“Mr. Murphy, all you need to do is go crazy on your students. They will respect you a lot more if you lose your temper and yell at them every now and then.” This is the response I got from several veteran teachers in the region who were highly respected by colleges as well as successful in the classroom. It was the opposite of what I was taught in my education classes though, and it just didn’t feel right for me. Classroom management was an invincible foe; none of my approaches could penetrate it and bring order to the chaos. There was no chink in the armor where I could throw a disciplinary bomb or slice a sword of procedures across. This beast was too broad and worst of all, it morphed and adapted to develop immunity against my weapons. Controlling a class has to be more about understanding students and what they need from their teacher than it is about cookie cutter solutions to be applied in every situation.
As anyone expert will tell you, establishing firm procedures from day one and striving to consistently abide by them will help foster a safe, organized, and pleasant classroom, which is necessary in order for learning can thrive. According to Disciplinehelp.com, it’s very important to try and involve students in creating these rules and procedures as well as helping the class understand the reasons for them. Although students may not always understand or agree with the reasons behind procedures, teachers shouldn’t be discouraged. As Russ says, “Teachers can’t teach because they want students to like them. They must respect students and do what’s necessary to engage them in learning in order for students to respect them in return.”
With rules and procedures in place, there is a foundation of expectations to guide the class. Like the pier and beam the foundation under my house allows for shifting due to clay and rock being mixed in the soil, a management plan needs to account for individual differences among students. Each student has an ongoing story that is unique and complex. As teachers, we have a dynamic part in each of these stories - developing them and their knowledge about the world and life through our relationship. Therefore, our management plan needs to have elasticity to account for the myriad of student needs we will encounter. Of these various students, we will look at three classifications and how we can plan to move each of them along in their development as thoughtful and mature members of society.
The first type of student we will look at is the non-participator. As mentioned earlier, experts have different opinions on how to deal with problem students. A trainer for a prestigious district once told me, “Tell students you won’t try harder than they are going to try” and “I don’t really care about your learning because you obviously don’t care about it.” On the other hand, disciplinehelp.com says these students need to hear, “You may give up on yourself, but I’m not going to give up on you.” They further say,
“There is one action students can’t handle, your refusal to reject or condemn. The non-participator expects both because he sees good reason for your disapproval. Your refusal to quit offers the best chance for success.”
Disciplinehelp.com believes that it’s amazing how much this student actually wants caring demands and firm expectations after a relationship has been established. Because the non-participator already has a low self-concept, these expectations should initially be discussed in a private conversations, and teachers must “remember right and wrong cannot be the issue if you want to change this behavior. If you hold fast to class rules, you may never get the opportunity to win with this student.”
Secondly, we will look at the trouble-maker’s refusal to follow rules. Experts conclude that this refusal is more about them trying to prove themselves and express power than it is about them not liking the teacher or the class. Proponents of rigidly abiding to rules and procedures, believe that consistently enforcing more severe consequences is the best way to facilitate change in the trouble-maker. On the contrary, other experts say that initial private communication is key in helping them think about his behavior. This conversation should acknowledge irrational behavior and not try to pretend it is rational, but the student should be told “they are down” and “not thinking straight”. For this reason, the teacher should say to the student, “Temporary allowances will be made in the rules and standard discipline plan for them.” The teacher can then give the trouble-maker some control by asking them where do they think that allowances will be needed. This will save the teacher from experiencing possible resistive reactions to his condition. Because trouble-makers have something at home or school that is distressing them, they can feel victimized and accuse teachers of not liking them. The best way to remedy this isn’t by denials or getting upset but rather by telling them “if I didn’t care, I would allow you to do whatever, not pay attention, stir up everyone, and not complete assignments. Because I do care, I urge you to complete assignments and do your best.”
Lastly, let us consider the student who does their work but is consistently disrespectful. This student has been mistreated and is therefore mistreating others. This student is seeking to prove themselves and so show that they power have the to hurt others. Disrespecting others never happens without reason, although the source of the reason may not be whom the disrespect is directed at. In dealing with this student, it is most important to remember not to retaliate, which only gets her or him off the hook. Responsibility must be kept on the student. Behaviorhelp.com says,
“A public confrontation may put the student on the spot and compel him/her to act even worse to save face or retain his/her image as one who "doesn't get pushed around by anyone." Whenever you can, move to the hall or a private place in the room to handle disrespect.”
If the disrespect is completely unwarranted, the teacher may say, “John, I don’t think I deserve that.” then follow with the comment, “Now, tell me what’s really on your mind?” As frustrating as disrespect can be, teachers should be careful not to jump on it too quickly and harshly. Doing so can turn a cornered kitten into an ugly tiger.”
In conclusion, classroom management must be studied, especially by novice teachers, as it fit were a content area of it’s own. Additionally, students must be studied. They are going through so much, and it’s hard to get through to them. Even though you’ll be like a parent to so of them, it’s important to always do whatever is needed to engage them in learning. That is the primary way your love is communicated to them. For the individuals who are disrupting that engagement for themselves or others, it’s important to remember that they are individuals with unique stories. Russ Weeks, a district trainer and veteran teacher, initially thought “if I got mad at these students I could control them, but I learned that was what they wanted.”
Bibliography
1. www.behaviorhelp.com
2. Russ Weeks, MISD
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Essay on the diverse persons of God and how it is the basis of the church experiencing love in fellowship and unity in mission.
The world is full of relationships. As human beings, this allows for the joy of being comforted by others as well as the great pain of being abandoned or betrayed. Conflict is a natural consequence of people being in relationship and being diverse. In the book of Philippians, it is evident that the church was really suffering from disagreement and conflict. One relationship was in such bad shape that Paul asked the church to help lead two women to agree. In verse 2:2, he exhorted them to be “united in spirit”1; another version says this encouragement as be in full accord. The Greek word in this phrase, sumpsychoi, has the idea of a harmony of souls2. As beautiful as this exhortation sounds, how is it possible for the church to have a harmonious spirit? The Apostle adds to this exhortation: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, in humility consider others better than yourselves, and each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” It seems to me, he’s making what’s humanly impossible even more unattainable; this selflessness goes radically against everything in our natural will. How, and more importantly why, should we look to the well-being of others above ourselves?
The Apostle’s motivation for this exhortation comes after a personal testimony of dealing with conflict, but he does not appeal to human means of resolution. Paul lays out his premise in the opening lines of chapter two: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind”. Paul sees the presence of disagreement and conflict as an opportunity to a search out the diversity of the Godhead and to follow this Trinitarian way of relationship. Paul further states that the diversity of the church will be used to complete his joy, as the Philippians seek to love one another and be united in purpose. Where is the encouragement of Christ to be found in a disagreement? Why is God’s love what comforts in conflict? How does the fellowship of God’s Spirit make conflict an opportunity for deeper joy? In this essay, I will examine the Pauline view on the diverse persons of God and how it is basis for the church experiencing deeper love and more unified purpose.
