Would you open your Bible now to Philippians  chapter 4, this lovely letter from the apostle   Paul to the Christians in the city of Philippi.  For many months, we have been examining its great   truth. We now have come to the final chapter of  what is a short letter and yet a very long letter   in terms of the truth it conveys. We’re looking  at chapter 4 verses 1 through 9 and entitling   that particular unit of Scripture “Spiritual  Stability.” Spiritual Stability. Taking that   little phrase in verse 1, “Stand firm in the  Lord,” as the theme of this wonderful passage. Now, generally, I would say that we in our society  admire someone who stands firm or stands true or   stands up for what he or she believes. We admire  resolute kind of people, people who are very   stable against pressure, who are unwavering, who  are uncompromising, who are courageous and bold.   We admire people who can’t be bought, can’t be  bribed, can’t be intimidated, can’t be softened   up, can’t be defeated. Just in general, I think  we hold out admiration for that kind of person.

Maybe in especially poetic terms, Rudyard Kipling  summed it up as well as anyone when he wrote these   familiar words: “If you can keep your head when  all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on   you; if you can trust yourself when all men doubt  you but make allowance for their doubting, too;   if you can wait and not be tired by waiting,  or being lied about don’t deal in lies,   or being hated don’t give way to hating, and  yet don’t look too good nor talk too wise;   if you can dream and not make dreams your master;  if you can think and not make thoughts your aim;   if you can meet with triumph and disaster  and treat those two imposters just the same;   if you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken  twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools or   watch the things you gave your life to broken  and stoop and built them up with worn-out tools;   if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue  or walk with kings, not lose the common touch;   if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;  if all men count with you but none too much;   if you can fill the unforgiving minute  with sixty seconds worth of distance run;   yours is the earth and everything that’s in it,  and which is more, you’ll be a man, my son.” We honor somebody who is uncompromising,  resolute, firm, strong, bold, courageous. We  

call that integrity. And there’s something very  admirable about that kind of human character,   that sort of heroic stability. We applaud it. We  look for those kinds of people to be our models   and our examples and our leaders. And if, in fact,  courage of conviction, integrity, credibility,   a non-compromising, resolute, truth-bearing  strong, firm stance is admirable among those   in our society, how much more essential is  it to those who are Christians? After all,   the very term “Christian” identifies us with  Christ, and Christ was the most uncompromising,   courageous, firm-standing person who ever lived.  He would not compromise. He would not deviate from   the truth. He could not be bought. He would not  sell out. He is the model of courageous integrity.

And those of us who name the name of Christ  should know something of that kind of stability,   that kind of firmness, consistency, that  kind of steadfastness. And that is precisely   what the New Testament affirms because  repeatedly throughout the New Testament,   Christians are called to stand firm over and over  and over again in a number of different ways,   using a number of different terms. We are called  not to be tossed around. We are called not to   doubt or be unstable or be like the waves of the  sea tossed to and fro. We are called to be firm,   to stand strong. A number of times it says  to be of good courage, to be fixed like men,   to not be unstable. We are told to be bold, to  be uncompromising in living for Jesus Christ.

I suppose we could turn to a number of passages  to see this, but let me just draw your attention   to one just a page or so beyond our text.  Colossians is the next epistle. Chapter   2 verse 5 sums it up well. Paul, writing  to the saints in Colossae in verse 5, says,   “Even though I am absent in body, nevertheless  I am with you in spirit.” What he means is “I   think about you all the time. You’re always  on my heart, you’re always on my mind.” And   what is my desire? “Rejoicing to see your  good discipline and the stability of your   faith in Christ.” My real desire for you  is that I might know the joy of seeing   the good discipline that leads to a stable  faith, an unwavering faith, a strong faith. I suppose that any of us who knows Christ  personally would admit to the fact that   we wish our faith were stronger than it is. None  of us is particularly enamored with the prospect   of stumbling and bumbling and teetering and  tottering around in our spiritual experience,   and yet that is in fact the experience of many  of us. We would all desire to be firm. We would   all desire to be strong. I don’t think  we want to be victimized by difficulty.   I don’t think we want to be knocked over  by troubles and trials and problems in   life. I don’t think we want to be defeated  by temptation, the onslaught of the world,  

