As you think of the gospel as the good news, what are you thinking of?

Am I Conducting Myself in a Manner that is Worthy of the Good News of Christ?

Philippians 1:27-30

Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church

Please turn to Philippians 1:27-30. As we turn there, I want to comment on the fact that we all go through trials in life. The tests come, and sometimes they hurt so much that we want them to go away. We don't usually invite the tests to come. But they do. In respect to God's sovereign control over all things, the tests exist for bringing a desired outcome. God's desired outcome is that we are tested for good. Even, what the devil means for evil, God means for good. Sometimes we don't see it this way, but this is the way that God wants us to see it. When we think about Paul in his imprisonment, we think of a huge test. Paul is writing his Philippian letter from there. Paul launches the whole letter by glorifying God concerning his imprisonment and suffering. Paul understands. He knows that what the devil means for evil, God means for good. Paul sees the outcome that will come about. It is his deliverance from prison. Paul also sees it as a way that God has used to further the gospel. Paul also sees it as a way to bring boldness to other Christians. Further, Paul sees this as an opportunity to write this letter to Philippi, and now it has become Scripture forever. Paul didn't give up. Paul had that certain insight that we all need to have. Paul was always trying to conduct Himself in a manner that was worthy of the same good news of Christ that he was preaching. But Paul is not so much concerned about himself. Paul is concerned about the body. He wants others to have the mind of Christ. He wants others to abide in all the good parts of what we call the good news--the gospel. Christianity isn't easy, but nobody said that it would be. Christ said that it would not be easy. Paul has always said that it would not be easy. In fact, the tests of life are so hard, that unless Christ strengthens us to do so, we can not go on. It is only in Him that we can do all things, because He strengthens us to do them. Paul knows this, and Paul is experiencing it. He knows that the Philippians need to be built up in these important truths. Paul also knows that the Philippians need to be conducting themselves accordingly. You and I need to be built up in these important truths. We need to be conducting ourselves accordingly. Let us read Paul's words now, starting in verse 27. He says to the church at Philippi,

"27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the good news; 28 in no way alarmed by the opponents--which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that, from God. 29 Because to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me." Philippians 1:27-30

The theme of our sermon this morning is in the form of a question that we all need to continuously ask ourselves,

Am I Conducting Myself in a Manner that is Worthy of the Good News of Christ?
[prayer]

The theme question of our sermon is taken from the opening statement of our Scripture. There is a lot of doctrinal fiber in this one little section. But we need to recognize the essentials that are here. Those essentials are the doing side of our Christianity. The doing side of our Christianity permeates the passage to produce a powerful directive for living out the life of Christ that we have been given in Him. Notice Paul's concern,

"27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the good news;" Philippians 1:27

The mandate is clear. We, (as God's children) are to conduct ourselves in a certain Christian way. For the Philippians, the contrast was stark. You could easily tell the dividing line between them and the unsaved Jews. The unsaved Jews were also mixed in with the Gentile pagans. All those anti-Christ's, (who were typically at odds with one another), were united in one particular evil. They were joined in opposition to God and His called out and set apart people. All of us who are saved were called out and have been set apart by God. Once you were saved, you became so different that the unsaved became so different. The contrast is bigger than the way things appear sometimes. The primary separation occurs at a spiritual level. There is a separation that occurs at the mental level too. It is where we are discipled in the good news, and we have the mind of Christ. These are facts of the gospel. In our rescue, we have been supernaturally regenerated as a work of God. The Bible says that we are God's workmanship. We are created in Christ Jesus. We really are new creatures. All things really have become brand-new. In Colossians 1:13 we recognize that we have been transferred out of the domain of darkness and into a better Kingdom. It is called the Kingdom of God's dear Son. Christ is our King in His Kingdom. The Bible says that we are a holy nation. We are a royal priesthood, where (in our spiritual difference from the lost world), we have our citizenship somewhere else. We might appear to be Texans right now. We may be called Americans, but we are in another Kingdom all together. Keep this in mind, because when Paul says,

"... conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ,"

the Greek phrase that Paul uses that is translated in the NASB as conduct yourselves, literally means live-as-citizens. One Bible that I have--translates it as citizenize worthily. It is important to get the meaning of this word expressed in this manner because it keeps us in tune with the nuance of what Paul intends. Paul is literally saying,

Live-as-citizens in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ,

Citizenize worthily of the good news of Christ.