When we examine the person of Christ, He is shown to possess this selfless will that Paul is calling the Philippians to as well as having the power to fulfill it. The ‘Christ Song’, of verses six through eight, it says that Jesus “was in very nature God”3. That is Jesus’ essence was that He was God, and He is one with God the Father. “This one simple divine essence is essentially distinct from all creaturely existence and possesses all the attributes (of God).”4 The song shows this distinction by stating that “he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.”5 If we are honest, we recognize how significantly different the experience of being in relationship is for God than it is for humans. The Father and Son are distinct from one another in existence and rationality (or consciousness)6 yet they have a unified purpose. Therefore their diversity does not create conflict but rather a more beautiful and complete expression of their shared attributes. This first verse of the Christ Song shows how Jesus was not threatened by the Father existing distinctly from him. It goes on to say that Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”7 This shows Jesus’ was selfless in his submission and obedience to the will of His Father. This selflessness is in two directions, toward his Father and toward his own. John Owen writes “His holy submission and obedience to the will of God, which were now in the height of their exercise, and grace advanced to the utmost in them, was another special part of his offering up of himself…’Though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered’ (Heb.5:8); that is, he experienced obedience in suffering. It is true he had always yielded obedience to God through the whole course of his life; but now he came to the great trial of it, with respect to that special command of the Father, ‘to lay down his life’, and to make his soul an offering for sin (Is.53:10). 8 As Jesus obeyed during the greatest trial the Father willed him to pass through, he also experienced the height of the grace of God. Owen looks to Hebrews to see that being a Son did not stop Jesus from needing to learn obedience to the Father. Rather, Jesus’ generation from the Father is what makes his suffering on the cross so significant. It helps us learn that the Son loves obeying the Father more than he does any earthly comfort. The will of the Father was that Son would know the fullness of his love and the cross was the climax of that. “It must be emphasized that his incarnation and being human occurred not for himself but for us.”9 Therefore, we know his obedience from birth to death was substitutionary10. The elect enjoy all the benefits of the Son’s obedience and suffering. We also will most greatly experience encouragement as we trust the trials of obeying God’s commands to be where grace most fully abounds to us as we see it did to the one and only true Son.
The Father’s distinctive personhood is seen by Him being the unbegotten One who plans, designs, or causes. “The Father is not and never was unregenerate; he begets everlastingly. The Father did not by a single act beget the Son and then release him from his ‘genesis,’ but generates him perpetually.” For God to beget is to speak, and his speaking is eternal. God’s offspring is eternal.”11 Ephesians 1:4 shows this designing divine love; “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” In order for the Father to bless us and choose us in Christ, He planned to shed the blood of Christ for us. His will was not in selfish interests, but he has cared more about covering the sin of the world than He has cared about protecting himself and his Son from suffering. If he has brought such heartache to himself on his enemies behalf, we should not doubt that our greatest pains have been planned by him in love. His plans are rooted in his good will toward his Son. The “love of God” is for the son of God. We see this love demonstrated in the Father giving the Son all whom He has elected. The will of the Father is for these orphans to be called and received in Christ. The Father wills that those who are adopted would be conformed into the perfect image of the Son through submission. This transforming doesn’t happen according to how we would have it. When we look at Christ’s submission, we see that suffering was the primary tool implemented by the Father. This suffering is where we admit we need the comfort of God’s love. In Christ’s human life, the Father’s design led many to disagree with him, hate him, and eventually to kill him. In the face of this, Christ died to his will and obeyed to the point of loving his murders. “It is Christ whom the Father loves”12, but the Father momentarily ceased to comfort the Son by his love. His plan was to forsake and kill the Son on behalf of the elect. This should comfort every Christian in the midst of suffering because Christ’s suffering was so sinners may be comforted by the love of God.
In response to the Son’s humiliation, the Christ Song says, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”13 In the exaltation of Christ we see that the selfless love of God the Father is also a selfish love in that it is to his glory. If we can extend the how the Father worked in the human nature of the Son to how he exalted the Son, we see that this glory to the Father was not applied by the Father. “The Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead…glorified the human nature (of Jesus), and made it every way meet for its eternal residence at the right hand of God, and a pattern of the glorification of the bodies of believers.”14 So, we see that it is through the Spirit that Jesus was resurrected and when the whole of his life and obedience are considered, it is evident in scripture that it was by the Spirit Jesus lived and obeyed God. In light of this, we may ask how is it then that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow? Holy Scripture also teaches that this work is performed by the Spirit. “To this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”15 “In an economic sense, the work of creation is assigned to the Father, the work of redemption to the Son, and the work of sanctification to the Holy Spirit.” 16 The work of sanctification begins with the Spirit regenerating those the Father has chosen and the Son has justified. Without this work of the Spirit, there would be no church. “He that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word, had as good burn his Bible. The bare letter of the New Testament will no more produce faith and obedience in the souls of men, than the letter of the Old Testament does among the Jews.” The presence of the Spirit truly is how the believer knows the encouragement of Christ and the comfort of God’s love. Therefore, the church has no part in the grace of God apart from the Spirit’s fellowship in this dispensation. Although this may seem to emphasis the Spirit over the Father and Son, his work is “not his own work, but rather the work of the Son, by whom he is sent, and in whose name he performs it…‘whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak…he is said to ‘hear it’, not as if he were not a divine person, equally participant of the counsels of the Father and the Son, but the outward act of hearing is mentioned as the sign of this infinite knowledge, not the means of it.” 17 The Spirit’s role in the Godhead is to listen and apply the counsel of the Son and the Father. It is a mystery how the Spirit has all knowledge yet His voice only repeats what He hears. I think this distinction of the Spirit within the unity of God is a much needed teaching in the church today. While there is much knowledge in the church, how well do we listen? We should find great courage to believe God will work in us as we listen because of the Holy Spirit’s active role of listening. He shows us that knowing and understanding does not imply doing next. Rather, because He knows and understands, He listens. And because he hears the Father and the Son, He also will lead the church in what He hears. On the other hand, ”it is brutish ignorance in any to argue, from the effectual operations of the Spirit, that we may be slothful and negligent in our own duty. He who knows not that God has promised to work in us, in a way of grace, what he requires from us in a way of duty, has either never read his Bible, or does not believe it; or never prayed, or never took notice of what he prayed for”18. As we seek to listen to the Spirit as He listens to the Father and Son, we should not think of ourselves passively waiting for a word from him or for him to lead in any action. He has spoken in the Word of God and we should listen to him by applying his commands to ourselves. “If there be opposition between these things, it is either because the nature of man is not meet to be commanded, or because it need not be assisted; both which suppositions are vain and false. The Holy Spirit so worketh in us, as that he worketh by us; and what he does in us, is done by us. Our duty is to apply ourselves to his commands; and it is his work to enable us to perform them.”19 We do not know how we will work, but we owe him all glory and honor and praise because of his building the house of God, calling the beautiful bride of Christ. All the spiritual life of the church has come to pass because “it (was) his own will, (this) is the special reason of our particular addresses to him, for we are baptized in his name also.”20 We are baptized into his name and given a new nature by his work in us through regeneration (2 Cor.5:17).
