Christ our Pattern—Chapter 2

To complete his joy, Paul exhorts them to be “likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, … Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:2, 5). He was the Perfect Servant and our perfect pattern.
Paul could no longer be with them; they were on their own, and they were going to have to work out their own salvation now with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), remembering, of course, that it was God that worked in them “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). In the first chapter, Paul was ready to live to serve them in the Lord (Phil. 1:24-25); in the second, he is ready to be poured out as the libation on the sacrifice and service of their faith (Phil. 2:17). They were to walk such that Paul could rejoice in the day of Christ (Phil. 2:16).