Now stay with me, because at this point, it might seem kind of possible that Paul is wanting the Philippians to be good citizens of the Roman empire, or the local community by living like godly people. But Paul is talking about the substance of the good news in Christ our heavenly King. We see this from the immediate context in connection with what Paul says in chapter 3. In chapter 3 Paul explains where our citizenship really is. Though we are here, Paul says,

"... our citizenship is in heaven." Philippians 3:20

The Kingdom of Christ is the kingdom we are born again to live in. Our citizenship really is in heaven. From your initial salvation, you grow as a heavenly citizen. What happens is that we grow in our Kingdom-thoughts and Kingdom-actions. We mature through the precepts and doctrines of the faith. It is the fruit of the Spirit and discipleship; and in God's kingdom, we never, ever, quit being disciples. We never quit growing. We are always learning how to citizenize worthily. I don't quit growing in Christ. I learn lessons. I learn more about the gospel, and I mature more and more all the time. This is the way it is for all of us. This is what Paul means in chapter 3 concerning trying to live right now as one who is already resurrected and living where His citizenship is from. Of course, actual death is going to release all of us to that place, to the greatest height of spiritual maturity in Christ that we can possibly imagine. But, the main point is that this foundational spiritual level is always there. As we grow, the mind of Christ becomes more of our mind as the various precepts build one upon another, and the facts of the good news of the faith of the gospel, become our way of thinking. This is why Paul ends his epistle to the Romans, by telling the saved people that Christ establishes them according to Paul's gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, in Romans 16:25. It is all the good news; and along with separation from the world that occurs while we citizenize worthily right now, there is also a kind of suffering that occurs. We suffer in this physical body, as Paul says. We are not of this world, though in it. Like fish struggling to live out of water, we are groaning in this world, in a sense, as we await our transformation into glory. There is also persecution that comes to us as we citizenize as heavenly beings among the lost cultures of the world. Persecution comes in varying degrees for different Christians. The Philippians are experiencing these things. Their living as citizens of heaven while on earth is the same conduct all of us must have. It is specific. No matter what we are going through, we are to be standing firm in one spirit together, with one mind together, striving together for the faith of the good news. All of this activity that I am talking about is love for God, love for the body of Christ, and love for God's truth. Pursuing all of this solid togetherness, striving together for the faith of the good news, is part of our growth. But notice why we are to be doing this. It is directly connected to conducting ourselves in such a manner that is worthy of the good news of Messiah who is the King of the kingdom of our citizenship. Now think about this: In the midst of the onslaught of simple daily living in a lost world, it is so easy for us to let Christians know that we are saved, isn't it? It is really easy to tell one another that we are Christians, but the piercing question is:

How are we conducting ourselves in respect to this good news that we so proudly profess to one another?

Do we proudly profess it to the same lost world that we get the onslaught of sin, sickness, and sorrow in spiritual attack?

Life hurts, and so recognizing the hurt, how are we acting in respect to God's way of living out our Christianity?

Whatever our answer is, God says,

"27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ, ..."

The reason why this word from the Lord is so important for us is because there are ways to avoid discomforts in life to some degree. One way is by the unworthy walk. We all know this, don't we? And so knowing this in our flesh, it is so easy to embrace this strategy for survival in the world. But you and I do not want to walk in a manner that is unworthy of the gospel of Christ. We do not want to fail the tests of love that occur in the body. We do not want to be known by our King as causing instability in division with other Christians. We know that double minded selfish distractions are not the way to go. We know that striving independently for worldly things is the unworthy walk and it leads nowhere. But when we look at the other side--(at the blessing walk of the godly man), we know that when we are standing firm in one spirit, we don't go back and forth from the world at one point (where we act so much like the baseness of the world culture that they can not recognize Christ in us) then we go back over to where we consider the spiritual realm of the church in the kingdom on our own terms. The continuous reminder that God is giving us to keep at the forefront is that there is a conflict of two spirits in divisiveness, so we must stand firm in oneness, with one mind. And that one mind is to be striving with one another as a special, valuable, important group of heavenly people who are passing through this world quickly, and while we are briefly touching it, we are contending for the faith of the good news. But there is more. We are also to be urging, and challenging one another to contend for the faith of the good news, and we should be praying for one another to be doing this. This is true nurture for the body that we are part of. This is really a very important exhortation for us. Paul repeated it from prison to the Ephesians,