When we believe that God the Father has planned good things in eternity past for those who love Him, we are able to say as Jesus did, “not my will but your will be done.” In his obedience, we see Jesus effecting, operating, and accomplishing the will of the Father. “The one who so appeared in the flesh is appropriately said to have been sent, and the one who did not so appear is said to have done the sending. Thus, events that are put on outwardly in the sight of our bodily eyes are aptly called missa because they stem from the inner designs from our spiritual nature.”21 According to Augustine, the Son was sent in order that he would become flesh not because he became flesh.22 In the fellowships of the Spirit, the church also comes to share in these inner designs from receiving new spiritual faculties, dispositions, and abilities to partake in the divine nature23. “The Apostle Paul, in all his most solemn prayers for the churches in his days, makes this his chief petition for them, that God would give to them and increase in them the gifts and graces of the Spirit (Eph. 1:7; 3:16; Col.2:2). And this affords a full conviction of what importance the consideration of the Spirit and his work is unto us.” 24 The mission of God arises from the unity of God being expressed. He is a God who moves with purpose and intentionality. “The unity of the divine being opens itself up in a threefold existence. It is ‘a unity that derives the Trinity from within its own self.’ The persons are not three revelational modes of the one divine personality; the divine being is tripersonal, precisely because it is the absolute divine personality.”25 In regards to this tripersonality, Athanasius writes that “as Father God is above us all, as Son he is through all, and as Spirit he is in all.26 Ephesians 4:6 is one place where he found Paul using this wording, in regards to the unity of the church.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith.” (Eph. 4:3-11)
The unity of the church flows out of the reality that God is trinity. As new creations, we incarnate this diversity of God as we use the gifts God has given for works of service to Him. The unity of the Spirit is through the bond of peace being applied to the church. As we relate to one another as new creatures, our diversity moves from conflict to unity through the fellowship of the Spirit. The passage states that the diversity of people is seen through the various distinct gifts given to the church. “To bring us to unity, God has given gifts to the body. The gifts are other people…In other words, to glorify God we need people. We need to be taught and pastured, and we need teach and pastor. We need daily counsel from our brothers and sisters, and they need daily counsel from us.” 27 The Love of the Father is above all people and for all peoples. There is no distinction among the people of God. Through the grace of the Son, there is encouragement and mercy that God has dealt with misery due to sin. It is in the personal fellowship of people that we experience the gifts of God. Diversity gives rise to personality in mission because the salvation of God is worked by diverse persons in distinct ways.
The mission of God is to reverse the isolation and pain of human diversity under the curse. Since Babel, Gentile nations have been separated and isolated from the promises of God. We see Gentiles being brought together and made one people with Jews in the ministry of the Spirit. To them Paul writes, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise...For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”. (Eph.2:11-10) We see that through Christ both Jew and non-Jew have access in one Spirit to the Father. Being diverse from someone is the only opportunity to experience this kind of unity. To experience a recreated family of aliens, strangers, and those who were in tension with them. They become the household of God through the encouragement of Christ. As the family of God, they are comforted by his love during all their difficulties due to differences. They experience the gifts of the Spirit as they fellowship with one another. This aspect of Pauline Theology flows into the blessing he confirms on the Corinthians, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”28 This benediction is asking God to do something that is above all earthly powers, but this is how we look to the well-being of others above ourselves. It also is the greatest missionary witness to the world.
In closing, I will address why we should we look to the well-being of others above ourselves? Let’s look again to Paul’s Trinitarian exhortation to the Phillipians. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” Expressing the diversity of God is something that Paul believes will bring greater personal joy. It’s similar to the Father’s motivation in selflessly forsaking and later exalting the Son. They were acts of love toward the Son for the Father’s own glory. Some could wonder if this is in contradiction with what Paul saying “Love…does not seek its own”29. “Jonathan Edwards pointed out that what Paul is opposing in the words “Love…does not seek is not:
‘The degree in which [a person] loves his own happiness, but in his placing his happiness where he ought not, and in limiting and confining his love. Some, although they love their own happiness, do not place that happiness in their own confined good, or in that good which is limited to themselves, but more in the common good-in that which is the good of others, or in the good to be enjoyed in and by others….And when it is said that Charity seeketh not her own, we are to understand it of her own private good-good limited to herself.”30
Paul exhorted the Philippians to do what would bring his joy. This joy came by them doing that which is the good of others, to be enjoyed in others, and to be enjoyed by others. Incarnating the selfless, encouragement of Christ moves us to suffer for others as we seek them being conformed to the image of Christ through obedience. Reflecting the selfish love of God calls us to plan ways to comfort others by knowing that grace is over all and will seek them out in the pain of their sin. Fellowshipping with the Spirit leads us to listen to and obey the Word so we may have joy in others. The world is full of relationships. As human beings, this allows for the joy of being comforted by others as well as the great pain of being abandoned or betrayed. Conflict is a natural consequence of people being in relationship and being diverse. In the book of Philippians, it is evident that the church was really suffering from disagreement and conflict. One relationship was in such bad shape that Paul asked the church to help lead two women to agree. In verse 2:2, he exhorted them to be “united in spirit”1; another version says this encouragement as be in full accord. The Greek word in this phrase, sumpsychoi, has the idea of a harmony of souls2. As beautiful as this exhortation sounds, how is it possible for the church to have a harmonious spirit? The Apostle adds to this exhortation: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, in humility consider others better than yourselves, and each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” It seems to me, he’s making what’s humanly impossible even more unattainable; this selflessness goes radically against everything in our natural will. How, and more importantly why, should we look to the well-being of others above ourselves?
The Apostle’s motivation for this exhortation comes after a personal testimony of dealing with conflict, but he does not appeal to human means of resolution. Paul lays out his premise in the opening lines of chapter two: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind”. Paul sees the presence of disagreement and conflict as an opportunity to a search out the diversity of the Godhead and to follow this Trinitarian way of relationship. Paul further states that the diversity of the church will be used to complete his joy, as the Philippians seek to love one another and be united in purpose. Where is the encouragement of Christ to be found in a disagreement? Why is God’s love what comforts in conflict? How does the fellowship of God’s Spirit make conflict an opportunity for deeper joy? In this essay, I will examine the Pauline view on the diverse persons of God and how it is basis for the church experiencing deeper love and more unified purpose.
When we examine the person of Christ, He is shown to possess this selfless will that Paul is calling the Philippians to as well as having the power to fulfill it. The ‘Christ Song’, of verses six through eight, it says that Jesus “was in very nature God”3. That is Jesus’ essence was that He was God, and He is one with God the Father. “This one simple divine essence is essentially distinct from all creaturely existence and possesses all the attributes (of God).”4 The song shows this distinction by stating that “he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.”5 If we are honest, we recognize how significantly different the experience of being in relationship is for God than it is for humans. The Father and Son are distinct from one another in existence and rationality (or consciousness)6 yet they have a unified purpose. Therefore their diversity does not create conflict but rather a more beautiful and complete expression of their shared attributes. This first verse of the Christ Song shows how Jesus was not threatened by the Father existing distinctly from him. It goes on to say that Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”7 This shows Jesus’ was selfless in his submission and obedience to the will of His Father. This selflessness is in two directions, toward his Father and toward his own. John Owen writes “His holy submission and obedience to the will of God, which were now in the height of their exercise, and grace advanced to the utmost in them, was another special part of his offering up of himself…’Though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered’ (Heb.5:8); that is, he experienced obedience in suffering. It is true he had always yielded obedience to God through the whole course of his life; but now he came to the great trial of it, with respect to that special command of the Father, ‘to lay down his life’, and to make his soul an offering for sin (Is.53:10). 8 As Jesus obeyed during the greatest trial the Father willed him to pass through, he also experienced the height of the grace of God. Owen looks to Hebrews to see that being a Son did not stop Jesus from needing to learn obedience to the Father. Rather, Jesus’ generation from the Father is what makes his suffering on the cross so significant. It helps us learn that the Son loves obeying the Father more than he does any earthly comfort. The will of the Father was that Son would know the fullness of his love and the cross was the climax of that. “It must be emphasized that his incarnation and being human occurred not for himself but for us.”9 Therefore, we know his obedience from birth to death was substitutionary10. The elect enjoy all the benefits of the Son’s obedience and suffering. We also will most greatly experience encouragement as we trust the trials of obeying God’s commands to be where grace most fully abounds to us as we see it did to the one and only true Son.
