Diligent to Preserve Unity

Philippians 2:1 says: “...Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any tender affection, any mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind...”

There is that passage. How beautiful. That is like the heart of the passage; it is as though the Holy Spirit of the Father were saying, complete my joy, fill me now with the blessing I need. I love you, I rejoice in you, but make that joy entirely full and manifest by being of the same mind.

What does it mean to be of the same mind? The Greek expression means thinking one thing, as in thinking the same thing. It means being of one mind, one thought, one way of thinking, with Congregación León de Judá being a united family, a family so harmonious that it is as though we had one mind, one thought, united by the Holy Spirit.

That is Jesus’ prayer. Father, may they be one, as you and I are one. The Lord wants our church to perfect that love, for us to set aside all quarrels, all divisions of class, race, nationality, socioeconomic background, and education.

When we come in here, all of that stays outside. Here we are children of God, servants of Jesus Christ, disciples of the Lord, believers in him, united by one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, one love, and, as the Word says, one Lord. That is what the Father wants, and we have to ask the Lord: Father, remove every quarrel, every complaint, all gossip, and every resentment among us. Help us to be diligent, it says, in preserving the bond of love. Diligent means that you have to make an effort; you have to be like a waiter who is attentive so that his customer at the table has the water he needs; if the customer drops a napkin, before it touches the floor, he is already picking it up.

Have you ever been to one of those very expensive restaurants? Where those waiters stand in a corner watching like sentries. As soon as the water in your glass goes down a little, one comes over and pours you a little more. Attentive. That is an attentive waiter. We have to be like that, diligent in pleasing the Father and diligent in preserving the bond of unity.

That is to say, any little thing—many times we are not diligent. The moment someone says something I do not like, I immediately flare up; as soon as they do something that does not sit well with me, as soon as they do not call me, as soon as they do not invite me, as soon as they do not put me there like a piece of Bethlehem glass, I already feel offended. Then we are not diligent.

That means that when you see the conversation getting heated, withdraw at once instead of continuing to add more fuel to the fire, so that the bond of love may remain. A congregation has to make a vow of harmony.

It says, “...complete my joy by being of the same mind...” by being of one mind, one heart, one feeling, one attitude, one desire—being of the same mind, the same thing. It says:

“...Do nothing out of rivalry or vainglory...”

Notice that all of this leads to one thing, and you are going to see it in a moment, and it is Passion Week. He is actually giving the application before the exposition. In other words, what he is saying should come at the end of what follows, but he puts it at the beginning, and then he uses what follows as an illustration of what he is asking us to do.

So, so he is saying: pray, León de Judá; be of the same mind, be a united church, be brothers and sisters who love one another and who are diligent in preserving the bond of peace. Do nothing out of rivalry or vainglory.

When I stand here, I have to say to him: Lord, take away from me all pretension, every desire to do anything for myself, to magnify myself, or to receive something from people. I have to examine my heart very carefully whenever I do anything up here, because I know how dangerous it is when someone does anything out of vainglory, pride, a desire to draw attention to oneself or, in some way, to show off, as Puerto Ricans say, or to have a little moment over there: how good, how great... No.

You have to come up here stripped of all human pretension, and you have to do the same in your ministry, in whatever you do, whether you are a cell-group leader or work as an usher. Wow, this uniform looks so good; I look so nice this Sunday. No, you have to strip yourself of all vainglory, and you must not do anything out of rivalry either.

Sometimes we do things—ah, so they will see, so they will realize. Neither out of vainglory, which is one thing... nor out of rivalry, but neither of those two things, the negative and the seemingly positive, should motivate anything we do. We have to examine our hearts every time we minister in a group or anywhere else; we have to say: Lord, only because of your mercy and your goodness.

When a congregation does that, brothers and sisters, when it is made up of people like that, it is God’s greatest blessing and glory. God descends upon a church like that. It says:

“...Do nothing out of vainglory or rivalry, but rather with humility...”

We have to ask the Lord to teach us what humility truly is.