the flesh and the devil to trip us up and cause  us to fall into sin. I think we would be like   the apostle Paul who saw the sin in his life but  hated it and said, “When I do it, I don’t want   to do it.” I think we would all like to stand  firm and be strong. We also must recognize that   it won’t be easy because we are in a warfare.  We were saved to conflict. We are soldiers;   we’ve been called into battle. That’s why this  term in verse 1, “Stand firm in the Lord,” is   a military term because we are on spiritual  military duty in conflict with the enemy. So we might all say, “Well, yeah, I appreciate  the exhortation to stand firm, be strong, be bold,   be courageous, be stable, but how do I do that?  How can I reach that kind of stability?” In fact,   if you look at Christians around you, you might  assume that some are more stable than others,   and that’s a correct assumption. Some appear  very stable, some appear very unstable,   and then all in between there are all kinds  of different degrees of stability. There may   be sort of the rising feeling in your heart that  maybe you’re just sort of genetically unstable.   Well, I want to indicate to you that genetics  have nothing to do with spiritual resources.   It’s not something you inherited, your  basic instability. It’s a spiritual issue.

And there’s no real mystery in understanding why  some people are unstable in spiritual things and   some people are very stable, why some people  are immature, some people are very mature,   why some people collapse under trials, collapse  under temptation, other people endure trials,   endure temptation with victory, why some  people are seemingly always defeated and   others are always triumphing in Christ. There’s  no real mystery to that, it’s just a problem   that can be solved by the development of spiritual  stability that comes through certain principles.   That should be very encouraging to you. You may  be weak in the faith, you may be unstable. You   may be a new Christian and there’s a certain  amount of instability in just that because you   haven’t had an opportunity to grow strong. But the  process is clearly outlined in the Word of God. As I just read you in Colossians 2:5, it  is associated with good discipline. The   disciplined life becomes the stable life.  And so you have to understand that in order   to be spiritually stable and not knocked  over by all the things that come your way,   whether it’s the persecution of hostile people  or whether it’s the temptation of Satan and the   flesh or whether it’s the trials and troubles  that just make up life in this fallen world,   there are principles that will enable you  to become strong. We’re going to work our   way in the next few weeks through  these principles in verses 1 to 9.

Now, would you notice back in verse 1 where Paul  introduced the basic principle of standing firm,   he used the little word “so.” That means  “thus” or “in this way” stand firm in the Lord,   and then he outlines how to do it. He’s  saying to the Philippians, “If you’re   going to be firm in the Lord, strong, resolute,  stable Christians, here is how you must do it.”   And then starting in verse 2, he gives them  a series of principles. These are the things   that produce spiritual stability, and we’re  going to see an ever-enriching understanding   as we move through these verses this week, next  week for sure, and maybe the week following. Let’s look at the first principle.  We have already considered verse 1,   so we’ll move from there. Let’s consider the  first principle. Here is how you are to be   spiritually stable. Principle number one, by  maintaining or cultivating harmony or peace   in the fellowship of love. By cultivating  harmony or peace in the fellowship of love.

Now, I need to explain that a little bit – let  me do that. I am convinced that this pursuit   of spiritual stability – and I know Paul was  convinced of it as well – is somewhat dependent   on associations that we have. I can tell you  in my own life that it is obvious to me that   I become more unstable in isolation from other  believers, that the fellowship of believers,   the close, intimate, loving harmony of the  body of Christ is a tremendous factor in my   own stability. And I believe that you experience  that, too, as a Christian. That’s what the church   is all about. It’s all about people holding up  other people, it’s all about accountability,   it’s all about caring, it’s about mutual love and  harmony and peace. It’s about having our lives so   intertwined that we can support one another  and sustain one another, lean on one another,   hold one another up, restore one another when  one has fallen, as Paul says in Galatians,   and after you’ve restored them, build them  up. We’re all about that kind of involvement.

And that is precisely what is on the mind  of the apostle Paul in verses 2 and 3 as   he moves into his subject in some detail. He  writes, “I urge you Euodia and I urge Syntyche   to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed,  suzugos” – that’s the Greek word there,   translated “true comrade” in the  New American. “Indeed, suzugos,   I ask you also to help these women who have shared  my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together   with Clement also and the rest of my fellow  workers, whose names are in the book of life.” Now, what Paul does here is  very, very fascinating to me.   He identifies a problem of conflict in the  Philippian church in no uncertain terms. He’s not   at all vague, he names the two women who are the  problem. And then he names a person to help the   problem out. Very specific. What he is after here  is unity in the church, harmony in the church.   You see, there are potential discords at many  levels of church life that threaten stability. Let   me give you a very simple insight. When a church  is generally unstable, when there is a conflict   in a church at a high level, it will generate  instability throughout the whole church. The   people will fall victim to that instability. On  the other hand, where there is unity and oneness  

