The church in Philippi also had fellowship with Paul in the furtherance of the gospel. In 1:5 Paul speaks of “your fellowship unto the gospel from the first day until now.” Fellowship here means “participation, communication.” The same Greek word is translated “contribution” in Romans 15:26 and “sharing” in Hebrews 13:16. The saints in Philippi had fellowship unto the gospel, participating in the furtherance of the gospel through the apostle Paul’s ministry. This participation included their financial contributions to the apostle (4:10, 15-16), which issued in the furtherance of the gospel. This kind of fellowship, which kept them from being individualistic and diversely minded, implies their oneness with the apostle Paul and with one another. This gave them the ground for their experience and enjoyment of Christ, which is the main point of this book. The Christ-experiencing-and-enjoying life is a life in the furtherance of the gospel, a gospel-preaching life, not individualistic but corporate. Hence, there is “the fellowship unto the gospel.” The more fellowship we have in the furtherance of the gospel, the more Christ we experience and enjoy. This kills our self, ambition, preference, and choice.
As the Philippian believers were sharing in the furtherance of the gospel, in the furtherance of God’s move on earth according to His economy, they were partakers with Paul of grace. Those who partake of grace are those who share and enjoy the processed Triune God as grace. The apostle was such a one in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, and the saints at Philippi were joint-partakers with him in this grace. Grace is the Triune God processed to be our enjoyment. By having fellowship unto the gospel with Paul, the Philippians enjoyed this grace. According to the expression in Greek, they became partakers of Paul’s grace, of the very grace he enjoyed.
The church in Philippi also prayed for Paul (1:19), made his joy full and caused him to rejoice (2:1-2), and supplied his material need. There is no doubt that this church was very good.
Although the church in Philippi was established in good order and had fellowship with Paul in the furtherance of the gospel, there was nevertheless dissension among them. By this we see that it is very difficult to avoid dissension. It can exist anywhere and at any time. The source of dissension is our opinions. Opinions come from the mind, the main part of the soul. In the book of Philippians Paul speaks often of the soul, the mind, and thinking. In 1:27 he uses the expression with one soul, and in 2:2, the expression joined in soul. In 2:20 he uses the term like-souled.
We in the church life today need to be one in the soul. Christians frequently speak of being one in the Lord or one in the Spirit, but have you ever heard believers speak of being one in the soul? Until we are one in soul, there is no practicality to our oneness. Our oneness will be that of shaking hands over the fence. Christians talk about oneness, but they still hold to their dissenting opinions. Paul’s concept of oneness was different. In Philippians he makes it clear that we need to be one in soul.
In order to be one in soul, we need to be transformed and renewed in our mind. Romans 12:2 speaks of being transformed by the renewing of the mind. It is quite possible that your mind is very old. This may even be true of young people. But if your mind has been renewed, it will be new and fresh, even though you may be an elderly person. I can testify that Christ has never bent my mind in any way, but He certainly has been renewing it.
One reason for oldness in our mind is that we remember past offenses. Years ago a certain thing may have happened to you, but you are still not willing to forget it. This means that in this particular matter you do not show forgiveness, for genuine forgiveness implies forgetting the offense. Because certain saints remember offenses from the past, their mind is old. If our mind is old, it will cause us problems and lead to dissension. Therefore, it is crucial for us all to have a renewed mind.
The only defect in the church in Philippi was the dissension caused by different opinions. In 4:2 Paul said, “I beseech Euodias, and I beseech Syntyche, to think the same thing in the Lord.” These two leading sisters were co-workers with Paul. However, they were not one in their thinking. The differences in their thinking were probably not concerning secular matters, but concerning God’s move on earth. Concerning this, they had different opinions in the soul. Because they were still one in spirit, these sisters were not divided. But in practice there was dissension between them because of their different concepts. This dissension was a shortcoming in that very good church at Philippi. As a result of the dissension among them, the Philippian saints were not one soul in preaching the gospel (1:27).
In 2:2 and 4:2 we see that the Philippian saints were not thinking the same thing, not having the same love, not joined in soul, and not thinking the one thing. The situation of certain ones in the Lord’s recovery today is the same. These ones have been caught by the Lord for His recovery. They know the ground of the church and honor this ground of oneness. However, they do not think the same thing as the rest of the saints, they do not have the same love, and they are not joined in soul. They can truthfully say that they are one in spirit with all the saints, but they cannot say that they are one in the soul, thinking the same thing and even the one thing.
What does it mean to think the same thing and to think the one thing? Both expressions are found in 2:2. In 4:2 Paul besought Euodias and Syntyche to think the same thing. The same thing is Christ Himself, and the one thing is the pursuing of Christ to gain Him, lay hold of Him, and possess Him. We should not regard anything other than Christ as the “same thing” spoken of by Paul. Many Christian groups have something that they consider to be the “same thing.” But according to Paul, the “same thing” is Christ, and the “one thing” is the seeking after Christ to possess Him. The context of Philippians makes this very clear.
To think the same thing—Christ—and the one thing— the seeking after Christ to gain Him—causes our mind to be dealt with and renewed. To be renewed in our mind is to have a metabolic change in which the old element is discharged and a new element is supplied. Something of Christ is infused into our being to discharge the old element and to replace it. This process causes our minds to be renewed. Even young people have many old things which need to be discharged and replaced by the element of Christ.
We need to allow Christ to become those positive elements in us which cause our minds to be renewed. Whereas many use their natural cleverness in a negative way, perhaps using it to focus on offenses or other negative things, we should be encouraged to set our minds on Christ and to allow our minds to be occupied by Christ. If our mind is not renewed, there will be dissension among us as there was among certain of the Philippian saints. Because they held to the natural mind with its oldness, this defect existed among them.