"Therefore I, [Paul] the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:1-5

God is very concerned about us being united in living His Kingdom on earth. God's concern is also the same concern He wants you and I to have for one another. So here in our Philippians text, Paul says to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ, by standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the good news. In Ephesians Paul says to walk in a manner worthy of your calling--patiently being tolerant of one another and being diligent to preserve the unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace. That single mindedness is something that we all need to nurture every single moment as we work in togetherness in this world to contend for what Paul calls, the faith of the good news. Okay, when I say that, I think it is important to talk about this term that Paul uses in verse 27 I am meaning where Paul uses the term, the faith, when he talks about the faith of the good news. Notice that Paul does not say your faith. This is important. Paul does not say, our faith, Paul does not say my faith. Also notice that Paul does not merely refer to faith, by itself. Paul says the faith. Virtually every time the term, the faith, is used in the New Testament, the term refers to:

The Faith:
The doctrines and precepts of the sphere of Christianity.

The doctrines and precepts of the sphere of Christianity is all the good news that God has given us in His revelation of the New Covenant. The faith, (as the doctrines and precepts of the sphere of Christianity) is so vast that we never stop learning about all the many faceted elements of it all. But foundationally, our one spirit, and our one mind needs to be focused upon our position in Christ who is the New Covenant Lamb. The is the gemstone doctrine of the faith. We are in the One Who was crucified on the cross for our sins. We are in the resurrected and glorified Son of God. We live in Him. He lives in us, and is governing over us right now as our Lord and King of His Kingdom. It is His Kingdom that we are in, and the kingdom functions by the power of the Holy Spirit through the body of Christ--His church--of which we manifest the outworking of the Law of Christ in loving one another in our actions. When we are in the tests of life, this is where all the high grades are found. Powered by the Holy Spirit, you and I are the ones who do God's doctrines and precepts of the good news. What this means for me is that it is my personal responsibility to do all I can to be standing firm in one spirit with the rest of you. I need to do all I can to stand with one mind with the rest of you, striving together with all of us for the doctrines and precepts of the sphere of Christianity of God's good news. This means the same thing for you too. In Paul's case, what he is saying to the Philippians is that it does not matter whether he is absent, or whether he is with them--either way they should be conducting themselves this way. The worthy walk is supposed to be consistent. But there is more. Paul wants us to have confidence in spiritual courage as we walk according to the faith. We take this firm, united, one spirit, one mind, striving together, stand, being,

"28 in no way alarmed by the opponents--which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that, from God." Philippians 1:28

I think that this is very important--where Paul says that our firm, united stand in the midst of the unsaved world that is in opposition to Christ is an actual sign of our salvation. Think about this for a moment. The opposite of this implies another sign. It is the kind of sign that comes from people who are not saved. So, if our manner of walking as Christians is unstable, where we are disunited from other Christians as a consistent attribute, and yet we claim that we are saved, then we need to ask ourselves where this sign is that Paul says is a sign of salvation that others should see like a neon light in a dark world. There are people who think they are saved because they were born into a Christian home. People who are in cults, think they are saved, but they don't believe in the authentic faith of the good news. They believe in something else. There are people who think they are saved by their works. They do not think they are saved by the work of Christ alone. All such people are unsaved, but they may come into our midst and claim that they are connected to the body of Christ in salvation. Their sign is simply what they claim. Jehovah Witness cultists, and Mormon cultists do this all the time. One of the signs to look for to identify the authentic Christian to determine whether they are a true advocate, or an opponent, of the real Christ is whether the law of love for Christians and the real Christ is being manifested out of them. In 1 John, we find that loving the true brothers and sisters in Christ is a sign that identifies the true Christian. The opponents don't love true Christians. The opponents don't love our unity. They want to destroy the firm stance that true Christians take on solid doctrinal issues of the faith. They are divisive, and so they divide the one spirit, and they divide the one mind. Their actions and speech demonstrate that they are not striving together for the faith of the good news. In that same passage later in chapter 3, where Paul talks about our citizenship in heaven, Paul also talks about such people who walk the unworthy walk where they glory in their shame. He says that they are really enemies of Christ. So, when we check ourselves in this, we want to be fighting on the front lines as allies of Christ, and we want to be known as doing so. The worthy fight is the worthy walk. We know what God, our Commander, is telling us, (His true people): He is telling us that our alignment with the mind of Christ, and the way of Christ, has to do with where we put our minds in the first place. Are we citizenizing right here right now? That is the question. Paul says in Colossians to set your mind above in the heavenlies. Here in Philippians, in 3:19-23, Paul says that a walk that is unworthy of the gospel of Christ is represented by those,

