Press determinedly onward
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
1 Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!
It was important for the Philippians to take note of the principles of Christian living that Paul, with such care, explains to them here. It was also important for them to choose the right kinds of examples to follow as they worked to put these principles into practice. With great affection, and deeply moved by the warning he is now compelled to give, Paul pleads, “Join with others in following my example, brothers.”
By offering himself as an example, as a role model for the Philippians, Paul was not boasting. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 he says, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” The Philippians recognized Paul, Timothy, and others as spiritually mature believers, whom the Lord himself had qualified to serve as examples to the Philippians. Paul understood that setting a good example was a necessary part of his calling as an apostle and a pastor (see 1 Timothy 3). Both Paul and the Philippians realized that because the Philippians were surrounded by pagan immorality and by false teachers who wanted to deceive them, they needed good examples. So in genuine concern Paul pleads with them to follow his apostolic example. We also would do well to ask ourselves what kinds of examples we follow and what kinds of examples we set for others.
Earlier Paul had warned the Philippians about the Judaizers, who taught that certain works that they regarded as particularly holy and righteous had to be added to faith. Now he warns against certain “enemies of the cross” who went to the opposite extreme. Apparently, they too claimed to be Christians, but their openly wicked and sensual lifestyle contradicted the confession of their lips. To them “Christian freedom” from laws and restrictions such as the Judaizers wanted to impose could also be extended to mean freedom from all laws, including God’s unchangeable moral will.
This philosophy was no doubt quite appealing to newly converted Christians who had been so used to the immoral lifestyles of the pagan world. Already when he had personally been with them, Paul had warned the Philippians against this kind of lawless teaching. Now he warns them again. Indeed, because of his deep love and concern for their spiritual welfare, with tears he warns them against those who call themselves Christians but who stand for everything that is opposed to Christianity.
Friends of Jesus’ cross show by their lives that they have caught the spirit of the cross. Their lives are characterized by unselfishness, humility, and the unceasing desire to know Christ more deeply and to imitate him more fully. Enemies of the cross are those who substitute selfishness and self-indulgence for love and humility and who live their lives only to satisfy themselves. “Their god is their stomach,” Paul says, “and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.” “Stomach,” as the apostle uses the term here, represents all the desires and appetites of the sinful nature: greed, gluttony, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and anything else that satisfies what the sinful nature demands.
Instead of working to control their perverse appetites, these pseudo-Christians surrendered themselves to those appetites. By regarding the satisfaction of their fleshly, sinful desires as the most important thing in their lives, they actually made their desires their gods. Far from being ashamed of the kind of lives they were leading, they boasted about them, even going so far as to claim that such living was consistent with their Christian confession. The apostle dismisses all such twisted claims with one terse phrase: “Their destiny,” often their earthly destiny, but above all their eternal destiny, “is destruction.”
Twenty-first century Christians can readily identify with the apostle’s warning here. Like the Philippians, Christians today are besieged with the lofty-sounding claims of modern, worldly-minded “Christians” who urge us to follow their example. Some who call themselves Christian and are acclaimed as church leaders shamelessly accommodate themselves to the thinking of the world and the satisfaction of their fleshly desires. These enemies of the cross not only defend but openly and boastfully advocate sins like adultery, homosexuality, and abortion—even though the Bible expressly condemns such things as abominations in God’s sight. They haughtily proclaim biblical morality to be irrelevant and out of date.
Even more dangerous are those “Christians” who show by their lives that they have made worldly things like money, possessions, and pleasure their gods. It is not very difficult even for those who really believe they are loyal followers of Jesus to become enemies of the cross in that way. We all need the tear-filled warning that the apostle sounds here. We need to regard all those temptations to live for ourselves and not for our Savior with the apostle’s sobering reminder ringing in our ears: “Their destiny is destruction.”
