LIVING WORTHY IN A HOSTILE WORLD

Introduction

-{Philippians 1}

-In North Korea, a lady named Cha Deoksun sought help during the Great Famine of the 1990’s. She eventually crossed the border illegally into China to find her uncle for help, but instead found Seotap Church where she heard and received the gospel message of Jesus Christ. Returning to North Korea she was allowed by the government to return to society due to the great poverty of the nation. The government said that she would be allowed to travel between towns to earn money for herself. But, instead, she travelled to share the gospel and help the poor and suffering, as well as joining the underground church in worship and study. Eventually, someone reported her to the North Korean authorities who took her into custody, and it is not known how she was executed, but she was martyred for the faith.

-Cha Deoksun was just an ordinary Christian who knew the worth of the Savior and the worth of the gospel message, and merely allowed that to determine her steps in life. What about us? Would someone look at our lives and say that our lives are lived worthily of Christ and the gospel? As hostility toward the true Christ and the true gospel and the true church grows exponentially, we are forced to look at ourselves and consider how much do we actually value Jesus. Yes, while it’s still legal and still somewhat culturally accepted in the South it’s easy to claim a form of Christianity—but do our choices and actions actually project to others that we find Christ and His gospel valuable. Maybe another way to put the question: ARE CHRIST AND THE GOSPEL WORTH IT WHEN ALL THE REST OF THE WORLD IS AGAINST US?

-Paul, in prison, writing to the Philippian church, says that Christ and the gospel most certainly are worth it. And so, what we learn from these verses is that we are called to live worthy of Christ’s gospel in the midst of a hostile world.

Philippians 1:27–30 ESV

27 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, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

-{pray}

-To gives some context, Paul is in prison in Rome awaiting an audience with Caesar. Paul, thankful for the gospel partnership of the Philippian church writes, telling them not to worry about his circumstances because one way or another he is going to be delivered either by his release or by his death. Either way, what he is most concerned about is that Jesus Christ is honored in his body. While he is pretty certain he will eventually be released so that he can see the church again, he encourages the church to live a certain way as they too face hostility just like him.

-And I think that this is a good call and reminder to the modern church. While we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, it is a faith that is not alone. We were created and saved for good works that God prepared beforehand that we should do them. James reminds us in his epistle that true saving faith will lead to works—to spiritual fruit. Live trees bear fruit, dead trees don’t. People made spiritually alive in Christ bear fruit, those who are merely religious or culturally Christian don’t. And so Paul wants to encourage the Philippian church to live spiritually fruitful even in a world that is dead set against them. There are several observations in this passage that I believe are important to highlight to encourage us to live worthy of Christ and His gospel in a hostile world. First, consider:

1) A Citizen’s Call

-Paul says in v. 27 LET YOUR MANNER OF LIFE BE WORTHY. Other translations will say to the effect: live your life worthy or conduct yourself in a worthy manner. This is not the normal word that Paul and other apostles use for living your life. The word references your obligations as part of a community—how you should act as a citizen. In a sense, it could be translated LIVE OUT YOUR CITIZENSHIP.

-Most different types of communities have expectations of those who belong to the group. If you are part of a club, it is expected that you pay your dues and attend meetings. If you are a citizen of a nation you are expected to follow the laws and attend to your civic duties. This word was important in the Roman Empire because being a citizen of Rome came with certain privileges and protections, and no matter where you travelled those privilege and protections went with you, as well as the fact that you were a representative of that citizenship wherever you went. What about the Christian?

-Yes, Christians are (or ought to be) part of a local church and there are expectations there, but Paul was thinking about something more universal for his Christian brothers and sisters. Paul is reminding the church that they are citizens of heaven. Yes, they are pilgrims on this earth right now, but if you are in Christ your citizenship is in heaven. That means your loyalties and your heart belong there. You may be here in Alabama, but your citizenship, and therefore your heart, belong there.

-That means that no matter where you go as a Christian you carry with you the privileges and protections of being a citizen of heaven, but that also means that you are heaven’s representative and there are expectations of your conduct. And so, even though you’re here, you live like a good citizen of there—of heaven. Because you are a citizen of heaven, then you live like you are a citizen of heaven. And Paul will elaborate further what this means in the passage, but first you need to constantly remind yourself where you truly belong and who you represent. As Paul continues to flesh this out, we observe, secondly:

2) A Righteous Reflection

-Paul says in v. 27 LET YOUR MANNER OF LIFE BE WORTHY OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. This is how we live out our citizenship—worthy of the gospel of Christ. That word WORTHY means that you live according to the merit, value, or worth that something has in your life. When you see something as very valuable, that is reflected in the way you treat it and live in light of it. If you see something as having little to no value, your life shows the same.

