Conducting in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ? (3)
[Philippians 1:27-30]
What do you think of "suffering"? This is what the Scripture Psalms 119:71 says: “It was good for me to be afflicted ….” How is suffering beneficial to us? There are at least two reasons:
(1) First, the benefit of suffering is to remind us of our wrongdoing.
Look at Psalms 119: 67 – “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” There are many times when we do not know the fact that we are doing wrong (going the wrong way) before suffering. Of course, it is true that there are times when we know that it is a deliberate wrong way and we still go astray. Many times, however, we are spiritual blind and deaf, and often don’t walk on the narrow path of the cross that the Lord has walked, but we go to the left or to the right. Then, through the suffering that the Lord gives us, we realize that we aren’t walking of the narrow path of the cross but have been going astray. Like a shepherd who uses his staff to strike his sheep that is going the wrong way and make it to go the right way, the Lord uses the suffering as His staff of discipline to turn away from the wrong way and to lead us to walk in the right way. This is what Prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:6 – “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; …” When we walk through the wide path of the world, not the narrow path of the Lord, the Lord gives us suffering so that we may realize we have been going astray.
(2) Second, the benefit of suffering is to make us to keep the word of the Lord.
Look at Psalms 119: 67 – “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” Here we should think about how the suffering makes us to keep the word of the Lord in six ways:
(a) The suffering makes us to believe in the Lord's commands. Look at Psalms 119:66 – “Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands.” The suffering that awakens us to the way we are walking on the wrong path and makes us do the U-turn makes us to believe that only the Lord's commands are true. Every day we choose to take one of two paths: the narrow path of the Lord or the broad path of the world. In other words, we live every moment of the day, either by choosing to follow the Lord's commands, or by choosing either Satan’s words or the world’s words. The suffering not only helps us to realize that we have made a wrong choice but also through a consequence of our wrong choice and the Lord’s discipline of love, it helps us to believe and choose the right path of the Lord’s way and His commands.
(b) The suffering teaches us "knowledge and good judgment." Look at Psalms 119:66 again – “Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands.” How many of us a Christians who have lost their good judgment and walked in the wrong path of ignorance? The loss of spiritual judgment brings confusion instead of conviction. This will eventually prevents us from walking the way of the Lord's commands consistently but makes us to wander to the way of the world and the path of confusion. But the Lord delivers us from the swamp of the loss of ignorance and good judgment through suffering. And eventually the Lord leads us to the Word of God, giving us good spiritual discernment and knowledge of the will of the Lord.
(c) The suffering enables us to taste the goodness of the Lord. Look at Psalms 119: 68 – “You are good, and what you do is good ….” The greatest benefit or blessing of the Lord's goodness which we taste through suffering (Ps. 34:8) is experiencing our good God who woks even our suffering for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28). Especially when we are in most difficult situation, going through the hardest time, and when we are tired and exhausted, the glory of God is manifested in the midst of our extreme pain and suffering. That’s why we can praise God “God is so good, God is so good, God is so good He so good to me” in the midst of sufferings.
(d) The suffering makes us to hate the lies of the arrogant. Look at Psalms 119: 69 – “Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, ….” Before we suffer, the lies of the proud are so clearly heard in our ears that there are many times we have walked the arrogant’s path of lies. Aren’t we Christians who are confused walking the path of lies because we have received the lies of the arrogant and consider those lies as the truth and choose the wrong way? Aren’t we running the path of false success and of glory and material universalism that the worldly arrogant show us? But after suffering, we hate the false path of all the arrogant because we have come to know the true path and the way of the Lord through suffering. It is the narrow path of the cross that the humble Jesus showed in the Bible. And the end of the path is death. Isn’t the end of the narrow path different from the end of the way of the world? Do you feel spiritual charm to the climax of the narrow path which is death? Do you feel spiritual charm to the fact that such sinners like us can die for the Lord and His glory? Not every Christians can accept this truth in their hearts. Those who have arrogant hearts cannot receive and defend this truth. But the Lord is planting this truth in our hearts through sufferings. And in that process, the Lord makes us to hate the lies of the arrogant through sufferings.
(e) The suffering removes fats in our hearts. Look at Psalms 119:70 – “Their heart is covered with fat ….” Nowadays, obesity is becoming a big problem in the United States. So many people are trying to lose their weights by doing diet and exercise. Some people even do surgery to remove fat. While so many people are trying to get rid of their fat, we Christians should also try to get rid of the fat in our hearts. If there is a fat in our body, it is very uncomfortable and we can get an adult disease. Likewise, we have fat in our hearts, we will sin against God. And if we take a consequence of our sins lightly, then there is better chance that we will be guilty of great sins. I think the suffering is the best and essential spiritual medicine to remove the fat from our hearts. We must remove fat from our hearts even through suffering.
