the essence

1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

~Philippians 2:1-4~

This has long been one of my favorite chapters in the Bible & with most of my favorite things I've read it many times.

But recently I looked at it in a different way.

I often have an EXTREMELY difficult time showing the love Christ to some people, especially believers who for some reason or other really get under my skin. And even though I know its wrong to have bad feelings towards them its a total war of my flesh against my spirit.

So when I read these verses again recently the passage just jumped out to me in a completely new way. It felt like I was reading it for the first time.

I guess the first part that struck me was the part about being united with Christ. It is encouraging to know & remember that we're all saved through Christ & that also reminds me that we're also all sinners. Which brings me to remember that I'm no better than they are even if I don't agree with them on...a lot of things.

The next part is on being like-minded. Even though we don't agree we are still all saved by the grace of God & we need to be one in spirit & purpose. kind of like the Newsboys song where it says "Can we agree to disagree?".

For me, convicting yet encouraging verses.