Philippians 1:20B-26 Part 2: Christ-bearers

Philippians 1:20B-26 Part 2: Christ-bearers

Having understood the proper view of life and death broadly, we need to apply it to our duty as people called out of the darkness. If you remember, for those who are outside of Christ, life is nothingness, followed by a greater and darker nothingness. For us life is Christ followed by more Christ.

1. 22-26: If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

I introduced this text by reminding you of the darkness of the world, and your Christian calling. The calling to be the light in the darkness. To be the bearers of all meaning, truth, hope, and love. To bear it on your backs as you march across the spiritual battlefield. To hold it high in the sight of all as a banner of the Lord’s Host. To wield it against the forces of darkness. To put it as a blade to the neck of the snake and to fight until the last trumpet sounds. We also discovered how in Christ, we have all meaning, truth, hope, and love, and that outside of Him is not one ounce of any of these. We are called to be Christ-bearers. The mission of each and every one of you is to show forth Christ to the world. To, as V. 20 says, “magnify” Him in our bodies. The word used is μεγαλυνω, meaning to enlarge, to magnify, to lengthen, to exalt, to display, etc. Make a note of that in your Bible if your translation doesn’t say that. That’s what you were called out here to do. To show forth Christ in your every thought, word, and deed.

Paul shows us what he’s applying his view of life and death to when he says “to live in the flesh”. Paul says that if he stays and lives that vocation it will be fruitful labor for him. It would be a good work indeed to continue on ministering to the faithful and witnessing to the lost would it not? But then he goes on and says, but that’s not what I would choose it if was only myself I was considering. You see, there are people among us and in other churches who see the Christian life and good works as something we do simply for the sake of bearing fruit because God commands it, they say. This very well may be from a good heart, a pious heart. It may be the case that they desire for all that they do to be rooted in the honor of God and in desiring the furthering of their Lord’s glory they seek obedience for the sake of obedience. But still, this is wrong. As far as we ourselves are concerned Paul says it is “far better” to depart and be with Christ than to stay for the sake of bearing fruit in labor. Why then does Paul stick around? For others. Why are Christians called to be the light of the world? Is it to give us a chance to bear fruit in good works? It’s for others. It’s in the showing of grace and mercy that God is most glorified. If you want to glorify God, seek not bare obedience, for you’ll never attain true obedience by your hands in this life, but seek mercy and grace. It’s in the receiving and replicating of the Father’s grace that we show ourselves vessels of mercy prepared for glory. It’s for others regarding their progress and joy in the faith. It is so that in Paul and in us, by our showing mercy and grace to others that they may have reason to glory in Christ. If it weren’t for others Paul surely wouldn’t choose to continue in his earthly life. Many in our time and in our nation decide to take their own lives. They do this because they can’t find a meaning for life or a reason to keep living it, they do it because the suffering in this life has become unbearable, and others avoid it because they fear that the alternative to life is far worse. When we think of ourselves only, life is not worth living and death is not worth dying. Some have counseled suicidal people along these lines and encouraged them to keep living for the sake of those they care about. This would be wise, if only they had anything to give others. If only they had Christ.

The hinge pin of Paul’s teaching here, as well as everywhere else, is Christ. He begins by saying that it is Christ who will be magnified in him and ends by reminding us that our faith, joy, and glory is all in Christ. If we then want to understand how Paul is going to be of use to others, we have to understand how Paul, as a Christian, relates to Christ. In Paul’s writings, no concept regarding our relation to Christ is more prevalent than that of union. Out of all of these texts, we need look no further than Galatians 2:20 for a perfectly applicable and potent treatment of union with Christ in our fleshly vocation. It reads; “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul’s being, in every aspect, is a result of faith is in Christ. What exactly, does it mean to be in Christ? It means that all that is Christ is ours. It means that in relation to God we are seen not as we are but as Christ is. It means that we put on Christ and in doing so we relate to everything outside of our self, both God and man, in and through Christ. In short, it means to be mediated by Christ.

