Crystal Sparks' Podcast

188. [Philippians Study] Who's Keeping Score?

• Crystal Sparks

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What truly sets Christian community apart from other social groups? In this episode of our Philippians series, we dive deep into chapter 2:1-4, uncovering Paul's four distinctive markers of authentic church life: encouragement in Christ, comfort of God's love, fellowship of the Spirit, and affection and mercy.

The original Greek structure reveals something profound—these virtues aren't self-manufactured but flow naturally from divine sources. When we're rooted in Christ, walking in love, filled with the Spirit, and practicing mercy, the expressions of encouragement, comfort, fellowship, and compassion naturally overflow. This challenges our Western tendency to focus on manufacturing these qualities rather than nurturing them. 

My hope is that this podcast helps grow your faith and equips you to accomplish your dreams and goals!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to another part of my Philippians study that I have been doing with our staff at Staff Chapel. If you haven't listened to the other parts, you might want to go back deeper into my podcast, check out those episodes and catch yourself up to join where we're at today. We're continuing Philippians we're in chapter two. We're in chapter two, philippians, chapter two. And, to sum up, the whole Bible we have. The whole Bible is basically this it's God's law, then we go into God's people, then it's God's wisdom and then we move into God's prophets, which is God calling back his people, god's son, then we see God's church and then God coming back, and so that's a summary of the Bible I really do love.

Speaker 1:

On first Wednesday I shared that the two rabbis that got together and like how can we like summarize the whole scripture? And it's basically renouncing idolatry, and I was like man, if you have that on the forefront of your mind, you think about how easy it is um to build idols. Like in our hearts really are um idol manufacturers, like the little idol factories, and so it's whether or not we're aware, and that's what Paul's dealing with here in the church, and you see that there is this disunity Again. Going back to last week. You have people with all these different backgrounds, all these different perspectives, and then they come together and God calls them to be a part of the body of Christ. And used to, back in the day, when you got offended at a pastor or a leader or somebody in a church, you didn't get to just go down to another church, like you had to stay there and figure it out. And, honestly, the more I study about the Reformation and all the negative impacts that it had on the church, I think the biggest impact it had is that we just continue to split the church and if I don't like you, if I disagree with you, then I'm just going to go somewhere else church and if I don't like you, if I disagree with you, then I'm just going to go somewhere else. And it actually perpetuated consumerism and used to people had to be like the church at Philippi, didn't get to just go be a part of the church of Corinth, like they had to like figure it out and and I think there's beauty in that and I think we've lost that, um, but that has nothing to do with it, but it does.

Speaker 1:

It is good to keep in the forefront of our mind. So we're going to go into verse chapter two. We're going to try to get through verse four today. And he says, therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy, in verse two he says fulfill my joy being like-minded, having the same love and being of one accord, of one mind.

Speaker 1:

So, paul, um for you to know, like he always he's very intentional in how he lays out his um, his ideologies, so, like when he's writing a letter to the church, no word is wasted. Like he's very intentional and so he's always going to lay a theological groundwork before he talks about practical application. And so, in your mind, when you're reading Pauline epistles, a flag in your brain is when he says, therefore, he's transitioning thought now and he's taking you with with you into the next idea. And so when we see, therefore, in our mind, we should know that he's like laid this groundwork and he's now like almost like changing gears into the next thing that he's about to say. So, as you're reading Paul letters just Pauline letters like have that in the background of your mind. So, therefore, so he's letting us know I'm transitioning thought from where I was. So he's been talking about suffering. He's talking about what our life looks like in Christ, and so all of these are theological things. Remember how we talked about? He's laying out an eschatology. A lot of those verses are very apocalyptic in nature. I'm talking about coming judgment, not just for them, but for people who he's like hey, don't worry about the people that are rejecting you, people that are doing things wrong, don't worry. Like it's going to be their own perdition, like it's the God's going to take care of them in the end. But so very apocalyptic in nature, not apocalyptic like we think about it, but apocalyptic of what's going to happen in the last days, like their last days, the judgment seat of Christ. And so now he's transitioning that thought and he goes into this next mindset. So in um in my school, one of my classes, um, I had to break down Paul's arguments and break them where to lay out his argument best.

