Monthly Archives: February 2022

TO LIVE OR TO DIE

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TO LIVE OR TO DIE

“Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ shall be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:18b-21.

This man, Paul, continues to amaze me! His concern was not to get out of prison but to have the courage to stand for Jesus whether it meant life or death. He relied on two things, the prayers of his fellow believers, and the Holy Spirit whom God had given to him at his new birth. Paul saw deliverance, not as freedom from imprisonment in Rome but freedom from his own fleshly nature which cowered at the thought of dying a gruesome death.

Prayer is a mystery, isn’t it? Why should the prayers of his brothers and sisters in Philippi make any difference to his attitude? Surely God was with him and the Holy Spirit in him there in Rome. What difference could their prayers make to him, whether he was courageous or cowardly in the face of impending martyrdom? That was his greatest concern. To face the sword or the wild beasts without flinching was more important to him than getting out of prison or staying alive.

Paul would rather die without shame than deny his Lord, and there was every possibility that he would be called on to make the choice of confessing that Caesar was Lord or facing the consequences. And with Nero there was no mercy. He hated Christians so fervently that no torture was too heinous to make them suffer for their loyalty to a Galilean Jew whom the Romans had crucified.

The thought of dying held no terror for Paul. His hope was in Jesus. He had met Him face-to-face on the Damascus road. He knew He was real, alive and with him. He knew that the moment he stepped out of his mortal body, he would be with Him forever and in the glory of the Father’s presence. In fact, he yearned for that day, the day of his release from the flesh, which had been his enemy from birth.

Living in his human, mortal body was a journey – daily dying to the demands of his sinful nature and learning to rely on the Holy Spirit who energised his spirit with the life of Jesus. He used every opportunity to rely on His strength in his human weakness. Paul was dead to himself and alive by the life of Jesus in him but, nevertheless, he found the thought of martyrdom at the hands of Nero daunting, to say the least.

The thought of the prayers of his beloved brothers and sisters in Philippi comforted him. In a way that only God understood, prayer was God’s way of engaging with His people to do His will. Of course, He would give Paul the courage and strength to endure, but how much better when His people partnered with Him through prayer. Instead of feeling helpless, they could do something positive to help Paul face his trials with courage and know that, because God was a loving Father to them and to Paul, they could trust Him to do whatever was necessary to give Paul the victory.

Can you imagine life without prayer? What would it be like if we had no way of engaging with God in our suffering and in the suffering of those dear to us? How could we do God’s will if we had no way of communicating with Him? What would we do with our anxieties and fears if we could not cast them on the Lord? How could we express our love to Him and worship Him if we could not draw near to Him? We would not even be able to offload our misgivings and mistrust of Him if we could not talk to Him.

Prayer means a thousand things to us, and God knew that when He invited us to draw near to Him. Prayer is one of the greatest gifts a loving Father could ever give His child. Unlike many human fathers who are either too busy or too indifferent to listen to their children, God is passionate about our coming to Him, so passionate in fact, that He sent His Son to clear the obstacles out of the way so that we can approach Him without fear.

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22.

Life, with all its hardships and troubles, holds no fear for the one who knows the Father and calls on Him for grace and strength in every situation.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

DID PAUL GET IT WRONG?

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DID PAUL GET IT WRONG?

“It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.

“But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.” Philippians 1:15-18.

What a man! It’s that old incorrigible spirit of Paul again!

Why should he not be moping in jail and bewailing his fate at because of terrible injustice? Instead, he was whooping it up because, while his hands were tied, others had taken up where he left off and, in the meantime, he was equally at work among the Roman soldiers right inside Caesar’s palace.

The very fact that Paul was sitting in jail for the “crime” of preaching Jesus, was a matter of interest to the palace guard. He would not have attracted no attention at all had he been incarcerated for criminal activities but for defending his message that a Jewish carpenter cum rabbi in far-off Israel claimed to be the Son of God, was executed for His claim at the insistence of the Jewish hierarchy and was then reputed to have risen from the dead, was enough to arouse their curiosity.

