What Is the Secret to Unity?

A Few Thoughts to Consider

How do I live in unity with others?

Philippians 2 gives us the answer. Paul wrote the Book of Philippians while in prison (likely in Rome) around 62 AD, approximately 100 years after Augustus defeated Brutus and Cassius in the Roman Civil War at Philippi. Augustus celebrated the victory by making the city a military colony and stationing some of his demobilized soldiers there. Later, when Augustus became threatened by further strife, he brought some veterans back to Rome and made room by settling some Roman families in Philippi.

Acts 16:12 identifies Philippi as “a leading city of the district of Macedonia.” Rome made Philippi the political and commercial center of Eastern Macedonia. As a “colony,” it had the right of self-government, enjoyed immunity from taxation and tribute, and was given a legal status equivalent (in theory) to that of those living on Italian soil. Thus, the cultural ethos was more Roman than Greek. It was an agricultural city, and the church would have mirrored the social diversity between the Romans and the Greeks. That said, the church at Philippi was the poorest of Paul’s congregations.

Paul writes this letter as the Philippian church’s friend, founder, apostle, and teacher. “By outward appearances, as Paul writes, there is little reason for the Philippian believers to rejoice. Their beloved leader Paul is in jail; they face tremendous opposition from enemies; their church is experiencing rivalry and disunity.”^[1]

Still, in Philippians 2, Paul offers hope and calls for unity. His plea was both corporate and personal. He asked the church to be of the same mind, share the same love, and be united in spirit and purpose. How was this possible? The answer lies in what is known as the famous Kenosis (emptying) passage, Philippians 2:5-11, which says:

⁵ Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. ⁷ Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, ⁸ he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. ⁹ For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—¹¹ and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.