Philippians 4:2-5 | Our Own Worst Enemy

Sunday Morning | November 16, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In Philippians 4:2–5, Pastor John reminded us that one of the greatest threats to the unity of the church is not outside opposition but the internal division that can grow quietly among believers. Paul urges the church to stand firm in the truth by taking intentional steps toward reconciliation—just as he called Euodia and Syntyche to live up to their true identity in Christ by addressing their conflict directly and specifically. We are also called to avoid navigating conflict alone, leaning into the help of faithful “yoke-fellows” and the empowering presence of the Spirit who dwells in us. In every relational struggle, we fight division by choosing joy as an act of faith and by keeping an eternal perspective, displaying a spirit of graciousness, gentleness, and patient consideration that reflects Christ to the world.

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Transcript

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Amen. Thank you, McCoy, and welcome everyone again. It's good to be with you while we continue in our study of the book of Philippians. You want to be turning there. We're going to read from there shortly. The theme this week is going to build off something we've already seen. We've seen earlier in the book of Philippians that the reality is there are people outside of the church that want to attack Christians, that want to attack the church and want to tear it down. Paul addressed that, and you may have experienced this in this in your life. You have someone attacking you. They're against you. That's called the school bus. Growing up. Sixth grade was a horrible year on the bus with this one senior who, for whatever reason, felt like I needed to be attacked regularly. But he graduated. It worked out. I'm okay. Not too much damage. I don't think left over from that. But you've experienced that where people attack you. But what about when the attacks come from within? Sometimes you can be your own worst enemy. You know what I'm saying? The self sabotage. You don't need someone else attacking you. You're taking care of it all yourself. Some of us have been there. Maybe it's addiction. I mean, I had a friend of mine, close friend, successful attorney, beautiful family leading in the church, and his life was derailed by addiction. He was his own worst enemy. No one was attacking him. It was all here. That happens personally, but it also happens corporately. It happens within the church. Sometimes it's not the outside attacks. In fact, I think in our day and age, the main thing that erodes churches is the internal division, the internal fighting, the internal attacks. Most of the churches you drive past that are dying, dead or closed. That's where it started. The entire internal fighting, the divisions. How do we deal with that? What do we do with that? When you're your own worst enemy, whether it's individually or the church, how do you handle that? Paul is going to talk about that today in Philippians chapter four, we're going to look at verses two through five. I'm going to read through those and set this up before he shows us a couple different ways. In fact, there's four ways I think you fight internal division here in this passage, Philippians chapter four, verses two through five. I'm going to start by reading those, and then we'll set up the rest of the message. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your reasonable reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. So here we have in Philippians chapter four, Paul addressing a serious issue in the church. I know it's rare and probably impossible to think that two women might disagree and have a challenge relationally within the church, but Paul is addressing it hypothetically, just in case that could occur. And why is he now, I wonder, addressing this in chapter four, because you got to think that more than likely someone wrote to him going, we got this issue we need help with. Paul's aware of it and he's writing. And now at this point he says, we need to deal with this. I personally think, and I don't know that there's a ton of support for this. Okay. This is just me speculating. I think probably the whole book of Philippians has been written to set this up, because imagine if you have a young church that has internal conflict and is struggling and they're immature and they're struggling. You want to make sure you set the context for that. And Paul has spent chapter after chapter talking about how Christ is our example to follow others who are more mature than you, to put others before yourself, have this mind in yourself. Treat others as more significant. He's each theme over and over again, all, I think leading up to being able to say, now let me talk specifics. In fact, last week we didn't look at verse one today in chapter four because I ended the last section looking at that. But that gives us a theme that sets up the reason why we need to address conflict within the church. Look back at verse one. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. This is our first point in the outline here. We need to make sure we are standing firm in truth, that is going to guide us in how we approach division in the church, to stand firm in Jesus, stand firm in truth, and churches who often are finding themselves deeply divided. And of course, by the way, let me let me just make it clear there are times for people to divide, but over truth and over Christ. But a lot of times that division occurs over secondary or tertiary things or insignificant things that have been blown out of proportion. But if we're standing firm in truth, that keeps things rightly ordered. I heard a story recently of a church, and this is a church. You know, there's there's a whole string of churches, denominations even less so now than there used to be who aren't don't think you should use instruments as a part of the worship service. You just sing with your. Just only your voices are to be used. And there was one church in particular that had been in that strain, but a number of people had come into the church who felt differently, and they felt like we we think we should use instruments. And so you had about half the church wrestling with whether they have instruments or not, half wanted it, half didn't. Well, one