Todays post will bring us
to the end of Chapter 1 of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. I hope you are finding these posts about Paul’s
letter to be helpful to your study. I
always enjoy hearing from readers and find their comments at the bottom of the
post, on my personal Facebook page or on the Facebook page created specifically
for the readers of this blog. That last
page hasn’t been up and running for too long and doesn’t have a lot of comments
yet. I hope that will change as people
want to comment or discuss something related to these posts. If you go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/459484807586302/
let me know you would like to join that group and I’ll be happy to add you to
the conversation so you can contribute items or comments as well.
Todays post covers 4 verses
as compared to the previous post which dealt with 14 verses. In one translation verses 27 through 30 were
subtitled Life Worthy of the Gospel and I liked that. I think that will be the theme of today’s
post…Live Your Life Worthy of the Gospel. What do you think? As always I would encourage you to take a
moment before you begin to ask God to open your eyes to what He wants you to
see in todays’ scripture and comments.
With that, let’s get started.
Here are the verses we will work on today.
27 “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of
the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you
in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, striving together
as one for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened
in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be
destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For
it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but
also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same
struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.”
Paul begins this paragraph with a
reminder, “Whatever happens”. He is telling the Philippians that no matter
what happens in their lives or his they should be consistent in their faith walk. If we are truly in the ‘Family of God’ as we
like to sing about, then we should behave like one of God’s kids, don’t you
think? Paul was admonishing the “family”
in the Philippian church that they should live consistently, every day, no
matter what the circumstances. The same
is true for us. You’ve already read in these
blogs that we should be the same person during the week that we are on Sunday
morning. The man or woman people think us
to be should be the same person they see wherever you might meet them. Think for just a moment where that ‘place’
might be. You could be standing in line
at the Convenience Store or in a long line at Walmart. You might be sitting at the counter in the
local diner or in a chair at the beauty salon or barber shop. Then again you might think of who people see
when they meet you at the garage, the grocery store or just leaning over the
back fence. We all need to remember that
we are God’s witness here on earth everywhere we go through whatever we are doing
or saying. This world is so full of
opportunities to goof up on this point isn’t it? When you hear that juicy bit of gossip that
you think others should hear as well or when you have thoughts which might be
less that Christ-like about a co-worker or neighbor. Maybe something happened while you were
driving in traffic (it’s getting close to me right now, ouch) and some 
Paul says that he needs to know that
the Philippian Christians are consistent in their stand for Christ whether he’s
around or not. He mentions hearing about
them when he’s not around. He expresses
confidence in their witness when he says “I will know that you stand firm”. I think Paul did believe that they would be
good representatives of the gospel and he was reassuring them of that fact but
he also knew human nature and was reminding them of how they should live. God does that daily in our own lives if we
let Him. What I mean by that is we need
to make sure that God has the opportunity to speak to us through our prayers
and/or scripture reading every day. That
“quiet time” gives Him the chance to speak to us directly and with limited
distractions or interruptions. It’s
important to make time to be with Him every day. One of the first things I would ask
individuals who came to me with struggles and trouble in their spiritual walk
was this… “So, how are you doing with your daily devotional time?” I can tell you that almost to the person they
would immediately start to share that they had been having “a real hard time
finding the chance to do that”. I know
exactly what they mean because I have those same “hard times”. The truth is, I don’t need to “find time” to
be with God, I need to “make time” to do that.
I sure make time to eat 3+ meals a day!
That’s where I get fed and receive the nourishment to keep my body going. The same is true about my spiritual
health. If I want to stay strong and
grow in that area of my life I’d better be “eating” regularly as well, feeding
on God’s Word. When I fail to do that I
always find myself having more problems.
It’s just a fact of life for me.
When I don’t take time to be “fed” by the Holy Spirit I become weaker
and less effective to “live” for Christ every day. How about you?
At the end of verse 27 Paul writes “I will know that you stand firm in one
spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel”. He’s talking about unity in the body. I believe that the church does more to harm
their image than anyone outside the church.
I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard church people “outside
the walls” complaining about others, belittling others, or just complaining in
general. And then there’s the problem of
criticizing those “other churches” who do things differently than they do at “their
church”. Make no mistake, the world is
watching us as “those religious folks” and they take note of what we say, how
we say it, who we’re talking about and what we’re saying about them. I’ll share a story from several years
ago. One Saturday morning my wife and I
were having breakfast in a local diner where one of my students was working as
a waitress. Actually, she was our
waitress on this particular morning. At
the same time there was a group of people from one of the other local churches
sharing breakfast a few tables away from us and they, too, had that same young
lady as their waitress. As the meal went
on at one point she was refreshing my coffee and said, “Those people over at that table are all from the XYZ church but you
should hear what they are saying about some of the other people who go to their
church! I didn’t think church people
would talk like that. Why would anybody
want to go to that church?”
