Philippians 1:21-28 - For Me to Live is Christ
Tom Shrader examines Paul's profound statement 'for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain' from his Roman imprisonment. He explores how Paul viewed his circumstances as opportunities for gospel advancement and wrestled with the tension between desiring heaven and remaining for fruitful ministry. The teaching emphasizes that Christianity is fundamentally about Christ Himself, not just Christian activities or knowledge.
“Christianity is the person of Christ. Christianity is Christ. Take Christ from Christianity and you've disemboweled it. There's practically nothing left.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Philippians
Recorded: October 06, 2016
Duration: 39 min
Themes: purpose, suffering, ministry, perseverance, circumstances, witness, contentment, calling, facing imprisonment, ministry leader, experiencing setbacks, questioning purpose, dealing with uncertainty, middle aged believer, pastor, struggling with circumstances
Scripture: Philippians 1:6, Philippians 1:12-28, Philippians 1:21, Philippians 4:22, 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 12:2-6, 1 John 3:2, 1 John 1, 2 Timothy 3:12
Theological Themes: sanctification, providence, evangelism, spiritual maturity, discipleship, gospel advancement, christian living, missional purpose
Full Transcript
We are in week 5. Open your Bibles if you would to the book of Philippians. We are in chapter 1. We left off in chapter 1 verse 20-ish.
I want to do a little bit of a summary, remind you where we are. When we left off last week what we saw when we got to verse 12 is that Paul shifts and for the first time in this book begins to talk about himself. So remember the context. He's writing to this church at Philippi. They have not heard from him directly as far as we know in four years. So we said last week all sorts of rumors and things that are spinning around about him and maybe he's in prison, maybe he's already been martyred and then they get this letter. So that would be exciting for them.
But in the first 11 verses all he did was speak to them and try to encourage them. The driving force in that, verse 6, is his confidence that He who began the good work in you will continue it. There'll be difficulties, challenges, we're going to talk more about it today, but he said I have great confidence in you. And because I understand the promise, the reality, we said lots of doctrine, lots of theology, God started this, He's not going to stop it.
Paul's Autobiographical Turn
Then in verse 12, and this is where we started last week, Paul begins to speak autobiographically. He says this, "I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel." And now he tells them a little bit, confirms some of the rumors, "so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known through the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else."
Remember we said last week, Paul had his own agenda and it was to eventually get to Rome, and from Rome to Spain, and perhaps, we're not totally sure, perhaps from there even into England. And Paul saw himself traveling and teaching, and hopefully in his biggest, wildest dreams. We talk about it in the context on staff and with our people of wanting to pray for and be engaged in something that's in a way so outrageous that if God doesn't do it, it isn't going to happen.
Now there's tension in that, and I get it, and we want to plan and we want to strategize, but sometimes you get these big dreams, and you'd like to think that the motive is right, and that the dream is good, and that it would be something God would bless. And I'm sure that Paul's big dreams, if he said in the absolute wildest, it would be that Nero would himself embrace the gospel.
A Captive Audience
But what happens is that he's in prison. Chuck Swindoll writes this, instead of seeing the soldier on duty next to him as a galling restriction to the gospel, Paul saw him as a captive audience. Paul's chained 24 hours a day to a guard, they would change that guard every four to six hours, rather than being bitter by him, Paul sees this as a captive audience. He's the one in chains, but in reality it's the guard.
Swindoll continues, what an opportunity to share Christ with another soldier, one after another, who would in turn take the same message back to the barracks, so that in the elite Praetorian guard they might hear and believe. Instead of feeling frustrated and victimized, Paul laughed at the open window of unique opportunity offering numerous possibilities.
Paul's joy was outrageous, and we said all of a sudden this spread through the whole Praetorian guard, about this man Paul that was in prison, and his message which was a message of hope and joy, which would seem so odd for somebody who's incarcerated. But we have to assume, I made comment of it last week just in speculation, if Paul had become bitter, the words that Swindoll used, frustrated and victimized, if Paul would have had that, that gospel message of hope and joy would not have resonated. But there was something about Paul, and he understood that though his circumstances were not what he desired, that God was in the midst of it, and He was blessing it.
The Gospel Reaches Caesar's Household
So powerful was this, remember we saw last week, end of the book, chapter 4, verse 22, that the saints greet you, especially those in Caesar's household. The gospel had spread all the way to the highest positions of power in Rome.
