t. St Paul is not here, as
elsewhere in his Epistles, combating an error of faith; he is pleading
for a life of love. He has full in view the temptations which threatened
to mar the happy harmony of Christian fellowship at Philippi. His
longing is that they should be "of one accord, of one mind"; and that in
order to that blessed end they should each forget himself and remember
others. He appeals to them by many motives; by their common share in
Christ, and in the Spirit, and by the simple plea of their affection for
himself. But then--there is one plea more; it is "the mind that was in
Christ Jesus," when "for us men and for our salvation He came down from
heaven, and was made Man, and suffered for us." Here was at once model
and motive for the Philippian saints; for Euodia, and Syntyche, and every
individual, and every group. Nothing short of the "mind" of the Head
must be the "mind" of the member; and then the glory of the Head (so it
is implied) shall be shed hereafter upon the member too: "I will grant to
him to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down
with My Father in His throne."

What a comment is this upon that fallacy of religious thought which would
dismiss Christian doctrine to the region of theorists and dreamers, in
favour of Christian "life"! Christian doctrine, rightly so called, is
simply the articulate statement, according to the Scriptures, of eternal
and vital facts, that we may live by them. The passage before us is
charged to the brim with the doctrine of the Person and the Natures of
Christ. And why? It is in order that the Christian, tempted to a
self-asserting life, may "look upon the things of others," for the reason
that this supreme Fact, his Saviour, is in fact thus and thus, and did in
fact think and act thus and thus for His people. Without the facts,
which are the doctrine, we might have had abundant rhetoric in St Paul's
appeal for unselfishness and harmony; but where would have been the
mighty lever for the affections and the will?

Oh reason of reasons, argument of arguments--the LORD JESUS CHRIST!
Nothing in Christianity lies really outside Him. His Person and His Work
embody all its dogmatic teaching. His Example, "His Love which passeth
knowledge," is the sum and life of all its morality. Well has it been
said that the whole Gospel message is conveyed to us sinners in those
three words, "Looking unto Jesus." Is it pardon we need, is it
acc