Let’s not fight about everything.

Steve Brown:
Let’s not fight about everything. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
That was Steve Brown. He’s an author, seminary professor, and our teacher on Key Life, a program all about God’s radical grace. We’re committed to bringing you Bible teaching that’s honest, straight-forward, and street-smart. Keep listening to hear truth that’ll make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hope you guys had a great week-end. And I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. If you’re just joining us, we’re studying the Book of Philippians. We’ve been doing it for a long time, but I can see the runway at the airport where we’re going to land this plane. In another three or four, maybe five weeks, we’ll end with Philippians. But for today, we’re going to be looking at Philippians 4:2 through 3. And we’re going to talk about fighting in the church. Before we do that, let’s pray and then we’ll study. Father, when we come into your presence, there is peace, there is silence, there is reality, and there is joy. When we come into your church, sometimes it’s just the opposite, division and anger and ego. Father, we repent, fix us, make your people, people who love each other deeply because they love Christ deeply. Father, you know everybody who’s listening to this broadcast. You know the hard places and the soft places, remind us that you’re sovereign over both, and that all things work together for good to those who are called according to your purpose. Father, as always, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast, forgive him his sins, because there are many. We would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen. This is a short text, by the way. And frankly, when I read these verses, I thought to myself, I’m going to say a couple of things about this particular text. And then we’ll move on to something that is more substantive. But the more I thought about these two verses, the more I realized there’s something for me in here. There’s something for you in here, so we’re going to spend a good while talking about fights and arguments and divisions within the church. But this is the simple text.

I plead with you Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal folk fellow, help these women, who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Do you know this is the only time in the Bible these two ladies are ever mentioned? How would you like for all of posterity to have your central sin be the only thing that’s remembered of you? I’ve done a lot of funerals in my day, and I’ve taught a lot of seminary students how to do funerals. And one of the main principles I teach seminary students is don’t have anybody think they’ve gone to the wrong funeral. Don’t have anybody coming forward to make sure that the person you’re talking about is the same person who died. Be honest, don’t be harsh, but be honest about their reality and who they were. And the people at the funeral need to be able to say to you when the funeral is over, you nailed it, son. You nailed it. Well, one of the things that Paul does when he writes, and I don’t know if he knew this was going to be Scripture for all of the history of the church, but these two ladies are going to be remembered for the fight they had. And that brings me to one other thing that needs to be said. People are always saying, I want to go back to the early church where people loved Jesus and joined hands and sang Kumbaya and walked off in the sunset together. Listen to me. There was never a time when that was true. And one of the things that I love about Scripture is its honesty. It is not a spin book to tell us about good people doing good things. From Genesis to Revelation, it’s all there. And the dark side is there too, and the reality is there too, and the divisions are there too, and the report on the fighting is there too, because God is defined by honesty and truth. And the early church had their fights, too. They were sinners just like you. They had disagreements just as we have disagreements. They had arguments just as we have arguments. And so, it’s a good thing to remember that when we think about the old days that never existed. You know, we do that. We have this selecting, selective remembering process that takes place in our lives. We remember the past and the bad stuff of the past we set aside and eventually forget. I was a pastor on Cape Cod for a good many years. And one of the elders in the church was laughing because some people had said, I wish we could go back to the old days on Cape Cod. And he said, Steve, they don’t want to go back to the old days on Cape Cod, it was a mess. The streets weren’t paved. There were animals everywhere and nobody liked anybody. Don’t think about going back to the old days of the church when everything was fine. It’s never been fine. We are, as somebody said.

A group of porcupines trying to hug each other in a storm.

But at any rate, in this particular text, we get the mention of two ladies that were having a fight, and that’s all we know about them. They’re having a fight. And Paul brings it up because he wants something done about it, and he’s aware of what I’m going to teach you as we go through this teaching on these two ladies. And the first thing I want you to note is the principle of potentiality. And that means because of the residence of God’s Spirit in the life of believers, God’s purposes are achievable. Look at the first part of the second verse of the fourth chapter of Philippians.

I plead with you Euodia and I plead with Syntyche.

What is Paul doing? He’s speaking to two women where the Holy Spirit resides. He’s speaking to two women who belong to Jesus. He’s speaking to women who will listen because of God’s Spirit in their lives. You know, there was a missionary to Korea who spoke in a church that I served one time during a mission conference. And he told a story about how this church had gotten into a fight. And he said it was so bad they were throwing chairs at each other and it had become quite physical. And somebody called the police. And the police came in, broke up the fight, and during that breakup, one of the policemen who was not a Christian said loud enough for everybody to hear, Will you act like Christians? You say, that’s not going to do it, yeah it will, because there’s something in me and there’s something in you, if we’re believers, that causes us to be drawn to the reality of what needs to be done, and when it’s spoken as Paul spoke it. When it’s spoken, there is a response, and it is doable. We may not love each other, but we can. We may not deal with all of the divisions, but we can. We may not fix everything, but we can. And Paul knew that, and there’s no details here. We don’t even know what they were fighting about. I’ll bet it had to do with ego, but we’ll talk about that a little bit later. But Paul says.

I plead with you.

And there was a response from both of these women, because that is what Christians do.

You’re acting like an orphan.

That was a statement that was made by my friend Jack Miller, the founder of World Harvest and a missionary and a professor at Westminster Seminary, where I sometimes taught. And he was kind of the father of the grace movement. And he talked so often about how we are children of God, who is our Father. And when some of his friends would get depressed, or angry, or upset, he would say something like this.

You’re acting like an orphan, stop it,

And it worked. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
The church has never been fine. I think that’s a very helpful thing to remember. Thank you Steve That was Steve Brown resuming our guided tour through the Book of Philippians. Today, specifically looking at Philippians 4:2 and 3. And tomorrow, we’ll continue examining the story of these two fighting ladies and what that story can teach us. Hope you will join us. Well, here on Key Life, we recently had a week of teaching from Matt Heard. I love his insights, he incorporates illustrations from literature and pop culture. And if you’re a Heard nerd too, then you should know about a book from Matt called life with a Capital L. It expands on the themes that Matt has been speaking about. If you ever feel limited or stuck. Guess what? That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. God intends the humanity in each of us to be deeply experienced, lavishly enjoyed, and exuberantly celebrated. And for a minimum donation of $15 to Key Life, this book is our gift to you. Just call us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to order that book. Or go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, the name of the book is life with a Capital L. And finally, would you prayerfully consider supporting Key Life financially? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can now give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.