Good Role Models

Philippians 3:17-21

In 1981, Gatorade produced a 60-sec. commercial that popularized the slogan “Be Like Mike.” It featured various children and adults playing basketball with Michael Jordan, the Hall of Fame star of the Chicago Bulls. The producer originally hoped to use the music “I Wanna Be Like You,” from Disney’s animated The Jungle Book. But unable to secure the rights to that song, he composed an original song instead.

This commercial relied upon the concept of a “role model,” a term which is credited to sociologist Robert Merton, who coined it in the 1900s. He suggested that people compare to and pattern themselves after individuals within their sphere of life who fill a role to which he or she aspires. As a result, such people seek to emulate such individuals by mimicking certain elements of their appearance and behavior.

Younger people tend to choose as their role models certain pop culture influencers such as actors, athletes, and musicians. As people grow older, they tend to choose role models who have achieved success in a common, shared career, habit, or hobby – such as a particularly successful coach, business leader, financial investor, fitness guru, teacher, or some standout historical figure from history. Sometimes an adult will deliberately seek out a personal or professional mentor for regular conversations and feedback.

Role models are important because they provide real life proof that the life we aspire to live is possible to achieve. Without them, our aspirations and goals seem impossible, nothing more than theory. Role models also provide a kind of motivational peer pressure. If a role model is a good influence, then that peer pressure is a good and wholesome dynamic that provides a kind of personal accountability. If a role model is a bad influence, however, that peer pressure can motivate people to make harmful, regrettable choices.

What about you? Who is your role model? As we follow Christ, we need good role models to pattern our lives after. Role models who show us that it’s possible to live in a consistent, joyful, Christ-centered way. That’s why Paul says what he says in Phil 3:17.

Follow good role models.

Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern …

A good role model resembles the Apostle Paul. Because this is true, we should familiarize ourselves as much as possible with the truth and principles which guided Paul’s life as revealed through his actions and teaching both in Acts and his NT letters.

We should also look for other people in our lives who live by the same truths and principles that guided him. Do you know anyone like Paul? Note means “to scope out,” as when we zoom in on subatomic particles through a microscope or on stars as we gaze out at the night sky through a telescope. So, you should look intentionally at the people in your life – esp. in your church family – to identify those who resemble Paul.

Pattern here describes something like an impress or a mold, as when a mold is made for some sort of metal object so that many identical copies may be made from that mold.

What is the mold we should be patterned after in lifestyle and mindset? Paul explains more specifically in 1 Cor 11:1: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” Christ is the original pattern and people like Paul, who imitate Christ, are people we can imitate also.

Do you know anyone like this in the Brookdale family, someone who resembles Christ in attitude and lifestyle, like Paul? How do they resemble Christ? And what steps have you taken to get to know them, learn from them, and be like them? Don’t wait for them to seek you out. It is your responsibility to seek them out so that you can learn from their example.

Here at Brookdale, I thank God for relationships within the church in which more experienced, mature believers spend time with less-experienced, maturing believers to help them take their next steps in following Christ. What a blessing!

As we prepare for the 2024 calendar year, Pastor Will will be talking more about these kind of relationships, and we as a church will be providing more resources to help us all be more active and involved in what we will call “Growth Partnerships.” We hope that many of you will benefit from this fresh opportunity to focus on both being a role model for others while also learning from good role models in the church. Stay tuned!

Avoid bad role models.

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.

As important as it is for us to seek out good role models in the church, it is equally important to avoid bad ones. In fact, the little connecting word Paul uses here – “for” – reveals that the existence of bad role models (in fact “many” bad role models) is precisely why we need to seek out good ones, and the many bad ones that exist will negatively influence your faith, perseverance, and joy if you do not seek out good alternatives.

Perhaps you know the idiom “not all that glitters is gold.” That’s true when it comes to potential role models in the church. Not everyone who presents or views him- or herself as a Christlike, godly example and leader is what they claim to be.

It can be easy to choose a bad role model because there are apparently “many” such people in the church, people who claim to follow Christ faithfully but in reality, they do not. People who live according to the gospel, but they do not. Paul felt very strongly about this dynamic. In fact, this may be the spot where Paul expresses his emotions most openly and strongly in this letter to the church at Philippi.

First, he said that he had warned the church members at Philippi “often,” which means “many times.”

Second, having done so repeatedly, he still warned them once again, only this time with red eyes, tears running down his face, and a trembling lip. He actually wept, it seems, as he wrote, perhaps with tears staining the leather or paper before him.

Third, Paul makes clear that the people he had in mind were not just lesser or lower-grade options as role models, but they were – in fact – “enemies of the cross of Christ.” This is strong language indeed, portraying these people whom we may mistakenly seek to emulate as godly followers of Christ as the very opposite, people who are hostile towards and undermine the message and power of Christ’s work on the cross, which is the centerpiece, heart, and foundation of our faith.