Speaker 1:

And in the Greek, the way it's written, it kind of helps us see it if you see this first verse like this, because with the way it's written he's saying if any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of spirit, if any compassion and mercy. So what he's doing, the way that it's written in the Greek, is literally these words that are indented and dropped down are fueling what is said previously. So if any encouragement in Christ, christ is the fuel of the encouragement, love is the fuel of the comfort, spirit is the fuel of the fellowship, mercy is the fuel of compassion. And a lot of times when we read it in our English syntax, the way that our words are laid out, we miss what actually is being said. But in the Greek, the original, the way it's written, the way they say it, it's basically the emphasis would be on the in Christ, the outcome is encouragement, and so when I read it that way, I think a lot of times what we do in our Western mindset is I need to be more encouraging, I need to be more in comforting, I need to build up a fellowship, I need to have more compassion.

Speaker 1:

But in the Greek mindset, when they read this, they would have said no, I need to be found in Christ, and the view of that is I live an encouraging life. Does that make sense? The more I'm in Christ, the more encouragement I'm receiving, the more I'm walking in love, the more comfort I have, the more of the spirit is moving, the more fellowship is amongst the believers and the more mercy I walk in, the more compassion I have. And I think in our Western mindset it's flipped. We make this the predominant line and we almost minor on the indention. Where in the Greek mindset it's flipped we make this the predominant line and we almost minor on the indention. Where in the Greek mindset, the way it's written, an appalling argument. When you break it down that way, it changes the way we see the verses. Thus, in turn, it changes the way the application is in our life. So with it, four things that he makes the appeal of the Christian community. He says this is what makes the Christian community unique. The first one is encouragement, the next one is that we receive comfort from his love and the third one is fellowship of the spirit. The fourth is affection and mercy.

Speaker 1:

No-transcript, like what makes one church different than CrossFit? There's lots of organizations, there's lots of communities. If you will right, you can go down to the Y and be a part of a community. You can be a planet fitness person. You can be like there's all these different a Mason's group, Rotary group, like we can just keep going down the line. There's all kinds of like, even like you think about, in soccer. They've got a whole community around soccer. There's like baseball communities, there's things around activities like running things like that.

Speaker 1:

So what makes us different? These are the things that make us different and unique, and Paul's letting them know like this is, I'm assuming that, because you're part of the church, these four are marking your life, these four are marking your community. This should be the way that we're described. So, encouragement this is translated as the word consolation, consolation. So whenever you're reading in the New King James, it says if there's any consolation, it would be paraklesis, and so is the word there. Consolation Um, it would be paraklesis, and so is the word there. And so he's letting us know that we should be an encouraging people. Like consolation and new King James, I would say it'd be better translated encouragement, but it's okay. Um, I'm fine with it, we're fine, everybody's fine. Um, but I would say we should be the most encouraging body, like we should actually be the most encouraging body. Like if people, when people come in on a Sunday morning, there should be life that's being imparted into them, encouragement into who they are, encouragement into the God-given design on their life Like we should be the most up, like uplifting, hopeful, like imparting courage into who they are and the God call on their life.

Speaker 1:

Number two he says we're going to receive comfort of his love. A mark of Christianity is we love people with Christ's love versus worldly love. Christ's love versus worldly love because it's comfort from his love. And the worldly love says that I love you the way that you love me, like I match you tit for tat, like I I'm, I'm always like I'm, almost like I'm. I'm never going to exceed, I'm never going to put more in than what you put in. But Christ's love says I put in everything on the table, no matter if you do or not, because while we were sinners Christ loved us and died for us and that's the kind of comfort right In his love. So the more I grow in his love, the more I am rooted in that mindset of he loved me. How can I not now comfort others with the love that I've been received? But if I haven't yet received Christ's love, how can I impart what I do not have? Does this make sense? And I think a lot of times we're. We're shaping our love for for others in the worldly love instead of God's love, and it's when I'm rooted in God's love I'm able to comfort others, I'm able to meet them where they're at.

Speaker 1:

The next one is the fellowship of the spirit, and I think that for us Paul saying there's a fellowship of the spirit there are times when we are marked by the presence and the spirit of God. I think there's something that happens I'm just like old school like that. I think that there's just something that happens when you are crying your face off at altar with somebody. It's just never the same, like you're just bonded to that. Why are camps so special? Why are retreats so special? You go up a mountain together and you experience something in the spirit together that you're like we're knit together, like we're never going to be the same. And I'll just say that what makes us unique as a church is that we have those experiences, that there's moments, there's times, there's spaces where we come into the presence of God and where there's a fellowship of spirit.