"who set their minds on earthly things ..." in verse 19

yet,

"... our citizenship is in heaven ..." in verse 20.

Earthly things are the things that are all part of the lie that distracts us away from the heavenly vision of giving our utmost for His highest. For the Philippians, the assurance of their salvation, which enables them to view the opposition of apostate Jews, and pagan Gentiles without alarm, demonstrates that all those unsaved people among the area of Philippi who are hostile to the good news, are dead in their sins. It also proves so much more. It demonstrates that all the true Christians are supernaturally saved by a miracle, where God is the one Who has given the confidence. God gives us the ability folks. God is the one Who makes us true Christians to stand firm in one spirit as the body, with one mind in true Christianity, in striving in unison as a consistent attribute of the true Children of God for the faith of the good news. As it was in Philippi, it is always the same way for all Christians. But the thing that is here that I think we really need to get a solid grasp on, is where Paul says that what he is talking about concerning the good news, is that the good news is all New Covenant doctrine that is from God. We really need to understand this. The gospel is all of God's revelation concerning His Son, the plan concerning His Son, and life in the Son. Think about this, because the gospel is not just one little area (which is that Jesus died for your sins, so receive His sacrifice by grace through faith and you will be saved). That area is good news, and it is part of the good news, because the good news is all of the news that God gives us in the New Testament. But, I am wanting us to recognize there is much more, because this leads us to recognize something else about the good news. It is not something that people normally think of as good news, but it is. All the discomforting rejection of the good news, and all the irritating opposition to the true Christians, is also a doctrine and precept of Christianity that is actually from God too. Let me repeat that for clarity:

All the discomforting rejection of the good news, and all the irritating opposition to true Christians, is also a doctrine and precept of Christianity that is from God.

We absolutely must understand this vital point because this is what Paul is also talking about. To see what I mean, we need to understand that typically when we see something here like Paul making this statement and then ending it with,

"... and that, from God." Philippians 1:28

we would expect it to modify the words immediately coming before it. This is just a general rule in Greek. Okay, think about this, and stay with me. Paul makes a point, right? Hang on to every word as I read the point again. Remember, here is his point that he is urging,

"27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the good news; 28 in no way alarmed by the opponents--which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, ...

[Now notice that Paul ends the statement with]

... and that, from God." Philippians 1:27-28

Normally we would think that Paul is saying that what is from God is that

"... salvation for you, ..."

The Philippian Christian's salvation is what Paul mentions directly before saying, "and that, from God." This grouping of words is at the end of the flow of thought. There is a problem though. The problem is that in the Greek, the word for the pronoun, "that," is in something called the neuter gender. This is important, so try to stay with me. Being in the neuter gender, all this means is that the pronoun, "that," is a word that points back to something before it which should be something that is also in the neuter gender. But,

"... salvation for you, ..."

is not in the neuter gender. The salvation is in something called the feminine gender. This could be a problem if we are thinking that Paul must be talking about the immediate antecedent word, which is salvation for the true Christians, and because of this, we might want to say,

It certainly seems that Paul is saying that the salvation itself is what is from God.