Paul goes on to say, listen, there's opposition, there's some who are actually, in verse 15, preaching Christ from envy and strife, some from goodwill, he's talking about motive here. Some who are doing this selfishly, some are doing it with goodwill, those with goodwill are doing it out of love, the others are actually intending to harm me. The end of verse 17, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment, but you know what? Whatever the motive, to me at this moment it doesn't matter, Paul says, what matters to me is that Christ is being preached.
So he ends verse 18 and said, you know what, I'm going to rejoice. And that's where we left off last week. Paul in 1st Thessalonians, I think it's chapter 5, verse 16, says, rejoice always, regardless of the circumstances. Why? Well, at the very least, what he says in Philippians 1:6 is, I know that He who began the good work in me will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus. So that's Paul, that's the situation that he's in.
The Heart of Christianity
Now he begins to elaborate on it, verse 21. James Boyce writes this, "Philippians 1:21 is the text that cuts like a surgeon's scalpel into the heart of Christianity. What is Christianity? The question is a puzzle to non-Christian historians and sociologists, psychologists, and others. It also puzzles the person on the street, the homemaker, the college student. What is Christianity? The answer to that question is not unknown to the believing child of God. Christianity is the person of Christ. Christianity is Christ."
John Stott writes, "The person and the work of Christ are the foundation rock upon which the Christian religion is built. Take Christ from Christianity and you've disemboweled it. There's practically nothing left." Christianity, the very root is Christ.
So Paul writes in chapter 1, verse 21, "For me to live is Christ, to die is great gain."
I'm going to hang on this verse a while, play a little bit with you of just substituting words. Imagine putting anything but Christ in that verse. For me to live is money and to die is leave it all behind. Nothing else works. For me to live is fame. There's so much of it and maybe it's the ramblings now of an old man, but I see so much and I have not yet found the right words to express it, of what we get involved in, debating, arguing, is just stuff that doesn't matter. That's driven usually out of somebody's pride and ego who perhaps makes an issue where there shouldn't be one and then comes the retaliation and then the war is on.
Fame is one of them, recognition, power. For me to live is power and influence, to die is to lose both. For me to live is fame, that isn't going to last, and to put anything in there. For me to live is stuff. There's only one thing that allows that sentence to work. For me to live is Christ.
The Heart of Christian Faith
It's to understand the guts of the Christian faith, it's fellowship with Christ, intimacy, it's to know Him, it's relational, to know Christ and Christ crucified. One of the authors writes this, A.W. Tozer, "Modern scientists has lost God amid the wonders of His world. We Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His word. We've almost forgotten that God as a person and as such can be cultivated as any other person can."
So that sentence, this whole thing threw me all upside down Monday. That sentence got me thinking, so here's the scientist who is enamored with the creation. The biologist looks down, the astronomer looks up. I was just reading yesterday that there's a guy, I don't know if you saw it, who is going to fund, he doesn't want any government money, so that alone made me cheer for the guy. He's going to fund a trip to Mars, that seems ambitious. I'm trying to figure out how to get to San Diego, and I've got a car and a map, but he's going to go to Mars.
He wants to send a couple. So Sandy said, why don't we do it? I said, are you out of your mind? I mean, no. So he's going to Mars, and I'm thinking, think about the study of the universe. They're so enthralled in the study of the universe that they miss the one who created it.
Don't Miss God in His Word
It's easy to poke fun at that. I don't want to do that. I want us, me, to think about, have I lost the wonder of God in the midst of the wonder of His word? And it's very basic. It's this, that while I, Tom, was a sinner and hated God, He sent His Son who died for me and redeemed me in spite of me, not because of me.
I remember early on, that was an amazing moment. I had a study one time, there was this guy, and it was just, in my schedule, an easy time, and I had some flexibility, and he wanted to do a study, didn't know Christ, was willing to do a Bible study, so we decided we were going to do, I think it was a 20-week study in the book of John. And about a third week into it, I said, why am I doing this? It was awful. It was just, I mean, it was just, it was anguish.
And we got to about week 17, and there was this moment where we're talking about the crucifixion, not that He died, but why He died. And there was this moment where it was like, and the light went on, and this guy lit up like a five-year-old kid on Christmas morning. He just literally lit up and couldn't stop saying, I get it, I see it. There was this excitement. He would call every day, he'd send me an email, he'd say, I just saw this, did you ever see this? What about this?