The Father’s distinctive personhood is seen by Him being the unbegotten One who plans, designs, or causes. “The Father is not and never was unregenerate; he begets everlastingly. The Father did not by a single act beget the Son and then release him from his ‘genesis,’ but generates him perpetually.” For God to beget is to speak, and his speaking is eternal. God’s offspring is eternal.”11 Ephesians 1:4 shows this designing divine love; “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” In order for the Father to bless us and choose us in Christ, He planned to shed the blood of Christ for us. His will was not in selfish interests, but he has cared more about covering the sin of the world than He has cared about protecting himself and his Son from suffering. If he has brought such heartache to himself on his enemies behalf, we should not doubt that our greatest pains have been planned by him in love. His plans are rooted in his good will toward his Son. The “love of God” is for the son of God. We see this love demonstrated in the Father giving the Son all whom He has elected. The will of the Father is for these orphans to be called and received in Christ. The Father wills that those who are adopted would be conformed into the perfect image of the Son through submission. This transforming doesn’t happen according to how we would have it. When we look at Christ’s submission, we see that suffering was the primary tool implemented by the Father. This suffering is where we admit we need the comfort of God’s love. In Christ’s human life, the Father’s design led many to disagree with him, hate him, and eventually to kill him. In the face of this, Christ died to his will and obeyed to the point of loving his murders. “It is Christ whom the Father loves”12, but the Father momentarily ceased to comfort the Son by his love. His plan was to forsake and kill the Son on behalf of the elect. This should comfort every Christian in the midst of suffering because Christ’s suffering was so sinners may be comforted by the love of God.
In response to the Son’s humiliation, the Christ Song says, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”13 In the exaltation of Christ we see that the selfless love of God the Father is also a selfish love in that it is to his glory. If we can extend the how the Father worked in the human nature of the Son to how he exalted the Son, we see that this glory to the Father was not applied by the Father. “The Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead…glorified the human nature (of Jesus), and made it every way meet for its eternal residence at the right hand of God, and a pattern of the glorification of the bodies of believers.”14 So, we see that it is through the Spirit that Jesus was resurrected and when the whole of his life and obedience are considered, it is evident in scripture that it was by the Spirit Jesus lived and obeyed God. In light of this, we may ask how is it then that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow? Holy Scripture also teaches that this work is performed by the Spirit. “To this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”15 “In an economic sense, the work of creation is assigned to the Father, the work of redemption to the Son, and the work of sanctification to the Holy Spirit.” 16 The work of sanctification begins with the Spirit regenerating those the Father has chosen and the Son has justified. Without this work of the Spirit, there would be no church. “He that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word, had as good burn his Bible. The bare letter of the New Testament will no more produce faith and obedience in the souls of men, than the letter of the Old Testament does among the Jews.” The presence of the Spirit truly is how the believer knows the encouragement of Christ and the comfort of God’s love. Therefore, the church has no part in the grace of God apart from the Spirit’s fellowship in this dispensation. Although this may seem to emphasis the Spirit over the Father and Son, his work is “not his own work, but rather the work of the Son, by whom he is sent, and in whose name he performs it…‘whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak…he is said to ‘hear it’, not as if he were not a divine person, equally participant of the counsels of the Father and the Son, but the outward act of hearing is mentioned as the sign of this infinite knowledge, not the means of it.” 17 The Spirit’s role in the Godhead is to listen and apply the counsel of the Son and the Father. It is a mystery how the Spirit has all knowledge yet His voice only repeats what He hears. I think this distinction of the Spirit within the unity of God is a much needed teaching in the church today. While there is much knowledge in the church, how well do we listen? We should find great courage to believe God will work in us as we listen because of the Holy Spirit’s active role of listening. He shows us that knowing and understanding does not imply doing next. Rather, because He knows and understands, He listens. And because he hears the Father and the Son, He also will lead the church in what He hears. On the other hand, ”it is brutish ignorance in any to argue, from the effectual operations of the Spirit, that we may be slothful and negligent in our own duty. He who knows not that God has promised to work in us, in a way of grace, what he requires from us in a way of duty, has either never read his Bible, or does not believe it; or never prayed, or never took notice of what he prayed for”18. As we seek to listen to the Spirit as He listens to the Father and Son, we should not think of ourselves passively waiting for a word from him or for him to lead in any action. He has spoken in the Word of God and we should listen to him by applying his commands to ourselves. “If there be opposition between these things, it is either because the nature of man is not meet to be commanded, or because it need not be assisted; both which suppositions are vain and false. The Holy Spirit so worketh in us, as that he worketh by us; and what he does in us, is done by us. Our duty is to apply ourselves to his commands; and it is his work to enable us to perform them.”19 We do not know how we will work, but we owe him all glory and honor and praise because of his building the house of God, calling the beautiful bride of Christ. All the spiritual life of the church has come to pass because “it (was) his own will, (this) is the special reason of our particular addresses to him, for we are baptized in his name also.”20 We are baptized into his name and given a new nature by his work in us through regeneration (2 Cor.5:17).
When we believe that God the Father has planned good things in eternity past for those who love Him, we are able to say as Jesus did, “not my will but your will be done.” In his obedience, we see Jesus effecting, operating, and accomplishing the will of the Father. “The one who so appeared in the flesh is appropriately said to have been sent, and the one who did not so appear is said to have done the sending. Thus, events that are put on outwardly in the sight of our bodily eyes are aptly called missa because they stem from the inner designs from our spiritual nature.”21 According to Augustine, the Son was sent in order that he would become flesh not because he became flesh.22 In the fellowships of the Spirit, the church also comes to share in these inner designs from receiving new spiritual faculties, dispositions, and abilities to partake in the divine nature23. “The Apostle Paul, in all his most solemn prayers for the churches in his days, makes this his chief petition for them, that God would give to them and increase in them the gifts and graces of the Spirit (Eph. 1:7; 3:16; Col.2:2). And this affords a full conviction of what importance the consideration of the Spirit and his work is unto us.” 24 The mission of God arises from the unity of God being expressed. He is a God who moves with purpose and intentionality. “The unity of the divine being opens itself up in a threefold existence. It is ‘a unity that derives the Trinity from within its own self.’ The persons are not three revelational modes of the one divine personality; the divine being is tripersonal, precisely because it is the absolute divine personality.”25 In regards to this tripersonality, Athanasius writes that “as Father God is above us all, as Son he is through all, and as Spirit he is in all.26 Ephesians 4:6 is one place where he found Paul using this wording, in regards to the unity of the church.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith.” (Eph. 4:3-11)
The unity of the church flows out of the reality that God is trinity. As new creations, we incarnate this diversity of God as we use the gifts God has given for works of service to Him. The unity of the Spirit is through the bond of peace being applied to the church. As we relate to one another as new creatures, our diversity moves from conflict to unity through the fellowship of the Spirit. The passage states that the diversity of people is seen through the various distinct gifts given to the church. “To bring us to unity, God has given gifts to the body. The gifts are other people…In other words, to glorify God we need people. We need to be taught and pastured, and we need teach and pastor. We need daily counsel from our brothers and sisters, and they need daily counsel from us.” 27 The Love of the Father is above all people and for all peoples. There is no distinction among the people of God. Through the grace of the Son, there is encouragement and mercy that God has dealt with misery due to sin. It is in the personal fellowship of people that we experience the gifts of God. Diversity gives rise to personality in mission because the salvation of God is worked by diverse persons in distinct ways.
