Tonight’s text begins moving us into the instruction and confrontation portion of Paul’s letter to his friends in Philippi. Over our first few weeks we have talked a lot about this letter being a real model for Christian friendship, tonight we begin to see that true friendship that is based upon being mutually found in Christ must include confrontation or it cannot be considered true friendship. I want us to understand before we even jump into this section that confrontation and conflict are not the same, in fact they are not even similar. Conflict is based upon emotion, frustration, personal preference and a desire, sometimes even demand, for control. Confrontation in friendship is based on love, it’s built in honesty and it is an open attempt to deal with issues before they turn into conflict. We will not ever agree on everything, Christian friendship requires that we not bury our disagreements, that we not become passive aggressive about them or even quietly punish each other for them but that we address them not with the goal of changing each other but with a humble desire to hear each other. Confrontation listens to hear while conflict only listens long enough to respond, usually with an answer that was prepared ahead of time. Over the next few lessons we will see more clearly the issues that were in Philippi until finally, in chapter 4 Paul actually names names and implores two women that were integral to the church and Paul’s ministry to be restored to unity and friendship. In tonight’s passage we will simply see Paul begin to lay the groundwork of reconciliation through confrontation by addressing the entire church, the entire community to live worthy of the gospel by striving together, not reacting to their adversaries and not being afraid of suffering. Christian friendship is far more than having much in common, it is making Christ our bond and living for His glory even when we find ourselves at points of disagreement.