Optimist’s Roundtable
By Martha Sykes
In the book of Philippians, chapter 2, the apostle Paul writes these words: “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition and vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ”. In other words, think and act like Jesus. We are to do what Jesus would do.
In this book in Philippians, Paul has written a type of “joy” letter. All throughout this book, the passages are subtitled, “joy in suffering”, “joy in serving”, “joy in believing”, and “joy in giving”. Paul seems to emphasize that real joy in our lives as Christians. Paul didn’t write to answer any profound questions or to solve any problems or to deal with any particular sin, but instead he was writing to express joy and to encourage joy in other people.
When you stop and consider who would write something that expresses the word joy throughout, it would probably bring to mind that someone was having a wonderful life somewhere. But Paul wasn’t because at the time he was in prison in Rome. Actually, he was under type of house arrest, where he had a guard with him at all times while he was in chains. Still, Paul was dedicated to serving Christ and even though he had faced dire poverty, wealth, and everything in between, he learned to be content whatever the circumstances and found real joy as he focused all his attention and energy on knowing Christ. This is what we are to do when we serve Christ.
Paul talked about loving and serving others, as Christ wants us to follow Jesus’ example of putting others first.
Paul talks about such an attitude like this-an attitude of unselfishness. Paul is encouraging all of to be “of the same mind” as Christ. We need to have that unity to serve Christ in our everyday living so that we all live a life for Christ.
Theologian Leonard Sweet talks of the four “rules” by which we live. The Iron Rule- Do unto others before they do to you; The Silver Rule-Do to others as they do to you: The Golden Rule- Do to others as you would have them do to you; and The Titanium Rule- Do to others as Jesus has done to you. That’s the rule that we should strive for.
