In literature, we have the Three Musketeers and more recently Harry, Ron, and Hermione from the Harry Potter series. On stage, there were three spirits in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and three witches in Shakespeare’s MacBeth. On TV, we had the Three Stooges and Charlie’s Angels. In cartoons, we’ve got Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and more recently the Powerpuff Girls. From the movies, we all remember Luke, Leia, and Han of Star Wars fame, and Quint, Hooper, and Chief Brody aboard the Orca in Jaws. In music—The Supremes, Rush, The Police, Nirvana, Destiny’s Child, and the Jonas Brothers. And as for culinary trios, there’s the classic B.L.T. and S’Mores around the campfire.
Finding three people, three things, three ingredients that go together well and form a single remarkable whole can be quite magical. And sometimes—even if such a trio might not seem to fit quite so well together, something special can emerge nevertheless.
First century Philippi was a city located at a strategic commercial location within the Roman empire. To keep the place secure, Rome encouraged its retired soldiers to settle there instead of returning from the field all the way back to the capital. Philippi, in the middle of the first century, was therefore a city full of traders, full of Roman soldiers, and filled also with one other group comprising about 5-10% of the population of most Roman cities of the time—slaves.
In the Book of Acts, upon entering Philippi, Paul soon encounters representatives of all three groups. First, there’s a rich woman named Lydia who trades in purple cloth. We’re told not long after meeting her, Paul baptizes Lydia along with her whole family. Paul then encounters a young fortune-telling slave girl who he frees from an evil spirit (much to her owners’ chagrin). This episode unfortunately results in Paul’s imprisonment, but there in jail, in a dramatic turn of events, he meets and saves the head of the prison, a Philippian jailer who is almost certainly one of these Roman soldiers. We’re told Paul baptizes him, along with his whole family, as well.
It’s not a stretch to conclude that these three people who Paul met in rapid succession were among the founding members of the fledgling church Paul started there in Philippi around 50 AD. It’s only a short step further to imagine that through their connections, they drew more traders, more retired soldiers, and more slaves and freed slaves to the new church. Surely, this was one eclectic fellowship. Just think about the issues liable to arise in such a place.
Now flash forward thirteen or fourteen years to the moment this odd group receives a letter from Paul. The letter, the book in our Bible we call Philippians, suggests something has gone awry in the church. This can’t be a total surprise. Offering a course correction, Paul tells them to “be in heart-agreement with one another…Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit,” he writes, “but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than yourself. For this is the mind of Christ.”
Consider how this exhortation might sound to the trio of folks we’ve identified. If you’re a wealthy first century trader, you’re probably not used to stepping aside but rather exploiting the needs of others. This new ethic prescribed by Paul likely isn’t something that comes naturally to you. Similarly, if you’re a retired Roman soldier, you’re probably not accustomed to giving ground. That’s not how things work. Finally, if you’re a slave—born into bondage, captured in battle, or kidnapped, then trafficked across a continent—you’ve probably never imagined such an ethic even exists, and that’s because largely it didn’t until an itinerant rabbi from Nazareth, less than a generation before, started telling his followers that it’s neither Rome nor Greece who will inherit the earth but the meek.
Paul is offering his old friends a new way through strife. He’s saying: warriors and soldiers, don’t push your way to the front. Traders and business people, stop trying to negotiate the best possible deal for yourself. And even you who are accustomed to being pushed aside, voluntarily put yourselves aside in the context of your faith and this fellowship. All of you must let go of rivalry, of your own self-interest, and let the other win. This, he’s telling them, is the new way to live. This is a new ethic to follow. Pursue it together. Pursue it mutually. Regard one another as more important than yourself, and something special will emerge. A single, dynamic, beautiful whole.
Three cheers for all who can do likewise.
Heavenly Father, through the Spirit’s power, may I emulate the mind of Christ. God in Three Persons. Holy Trinity. Amen.
