Question: in your opinion, what is the ultimate church? What should be our goal as a fellowship of people?
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and one in purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus"
Philippians 2:1-5 NIV
If...Then
The ultimate church: The picture here is a group of people who share their personal blessings with each other so that the group as a whole is blessed in the same way: If you have any comfort from Christ's love, then be like-minded by having the same love. If you have any fellowship with the Spirit, then be like-minded by being one in spirit. If you have any tenderness and compassion, then be like-minded by being one in purpose (once the Church is "one in spirit," the Holy Spirit can give everyone common "tenderness and compassion," in order lead them to work towards a common purpose).
So what gets in the way of that kind of unity? Selfish ambition and vain conceit. Those blessings we're supposed to share (encouragement, love, fellowship with the Spirit, and common purpose) are easily defeated by selfish ambition, vanity, and conceit. Just like you cannot have unity with God if you have sin, you cannot have unity with fellow believers if you have pride.
Opposites
So how do we accomplish this goal? How do we get the humility that leads to unity?We must do three things:
First, "Consider others as better than ourselves." That's the opposite of "vain conceit."
Second, "Look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others." That's the opposite of "selfish ambition."
Finally, we must look to the One who serves as our ultimate example (and teacher) in everything--Jesus Christ--to find the sort of humility that is needed for unity.
So what kind of humility did Jesus have? That is outlined in the next passage of Philippians 2 (verses 6-11). Ultimately, it says this: Jesus put God above everybody, and everybody above himself. That's the ultimate goal for us in our attitude. That's the picture of the ultimate church.
