A Worthy Life Requires Common Unity

Philippians 1:27–30 ESV

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, 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. 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, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

ESS:

Paul wanted the believers in Philippi to fearlessly reflect the life-changing Good News of Jesus to the world through their lives and actions, unified together, even in spite of their opponents’ opposition.

Unity Fosters Worthiness

Philippians 1:27 ESV

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,

Here at the beginning, Paul says “Only let…” One commentator pointed out it’s like saying, “Hey, just one thing I want you to do…” It’s like, “Hey, if you forget anything, don’t let it be this.” You know, when you’re headed to the store and your spouse says, “Don’t forget the eggs.” Unfortunately, when we make it to the store, all too often, we forget the eggs.

So what is it that’s so important for Paul to use this phrase? let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel.

A couple of things to note about Paul’s command here: First, the word, “Worthy.”

So we looked at the word, “worthy,” but there’s another word we need to look at here…

Someday y’all are gonna get tired of hearing me say this, but I really believe that if Bible readers would apply this one truth to their reading it would catapult the church forward across the world…

This word, “your.” Now… “Your” is just a bad word. I mean really. This word has created so much confusion in the English-speaking church for years and years and years. You know why? Because it doesn’t have a speed limit. The word your can mean too much. I have a word for this problem. It’s called the “Yon-Yone” problem.

Some of you people know what yon-yone is, don’t you? Growing up, sometimes I’d tell my mom about my dumb ideas of what I was going to do that day, and mom would reply, “Okay son, yon-yone!” For all of us who don’t speak southern, that’s “You’re on your own” in redneck.

Let me explain. If you were to come across this passage in your Bible reading, you might come out on the other side of it saying, “Yeah, you know, my life needs to reflect the Gospel of Jesus,” and you’d be partly right. And then you might go and try to do the Christian life all on yone.

Here, let me fix it… Only let Y’ALL’S… and then there’s the matter of him saying “manner” in the singular…

When Paul is saying this, he’s saying there’s an inherent communal aspect to the Christian faith. Part and parcel to our faith is our coming-together as a body of believers.

Important as well, is the verb that translates as “let your manner of life be” is “politeuesthai.” Poli, there, comes from the root word, polis, which is Greek for city. So literally, the word goes something like, “Behave as citizens whose lives are worthy of the Gospel.” It brings forth a KINGDOM understanding of following Christ. We live under His Banner of the Kingdom, and our church is an outpost of the Kingdom. So therefore, we are Kingdom citizens, and everywhere we go, we represent the kingdom! Just as when you go to another country, people see your representation of your country, and you create a reputation of your country for people in that nation. Because of your interactions with people in that country, it will forever define for those people what you and people from your country are like!

That’s why Paul wants them to live worthy of the Gospel! Because the church at Philippi represents Christ and His Kingdom to the world!

Christian, what does your reputation tell the world about the God you worship? In a wildly individualistic society, how does your relationship to the church show the world that there’s more to life than personal pleasure?

Unity in the church fosters the worthy life that Paul is talking about.

Tony Merida puts this very well:

Believers are making a statement about the Gospel not only with their lips but also with their lives. The gospel is about love; therefore we should be known as loving people. The gospel is about justice; therefore we should be justice-seeking people. The gospel is about life; therefore we should display visible vitality and joy in our gatherings and in our relationships. The gospel is about liberty; therefore we should not live as stuffy legalists. The gospel is about humility; therefore, we should be a humble people, gladly serving others.

Worthiness of Striving Together

Philippians 1:27 ESV

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,

And that’s what makes the rest of this verse makes sense, because Paul moves on to say that when he hears of the Church at Philippi, he wants to hear that they are “standing firm in one Spirit.” Now , you can take this phrase to mean in one general spirit, much like you might say, a spirit of gratitude, or a spirit of mission or whatever. Or you could take this as standing firm in One Spirit, The Holy Spirt. Both are plausible, and it’s hard to know which one Paul was referring to. I take the view that he’s talking about The Holy Spirit. He uses a similar phrase in other letters, and so our participation in the Holy Spirit is a bond of unity among us as believers.

Standing firm in one Spirit (The Spirit) informs the rest of the discourse on unity.

So because of this, we need to look at what it means to stand firm in the Spirit. The Spirit often gets less press than the Father and the Son, but the Holy Spirit is every bit as much God as the Father and the Son. He is not some force, or essence, less than God. He is active in the world, doing His will across the world.

So how do we get unified in the Spirit?

We agree on Who the Spirit is. The Spirit is the third person in the Trinity.

We agree on what the Spirit does. The Spirit convicts unbelievers of sin and righteousness, drawing them to Christ. He has a very loving work in that. Conviction is a loving act by the Holy Spirit to draw us to Christ. Then, He guides believers into all Truth. Then, He helps believers in their time of need and in their mission. There’s more, but that would be a whole ‘nother sermon. Someday.

We agree on following the Spirit together. I trust that the Holy Spirit is at work among all of us as believers. I hope you do, too. If you trust that, then you entrust the direction of the church to the congregation of believers. That’s why it’s so important that Christians engage in the church body, because the Spirit is at work amidst the church body. Do you want the Holy Spirit to engage with you in your life? Engage in church life. Ask for prayer. Get in the Word. You say “I do all that.” Great. One more… Confess sin… How can you follow the Spirit when you are not surrendered to Him?

How can we stand firm in the Spirit if we’re not agreed upon these things?

Now some of those things I listed are basics. I’m sure when I mentioned what the Holy Spirit does, there were people in the room wanting me to go on and say more. Again… There’s just too much on that subject that requires its own series of messages.

But let’s move forward in the text. V. 28.

Worthiness Eliminates Fear

Philippians 1:28 ESV

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.

Living a life worthy of the Gospel eliminates fear of our opponents. It truly does! When you are living a life worthy of the Gospel, it gives you a clear conscience before God, and guess what. His opinion is the only opinion that matters! And the closer you lean into Him and allow your fellow believers who share that same value into your life… the more true that becomes in your own life.

Listen, you will have opponents. Satan will see to that. Trust that. I know what it’s like to have opponents. People will say all kinds of things about you. People will try to trash your name, say things about you that are untrue, and sway opinions about you that they have no business swaying.

And you know what fear looks like in those situations? Going and trying to clear your own name… Standing up for your own name. Doing everything you can to make sure that whatever they say about you isn’t true. I’m not about that life. No, my job is not to defend my name. My job, my mission in life is to lift up the Name of Christ! If my name has to be made into dirt so that Christ’s name can be lifted up, then glory to Him!

This is the kind of thing Paul deals with. He talks about it in the letters to the Corinthians, he talks about it here. Skip down to 30

Philippians 1:30 ESV

engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Now, here, there’s a specific context to which he is speaking. These opponents in Philippi are those who are a part of the cult of the Emperor. Gordon Fee:

Seems, at this point, that there is a mounting pressure from the people of Philippi on these believers to honor the Emperor as Lord. -Fee

Whether your opponents realize it or not, anyone who sets themselves up against someone who is seeking to do right by the Lord, they are setting themselves up against the Lord. They want to take your eyes OFF of what the Lord is doing, and put your eyes on them and what they are doing!!

Don’t let Satan have that victory.

We’ve made it up to this point, but we have yet to describe how to get that worthiness.

Worthiness is Given, Not Attained

Philippians 1:29 ESV

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,

“It has been granted to you that… you should believe in Him.”

It’s for the sake of Christ that you are saved. And it is granted to you by God. Wow.

So what we have to understand has to do with Christ’s sake, and the concept of surrender.