We have been emphasizing like-mindedness and its relationship to joy. But like-mindedness cannot be cobbled together from side-to-side. If you tied two people’s legs together, what you get is not unanimity, but rather a three-legged race at the picnic, and people falling down. So the like-mindedness that we must pursue must be pursued through our imitation of Christ. Paul said in the first chapter that he wanted them to be of “one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27). He exhorted them in Phil. 2:2 to be like-minded. In the next verse he commends lowliness of mind (Phil. 2:3). And here we come to the capstone of all of this—which is the mind of Christ.

This is how we are to understand how it all ties together: one mind > like-minded > lowliness of mind > the mind of Christ.