The mediation of Christ is often understood just as something that exists between God and man on an individual, familial, ecclesiastical, and national level. But it also exists between man and man. Those who are in Christ are called to be the light of the world in Matthew 5:14, a term used of Christ in the opening verses of John’s gospel. How exactly did you think you were going to do that? Not by offering yourself, I hope. Not even your most gracious acts in this life make you worthy of the title “light of the world.” Brothers and sisters, you and I did not become good people at the moment of justification. No, but truly we are still to this day just as much sinners as we were before, yet counted by God as saints for the sake of Christ. We do not become good, much less do we become the light of the world. If we want to live out our vocation in the flesh, we will do it only by relating to men in and through Christ. Reflecting Him in our works of the law (loving our neighbor), and in doing so, bearing the image of God, bearing Christ. In St. Patrick’s famous prayer St. Patrick’s Breastplate there is a portion which speaks of union with Christ. It reads; “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise…” And following this lengthy outworking of union with Christ He then follows it with that which follows our union, a mediation of Christ in our relation to others; “Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”   In this we might say, to live is Christ, so that He might be magnified in our bodies both in life and in death. That’s what living out the law in our lives is. It’s to reflect God in our bodies, and Christ is the image of the invisible God. It is to show forth Christ. To love others is to live out the law in your life, and the only way to live out the law in your life is to be mediated by Christ in your relation to those people.

Being the light of the world doesn’t just mean being about Christ in your life, it means to really and truly be mediated by Christ. It means to reflect, magnify, display, and really communicate Him to the world.  If you have Christ, then in relation to others you have everything to offer. That’s your purpose. That’s your calling. You are Christ’s body. That’s not just a cute metaphor. Paul’s message is that in his body Christ is seen. Not only in his mouth by the words that he preaches. But in his tentmaking, in his giving of fair prices, in his service to the poor, in his witness to the lost. Friends, these are things that you can do. You can do these things any and every day. Though you can never obey any law of God without being condemned before it within yourself, when you in Christ live it out in your life He will shine through the work of your hands. You are His body. Move your feet, put your hands to work, and open your mouth to speak.

The way that a Christian should relate to another person is one that doesn’t show our sinful and ungodly selves, but ones that shows and replicates the love of the Father. The way a Christian should relate to others is as a little child imitating their father. It’s in and through Christ that God first showed us His love and His grace. And it’s in and through that same Christ that He enables us to go out and love others. It was through others, that Christ first related to you. And it is in you that others will first relate to Him.

But do we always properly relate to other men in and through Christ? No, sadly just as we do in our relation to God, we find our sinful hearts trying to have immediate relation to others. We do this anytime that we become prideful, jealous for own name, anxious about what others think of us, envious, greedy when we are hurt by what someone has done to us when we become angry that someone sinned against us, and even when we find that we’re angry with ourselves. Just as with our temptation to have an immediate relationship with God we find ourselves tempted to think that men have reason to find within themselves something worth liking, something worth committing to in covenant. We see ourselves as literally self-righteous. We in doing so either forget that we are fallen in the first place or we make ourselves our own savior. And we do this every day. When we try to do that, when we try to relate to either God or men immediately it is an attempt to forcibly take the place of Christ. The desire for immediate relation to God or to men is anti-Christ.