Salvation is from God, but that is not what Paul's point is. But Paul is talking about something. What is it? Knowing about this general rule in Greek grammar, when we look back for the other word that has the neuter gender, we find what Paul is talking about. When we go back a few words to the word for gospel (the good news), we find Paul's word that has the neuter gender that connects with "... and that, from God. ...";

"27... conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ, ... standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the good news; 28 in no way alarmed by the opponents--which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that, from God." Philippians 1:27-28

Based upon this, along with the continuing contextual flow, Paul is more than likely saying that we Christians (which means all of us saved people) should conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news of Christ; which means we should be standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the doctrines and precepts of the realm of the good news, and that, from God, and that whole realm of the doctrines and precepts of the good news which is from God, entails as a matter of fact, a sign of destruction for the opponents, but of salvation for you.

So what is the big deal?

A) The big deal is that the whole spectrum of the good news encompasses the fact that the elect are saved out of the domain of darkness and transferred miraculously into the kingdom of God's beloved Son.

But the deal gets even bigger. Because with that being said,

B) this must necessarily include that within the good news those in opposition to Christ and His Kingdom will be cleansed away from the presence of the Lord forever--First the apostate Jews of that generation, plus unsaved pagans of that generation, and then those opponents of each subsequent generation.

In other words,

it is good news that those who oppose Christ and Christians will experience destruction,

as Paul says,

 

"9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power," 2 Thessalonians 1:9

And in Romans, Paul says that,

"on the day when, according to my good news, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus." Romans 2:16

So what all this means is that all of these things (facts concerning God's children, and facts concerning God's enemies) are precepts of the faith in respect to the good news of the Messianic Kingdom. And the fact that all that is from God demonstrates even further, that the saved Philippians were ordained to believe, and also ordained to suffer at the hands of the lost as part of the gospel. What Paul is doing is making a huge proclamation of God's sovereignty. God is completely in control in His plan. Folks, this is good news. And so this is why Paul immediately makes the explanation next in his flow of thought concerning what he means concerning the statement he just made, saying,

"29 Because ..."

[The Greek word, hoti, meaning Because, cf. YLT. So Paul is going to tell us why; He says,]

"Because to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me." Philippians 1:29-30

According to the flesh, this seems like it is bad news. But, according to God's eternal plan, this is good news. What I mean is that all of us who are made into new creations in Christ by God's sovereign hand have been treated in a particular way by God. The treatment I am talking about is demonstrated in the big sign. Instead of the sign of destruction of those who are in opposition, we saved people have been granted by God, for the sake of Christ, to believe in Christ. What this means is that the grant to savingly believe is a gift bestowed on the elect by our sovereign God and Great gift giver. This Greek word for grant here is also typically translated as given. But there is more. Along with this grant-gift, God has granted us something else according to His sovereign will. It has been granted for us to suffer as the children of God. This is a very difficult doctrinal fact of the faith of the good news for some Christians to come to grips with. In fact, in much of the contemporary church, you will find some Christians who wrongly deny both of these grants of the good news. They will even deny that this is supposed to be an aspect of the faith of the good news. In other words, there are Christians who wrongly do not acknowledge that belief is something that has been given, by God's sovereign hand, to certain people, for Christ's sake; and further, there are Christians who do not acknowledge that suffering has been granted to them from God for Christ's sake. They will say that they, instead, are the belief granters, who spontaneously generate personal belief (for some superior, mysteriously unexplainable reason that they do and others do not do), and then in a meritorious action that is a mixture of fulfilling a requirement to get into heaven, combined with personal altruism, they then grant belief back to God. It must be a superior reason because to not believe is an inferior reaction to God and His good news. Mysteriously unexplainable, because only certain people manifest the intelligence, skill, and humbleness, to make the superior decision of personally generating belief to grant to God for their own sake of getting saved. Similarly, some Christians will say that it is really the devil that granted suffering to them, and so they suffer for Christ because they have been granted suffering for the devil's sake, who it is suggested is the author and finisher of suffering for Christians. In this respect, they will say that God allows the Devil to afflict with the suffering, but that God would never predetermine it, nor grant it. But, on the other hand, there is the plain truth, which is that God is saying that both of these facts: the faith grant being from God, and the suffering grant being from God, (both for Christ's sake), is all part of the doctrines and precepts of the faith, and as such are part of the good news.

