Philippians 1:27-30

Philippians 1:27-30

Just One Thing

I.                    Purposeful lives only come through living worthy of the gospel of Christ, so we must stand firmly and work together for Him (Vv. 27-28)

a.       Having shared his gospel-centered response to his current difficulties, Paul now exhorts the Philippians and all Christ’s followers to respond to our fallen, confusing, and difficult world by doing just one thing, conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. The phrase “conducting yourselves” literally means “live as citizens”. This phrase would have been very meaningful to the Philippians because of their status as a Roman colony. Their status meant significant benefits for them including, freedom, status, and protection, and also also came with significant expectations; they were expected represent all that was Rome. Philippi did all things “Roman”, and was like a little piece of Rome out on the outskirts of the Empire, surrounded by barbarians. In the same way, we must understand and acknowledge that we’re citizens of God’s eternal Kingdom, and resident aliens here in this life, who are on mission to conduct our lives with the goal of representing our home country through all our words and actions in this life. How do we do that? We do that by living worthy of the gospel of Christ. The term “worthy” refers to weight or weightiness. Paul says that the goal of our lives must be to live so we’re able to put all our thoughts, words, and actions together and they balance out with the value we place on the gospel. Surrounded by a world which is different than us, and which has different motivations and missions, we won’t be able to achieve this alone, so we’ll have to “stand firm in one spirit”, which is a military term that describes soldiers linking together in an impenetrable wall for one united purpose. Further this will require to us to strive together with one mind, which is a term referring to athletes training hard and working hard together towards a unified goal. But if you’ve ever seriously lived for the gospel, you know it’s not something that’s always well received. The gospel of Christ lived out rightly turns the world on its head because its goal is humility, repentance, and heart transformation for new life through faith in the Person and work of Christ. However, we must never be alarmed by our opponents. We must stand firmly and united in the gospel of Christ, no matter how hard the world might push back. By living every day and in every way with the goal of living worthy of the gospel of Christ, we properly testify to the world around us about the difference between the purposeful, compassionate, loving, gracious, righteous, and just life of a follower of Christ, and the life of one who rejects Christ and searches unfruitfully for those same virtues where they can’t be found. Our salvation and the strength to live it out through purposeful lives comes only through the power of the gospel of Christ working in and through us. But we must be growing to clearly understand the true value of the gospel. It’s the one thing worth living for, and the only thing which can bring healing to hearts, families, communities, nations, and the world. (Vv. 27-28; Ps. 73:25-28; Jer. 29:4-7; Matt.5:13-16; 7:12; 10:28-31; John 8:12; 13:34-35; Acts 16:20-21;  Rom. 8:31-39; 15:5-6; 2 Cor. 5:18-20; Eph. 4:1-6, 17-24; ; Col. 1:9-14; 4:6-7; 1 Thess. 1:8-10; 2 Thess. 2:10-12; 2 Tim. 1:7; 2:11-13; 1 Pet. 1:1-2; 2:1-17; Heb. 10:32-35; 11:9-10, 24-26; Jude 3) 

II.                 Purposeful lives only come through living worthy of the gospel of Christ, so we must suffer well for His sake (Vv. 29-30)

a.       Salvation is a gift of God’s grace, but so is suffering. It’s human nature to take things which come too easily for granted. Nothing grows us more quickly in character and sharpens our world view and discernment, than suffering. Nothing else makes a stronger testimony to others of what’s important and valuable to us than our willingness to suffer well for the sake of what’s important to us. God is committed to working in our lives for His glory and our greatest good, not our greatest comfort. Paul calls us to suffer well for the sake of the gospel from a life of gospel suffering, not comfort. In a much greater way, our Lord and Savior calls out for us to suffer for Him from the pain, humiliation, and spiritual agony of the cross, verifying our suffering as a gift of grace which contributes to our eternal good. Every human being will suffer in life, but we who suffer for His sake, suffer with eternal purpose for ourselves and others because sanctification and salvation are found through suffering for the gospel of Christ. Truly suffering righteously for the sake of Christ, kills pride and self-reliance, testifies to the world that we belong to Him, and glorifies Him by ministering to others in ways impossible in our own strength. (Vv. 29-30; Jer. 29:8-13; Matt. 5:10-12; Luke 6:24-38; 9:23-25; John 15:18-20; Rom. 5:1-5; 8:16-18, 28; 2 Cor. 1:1-9; 11:23-33; 12:7-10; Acts 5:41-42; Phil. 1:12; 3:7-11; 2 Tim. 1:8-10; 3:12; 1 Pet. 2:18-25; 4:12-19; Jas. 1:2-4; Rev. 6:9-11)