The mission of God is to reverse the isolation and pain of human diversity under the curse. Since Babel, Gentile nations have been separated and isolated from the promises of God. We see Gentiles being brought together and made one people with Jews in the ministry of the Spirit. To them Paul writes, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise...For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”. (Eph.2:11-10) We see that through Christ both Jew and non-Jew have access in one Spirit to the Father. Being diverse from someone is the only opportunity to experience this kind of unity. To experience a recreated family of aliens, strangers, and those who were in tension with them. They become the household of God through the encouragement of Christ. As the family of God, they are comforted by his love during all their difficulties due to differences. They experience the gifts of the Spirit as they fellowship with one another. This aspect of Pauline Theology flows into the blessing he confirms on the Corinthians, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”28 This benediction is asking God to do something that is above all earthly powers, but this is how we look to the well-being of others above ourselves. It also is the greatest missionary witness to the world.
In closing, I will address why we should we look to the well-being of others above ourselves? Let’s look again to Paul’s Trinitarian exhortation to the Phillipians. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” Expressing the diversity of God is something that Paul believes will bring greater personal joy. It’s similar to the Father’s motivation in selflessly forsaking and later exalting the Son. They were acts of love toward the Son for the Father’s own glory. Some could wonder if this is in contradiction with what Paul saying “Love…does not seek its own”29. “Jonathan Edwards pointed out that what Paul is opposing in the words “Love…does not seek is not:
‘The degree in which [a person] loves his own happiness, but in his placing his happiness where he ought not, and in limiting and confining his love. Some, although they love their own happiness, do not place that happiness in their own confined good, or in that good which is limited to themselves, but more in the common good-in that which is the good of others, or in the good to be enjoyed in and by others….And when it is said that Charity seeketh not her own, we are to understand it of her own private good-good limited to herself.”30
Paul exhorted the Philippians to do what would bring his joy. This joy came by them doing that which is the good of others, to be enjoyed in others, and to be enjoyed by others. Incarnating the selfless, encouragement of Christ moves us to suffer for others as we seek them being conformed to the image of Christ through obedience. Reflecting the selfish love of God calls us to plan ways to comfort others by knowing that grace is over all and will seek them out in the pain of their sin. Fellowshipping with the Spirit leads us to listen to and obey the Word so we may have joy in others.
The Apostle’s motivation for this exhortation comes after a personal testimony of dealing with conflict, but he does not appeal to human means of resolution. Paul lays out his premise in the opening lines of chapter two: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind”. Paul sees the presence of disagreement and conflict as an opportunity to a search out the diversity of the Godhead and to follow this Trinitarian way of relationship. Paul further states that the diversity of the church will be used to complete his joy, as the Philippians seek to love one another and be united in purpose. Where is the encouragement of Christ to be found in a disagreement? Why is God’s love what comforts in conflict? How does the fellowship of God’s Spirit make conflict an opportunity for deeper joy? In this essay, I will examine the Pauline view on the diverse persons of God and how it is basis for the church experiencing deeper love and more unified purpose.
When we examine the person of Christ, He is shown to possess this selfless will that Paul is calling the Philippians to as well as having the power to fulfill it. The ‘Christ Song’, of verses six through eight, it says that Jesus “was in very nature God”3. That is Jesus’ essence was that He was God, and He is one with God the Father. “This one simple divine essence is essentially distinct from all creaturely existence and possesses all the attributes (of God).”4 The song shows this distinction by stating that “he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.”5 If we are honest, we recognize how significantly different the experience of being in relationship is for God than it is for humans. The Father and Son are distinct from one another in existence and rationality (or consciousness)6 yet they have a unified purpose. Therefore their diversity does not create conflict but rather a more beautiful and complete expression of their shared attributes. This first verse of the Christ Song shows how Jesus was not threatened by the Father existing distinctly from him. It goes on to say that Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”7 This shows Jesus’ was selfless in his submission and obedience to the will of His Father. This selflessness is in two directions, toward his Father and toward his own. John Owen writes “His holy submission and obedience to the will of God, which were now in the height of their exercise, and grace advanced to the utmost in them, was another special part of his offering up of himself…’Though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered’ (Heb.5:8); that is, he experienced obedience in suffering. It is true he had always yielded obedience to God through the whole course of his life; but now he came to the great trial of it, with respect to that special command of the Father, ‘to lay down his life’, and to make his soul an offering for sin (Is.53:10). 8 As Jesus obeyed during the greatest trial the Father willed him to pass through, he also experienced the height of the grace of God. Owen looks to Hebrews to see that being a Son did not stop Jesus from needing to learn obedience to the Father. Rather, Jesus’ generation from the Father is what makes his suffering on the cross so significant. It helps us learn that the Son loves obeying the Father more than he does any earthly comfort. The will of the Father was that Son would know the fullness of his love and the cross was the climax of that. “It must be emphasized that his incarnation and being human occurred not for himself but for us.”9 Therefore, we know his obedience from birth to death was substitutionary10. The elect enjoy all the benefits of the Son’s obedience and suffering. We also will most greatly experience encouragement as we trust the trials of obeying God’s commands to be where grace most fully abounds to us as we see it did to the one and only true Son.
The Father’s distinctive personhood is seen by Him being the unbegotten One who plans, designs, or causes. “The Father is not and never was unregenerate; he begets everlastingly. The Father did not by a single act beget the Son and then release him from his ‘genesis,’ but generates him perpetually.” For God to beget is to speak, and his speaking is eternal. God’s offspring is eternal.”11 Ephesians 1:4 shows this designing divine love; “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” In order for the Father to bless us and choose us in Christ, He planned to shed the blood of Christ for us. His will was not in selfish interests, but he has cared more about covering the sin of the world than He has cared about protecting himself and his Son from suffering. If he has brought such heartache to himself on his enemies behalf, we should not doubt that our greatest pains have been planned by him in love. His plans are rooted in his good will toward his Son. The “love of God” is for the son of God. We see this love demonstrated in the Father giving the Son all whom He has elected. The will of the Father is for these orphans to be called and received in Christ. The Father wills that those who are adopted would be conformed into the perfect image of the Son through submission. This transforming doesn’t happen according to how we would have it. When we look at Christ’s submission, we see that suffering was the primary tool implemented by the Father. This suffering is where we admit we need the comfort of God’s love. In Christ’s human life, the Father’s design led many to disagree with him, hate him, and eventually to kill him. In the face of this, Christ died to his will and obeyed to the point of loving his murders. “It is Christ whom the Father loves”12, but the Father momentarily ceased to comfort the Son by his love. His plan was to forsake and kill the Son on behalf of the elect. This should comfort every Christian in the midst of suffering because Christ’s suffering was so sinners may be comforted by the love of God.