day they show up to church. And right there in the middle of stage is a piano. No one knew it was coming. They hadn't voted on it. They hadn't talked about it that this would happen. They hadn't been prepared for it. There it was. And the worship leader gets up and leads a song with a piano, and half the audience loved it. Finally, our day has come and the other half hated every second of it. Now, that's not the best way to approach conflict, to just drop what you think is your solution in on everyone. That's not the worst of this story, by the way. The next Sunday they come back and the piano is gone and no one knows where it went. They know the pastor who brought it in doesn't know where it went. Okay. Somehow they're searching all over the church. I mean, it's kind of hard to hide a piano. It's gone. Nobody can find it. Six months later, they finally find it where it had been hiding the whole time in the empty baptismal pool. Which says a lot of things they knew that's a safe place to hide it. We won't be using that much in this church. And here's the thing that this comes back to. Here's why it's important that we stand firm in the truth. Because at the end of the day, it's the gospel that's at stake. People aren't flocking to a church that's heavily divided. They're running, and that's what this church was experiencing. It wasn't just a musical preference thing. The gospel was at stake. When we were that heavily divided. And so we've got to press into our division, our conflicts, our issues, because whatever seems like a small thing, it could be just the beginning of a gigantic division. We've got to deal with them over and over and over again. That's what we're called to do as Christians is to press in to conflict, to not run from it. And so Paul is going to give four strategies, four approaches for how we deal with internal division. I want to look at this first one here, and we see it in verse two. And here it is. Take the initiative. Be willing to take the initiative. We see it here in what Paul calls them up to look back at verse two, I entreat you could say I plead with, I am begging Euodia, and I entreat Syntyche-- And I've heard some people pronounce that sin tike. You can do it either way. Doesn't matter. But he entreats them both. He pleads with them both. He begs them both move towards one another. Now this follows the biblical pattern, and this is a very important passage for everyone to have to know where it is in Scripture. Turn to Matthew chapter 18. That'll be on page 773. In a church Bible, if you don't have a Bible, we have Bibles out in the lobby and the connection corner page numbers on screen tie into those copies of the Bible. Not everybody else's Bible will match with that, but we want to make it easy for you to find these passages if you're not familiar with the Bible, Matthew's the first book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 18 is a chapter and a section that's dedicated to how do Christians resolve conflict. And it gives us a very specific pattern to follow, and it's one that many ignore. I think a lot of times when you have a challenge, the word we use is gossip. Let me go around and make sure as many people know about it as possible, so I can rally as many people on my side to make sure I've got them aligned with me before it ever really comes up with the other person. But that's not what the Scripture tells us to do. The Scripture tells us to do something else. Matthew chapter 18. Look at verse 15. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. So that's the first step. The first step is when you have a disagreement with someone, you have a conflict instead of spreading it around, rallying as many people on your side as you can. And look, you may need to go to someone and get advice, because sometimes we make a bigger deal out of something than we need to. I've got to make sure that my heart's in the right place. I may have to think about the right timing to approach someone. You understand all that takes wisdom, but there's a big difference between seeking advice and spreading gossip. There's a big difference, and you usually know which you're trying to do, but the first step is to go to that person. Even if you heard about it from someone else, go to that person. Hey, I heard this happened. I was concerned I wanted to come to you directly instead of it spreading around, see if we can work this out together. That's what Paul is telling the Philippians here to do go to one another. Euodia, Syntyche, I urge you in the Lord to agree. We've seen that word agree here over and over again. It gets translated different ways. It basically means to have the same mind, to think the same thoughts, to think the same way. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. We saw that earlier. We see that word over and over again in Philippians. It shows up something like ten times. Almost half of all the uses of agree in your thoughts have the same mind show up in Philippians. Philippians. It's a huge emphasis. And the only way you get to having the same mind is working it out together. Dialoging talking, figuring it out. Take the initiative. Don't wait around hoping it'll all go away. Some things are small enough that don't need to be addressed, but if it's there, be the one to take the initiative. It's not going to go away on its own. It's going to show up somewhere else eventually. And he pleads with them to take the initiative. I also love what he does here, and I think we'll implement this here, probably in my weekly newsletter. He he actually names them specifically. Wouldn't that be great? Right? Hey, I just wanted to mention this week we have these two people in conflict. Let's all pray for them. Yeah, this church would be empty pretty fast. I think we we don't do that. But by the way, that's not necessary. That only needs to happen when things have really elevated to a point where we have no other recourse. My guess is this has gotten to the point where we have two women in the church, where it really has gotten to the point where it's involving the whole church. You know, the church in Philippi was started mainly among the women. When they showed up in Acts 16, they went out to a they said a place of prayer outside the city where the women gathered to pray. And there they found Lydia. And she became the first convert. So more than likely the