and peace and harmony as a whole, the people enjoy  the stability that that provides for all of them. Paul knows that and he knows that two women  having a major conflict in a church can threaten   the spiritual stability of believers throughout  that congregation because they will fall to all   kinds of sins – party spirit, criticism,  negative attitudes, bitterness, revenge,   hostility, unforgiveness, pride. Paul knows that.  He also knows that when people make peace and make   harmony and love one another and cultivate the  relationship of the unity of the Spirit in the   bond of peace, as Paul calls it, that when  that goes on, there is stability throughout   the whole church. It’s as if the general  strength becomes the individual strength. When you know you’re loved, when you know that  people really love you, and when you have made   loving commitments to others in the body of  Christ, and when you know that the loving people   of the church care about you and are praying for  you and you are working together with them and   they’re working together with you, and you know  that love is at work and you’re held accountable   but you’re also helped and encouraged and  nurtured, that provides stability. There are a lot   of people in churches, you know, that don’t have  that, and they flounder and they drift and they   flop and they fall because the environment they’re  in is not supportive, it’s not sustaining. We are  

to support the weak. We are to lift up the fallen,  to restore the broken, those overtaken in sin. We   are to demonstrate love at work, which stabilizes  the church, and that’s what he’s calling for here. Now, let me say this to you right here as a  footnote, and I’ll repeat this as we go through.   Spiritual stability is related to the attitudes  that you have, okay? It’s not related to your   circumstances. It’s related to how you think. It’s  directly related to how you think, how you react   to what’s going on in your environment. And if you  learn to react properly, you will have spiritual   stability; and if you don’t, you will not. It’s  how you think that is the issue. And so Paul is   going to teach us here how to think. In fact,  when he comes down finally to verse 8, he says,   “Let your mind dwell on these things.” It’s  how you think that brings spiritual stability.   And primarily – and here’s a little secret I’m  going to unfold in the next few weeks – primarily,   it is not how you think about you, it  is not how you think about your problem,   it is how you think about God that  controls your spiritual stability.   Everything resolves itself in your theology,  and how you think about God will control your  

spiritual life in every dimension –  and we’re going to see that unfold. But let’s start with this matter of pursuing  or cultivating harmony or peace in the   fellowship of love. Verse 2, he uses the  word “urge” here, parakale. We would get   the word “paraclete” from it, which the  Holy Spirit is called in John’s gospel,   one who comes alongside to plead or beg or  encourage or help. So Paul is in a pleading,   begging, encouraging mode and he says, “I want to  plead with these two women, Euodia and Syntyche,   to please live in harmony in the Lord.”  This is most fascinating, most fascinating. Paul is this great theologian with this immense  theological mind and this tremendous logical   capability, and he is delving into the depths  of great divine truth, and even in the book of   Philippians, which we tend to think, for the most  part, is a little bit lighter weight than some of   the other epistles like Galatians and Romans and  Corinthians, but in fact is very, very deep, we   wonder how he could sort of – after digging deeply  into great truth – pop up to the surface and say,   “Hey, will you tell those two women to get their  act together.” It seems a bit on the trite side.

I mean there are so many grandiose things  he’s been dealing with. I mean if you were   with us in chapter 3, you know some of the  things he’s been dealing with. In chapter 3,   he was deeply concerned about the fact that  the Philippians were under the attack of   false teachers advocating false gospels,  false doctrines. And they were under the   attack of people who were living a false  kind of life, saying they were Christians   but not living a godly life. There were  some very serious problems. In chapter 3,   he warned about the legalism of the Judaizers.  He calls them dogs and evil workers and a false   mutilation, doing a little play on words  with their love of circumcision. He says,   “These people are saying grace and faith is  not enough for salvation, we have to add works,   and they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.  Don’t believe their lies, their damning lies.” And then he launches into a discussion of  the sort of intellectual elite who were   espousing the idea that they had arrived,  spiritually they had landed at perfection,   and he says, “Well, I haven’t arrived, I’m still  pressing toward the mark, and don’t you believe   their lie that they have arrived at spiritual  perfection in some kind of elite Gnosticism.”   And then he attacked the libertines, the  antinomians, the people whose god was their belly,   whose flesh was the director of all of their  appetites, and who consumed whatever they   wanted on their lusts. And he calls them  all the enemies of the cross of Christ.

