THE GREAT ‘WHICHEVER’
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 11, 2024 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: December 11, 2024 from Philippians 1:22-26
Theme: The resolve to live for Christ means joyfully accepting whatever will bring Him the most glory in us.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
There was an executive headhunter for a company who—when recruiting potential staff people—had a favorite question he liked to ask. In fact, he liked to spring it on them suddenly in order to catch them off guard so that he’d get the most honest, off-the-cuff answer from them that he could get. During the interview—after he had been sitting relaxed in his chair for some time, having chatted with the potential employee in a warm, calm, quiet manner to put them at ease—he’d suddenly lunge forward, put his hands on the desk, look the interviewee in the eyes, and say, “What is your purpose for being alive?”
Usually, the shocked interviewee would stammer uneasily—not having given much thought to that question, and not even having expected that such a question would be asked in a job interview. But on one occasion, a Christian interviewee was asked this question. He suddenly leaned forward, looked the interviewer in the eye, and said, “To go to heaven and to take as many people with me as I can.” I never heard whether or not the interviewee got the job. But clearly, he had thought the answer out in advance. He confidently knew his purpose for being alive! What a great thing that is to know!
The apostle Paul knew how he would have answered that question too. He wasn’t in a job interview, of course. He was in a Roman prison for having preached the message of the gospel. But in Philippians 1:21—after having expressed to the Philippian Christians his confidence in the future that God had for him in Christ, and the confident expectation he had that Christ would be glorified in him—he declared,
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).
The Lord Jesus Christ, who had given His all for Paul, was now everything to Paul. Sitting in that prison cell—knowing that he might be executed—he wasn’t afraid. For him, life meant living for the One who died for him; and bodily death simply meant going to be with Him forever into even more life. No matter what happened, Paul was completely confident in his outlook for the future. He knew that, come what may, he would win.
And that knowledge impacted the experience of joy he had in the midst of his present, very difficult, very confining circumstance of imprisonment. He went on—from the standpoint of his glorious affirmation in verse 21—to tell the Philippian believers;
But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again (vv. 22-26).
If he had been given the choice to live on or to be executed, he really wouldn’t have been able to decide on a preference. It wasn’t that he didn’t wish to live. Rather it was that he only wished to live for Christ; and what he wanted would be whatever would bring the greatest glory to Jesus. If to be put to death and to be ushered into the presence of the Lord would bring the Lord the greatest glory and joy, then that’s what Paul would want. But if being released from prison and living on in the service of the Lord—and thus be enabled to continue to minister to God’s people—would bring the greatest glory and joy to His Savior and Master, then that’s what Paul would want. His resolve covered both of the two extreme possibilities … and everything else between.
This is a priority of life that truly conquers every possible situation that we could ever encounter. As Paul wrote elsewhere,
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified (Romans 8:28-30).
And if we truly do know this—and are fully convinced of the truth of it—then it wouldn’t matter to us what those ‘all things’ were that our Lord ‘worked together’ for His purpose. It wouldn’t be because we had adopted a cold-hearted indifference or any kind of cynical resolve to be uncaring of what happens to us. Rather, it would be a matter of sincerely desiring the glory of the Lord Jesus in us as our great purpose for being alive—in whatever circumstance and by whatever means He sees fit to bring that glory about.
As Paul’s words in these verses show us, the resolve to live for Christ means joyfully accepting whatever will bring Him the most glory in us. He not only teaches this to us in his words, but Paul actually shows it to us through his confident joy in a prison cell.
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Now; we can divide this passage into two parts. First, in verses 22-24, Paul described the dilemma he felt. It was a happy dilemma because either outcome would bring glory to Jesus. Second, in verses 25-26, Paul described Paul’s joyful confidence that he would indeed bring glory to Jesus by being released.
So; let’s first consider …
1. PAUL’S HAPPY DILEMMA (v. 22-24).
After expressing that, for him, to live was Christ and to die was gain, he then—as it were—let his readers into his mind. It was as if he let them hear the inward dialogue he was having as he thought about the possible options. In verse 22 he said, “But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.” He didn’t have an improper desire to depart from this earth in order to end his suffering. He knew that ongoing life in the flesh—even a life in a prison cell—meant ongoing opportunities for service to the Lord and fruitfulness in His work. But if the choice were handed over to him, he wasn’t sure which to choose.