And I was so excited for him, and here's what I watched then. It was like every week, a little more of the enthusiasm died away, and pretty soon it was, yeah, Jesus died for my sin, yeah, yeah, I know, I know, I know that. Jesus empowers me and lives in me, I know, I got it. And it was this quest for give me the deeper truths, and I'm going to go, how do you get much deeper than that?
Fellowship with the Father and Son
And when I read that Tozer quote, I thought, man, that can be us. John writes this, "We proclaim to you what we've seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." We have fellowship with Him. So if I know Christ in Christianity, I have Christ, I have this union with Him, this relationship with Him.
Sandy and I have been married now nine months. Could have had a baby in this time. That would have been great. But we've been married nine months. Somebody the other day said, what's this like? This second time, and I oftentimes think it's guys who are vicariously living their lives through my experiences, which I enjoy that. Then I explained it, and I said, one of the hard things is, challenges is, is you're starting all over again with some preconceived notions.
So like I always did this because I like this, and she doesn't like that. We just had a discussion on ceiling fans yesterday, and I'm saying, well, why do we have them if we don't turn them on? And she's saying, but they make me cold, and I'm saying, well, then put on a coat. And she said, it's like the tundra in here. And so I'm saying, all right, all right, all right, all right, turn the fan off.
And so you're learning about that person, and I have a point in here. You're learning from experience, you're learning from time, you're learning from conversation. It's the same thing with Jesus, not about ceiling fans, but He speaks to you through His word, and you speak to Him through prayer, and you start this communion. And you start to understand how He thinks, what are His passions, how He interacts with you, how He's going to respond to you.
Living is Christ
For me to live, he says, is Christ. It's Christ, it's fellowship with Him, it means following Him. If we were to take this verse in Philippians 2, if you go to the left, you have the book of Ephesians, and then the book of Galatians. A perfect sister passage to Philippians 1:21 is Galatians 2:20. One's written at the beginning or the early days of Paul's ministry, the other at the end, and they
Galatians 2:20 summarizes really the essence of what Paul's teaching: "I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me." He said it's not me, it's not about me, it's Christ living in me. And he said, that's the whole thing that drives me in the midst of all of this.
Paul's Divine Dilemma
Paul now says, back to Philippians 1, it produces a dilemma. When we talk about dilemmas, we're talking about two possibilities, two options, two ways in which we can go, and they might even be equally appealing.
There's three dilemmas that we talk about regularly. Here's a volitional dilemma: we want two different things at the same time. So it's a young couple - Sandy and I were just talking about a couple last night - young couple, married, front end of career, really at that time where they need to finish up schooling, determine where they're going to go to graduate school, be about establishing a career. At the same time, they're feeling this desire to start a family.
There's emotional desires - that's even more intense. That's when we have contrary feelings about the same event. Swindoll, when he writes about it, talks about his son who has this dog that he loves desperately. Had the dog for like 14 years, the dog is very sick and suffering a great deal. So his son knows the only solution to this is to put the dog to sleep. And now, here are these feelings about this dog, but these feelings are in competition with one another.
The third type of dilemma is a geographic dilemma. You want to be in two places at once. It's like right now, when you're so excited to be here, but at the same time would love to be in bed. It's like all of a sudden there's this opportunity to take this promotion and transfer. The problem is, my kids are here. Just talking to somebody yesterday, and they've been transferred to Pittsburgh. And they're loving the job there, but the big thing is, I need to be there and want to be there for the job and the career. But my adult kids - one just graduated and is getting a teaching certificate and is teaching here, the others at ASU - and so there's this geographic challenge.
Torn Between Two Worlds
Well Paul has this challenge that maybe it's all of these. He said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is a great gain." And he goes on now and elaborates on this: "But if I'm to live on in the flesh, it means fruitful labor for me. I don't know which to choose. I'm hard-pressed in both directions. Having a desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is much better, yet to remain on in the flesh is even more necessary for your sake."
And this is where I got distracted, I think, in a good way the other day. Paul's saying, "I'm torn here. I'm torn between life here in Christ, driven primarily for your sake, and heaven."
Now when Paul talks about heaven, he has a sense of it. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 2, and maybe through about verse 6, Paul talks about - and this is written years before this moment - Paul's talking about this man, he's talking about himself, who's lifted into paradise. And Paul has a sense of heaven and what it is.
Life Here Should Be This Good
Here's where I got swept away. Paul in this section is telling us how good life here should be. Maybe a different word than should is can be. Paul said, "I'm legitimately torn." And he fully understood heaven, just like you do.