He’s been dealing with some very serious  things, and all of these were coming at the   Philippian church. And you say with all of  those deadly threats to the purposes of God   that were skewing and perverting the doctrines  of salvation, why would he all of a sudden pop   up to the surface after depths like that  and say, “Get those two women together”?   I’ll tell you why. Because he understood how  discord is equally a deadly threat to the   life of the church. It will rob a church of  its power and it will destroy its testimony. There’s a sense in which he is reminding us of  the stakes in this particular game that we’re   involved in. The violently hostile intent of the  enemies of Christ leads them to be willing to find   any advantage by which they can discredit the  church. And the church’s discord and infighting   is one that they use frequently – frequently.  This could be devastating to the testimony of the   Philippians. They were under glass; everyone was  watching in this pagan culture. Discord, disunity,   conflict at the level of the church could have  devastated the integrity of their testimony,   and apparently, they were really  seriously on the edge of that.

Go back to chapter 1 verse 27 – do you remember  it? He says, “Conduct yourselves in a manner   worthy of the gospel of Christ.” In other  words, live consistent with your message. “So   that whether I come and see you or remain absent,  I will hear that you are standing firm” – here it   is – “in one spirit, with one mind, striving  together for the faith of the gospel.” He’s   crying for unity there. He recognizes that they’ve  got opponents in verse 28. He recognizes that.   But he says, “You’ve got to stand firm. You’ve  got to be true to what you believe. You’ve got   to live worthy lives.” In chapter 2 verse 2 he  says, “If you want to make my joy complete” – the   assumption here is it isn’t complete – “then  be of the same mind, love everybody the same,   be united in spirit and intent on one purpose,  stop doing things from selfishness and empty   conceit, be humble, regard others as more  important than yourself, don’t look on your   own things but on the interests of others, be  like Christ.” There was obviously some discord.

Chapter 2 verse 14 indicates that they were  grumbling and disputing about things. That   had to stop. Now maybe he focuses a little more  directly on the problem. Here are two women who,   apparently, are leading two factions of discord  in the church. And he says, “I want to urge these   two women to live in harmony in the Lord.” Now,  obviously, we don’t know much about these women.   But let me tell you what we can surmise from  this one verse and the background. Number one:   Theirs was not a doctrinal issue. It was not a  debate over doctrine or he would have resolved   it by taking one side or the other, right? If one  was teaching truth and one was teaching error,   he would have sided with one or the other. It  had nothing to do with reality in terms of truth,   and that is usually the case in church conflict.  It has to do with opinion rather than doctrine. The second thing we know about it is these  two ladies were church members. So you had   two church members, obviously prominent, they  simply are known by name here, prominent church   members who are having some kind of personal  conflict that’s not related to doctrine. Now,   if it had been related to doctrine, there’s a  place for conflict. A heretic has to be admonished   and then put out. Somebody who is teaching error  has got to be exposed and eliminated. Anybody   preaching a false gospel is cursed in Galatians  1. We’re not talking about doctrinal error here,   we’re talking about two women who couldn’t  get along with each other, had picked sides,  

caused a conflict, and lined up people on  both sides against each other. They were   prominent women and they were obviously  beloved women who were having an impact. Now, just who were they? Well, we don’t know  but we can surmise this: Paul says in verse 3   that they were formerly working with him in the  struggle of the gospel. It may well be that they   were among those women who were by the river in  Philippi when Paul arrived there the first time   and started the church. You remember when he  came to Philippi, there was no synagogue there?   The reason – he would always go to the synagogue  and preach first to the Jews, win them to Christ,   then get those converted Jews on his side  and go evangelize the Gentiles in the city.   But when he came to this city of Philippi,  there was no synagogue. The reason was it   took eleven men to constitute enough to have  a synagogue. There weren’t eleven Jewish men   there who lived in that city, so there was  no synagogue, so some faithful Jewish women   met together to worship Jehovah God by the  river. They didn’t have an official synagogue. So Paul went in and that’s where the church really  began, with that ministry of evangelism to those   women. It’s very possible that among those  women were these two, Euodia and Syntyche,   we don’t know. We do know that they were creating  havoc in the church, such havoc that the church   was not striving together in one mind for the  faith of the gospel, such havoc that they were   not maintaining a mutual love for one another  and needed to be reminded of the fact they   were proud rather than humble and they were  self-serving rather than other-serving as he   did in chapter 2. And here he identifies their  leaders. And he is deeply concerned about this.