-For example, I value football a lot more than I value soccer (which I really don’t value at all). I spend more time watching football, and no time watching soccer. I have several t-shirts that display my favorite football teams, I have no t-shirts displaying any soccer team. My streaming service is set to record various football games, but it’s not set to record any soccer games. Because I value football more than soccer, it’s reflected in my lifestyle.

-And now the same is true with Christ and the gospel. As a citizen of heaven, my life ought to reflect the fact that I value Christ and the gospel more than anything else. But the world competes for my time and attention. My flesh desires satisfaction from things that go against my heavenly citizenship. So, what receives the most value and worth in my life? Where do my heart and loyalties lie according to my thoughts, actions, and words? Now, it’s all well and good to talk about living worthy of Christ and the gospel in theory, but how does it actually look? Well, Paul continues to explain his point, and we observe tirdly:

3) A Strong Solidarity

-In v. 27 Paul says that part of living worthy of the gospel of Christ includes STANDING FIRM IN ONE SPIRIT. The word for standing firm was used for a soldier who stood at his post during times of war and would not budge no matter what the enemy threw at them.

-This word for standing firm reminds me of when I was a kid playing king of the hill. The king would stand on a dirt mound or whatever, and as long as you stood on the hill, you were the king. And all of the others kids would try and knock you off that dirt mound and claim the title of king. But if you were the king, you would do everything in your power to stay in that spot and not be moved.

-Paul says that to live worthy means that you stand firm on the foundation of Christ and the gospel and you do not allow yourself to be moved from that spot. But, unlike the king of the hill game, you are not alone in trying to stand firm. He is talking to the church and says that they all stand firm together in one Spirit. Christians are all saved by the same Christ and all are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit. And so Christians are united, locking spiritual arms so that they will not budge of be moved from that foundation.

-This is so important because the enemy knows that his agenda can be furthered when Christians are divided. It’s easier to cause individuals to stumble as well as churches when Christians are detached from one another. Unity is so important amongst the body of Christ—unity around Christ and the gospel. You may not be able to get humans to agree about everything, and there is no expectation in a church that everyone will agree about everything, but we better agree about what is most important. If we get sidetracked by too many secondary or third or fourth issues, we miss the main things and we become easy pickings for the enemy who roams around like a roaring lion looking for individuals and churches to be devoured. That is why it is so important to be an agent of unity and to pray earnestly for unity, because only when we are united will we be able to stand firm and not be moved.

-Then Paul continues with another observation, so we see fourthly:

4) A Significant Struggle

-Paul says in v. 27 that another part of living worthy is to be WITH ONE MIND STRIVING SIDE BY SIDE FOR THE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL. STRIVING SIDE BY SIDE is one word in the Greek, and it’s talking about contending in a joint effort like that of an athletic team. Sports teams work together for the same goal of winning. They work in unison for the same purpose.

-This word got me thinking specifically of Olympic rowing teams, how they work in unison to win the race. Their strokes of the oars are all timed together to maximize their speed and efficiency. Their combined effort propels them toward the prize.

-Paul says this is how we live worthy—we contend together for the faith of the gospel—we fight together for the faith of the gospel. When it is talking about the faith of the gospel it refers to the beliefs and doctrines that make up the truth of the gospel message. This includes the truth that all humans are sinners and under God’s judgment. Because of their sin, all people are separated from God. Yet God so loved the world that He sent God the Son to take on full humanity, die on the cross being the perfect sacrifice for sin, giving the means of extending forgiveness to mankind. And all who repent (meaning to turn from living for self and the world and then turning toward God) and then believe and trust in Jesus and His death will be saved. We strive side by side for that gospel message, and I see two ways in which we contend together for this faith.

-First, we strive side by side to get that message out into the world so that those who are still stuck in unforgiveness, those still separated from God, can learn about God’s love and mercy in Jesus Christ. We strive together to let the world know they can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

-But another way that we strive side by side is fighting for the integrity of the gospel message. There are innumerable perversions of Christian doctrines that present a false Christ and/or present a false gospel. They are out there vying for the ears and hearts and affections of the world, and they turn people away from the truth toward errors that will lead people to their eternal destruction. These perversions are trying to make their way into the church so that the church no longer stands firm and strives for the truth.

-But we must stand firm and we must strive side by side so that the gospel message does not get watered down or compromised. We must strive so that the true Jesus Christ of Scripture is lifted high and that every knee bows down to Him, not to some idol that the ministers of Satan put out there as decoys. We must strive so that the message of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone tears down the temples of purported religion and philosophy that set themselves up against Christ, and only the truth of Christ remains. We must fight together, this shows the worth of Christ. And then, this leads to the next observation:

5) A Critical Courage

-After calling us to stand and strive, Paul then tells us in v. 28 NOT to be FRIGHTENED BY OUR OPPONENTS. Paul knew all about opponents to Christ and the gospel—that’s why he was in prison to begin with. All throughout his ministry he ran into enemies of the cross who tried to prevent the good news of Jesus Christ from being proclaimed. Paul bore the marks on his body of the enemies’ attempts to stop his ministry. And yet nothing they did stopped him, and he encouraged the Philippian church and us to have the same courage with which he faced his opponents.