He expressed this even more in verses 23-24. First, he considered the advantages of being put to death for his faith. He said in verse 23, “For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” Paul once wrote about someone in 2 Corinthians 12 … someone that we can be pretty sure was himself … and said;
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
If this was Paul’s own experience that he was describing, then it would have been something he had written about a few years before he wrote to the Philippians. He knew—at least to some degree—what the glories of heaven were like; and he would naturally have been eager to be in his eternal home. And most of all, he would have been eager to be with Christ Himself. He had seen the majesty of the resurrected Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus—at a time when he was fighting against Him. But now that he had been redeemed by the Lord Jesus, he longed to be with Him. As he said in 2 Timothy 4:6-8;
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
Thinking about heaven, and thinking about being with the Lord he loved, and thinking about being with beloved fellow believers who went on before him, no doubt thrilled Paul’s heart. It’s understandable that he would have “a desire to depart and be with Jesus”. But he was ‘hard-pressed’ or ‘constrained’; because in verse 24, he added, “Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.” The idea was that remaining in the flesh was ‘indispensable’ with respect to the need of the Philippians. The situation that they were in required it.
Paul had already had some experiences that taught him that ‘living’ meant ‘fruitful service’. In Acts 21, when the Lord put it on Paul’s heart to go to Jerusalem, many in the church sought to prevent him from doing so. A believer named Agabus even came and gave Paul a prophetic warning about the dangers involved. Many urged him not to go; but in Acts 21:13, we read,
Then Paul answered, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13).
If death was what Paul was called to, he was certainly willing to serve the Lord Jesus by dying. And in that willingness, he went to Jerusalem. But as it turned out, he didn’t go there to die. He was almost killed; but a commander of the Roman army rescued him and put him securely in the barracks to protect his life. It may have been a confusing and frightening time for him—a time of real uncertainty as to whether he would live or die. But it was then that we’re told in Acts 23:11;
But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome” (Acts 23:11).
As it turned out, learned that it was the Lord’s will that he live in the flesh and continue to serve—even by being sent to the cultural and political center of the world at that time. And until Paul got to Rome, he was virtually indestructible. Not even being lost at sea, or suffering a shipwreck against the rocks on an island, was able to prevent him from fulfilling God’s will for his life.
But in this Roman prison cell, he couldn’t decide which was better—to go to be with the Lord, which he admitted was much more excellent; or to live on and continue in fruitful service to the Lord. He knew about what either of those two experiences would mean for the glory of the Lord Jesus. But as it so happened, he didn’t have to choose between those two options. He had resolved to live for Christ in whichever way Christ called; and so he joyfully accepted whatever situation would bring the Lord the most glory.
And that leads us to …
2. PAUL’S JOYFUL CONFIDENCE (vv. 25-26).
In verses 25-26, he said; “And being confident of this” (the “this” being his resolve that to live was Christ and to die was gain), “I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.” Whether or not he actually came back to be with the Philippians in person isn’t told to us. There’s reason to believe that he was able to do so. But in any case, he remained in this world for another four years or so, and wrote, and preached, and blessed God’s people. We are blessed even today. What an example this is to us!
Suppose that—in a moment of deep devotion and piety—we prayed, “Lord Jesus; I love You so much I would do anything for You. I would even dare to die for You.” What if He then responded by asking us if we really meant that? Would we really do anything for Him? Would we truly even die for Him? We’d say, “Oh yes, Lord! I would do anything—even die for You!” And what if He asked again if we really meant that? Would we really do anything for Him … even up to the point of laying down our life for Him? We’d say, “Yes, Lord! Yes! Even up to the point of dying for you.” And what if He asked us again if we really, really meant that? Really? Anything? Up to the point of dying? We might say, “Oh yes; I . . . eh . . . Wait a minute. Just what are You getting at, Lord?” What if He asked if we really meant that, because He had certain things He wanted us to do that required that we go on ‘living’ in order to do them? Would we say, “Well; I was just thinking mostly of dying for You, Lord. I don’t know if I’m really ready to actually ‘do’ things. Can I find out what they are first?” If that were the case, then we would be saying that we’d be willing to glorify Him by our sacrifice in death … but not to glorify Him by our sacrifice in life. If we weren’t willing to live for Him, then it wouldn’t be certain we’d be willing to die for Him either.
Paul set an important example for us. He was so submitted to the Lord that he was prepared not only to allow Jesus to be glorified in him by death, but also to allow Him to be glorified by going on to live and serve His purposes—whatever that purpose might be. If we are genuinely prepared to die joyfully for our Savior, then we would be just as prepared to live joyfully for Him; and to do gladly for Him anything that He might call us to do short of dying. Are we so willing to die for Jesus that we’d be willing to also live for Him?
For Paul, to die in Christ was such “gain” that he was willing—just as sincerely—to also say, “For me, to live is Christ …!”
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It’s important to be able to answer the question, “What is your purpose for being alive?” For some, it’s a successful career. For some, it’s an adventurously active life. For some, it’s financial prosperity. For some, it’s fame. For some, it’s just a peaceful, quiet, unassuming life on earth. But there’s only one answer to that question that will also result in being able to say, “and to die is gain”. There’s really only one purpose for living that results in a joy that overcomes all circumstances.
Let’s make sure that, for us, the resolve to live for Christ means joyfully accepting whatever will bring Him the most glory in us—however He may choose to bring that glory about.
AE
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