Fourth, Paul tells us the end of these bad role models (who appear to be good ones) will be “destruction” or “waste.” In other words, following their example will cause you, like them, to experience destruction and waste at the end of your life’s journey. There are a few possibilities for what this could mean, though none of these options are desirable. Paul could be teaching that:

Their lifestyle may seem successful in the present but will end in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances as a result of their behavior and values.

Their life may end abruptly in a tragic, untimely manner.

They may spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.

If Paul is referring exclusively to nonbelievers, then the Lake of Fire is certainly in view; but if he includes followers of Christ who are not living out the truth of their salvation, then options one and two are also possibilities.

Having expressed how strongly Paul feels about these negative influences and role models in the church, he continues to address this problem by teaching us how to identify them. To identify them, we can look for three key elements of their teaching and values, which reflect their personal character as individuals:

“Their god is their belly.” What does Paul mean by this seemingly silly description. You can almost imagine some sort of The Far Side cartoon depicting a person trying to bow down to their belly somehow, with a though balloon that says, “How is this even physically possible?” Some people suggest that Paul means that these people live a licentious, self-indulgent life, feeding their appetites through excessive and unrestrained eating, entertainment, drinking, illicit drugs, and immorality. If you prefer this interpretation of Paul’s intent, you would be correct in that this illustration does portray such a person.

However, in this particular passage, Paul is not addressing people who abuse the grace of God (as he does in Rom. 6:1, for instance). He is addressing people who limit and restrain the grace of God through dietary laws and manmade religious rules and traditions. By describing such legalistic teachers this way, he unexpectedly yet humorously portrays them as being just as embarrassingly wrong and harmful as self-indulgent, licentious people. So, when a person is obsessed with religious do’s and don’ts beyond the clear moral principles taught by Scripture, that person’s influence is just as harmful to our faith and joy as a person who ignores morality altogether.

“Whose glory is in their shame.” With this second description of the character of a bad role model in the church, Paul is very likely referring discreetly, once again, to the Jewish religious practice of circumcision. By “shame” he is referring to something that we should consider embarrassing to talk about or consider, but by “glory” he is referring to something that we make a big deal about and focus on loudly and publicly.

So, Paul is teaching us that rather than bow down to Christ and make a big deal about the cross of Christ, these legalistic people bow down to their belly and make a big deal about circumcision, which he portrays as an awkward and shameful subject, one that doesn’t deserve such focus. Rather than focusing frequently and often on Christ, they were preoccupied with things like dietary laws, and rather than boasting in the suffering of Christ for their sins they bragged about being circumcised, oblivious to the awkwardness and sensitivity of such a private matter.

A more modern analogy today would be the fictitious story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” in which a pompous king marched confidently through the streets of his city thinking he was wearing a magnificent set of clothes when, in fact, he had nothing on. This is what legalism is like. It has an air or appearance of maturity and spirituality but is

“Who set their mind on earthly things.” With this third description, Paul emphasizes the root problem with the character and teaching of these people: they focused on “earthly things,” things with no essential eternal and spiritual quality or value. In this way, legalistic teaching is just as worldly, temporary, and worthless as a self-indulgent, pleasure-crazed, materialistic lifestyle, because both fail to look past this earthbound life to eternity beyond.

This obsessive preoccupation with outward, external behaviors, measures, taboos, and traditions undermines and runs contrary to the simplicity and completeness of the gospel, which is the message that Christ alone – through his perfect life, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead – is all that I need to live a calm, confident, and enthusiastic life before God.

Elizabeth Elliot, wife of the well-known Christian missionary and modern-day martyr, Jim Elliot, says this about a young man who wants to follow Christ:

"I am in earnest about forsaking 'the world' and following Christ. But I am puzzled about worldly things. What is it I must forsake?" a young man asks. "Colored clothes, for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don't eat any more white bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard. To shave is to lie against Him who created us, to attempt to improve on His Work."

How does this advice sound to you? First, there is no mention of Christ, his suffering, his resurrection, or his second coming. Second, the rules are rather arbitrary and absurd. The truth is, this was the guidance given to young people in influential Christian schools centuries ago. I wonder what our own various rules might sound like to Christian people centuries in the future? Such guidance, though, does not produce joy and does not encourage a focus on Christ and the gospel. It is another kind of worldliness.

Paul emphasizes these same thoughts elsewhere with equal or greater passion and specificity when he says this to the church in the city called Colosse:

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. (Col 2:20-23)

Then he follows these thoughts, just as he does here in Phil 3:20-21, with clear instructions to exchange our preoccupation with empty, earthly concerns for a passionate focus on things which have eternal value in God’s sight:

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Col 3:1-4)

Let’s see how Paul expresses similar thoughts here in Phil 3:20-21.