“...Each esteeming others as better than themselves...”

That is a principle repeated many times in Scripture. If I were a Pentecostal preacher, I would tell you right now: Look at the brother or sister to your right—why don’t you do it? Look at that person and say, “You are better than I am.” Say it. That is what I would do if I were Pentecostal. I do not mean that you should have an inferiority complex, because an inferiority complex does not please God.

What it is saying is that you have to look at your brothers and sisters and see the good in them and, in a sense, see so much goodness in them, while being so aware of your own flaws and your sin, that it is as though you looked at your brother and said, “He is a much better Christian than I am.” What it is saying is...

Because many times we are always looking at the good in ourselves and the bad in others. I believe the Bible invites us: No, look at the good in others, and look at yourself and see all your sin and how far you still have to go. And then you say, wow, truly.

That is how it is, brothers and sisters: there are many people up here in the pulpit serving God and taking a lot of the glory for themselves, while there are people in the seats who will enter the Kingdom of God before they do. I understand that very well. And one has to be continually aware of that. One has to be aware of the blessing found in the humblest person.

Many times we exalt ourselves so much; we are not sufficiently aware of our own spiritual poverty. If there is something you have done for which you believe you deserve glory, renounce it immediately. Always see the good in your brother, exalt him and bless them, and see yourself in your spiritual poverty. And that, instead of making you inferior, will lift you up.

Look at what it says here: “...Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but each one also to the interests of others...”

You see all of that: those first four verses are an invitation to the congregational ethic of the family of God—not doing anything out of vainglory or rivalry, being aware of your own poverty, being aware of your brother’s merit, striving to preserve the bond of harmony with one another, and not protecting your own little patch.

Many times we are like that, like dogs that growl when someone is going to take away their bone. If I have sat in the same place for ten years and someone sits there, forget it, right away... grrrr... All the quills come out. If the brother next to me is bothering me because I am singing off-key, I let him know that he is bothering me. Someone sits down and presses a little too close against me because he is wearing a coat... let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It means taking your eyes off yourself and placing them on the other person in a benevolent way, full of grace. It is the ethic of grace. So, having said all of that—notice, that is the practical part of this passage—he then uses the example of someone who carried this to its fullest expression. Who is that? Jesus. This week we celebrate precisely that act. It then says:

“...Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus...”

In other words, Christ exemplified everything stated there: he did not look to his own interests, he did nothing out of vainglory, he did nothing out of rivalry, he saw the beauty in others, and he did everything with humility, seeking not his own pleasure or comfort but that of others. It says:

“...Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”—and he then explains why Christ exemplifies that at the highest level. Look at what his condition was—

If you or I try to be humble, it is because we know we have no other choice, because the truth is that we do not deserve much; but the Lord had every right to exalt himself, to be vainglorious, because everything good that could be said was true of him; he exemplified it. It says:

“...Who, being in the form of God”—and I am not going to expound on it, because it is a glorious and sublime passage, and I am going to restrain myself because I already want to let loose, but it says—“...who, being in the form of God”—en morphē Theou, that is the word for form; Theou, God; en morphē Theou—“being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God...”

There is the divinity of Christ. As something to be grasped, he did not cling to anything, but quite the opposite: he stripped himself, robbed himself, emptied himself—the word is kenosis. It means that he emptied himself, stripped himself, divested himself, “...taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross...”

There is the exposition of what we are supposed to do. He exemplifies that to the utmost, and you and I are supposed to use him as our model. Instead of merely saying, Oh Lord, how good you are, how great you are, we praise you. No: Lord, help me to be like you in all my conduct, in my entire way of being.

Because, you know what? That attitude is what draws what comes next into the life of a child of God. It says:

“...Therefore God also”—because he did that, God did his part, it says—“highly exalted him...”

He could not take him any higher, “...and gave him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth, and even under the earth...”