The enemies of the cross live for this world and its pleasures and sins. They are earthbound and world oriented. Such concerns, however, are unsuitable for Christians, who live in this world but are not permanent citizens of the world. Our citizenship, Paul reminds the Philippian Christians, is in heaven. Although they lived far from the imperial city of Rome, the Philippians were proud of their Roman citizenship. They cherished the special privileges that citizenship gave to them. They thought of Rome as their native land, the place where they really belonged. They knew that their names were enrolled in the tribal records there. They dressed as Romans, spoke the language of Rome, and enjoyed Rome’s protection.
In a far more sublime and important sense, Paul tells the Philippians, they should realize that their most important citizenship, their spiritual citizenship, is in heaven. Heaven is the real home of believers. Their rights have been secured in heaven, and their interests are being promoted there. Their names are recorded in heaven’s book of life. To heaven their prayers ascend and their hopes aspire. Many of their friends in Christ were already enjoying their full inheritance in heaven, and one day all believers will take up permanent residence there.
This heavenly citizenship should be reflected in the way believers live their lives here on earth. Citizens of heaven should not regard this world as a place to put down permanent roots, nor should they fix their hearts on the things of this world or regard them as permanent possessions. They should consider themselves strangers and pilgrims on earth, and their greatest concern should be with heavenly, spiritual things.
We eagerly await the Savior from heaven, Paul joyfully concludes, who will return to give us the physical possession of our eternal inheritance there. As heavenly-minded believers, we do not want to waste our time in pursuing earthly advantages and worldly pleasures. We do not want to let earthly concerns blind us to the importance of our heavenly citizenship. We want to use the time the Lord gives us on earth to prepare ourselves for the Savior’s return and our entry into the glory of heaven.
Heavenly-minded believers never forget that Jesus, the Savior who once came in lowliness to save the world, is coming again in majesty and glory to judge the world. They await that return, not with fear or spiritual carelessness but with expectant joy. When Jesus returns, not only believers’ souls but also their bodies will share in his eternal glory.
For the third time in three chapters, Paul mentions the resurrection of the body. When Jesus returns, he will transform believers’ lowly bodies and make them like his own glorious body. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul tells us that the bodies of believers still alive at Christ’s return will be changed and the bodies of those who have died in the Lord will be raised and glorified.
The pagan philosophers of the first century regarded the body as an evil prison from which the soul would someday be delivered. Philosophers of every age have scoffed at the Christian teaching of the resurrection of the body, but Christians believe that the body is God’s creation and that their bodies are God’s temples. Because of sin, our bodies now are lowly bodies. In those bodies we experience all the weakness and frailty that are the consequences of sin. At the time of physical death, the body of weakness is separated from the soul and eventually decays in the grave.
At his reappearing our Savior will raise all the dead. He will transform believers’ bodies so that they will reflect the perfect blessedness of their glorified souls. In the resurrection Jesus will make believers’ bodies like his own glorified body. All sinfulness, weakness, and the consequences of sin will be forever purged away. Believers’ bodies and souls will be reunited to live forever in a perfect eternity in heaven with Christ.
Our human minds cannot imagine how the Lord will find the bodies that for thousands of years have been disposed of in so many different ways and subjected to the ravages of decay. Nor does the apostle Paul try to satisfy our intellectual curiosity about these things. He tells us all we need to know when he simply says that Jesus will accomplish this marvelous feat through his almighty power, the power that enables him to bring the whole universe under his control.
What tremendous comfort these inspired words bring us as we stand grieving at the graves of loved ones who have died in the Lord. What a powerful encouragement they provide for us to continue to serve the Lord with our bodies as we press eagerly forward to the goal of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
Paul deeply loved the Philippian congregation. Its members brought special joy to his heart because the fruits of their faith were evident in so many ways in their lives. They were his crown, his festive garland. This was true when Paul wrote this epistle, but it will become even more evident at the Lord’s return. Then the Philippians’ faith and the fruits of their faith will be displayed before the whole world as evidence that the apostle’s labors were not in vain. Paul warmly reminds the Philippians of all this as he concludes this section. He reemphasizes the importance of all he has just said, as he emphatically proclaims, “That is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!