the women in that church were significant leaders, were highly respected and looked up to. And so Paul names them specifically. And listen, the beautiful part of that, and this is so important when it comes to conflict, is to deal with specifics, not just generalities. Paul could have written, I hear there are some people in your church who are having conflict. You should deal with that. But do you know how that is? Everybody's problem is nobody's problem. Oh yeah. Somebody else must be in conflict. That's not me. I would never be in conflict with anyone. But when he says these two people need to deal with this, I had a guy come to me early on here and he said, you know, I think Valley View has this big problem. I'm not going to name it because I don't I didn't think it was true then. I don't think it's true now. So I don't want to mislabel us as a church. But that asked this person. I said, well, tell me this is it sounds like a big problem. Who is it? Who's doing this? Let's deal with that behavior. Let's go talk to them. And they said, well, it's someone who used to go here. So it's not a problem for us currently. Well, you know what? No, you're right. It's not. Okay. We need to deal with specifics. This works in relationships, by the way. You don't just say you're an angry person. What's a lot better is to go. You know what? Yesterday I noticed at dinner, you seemed kind of irritated with the kids. In theory. Hypothetically, you seemed irritated with the kids. Is everything okay? Was it just them? Was it something at work? Is it something you did? You know, deal with specifics as much as possible instead of just broad general labels? Because we all react to those differently and it doesn't really move the conversation forward. And Paul here is calling them out by name to deal with specifics and calling them to take the initiative, plead with you, go to one another, get on the same page if you can. Now, obviously that hasn't happened because he's dealing with it. So what's the next step he needs to take? Look at verse three. He says, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel. You know what's interesting about their names in particular? Names are important. They seem important. In the book of Philippians, we remember. We look back at Epaphroditis, favored of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess. Many believe it's probably a label more like handsome. Here we have Euodia, which is good journey. It probably meant something like success, have success on your journey. We have Syntyche which means with Tyche. Tyche was a Greek goddess at that time she would have been a goddess of good favor over a city. In fact, here's a description that describes how many people viewed her. She was the goddess of good fortune, known for bringing positive messages to people relating to events outside their control. Okay, absorb all this. By the way, these are their names. Success. Maybe even pleasant. You might. Might use. Have a good journey. Have a great vacation. Be successful. Also, you're kind of lucky. If success and lucky can't get along in church, that would be much like if we had grace and joy at bitter ends with one another and conflict. You go, don't, don't you hear your own names? Paul is calling them up. Live who you are. Live out who you are. In fact, he says, but notice what he said about them. Agree in the Lord in verse one. In verse two, agree in the Lord. So it's not just live out your pagan names, live out who you are in the Lord now. Move toward one another. That hasn't happened. And here he calls on a friend. In fact, the second way he says to address internal division is to don't go it alone. Don't go it alone. If you can't get it figured out, don't just write that person off and say, well, I guess I have to avoid them in church now for the rest of my life. You go in that door, I'll go in this door and we will not cross the center line of the church, and it will be good. Well, no, that's not where we leave things, he says, don't. Don't go it alone. He said, I ask you also, true companion, help these women. Sometimes if we get to a point where a conflict can't be resolved, we've got to call in extra help. Go back to Matthew because he anticipates this, Matthew chapter 18 when he said, first go to your brother. If they listen to you, you've gained a brother, you've gained a friend. And by the way, I've seen this time and again, it's it's so crazy how the person I have significant conflict with often becomes a very close friend. It's crazy how that works. So I try to remind myself about that. If I'm at odds with someone, go, John, don't just write them off as insane. They could end up becoming a very close friend. Matthew chapter 18. If your brother sins against you, go to him. You've gained a friend. But verse 16, if he does not listen, take 1 or 2 others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses. And then it goes on about what to do if he doesn't listen to them. Point being, start with one on one, and if that doesn't work, bring in someone else. Someone else who's trusted someone else, who's probably maybe a leader in the church. These women are probably leaders in the church. He's probably writing to another elder to say, it's time for you to step in and help them. And look, if you've lived any amount of time, you've been there where you've been in a relationship and you feel like we we can't move this forward on our own. I can't see their perspective anymore. They can't see mine. And there's no shame in bringing someone else in to help. We do that in all kinds of realms of life. Why wouldn't you call someone else to come alongside and help you sort this out together for the sake of the church, for the sake of the gospel? In fact, that what he calls this person here in Philippians, he says, help these women true companion. He calls them true companion. That word behind that is this word that means yoke. Fellow, fellow yoked. It was a military term. It would have described someone almost linked arm in arm, side by side, building up an impenetrable wall of defense, someone you trust your life with, someone you're willing to go to battle with. Someone you have seen them prove themselves more than likely a leader in the church. Some think that might actually have just been his proper name. Yoke fellow. This is the opposite of by the way of what we see in Second