-The term literally means not to let yourself be intimidated. Satan empowers earthly enemies to try to scare Christians from living a life worthy of Christ and from fulfilling our ministry calling. These enemies will breathe all sorts of threats and try to bully us to keep us from sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. They will call us names. And in cases like that of Cha Deoksun they will threaten us and maybe kill us. But what is our life in light of eternity? Wouldn’t it be better to spend our life for the sake of Christ rather than trying to save it living for the world? Did not Christ Himself say that whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses it for Him and the gospel will actually save it? Did not Christ warn that it isn’t worth gaining the world to lose our own souls? Is Christ not more valuable than anything on this earth?

-So, the enemies breathe their threats, but what’s the worst they can do to us? They threaten to kill us. Well, Paul just said a few verses before our passage that to live is Christ and to die is gain. They threaten to make us suffer. Well, Paul tells us in Romans 8:18 that the sufferings of this present time aren’t even worthy to be compared to the glory that’s going to be revealed to us. So, what are they going to do to us? Their threats try to instill fear in us, but we haven’t been given a spirit of fear, but the Spirit of power, love, and self-control.

-Knowing that our enemies are powerless to take away anything that is eternal, they hold no sway over us. So, we stand and strive with courage knowing that we have nothing to fear from any of our enemies. If an opponent tries to intimidate us, we stand firm and we strive and we are not moved. But this leads to another interesting observation:

6) A Positive Proof

-Paul says in v. 28 that the fact that these opponents are opposed to Christ and the Gospel message, and thereby opposed to us as His people, IS A CLEAR SIGN TO THEM OF THEIR DESTRUCTION, BUT OF OUR SALVATION AND THAT FROM GOD. That these people either oppose the gospel or pervert the gospel just gives proof that they are enemies of Christ and that their eternal destruction is certain unless they repent. That they are opposed to the truth shows that they are condemned, but because we hold to the truth, stand firm in the truth, strive for the truth, and live for the truth is proof that we have received the salvation from God through Jesus Christ.

-There are so many out there claiming a Christianity but denying the tenets of Scripture and openly hostile toward those that hold to a biblical truth. Their mantra is that true Christianity is not about salvation from sin or about holiness or about anything God revealed in His Word, but it’s about inclusion of everyone no matter what unrepentant lifestyle you choose to embrace. Yes, salvation is available to anyone who repents and believes in Jesus, but by the fact that you hold to a different Christ and to a different gospel and are hostile to those who hold to the true Christ and true gospel is proof that you are bound for destruction. As Jude wrote:

Jude 4 ESV

4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

-But for those who hold to biblical definitions of everything, who hold to Christ being the only way, truth, and life, is proof that they have been saved—salvation provided by God in Christ. A worthy life means you are assured eternal life demonstrated by the fact that you hold to the truth of the gospel, and you do not let the enemies move you from that. And I want to make one more quick observation, where Paul talks about:

7) A Godly Guarantee

-In v. 29 Paul says that it has been granted to us NOT ONLY TO BELIEVE IN CHRIST BUT ALSO TO SUFFER FOR CHRIST, in v. 30 noting that all Christians are called to the same conflict that Paul himself went through. A worthy life means that the world is going to be opposed to Christ’s followers and we will suffer in this world. It’s granted to us like its a gift.

-Now, most of us aren’t particularly fond of this gift. It’s like that crazy gift you get at Christmas, you want to exchange it the next day. But it’s a gift because we get to be like our Savior, and again, it is a clear sign of our salvation, and that from God. The only way that we can get away from this suffering is to bow down to the pressures of the world—to be intimidated and silenced and even to compromise Christ and the gospel. But that is not being worthy. If you are living a life worthy of the gospel of Christ, you are going to suffer at the hands of enemies in some way, shape, or form. It might not be physical, but it might be mental and spiritual as they drag your name through the mud and say all sorts of lies about you. But if you are living worthy, you will suffer. Paul would later say:

2 Timothy 3:12 ESV

12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

Conclusion

-Let me just close by asking: How much value do you put on Christ and the gospel? Is it your spiritual life breath or do you merely throw Jesus a bone every once in a while? You see, if Christ is of any worth for you, you will live worthy of Him.

-I value my family, and so my life reflects that in the way I think, speak, and act for them. But I value Christ and the gospel more, and that too should be reflected in a worthy life.

-Christian, come to the altar and pray that you would live worthy.

-But if you look at your life and see that Christ has had no worth to you, repent and believe in Him and be saved...