian community like ours. There is a reason Paul uses the word struggle in this passage. “…these women…have struggled beside me in the word of the gospel,” Paul says of his Philippian friends, Euodia and Syntyche.
Today’s passage begins with a conflict, and this is much of that the first three chapters of Paul’s letter to the Philippians was building towards. It would appear that two church leaders, Euodia and Syntyche, are in a disagreement about something—we don’t know what (this is the downside of reading Paul’s letters—we only get one side of the story); we can presume that his friends in Philippi wrote of the nature of Euodia and Syntyche’s disagreement, but Paul’s doesn’t address it directly. What we can gather from the limited context we receive from Paul’s side is that Euodia and Syntyche were influential enough church leaders that there was real danger of creating some kind of schism in the growing church of Philippi; and also that in spite of the disagreement, Paul looks at both of them with a deep mutual respect, noting that they have been struggling alongside him in building this church. Not under him—right there with him. He doesn’t seem especially concerned about either of these women has people; he doesn’t suggest one of them gets kicked out, or that they should be punished. Rather, he builds on what he said in chapter 2: “…be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
But how do we be in the same mind, and the same love, as someone we’re arguing with? How do we get in full accord and of one mind with someone who disagrees with us, even with someone who is simply skeptical of what we’re saying? How do we become of the same mind with someone we don’t understand or are afraid to get to know? These are tough questions with sometimes uncomfortable solutions—and they’re questions and solutions that are increasingly easier and easier to avoid in our modern world.
It’s easier than ever to avoid tough questions and difficult situations. It’s easier than ever to stay cozy and wrapped up in comfort zones, not confronting hard truths or conflicts with the people around us. People are prioritizing a frictionless existence in the name of “self-care” or “protecting their peace.” And when we can acquire all the necessities in our lives with the touch of a button—food, entertainment, communication—what’s the impetus to get to know our neighbor? To support the local market? To go to a variety show at Damon Hall? It takes energy that this chaotic world saps from us, or you might end up in an awkward situation, why would you not avoid that if you can?
In his book Against Convenience by Gabe Bullard, he quotes economic anthropologist Rahul Oka, “Convenience does disrupt social fabrics, and sometimes in ways that it was not even intended to.” Think about so many of the new ways we can be consumers out in the world now. With a Starbucks app, we can order our customized coffee drink without saying a word to our barista. We can get a week’s worth of groceries and check ourselves out at the grocery store without making so much as a little eye contact with a cashier. We can go to a fast-food restaurant and press some buttons on a kiosk, and have our meal handed to us without so much as a name—simply our number order so we know we have the right food. All of a sudden, so many of our interactions in the world are purely transactional, or nonexistent.
In a more extreme example of this trend, some people are creating AI companions—personalized artificial “friends.” This is because relationships, friendships, can feel increasingly difficult in a world that prioritizes convenience and efficiency above difficulty and intentionality. Humans are messy. You’re going to find yourself sometimes disagreeing even with the people you love most in the world. You’re going to find yourself in uncomfortable situations, questioning the people around you, and even sometimes yourself. But if you can create your own AI friend, you don’t have to worry about any of that discomfort. Because these creations are made to validate all your feelings. They’re made to make you feel good, to tell you you’re right even when you’re unequivocally wrong. They take all the tension and friction, all the mess away from real life relationships. But if we’re not ever butting heads with people in real life, if we’re not ever challenged on our preconceived notions of right and wrong, of moral or sinful, then we can’t grow. It takes discomfort, tension, it takes work and struggle to grow as people.
I won’t be able to give you a satisfying answer to how to bridge all the gaps outside those doors. Maybe some baby-step suggestions here and there, but tackling the divisions out there is… a whole other task. But to start, we can think about how we can bridge some gaps in this community by embracing some discomfort and tension. We can think about how to be of one mind in this place without losing ourselves.