Speaker 1:

It's not setting up more pock luck dinners or like manufacturing a faux or pseudo sense of connection you all know what I'm talking about but it's fellowship of the spirit, like there's a moment when I'm praying for you, that our spirits get linked together in a way that I can't foster by doing secret sisters or like a drawing of names. You all know what I'm talking about All the things that old school churches would do to try to foster this sense of community. I remember when we first got started we were like, ok, we're going to do, we want to make sure that every person always gets a meal. And then we realized that, like whenever they go in the hospital or something like that, and all of a sudden we realized that you're either a fellowship in the spirit or you're not like, and when you're connected to other people in the spirit, meals are the outflow of the connection we have in the spirit. Does that make sense? And so I'm not trying to foster something that isn't a genuine connection. But he's like, there's a fellowship of the spirit, so he's like hey guys, I'm assuming that the spirit of God is moving in your, in your midst, and in that it's knitting together, um, your hearts.

Speaker 1:

Uh, this made me want to rant really hard, but I'll just show it. Uh, carrie Newhoff, uh, posted this the other day. It's so good, right. Posted this the other day. It's so good, right? Just reflect on it. What did you get Anybody any reflection? Riley says she sees herself. That's great.

Speaker 1:

Okay, he says let's be honest, we as Christians can be a little weird. He says a little weird. He says it's true. He said I once had somebody tell me amen, brother, hallelujah for the blood. And while I totally understood what he was saying, I couldn't help but think what would people think? That had no context to the situation or the Christianese culture. Why don't we just talk to people at church like we would at lunch or at the mall? Would at lunch or at the mall? If someone has to learn code to join your church, you likely won't have many people joining your church. Drop the funniest church language you hear in the comments and let's have a laugh today. Okay, this like lit me up really hard and I'm about to unpack why.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I have several problems with this Number one. The biggest consequence that he has the repercussion is that we won't have people joining our church, as though the litmus test when we get to heaven is going to be how big was your church Like? What about? Eternal consequence? Like we are measuring again. It's like it's uh, pointing to that the success and the fruit of our life is how big our ministries are, and it's missing the whole point. And so he's going.

Speaker 1:

He's concerned about the, the natural metrics that we've set up of how good you're doing, and I'll just say that your church might be big but it might be void of the spirit of God, like bigness I just say one church the more we grow numerically. If we're not growing spiritually, then what are we doing? Like that's not. My goal is not that we're just growing in numbers, that we're like, year upon year, that we've grown and we have grown. That's great. But I'm measuring more. How are we discipling the people that are here? Like that's the metric. And so, and here's the thing is that we're not called to go and make big churches. We're called to bring disciples, to make disciples. And here he is.

Speaker 1:

He's like hey guys, like be warned, if you use this Christian language, you might not grow a big church. Guys, let me just say that the new test you cannot sanitize the creeds. The creeds weren't afraid of using Christian language. I know that's probably not popular, but here's the thing is that there is, there is a. It's called the language of Zion, and whenever I first joined a gym, I had to look at the little outlines of how to do a squat, how to use this machine.

Speaker 1:

I had to have somebody teach me. I thought I had right form and somebody came over to me and said no, actually, like, your knees are going over your toes, you have to drop it back and not drop it forward. And I had to learn all these things. I learned what it was to carb load. I learned what my protein count was. I learned what it was to whenever I need to do a pre-workout, I had all this language that I had to learn. You know why? Because every community has a language. Can you imagine with soccer, if they're like hey, we're going to remove some of our language because it's making people feel like outsiders. Can you imagine in football of like, hey, guys, it's probably confusing for people to hear touchdown and first down and all these different fouls. So we're going to take all that language out because we want to sanitize it. Where everybody feels no, when you walk in, part of what makes you feel like you're a part and knit in with the community is you learn the language.

Speaker 1:

And I'll say that the I think the biggest flaw of the Western church is we have sanitized the church and we want it to look exactly like the world. And I will just say if the conversation of the church is the same as what's happening at the mall, then what are we doing? Like, the goal of the church is not to look like the world. The goal of the church is that the world begins to look like the church. And what we're doing in an attempt to reach the world, we're saying we'll look like you instead of looking like Christ.

Speaker 1:

The I'll just say that, the I just want to go off on this so freaking hard is that the early church, when they were getting established, they weren't like hey guys, it's kind of weird that we're all speaking in tongues, so let's not do that. Like, that might be kind of strange. No, thousands were added to the church as they look different than the rest of the world. The rest of the world said we want what you have. Like, we want to learn, and so I'll say that our house, our church, there is a nomenclature of being here, there is a language of Zion, there are things that, yes, it sounds weird to talk about prophecy.