In response to the Son’s humiliation, the Christ Song says, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”13 In the exaltation of Christ we see that the selfless love of God the Father is also a selfish love in that it is to his glory. If we can extend the how the Father worked in the human nature of the Son to how he exalted the Son, we see that this glory to the Father was not applied by the Father. “The Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead…glorified the human nature (of Jesus), and made it every way meet for its eternal residence at the right hand of God, and a pattern of the glorification of the bodies of believers.”14 So, we see that it is through the Spirit that Jesus was resurrected and when the whole of his life and obedience are considered, it is evident in scripture that it was by the Spirit Jesus lived and obeyed God. In light of this, we may ask how is it then that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow? Holy Scripture also teaches that this work is performed by the Spirit. “To this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”15 “In an economic sense, the work of creation is assigned to the Father, the work of redemption to the Son, and the work of sanctification to the Holy Spirit.” 16 The work of sanctification begins with the Spirit regenerating those the Father has chosen and the Son has justified. Without this work of the Spirit, there would be no church. “He that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word, had as good burn his Bible. The bare letter of the New Testament will no more produce faith and obedience in the souls of men, than the letter of the Old Testament does among the Jews.” The presence of the Spirit truly is how the believer knows the encouragement of Christ and the comfort of God’s love. Therefore, the church has no part in the grace of God apart from the Spirit’s fellowship in this dispensation. Although this may seem to emphasis the Spirit over the Father and Son, his work is “not his own work, but rather the work of the Son, by whom he is sent, and in whose name he performs it…‘whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak…he is said to ‘hear it’, not as if he were not a divine person, equally participant of the counsels of the Father and the Son, but the outward act of hearing is mentioned as the sign of this infinite knowledge, not the means of it.” 17 The Spirit’s role in the Godhead is to listen and apply the counsel of the Son and the Father. It is a mystery how the Spirit has all knowledge yet His voice only repeats what He hears. I think this distinction of the Spirit within the unity of God is a much needed teaching in the church today. While there is much knowledge in the church, how well do we listen? We should find great courage to believe God will work in us as we listen because of the Holy Spirit’s active role of listening. He shows us that knowing and understanding does not imply doing next. Rather, because He knows and understands, He listens. And because he hears the Father and the Son, He also will lead the church in what He hears. On the other hand, ”it is brutish ignorance in any to argue, from the effectual operations of the Spirit, that we may be slothful and negligent in our own duty. He who knows not that God has promised to work in us, in a way of grace, what he requires from us in a way of duty, has either never read his Bible, or does not believe it; or never prayed, or never took notice of what he prayed for”18. As we seek to listen to the Spirit as He listens to the Father and Son, we should not think of ourselves passively waiting for a word from him or for him to lead in any action. He has spoken in the Word of God and we should listen to him by applying his commands to ourselves. “If there be opposition between these things, it is either because the nature of man is not meet to be commanded, or because it need not be assisted; both which suppositions are vain and false. The Holy Spirit so worketh in us, as that he worketh by us; and what he does in us, is done by us. Our duty is to apply ourselves to his commands; and it is his work to enable us to perform them.”19 We do not know how we will work, but we owe him all glory and honor and praise because of his building the house of God, calling the beautiful bride of Christ. All the spiritual life of the church has come to pass because “it (was) his own will, (this) is the special reason of our particular addresses to him, for we are baptized in his name also.”20 We are baptized into his name and given a new nature by his work in us through regeneration (2 Cor.5:17).
When we believe that God the Father has planned good things in eternity past for those who love Him, we are able to say as Jesus did, “not my will but your will be done.” In his obedience, we see Jesus effecting, operating, and accomplishing the will of the Father. “The one who so appeared in the flesh is appropriately said to have been sent, and the one who did not so appear is said to have done the sending. Thus, events that are put on outwardly in the sight of our bodily eyes are aptly called missa because they stem from the inner designs from our spiritual nature.”21 According to Augustine, the Son was sent in order that he would become flesh not because he became flesh.22 In the fellowships of the Spirit, the church also comes to share in these inner designs from receiving new spiritual faculties, dispositions, and abilities to partake in the divine nature23. “The Apostle Paul, in all his most solemn prayers for the churches in his days, makes this his chief petition for them, that God would give to them and increase in them the gifts and graces of the Spirit (Eph. 1:7; 3:16; Col.2:2). And this affords a full conviction of what importance the consideration of the Spirit and his work is unto us.” 24 The mission of God arises from the unity of God being expressed. He is a God who moves with purpose and intentionality. “The unity of the divine being opens itself up in a threefold existence. It is ‘a unity that derives the Trinity from within its own self.’ The persons are not three revelational modes of the one divine personality; the divine being is tripersonal, precisely because it is the absolute divine personality.”25 In regards to this tripersonality, Athanasius writes that “as Father God is above us all, as Son he is through all, and as Spirit he is in all.26 Ephesians 4:6 is one place where he found Paul using this wording, in regards to the unity of the church.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith.” (Eph. 4:3-11)
The unity of the church flows out of the reality that God is trinity. As new creations, we incarnate this diversity of God as we use the gifts God has given for works of service to Him. The unity of the Spirit is through the bond of peace being applied to the church. As we relate to one another as new creatures, our diversity moves from conflict to unity through the fellowship of the Spirit. The passage states that the diversity of people is seen through the various distinct gifts given to the church. “To bring us to unity, God has given gifts to the body. The gifts are other people…In other words, to glorify God we need people. We need to be taught and pastured, and we need teach and pastor. We need daily counsel from our brothers and sisters, and they need daily counsel from us.” 27 The Love of the Father is above all people and for all peoples. There is no distinction among the people of God. Through the grace of the Son, there is encouragement and mercy that God has dealt with misery due to sin. It is in the personal fellowship of people that we experience the gifts of God. Diversity gives rise to personality in mission because the salvation of God is worked by diverse persons in distinct ways.
The mission of God is to reverse the isolation and pain of human diversity under the curse. Since Babel, Gentile nations have been separated and isolated from the promises of God. We see Gentiles being brought together and made one people with Jews in the ministry of the Spirit. To them Paul writes, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise...For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”. (Eph.2:11-10) We see that through Christ both Jew and non-Jew have access in one Spirit to the Father. Being diverse from someone is the only opportunity to experience this kind of unity. To experience a recreated family of aliens, strangers, and those who were in tension with them. They become the household of God through the encouragement of Christ. As the family of God, they are comforted by his love during all their difficulties due to differences. They experience the gifts of the Spirit as they fellowship with one another. This aspect of Pauline Theology flows into the blessing he confirms on the Corinthians, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”28 This benediction is asking God to do something that is above all earthly powers, but this is how we look to the well-being of others above ourselves. It also is the greatest missionary witness to the world.