Corinthians 6: 20:16

14-- do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, and you've had those experiences where you have tried to move forward with someone. Maybe it was in a romantic relationship, maybe it was in a business relationship, but there was such a divide spiritually that things could not be resolved, could not move forward. One of the things we have to fight here, and it's an interesting temptation, and I think it's important that he addresses it. He makes it very clear that these women are Christians. Too often when someone disagrees with us, the temptation is to go well clearly, they don't know Jesus, because if they knew Jesus, they would think the way that I think. But he says, here, look, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel. They've been there with me too. And if there's any doubt, their names are in the book of life. I remember a friend of mine in seminary. He had a landlord who was a Christian, but he told me one day, I'm not so sure is because there's all these little things he hasn't followed through on very well. And I said, man, that look, that's a big jump to go from. He didn't do his job well to he's not a Christian. Are you really want to jump there right away. Yeah. There may be a character issue there. There may be stuff he needs to work on but right to therefore, he's not a Christian. We need to be careful about that. Now. It's okay to say to someone, you don't seem to be acting very Christ like right now. That's okay to point out, we all have our seasons. But here he is reminding everyone involved in the conflict. And by the way, he's reminding the two women I know Christ is in you. In fact, one of my favorite verses along

this regards is in Romans 8: 22:14

11 if the spirit that raised Jesus, in fact here it's on the screen. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. The power that was at work, raising Jesus from the dead. If you know Christ, that power is in you. And if that power could take a dead man and make him alive, don't you think the spirit could work to resolve whatever conflict might come up? Don't you think he's powerful enough to do that? He is. He's so much bigger than any petty conflict that comes up. And I know there are real big conflicts. Okay? I don't throw petty out, but those are often the ones, the petty ones that people get most derailed about. Probably the most difficult conflict I've experienced, not with me personally, but was in a workplace between two women. And these women were both leaders in a Christian ministry, and they had gotten sideways with one another. And they'd gotten to the place where they could not resolve it. And it was hurting, not just them. It was hurting the whole organization because we had to sidestep around one or the other. You had to choose sides. Who am I going to be with? And if you're with one, you're against the other automatically. So finally, I was able to talk to them because they both worked for me. I was finally able to say, look, we got to get this resolved. This can't go on any longer. It had been over a year at this point. I even brought their husbands into it. Do you mind if I pull them in? Can you encourage them to meet with me so that we can deal with this? Yes. Okay. And they sat down to meet.

