Stand Firm
Philippians 3:17 - 4:1
by Jim Westmoreland
John Smith was the only Protestant to move into a large Catholic neighborhood. On the first Friday of Lent, John was outside grilling a big juicy steak on his grill.
Meanwhile, all of his neighbors were eating cold tuna fish for supper. This went on each Friday of Lent. On the last Friday of Lent, the neighborhood men got together and decided that something had to be done about John. He was tempting them to eat meat each Friday of Lent, and they couldn't take it anymore.
They decided to try and convert John to Catholicism. They went over and talked to him. John decided to join all of his neighbors and become a Catholic, which made them all very happy.
They took him to church, and the priest sprinkled some water over him, and said, "You were born a Baptist, you were raised a Baptist, and now you are a Catholic."
The men were so relieved, now their biggest Lenten temptation was resolved. The next year's Lenten season rolled around. The first Friday of Lent came, and, just at supper time, when the neighborhood was settling down to their cold tuna fish dinner, the smell of steak cooking on a grill came wafting into their homes. The neighborhood men could not believe their noses! What was going on?
They called each other up and decided to meet over in John's yard to see if he had forgotten it was the first Friday of Lent. The group arrived just in time to see John standing over his grill with a small pitcher of water. He was sprinkling some water over his steak on the grill, saying, "You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, and now you are a fish!"
In his letter to the Philippians Paul was not writing about Baptists or Disciples or Catholics, and he was not writing about cows and fish either! He was writing about what happens when we become followers of Jesus Christ. This is not a name change. It is not a costume change. It is a life change! It does not matter how good we think we have been. Paul's expectation is that we are transformed from all of our humble efforts that fall short. It is Christ's power that conforms us to his glory. Whatever the work that God is doing in you, stand firm in it. Be transformed. Be conformed to the holy work of God's creation.
For Paul, "faith in Christ" was not saying "I believe" to certain statements about Jesus. It also was not merely agreement with Jesus as an ethical and moral teacher. To have "faith in Christ" was to be a doer, as James would write, "Be doers of the word and not hearers only." To have "faith in Christ" was to keep faithfulness with Christ in following the example of his unrelenting service for others even at the cost of his own life.
So, Paul wrote in Philippians 1:21 that "living is Christ and dying is gain" to express solidarity with Christ in ministry, in suffering, and in the glorious promise of resurrection. Paul introduces the famous "Christ Hymn" in 2:6-11 by charging the Philippians to have "the same mind … that was in Christ Jesus" (2:5), that they not only might think and believe like him but also act on that belief and so receive the same reward from God that Christ had (2:12-13). Earlier in this section of the letter, he again stressed that "to know Christ" required "the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death" so as to "attain the resurrection from the dead" as he had (3:10-11).
The image that Paul chooses for this faithful identification with Christ here in Philippians is that of joint imitators. To our ears it sounds egotistical, but it was not. While the specific language of imitation appears only here in Philippians it is found in several of his other letters as he uses this same Greek root to talk about "imitate," in 2 Thessalonians 3, and the noun "imitator," in 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians and Ephesians. Interestingly, Paul here adds the prepositional prefix sun ("with") to the word for imitator, which gives the emphasis that such identification is not an individual act, but rather a "joint" act in the midst of community. It is not simply that they are individually to join with Paul in imitating Christ; but, as a community they are to join each other in imitating Paul as he imitates Christ.
Ultimately, the question is whether the Philippian Christians will follow "the example" Paul and his companions have set for them by their faithful identification with Christ, or whether they will follow the "enemies of the cross of Christ" (that is, those who oppose Christ's willing service for others to the point of death) who instead serve the "god" that is "the belly" (3:19). Here the "belly" (koilia) is a symbol of human desires, especially one's physical desires. Rather than serving others, they seek to serve their own desires. They have become so confused with regard to what God actually desires that they take pride in the things of which they should rightly be ashamed.
Paul draws a sharp contrast between those whose "minds are set on earthly things" (3:19) and those who instead understand that their allegiance is to "heaven" (3:20). By picking up the language of "citizenship" and the expectation of a "Savior," he draws on concerns that would have special relevance for the residents of Philippi. Although the city had been founded by and named for Alexander the Great's father, Philip II of Macedonia, its political importance in Paul's day stemmed from the fact that it had been made a Roman colony and capital of the Roman province of Macedonia by Augustus when he and Marc Antony defeated Brutus and the other assassins of Julius Caesar there in 31 B.C. Consequently, it was an important site of emperor veneration in the first century, and the Caesars were indeed heralded as saviors of the world. For Paul, the identification with imperial power was just another form of following the "god" of human desires that could only lead to "destruction."(1) Paul wants them to stand firm in their faithfulness to Christ.
Did you ever go to church camp? If you did you may have sung this song:
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus,
No turning back, no turning back.
Jennifer Ginn, in a Christian Century article, wrote, "When my friends and I sang this song at church camp, we sang serenely, often teary-eyed, seated on the ground with the cross-illumined by candlelight in front of us. In those emotional moments, I imagined myself to be standing firm in the Lord as the Philippians were urged to do by Paul, who reminds them, 'Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.' In those moments, I was determined to set my face toward him. But my single-mindedness never lasted. It was mostly the lure of gossip or boys that sidetracked my determination then. I stopped so often along the way of following that I lost my way. Occasional flashbacks to those times and to the words of that song turned my attention to Jesus, but I have moved in fits and starts through adolescence and adulthood - sometimes toward, and often away from, singleness of purpose . . .
The cross before me, the world behind me,
The cross before me, the world behind me,
The cross before me, the world behind me,
No turning back, no turning back.
Lent challenges us to try. I know that even in Lent I won't be able to walk straight toward the cross. I've tried before. Only Christ could do that."(2)
But, hear this, the Christian faith and witness has become watered down because too many people rationalize why they are not making Jesus their example. The Cross is the symbol of His forgiving and self-giving love for us. We are called to be transformed from an old life to a new life, and we are called to be conformed, not to the world's way of doing things, but to Jesus' way. Our salvation is in Him. Our forgiveness is in Him. Our identity and self-worth come ultimately from Him, not from anyone else. We can endure hard times, we can endure being misunderstood and feeling alone because His spirit ministers to our spirit. We are transformed again and again. Do not take life in Christ for granted! That is the best way to miss it and become dulled to the stirring of the Spirit. There is a new life! Claim it. Give yourself to it daily. Hear these words from our text, In our new life in Christ, we are to "stand firm." Amen.
www.centurychristian.org
1. Commentary section drawn from Homiletics, March-April, 2007, Vol. 19, No 2, pp 13-14.
2. Jennifer M. Ginn, "Living by the Word" in Christian Century, February 24, 2004.