Speaker 1:

People don't know what it is, and that's why modern songwriters have sanitized songwriting and we've taken out the blood. And we've taken out the blood and we've taken out sanctification and we've taken out holiness and we've taken out all consecration. And we wonder why the church is having leadership fail after leadership, fail after leadership fail. And it's because the songs that we sing sound like the same love songs that we sing to our boo and they're not that different than what we sing to God.

Speaker 1:

There should be a fellowship of the spirit, there should be something that when they walk in, it's tangibly different and they go I'm getting from the church something that I can't get from my running group, that I'm not getting from CrossFit, that I'm not getting from my soccer team. I'm not getting anywhere else. There's something tangible, there's a fellowship of the spirit. There's something that happens when the spirit of God comes in and moves in Acts, chapter two, and they all get baptized in the Holy ghost, that they can't help but begin to go from house to house, to church to church, that they're breaking bread together, that they're giving up everything they have. Why? Because there was a fellowship of the spirit that unlocked a discipleship in their life. And I just want to ask you have we so sanitized our language? And we wonder why we're not making disciples? But it's because, like Carrie Newhoff said, we're having the same conversation that they would have at the mall we're having at the church. Are we okay and I just I would. Church, are we okay and I just I would.

Speaker 1:

I would push back on this so hard because I think, without knowing it, paul's saying it. It makes sense to me that you have a fellowship of the spirit. I'm assuming that that's who you are and I would say that in our churches today, could Paul make that same assumption? Is there a fellowship of the spirit? Is there something? That's why, as group leaders, when you get together, it's great that you guys knit together or you do whatever and you're making crafts or you're running or you're doing bikes or whatever but there should be a moment where there's a fellowship of the spirit and God's presence tangibly comes, because that is what knits your hearts together. That is the secret sauce, like literally.

Speaker 1:

I remember when I first started in ministry, I would go to all these great leaders and I would ask them okay, like, what is it that makes your like church so great? What is it that makes your messages so powerful? What is it like? What commentary do you use to write your content? Like I got it. I'm trying to find the code. And every single one of them, the secret sauce, is prayer. That's the secret sauce.

Speaker 1:

It's the more time I spend in his presence, the more that overflow begins to come into everything I do and in it there becomes this fellowship of the spirit that begins to knit people's hearts together. But we want to, we want the fruit, but we don't want presence. We want, we want ministry growth, but we don't want to have a devotion. And there's a fellowship of the spirit that we got to get to. And and that's what Paul's saying you want to know what makes our community different. This is what makes us different is that we're encouraging, that we get comfort from his love, that there's a fellowship of the spirit. But then finally, he says this that affection and mercy. There's affection and mercy. So the more merciful I am, the more affection I display. My affection to Brian will stop when I'm counting offenses.

Speaker 1:

I literally want to do a message so bad called who's counting, and I want to talk about the people in the Bible that counted. One of them is the older brother he says in Luke 15, he says I've served you this many years and you've never given me a fatty calf, the way it sounds like today. I've served on the roster this many times, counting how many things you've done for God. Counting how many things you've done for God. Counting how many things you've done for your spouse. Counting keeping score of how many gifts you bought for somebody else and what they got for you. Come on, Like who's counting? The other person that counted was Absalom. Absalom counted how many days his father didn't talk to him in 2 Samuel 14. Like, are we keeping score? Are you keeping score on who texts who last? Who greeted who? Well, they didn't say hi to me first. What are you doing? Like? The only people that count aren't the people you want to be associated with in the Bible?

Speaker 1:

I can just promise you that, because love keeps no record of wrongs and I think if we're not careful, we've lost our affection because we're not walking in mercy, and mercy fuels affection. It says I'm going to believe the best of first. Corinthians 13 says love believes the best. And I'm just like. I'm not going to be. I'm not going to be a scorekeeper, I'm not going to be a counter, and so I think I need to make sure in my heart, my life, whenever I find that myself that I no longer have affection towards the people I'm serving beside, or my family members or the people around me. Have I been a good scorekeeper? And I'll just say this Christ is not a good, so he doesn't keep score, like his mercies are new every morning.

