Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. (Philippians 3:1 NIV)
What a great reminder coming from a man who was writing from prison. Even from behind bars, Paul is finding reasons to rejoice!
Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh-- though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. (Philippians 3:2-6 NIV)
When you’re stuck in prison, you choose your teaching and preaching priorities carefully. First of all, you can’t go over to somebody’s house to visit them. You can’t put the important topic in your sermon for this week. You can’t pick up a phone, send a text, Facebook message, or Skype these friends. You need to write your thoughts in a letter. Writing a letter back then was even more painstaking and expensive than it is today. So you write. Paul chose to write about the people who were still trying to convince Gentile believers that they needed to be circumcised to be saved.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. (Philippians 3:7-9 NIV)
He talks about this much more in his letter to the Galatians. It must have been much more of a hot topic back then. Paul just summarizes the subject here and then moves on.
I want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:10-14 NIV)
It’s so easy to lose hope when in prison. It’s easy to lose hope even outside of prison. Many things in life try to make us feel boxed in, trapped, or imprisoned. When we feel like this, we can remember Paul – pressing on.
All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. (Philippians 3:15-17 NIV)
“Live up to what we have already attained,” he says. What a powerful thought. There is a reason we talk about “A Garden Walk” so much at Life Bridge. We who are in Christ have already attained A Garden Walk – we are walking together with God. Sometimes, though, we forget. Sometimes, we fail to live that way. Sometimes we do not live up to what we have already attained. That’s why we need to be reminded. Thank you, Paul.
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18-19 NIV)
Yes, we will work with people who are greedy. Yes, we will have family or friends who are petty. Yes, we will be around non-believers, struggling believers, and people who do not live out their faith very well. But that does not need to define our walk. We can walk together with God.
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 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. (Philippians 3:20-21 NIV)
Amen, Paul. Amen.
How about you? Are you a citizen of heaven? Does your life reflect it?
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