Removing the Obstacles to Humble Mutual Love (Philippians 2:3–4)

B) The Apostle removes the obstacles to humble mutual love and fellowship (Phil. 2:3–4)

What produces discord? Contentious rivalry, when someone strains with all his might to get ahead of others and to stand first, in full view of all; when they look down on others from above and therefore without the proper attention and respect due to them; when they care only for themselves and seem to have no concern for others. These moral causes that corrode loving mutual fellowship—the Apostle casts out from the Christian community of Philippi and, through it, from every such community.

Phil. 2:3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility counting others better than yourselves.

“The Apostle required unity of soul; now he says how to attain it” (holy Chrysostom).

“‘Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.’ — Selfish ambition: when someone strains with all his might to get ahead of others; and what fans this is conceit. ‘Ambition’—here is what it is: when someone says to himself: I will exert myself so that such and such a person does not surpass me. The Apostle identifies conceit as the fuel of such rivalry. What will not a man do for the sake of human glory when he seeks it?” (blessed Theophylact).

Conceit inflames one more and more to distinguish oneself in that by which one thinks to earn human glory. When only this is in view, one has no time to look upon the people around one, and so one frequently wounds them to the quick—and there follows offense and discord. “I always say,” says holy Chrysostom, “that this is the cause of all evils. From here come quarrels and strife, from here slanders and contentions, from here the cooling of love, when we love human glory, when we are slaves to the honor given by the crowd. For a slave to glory cannot be a slave to God. — How then can we escape conceit? ‘Hear what follows: but in humility counting others better than yourselves.’ What a rule filled with every wisdom, and what a guide for our salvation he has set before us! If you think, he says, that another is better than you, and you convince yourself of this—and what is more, if you do not merely say this but are altogether persuaded of it and give him honor—then you will feel no displeasure at seeing another honor him. Count another, therefore, not merely better than yourself, but also higher (which implies great superiority), and it will be neither strange nor painful for you to see another honored; even if he should wrong you, you will bear it with magnanimity, since you have acknowledged him to be better than yourself. Should he rebuke you, you will endure it; should he do you some harm, you will bear it in silence. For when you have once thoroughly convinced yourself in your soul that he is better than you, you will not be angry at whatever harm he does you, and you will not envy him. For no one envies those who are far superior, since everyone thinks that everything belongs to those who are higher. — So it will be if you are humbly disposed toward another. But when that other, having received such honor from you, is in a like disposition toward you—then imagine what will be formed as a twofold bulwark of mutual forbearance. While you consider another worthy of honor and he considers you equally so, nothing unpleasant will ever arise. For if such conduct on one side powerfully destroys all irritability, then with this mutual disposition, who will overthrow such a fortress? Not the devil himself. For a triple, fourfold, and even greater fortification will be formed. For humility is the cause of all good.”

Phil. 2:4. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Here the chief source of discord is cut off and egoism is eradicated. Self-will makes itself its own end and considers all others a means; and so it deals with them. Christian love, born of self-denial, makes others one’s end and considers itself the means; and so it acts. From the first comes complete division; from the second—a living bond. Just as in a living organism no organ is occupied with itself but only does what is needed for the others, so also in a community, when each person cares for the good of others, there is an organic, living combination of all, where each cares for all and all for each. Consequently, the holy Paul here points to the most powerful means toward unity of soul. “When each person, setting aside his own concerns, cares for the good of another, so that the outcome is: I care for yours and you for mine—from this proceeds not human but angelic life” (Oecumenius). “Where this is the case, there is no longer any place for conceit, or contentious rivalry, or any evil whatsoever: there the divine life takes up its dwelling” (blessed Theophylact).