Living For Christ

Philippians 1:12-29

Key Verse 1:21

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

This passage teaches us the greatness of the blessedness of the life that lives for Christ despite many hardships. How great is the blessedness? The key verse answers the question. The life that lives for Christ (and even dies for Christ) is so greatly blessed [coming with a spring of joy from within] that one will willingly and joyfully let go of everything that belongs to this "fleshly" [or earthly] life (but for the sake of the flock of God, Paul chooses to continue to live in this fleshly life still being joyful even while he was in a cold prison cell in Rome). 

[Advanced study: Paul is a shepherd for the flock of God in the church of Philippi. As a shepherd he was not unaware of the problems they had, like the rivalry between Euodia and Syntyche. So in God's wisdom, in order to address problems like this he wrote this epistle. The point of the epistle however goes way beyond merely helping sheep to overcome one or two problems like co-working problem; he wants to teach the joy of the life that serves the Lord. Serving the Lord is never a losing proposition. In fact the more you suffer for Christ, the greater joy the Lord grants you. The problem however is that due to immaturity a lot of Christians work hard and sacrifice a lot not purely for Christ but for something or someone else and thereby lose joy, bringing harm to themselves and to others coming into their lives.]

1. Skim through the passage. How many times is the word "gospel" or "Christ" repeated? What is the gospel all about (27)? 

** gospel - 4 times

* v. 12 - advance the gospel; 

* v. 16 - defense of the gospel;

* v. 27a - gospel of Christ;

* v. 27b - faith of the gospel. 

** Christ - 11 times

** It is about Jesus Christ. In fact Jesus himself is the essence of the gospel (which means "good news"). Jesus is the good news because he came to solve all of our problems caused by the sins of all (including the sin committed by Adam and your sins and my sins), and then restore for all who believe in Him what Adam had lost, namely the perfect fellowship with our Heavenly Father who is perfect in the perfect Garden of Eden. 

2. Read vs. 12-14. What does Paul mean by "what has happened to me" (Rm 1:15; Acts 19:21; 21:17-28:31)? How did Paul's chains practically advance the gospel (13, 14)? What does this passage show us about the blessedness of the life that is in chains "for Christ"? Can you think of any other examples (other than the example of Paul's chains) in which the Lord uses "chains" to advance his purpose of salvation? 

** It refers to the things that had happened to Paul after Paul’s decision to go to Rome to preach the gospel, until he finally had come to Rome. Paul indeed came to Rome thanks to the Lord answering Paul’s prayer for him to go to Rome to preach the gospel, so all peoples on earth (in the entire world known to Paul in Paul’s day) would be saved through the gospel. God's way to send Paul to Rome was really amazing for God provided Paul with everything necessary all at the expense of the Roman government (like a free airplane ticket, free room and board at the government hotel, free security guard, quality sheep, etc.) 

** 1) God arranged 1:1 Bible studies with members of the royal palace guard, so Paul could teach them the word of God in a very interesting way, like Paul having to explain to everyone coming around the reason for his appeal [to the Roman Emperor], and in the course of doing so he necessarily had to talk about Jesus Christ and all of Jesus' good works.

2) People who watched Paul preaching the gospel began to speak about the word of the Lord, boldly. 

** It is blessed in that by default you are exempt from the possibility of becoming ineffective and unproductive through reasons like falling victim to wanderlust, or by failing to concentrate on doing one thing on a continued basis, etc and so forth. It has been said, "Rolling stones gather no moss." Thus far Paul kept "rolling" to different places, but now in a large international city, he is "blessedly" stuck in one place, i.e., a prison cell in the royal palace guard, so he could teach the word of God to those who came around him. Further, while seated in a prison cell he had not that much to do, except focusing on what was really needed the most for the world’s salvation like praying fully and writing epistles to each of the churches he pioneered, etc. 

** 1) Joseph becoming a slave in Genesis 37:36 and beyond.

2) Daniel becoming a captive in Babylon (Dnl 1). 

3) Charles Spurgeon's wife Suzy who became invalid and came to be stuck in a wheelchair, having to work full time to reduce Spurgeon's sermons to writing and getting them published. 

4) Missionaries getting "blessedly" stuck in one mission field, due to job situation, etc. and so forth. 