Focus on eternal priorities.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

By “citizenship,” Paul describes belonging to, representing, and enjoying the benefits of another kingdom or nation. People in Philippi understood what this meant in a special way. Once the Rome had conquered and established its hold on the nations and city-states throughout its vast empire, many of its generals and soldiers wished to settle down in the outlying area of Philippi rather than return to the Italian peninsula and city of Rome.

Rome granted this request and also granted to these people special benefits and privileges normally only enjoyed by those who were in Rome, so long as the city remained allegiant to Caesar and swore loyalty to Rome. So, they were citizens of Rome without being residents of Rome.

Paul uses this special cultural background of Philippi to illustrate how we are to live today. Unlike unbelieving people who have no eternal relationship with God and no eternal hope of life with God in his New Creation forever, we should not obsess over and place spiritual confidence in our observance of religious rituals, rules, and traditions pertaining to temporal, material things. That’s what nonbelievers do who have no confidence of salvation, no hope of heaven, and no peace in knowing that Christ has delivered them entirely from their sins. Just as citizens of Philippi were proud of their citizenship status from Rome, even more so should followers of Christ turn our confidence away from observing rules and traditions to boasting always and only in Christ.

We reveal our confidence in Christ, Paul says, by “waiting eagerly for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, we find far more interested in and focused on looking for and preparing for Christ to return than we are in figuring out what to eat and not eat and what rules to follow to best impress God.

Paul goes on to explain how this body that we obsess over, whether through dietary laws, circumcision, or any number of other commonly debated behaviors and taboos besides basic, godly, common-sense moral behavior, will – when Christ returns – be changed.

By observing this, Paul acknowledges two things.

First, Christ intends for our bodes to last for eternity. We will not exist in God’s new world forever in some kind of disembodied, angelic, ghost-like, or spiritual state. The physical body which God has given you is designed and destined for eternity.

Second, though your body is destined for eternity, it is not ready for eternity in its current state. It is currently an earth-bound, “lowly” body – which reminds us that our bodies have certain limitations due to sin. It still experiences sinful temptations and urges and features the marks, scars, injuries, pains, and various conditions which the effects of sin has brought into the world.

Thankfully, when Christ returns, he will correct and heal all of these deficiencies and problems which we now endure and give back the same body only fully healed and restored, and also prepared to last as such forever. The Apostle John describes this:

God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. (Rev 21:4)

Paul then adds that God will not only transform your body for eternity but he will transform the entire created world in a similar way, once sin has been removed and the wicked have been judged once and for all.

In conclusion, do you know anyone like this? Do you know any followers of Christ who do not obsess about various religious traditions and rules – who do not worship and obsess over their belly and who doesn’t glory in their shame? Do you know any followers of Christ who are focused – like Paul – on eternity and who are consistently and enthusiastically focused on Christ?

Randy Alcorn, a Christian author who has written some other excellent books such as The Treasure Principle, Heaven, and Happiness, told the following story in his book Responding with Christlike Balance. It is a true story about a man named Eric Liddell.

Eric Liddell was a Scottish sprint runner and rugby player who eventually became a Christian missionary to China. His story is portrayed in the movie Chariots of Fire.

He is, perhaps, best known for his participation in the 1924 Summer Olympics. In these games, he deliberately pulled himself out from the 100-meter race, even though this was his best event, because the heats would occur on a Sunday. It was his personal conviction that he should show respect for God by not competing on Sunday. So, he trained for the 400-meter race instead, which he not only won but in which he set a new record, both Olympic and international.

Later in life, as a missionary in China, Eric Liddell frequently volunteered to be a referee for local and missionary children whenever they played basketball, hockey, or rounders (similar to baseball or cricket). But as you might guess, if they played on Sunday, he would not referee.

However, on those Sundays when he wouldn’t referee, the children often squabbled over the rules and had a less enjoyable time. Once day, after much reflection, he changed his mind. Rather than insist on his own personal preference to not participate in competitions on Sunday, he acknowledged that doing so was a personal preference – though very much genuinely from his heart, but one which was not required. However, he decided that it was better for the children to have an enjoyable time together than for him to insist on his personal preference on this matter. So, he stepped forward to referee them on Sundays, bringing peace to their games and providing an impactful example of gospel grace towards others, the kind of example we all should aspire to follow and be.

This story was originally told by Margaret Holder, who was a young missionary child at the time when this happened. As a young child, she saw a man who upheld his personal preferences in honoring Christ when his international fame and success was on the line, but who would humbly and gladly alter and concede those preferences to be an agent of peace and an example of Christlike humility and grace to little children.

May you and I find people like this to follow, and may we be people like this that others may follow as well. If we will, then we will both experience and be the cause for other people to experience the calm, content, confident enthusiastic joy that comes from a life that’s focused on Christ.