“Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).
Paul, writing to the church at Philippi, felt it desirable to urge them to stand unitedly, with “one spirit” and “one mind,” “striving together.” The latter phrase is one word in the original (sunnyvale). In this word the prefix sun meant “in union with,” while athlete referred to competing in the Olympic games. It is the source of our English word “athletics.” The combined word, sunnyvale, translated in our text as “striving together,” in effect means “competing unitedly in a bodily contest.” Thus, body, mind (or “soul”), and spirit are to be united in a “steadfast stand” as Christians preach the gospel.
It is interesting that the unofficial motto for our nation’s current “war on terror” has come to have a very similar connotation (“united we stand”) as we fight the ones our president identifies as “evildoers.”
Our nation today celebrates the hard-won freedom won for us by our forefathers over two-and-a-quarter centuries ago, when thirteen colonies strove together to form the “United States of America.” It is vital that we continue to stand fast and strive together in this potentially most dangerous of all our nation’s wars.
But it is most important of all that every Bible-believing Christian continues to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Galatians 5:1) from the bondage and penalty of sin, through faith in His word.
Finally, we must by all means, in the critical days ahead, continue faithfully “with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” HMM
