Paul DeCelles gave this talk as part of the conclusion to a November, 1987, Servant Branch Pastoral Training Weekend. He said that the first part of Philippians 2 is a charter for the kind of people we should be. He then talked about the need to meditate on how Christ is in us and we are in Christ and on the importance of being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
I want to begin by reading to you from the letter to the Philippians, or, as one reader in church said one time, the letter to the Filipinos. [Laughter.] Okay, second chapter, verses 1–14:
“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of 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.”
That’s a positive mandate: strive to be—not only strive, but be. . . . Have the same love, being in full accord and of one mind, understanding things the same way. Work at understanding things, having a common understanding.
“Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others [as] better than yourselves.”
Now, this is a program for self-improvement in the People of Praise. It’s characteristic of the way we should be living our lives. And I think it’s part of the revelation that God has chosen—has given us in a special way. The “better” here is something like what slaves used to refer to when they said that their owners were their betters. That’s not to say that they thought that they were better people than they were. In fact, I’m sure, very often, they thought of them as being, and rightly so, much worse than they. But this is something—“better” in the sense of someone having authority over you. So, in humility, count others as being “over you,” you could say.
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus . . .”
Now, I think, he’s going to describe one of the most important character traits of Jesus:
“Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God . . .”
He’s saying here, of course, Let’s not forget that he was God. We’re not talking—but I’m not going to talk about that now. He said:
“(Jesus) did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped; rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”
Now, this is the logic. That’s why . . .
“. . . God has highly exalted (Jesus), and bestowed on 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. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning. . . .”
Obedience is the only virtue that plants all the other virtues in your mind and keeps them there, and preserves them once they are planted. Ignatius had a very good triad to describe the plan of Satan and the plan of God. Now, I’m going to give it to you; you’ve heard it before, many of you.
He said Satan’s plan is, first of all, to tempt you. He has agents, demons, which he sends out to tempt you—but the agent could be a human agent, and the demons, evil spirits—who are running around, have—trying to tempt you to the love of money. If you like—if you [inaudible; “begin to deal with”?] . . . the love of money, and if you succeed, he moves you from that, very easily, into a love of glory: of wanting the first place, of wanting recognition—wanting, in fact, the esteem of other people, which is sometimes referred to as “self-esteem.”
The movement there is from a material thing to a spiritual thing. The material thing is “I will be in charge of my own affairs; I have enough to take care of myself.” That’s the money part. The second part is the glory, that I will now [inaudible; “feel so independent”?] . . . , and I will recognize that people should know this: that, in fact, I am in control. I really am. I have a lot going for me. I’m—you know, I’m getting the honor; the people should recognize all that I have, the wherewithal to do what I am doing, run my life, etc. And so, the second temptation is to the empty honors of the world.
And the third one: Satan moves you from that second one over to the third one, which is pride. And from pride all the rest of the vices flow.
On the other hand, the Lord, our Lord Jesus, has his agents, and he’s collected us among them. And he wants us, and he’s got angels as well, to—and he sends us forth to coax people, in the kindest possible way, to do just exactly the opposite. To prefer poverty to riches. To desire—or certainly to prefer—humiliation, real humiliation and embarrassment, you know, just scandalous humiliation—if it doesn’t interfere with work for the Lord. It’s not a good idea, for example, for the coordinators to be taking an awful lot of abuse, because it might impede the work of the community if they are constantly being harassed. But, nonetheless, individually a person should be aware that the humiliations that come our way are actually great blessings, and that this is part of the plan of the Lord.
And from the humiliations we endure, we are then moved over into humility, or obedience. And from humility, all the rest of the virtues flow. And that’s what I mean when I say that obedience, or humility, is the only virtue that plants all the other virtues in your mind and keeps them there, and preserves them once they are planted.
Notice that Jesus redeemed mankind by his obedient act, after mankind had fallen. And the characteristic of the fall of man was that Adam and Eve were disobedient . . . and Jesus was obedient. And humanity has been disobedient ever since Adam and Eve, except for Jesus. And the act—according to Philippians 2, which is—the act which saves us . . . is Jesus’ obedience to the Father, even to the accomplishment of his purposes. He became obedient unto death, death on a cross.
Okay. Let’s take a look at Colossians now, the first one [chapter 1]. Beginning with verse 24, chapter 1. Colossians 1:24–27:
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake . . .”
That is to say, I’m really glad—this is like, I’m really glad for the troubles I’ve got, humiliations I’m bearing, for the deprivations I’m undergoing. I count it all joy.
“. . . and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the divine office which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now made manifest to his saints.”
And now this is—he’s about to reveal something extremely important. He says, this is why I’ve been putting up with all this: God has done this to me so that I can be a minister to you of what has been hidden from all ages. And I can now manifest it to you.
