It glows with light and power today as we turn to verses 1 through 4 of the second chapter of this Philippian letter.

“If then our common life in Christ yields any thing to stir the heart, any loving consolation, any sharing of the Spirit, any warmth of affection or compassion, fill up my cup of happiness by thinking and feeling alike with the same love for one another, the same turn of mind, and a common care must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity among you, but you must humbly reckon others better than yourselves. Look to each other’s interests and not merely to your own.” (Phil. 2:1—4 NEB).

Paul is always concerned about the church. It is one of the central themes of all his epistles. In the first chapter of his letter to the Philippians with which we have already dealt in th…