I presume that sometimes you think about it. I found something the other day that Larry had signed and sent to me. It was a note or a letter or something. And I read it and I found myself thinking about Larry. Thinking about Larry now being in heaven 11 and a half years. What's it like? What's he doing? What's he thinking? What's he look like? Is he 68 or 28?
And I can't think of heaven and Larry without thinking of Susan. I came across the other day a text that one of the girls sent me on the anniversary of Susan's death, and said, "I was thinking about mom today, as you'd expect. But it just hit me," she said, "that mom's just had a year without any chemo, without any surgery, without any medication, without being exhausted. And beyond that," she said, "she's had her first year with Jesus." That's an amazing thing.
Fighting for Life Here
I see people torn this way. There was a guy in our study, very faithful, and had cancer. And it's kind of come and gone, and come and gone. And then it came back with vengeance last year. He was really sick. And he was determined to get to Thanksgiving to see his family. All the kids were coming back, Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving. And I watched him. I've watched others. I watched Susan really do it.
Susan was determined to see Brayden be born. She just willed herself to that. And then there was Gracie, and then Yale, and then Reagan, and then Brooklyn. And she made it all the way to Lucy. And she just powered.
I would sit, and the doctors would start to talk to her about quality of life, which was code for, "maybe we stop this treatment." And I mean, she is a tough chick. And I told this guy, "I don't know how many times I told him, 30 years ago when we got married, she gave up on quality of life. And you aren't going to win her. You can talk." And she'd be so sick sitting there that she couldn't even open her eyes. And he'd start with quality of life. And she would open her eyes and shake her head. And it didn't matter what he said.
She was just determined to see - it wasn't driven by me. "Oh, Tommy, I want to be with Tommy." It wasn't. "I want to be with those grandbabies. That's my driving force."
The Moment Everything Changed
And then there was this moment. It was odd. At the time, I knew we were entering a new area. But I didn't know enough, because I'd never experienced it before. It was a Friday. And Sarah was at the house. And she said, this is out of the blue, and Susan's laying on the couch and drifting...
in and out, sleeping. And she said, "Sarah, I want you to have my wedding ring." Well, that's odd.
And then it was the next morning that I could hear her in there. I could hear her breathing. And it was almost like snoring. She'd get in that deep sleep. But I went in. And I said, "Susan," because it was going on and on and on. And it was game day. It was a Saturday, game day. So it was a commercial. And so I went in. And I said, "Susan, Susan." And no response. Still breathing. And it was a whole new... you knew this was something different.
And so I called. Sarah had left town. First time she'd left town in three or four years, had left that morning. So I called Haley. I said, "Hey, you may want to slide up here," because what is it? And then you know how that is. Then you panic. And I said, "I wouldn't panic. I would just drive up." And I called hospice, because we'd met with them. And I said, "You know, this is a new deal. Can you have a nurse swing by?" And they said, "Sure."
And so I got Susan up and got her to the couch. It was all I could do. It's all I had. That's all the strength I had. I couldn't get her. She didn't have any strength. She was laying on the couch. And in walks Haley. And she said to Haley, "Haley, I want you to have this ring." And it was the ring that her mother had had that she had given to Susan.
It was at that moment. It was like, "To live is Christ, to die is great gain. I don't know which to do." And it was like that moment I saw her go, "Okay, we're done here." And that was Saturday. And then she died. Not the next day. She died seven days later. She laid there for seven days fighting this.
Paul's Perspective on Life and Death
And Paul said, "I've got this." This is my point that I made yesterday, and it didn't work. And good chance it won't work here again today. But it's clear in my mind that Paul's saying, "Here's my point. Heaven is amazing. But rather than focus on that, I'm going to focus on this." He's saying life must be pretty amazing too, that I'm hard pressed in this.
And He doesn't say, "What makes me hard pressed in this is that I've got this great life. I've got this great place. Or I'm going to play a round of golf. Or I just closed this big deal. Or I've got these great grandkids." He said, "No, the thing that's keeping me here, the thing that's keeping me attached here is not for me, but it's for you."
He said, "I'm apparently not done yet. For me to remain in the flesh," verse 24, "is for your sake. I'm convinced of this. I know that I will remain and continue with you for all your progress and the joy and the faith so that your proud confidence..." In the Greek, these are actually flipped. In the Greek, it reads this way, "So that your proud confidence in Christ Jesus and in me may abound through my coming to you." He said, "Your confidence isn't in me. It's in Christ."