One day the demons will have to kneel; the principalities, the powers, all the powers of hell will one day have to do so as well... because they have authority, they have their own diabolical glory, but they do have it; yet one day they will have to kneel as captives. One day all creation will have to acknowledge him: the atheists, the vain, the materialists, the philosophers who refused to acknowledge him, the artists who wanted their own glory instead of giving it to the Lord, the philanthropists who took too much glory for themselves instead of saying, “That money I gave was because Christ gave it to me; God gave it to me.”

All those people will have to humble themselves before the Lord. The animals, the birds, the fish, and the insects will raise a symphony of worship to the Lord. That is going to be something incredible.

“...Every knee of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father...”

You see, brothers and sisters, that passage, which they say is one of the earliest hymns sung in the church: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God. It is believed to be a hymn that was sung in the church.

There was a confession, a creed, but the origin of that is a call for us to model and exemplify what Christ modeled in an extraordinary way. This Passion Week, as it is called, this Holy Week invites us to reflect on Jesus Christ’s way of living, his way of being, what brought him to earth, what led him to the cross, what led him to make himself thin and enter the translucent body of a baby and live as a man who, as the Bible says, had no attractiveness that anyone should desire him.

If Christ had walked down one of our streets today, we would not even have stopped for a moment to look at him, because he was a simple, humble man, ordinary in his physical appearance; he was not Brad Pitt, in today’s terms.

One of the things I sometimes think about this series... The Bible series—how beautiful and how good—but I do not believe Jesus looked like a movie star. Jesus was a man who, it very clearly says, had no attractiveness that we should desire him—not that we should not desire him, but he had no attractiveness that anyone should desire him. That is, he would simply have walked by and looked like a little country fellow from Roxbury or Jamaica Plain. That was Jesus. He was not a striking man or anything like that; he was the Son of Man. He was like a blend of all humanity: he looked Brazilian, African, Arab; he was a mixture of races. He was like humanity itself distilled into an average man.

I believe he made himself that way—humble, simple, ordinary—and God said, wow, I am pleased with my Son; look how beautiful he is, and then He lifted him up. When you live that way, God lifts you up. People think that you reach glory by blowing your own trumpet, but it is exactly the opposite: it is by going into a corner where no one can see you and saying, Lord, if You want to, lift me up and place me in the midst. Many times we fight for the best places, positions of authority; if they pay homage to us, we get upset.

Do you know how you attain glory and power and authority in the Kingdom of God? By going right into the middle where no one in the congregation can see you and saying, Lord, if it pleases You, You will lift me up in Your time. That is the person who truly and genuinely attains authority. And then no one can take it away, because God Himself gave it to them.

Brothers and sisters, during this Holy Week, let us promise and purpose to be like Christ in His attitude, His humility, His simplicity, and His preference for His brothers and sisters. Let us stand.

Let us thank the Lord for His lovely, rich presence in our midst. Get ready; come on Friday prepared to worship the Lord. You do not think you have already filled your quota for the week, do you? We are going to come on Friday and give the Lord a little more. Amen. And go home believing that nothing has been taken from you tonight—not energy, not rest, not anything. Here you were given energy and rest. When you go home tonight, you will sleep well. Amen. It will be wonderful; you will rest like a baby.

The Lord is with you. Rejoice, because what the Lord has for your life is good. Right now, in the name of the Lord, renounce all fear, every expectation of disaster and decrepit old age, and sickness, poverty, and disobedient children. Renounce that in the name of Jesus right now. Renounce all fear, all scarcity, all weakness, every deficiency. Renounce every addiction, every oppression, every bondage. Renounce it in the name of Jesus right now, and leave this place clean, stripped of it all, healed in the name of Jesus, full of life; declare the power that flows from God into your life in the name of the Lord. Your longings will be fulfilled; your children will be blessed. God is going to give you your house. God is going to give you your spoils; what you have been crying out to the Lord for all this time, you are going to receive in the name of Jesus. Amen.

In the name of Jesus, we claim it. We say, “It is mine tonight.” Glory to God. We receive it, Father. Thank You, thank You. Hallelujah! We worship You, Lord. We bless You. Holy, holy is the Lord. Amen. Amen.