On top of that, the man who was teaching these things, and those who followed this Nazarene, were unusual people. They rejoiced and celebrated instead of resisting when they were arrested, imprisoned and even executed for refusing to bow to Caesar as Lord. How could they when they knew it was a false claim? Not even the threat of death deterred them from their confidence that this Jesus was who He said He was, not even to save their skin!

In every other way, they were model citizens. They stuck together in small groups. They were loving, caring and unselfish, sharing their food and possessions when they were denied access to the markets because they would not bow to Caesar. Belief in Jesus had spread like wildfire across the empire and no amount of persecution or attempts to exterminate them had deterred them. In fact, it seemed to be a powerful motivation for others to join.

Paul was not disheartened by the opposition. That there were people who were trying to make it harder for him in jail by preaching Christ, did not deter him. Imagine that! Using Jesus as a way of getting at Paul! What could be more despicable than that? Yet Paul knew that the message, preached for whatever reason, had the power to transform lives. While there were those who had wrong motives, others took up the baton and ran with it so that the gospel would be proclaimed everywhere, even if Paul were confined to jail.

It is tragic that there are many motives for preaching Jesus Christ today, even as in Paul’s day. Human nature has not changed. Money, as always is the biggest draw card. Some even speak of Jesus as a good “product” to sell. I wonder what He thinks about that! The most heinous motive of all is to make money out of Him.

There are popular preachers today who are rolling in wealth because of God’s “blessing” on their lives. They hold huge conferences to which thousands of people flock; they preach fervently that God wants them all rich; they sell their books and DVDs, garner huge royalties and revel in God’s favour. They live in million-dollar mansions, and give away ten percent of their income. They take from those who attend their conferences and attribute it to God’s “favour”. 

This is the message they export to the world, even to those who live in poverty in third-world countries. What must their listeners think when it doesn’t happen? What about those who are losing their homes, their possessions, their families and even their lives because they follow Jesus? What about believers who are being beheaded in the Middle East even now because they love the Lord and refuse to become Muslim? Are they under God’s curse? What about Paul? What did he have to say?

“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:9, 10.

No, Paul, you didn’t get it wrong despite the way things appear. Our perspectives change when we take the long look. Faithfulness to the truth has eternal rewards for those who persevere. 

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

REALLY POSITIVE LIVING

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REALLY POSITIVE LIVING

“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.” Philippians 1:12-14.

What an amazing perspective! Paul was actually seeing his imprisonment as a good thing!

How could it be a good thing for him to be incarcerated, chained, and not see the light of day, with only callous and contemptuous Roman soldiers for company, day after day? But Paul was not seeing his imprisonment from his point of view. The old Paul was dead. He died on the Damascus road many years before.

There was another Paul in his body, one who lived for only one person and worked for only one cause, Jesus Christ and the gospel. Whatever happened to him in the course of proclaiming the gospel was in the hands of his Master. If He wanted Paul in prison, Paul would rejoice for the honour of suffering with Him. He would see every person who came near him, Roman, Greek, friend or enemy, as a potential for the kingdom of God. He would love them no matter what they did to him. He would win them through kindness and the words of truth.

As far as the devil was concerned, Paul was incorrigible. Nothing would get him down. If they killed him, he would immediately be in the presence of his Lord. If they locked him up, he would tell his captors about Jesus. If they beat him, he would celebrate the honour of being like his Master. If they set him free, he would go again to every place where he had not yet proclaimed the gospel. If he had no food, he would fast to bring his body into subjection to Jesus. If he had plenty to eat, he would rejoice in God’s bountiful supply. 

