Worthy
Notes
Transcript
Philippians 1
Philippians 1
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,
A little over a year ago I was teaching through the book of Philippians and this verse stuck out to me there more than ever before. I was called to my mind often and I meditated on it much.
We need to work to live our lives in a manner that is worthy of the gospel. Our manner of life is like our citizenship and this passage mirrors a passage in Philippians 3:20 “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”. The original language used in 1.27 also points us towards citizenship language. When we go to countries that are not the one we are from typically all of the natives of that we are not from there. We walk different, we talk different, we act different. The same needs to be true of our heavenly citizenship, we need to live in such a way that it is evident that something is different about us. We need to live our lives in a manner that reflects our heavenly citizenship, in a manner worthy of the gospel.
In this if the way we live our life is like our citizenship then the gospel needs to be our constitution. The gospel should be what we base everything on. It should be what directs how we go about everything else. The gospel should be the code that we live by. I am from the US and I keep a small pocket constitution on my shelf and from time to time I will pull it off and read a bit of it, I do this so that I know the foundation for my nation and can be a good citizen. How much more though we should focus on our heavenly citizenship and read the Bible so that we can see the gospel in it.
As you go through life remember this verse and work diligently to do it. Live your life in a manner that is worthy of the gospel. Honor your true citizenship far above your citizenship here on earth. Strive for this so that we can be seen standing firm and striving side by side.