“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery”—“mystery” meaning “plan,” there—“which is”—and this is his plan: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Now that—“Christ in you, the hope of glory”—could be one of the mottos of the People of Praise. Perceiving how it can be that Christ is in us, personally, our hope of glory, is extremely important for us. We need to meditate on that. We need to meditate on how Christ is in us, and how we are in Christ. It is a great mystery!
Sometimes you can talk about how a wonderful thing—what a wonderful thing it is that Jesus, who was God and man, did not, in fact, stay on the earth and be buried someplace, because if he were buried, we’d all go to his tomb and venerate it. Venerate [inaudible], like, and—go to Mecca, or something of that sort. Our Lord is not there, and his body isn’t here. We’re not supposed to venerate him like that.
Where do we venerate the Lord? Where is the Lord? Well, he’s there, he’s there, he’s there. This is one of the reasons why we have to be so careful about how we deal with enemies, because . . . he’s everywhere! The Lord is in me, in us! He makes his home in us. And you could kind of venerate each other if you want to venerate the Lord. You ought to deal with each other almost sacramentally. You need to be careful how you handle the body of Christ!
That’s a great revelation for us. We need to dwell on that. And this is one of those things where our faith that this is true, combined with meditation about it, is able to move us forward tremendously. But I believe that we can’t make any progress with this mystery if we don’t believe it. And so we have to start there.
God is with us. He is in us. Christ’s passion lives in us. This awareness of the presence of Christ in us, wherever we are in the world, whatever our secular occupation is, is one of the revelations of the People of Praise, which distinguishes us. But that—it’s true of all Christians. It’s true of—in fact, it’s—I don’t want to get into the difference between Christians and non-Christians now as to the presence of Christ in them, but—or how he is differently present.
But the fact is that, in Christians, the Lord is truly in them. And we need, when we go to the marketplace, to realize that we are bearers of Christ! Not only do we carry his name as Christians, but, in fact, we carry him with us, almost like a talisman. And this is the secret that we have that was kept from the ages and has been revealed to us.
So, what sorts of consequences can we draw from this?
Let’s take a look at Philippians, chapter 5 [actually, Ephesians 5]. Let’s take—begin with verse 21. So:
“Be subject to one another . . .” Why?
“. . . out of reverence for Christ”!
Christ is in you, so I’m going to be subject to you! Then it’s—St. Paul goes on to give a variety of things. But don’t—now, pay attention to the reason behind it in each case.
“Wives, be subject to your husbands . . .” But how? “. . . as to the Lord”!
You’re really being—the wife is being subject to the Lord in you, you husbands. That’s very important for husbands to grasp, that they. . . . I’m sorry: Ephesians. Ephesians 5:21.
And so, this is a great mystery, again. That’s why wives should be subject to their husbands: because the husbands have Christ in them! It’s very important. And he goes on to say some other things. He says—by the way, the first statement, verse 21 there, says, “Be subject. . . . ” This is addressed to everybody: all of you should be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. That is, so this—the rest of this is an example case: husbands and wives. He [also] takes parents and children, and masters and slaves, as examples of this. And he illuminates it. But see how he does it: in each instance, he says, “ . . . reverence for Christ.”
“Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.”
Then he goes on to talk about children.
“Children, obey your parents. . . .” In chapter 6: “. . . obey your parents in the Lord.”
He’s saying again—the notion is that the children should recognize in their parents that Christ is there. Christ—these people, your parents, are taking their place in the body of Christ, and Christ is taking his place in them, and children should respect them as—“in Christ.”
So who is it—oh, let’s see—the same with regard to the—say, in verse 5 in chapter 6:
“Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ.”
In each case, it’s—you need to penetrate beyond the person you see to the reality of Christ in the person, and we should be subject to one another, because Christ is in us.
So we should be obeying Christ when we obey our head. I’m not taking away from obeying our heads. I am saying that we should go beyond that, realize that in this relationship we are perceiving a relationship in Christ. You should obey your head as unto Christ. You should, however, above all, seek to perceive in the relationship you have with your head and those whom you head—you should make this clear to them—that they should be obeying the Lord as he manifests himself to them and to you, yourself, in all of your legitimate authority relationships.
Someone who is over someone else shouldn’t be obeyed because he is right, or because he is prudent. Don’t obey him because he is good, and so on. Rather, you should obey him because he holds the place of authority, the authority of God, in your life—if he does. If this is true, then it follows that a legitimate authority shouldn’t be less obeyed because he lacks prudence or because he lacks holiness or goodness or righteousness. That is to say, it isn’t the authority’s character that determines whether what he is doing is legitimate in your life, but it is the Lord who is exercising his authority in your life through your head. And you can’t judge that according to whether you think the guy is right or wrong.
Of course, you should never obey somebody who is over you who says you should do something that is sinful. Nobody, absolutely nobody, has authority to do that: to tell you to do something that’s sinful. But if it is something that is not sinful, and if he is a legitimate authority over you, and you are certain of that, then, when you obey, you are obeying the Lord himself. So, I say you should train yourselves to recognize Christ our Lord in any superior and, with all devotion and reverence, obey our Lord in him.