In closing, I will address why we should we look to the well-being of others above ourselves? Let’s look again to Paul’s Trinitarian exhortation to the Phillipians. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” Expressing the diversity of God is something that Paul believes will bring greater personal joy. It’s similar to the Father’s motivation in selflessly forsaking and later exalting the Son. They were acts of love toward the Son for the Father’s own glory. Some could wonder if this is in contradiction with what Paul saying “Love…does not seek its own”29. “Jonathan Edwards pointed out that what Paul is opposing in the words “Love…does not seek is not:
‘The degree in which [a person] loves his own happiness, but in his placing his happiness where he ought not, and in limiting and confining his love. Some, although they love their own happiness, do not place that happiness in their own confined good, or in that good which is limited to themselves, but more in the common good-in that which is the good of others, or in the good to be enjoyed in and by others….And when it is said that Charity seeketh not her own, we are to understand it of her own private good-good limited to herself.”30
Paul exhorted the Philippians to do what would bring his joy. This joy came by them doing that which is the good of others, to be enjoyed in others, and to be enjoyed by others. Incarnating the selfless, encouragement of Christ moves us to suffer for others as we seek them being conformed to the image of Christ through obedience. Reflecting the selfish love of God calls us to plan ways to comfort others by knowing that grace is over all and will seek them out in the pain of their sin. Fellowshipping with the Spirit leads us to listen to and obey the Word so we may have joy in others. The world is full of relationships. As human beings, this allows for the joy of being comforted by others as well as the great pain of being abandoned or betrayed. Conflict is a natural consequence of people being in relationship and being diverse. In the book of Philippians, it is evident that the church was really suffering from disagreement and conflict. One relationship was in such bad shape that Paul asked the church to help lead two women to agree. In verse 2:2, he exhorted them to be “united in spirit”1; another version says this encouragement as be in full accord. The Greek word in this phrase, sumpsychoi, has the idea of a harmony of souls2. As beautiful as this exhortation sounds, how is it possible for the church to have a harmonious spirit? The Apostle adds to this exhortation: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, in humility consider others better than yourselves, and each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” It seems to me, he’s making what’s humanly impossible even more unattainable; this selflessness goes radically against everything in our natural will. How, and more importantly why, should we look to the well-being of others above ourselves?
The Apostle’s motivation for this exhortation comes after a personal testimony of dealing with conflict, but he does not appeal to human means of resolution. Paul lays out his premise in the opening lines of chapter two: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind”. Paul sees the presence of disagreement and conflict as an opportunity to a search out the diversity of the Godhead and to follow this Trinitarian way of relationship. Paul further states that the diversity of the church will be used to complete his joy, as the Philippians seek to love one another and be united in purpose. Where is the encouragement of Christ to be found in a disagreement? Why is God’s love what comforts in conflict? How does the fellowship of God’s Spirit make conflict an opportunity for deeper joy? In this essay, I will examine the Pauline view on the diverse persons of God and how it is basis for the church experiencing deeper love and more unified purpose.
When we examine the person of Christ, He is shown to possess this selfless will that Paul is calling the Philippians to as well as having the power to fulfill it. The ‘Christ Song’, of verses six through eight, it says that Jesus “was in very nature God”3. That is Jesus’ essence was that He was God, and He is one with God the Father. “This one simple divine essence is essentially distinct from all creaturely existence and possesses all the attributes (of God).”4 The song shows this distinction by stating that “he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.”5 If we are honest, we recognize how significantly different the experience of being in relationship is for God than it is for humans. The Father and Son are distinct from one another in existence and rationality (or consciousness)6 yet they have a unified purpose. Therefore their diversity does not create conflict but rather a more beautiful and complete expression of their shared attributes. This first verse of the Christ Song shows how Jesus was not threatened by the Father existing distinctly from him. It goes on to say that Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”7 This shows Jesus’ was selfless in his submission and obedience to the will of His Father. This selflessness is in two directions, toward his Father and toward his own. John Owen writes “His holy submission and obedience to the will of God, which were now in the height of their exercise, and grace advanced to the utmost in them, was another special part of his offering up of himself…’Though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered’ (Heb.5:8); that is, he experienced obedience in suffering. It is true he had always yielded obedience to God through the whole course of his life; but now he came to the great trial of it, with respect to that special command of the Father, ‘to lay down his life’, and to make his soul an offering for sin (Is.53:10). 8 As Jesus obeyed during the greatest trial the Father willed him to pass through, he also experienced the height of the grace of God. Owen looks to Hebrews to see that being a Son did not stop Jesus from needing to learn obedience to the Father. Rather, Jesus’ generation from the Father is what makes his suffering on the cross so significant. It helps us learn that the Son loves obeying the Father more than he does any earthly comfort. The will of the Father was that Son would know the fullness of his love and the cross was the climax of that. “It must be emphasized that his incarnation and being human occurred not for himself but for us.”9 Therefore, we know his obedience from birth to death was substitutionary10. The elect enjoy all the benefits of the Son’s obedience and suffering. We also will most greatly experience encouragement as we trust the trials of obeying God’s commands to be where grace most fully abounds to us as we see it did to the one and only true Son.
The Father’s distinctive personhood is seen by Him being the unbegotten One who plans, designs, or causes. “The Father is not and never was unregenerate; he begets everlastingly. The Father did not by a single act beget the Son and then release him from his ‘genesis,’ but generates him perpetually.” For God to beget is to speak, and his speaking is eternal. God’s offspring is eternal.”11 Ephesians 1:4 shows this designing divine love; “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” In order for the Father to bless us and choose us in Christ, He planned to shed the blood of Christ for us. His will was not in selfish interests, but he has cared more about covering the sin of the world than He has cared about protecting himself and his Son from suffering. If he has brought such heartache to himself on his enemies behalf, we should not doubt that our greatest pains have been planned by him in love. His plans are rooted in his good will toward his Son. The “love of God” is for the son of God. We see this love demonstrated in the Father giving the Son all whom He has elected. The will of the Father is for these orphans to be called and received in Christ. The Father wills that those who are adopted would be conformed into the perfect image of the Son through submission. This transforming doesn’t happen according to how we would have it. When we look at Christ’s submission, we see that suffering was the primary tool implemented by the Father. This suffering is where we admit we need the comfort of God’s love. In Christ’s human life, the Father’s design led many to disagree with him, hate him, and eventually to kill him. In the face of this, Christ died to his will and obeyed to the point of loving his murders. “It is Christ whom the Father loves”12, but the Father momentarily ceased to comfort the Son by his love. His plan was to forsake and kill the Son on behalf of the elect. This should comfort every Christian in the midst of suffering because Christ’s suffering was so sinners may be comforted by the love of God.