Speaker 1:

Can it be the same of us? Can somebody who failed you on your team last quarter come back onto your team as though they never failed, or are they? Do you have like a running count in your head of how many times they were late, how many times they let you down? How many times? Let me just ask you this how many times have you let Christ down? It's hard to walk in a fence when you look at the cross and realize that I walk. I do the same thing. I do the same thing.

Speaker 1:

Here's the thing Is that every strong marriage has two people who forgive well, and when you're both forgiving well, you don't have to worry about how strong your marriage is, because neither one are scorekeepers. I don't keep score of when Brian did laundry last, or when did he do this last, or when did no, it's just it needs to be done. I'm happy to do it. It's my honor to serve, and when you have a household that's built on people that serve equally, and it's not well. I took out the trash at the office the last five weeks and nobody even cared. And blah, blah, blah. Who keeps score? You want to be with the older brother and with Absalom.

Speaker 1:

He says listen, I'm assuming that your Christian community has affection because you're walking in mercy, that, listen, I'm assuming that your Christian community has affection because you're walking in mercy, that any strong community is going to be full of people that forgive a lot. Our staff is great because we forgive a lot. I fail, I fall short a lot. Cassie never fails. She doesn't fall short, but I do, and she forgives me and I'm grateful for that, and so. But I'll just say, like all of us, look around this room, how many of us here we've all had to forgive somebody in this room at some point. And I'll just promise you this again you're going to have to forgive them tomorrow. You're going to have to forgive them next year. You know why. I know that is because I fail, I fall short, and I know that you will too.

Speaker 1:

And Paul's saying listen, if you're going to be in a community together, these four things I'm assuming they're just part of who you are, because any strong community is going to have those things. Are we doing okay? So in 2.2, he says fulfill my joy, joy, count number five. Got another joy, and I love this. He says fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love and being of one accord and of one mind.

Speaker 1:

Christostom says this if you take comfort in Christ and if you take any account of me, if you have any thought for me personally, if you have received any good from me, listen to this carefully. So he's literally saying hey guys, like listen up to what I'm about to say, like everything I'm about to say. So what he's about to drop on us is going to be really important. In fact, um, these next verses are so beautiful, dropping three all the way through 11. Uh, paul begins to really give us a Christology um, that is so beautiful of Christ and what it means to us in the community of Christ. And so he says like-minded.

Speaker 1:

He says be like-minded, or the same mind, and this terminology he uses 10 times in Philippians, and Philippians 1, 7, 2, 2, 2, 5, 3, 15, 16. And then again in verse 19, and then 4, 2, and then again in 4, 10, and in several of these verses. He says it multiple times to arrive us at our 10, and the word there is phileos, and so what he's saying is there is a like-mindedness that God's calling us to be so more than anything. That's this point of agreement. And what is the point of agreement? It's on those four things. The point of agreement is around those four things and because our point of agreement is around those four things, that we're going to be a community that comforts, we encourage, we're merciful and what was the last one I just blacked out Merciful and we have fellowship in the spirit. Praise the Lord.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, my brain's been in a lot of content this week. Sometimes I'm like who am I? Am I first Wednesday or am I next Sunday? Where am I? Who am I right now? But this like-mindedness, and he's going to go into the overflow of that, of what happens.

Speaker 1:

And so, whenever we're reading the Bible, it's so important for us to recognize repetition and I say this in the college often but repetition reveals the author's concerns and values, his concerns and values. And so, like in Luke, I've been doing this on my stories on Instagram, just showing the repetition in the story, the repetition of characters, the repetition of theme and so whenever you're reading and you go, wait, he's saying like-minded again, this must be important, like there, there must be something here. And so we see that joy is a theme, but we see like-mindedness in a theme. Could I just make us consider this that the joy I have in my church is the more like-minded I am inside the church, the more I'm uniting myself with the people that I'm connected with, that I'm walking in unity, the more the overflow of that is going to be joy, like I'm going to begin. The expression of it is joy, and so I have more, but I think we've gotten far enough. We did two verses in 30 minutes Congratulations, but I think we've gotten far enough.

Speaker 1:

We did two verses in 30 minutes, congratulations. Next time we'll pick up and we'll keep going on three and four. But did y'all get something out of that? Is that good? I love y'all so much. Thanks so much for hanging out here on my podcast. Do me a favor and hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so already, so you never miss out on anything here on my podcast. Also, one of the best ways for us to begin to reach other people is by you sharing. So if you do me a favor and share this podcast with a friend, family member or maybe on your social media. Help us get the word out so we can help others you.