What Makes Life Worth Living
So what is it that motivates this life and makes it so attractive, I guess, that I want to stay here as it's compared to that? Some of it just seems to be this human reality that everybody wants to go to heaven and nobody wants to die. Some of it is just that. We sing about the sweet by and by. We talk about the sweet by and by. We talk about absence of the body's presence with the Lord. But something about it is, I know it intellectually, but I can't quite get here.
What is the thing that keeps me here? And Paul's saying, "It's bigger than selfishness. It's really selflessness that keeps me here. Because I'm not living my life about me. I'm living it about you."
Now, I love it. I don't think Paul, and this is interesting, I don't think He's a tired old man who's pooped and He's lamenting life and pulled in the direction and all this. We met yesterday, is that right? Or the day before. We met with our accountant to do tax, the tax stuff is done, to get it in. And I find myself, this time of year, saying, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus." Election night, I found myself, "Come quickly. If not come, just take me. Have a guy break in right now and put a bullet in my head and get this over with." Because I'm tired about it.
Paul's Different Perspective
That's not Paul. I came across it the other day. Let me read it to you, especially some of you older folk will love this. "Yes, I'm tired," a guy writes. "For several years, I've been blaming it on middle age, iron poor blood, lack of vitamins, air pollution, water pollution, saccharine obesity, dieting, yellow wax buildup, and a dozen other maladies that make you wonder if life is worth living. But I find out, it ain't that. I'm tired because I'm overworked."
He said, "The population of the country is 200 million." So you know it's dated because it's, what, like 330 now. "84 million are retired. That leaves 116 million to do the work. There's 75 million in school, which leaves 41 million to do the work. Of this total, there are 22 million employed by the government. That leaves 19 million to do the work. 4 million are in the armed services. That leaves 15 million to do the work. Take from that a total of 14,800,000 people who work for state and city governments, and that leaves 200,000 people to do the work. There's 188,000 in hospitals. So that leaves 12,000 to do the work. And there's 11,998 people in prison. That leaves two people to do the work, you and me, and you're standing here reading this stupid thing. No wonder I'm tired."
Well, Paul's not saying that. But Paul's saying, "There's this pull here."
Understanding Our Fear of Death
Francis Bacon said, wrote, "Men fear death like children fear the dark." Samuel Johnson wrote about visiting a friend who was dying. And He said, and I quote, "At the sight of this last conflict, I felt a sensation I'd never known before, a confusion of passion, an awful stillness of sorrow, a gloomy terror without name." And He's contemplating in the course of this death.
And Paul's got it. He's saying, "Listen, I understand what heaven is. It's the absent from the body. It's the present with the Lord. It's the end of evil. I see evil all around me. I went to get my hair cut the other day, and I'm in there, and it's the..."
Freedom from Evil
For the first time ever, the lady that cuts my hair had the TV on. I love her, she's great, but I've never seen her TV on before. But it was on the other day, and she and all of her clients were following the trial of this girl who stabbed her boyfriend 27 times, cut his throat, and shot him. I'm not a forensic guy and don't have any experience, but when I read that, I said this could be a crime of passion. I mean, this sounds like a crime of passion.
I asked if she had admitted to doing it. "Yeah, but then they had all the details," she said. She claimed he dragged her out here, but she shot him there and he moved over there. Apparently for almost two weeks now, it's been a very graphic detailed account of their life and their sexual exploitation. She's painting this to say he did all this to her, so that's why she's filled with anger. Now the prosecuting attorney is spending time asking, "But didn't you like it?" So now we're going through all this.
I found myself thinking about evil differently. It's like OJ - I didn't watch two seconds of that thing. For whatever reason, that's not my issue. I understand people like that, but I've got other issues. The evil that I can't wait to get away from is not that - it's my own evil, my own sin. I find myself going, "Are you kidding me? You're going to do that again? You know it's empty, why do you do that? Why do you act like that?"
The Promise of Transformation
It's freedom from evil. When we are absent with the body, we'll be present with the Lord and we'll become like Christ. First John 3:2 says, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, but what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when it appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." There will be a sense of righteousness and knowledge and love in us, and we will be with Him forever and ever.