So he simply says to them,  “Let them live in harmony.”   “Let them live in harmony,” recognizing that the  only issue was an issue of a lack of harmony,   a lack of love, which is always the  presence of pride and the absence of   humility. They were demanding their own way  rather than being concerned about the other. Now, will you notice he says, “To live in  harmony in the Lord.” That’s the sphere. If   they’ll just get right with the Lord, it’ll  solve the problem. You understand that?   Two people who are right with the  Lord are right with each other,   is that not true? If I’m walking in the  Spirit and I’m right with the Lord and   you’re walking in the Spirit and you’re right  with the Lord, we’re going to get along great,   no problem. So he says, “Get them together to  live in harmony or live in peace in the Lord.” Now, he goes a step further. Verse 3 – this  is very interesting. He is so concerned about   this that he doesn’t just say, “I urge them to  get together.” Now, can you imagine that the   Sunday they read this thing, those two women were  there? And the elders haven’t told them what’s   in the letter and they’re reading and reading  and these women are sitting there, “Yes, yes,   mm-hmm, mm-hmm,”. And then they come to the last  chapter and they read, “I urge Euodia and I urge   Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.” Whoa –  a direct hit. And then the letter says, “Indeed,  

true comrades,” says the NAS, “I ask you to  help these women.” So right in this letter,   while it’s being read to the people,  he asks this guy to help these women   get together in harmony. This is part of the  mutual ministry of the church, the believers. Now, notice that term “true comrade.” Sounds  a bit Communist, but it isn’t. It’s the Greek   word suzugos. It is translated to “yokefellow,”  somebody who carries a common load – a yoke,   you know, two oxen in it, pulling  the same load. A yokefellow is   someone who is carrying the same  load, my partner in this effort,   my partner in this endeavor, my partner in  this enterprise, my equal in this operation.   So if you translate it – let’s say we take the  word suzugos and let’s translate it and say   it means yokefellow, then he adds the word  “true” yokefellow or “genuine” yokefellow.

There are several possibilities. One,  he’s referring to somebody we don’t know,   somebody that was known as Paul’s yokefellow. We  don’t know who it is, but it’s somebody unnamed.   That would seem a little strange to me since  he just named the two women so explicitly,   since he names Clement so explicitly in a  moment. Why would he not name this person?   And since he was under the inspiration of the  Holy Spirit and had perfect recall of everything,   it wasn’t that he forgot the guy’s name.  So why wouldn’t he put his name in here?   So it wouldn’t seem to me to make any  sense that this is the name of somebody   whose name isn’t here but who knew who  he was and would know that this was him. The other option is that he’s using this  singular term in a collective sense and   he refers to the church. Indeed, as a  church entity, you are my yokefellow,   so I ask you – it’s a singular but it’s  a collective noun involving the whole   church – I ask all of you to help  those women. That’s a possibility.

But I think there’s a better explanation.  Let’s say we don’t translate the word at   all and we just leave it in the Greek.  It would say, “Indeed, genuine suzugos,   I ask you also to help these women.” And I prefer  that we leave it untranslated and that he’s really   talking to a guy named Syzygus. You say, “Well,  who is Syzygus?” We don’t know, but it’s very   likely that he is one of the overseers or elders  mentioned in verse 1 of chapter 1. Remember,   Paul was writing to the Philippians including  the overseers and deacons. Syzygus must have   been one of the elders in the church, one of the  pastors, who hadn’t really fulfilled his duty,   who hadn’t solved this problem. And so  Paul, taking apostolic authority from God,   says, “I want you, Syzygus, to get  on this case and help these women. Now, somebody says, “Well, if you take  the term suzugos as a proper name,   then why the word true or genuine? Why would  he say true Syzygus or genuine Syzygus? It   doesn’t seem to make any sense.” But it does.  But it does – if you understand it this way:   Syzygus was named Syzygus and his name meant  yokefellow. When he calls him true Syzygus,   he is simply saying, “Hey, you are  a genuine Syzygus in that you are   a yokefellow.” It was a way to sort of  identify the man as true to his name.

