Philippians 1:21-30
Has anybody here ever tried to earn someone’s love or respect, or both? Have you ever felt like you had to prove yourself to someone?
I spent much of my teens and young adulthood feeling like I had to earn my father’s approval. I worked my tail off in high school to earn good grades, and I proudly showed him every report card, most of them with straight A’s. But no matter what he saw there, he would always say, “Is that the best you can do?” Looking back on it now, I can see that clearly he was teasing me. Of course, that was the best I could do! Although, every time he said that, I found myself wondering, “Could I have done better? What if I did extra credit? Would I get an A+ next time?” And then I worked hard at my job in parish ministry. I knew that my dad had hoped I would go to law school, but I kept waiting for him to somehow affirm my decision to become a pastor. I longed for the day my dad would look at me and say, “I’m proud of you.” I heard from other people that he was proud of me, but I wanted him to tell me. I wanted to know that I had been found worthy in his eyes.
In my effort to earn my dad’s pride and respect, I spent a lot of years questioning my intelligence, my performance, my work ethic, my value as a person and my worth as a daughter. I spent time in counseling, working with professionals to accept myself and find my sense of value from within. I talked with my pastor, trying to deal with the spiritual harm of the pain I felt over my dad’s seeming disapproval.
All of this was triggered for me when I read this passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Let’s take a look at these verses.
There are some important things we need to remember to provide the context for the letter. Paul and Silas had gone to Philippi after Paul had a vision of a man calling him to come to Macedonia. The first person to be baptized there was a woman named Lydia, and she made her home available for the church to meet in. Over a period of time, Paul came into conflict with some merchants in Philippi, who felt he was a threat to the income generated by a slave girl who was supposed to be able to predict the future. As a result, Paul and Silas were thrown into jail. But that night, an earthquake occurred which jarred open the cell doors. Paul and Silas could have left, but they remained in place so that the prison guard would not be killed for allowing them to escape. He and his household were then baptized. And Paul moved on to the next town.
Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi from prison, most likely in Rome, where he sat on capital charges. He was facing a life and death situation, quite literally. The people in Philippi were afraid for Paul, and also for themselves, as they felt a growing hostility to Christians throughout the Roman Empire. The main purpose of the letter seems to have been to encourage the church members to find joy and hope even in the midst of difficult moments in life. As Gilberto Collazo puts it, “Gospel living is not about finding an easy way out. It is about learning to see hope and possibilities even in the darkest moments of our lives.”
As Paul reflected on what he needed the Philippian Christians to know, he stated that they should live their lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. And there were four specific instructions he listed for how they would prove themselves worthy.
First, they must stand firm. They could not retreat. This is very important. They were living lives that were in contrast to the culture around them. To compromise and to try to fit in would mean that they were forsaking the life to which Jesus called them. They were to be different, and that would be dangerous. Paul had written something similar to the Christians in Ephesus, when he said, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:10-14a, NIV)
I don’t have to think about it very hard to believe that our struggle is still against the spiritual forces of evil. What else would motivate a person to take a gun and shoot innocent school children or shoppers or high school football fans? What else besides evil could account for the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s or the Holocaust during World War II? Could anything besides evil account for mass murderers, or wars, or starvation in a world where there is enough food for everyone? And what about the addiction crisis? Or the political divisiveness in our country? Or the rise of white supremacy groups? No, the spiritual forces of evil are hard at work in our world. And we need to stand firm against them. We need to model a different way of living together, of loving each other and treating one another as children of God. We need to refuse to allow evil to take root in our lives and in our communities.
Second, Paul said, the Christians in Philippi should live in unity. They should be of one spirit, like true brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul wrote about this, too, in his letter to the Ephesian Christians. He said, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received … Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:1, 3-6, NIV)
Why do you think it is so important for Christians to live in unity? Well, what would it say about the truth and the power of the gospel, and of Jesus’s command for his followers to love one another, if Christians can’t live in peace with each other? We are supposed to be about loving others in a way that puts their needs above our own, and we are supposed to be treating others the way that we would want them to treat us. Jesus expected his disciples to follow his example of radical hospitality and inclusiveness, which brought people from all walks of life together in one community. It isn’t easy for people from diverse backgrounds and points of view and socioeconomic circumstances to be in unity as a body, but that is what is necessary. By the witness of their own behavior towards each other, the Christians in Philippi were proving or disproving the validity and the worthiness of Christian faith.
Third, Paul told the Philippian Christians to have courage. They should not be nervous or afraid, but trust in the power of God to strengthen them. They would need their courage in a world that was increasingly hostile to Christianity. There, followers of Jesus were being persecuted and even put to death for their faith. Paul was sitting in a Roman prison cell when he wrote this letter. The dangers were real. But Paul knew that their faith could give them the courage they needed to face them. When Paul had been first arrested in Jerusalem and brought before the Sanhedrin to face charges, he was held in prison. In Acts 23:11 we read, “The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so must you testify in Rome.’” Paul had found the empowering presence of Jesus when he needed it, and he knew that Jesus would also strengthen his followers in their worst moments.
Finally, Paul wrote that they must be willing to suffer for Christ. Of course, this should not be surprising news; after all, Jesus told his followers, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” We 21st century Americans have reduced this to a metaphor; we don’t actually expect to lose our lives for our faith, so we say that it is just a way of saying that we give up our own ambitions/hopes/plans to follow God’s will and live the life God wants us to live. But for 1st century Christians, this call to be willing to die was quite literal. Paul himself was in prison in Rome and would soon be put to death by beheading. Many of the twelve apostles were killed for professing faith in Jesus Christ. And Christians all over the Roman Empires were subjected to various forms of persecution, including death. Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy, “But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life …” (2 Timothy 1:8b-9a, NIV)
This, then, is what it means to live a life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. It is a challenging, sometimes difficult, often costly, kind of life. But to think of standing in the presence of God at the end of my life and hearing him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” makes all of the commitment and costliness worth it.
I shared earlier about my desire to earn the respect of my dad. It has come to me in unexpected ways as we have both grown older. For instance, he has said to me several times in the past years, “You are very good at what you do.” That validation means the world to me. And he has told Pennie that he knows I was born to do what I do and that I am just where I am supposed to be. I know that in my father’s eyes, I am worthy. And I hope and trust that when the time comes, in my heavenly Father’s eyes I will also be found worthy.