Paul said, "I'm torn." What tears him here is that to stay presents for him the opportunity to be engaged in fruitful labor. "I don't know what to choose." It could simply mean that he's not sure at this point what God would have him choose, and what he wants is whatever God has. He said, "I am willing, if necessary, to depart." It's a word that's used to describe a ship that's been released or untied, a slave that's been released. He said, "That's fine. I don't care about the specifics. My desire is that I want to serve you."
Citizens of Heaven
Verse 27 says, "So conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." That word translated "conduct" gives us the English word "polis," like Minneapolis. It means city. It would mean to them, especially the Philippians, there was great pride and involvement in their connection with the Roman Empire. They were on the far outskirts of the Roman Empire, but they took great pride in the fact that they were indeed Roman citizens.
I went to a spring training game Saturday, got it out of the way right at the beginning of the year. There's this moment when we're all standing there, and I've got Braden and Yale and Tyler there. They announced the starting lineups for the Los Angeles Angels, or Angels of Anaheim, or whatever they are. Then they said, "Now ladies and gentlemen, please stand and remove your hats for the playing of our national anthem."
I don't know why, but every time I hear that song, especially if I can see the flag, I get swept away. I'm so American-centric, I get it. When I see that flag on not a windy day, but on a breezy day where it just rumbles, there is nothing prettier than the stars and stripes. There's something about that in baseball, where when they hit it, it's not a ping, but a crack. There's something about it. I found myself semi-swept away in the sense of identification, and I like to think I'm a good citizen.
Paul's appealing to them, saying conduct yourself in a manner worthy of being a citizen of heaven - not of Philippi, not of the Roman Empire, not of Tempe or Gilbert. He said, "I want you to live this way so that you are an ambassador for Christ." In this case, you represent the gospel. People look at you and see Him.
Standing Firm Together
He said, "I want you to conduct yourself this way so that whether I come to see you or remain absent, I'm going to hear that you are standing firm and striving together." Standing firm has a negative and positive to it - standing firm for Christ, standing firm against evil. Striving is the idea of unison.
Let me stay on the spring training theme. It's interesting with the Angels this year because you've got what's like an all-star lineup. Those first four hitters - you've got three of the four in there: Trout and Albert and Josh Hamilton. I mean, at the all-star break, those three guys are there. Yet there's this thing you don't know yet - the chemistry in the locker room. It's that thing you have that you see. It's amazing - every year, it's not the team with the best players who win. It's the team who generally has good players who play as a team.
He says, "Here's what I want to see here in this body of Christ. I want you striving with one spirit and one mind."
The Reality of Church Strife
MacArthur writes this: "Church strife does not always involve such flagrant sins as adultery or stealing or lying or defamation. It's often generated by such lesser sins as holding grudges over minor issues and unjust criticism and bitterness and dissatisfaction and distrust. Sometimes disharmony arises that cannot even be clearly identified or attributed to an individual or an incident or a cause."
I have a guy - he's not in PL anymore. Every day, he would come up to me after the lesson and complain about his church, every day. I would say to him, "I don't know why you're telling me, I don't care, get out, quit." It's always this pseudo-spiritual stuff which makes me sick. You can't even be obedient in the church without attitude. If you're talking to me, a total stranger like that, what are you talking about at home?
about with the people who you're friends with? There's to be that unity, standing firm, one faith.
And then let me end it here. Verse 28, in no way alarmed by your opponents. So here comes the persecution. He said it's two things. It's a sign of destruction for them and it's salvation for you. Jesus said, they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. All of those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, Paul writes Timothy, will be persecuted.
So he said, here comes the opposition. Don't let it overwhelm you, but take it as a sign of two things. These people who are attacking you, this is evidence of their destruction and it's evidence of your salvation. For it's been granted to you for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but to suffer for Him. Experience the same conflicts which you saw in me and now here to be in me.
The Reality of Christian Life
There's that component. Here's what you know. There is that in the life of the Christian, and I would argue the normal Christian life, that there is this dilemma and I'm to make right decisions amidst that. And what happens is that reinforces what's important and my priorities.
Putting priorities in proper order forced me to understand that life is Christ. And then in a way, it's not that nothing else matters, nothing else rises to that level of importance. Paul stops there or we stop there.
Looking Ahead to Humility
We get to chapter two. Now he introduces the key component, and that's strong. If it's not the key, it's one of the keys to the Christian life and to striving together and living in harmony. And it's the topic of humility. We'll look at that next week.
Father, please help us see this, understand it, drive it deep in our heart. We pray in Christ's name, amen.