(f) The suffering helps us to understand the greatest value of the Word of God. Look at Psalms 119:72 – “The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” Through the 40 years in the desert during the time of Exodus, the Lord wanted to teach the Israelites that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Dt. 8:3). Likewise, as we live in this desert-like world and walk the narrow path of Jesus Christ and go though many different kinds of sufferings, we must learn that we must live on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. We must realize that the value of the Word is more precious than our lives. How can we compare the eternal Word of God with our limited life in this earth? The suffering teaches us that the value of the Word is much greater than wealth. In one word, Hebrews 5:8 teaches us the benefit of suffering as follow, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” The benefit of suffering is that we learn to obey Him.
In today's text Philippians 1:27, Apostle Paul tells the saints of the Philippian church, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ ….” We have already been taught in two ways, how to conduct ourselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ: (1) First, it is to stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel (1:27), (2) Second, it is not afraid because of those who oppose us (v. 28).
Third and last, conducting ourselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ is to suffer by faith for Christ’s sake.
Look at Philippians 1:29 – “For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” What do you think of "suffering"? In July 2009, one of our church deacons sent me an e-mails and this was what he wrote: ‘Suffering surely prevents us from mistaking this life for our rest.’ What does it mean? The more we suffer in this world because of our faith by believing in Jesus, the more we realize that this world is not our eternal resting place, but rather a place to stay for a while and then leave. And as we realize more and more that this world is not our eternal resting, the more we like the ancestors of faith in Hebrews 11 seek “for a better country – a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:6), the eternal resting place. In that sense, I cannot help but agree that suffering certainly prevent us from mistaking this life for our eternal rest.
In Philippians 1:29, we see that Paul wrote a letter to the saints of the Philippian Church and said to them: “For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” What does it mean? It can be summarized in two ways. One is that the grace God has given to saints of the Philippian church was to believe in Jesus. We believe in this truth. We believe that it is the whole grace of God that we have come to believe in Jesus. And the basis of our faith is Ephesians 2:8 – “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” The Bible speaks clearly that faith is the gift of God. It is the gift of God that we have been saved by faith in Jesus. The Bible clearly says that it is not from us. This truth is the truth that we all believe and accept. However, it seems that we are not accepting another truth that is being spoken in the second half of Philippians 1:29. The truth is that the grace God has given us is to suffer for Christ’s sake. We may ask that if we believe in Jesus, we must be blessed instead of suffering. When I think of this question, Job 2:10 came into my mind: “He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”
The fact is that it is the great gift of God’s grace is to believe in Jesus. Not only that, we received the blessing of eternal life in Jesus Christ. The God, who loves us and chose us before the foundation of the world, regenerated us in His time and made us to believe in Jesus and saved us. We have already received this amazing blessing. Also we have received this wonderful blessing that the Holy Spirit who dwells in us sanctifies us to make us holy like Jesus. We also became God's heirs and we are able to call God ‘Abba Father’. Thus we have already received every spiritual blessing from God (Eph. 1:3-6). Then, shouldn’t we not only be blessed by God, but also to suffer for Jesus Christ and His gospel? The apostle Paul did it. He suffered much for Jesus Christ and His gospel. He what thankful to God for considering him faithful and appointing him to His service even though he was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, that is the chief sinner (1 Tim. 1:12-15). That was why Paul considered his life worth nothing to him, if only he might finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus had given him – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24). He continued to live with all the tribulation and suffering, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 6:4-5, Paul said to the believers in the Corinthian church: “Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger.” And in Galatian 6:17, Paul said that “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” In this way, Paul, who suffered so much for the sake of Jesus Christ and His gospel, said in Philippians 1:29 that suffering for Jesus Christ is the grace of God. Do we really believe that the suffering we receive for Jesus Christ is the grace of God? Do we consider God's grace when we suffer for the gospel of Jesus Christ?
When we are blessed by God, it seems that God looks big. But when we are afflicted, the same God appears so small, and our suffering seems very big. Then we must make suffering profitable for us. We must learn to obey like Jesus through suffering. We must learn to obey what the Bible tells us which is to only conduct ourselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (Phil. 1:27). Therefore, we must conduct ourselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. We must work together in one mind and one spirit. And we should not be afraid of those who oppose us in any way. And we must suffer by faith for Christ’s sake. May God's grace be with you.