CHRISTIANITY IS CHRIST
No intelligent believer would claim inspiration as to the order of the books of the New Testament; at the same time, it has been felt to be striking that the Epistle to the Philippians should follow that to the Ephesians. It seems fitting and right that it should be so, for Philippians gives you a practical illustration of the truth which is so characteristic of Ephesians. Without going into detail, I would remark that what is so prominent in Ephesians is the heavenly side of our calling. When Paul was writing to Timothy he said, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life”, 2 Tim 3: 10. Paul was the living embodiment and exemplification of his teaching. It was Paul who wrote Ephesians, and Paul, as seen in his Epistle to the Philippians, is the embodiment of his teaching in that epistle.
There is no epistle, of all those written by Paul, that gives you such an insight into his experience as a Christian as Philippians. It is not, strictly speaking, an apostolic epistle. Paul does not write to them in the character of apostle. In the beginning of it he says, “Paul, bondman of Jesus Christ”, and he associates Timothy with himself in that word—“bondman”. In this respect it is in accord with Revelation 1:1, which was written by John, as “the bondman of Jesus Christ”. So, the Epistle to the Philippians has been spoken of as an epistle of Christian experience, and we do well to recall what has been said by our brother (Mr T H Reynolds), ‘Christianity is Christ!’ That is a beautiful statement! The more you think of it the more it will impress you! ‘Christianity is Christ’, so if this is an epistle of Christian experience it must set forth Christ, and so it is all Christ and that in a wonderful way!
It has been spoken of in different ways:
Chapter 1—Christ our life. Chapter 2—Christ our pattern. Chapter 3—Christ our object. Chapter 4—Christ our strength and sufficiency.
It would be easy to show how each of these characterises each chapter.
Then again we may look at each chapter in another light:
Chapter 1—is encouragement. Chapter 2—is humility. Chapter 3—is energy. Chapter 4—is satisfaction and contentment.
In chapter 1: 21 Paul says, “For to me to live is Christ”; he says this as a “bondman” of Christ. If you make any of his experience as expressed in this epistle apostolic, you put a distance between the writer and yourself. Beloved, we are bondmen of Jesus Christ. It is a great thing to see that Christianity is what we are. There is a great deal of self-occupation in Christians trying to be what they ought to be. One would not like to be cold-hearted but it is a great thing to take account of what we are in God’s mind, and then we can be exercised that the Spirit may work in our souls so as to bring us into correspondence with it. In 1 Corinthians 7 there are two classes of believers as to their social standing—there are slaves and freemen. Now Paul says to slaves, ‘As redeemed you are Christ’s freed-men’. Then he speaks to masters and says, ‘Ye are Christ’s bondmen’. We are bondmen of Jesus Christ; He has bought us with a price.
Well, see chapter 2—“If then there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and compassions, fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing”, &c. How these words should appeal to our hearts as to what is available to us as Christians. Paul and Timothy had no comfort in Christ that you may not have. For years it has been an encouraging thought to me that the best things of Christianity are open to us all, and that the very best things remain—the best things that were here when the apostles were here. They were official servants but they had not any blessings better than what we have. How the Spirit seems to delight to spread these things before us, and to engage our hearts with them!
This epistle is not doctrinal. There is in it something better than correct doctrine and order, and that is an experience of Christ. It is not a doctrinal but an experimental epistle. The stamp on it from beginning to end is Christian experience exemplified in Paul.
There is a wonderful link between Paul and the saints in Philippi. He is free to let his heart out. He says: “fulfil my joy”. How happy he was about them! He says in chapter 1: 3: “I thank my God for my whole remembrance of you, constantly in my every supplication, making the supplication for you all with joy”. He had no anguish and tears in writing this epistle; when he wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians his heart was at breaking-point. Not so here, but now in chapter 2 he says: Do you want to fill my joy full, I am very happy about you, but do you want to fill my joy up?
Now notice how he expresses his desire for these saints. Some of us have a scolding way, but look at the lovely way in which Paul begins. I commend it to you: “If then there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit”. There are two expressions about the Spirit. In chapter 1: 19 we get “the Spirit of Jesus Christ”. In chapter 3: 3: “Worship by the Spirit of God”. When it is a question of worship it is the “Spirit of God”. But when it is a question of what is experimental which is unfolded in this chapter, it is the Spirit of that Man; and He will make us like that Man, there will be an answer in us to what He is.