5) A woman blessedly stuck in the marriage with a spiritual man who has fully committed himself to preaching God's word.

3. Read vs. 15-18. How many times is "preach Christ" or "Christ is preached" repeated? What does it mean to "preach" Christ? Paul says that preaching Christ is "the important thing" even if someone does so out of selfish ambition. Why is it so important (Phi 1:18; 2:17,18; 3:1; 4:4,10; Lk 2:10-11; Jn 15:11; Psa 16:11)? 

** Preach Christ - 2; Christ is preached - 1.

** It means to systematically explain that Jesus is the Savior of the world, as we see in the Apostle Peter's five sermons in the book of Acts and in the Apostle Paul's messages on Jesus Christ in front of VIPs like Governor Felix (Acts 24:25). 

** It is important because Christ is the only real source of real joy that lasts forever. The word joy is then said to be an acronym of "Jesus first, Others second, and You third." The reason for this is because Christ is the way and the truth and the life. Christ is the only way for us to come to the Father and secure eternal life. And King David says that the essence of fellowship with our Heavenly Father is eternal pleasures (joy) which are perfectly good. This stands in strong contrast with the life without Christ, for it is filled with sin which wars against the soul making man to be downcast in sorrow and dissatisfaction. Read Psalm 43:1-5 and see why the psalmist's soul is downcast. 

Remember that a lot of "devoted" Christians are unhappy largely because of their losing focus on Jesus Christ even in their busy activities for Christ and the gospel. Their minds might have been split between Christ and something or someone else. However single-minded devotion to Christ always brings joy to those who work hard for Jesus even in times of ordeals and persecutions.

4. Read vs. 19-26 and memorize v. 21. What does Paul mean by "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain"? Stop for a moment and try to fill the two blanks describing the purpose of your “life” [in the first blank] and your view of “death” [in the second blank]: "For to me, to live is ____and to die is ____".  Even if to die is gain, why did Paul choose to continue on with his life in the body? What can we learn here from Paul?

** It means that because Christ is my purpose and meaning of my life, and because I no longer live my life for my old sinful self, as the Lord Jesus has given me a new life in Him, with new life desires to be away in this fleshly body [which is dead because of sin, as I am indeed going to be set free from this mortal body, I can be with Christ in spirit] and be at home with Him on my departure from the bondage to this fleshly body. 

Practically "to live is Christ" means "what makes me exciting and makes my life worth living" is Christ. 

** To some people (those who are spiritually dead or those who are yet to know Christ fully) as soon as they hear words about Christ or spiritual subject like Kingdom of heaven they are turned off, and start dozing off. But as soon as they see or hear things like going out to play a video game or to climb mountain their eyes shine with sparks. What lives in the expression "to live" then is a spiritual life (or a new person given by Jesus), whereas what dies in the expression “to die" is a sinful self in a mortal body. So for those who are unregenerate all they have in this world like fame or money or fleshly things like cars or houses or stock investments are to live for. So on dying, they lose all of these. To them, therefore "to live is [for the things like money], so that “to die” is losing everything rather than gaining everything.]

** His purpose was to serve the gospel and feed the flock. This is his purpose and meaning of existence.

** We learn about the right purpose of life, that is, to live as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, living to shine forth the gospel light.

5. Read vs. 27-29. What does it mean to conduct oneself in a manner “worthy” of the gospel of Christ? What are the examples of those who do "not" conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel? How can we conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel under all circumstances? 

** It means to live a life which is consistent with what the gospel is meant to do for man, that is, the gospel making the members of the church to come into perfect peace with God and with fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord.

** 1) Living before men like Paul, but goofing around when Paul’s eyes are not on them (27a).

2) A man who has an "independent" spirit, trying to build his own name, thinking for example only about his own fellowship, and thereby causing the church to fail to contend for the faith like one man (27b). 

3) Being frightened and chickening out by those who file objections or in any other ways persecute you for advancing the gospel (28); 

4) Fair weather Christian who gives up the life of a disciple as the going gets tough (29).

5) Trying to feed sheep out of selfish ambition.

6) Becoming jealous or in rivalry with fellow brethren in the Lord, thus causing division. 

** We can conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel by remembering that Christ came to make peace and form a unity of love among the members of his church. 

The end. 

 

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