Wow! Out of the mouths of
babes! Here again, we don’t have to look
outside the walls of the church to find the perpetrators. All too often the enemy is us! There’s a phrase which originated in James, chapter
3 which has application in lots of place and this is one of them. “My
brothers (and sisters), this should not be!” Remember, the whole world is watching.
Paul in the end of verse 27 is
speaking about unity. Some people miss an important point. Paul isn’t speaking about uniformity. Or as I like to say, God wants to see unity,
not uniformity in the body. What am I
talking about? God has made us all so
very different and that was by design.
He doesn’t want “cookie cutter Christians” who do everything the same
all the time. He gives us a wonderful
variety of talents, likes, dislikes, abilities, and the opportunity to use them
in so many different ways. I believe
that’s one of the reasons we see so many different churches. Granted, there are many who have become so “different”
that they have changed the basic message of the Gospel and I’m not speaking
about that. What I am saying is that
there are many, many churches which have different traditions, worship formats,
musical styles, etc., etc., etc., but as long as they are anchored to the
gospel message and recognize salvation through Christ alone then they have some
things in common with every other “Bible believing” and “Jesus loving”
church.
This is another thing which “the
world” sees all too often when they watch those “church people”. We spend so much time telling them why our
church is better than that other church down the street and why our music is
more “godly” than theirs and how our pastor dresses more appropriately,
preachers better and so on. It’s no
wonder that so many unsaved folks don’t even want to step through the doors of
a church and, unfortunately, we are the ones to blame. I love the attitude our pastor expresses
about this problem. Pastor Don says that
we should begin by finding what we agree on and build our relationship with
other Christians from there. Instead, he
says, people so often stress the differences between themselves and other
Christians. I believe he’s on to
something there, don’t you? I once knew
an Episcopal Priest who used to tell me, “When
God looks down from heaven He doesn’t see the walls, he sees people. It’s we who put so much emphasis on the walls
(figurative and literal) that we
build between our various Christian churches and that’s wrong.” Here again, I think this pastor was on to
something too! Let’s all strive for more
unity, not uniformity with our brothers and sisters in other churches. Let’s start looking for what we can agree on
and emphasize those things rather than the things which make us different from
one another. One thing we need to agree
on right off the bat is that we have a common enemy in Satan and he will do
everything he can to keep us fighting with each other for then we won’t have
any time or energy to attack the real enemy and that is him!
In verse 28 Paul continues by
telling the Philippians that they don’t need to fear those who oppose them. Some translations use the word terrified in this verse. Scripture has many verses which remind us not
to fear. When we represent the “light”
it will most certainly cause conflict with those who walk in “darkness”. It may very well be a source of contention
because, recognize it or not, this very comparison speaks of the lost state of
those who oppose the gospel. I’ve met so
many people over the years who even joke about their “goin’ to hell”. They seem
to have a foreknowledge based on their own behaviors that they aren’t saved but
they don’t seem that concerned about it.
As a matter of fact there are those who want to argue with you about it. All I can say is that we need to be careful
that we never come off as superior or arrogant about our assurance of
salvation. That isn’t something we can
every take credit for. On the contrary,
we need to remember that ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ We are, like
the old chorus says, ‘Only a sinner saved by grace.’ We’ve got nothing to brag about. We have everything to be filled with
thanksgiving and gratitude for. And we
need to share that kind of attitude with the people around us who don’t yet
know the Lord. Try to emphasize God’s amazing grace above
anything else as well as the fact that Jesus made it possible for anyone to
receive this amazing gift of salvation.
In verses 29 and 30 Paul continues to
speak about suffering for the cause of Christ.
He says “For it has been granted
to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for
him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear
that I still have.” I love the word “granted”
used here. We have been given the gift
of salvation through Jesus but also the fact that we can suffer for him. I know that doesn’t sound much like a gift
but it is important to remember that when you are being attacked or belittled
or ignored because of your faith it isn’t you they are confronting. It is Christ in you! In faithfulness, if
you are reflecting Christ to the world around you then expect struggles and
opposition. I’ve told you before that
Jesus knew this was coming for everyone who professed him as Lord. If you don’t remember my telling you of this
before take a moment and turn to John 16:33 and read it once again. “Take heart…!” Those words are for us. In verse 30 Paul makes reference to his own
suffering speaks of his situation as a reminder that the believers in Philippi
should expect, not fear but expect, that they will have struggles as Paul does.
I will end todays’ post with a
couple verses we will study more in depth later on in this series but I want to
share them with you now as a way to wrap up the scripture we shared today. I won’t make any comments at this point but I
think you may find that these two verses will sort of draw things together for
you. If they whet your appetite then go
ahead and read further. It’s not
cheating to look ahead in a Bible study you know! God bless you until we connect again real
soon.
I want to know
Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and
so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians
3:10, 11
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