27Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel 28without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, 30since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
Dig Deeper
As a young man, still in college, I coached a summer basketball team of high school boys that traveled around and competed in different summer tournaments. The team was fast, talented, and the average starter was 6’7". To add to that talent, speed, and height, we relied heavily on intimidation. Their uniforms were all black and we would pull out every possible trick to attempt to intimidate the other team before the game even started. The fact is, it was pretty obvious that some teams were so intimidated that they were beaten before we even had the opening tip. That’s the problem with intimidation is it keeps people from performing the way that they should due to fear. Interestingly, there was only one team that seemed to have no fear and not be intimidated at all. Before the game with that team, I knew we were in trouble. Their lack of intimidation was a clear sign to me that they were prepared to beat us, and in fact they were the only team to ever do so.
The Philippians were in a tough situation, living in a town of people that were extremely proud of their Roman culture and citizenship. Yet here they were preaching a gospel that didn’t sound very impressive at all from a human perspective. The powerful Caesar was not the true king of the world, according to this rag-tag group of Christians. No, they were claiming that a crucified Jew was the true king of the world. It would have been easy for them to feel intimidated when surrounded by a culture that mocked and scorned that sort of message. How ridiculous; what kind of nonsense message were they trying to push off on people anyway? Paul wants the Philippians to not give into the normal human emotion of being intimidated by the culture that was stacked against and becoming increasingly hostile. He wants them to know that living up to their life in Christ also means confidently and humbly living lives that are free from intimidation and fear.
Life for the early Christian community could be violently unpredictable. For them to start acting according to the emotional ups and downs of what each new day might bring would be unspeakably dangerous. Paul could not guarantee that he would live to see them again or even see the next day, although he was certainly hopeful. He could not guarantee that violent persecution wouldn’t break out the next day against the church in Philippi or one of the other fledgling Messiah communities. He certainly could not guarantee that they would not face the day-to-day sort of intimidation and persecution that would almost surely come their way. When the tough times came, and they would, they should not find themselves doing what the world does, which is to act according to their emotions and feelings. If they were to do that, they would be no different from the pagan world around them. Rather, they were to, despite whatever might happen, and conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
The standard for them, then, was no less than to live and face circumstances as Christ did. If Paul could come see them or only hear about what they were doing (he is still rather optimistic that he’ll be around for a little while longer rather than suffer immediate execution), he would know that they were standing firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel. In other words, they would be showing clear evidence of their unity of their life in Christ. They would be acting together as one, which is the whole point of the life of the body of Christ. Paul wants them to conduct themselves in a hostile Roman culture as fitting members of the body of Christ. The word that Paul uses for "conduct" meant literally, "live as citizens" and is related to 3:20, which reminds them that they are citizens of heaven, not Rome. Paul’s point then carries some political overtones to it as well. He is telling them that they need to live according to the life of Christ rather than society’s standards and requirements of being a good citizen.
Part of conducting themselves like true Messiah people meant not being frightened or intimidated by the culture around them. The word he used for "frightened’ was a specific word that applied to the actions of a scared horse. Just as the team that was not intimidated was a sign that they were capable of winning the game (although that’s not a perfect analogy because many teams that aren’t intimidated do lose), the very fact that they conducted themselves like Christ and without fear in the face of trials, persecution, and outright intimidation would serve as a powerful sign. It would, in fact, demonstrate two things. The first was that Paul believed that their unusual behavior would actually be a sign to the non-Christian persecutors that they will be destroyed. When someone is mistreating you and you respond with dignity, it heaps judgment and scorn on the head of the persecutor (cf. Prov. 25:21-22). The second is that it will serve as a clear sign that they will be saved because it is obvious evidence of their life in Christ and the fact that they are the people of God. Paul was a persecutor of the church himself and had seen the dignity and firmness in Christ of men like Stephen (Acts 7:54-8:1). It likely seemed like stupidity at the time, but now he recognized it as evidence of the power of the life of Christ and he wanted nothing less than that same power to take hold in the lives of the young Christians that he loved so deeply.
It would have been easy, and this is still true for us today, to think about all the great privileges and the upside of having believed in and entered into the life of Christ. It’s easy to celebrate the unity of the life of Christ and the belief that brings so much peace. Yet it rarely occurs to us to celebrate the suffering that we experience in Christ. Yet it is evidence that we are in Christ as surely as the more pleasant aspects of being in Christ. We revel in the fact that what is true of our king, is true of his people when it comes to things like resurrection, but we’re usually not so excited when it comes to suffering. Paul knew that part of the Christian life would involve suffering (Acts 9:16) and that the true Christian response to suffering was to rejoice (Acts 5:41). Christians don’t rejoice in suffering for Christ and his gospel because we enjoy it (An important distinction must be made here between suffering for the gospel and suffering because we have a painful disease or someone close to us has died, etc. Of course those must be meant with a Christian dignity and sense of peace, but this is not the type of suffering to which Paul is referring.), we rejoice because suffering is a sure sign that we are truly sharing in the life of Christ.
Paul’s encouragement to them to continue to rejoice and stand firm in the face of persecution holds more credibility than the average person. A few months ago I listened online to a young, hotshot minister preaching to a a group of parents, rebuking them for their failures in parenting and exhorting them to the things that they should be doing. The only problem was that he was single and had no children. It’s not that a non-parent couldn’t ever teach biblical principles of parenting, but this young man had no credibility on the topic and clearly didn’t know much of what he was talking about. This is not at all the case for the aging apostle. He knew suffering for the cause of Christ well. Paul had been beaten with rods at least three times in his life (2 Cor. 11:25) and one of those times was in Philippi (Acts 16:22-23). The Christians in Philippi would have well remembered that day that had no doubt been burned in their memories. That was at least a small part of the struggle that prompts Paul to say "the struggle you saw I had." Paul doesn’t specify what kind of persecution they were going through, he wouldn’t need to tell them as they would have known to what he was referring only too well. It is enough to know that it was the same kind of struggle that Paul had gone through, and was still going through. Paul clearly rejoiced in his suffering persecution because it was a sign to him that he was sharing in the life and ministry of the gospel. As one with a great deal of credibility on the topic, Paul can encourage them to hold the same view. Persecution wasn’t a reason to get scared and shy away from the gospel, it was a sign that they were sharing in it. What a wonderful truth for us to embrace.
Devotioinal Thought
We certainly don’t face the same type of persecution that Paul and the Philippians faced. Yet there are situations that can cause us to lose our nerve and shrink back. Which aspects of the Christian life intimidate you and challenge you to remain firm in your convictions and actions? How can you apply Paul’s words to our situations today?
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