Now, in coming into this, we know that Paul is writing this to the Philippians, but the principle Paul is talking about is consistent and universal. Actually this is one of the most powerful verses in the Bible concerning God's sovereign choice in election. Further, it is a proclamation of the preserving work of God in us where we must, and will, necessarily persevere in our salvation. In other words, those who God wants to be saved, He will make saved, and He will keep saved forever. And so, as a first principle, this whole body of truth of God's good news is from God. Secondly, some things have been given to us who are God's people, but the grant is not primarily for us. The grant is from God, but it is primarily for Him. In other words, it is for Christ Who is God manifested in the flesh, where Paul says a little later that all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. What this means is that all that God grants us is ultimately for Christ's sake. The blessing we get is icing on the cake. Primarily the blessing is for Christ's sake. In other words, when Christ absorbed the wrath for people on the cross, the people, their names, their appointed times and seasons, were all known already at that very moment. Further, the wrath was really absorbed for them at that very moment. Some of those people were not born yet, but they were determined to be born, and so God knew who they would be. When Christ covered the sins for people on the cross, certain people really had their sins covered at that moment. When Christ paid the price for certain people on the cross, He actually purchased identifiable people at the time of purchase. All those people are all the people that He foreknew before the foundation of the world. All those people are all of the elect, and they are elect in the Son to be all of those things. It was granted to them out of God's own good pleasure and sovereign determination. At the proper time, they are manifested by their saving belief grant from God, which is miraculous belief that is demonstrated as enduring till the end. This is an essential element of the faith of the good news of Christ that is of God. But, Paul goes on with all of this, and Paul shows that when we suffer as Christians for being Christians specifically, this is also an element of the faith of the good news of Messiah. But notice the meat of this truth. God wants us to chew on it. He wants us to digest it. He wants this important aspect of the faith to become part of us. What I am talking about is the fact that it is not primarily for our sake that we suffer, but it is ultimately for our Christ's sake. In this way, God gets all the glory through His new creations who are the body of Christ. A question that we might ask at this point, is:

Why is one of the facts of the faith that Christians will suffer persecution?

The answer has to do with how Paul starts this section out. He wants the Philippian Christians to walk the worthy walk. Remember the question we need to ask ourselves?:

Am I conducting myself in a manner that is worthy of the good news of Christ?

Am I making it my ambition to walk the worthy walk?

Okay, think about all the multitudes of elements that comprise the various discipleship points in respect to the good news. All the points build upon each other to give us a picture of attaining the worthy walk. Some of them comprise the simple aspect of what is a sign of our salvation. Consider this one for a moment, where Paul instructs his true child in the faith, Timothy, saying,

"10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." 2 Timothy 3:10-12

Paul is talking about conduct that is worthy in respect to the good news of Christ in all of its comprehensive fullness. It is Paul's example, but notice the rule. "Indeed," means this is a pronounced (cut and dry) fact. All Christians who desire to live godly, (which is all Christians who desire to walk in a matter worthy of the gospel), will, as a matter, of surety, be persecuted. So, the bottom line for us to consider, is that God determined that this is life that goes with the life of salvation, and now God tells us that this is basic doctrine. Let me repeat this in different terms;

Experiencing persecution for Christ's sake is basic doctrine, which means that it is an aspect of good news though it may not feel like it.

