KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON THE LORD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Philippians 4:1-3

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

If an individual Christian or collective group of Christians in a church falter, you can almost always trace the origin to one thing: a loss of focus on the Lord.

It’s true, right?

If we sin, it’s because we have turned our attention to our own desires, choosing our ways over the Lord’s. And any time we turn away from the Lord, we will find Satan ready to step into the fray and exploit our vulnerability. All Christians have experienced this at one time or another because we know that all Jesus believers have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23).

As we look at the opening three verses from the final chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians in Philippi, we find him sharing a series of exhortations that we’ll cover over the next several messages. He begins by pleading with his brothers and sisters in Christ to stay fixed on the Lord in all they do.

First, we find him addressing all members of the Philippian church as he asks them to “stand firm in the Lord”. Paul writes these words out of a self professed love for all his “brothers and sisters” whom he longed to see again if he would get released from the Roman prison cell he was being held in. The Philippian Christians were dear to the Apostle’s heart as evident by him calling them his “joy and crown”. Paul wished for the church in Philippi to thrive and he knew the only way that would happen is if the believers remained grounded in the sure firm foundation of their Savior, a foundation that would ensure they were never moved or shaken.

We also find Paul providing focused attention to two specific women in the church, Euodia and Syntyche. We don’t know much about either of them outside of these two verses of scripture but it’s obvious they served alongside the Apostle for the cause of the Gospel when he was in Philippi as he mentions it.

We sense that these two Christian women had a pretty serious disagreement about something, so serious that they were becoming estranged and divided. This troubled Paul because he knew a church divided could not stand and so he sought to remedy the situation by asking the women to “be of the same mind in the Lord”.

In the scriptures, we see that being like-minded with the Lord is a call to unity. If a church is going to truly be Christian then its members need to share the mind of Christ. When they fail to do so, cracks in the wall of unity begin to form and if not repaired, the wall can come tumbling down.

Paul asked the congregation to intervene and help settle the disagreement between the two women as they stood firm in the Lord and reestablish their like-mindedness in Christ Jesus.

Perhaps, all churches today should read these words from Paul and apply them as if he was writing to them. For I don’t know of a church in existence who couldn’t do better in staying focused on the Lord, standing firm for Him and being of one mind in Him. And since there is no such thing as a perfect church, these simple exhortations should be fundamental to how believers function within any congregation and seek to become better representatives of Jesus, their Savior, to the glory of God, the Father.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com