Adrian here. This post is a little late but better than never. :)
P.S. Sorry it's so long.

May every one of you who care about a spirit of real, encompassing love and warmth in our precious fellowship be encouraged and strengthened by these words. I put this hope of mine in God's hands as I ask God to write this through me to all of you.

This will be about Philippians 2:2-8.

Philippians 2:2, NASB. "Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose". I gave some of the Matchstix bookmarks i made with that very verse on it for Christmas. I went for a Bible seminar last night, covering Philippians 2.

"Mind" in the above verse doesn't refer to the brain, or solely intellectual thoughts. The word used refers to character, attitudes, values; everything internal to us that makes us a "good" or a "bad" person. In fact, "mind" and "purpose" in the above verse use the same Greek word: phroneo.

"Being of the same mind"; the mind of Christ. What's a good summary for the mind of Christ? Let's put it this way. The mind of Christ = The heart of a servant. Why is that?

Verse 6-11 of Phil chapter 2 is about what Jesus abandoned for us. He emptied Himself, says verse 7. Of what?

It's not his glory. John starts his gospel by speaking of how God's glory shone through Jesus; Hebrews says Jesus was the "radiance of His (the Father's) glory".

It's not his deity, his godhood. Without that the crucifixion would have no power to save the dead; it would have been the death of just another man.

What He gave up was his rights. His spirit of "My agenda, my way, my plans, my honor first."

Verse 7 says He took on "the form of a bond-servant". A bond-servant is a slave; not someone who can leave at any time, but someone who chooses to place himself under unbreakable obligation to serve. The word "form" here doesn't mean the 'external shape', which is "schema" in Greek. It is written in the original as "morphae"; a word meaning essence.

Jesus forfeited and abandoned his right to honor, his right to be the leader; right to his own pleasure, comfort, ease or peace; he in his ESSENCE became a servant.

When He washed the disciples feet; it's not like us now, with "relatively" clean feet, hidden from the world in socks and shoes. The men of Jerusalem walked in open streets with open flowing sewage and filth on the roads in sandals; they ate their meals in a reclined position next to the table, so the feet had to be cleaned of filth. This was the job of the lowest servant in the household.

No disciple could do it. It was unthinkable.

Jesus did it.

No bitterness, no spirit of wanting to shame his disciples. It was simply what He was. And Jesus was what he was, with the pure essence of servanthood, because gave up His rights. He made that choice.

He followed that choice, with the very essence of servanthood in Him, when He died on a wooden cross, nailed and suspended to it by his wrists, naked and dirty and encrusted with blood, with His own people screaming for his death; with his dear disciples hiding away; no one to turn to, and no one to care.

Most theologians say that the crucifixtion of Jesus had one very special, particular, specific, very real aspect to the situation.

Something no Christian ever experiences. Ever.

I believe it's the thing that makes it the really horrific thing that it was.

It's this:

The Father turned His back on Jesus as well.

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. Jesus own words: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

On Earth Jesus was a man who was God who knew clearly what his own state was, at all times. God forsaking Jesus - He would not have said that, unless He felt God's presence gone. No reassurance and no strength. No power, no Spirit, no more peace.

No love of the Father.

That is real loneliness.

Our lives are based on what the Word tells us. God is always with us, that He will never forsake us. We get through life following this when everything else betrays our needs. Men and women, missionaries, servants and slaves to God have lived in pain, in suffering, in fear, in agony, in perscution and by sword and flame and alone and afraid, and died, clinging to that promise when there is nothing else, finding peace and joy in it when it should have been impossible and ridiculous; earning their rewards in Heaven.

"Nothing seperates us from the love of God", we tell ourselves, we remind ourselves that the Bible says. "Neither depth nor height nor heaven nor hell", Paul says. When trouble comes, when pain comes, when our children die and our parents are taken away from us, when our lives crumble and our name is a curse on the lips of men, we cling to the Father.

Not for Jesus. Jesus died alone. Not like a child of God, but like something lower than a sinner.

How can that be? Yet that was the plan; Jesus died alone so that we could have the Father.

It was the plan.

For the first time, Jesus had no one. He came to earth to serve, to follow the Father, and he died alone and in shame and in darkness. And that was the plan.

Nobody was there for Jesus when He died. Enough pain to force from Jesus' lips that cry of abandonment, of a child thrown away by his father. It was the plan.

It was so that He need not ever do it to us, poor pitiful mortals made of dust, who don't deserve anything at all.

Because God loves us, that was the plan.

Nothing else could save us.