How could anyone, even Caesar himself, get someone like that down? How could Paul have an unconquerable spirit like that? In his letter to the Galatian church, which we have already studied, Paul gives us the secret of his unbeatable attitude. He died with Christ on the cross, outside Jerusalem, not literally, of course, but as effectively as though he were also nailed to the wooden torture stake. When Jesus died a criminal’s death as an innocent man, He, God, died to pay the debt than humanity owed Him. Paul’s only response had to be to reckon himself dead to himself and alive to Jesus.

Of course, that meant that he was no longer his own master. He belonged to Jesus because Jesus had paid the price to redeem him from the clutches of sin. It was up to his Master to determine the circumstances of his life from then on. How could he resist and complain when he no longer belonged to himself? What right had he to make demands for his own comfort and safety when his Master chose to forfeit the glories of heaven and even life itself for him?

Every adversity became another opportunity to trust his Master and to watch his Lord at work through him to advance the kingdom of God on earth. You see, God’s kingdom flourishes most in the darkest times and the toughest situations because the light is most clearly visible in the dark. Every person who embraced Jesus and stepped into the kingdom of God was another soul rescued and set free to live and love in Christ.

Paul knew that his reward was waiting for him. Even if he suffered in this life, it was short and temporary. Near the end of his days, he could say with confidence:

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me but also to all who have longed for His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8.

What was Paul’s perspective? What sustained him in the darkest of times?

“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ONE IN THE BOND OF LOVE

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ONE IN THE BOND OF LOVE

“It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:7-11.

That’s quite a mouthful, Paul!

Paul made some powerful statements in his greeting to the Philippian church. He obviously had great affection for these people. They were his first converts in Greece. They loved him; they supported him in every possible way; unlike the Galatian church, they were steadfast in their faith in Jesus and they brought great joy to Paul. He could not help but tell them how much they meant to him in the midst of the trials and persecution he faced. At that very moment he was in prison for the gospel of Christ.

Paul thought about them constantly, as he did the many other small groups scattered all over Europe and Asia who had come to Christ through his preaching and teaching. In spite of his apostolic role, he didn’t lord it over them. They had an equal share in God’s grace with him. He needed grace to endure the suffering and humiliation of persecution and imprisonment for preaching the gospel. They needed grace to be faithful to Jesus in the face of opposition, accusation and misunderstanding and the ever-present danger of betrayal to the authorities, even by friends or family.

God’s grace was very real to Paul. On one occasion he was so traumatised by constant persecution that he pleaded with God to remove the “thorn” of angry persecutors that dogged him wherever he went and the hardships he faced as a travelling apostle. God’s response was not to remove the thorn but to give him strength and grace to endure. The same grace that supported him was available to every Philippian child of God for their daily struggles.

Paul’s written prayers give us deep insight into true prayer. He was more concerned about forming their godly characters than he was about their outward circumstances. As long as they were in this life, they would face trouble. It was not his place to pray them out of it, since God was using the very adversities they faced to mould them into the image of Christ. In his prayers, he affirmed God’s purpose to grow them in righteousness and godliness as a witness to His grace and power in the face of human wickedness in the society around them.

His greeting was “grace and peace,” his prayer for the increase of love and the fruit of righteousness so that their lives would be blameless, not sinless, and pure, not mixed with the ungodly practices of the pagans all around them. Their righteousness was the outflow of Christ’s righteousness which covered them as they lived in a sinful world, surrounded by pressure and temptation to conform in order to evade the inevitable suffering for Jesus’ sake.

Why the increase of love? Love is the very essence of who God is. His love motivates and permeates His every thought and action. Everything He does is for our good and He spares nothing, not even His own Son, to ensure our rescue and our freedom from the ravages of sin. The love of God motivates us, heals and restores us as much as it ministers to others. The more we love, the greater our resemblance to our heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus.

The more we give of ourselves and our resources to meet the needs of others, the more we grow in our understanding of what the right thing is to do in every circumstance. What better desire could Paul express for these dear people who meant so much to him? They were an oasis in the desert of idolatry and wickedness. They were a breath of fresh air in the putrid atmosphere of ungodliness. They were a fountain of living water springing up out of the barren earth.