Let me ask you a question. What does the  name Barnabas mean? Anybody remember? Son   of what? Encouragement. Barnabas was a genuine  Barnabas, wasn’t he? His name was Barnabas and   he was a genuine son of encouragement. Do you  remember a man by the name of Onesimus? Paul   wrote to Philemon, the slave owner, about his  slave, Onesimus. Do you remember what Onesimus   means? It means useful. And when Paul wrote to  Philemon, he said “He who was useless formerly   is now useful.” He is an Onesimus Onesimus.  He is a genuine Onesimus, just as Barnabas   was a genuine Barnabas and Syzygus was a  genuine Syzygus. He was a real yokefellow.   So it’s a wonderful commendation of this  elder in the church named Syzygus who lived   up to his name. So he says, “Syzygus,  look, I ask you, help these women.” Now, beloved, that’s part of spiritual  stability in the church, is to help each other,   isn’t it? He says to the Philippians, “Stand  firm.” How you going to do that? Got to help   each other. You have to be a conflict resolver,  a peacemaker, cultivating harmony all the time,   cultivating harmony – harmony.  Harmony in the fellowship of love,  

which produces an environment of stability,  of mutual support. If you don’t do that,   if you’re one who leaves a trail of conflict,  you’re generating instability in the church. Now, these were significant ladies.  Syzygus was going to be a peacemaker.   They were significant. Look what he says  about them. “These women who have shared my   struggle in the gospel.” What does that  mean? Well, it could mean, as I said,   that they were part of that original Philippian  group that went through the difficulty. And I   mean it was a struggle getting that  church off the ground in Philippi,   wasn’t it? Where did Paul end up in Philippi?  Where did they put him for preaching? In jail.   Not only in jail but in stocks. And what happened  one night when he was in stocks? He was singing in   there. You remember Paul and Silas were singing,  having a great old time singing hymns to God? And in the middle of the night, an earthquake  came and let them loose, and as a result,   the jailer and his entire family got saved and  a lot of other folks got saved and the church   was born? It may well have been that these two  dear women were actually there and a part of   that early beginning of the tremendous spiritual  struggle in Philippi to get that church off the   ground. That was not an easy enterprise, and  there was a great price to pay in the lives   of people who were faithful to see that  church begun. So these were unique women.

And it points up the fact that sometimes  the best people – the good people,   the faithful people – can become agents  of the enemy in inducing conflict. Boy,   we have to guard against that. The enemy would  twist and pervert any one of us who believes   he has some good noble cause to become the  agent of discord if we’re not sensitive.   And he says – and I love this about Paul  – when he says, “I want you to help these   women who have shared my struggle” – by the  way, that verb “shared my struggle” sunathle,   we get the word “athletics,” which means  to struggle or to strive; sun compounds,   makes it more intense, they have diligently  struggled in getting the gospel out. But he says, “I just want you to know, it  wasn’t them alone, together with Clement   also.” And Clement was another of the leaders  in the church at Philippi – we don’t know any   more about him. And then, just so he  doesn’t leave anybody out, he says,   “And the rest of my fellow workers, whose names  are in the book of life.” He’s sort of like the MC   at the banquet who doesn’t want to leave anybody  out, so he says, “And everybody else who helped,   too.” And even though their names aren’t  written in the book of Philippians, he says   they’re written in the book of life, and that’s  a lot better, right? Remember Hebrews 6, God   says He’s not going to forget your labor? It’ll  not be in vain. He has the names of all of them.

So he says, “These dear women shared  my struggle, together with Clement,”   whom – the implied thought is – you know and  love, “and the rest of all my fellow workers,   whose names are the book of life.” In other  words, they’re on the team, they’re believers,   they’re faithful servants, they’re workers.  Not the only ones, but their names are in the   book of life, that’s the implication here, their  names are in the book of life. The book of life,   by the way, is the register where God keeps  the names of the redeemed. Daniel 12:1,   Malachi 3:16-17, then moving into the New  Testament, you have numerous references to   the book of life. That’s where God wrote down  in eternity past the names of all His elect. And so, you just get the feeling of the richness  of fellowship here, don’t you? Here are all these   names in the book of life. Here’s Clement and  Syzygus and the Philippian church and these   two dear women, and Paul says, “We’ve all been  working together, we’ve all been struggling,   and we’ve all been striving and we’ve all been  tried to be used by God to build the church,   and now all of a sudden these two women have  just gotten into discord that threatens the   stability of the whole thing.” “Stand  firm in one spirit” is what he’s saying,   just as he did in 1:27. He loves them all. God  loves them all. And they ought to love each other.

There’s got to be harmony. There  needs to be a warm, genuine,   loving unity, and that creates an environment  of stability. And, boy, when you fracture that,   the church becomes so unstable. When there  is discord in a church, people get unstable.   They start falling and tumbling and toppling  all over everywhere, attitudes become bad,   negative spirits, bitternesses, lack of  forgiveness grows, hostility comes into play.   There’s a tremendous vulnerability, personally  and individually, when there’s collective discord. So to be spiritually stable means that I must  pursue peace, be a peacemaker. “Blessed are the   peacemakers,” Jesus said. I want to pursue loving  harmony in the church. I want to be a Syzygus. I   want to be somebody who helps people resolve  their conflict because that’s how you create   a spiritually stable environment. Let me give you  one word to sum it up: love. Be a lover. We are to   be agents of love, to build that stabilizing  bond of love in the church. You want to be   spiritually stable, then pursue love in all your  relationships. Pursue peace and harmony and unity.