No other plan.

Jesus lived and died with no agenda, no rights to his own comfort, or peace. No right to the love of God to sustain him! We can't even imagine! Yet Jesus followed all the way to the end; and in the end He was brought to the right hand of the Father, glorified for what He did.

He bowed his head, and washed our feet, and died alone and with his name a curse, because he loved us.

That is the mind of Christ.


Phil 2:3 is about what would destroy that unity.

Selfishness. Empty conceit.

My needs are most important,
and my honor is most important.

Let us as the redeemed children of God, covered in Christ's blood, face this bravely: We all have agendas; egos; "my way or the highway".

Ourselves first. Our comfort first. Our "fair share" first. Let's be realistic: even the pagans know what a "fair share" is. Did Jesus have his "fair share" ? Who do we follow?

Paul wrote "he was the greatest of sinners" when he wrote his last epistles; it used to be "least of apostles", and then "least of disciples" in earlier epistles.

I'm not much either. What kind of thoughts do I think?

"I can teach better than Si'er."
"I can plan a play better than that."
"You all are not serious about this."
"I know more than all of you."
"You all don't know what you're doing."
"I know what I'm talking about! I'm the one here who has the understanding. It's a waste of time to listen to all of you."

My agendas, my plans, my way of doing things, my way or the highway;
my bitterness when my fair share is not given me,
my not talking to people who look depressed in favor of "fun" people,
my blaming others for what goes wrong in life.

My pretending to act blur when i play my computer games and my mom is doing household chores, at 2 am in the morning.
When I scream at and criticise my mom, not even in ignorance but in the knowledge of how much that will hurt her.
Turning off my msn when I see my friend and they have a sad nick, because i have "other things I need to do." Right. I need to read my online comics and relax. More important.

Greatest of sinners, that's my name. That's not Paul's title, that's mine. It's only right for all to look down on me.

But God doesn't.

He tells us, I give you My power. My only Son died so this power will come into your life.

It will change us.

Change us until what? Until how good?

Until we're "quite nice"? Until we're "decent people?" Until we're "read my Bible, go to church, go for Youth, shake hands when the worship leader says so, serve in a ministry" people?

Can already right? After all, Jesus died for us only what.

No big deal.

So. Change us. Until?

Until the people around us don't understand any more. Until they don't understand why we don't argue and backstab them back, when they betray us and "eat" us in horrible ways.

Until our fellow students think we're idiots because we refuse to make fun of our strict and demanding teachers behind their backs.

Until we take over duty in church or army or ECA or school project for someone else who keeps avoiding their work, and then pray that God will come and help them with their problems - because we finally realised they're not happy like that. Not happy at all; dying without knowing it.

God will change us until we're like Jesus.

Phil 2:12. Work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

We work as hard as we can, because we know what our salvation cost.

Phil 2:13: for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and work for His good pleasure.

And we cling and rely on God, because even the will to do so, and the strength to work, is God working in us. We have no power to change on our own.

Do our quiet time so that we can be closer to God. We will change. Pray so that we can commune with God and intercede for others and ourselves. We will change. Confess to Him our sins and confess to each other our sins. We will change. Throw away everything that hinders us, that makes our life complicated, things we idolize. We will change.

Jesus died for us. We will change.

Let's steathily, quietly, do things, do them well, do them quickly, carefully and excellently, and sneak away, so that no one sees our work for God. Jesus sees.

Let's encourage people who will never encourage you back, show people who will never speak well of us all the love we can. Jesus sees.

We shall sneak into the lives of the people around us, look after their needs, give to solve their problems, smile and spend our time finding out how they are, sacrifice our conceit to reassure them with our own past stories of failures. And we'll never hope for them to tell others how nice we are. Jesus sees.

Let's love each other, forgiving each other's faults, doing each other's duties if there is such an opportunity. Not a pain, but an opportunity. Jesus sees.

Let's tell each other our shames, encouraging each other, letting no one suffer alone in his own guilt and fear. Jesus sees.

Let's be a family not of goodie-two-shoes, but of sinners. Let's comfort each other's struggles with our own, reduce each other's shame with our own shames, restore each other's strength with our own lips. Jesus sees.

Let's cling to God like desperate sinners. Let us know what we do wrong, begging for the Spirit to change us, not letting a single drop of the blood of Jesus be wasted.

Jesus sees.

And what Jesus sees, He will tell the universe. He will say, This one is My follower. This one is My friend. This one does what I tell him to do.

What this one has become is what I died for.

Let's live for Jesus.