And Romans 8: 24:10

11 is where I started. Listen, I know this has been a big deal. I know this has been hard for both of you, but I believe the Holy Spirit lives in both of you, I truly do. You're both women that I would point other people to as women who should be respected and admired and sought for advice. The Holy Spirit is at work within both of you, and I believe he's going to move us forward through this. I believe he's going to show us a way he will. That was our starting point to call them up. Remind them the Holy Spirit is alive in us. We can depend on him to get through what seems impossible. Don't go it alone. And then third, look at verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. In the midst of a dispute make sure you move towards choosing joy. Choose joy. Rejoice in the Lord. Paul knows that disputes are hard. Division is hard. Conflict is hard. And this is, as a result, probably a heavy message for all of us because you're probably thinking of someone you have had conflict with or maybe currently are. And it's so easy to let a conflict dominate your life and steal your joy. And especially some that are really hard. Hey, I get why it would you still have to find a way to choose joy in the midst of that. He says, rejoice in the Lord, even in the midst Euodia and Syntyche, fighting with one another even in the midst. Rejoice in the Lord always. In case you didn't hear me the first time, again I will say, rejoice. Move towards joy. This is a choice that every one of us has to make. In every situation and in every day, there are a million things that can derail you and take you off course. Look, I heard a story this week of a guy who works at a ski resort, a ski lodge. And if you've never been to some big fancy ski resort, I don't just mean Paoli Peaks. That's nice. That's fun. But I'm talking about, you know, where you can't see the top of the mountains up in the clouds. It's it's a magical experience. It's unbelievable. It's so much fun. And here he is in this beautiful setting in the mountains. People, families, skiing, enjoying one another. And in comes this lady, irate. Just completely unraveled. How is it that you are out of ketchup packets? Where is the ketchup? You know, probably hungry from skiing. Totally out of control. And he pauses and kind of gives her a warm smile and says, ma'am, are you on vacation? Well, yes, I am, and you're ruining it. Well, ma'am, I'll find you some ketchup. Don't let ketchup ruin your vacation. It's going to be okay. And that was enough for her to go. You know what? You're right. And look, I know it may not be ketchup packets for you. I know it could be something very serious. But too many times, it's the ketchup packet that derails us. How do we move towards joy? How do you choose joy in the midst of conflict? How do you know to de-escalate, to not let their anger dominate you? I mean, to have the presence of mind in that moment that this guy had this amazing. Choose joy. Move towards joy. And then number four, look at verse six-- five, let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Lastly, we need to keep an eternal perspective in the midst of the conflict. Keep an eternal perspective. It's so easy to just be down in the weeds and forget the bigger picture. Keep an eternal perspective. Now that word reasonableness, reasonableness I've highlighted in the notes. In fact, I've listed out a number of different translations because. One of the ways you can do Bible study, when you're wondering which words to focus in on, to study, is to just simply look a lot across a lot of different translations. And if you see them each handling a word differently, they're all wrestling with what's the best way to translate this? If they translated the same word over and over again, you know, there's a lot of agreement here. But just look here in your notes, I listed out the ESV reasonableness. That's the translation we're teaching from. But the NASB, it's a gentle spirit; NIV, gentleness; CSB, graciousness; GB which is the Geneva Bible, a precursor to the King James, patient mind. King James, moderation; New Living, considerate. This is Young's Literal, forbearance. That's probably a little closer to what it means forbearance. It's not just that I'm going to be gentle. In fact, one dictionary said it this way. This is where I'm not insisting on every right of every letter, of every law or custom. Instead, I have a yielding disposition. I don't know about you, but when I get into that place where everything has to be my way, every law must be kept. And I'm seeing it everywhere. All the wrongs done against me. Man, that is a place I don't like being. I'm not easy to be around. But when it is, you know what? You go first. It's going to be okay. Go ahead. We'll get through this. I don't have to be first every single time. This is the mindset that Paul talked about in chapter two. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but with humility. Count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped or held onto, but instead emptied himself, becoming like a man. And becoming obedient to the point of death. Death on the cross. I think this is a challenge for everyone and my challenge to you this week. Look for opportunities to yield to others, to allow others to go first, even when you could, even when you should. And I'm not saying you always have to let everyone else go first, but this week in particular, practice letting others go first. Just see what it feels like that I don't always have to be the one to go first. I can yield my preferences to others. It's a powerful spiritual exercise to try it even in the simplest of things, at a traffic light or wherever. Walk in joy. Keep an eternal perspective. This is so important because at the end of the day, whatever conflict you're facing. Try to imagine how you would feel about it if, in the midst of the conflict, you saw the white horse coming down from heaven, and on him sat the one called Faithful and true, how would you feel? Would you feel good about the conflict? Would you feel like this was worth it? And of course everything will be put in proper light. But you know what I'm saying? Would you go? No, I was standing on the right thing. Keep an eternal perspective with this. Honor him in the way I'm approaching this. Is this building up the church or dividing it? Am I fighting just for my rights, or am I fighting for the rights of Christ? We're going to take communion in just a second. In fact, if you're helping to distribute communion, go ahead and prepare those elements. If you would slip out and get ready for that. I think one of the most powerful ways I've seen this lived out is at a marriage conference Julie and I used to teach at called The Weekend to Remember. Have anybody has anybody ever been to that conference? I know a couple of us went recently. I see any hands. There's one. There's a few out here. We go up there. Yeah, a few of us have been. And this year we talked about it just a little. We didn't do a good job promoting it. Next year will promote it a little better. You really should at some point in your married life. Or if you're engaged, you really should check it out. It's such a huge, powerful weekend. The thing they said that weekend that I think is so transformational for so many is just one simple phrase your spouse is not your enemy. And it's amazing how many people hear that. And and for the first time, for some, they realize, okay, they really feel like my enemy right now. But I'm going to say that on faith. My spouse is not my enemy. They are not the adversary. And when they get that mental shift, there is an enemy who's real. There is one. But we're not going to make each other the enemy anymore. Yeah, we have real conflict, real stuff we've got to work through, and we don't know how we're going to get through it all yet. But you're not my enemy anymore. And I think if we can have that mindset with one another here and it's okay to say we're in conflict, I don't know how we're going to get through this. I'm not sure I like you right now, but I really want us to sort this out. But I'm not going to call you my enemy. I'm going to trust that Christ is going to work through us. That's a powerful step to take me and go ahead and start distributing the communion. I'm going to give you directions around this.