This complicated concept can be looked at from several different angles. One of which is a common phrase that was thrown around many youth groups during my childhood for comical effect. The phrase was “leave room for Jesus.” Generally used in reference to an unmarried couple it was misunderstood by some to mean that a couple should have a literal space between them in the proportions of a fully grown male. But in reality, a Christian couple should leave room for Jesus. Not to locally occupy a space of air between them, but a space between them for mediation. When an unmarried Christian couple has pre-marital sexual relations, they are throwing off Christ’s mediation and immediately, sinner to sinner, relating to one another. And what happens when two sinners immediately relate to one another? Sin, of course. For if all goodness is in Christ, and they operate outside of Him, they aren’t operating in goodness, are they? Yet, when we leave room for Him to mediate between us and our neighbor, we can then in our every thought, word, and deed reflect, magnify, glorify, and communicate Christ to those we come into relationship with. It’s in marriage, that we become one flesh, reaching an even greater union when mediated in and through Christ than we ever could with an immediate relationship outside of wedlock. The only way that we can penetrate the hearts of our brethren, our spouses, our children, and our neighbors, is in and through Christ who occupies that part of their being. A Christ-mediated relationship penetrates the heart. Yet, an immediate relationship no matter how we might view it is malicious, violent, and selfish. It is a negative relationship. Surely, you’ve heard another phrase that relates to this glorious concept of Christ mediated relationships; the one that says that a certain loved one of yours who have passed away will live on in your heart. In an immediate relationship, this is impossible. Not only are we by sin cut off from God, but we are also cut off from one another and isolated both in life and in death. Both of these phrases communicate the same concept from different angles. We are by nature at war with both God and our neighbor. We not only need reconciliation with God through Christ, but we need just as much a reconciliation through Christ between men. And true reconciliation can only occur at the heart level; the level of union, of permeation, in and through Christ. Your relatives of flesh and of the spirit who die in the Lord are hid in Christ, who lives in your heart, and in Him and through Him, they are truly with you always in that common union, not only covenantally, but really and truly in and through Christ. Christ is the only reconciler of God and man, and of man and man. He is the only true mediator between the self and the other.

What this means and how its all tied together is found by connecting all that Paul says to its root – Christ. In V. 24 he says that it is more “necessary” for the Philippians that he stay around and “magnify Christ in his body” (V. 20). Paul says in V. 1 that he was writing this letter to the saints in Christ at Philippi. So, the necessity being spoken of is not an initial conversion of people outside of Christ. Still, he calls the result of his staying a necessity greater than his desire to depart and be with Christ in heaven. V. 25 calls the result of his staying progress and joy in their faith and V. 26 calls it; “ample reason for them to glory in Christ.” So, what exactly is it that Paul is going to give them by staying? In staying he is giving them Christ. Faith we know is only to be founded upon Christ and joy is a fruit and result of salvation. What Paul gave them in his staying was salvation, was spiritual maturity, was joy, was light, was guidance, was wisdom, was mercy, was glory, all of this was given in and through Christ who holds all good things. In his body he doesn’t show forth teaching for teaching sake, he shows forth Christ in all that he does, to grant mercy and grace to others. This result of staying in this life isn’t unique to Paul. It wasn’t necessary to the church in Philippi because he was an apostle. It was necessary not because he communicated himself but because he communicated Christ. You are called to that same vocation. Will you rise up and answer that call? Are you willing to be fully eclipsed by Christ? When you speak, who do you want to be heard? When you are seen, who is on display? What do you want to be known for? What are you known for right now? Is it Christ? What it means to relate to others only in and through Christ goes beyond an honest and godly living out of the law. It is to be ever speaking of, ever thinking of, and ever devoted to – Christ.

To live is Christ, that’s the only reason. And so, in our lives, let us reflect only and forever the ever-glorious and most high Lord of all; the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who for your sake, being God yet became man. Yet became a swaddling babe. A child, dependent on others to show Him grace. He lowered and subjected Himself to the law. And being obedient to the law was yet put to death for your sins. He who knew no sin, for you was made sin. For you, He was scourged and beaten, hung on a tree even until death. For you, He suffered eternal hell. And in this, you are crucified with Christ. And not you, but Christ lives in you. The life which you live from now forward is a life of faith in the vicarious satisfaction of Christ’s work on the cross, who loved you and gave Himself for you. (Gal 2:20). For the forgiveness of your sins. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation! For Christ to live in you, is for you to live for others. Now go, and having understood what it means to live, go and live, in the name of Christ all your sins are forgiven.