We should never be deceived into thinking that salvation is the launching pad for everyone to get rich, filled, and wealthy, as if such natural ambitions are some sort of doctrinal guarantee of the good news, or that salvation is some sort of mere ticket into heaven later on, and so now we are granted to think like the world while we live in the world, where we are content to be ashamed of the more difficult aspects of the faith. We need to be reminded of these things. We all need to be urged to live worthily according to them. I need to be urged to live according to these things. When we are just operating in the daily grind, we can get really confused about the stress of life. What happens is that we get in low periods, and while we are low, we can get confused. Sometimes it can last for years. It is where God's children get spiritually beaten up and they are pleading with God to explain why things are happening the way things are happening. When we are confused, God wants us to immediately recognize one thing, and then try to rest in it. We need to start with recognizing God's sovereign hand in our lives. Then we need to tell Him that we know He has granted us the belief that we have. We may be confused by the hard hits, but we can thank Him for the gift of belief that saves us. And further, we need to recognize that it is also God who has granted us to suffer, and that it is all for Christ's sake. When we do this, the hurt does not go away, but the confusion has been replaced with the doctrines and precepts of the faith of the good news, and what that means is that we are confessing the truth that glorifies God. I remember years ago, I read a book that taught on our position in Christ. There was a chapter on how God molds us into the image of Christ through all our experiences--including suffering. I found some good principles in that book. But, I know that a lot of time, in our suffering that we go through, it is hard to imagine that the whole experience is meant to simply make us grow more into the fullness of the stature of Christ. I am not saying that to some degree all suffering does not do this. There is biblical proof for it at many levels--but I am saying that even when we suffer because of our desire to live godly in Christ, there is one reason for the suffering that we can always be assured of. It is part of the faith, which is of the good news. What I mean is that God grants the suffering to you and me, but God grants it to us for the sake of our precious Hero and Lord, Jesus Christ. God wants to glorify His Son through our suffering. He wants us to do this in a way that is very similar to glorifying His Son in granting us our belief in our salvation. We are the ones who get saved, but Christ is the One Who gets us. Further, He is the One Who gets the honor for it all for eternity. We are the ones who get persecuted, but Christ is the One Who gets persecution through us, the body of Christ. And since we will be living trophy testimonies forever, and ever, of what the church went through for Christ, in Christ, because of Christ, our circumstances will bring glory to Christ forever. We really need to see this, because we really are different. But, here is the substance of all that I am talking about. We are privileged to be persecuted for Christ, because in our persecution as the body of Christ, our intimate identification with Him spiritually means that He is the One being persecuted. Christ sees this as an element of the good news. Jesus said in His great illustration on the judgment and the Kingdom, concerning the way the unsaved treat His brothers,

"40 The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'" Matthew 25:40

This reflects to a degree our intimate connection to Christ as His body (cf. Acts 9:4). But there is more, because, in our suffering in this world in any way, we demonstrate that we are living in the midst of a cursed world because of the fall, and so our salvation rescue, (which is spiritual and eternal), will forever point back to all or our pain and suffering that we experienced here in this temporal existence. Remember, we citizenize right here right now, but we will live being resurrected and glorified forever after we die. This is salvation. But there is more; our own suffering now, will also point to Christ's suffering in the past that He accomplished for us, in great love, to redeem us from eternal suffering. And so Paul explains to the Philippians that he is talking about the grant that they hear to be in Paul at that time. The grant is what they saw in him when he was being beaten, rejected, persecuted, and imprisoned when he was in Philippi preaching the good news of Christ to them. And so yes it is good news, because it is all part of the great plan of all the details of the Messianic Kingdom, the body of Christ, and God's eternal will for His people in salvation from evil. And yes, it is also good news as part of the plan of all the details of the Kingdom, the body, and God's eternal will, that all opposition and evil will be done away with forever and ever.

I urge you to recognize the importance of being of one mind and one spirit. Be recognizing that we are all representatives of Christ. He made us this way by giving us the belief, and giving us the suffering we experience for Him. Let's always remind ourselves that doctrine matters. Not only does doctrine drive our actions, but the doctrines and precepts of the faith are the truth that God has revealed to us because He thinks we should know the truth. If there was no other reason to hunger for the truth than the fact that God wants us to have it and know it, then that reason is more than enough. My urging to us is that we be living as truth in the good news. Let's live in one spirit and one mind like we are the truth, and that our lives are God's good news. The world rejects God's sovereignty in all things. The world does not recognize that what happens now is for Christ's glory forever. Let's not do that. Let's keep our mind there recognizing that God has granted us a great privilege. Let us conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the good news by giving praise to God for granting us the faith and suffering for His sake, knowing that the destruction of the lost world which opposes Christ, and opposes us, is a sign of the glorious gospel, particularly our salvation. Amen