Most translations of our passage today will read, as Glenda did earlier, “be of the same mind.” That kind of makes it sound like one big hivemind with no individual thoughts, right? But Karl Barth, in his commentary on this epistle translates it slightly differently: “mind the one thing.” Mind the one thing—Mind God. Mind Jesus. Mind the Holy Spirit. Mind the Creator, Christ, and Spirit, the reason we’re all here. That is our common purpose—to mind the Holy Trinity and do the work we’re called to do in its name. When we start from this sacred place of connection of commonality, we’re starting from a place of love and respect. Because disagreements are going to happen. Differences of opinion are normal, healthy even. Wrestling with different interpretations and translations and opinions makes us stronger. Because it makes us really think about our own biases, the things in our lives we take for granted either as fact or as nonsense that we might need to spend some time thinking about and changing. Disagreements might end up making us stronger and more confident in our convictions, or they might lead us to think a little differently about them, to rethink some of what we maybe mistakenly believed for so long. Both of these paths help us grow.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, when we started reading Paul’s letter to the Philippians, this letter is much gentler, much kinder, than many of his other letters. He has a real affinity for his friends in Philippi that just isn’t as apparent in his other letters. And so his advice in our passage today isn’t especially demanding, it’s more just… suggestive and thought-provoking. In verse 8, he gives a list of things for his friends to “think about;” those things being:
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable…any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise…
And he follows that up with an action in verse 9: “As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them…”. Classic Paul, reading a little arrogant there, instructing his friends to do all great things he’s done, but I think if we look at the bigger picture here, we can see it’s more than that. He’s telling his friends to “mind the one thing” and in doing that, to think about everything honorable and just and pure and pleasing and commendable they are called to. He’s telling his friends: regardless of what your disagreements are, regardless of the fact that you’re going to butt heads sometimes, keep in mind the fact that you are all doing this for the same purpose: to create an earth as it is in heaven. To create a world in which all people are safe and loved in the name of Christ. Because when you stop getting caught up in your own pride, in your own need to be right; when you stop and really think about what is just and honorable and good, you will always come to the same conclusion. If you mind the one thing, that one thing will always guide you to the path of love.
In verse 5, Paul tells his friends, “Let [your] gentleness be known to everyone.” Gentleness might be better translated to forbearance. This is a little more pointed than gentleness. He’s telling his friends, and therefore us, to be patient, to take a breath before a kneejerk reaction to something we might not agree with; he’s telling us to take a moment, maybe in prayer, in discernment, and remember to mind the one thing. This might be sometimes hard. It might be painful, even. Because in minding the one thing, we might be led to tell a difficult truth to someone we love, that might create a brief rift; or we might be led to confronting a bias or a preconceived notion that turns out to be wrong. Both of these instances can create a real struggle with those around us, and within ourselves. It makes sense that we would want to avoid those uncomfortable feelings. But—if we enter into these disagreements or times of discernment by thinking the way Paul instructs: to think on what is just, pleasing, commendable in our faith, we will only grow stronger from our various struggles.
The options to avoid conflict, discomfort, struggle, uncertainty— they’re everywhere now. It’s easier than ever to give into the temptation of a frictionless life—a life where we don’t have to think deeply or worry about other people. But just as our muscles atrophy and wither away without use, so does our sense of compassion for our neighbor, if we avoid the everyday discomforts and beauty of conversing with and learning from friends, neighbors, and strangers alike.
Unfortunately, there’s no Second Philippians to tell us what became of Paul’s friends in the struggle, Euodia and Syntyche. But I think we can assume that they made up, or at the very least, learned to coexist cordially enough; because the church of Philippi survived, and, considering the fact that it’s believed Paul’s presence in Philippi (which is in modern-day Greece) was his first time spreading the gospel to Europe, it grew and grew from there. It grew from that struggle.
We can only grow in our compassion, in our love, in our faith, if we struggle together in the way of the gospel—if we confront hard truths with love; if we’re honest with our friends and ourselves; if, in all our contemplation and prayer, we mind the one thing. Don’t give into the ubiquitous temptations of a frictionless, convenient life. Embrace the discomfort, the uncertainty, the slowness; embrace the struggle. Mind the one thing and grow. And grow. And grow in love. Amen.