“For to me to live is Christ”, chap 1: 21. But what is it to live? To live largely depends on the heart and the mind, “as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov 23: 7), “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life”, Prov 4: 23. We speak of a man as characterised by this or that; it is all a question of the heart and the mind, so if we are to ‘live Christ’, it is a question of our hearts and our minds. In this passage it is the mind that is prominent. When Paul says, “Fulfil ye my joy”, his desire is that they should “think the same thing”. Just imagine thirty or forty saints at Norwood all thinking the same thing! They would begin to touch the confines of unity! That was Paul’s desire. Then he appeals to the heart; he says: “Having the same love”. Is not that beautiful? I call that a divine touch. You not only think the same thing, but you have the same love. “Joined in soul”. Soul is a distinct component part of man. There is spirit, soul and body. Soul is the appetite—desire, hunger, thirst after God. “My soul thirsteth for ... the living God”, Ps 42: 2. We are to be “joined in soul”—in all our desires, spiritual appetites—hunger and thirst, to be one.
What a wonderful putting together of saints that is! It is not an external adjustment. I do not care about any kind of external unity: if we get the inside adjusted, the outside will take care of itself. When the saints cannot get on together it is always the inside that is wrong. Here it is thinking one thing, and then “let nothing be in the spirit of strife or vain glory”. “Let nothing”, but—“in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves”. This must be real. We must not pretend to it; the Lord will pull you up if you are a pretender. It is “in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves; regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others”. To give yourself up is a fine way of being a help to your brethren! Do you ask, How can this be brought about, how can we answer to this practically? How can we think the same thing, and how can all this be? Here is the answer for you: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. In the end of 1 Corinthians 2 Paul says, “We have the mind of Christ”. That means the thinking faculty, but here it is a different thought. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. What kind of a mind governed Him? Men have their minds set on certain things, perhaps on making money. I know a man who set his mind on making money, and he became the richest man in the world. The minds of different men are set on different things. But what was the mind in Christ Jesus? This does not refer to His mind as now risen and glorified; it is the mind that was in Him when down here. We often try to practise Christianity, and we may be sincere and upright in the attempt, but we attempt it in ourselves. That cannot be; we must have Christ only before us, it must be—“to me to live is Christ”. There is only one mind in which we can carry out Christianity practically, and that is the mind that was in Christ Jesus. That mind is to be in you and in me. It is a question of what is in us. We charge our difficulties on our circumstances. Things and persons are trying, and so forth. All that is not the question; the question is—what is in you? Is this mind which was in Christ Jesus in you? Christ Jesus subsisted in the form of God, and thought it not an object of rapine to be equal with God. Of course, He did not. He is, and ever was God equal with Father and Spirit; but if these heights of His divine Person are brought before us, it is only to intensify what follows—“made himself of no reputation”. If any of us take the lowest place it is good, but it is no credit to us. Who are you and who am I? But, beloved, think of a divine Person subsisting in the form of God, emptying Himself, taking a bondman’s form, etc. Adam thought it an object of rapine to be like God, but here is One who thought it not “an object of rapine to be on an equality with God”, and from these divine heights He “emptied himself”. He made Himself of no reputation. If you and I make anything of ourselves as Christians, it is not the mind of Christ Jesus, but the mind of the flesh. Alas! what strife, what vain glory there often is! It is our common shame. I speak in the sense of the reproach it is to Christ. What marked Him? He emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form. How it ought to touch our hearts that One who subsisted in the form of God should take a bondman’s form! If we had spiritual apprehension as to His path, we should accept it as an honour to be His bondmen. Paul gloried in calling himself “bondman of Jesus Christ”. If you and I in the spirit of our minds are in the form of bondmen, we are in touch with Christ. When saints take an opposite form they are in touch with the devil. We touch Christ when we take the bondman form.
Then we get “taking his place in the likeness of men”. Mr J B Stoney illustrated it by saying: Suppose a high-born and wealthy man determines to take the place of a servant and to live it out for a certain time, and never flinches or varies in the path; so the Lord when He took His place in likeness of men and humbled Himself. That is the true path; that is the “mind in Christ Jesus”. It is expressed in His “taking a bondman’s form”, “taking his place in the likeness of men”, and then humbling Himself further to death—the death of the cross. It was down, down, down all the way. In Luke’s gospel in the first nine chapters the Lord goes up till He reaches the top of the holy mount, and from that He goes down till He strikes the bottom on Calvary’s cross, becoming obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross. That was what expressed the mind of Christ, and—listen!—“let this mind be in you”. You can only find this mind in Him. It expressed itself in these downward steps till He was obedient unto death.
Then there is the answer: “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”. That is not yet; that day is coming.
The wonderful opportunity for us of the present moment I do not know how to speak of! The opportunity to let this mind be in us that was also in Christ Jesus. What a strange hallucination if we think the present is a time to go up! This is the time to go down—down. To be in accord with our Lord Jesus Christ is true Christianity, and if we suffer, we shall reign with Him. I would not speak of this (as one feels how short one comes of it) only that I desire to impress on your hearts the wonderful privilege and opportunity of the present moment.