In response to the Son’s humiliation, the Christ Song says, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”13 In the exaltation of Christ we see that the selfless love of God the Father is also a selfish love in that it is to his glory. If we can extend the how the Father worked in the human nature of the Son to how he exalted the Son, we see that this glory to the Father was not applied by the Father. “The Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead…glorified the human nature (of Jesus), and made it every way meet for its eternal residence at the right hand of God, and a pattern of the glorification of the bodies of believers.”14 So, we see that it is through the Spirit that Jesus was resurrected and when the whole of his life and obedience are considered, it is evident in scripture that it was by the Spirit Jesus lived and obeyed God. In light of this, we may ask how is it then that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow? Holy Scripture also teaches that this work is performed by the Spirit. “To this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”15 “In an economic sense, the work of creation is assigned to the Father, the work of redemption to the Son, and the work of sanctification to the Holy Spirit.” 16 The work of sanctification begins with the Spirit regenerating those the Father has chosen and the Son has justified. Without this work of the Spirit, there would be no church. “He that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word, had as good burn his Bible. The bare letter of the New Testament will no more produce faith and obedience in the souls of men, than the letter of the Old Testament does among the Jews.” The presence of the Spirit truly is how the believer knows the encouragement of Christ and the comfort of God’s love. Therefore, the church has no part in the grace of God apart from the Spirit’s fellowship in this dispensation. Although this may seem to emphasis the Spirit over the Father and Son, his work is “not his own work, but rather the work of the Son, by whom he is sent, and in whose name he performs it…‘whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak…he is said to ‘hear it’, not as if he were not a divine person, equally participant of the counsels of the Father and the Son, but the outward act of hearing is mentioned as the sign of this infinite knowledge, not the means of it.” 17 The Spirit’s role in the Godhead is to listen and apply the counsel of the Son and the Father. It is a mystery how the Spirit has all knowledge yet His voice only repeats what He hears. I think this distinction of the Spirit within the unity of God is a much needed teaching in the church today. While there is much knowledge in the church, how well do we listen? We should find great courage to believe God will work in us as we listen because of the Holy Spirit’s active role of listening. He shows us that knowing and understanding does not imply doing next. Rather, because He knows and understands, He listens. And because he hears the Father and the Son, He also will lead the church in what He hears. On the other hand, ”it is brutish ignorance in any to argue, from the effectual operations of the Spirit, that we may be slothful and negligent in our own duty. He who knows not that God has promised to work in us, in a way of grace, what he requires from us in a way of duty, has either never read his Bible, or does not believe it; or never prayed, or never took notice of what he prayed for”18. As we seek to listen to the Spirit as He listens to the Father and Son, we should not think of ourselves passively waiting for a word from him or for him to lead in any action. He has spoken in the Word of God and we should listen to him by applying his commands to ourselves. “If there be opposition between these things, it is either because the nature of man is not meet to be commanded, or because it need not be assisted; both which suppositions are vain and false. The Holy Spirit so worketh in us, as that he worketh by us; and what he does in us, is done by us. Our duty is to apply ourselves to his commands; and it is his work to enable us to perform them.”19 We do not know how we will work, but we owe him all glory and honor and praise because of his building the house of God, calling the beautiful bride of Christ. All the spiritual life of the church has come to pass because “it (was) his own will, (this) is the special reason of our particular addresses to him, for we are baptized in his name also.”20 We are baptized into his name and given a new nature by his work in us through regeneration (2 Cor.5:17).
When we believe that God the Father has planned good things in eternity past for those who love Him, we are able to say as Jesus did, “not my will but your will be done.” In his obedience, we see Jesus effecting, operating, and accomplishing the will of the Father. “The one who so appeared in the flesh is appropriately said to have been sent, and the one who did not so appear is said to have done the sending. Thus, events that are put on outwardly in the sight of our bodily eyes are aptly called missa because they stem from the inner designs from our spiritual nature.”21 According to Augustine, the Son was sent in order that he would become flesh not because he became flesh.22 In the fellowships of the Spirit, the church also comes to share in these inner designs from receiving new spiritual faculties, dispositions, and abilities to partake in the divine nature23. “The Apostle Paul, in all his most solemn prayers for the churches in his days, makes this his chief petition for them, that God would give to them and increase in them the gifts and graces of the Spirit (Eph. 1:7; 3:16; Col.2:2). And this affords a full conviction of what importance the consideration of the Spirit and his work is unto us.” 24 The mission of God arises from the unity of God being expressed. He is a God who moves with purpose and intentionality. “The unity of the divine being opens itself up in a threefold existence. It is ‘a unity that derives the Trinity from within its own self.’ The persons are not three revelational modes of the one divine personality; the divine being is tripersonal, precisely because it is the absolute divine personality.”25 In regards to this tripersonality, Athanasius writes that “as Father God is above us all, as Son he is through all, and as Spirit he is in all.26 Ephesians 4:6 is one place where he found Paul using this wording, in regards to the unity of the church.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith.” (Eph. 4:3-11)
The unity of the church flows out of the reality that God is trinity. As new creations, we incarnate this diversity of God as we use the gifts God has given for works of service to Him. The unity of the Spirit is through the bond of peace being applied to the church. As we relate to one another as new creatures, our diversity moves from conflict to unity through the fellowship of the Spirit. The passage states that the diversity of people is seen through the various distinct gifts given to the church. “To bring us to unity, God has given gifts to the body. The gifts are other people…In other words, to glorify God we need people. We need to be taught and pastured, and we need teach and pastor. We need daily counsel from our brothers and sisters, and they need daily counsel from us.” 27 The Love of the Father is above all people and for all peoples. There is no distinction among the people of God. Through the grace of the Son, there is encouragement and mercy that God has dealt with misery due to sin. It is in the personal fellowship of people that we experience the gifts of God. Diversity gives rise to personality in mission because the salvation of God is worked by diverse persons in distinct ways.
The mission of God is to reverse the isolation and pain of human diversity under the curse. Since Babel, Gentile nations have been separated and isolated from the promises of God. We see Gentiles being brought together and made one people with Jews in the ministry of the Spirit. To them Paul writes, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise...For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”. (Eph.2:11-10) We see that through Christ both Jew and non-Jew have access in one Spirit to the Father. Being diverse from someone is the only opportunity to experience this kind of unity. To experience a recreated family of aliens, strangers, and those who were in tension with them. They become the household of God through the encouragement of Christ. As the family of God, they are comforted by his love during all their difficulties due to differences. They experience the gifts of the Spirit as they fellowship with one another. This aspect of Pauline Theology flows into the blessing he confirms on the Corinthians, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”28 This benediction is asking God to do something that is above all earthly powers, but this is how we look to the well-being of others above ourselves. It also is the greatest missionary witness to the world.
In closing, I will address why we should we look to the well-being of others above ourselves? Let’s look again to Paul’s Trinitarian exhortation to the Phillipians. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” Expressing the diversity of God is something that Paul believes will bring greater personal joy. It’s similar to the Father’s motivation in selflessly forsaking and later exalting the Son. They were acts of love toward the Son for the Father’s own glory. Some could wonder if this is in contradiction with what Paul saying “Love…does not seek its own”29. “Jonathan Edwards pointed out that what Paul is opposing in the words “Love…does not seek is not:
‘The degree in which [a person] loves his own happiness, but in his placing his happiness where he ought not, and in limiting and confining his love. Some, although they love their own happiness, do not place that happiness in their own confined good, or in that good which is limited to themselves, but more in the common good-in that which is the good of others, or in the good to be enjoyed in and by others….And when it is said that Charity seeketh not her own, we are to understand it of her own private good-good limited to herself.”30
Paul exhorted the Philippians to do what would bring his joy. This joy came by them doing that which is the good of others, to be enjoyed in others, and to be enjoyed by others. Incarnating the selfless, encouragement of Christ moves us to suffer for others as we seek them being conformed to the image of Christ through obedience. Reflecting the selfish love of God calls us to plan ways to comfort others by knowing that grace is over all and will seek them out in the pain of their sin. Fellowshipping with the Spirit leads us to listen to and obey the Word so we may have joy in others.
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