Now, there are three levels of obedience, or phases, you could say, or types of obedience. The first degree or phase or type or level is: doing what is required. That is, he says to do this, and I do that. Now, that’s a minimal thing.
The second phase, or degree, is “willing” and “not willing,” as the one in authority says is better. I’ll not only do it, but I’ll even will it. I’ll will to do it because the one in authority over me wills me to do it. That is, there is a confluence of will here. Christ wants me to do this; I will do it. I want what Christ wants.
The third phase is putting on the attitude, taking on the mind, of Christ. And that is better still.
So, first, doing what you’re told is minimal. Wanting it—willing it or not willing it, according to what Christ wants or doesn’t want—is the second degree. And the third is putting on the attitude of not only wanting it, in the sense of making it happen, but also desiring it: wishing that you’d thought of it first. Loving it, having the mind of the person who is your superior.
Now, there is a danger in withdrawing from the will of those who have legitimate [authority] over you, not only with respect to flesh and blood things, but with respect to spiritual things, too. For example, suppose it’s Lent, and I am of the opinion, and my head is also, that I probably ought to try to get ahold of myself a little bit and do a little self-examination, and maybe some kind of penance, in preparation for the feast of Easter. Just to get ahold of myself, okay? Now, I don’t want to do much, and he suggests that I do more. And I say, “Well, I don’t like to do that very much.” But I think we all understand that doing—that—understand that, and doing less than is expected [inaudible]. . . .
But there’s another half of it, which I really want to—it goes something like this. I want to fast for two weeks, and I don’t want—I really want to get holy. I’m sick and tired of putting up with all these constant problems. I really want to break the back—my back. Once and for all, I want to get ahold of what’s going on in my life, and I’m going to fast for two weeks. When I come out of it, I’m going to be so holy, I mean, I’m going to smell holy. [Laughter.] Everybody will be able to say, “He’s really holy. Did you know Paul fasted for two weeks?” [Laughter.] So, I talk to my head about that, and he says, “Well, no.” He says, “Wait a minute. I don’t want you to; you shouldn’t do that. Don’t do that.”
Well, wait a minute! I thought the role of the head was to make me holy. And here I want to do this wonderful thing; I want to do more, and you’re telling me to do less. And then, the answer is, Yes. And even if I hadn’t thought about—that little line—about, you know, me: the pride I would get out of all that fasting; even if I had, in fact, been thinking of it really in purer terms, it still would be the case that the person responsible for me could say, “No, you should do less.” And in doing less, I would be doing the will of the Lord.
[Interruption in the tape.]
. . . who is over us in the Lord, to come around to our point of view. If you do that, you wind up obeying yourself, not God. You bend God to come over to your point of view, so that you can do what you please.
Scripture says in Proverbs 3:5, “Lean not on your own prudence.” Wise people don’t rely on their own judgments, even in the affairs of this life, as a rule, because they know they lack certain self-control, and they are not good at judging everything. And so they seek the counsel of wiser people.
John Cassian, whom I mentioned in one of the first talks, says in his Conference Regarding [of] Abbot Moses, “By no other vice does the devil draw the monk headlong and bring him into death sooner than by persuading him to neglect the counsel of the Elders and to trust his own judgment and determination.”
So what I am describing here is what I’ve been—I’m not trying to give you a rulebook for how you should behave. What I’d really like to leave you with is an attitude of heart about what kind of a person you should be, what kind of character you should have. And you should be a person who is eager to be humble and to regard others as being over you, and wherever anybody has legitimate authority over you, which is not so obvious—that is, not everybody in the community, for instance, who has—is somebody’s head, has authority over the whole person’s life—does not have this kind of authority, generally.
Wherever anybody does have legitimate authority over you, be quick to discern in—what they say is the will of God and obey them as unto the Lord. And you will find, in this process, the Lord is far more fully present in the world than you’ve ever dreamt of before. It is not only in prayer, but it is in direction that God manifests himself to us. There is legitimate authority in our lives. And when we follow that authority, we are following the directions of God himself.
And whatever we do, having this mind among ourselves, not counting ourselves better than anybody else, but rather relying on those who are over us, we should strive to increase our love of God, our union in him, and our love and charity, our sacrifice for the sake of our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and all men. And we can find the will of God in revelation and upon reflection. And we can find the will of God in all those relationships that God has established in Scripture. And we can find the will of God in the right relationships we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we can see God in the whole world, in all of the things that speak to the glory of God.
So, I urge you to become more and more sensitive to the presence of Jesus Christ in each of you. We don’t have a tomb to go to venerate, because Christ is alive, and he’s in you. Christ lives in you, and Christ speaks to you all the time, in rightful relationships, one to another in the body of Christ. Seek him out and do what the Lord aims you at, according to his authority which empowers us, and according to the Spirit which leads us forward. And we attain that kind of union with God which will never be broken, and heaven itself.
Amen.
Copyright © 2022 People of Praise, Inc.