Conducting in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ? (2)
“in no way alarmed by your opponents--which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God” (Philippians 1:28).
There is a book called "Power Leadership" by Pastor John Maxwell, who wrote many books on "Leadership". The book tells the story of an "Ace Pilot" of the United Sates named Eddie Rickenbacker. He recorded 300 battle hours (the largest number of hours among the US pilots) until the end of World War I, met with 134 enemy planes and shot down 26 of them. So he has received an Medal of Honor, eight Special Merit Cross Medals and a French Legion of Honor. Because of the courage that he showed, the press gave him the title "American Ace of Aces." One day when he received a question about his courage in the battle, he said: "Courage is to do what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared” (Maxwell).
What are you afraid of? Studies conducted in Canada show that what people are most afraid of in the world is, surprisingly, a presentation in front of others, "public speaking" (41%). This was followed by "fear of heights" (32%), money problems (22%), deep water (22%), illness (19%), death (19%) and “darkness” (8%). ‘The reason people are more afraid of the presentation than death is that perhaps they never has experienced death, but they already have experienced the fear of presentation before. When the presentation is over, we don’t remember what we said, we forgot what we supposed to say, our words are evasive, our audience say they couldn’t understand what we said and we feel shame, frustration and get discourage. If we experience this level of fear, we can experience “Anthropophobia, Social Phobia. The definition of this symptom is a symptom of fear that feels as if we are afraid and anxious about social situations such as talking to strangers or speaking to others, so tend to avoid such situations.’ A more specifically, this symptom is anxious and afraid to meet a person or to sit in the same place with someone so avoid them because of an obsessive idea that we cannot talk to the other person as well as because there is obsessive idea about how they think of us.
Just imagine it. Think of it from the perspective of the saints in the Philippian church. When they were reading the Apostle Paul's letter to them (the Book of Philippians), they certainly knew that Paul was in prison because of Jesus Christ and his gospel. If so, the saints of the Philippian church would certainly have expected that they, too, would be persecuted if they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, just like Paul, in prison. If they had anticipated it, or if they knew that they would be persecuted when they preached the gospel, the human instinct was to fear and avoid the persecution so they would not proclaim the gospel publicly or they would try to preach it secretly. But as we have already meditated, Philippians 1:14 says, “Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.” This was a never the work of man. This was the work of the Holy Spirit through the saints of the Philippian church. Apostle Paul, who knew this, wrote a letter to the saints of the Philippian church, saying, “… Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice” (v. 18). After this, Paul continued to write letters to the saints of the Philippian church and talked about his earnest expect and hope (vv. 20-26). In other words, his earnest expectation and hope was that he would not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ would even now, as always, be exalted in his body, whether by life or by death (v. 20). Paul considered his life worth nothing in fulfilling his mission, that was testifying the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24). He earnestly desired to bear witness to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ whether he lived or died. Not only did he know that he would be persecuted in preaching the gospel, but he was actually persecuted. Nevertheless, Paul didn’t feel ashamed of the gospel, but boldly proclaimed it. And many of the saints of the Philippian church were more boldly preaching the word of God without fear (v. 14). Since Paul heard this, he wrote to the saints of the Philippian church, “in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice” (v. 18). Then Paul said in in Philippians 1:27, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Then Paul said to the saints of the Philippian church what it is to conduct themselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, for the second time, today in verse 28, “without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.” Why did Paul tell them so? Paul wanted to see the saints of the Philippian church who were not afraid because of the enemies. At least, Paul wanted to hear that the Philippians church saints were not afraid by those who oppose them. Knowing that they have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly because he was in prison, Paul wanted to see them conducting themselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. That was why Paul told the saints in the Philippian church to conduct themselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (v. 27) “without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you” (v. 28). In the second half of verse 28, Paul comforted the saints of the Philippian church: “… This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved--and that by God.” What does it mean? Paul was comforting the saints of the Philippian church: ‘Your persecution is a testimony of destruction to those who persecute you, but a testimony of salvation to you. It is a testimony of your salvation that you endure and overcome the persecution by faith. God will give you the strength so that you can endure and overcome their persecution.’ Knowing that the saints of the Philippian church were persecuted like Paul himself because of Jesus Christ and His gospel, Paul wanted to hear them they weren’t afraid of those who opposed them and persecuted them so he wrote to comfort them. It is the testimony of our salvation that we are being persecuted because of Jesus and His gospel. God will give us strength and courage to endure the persecution and suffering. Therefore, we must not fear those who oppose us and oppose Jesus Christ and His gospel.
I recently received a message from a pastor’s wife through KakaoTalk, and it said ‘Super Emergency – The prayer request that I received from a local missionary in the Middle East today’. And I saw a website address so I opened it. When I opened it, there appeared on the website two emails from a missionary friend in the area under attack by an IS (Islamic State). Those two emails were about the missionaries who had decided to remain there even though the United Nations had already withdrawn from the area that was occupied by IS. The reason the missionary family decided to stay there was because their children were martyred. According to one missionary, IS was very systematic and deliberately visited every house and forced the children to deny Jesus. But so far no one had denied Jesus and died. Perhaps the IS people cut their heads and killed them. But I think the IS people didn’t kill their parents while they killed children who refused to convert to Islam. So those parents seemed to remain in the area with their willingness to be martyred just like their children. One pare of the email is written like this: ‘The missionaries decided to remain for those Christian parents even if it could cause their own death even it could cost their lives. They were very frightened and didn’t even know how to start a ministry for the parents who had seen their children martyred. But they believed that God had called them to be His voice and His hands at this time and here. Nevertheless, they were seeking us to pray for them, asking God for courage to live worthy of His calling in such a dangerous situation so that if God calls them as well as the slain children, they will also be able to bear martyrdom.’ We must be afraid of not having faith to overcome the dreadful situation instead of be afraid of that dreadful situation. Rather than fearing those who oppose us, we must fear that there is no faith in us to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must fear our God, rather than fear those who hate us because of Jesus Christ and His gospel and those who oppose and afflict us. No matter how dreadful situation we may be in, as we fear God and as we are encouraged by the help of God, we must not only boldly defend our faith but also spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with our lips and our lives as well. May we be able to conduct ourselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.