We can learn from Paul to view life from a different perspective. God is about changing hearts, not circumstances. The very struggles we hate are the things God uses to refine our faith and purify our hearts of our fleshly and selfish appetites so that we can feast on Him and become like Him to shine in the darkness of sin and unbelief.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE DISPOSITION OF A MAN OF GOD

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THE DISPOSITION OF A MAN OF GOD

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:3-6.

Don’t you just love Paul! God could not have chosen a better way to record His word for us than in stories and letters about real people, people we can relate to because they were just as ordinary as we are. With all his accomplishments, Paul reflects sanctified humanness in his letters.

Thankfulness, joy, confidence – these are the attitudes and emotions of a man who had walked a long and difficult road with Jesus. Even more telling was the fact that he was penning this letter from inside the royal palace guard in Rome, probably shackled to a Roman soldier, or at least under heavy guard as a dangerous criminal.

Why would Paul be regarded as a dangerous criminal? Because of his influence. It would have been well known that this one man had traversed a large section of the Roman Empire, sowing seeds of subversion against Nero Caesar, undermining his claim to be Lord, Saviour, the Son of God and the Prince of Peace. These were all false and arrogant claims, of course, because Nero was no god at all, only a deranged and ruthless despot. He murdered at will, including his own mother and innocent believers in Jesus because they would not honour him, Caesar, as Lord.

Was this really what Paul was doing? Was it his intention to undermine Rome’s authority and destabilise the empire? Of course not! Paul was preaching the message of another kingdom, superimposed upon Rome, that would bring people under God’s authority once again, and transform them into model citizens of Rome. Yes, he stood against cruelty, injustice and lawlessness, but not to undermine Caesar’s rule. His aim was to reconnect people to the living God through the cross of Christ so that society would be transformed by people who lived righteously and at peace with one another.

The message of Jesus had first of all changed him. He himself had been a ruthless killer – hunting down Christians and dragging them off to Jerusalem to be condemned and executed by the Jewish high court for their faith in Jesus. However, the risen Christ had intervened, and one encounter with Him had changed his life forever. His walk of faith in this Jesus, “through many dangers, toils and snares” as the hymn describes it, had taught him to trust Him and to rejoice in every good thing and in the worst of circumstances.

So now, incarcerated in a top-security prison in Rome, Paul was full of gratitude and joy, because he had left a trail of Jesus-followers who would perpetuate his work where he was no longer free to go. He was delighted with the transformation in their lives, from pagan idolatry to faith in the living God, and from lawless and ungodly living to chaste and upright lives because his message was powerful, able to change men’s hearts.

He was confident that the change in them, because of their faith, would continue and be completed when Jesus came to receive them home. Why? Because it was not about a one-sided effort. They were in partnership with the God of the universe and the Holy Spirit who resided in them. This was the guarantee that what God started in them He would finish.

Unfortunately, Jewish and Gentile unbelievers didn’t see it that way. Believers in Jesus were counter-culture traitors who should be hounded and exterminated as vermin. However, the very torrent of persecution they unleashed against believers in Jesus produced even stronger faith, courage and hope because they looked beyond this life to a life to come in the very presence of God. The hotter the hatred against them, the more secure they became in God.

Paul was able to revel in these beloved believers in Philippi, and to praise them for their faith and loyalty through difficult times. He encouraged them with his persistent prayers and expression of confidence that they would persevere, not matter what, until God completed what He had begun because they were not alone in their struggle.

We can also take heart from Paul’s declaration of confidence in God. We may not be in the same circumstances as these Philippian believers but we have our own adversities to contend with, and our own tests and temptations to endure. Will we give up in the struggle or will we hold on to the hope that, when it’s all over, we’ll still be on the winning side, purified in our faith and full of thanksgiving and joy because we made it to the end?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.