Now I’m going to give you a second point.  Very simple one, verse 4. It’s Paul’s second   principle of spiritual stability. “Rejoice  in the Lord always” – and in case you weren’t   listening – “again I will say rejoice.” He  really wants to emphasize this. “Rejoice in   the Lord always, and again I will say rejoice.”  The second principle of spiritual stability is   maintaining a spirit of joy. This is a tremendous  force in your own spiritual balance. Why? Because   we tend to be victimized by our circumstances.  We have our highs and our lows and our highs   and our lows and we fluctuate and vacillate, all  dependent on how stuff is going on the outside,   right? If I’m successful in my job, if my  relationships are what they ought to be,   if there’s calm in my life and everything  is going the way I’d like it to go,   if everything is in a sort of peaceful mode  externally, then I have joy. But if stuff   starts to disintegrate, then I lose it. You  see, that’s not at all what this is saying.

First of all, here is a command: Rejoice in the  Lord. And somebody would say, “Well, how in the   world can you command somebody to rejoice? How  can you go up to somebody and say, ‘Rejoice’?   And then say, ‘Listen, did you hear what I said?  I said, “Rejoice.”’ Well, you just can’t – how   can you command that?” I’ll tell you because look  what it says. It doesn’t say, “Rejoice,” it says,   “Rejoice in the Lord.” I can’t rejoice in my  circumstances all the time. I can’t rejoice in   my circumstances most of the time. I can’t rejoice  in the way things are going in this world. I don’t   like the way things are going in this world.  I don’t rejoice over my own immense spiritual   accomplishments. I don’t have any except by the  grace of God, and all I ever see in my life is   my failures. I don’t rejoice in that. If I’m going  to rejoice in something, it isn’t going to be me. You say, “Well, don’t you rejoice in people?” Oh,   well, I’ve been very disappointed by a lot  of them. I don’t want to tie my joy to them,   as much as I like them. I don’t want to tie my  joy to them because it’ll come and go. “Well,   don’t you rejoice in success?” No, that comes  and goes too. I’d just as soon rejoice in the   Lord because He doesn’t come and go, He stays.  He never wavers. He never changes. That’s it. So,   you see, if I believe in Him and my faith is  strong and I know who He is – doesn’t matter  

what my circumstances are. That’s what I said at  the very beginning, remember? I said spiritual   stability is directly tied to how you think about  God. That’s exactly what it is. You show me a   person who is stable in the midst of any situation  and I’ll show you a person who is perfectly tuned   in to an understanding of God that surpasses any  circumstances. He knows God is beyond all of that. And that’s why I’m so convinced that these  people who have problems, problems, problems   and are always worrying about this and that and  struggling with all of their little problems in   this life and are always running around looking  for a quick fix somewhere – a book, a seminar,   a tape, a counselor, a psychiatrist, or whatever  it is to get the quick fix – would be so much   better off if somebody would put them in a locked  box somewhere and slide food under the door and   just leave them there until they had memorized  the book of Psalms. And then at the end of that,   they could come out and they would  know so much about God that it would   be irrelevant what was going on around them.  But we’ve got all these other solutions, see.

That seems like an obvious thing to me. Why do  you think God gave the Psalms to the people of   Israel? Why do you think they were put into Hebrew  poetic form and meter? So they could be easily   memorized. And why were they set to music? So they  could be easily remembered. Why? So they could   hum a tune to lighten their step? No, so they  could sing a hymn to deepen their theology.   And then they would know God. And when they  knew who God was, everything else seemed   rather insignificant. So you rejoice in the  Lord. If you don’t know much about the Lord,   it’s tough to rejoice. If you know a lot  about the Lord, it’s not too tough to rejoice. You know, the early church even rejoiced  when they suffered because they said they   were so happy – Acts 5:41 – to have been counted  worthy to have suffered for such a worthy name.   What a privilege; what a privilege. This  continual, habitual joy should mark us.   Rejoice in the Lord always, and I repeat it,  rejoice in the Lord. And it’s our knowledge   of Him that causes us to rejoice. It  says in Romans 14:17 that the kingdom   is made up of righteousness, peace, and joy  in the Holy Spirit – joy in the Holy Spirit.

What do you have to rejoice about? Let me suggest  a few things in thinking about the Lord. Well,   first of all you can just rejoice in who He is,  right? That He is sovereign over everything.   To me that is – that’s the ultimate. You can’t  really steal my joy when I realize that God is   in charge of everything. He is in charge of every  circumstance. The single greatest truth I know   about God, as a Christian, is His sovereignty.  He is in charge of everything. Nothing   happens out of His control – controls it all,  absolutely all of it. What comfort is in that. Furthermore, He controls it all – get this  one – for my good. Did you hear that? We   read Psalm 139, we saw how God knows  you’re sitting down, you’re rising up,   He knows the words you speak before you speak  them, He knows the way you’re going to walk,   and He holds every part of your  life in absolute and total control.   What a tremendous truth it is. And when you  realize that God is loving, that God is wise,   that God has an infinite understanding of every  vicissitude, every aspect of life, it’s a whole   different approach to understand that. It’s one  thing to know it, to read it; it’s something else   to believe it with the fiber of your being, and  that’s what holds you in the environment of joy.

Think about it this way: Why do I have joy  unspeakable and full of glory? First of all,   because everything in my life is controlled by  God. Secondly, because God saved me and made me   His own child and promised me to give me an  inheritance in Jesus Christ. I’m His child,   I belong to Him. I rejoice because Jesus  Christ is coming someday to take me to   be with Himself. And He is right now there  preparing a place for me that where He is,   I may come. I rejoice in that. Furthermore,  I rejoice because my God is able to supply   all my what? Needs according to His  riches in Christ Jesus. Furthermore,   I rejoice because I am being used by God to  serve the One I love the most. What a privilege. Furthermore, I rejoice because God is using  my life so that other people can hear the   gospel and be saved, and God is using  my life so that other Christians can be   encouraged to love God more and serve Him more  faithfully. I rejoice because I enjoy instant   access to God. Do you know that anytime I  want to, I can talk to God and He listens?   I don’t even get that in my own house – but  I get that from the God of the universe. The  

God of the universe listens to everything I  have to say, even if it’s a long conversation. You know why I have joy? Because death is  gain. Death is gain. That’s why I have joy.   And the more I understand my God and the  stronger my faith in Him and His inviolable plan,   the greater the depth of my joy, and the deeper  my joy, the more untouchable it is. You can’t get   to my joy very easily. On the outside, you’re not  going to touch it, circumstances and all of that,   because it’s buried deep in my confidence in who  God is and in His eternal promises to me. That’s   spiritual stability. Why would I compromise? God’s  in control. Why would I waver in my faith? God is   in control. Why would I doubt? How can I doubt  a God who is so clearly revealed in Scripture?

I can tell you, dear friends, spiritual stability  is directly related to these two things to start   with. Spiritual stability is the product of a  person whose life is filled with the love of   Christ shed abroad by the Spirit within him, and  spiritual stability belongs to the person who is   so deeply in understanding of the character of  God and whose understanding has been translated   into a real faith and he believes God to be  the God He is revealed to be, and in those   things he finds his stability. That’s the first  two. There are more for next time. Let’s pray. Father, we hear the echo of the words of  the apostle Paul who said, “Be ye steadfast,   unmovable, always abounding in the work of  the Lord,” and we want that to be us. We   want to be steadfast, unmovable, not shaken  by trials and difficulties and problems and   the frailties of our fallen flesh and  the difficulties of this life. And we   don’t want to collapse under persecution or  hostility or rejection or intimidation. We   don’t want to fall to sin. We want to be the  strong. We want to be those who are resolute,   who can’t be bought or bribed or softened or  defeated. We want the world to see us and see   the strength of Christ in us. We want to be like  Daniel – didn’t know how to compromise because he  

knew too much about his God to be swayed. Give  us a greater knowledge of You and a greater   experience of that love and joy which You grant  Your faithful children for Jesus’ sake. Amen. You've been listening to John MacArthur,  Bible teacher with Grace to You. For free   access to all of John's lessons and a listing  of study Bibles and books available for sale,   visit grace to website at gty.org. John  MacArthur and Grace to You reserve all   copyright protection under applicable  law. Our copyright policy is available   at gty.org or and it includes instructions for  and limitations on duplicating this digital file.

Spiritual Stability, Part 2: Harmony and Joy (Philippians 4:2–4) John MacArthur

Summary