Philippians - Lesson 7

I. Paul & Narrative Structure

Well, we come to the end of chapter 1, but we don't want to hurry through these several verses. They are so important for understanding the situation that Paul faces in his context, but also, he connects it here to the Philippians' own context. Paul talks here about the Philippians' own situation as it relates to, or is analogous to, Paul's own situation.

And as we dive in, I want to take a moment to reflect on Paul and narrative. Paul telling stories—we could ask ourselves, like, is there a story in here? Now, I know that Paul is writing a letter and we tend to think that the only stories in the New Testament happen in the Gospels. But there's been work done on Paul as a storyteller. When you think about narrative in its simplest form, you think about two events that are connected by time; they're related by time and usually a second relationship like cause. So, you have two events connected by time and one other thing, often cause. In Paul's letters, there are narratives, there are stories, but they're not like the story we see in the Gospels, right? They're short, sometimes cryptic for Paul, because he's writing letters. He doesn't have to fill out a context to people because the people he's writing to have such shared knowledge with Paul.

But Paul can also offer—and I think we saw this in our previous lesson—Paul can also offer what we could call, or what Christoph Heilig calls, implicit narratives. Those are narratives that we lift up from the hints that we find in the letters. Paul also gives, and we'll definitely see this in chapter 2, what Heilig calls "anti-narratives." That is kind of a supposed narrative that if you did the wrong thing, this is how it would turn out. Something that hasn't happened, and usually Paul doesn't want to have happen. So, it's a warning narrative, if you will. And then Paul also gives what we could call "proto-narratives." These are narratives about what will happen. And so, knowing what will happen, how are we to act today? So, I think Heilig is moving the research on Paul and narrative forward as he breaks down narrative to its simplest form and then looks at Paul telling the story of the faith in his letters.

The benefit of recognizing narrative in Paul is that we recognize yet again that Paul is not, in his letters, giving some abstract system of doctrine. He's showing us how to live, how the gospel affects our life now, preparing us for the future. The other thing that recognizing narrative does for us, I think, is it reminds us—I'll put it this way—it reminds us that Paul is dealing with real situations in his readers' lives, and he's able to connect that through story to the character of God, to God's redemptive plan. I think more and more people today recognize that we know things, even cognitively we know them, as they form stories connected with us in our lives. We don't just learn facts; we put facts together in a way that has meaning.

II. Public Witness & Worthy Conduct

So in our passage today, we'll be starting at verse 27 of chapter 1 and go to the end of the chapter there in verse 30. But we find in verse 29 that Paul will give us a short little narrative, right? Not only, but also—not only to believe, but also to suffer. This implies time, which is a part of understanding what a narrative is. And you have an event, grace, and you have an event, suffering, connected by time. So that is one example. We'll see some other examples in chapter 2.

We also don't want to forget that sometimes Paul will pull a narrative out of Jewish history, out of the Old Testament. We already saw that in our previous lesson, as Paul talks about and references Job, in this case, Job 13, "This will turn out for my deliverance." And we will see it in chapter 2, when Paul will talk about certain Old Testament events from Exodus and Numbers and Daniel. But that's for a later lesson. Think story, think narrative now, as we enter into this passage, verses 27 through 30 of chapter 1.

It starts with a verb that Paul doesn't use anywhere else in his letters, and we also have an important term: "worthy." So we are going to look at both of those. The translation "conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel" is one way of translating this text. "Worthy" or "worthily" sets the standard for how believers are to implement Paul's request. Asking that they act in a worthy manner is indicative of Paul's recognition that the Christian life is a public life. I don't think Paul could ever even imagine a private Christian. I don't even know what that would mean to him. For him, our Christian life is a public life; it's a life of testimony. Hopefully, it's a good testimony to the Lord.

But the verb that we have here—that verb has created numerous interpretations because Paul doesn't use it elsewhere, and it's not easy to interpret. Not because it's a rare verb outside of Paul necessarily, but because there are really two basic but different ways of understanding it. You probably could tell from the verb that its root is the noun polis, which means city. So it's in some way connected with how one lives in community. The verb is thinking about someone's action—how one plays a part or plays their role in the community. The verb is used by Luke in Acts chapter 23 verse 1, where Paul says, "I've lived my life." That's one translation of that. So it has to do with living your life, and you're doing it in the community; other people can see you.

There's a second related term. It's a noun that Paul will use in chapter 3, verse 20, when Paul will talk about—sometimes it's translated as "citizen." Again, you find this root, polis, city, that is a part of this verb and noun. So, two basic theories to look at what Paul is getting at. What's the nuance of this verb here in verse 27? It either has Roman political overtones, or Paul uses this verb with a more Jewish context, like a religious identity within the scope of the verb's meaning—the Jewish community, religious identity or Roman political overtones.

III. Roman Context vs. Jewish Context

So let's look first at the Roman political overtones. The argument here is that Paul wants to emphasize a civic or politically attuned identity message to the Philippians. A lot of times when Paul wants to say live a certain way, he will use a verb "to walk"—walk in a manner that's worthy of your calling. That's the language he'd use to the Ephesians. So why doesn't he use that here? Why use this particular term that can have these strong Roman political overtones? Well, remember, Philippi is a Roman colony. The citizens in Philippi have rights that are the same as cities on Italian soil. The context of this passage is an antagonism by the civic authorities, so the town council against Christians. So we know that there are political actors like Roman political officials that are in some way involved in this passage and this situation that Paul is identifying.

So some people will argue that when we hear this word, when Paul uses this verb addressing the Philippians, he wants them to make a contrast between how even they used to live as Gentile pagans here in Philippi, having their identity formed by the values of the Roman colony, and switch their values and their actions to a gospel-centered way of life. So that's one way of looking at it.

But there are others who say, "No, what Paul wants to draw on is a Jewish way of understanding this term. This term, this verb, is used by Jewish authors to describe how you should live in the Diaspora, in cities that are not in Judea and Galilee." So, for example, Josephus, who is a Jewish historian who lived in the last quarter of the 1st century, uses this verb to talk about his life as a Pharisee. Second, we also have in other places in the New Testament, for example, in Hebrews chapter 11, this vision of the community of believers that they're living in a city made by God. So it rings true for those Jews who are following Jesus that the goal is to live appropriately in a city—in this case, the hope of living in a city made by God. So the argument is, when we think about it in the Jewish context, it is to connect it with chapter 3, verse 20, where Paul uses that noun, which was often translated as "citizenship," trying to shape the Philippians' imagination that these believers are citizens of heaven, and that that is a much more Jewish understanding there.

I will suggest when we get there to chapter 3 that these enemies of the cross, as Paul describes them, are Jewish Christ-followers who are not following the Gospel message correctly. And so the context in chapter 3 then would be much more located in the Jewish world of argumentation. So what do we do? Which theory is Paul primarily drawing on—the Roman political backdrop, or is he drawing on the Jewish Diaspora and eschatological backdrop? We complicate it even more because I am going to argue that the opponents in chapter 1 and the enemies of chapter 3 are, although not the same themselves, Paul calls for the same response, even though they are different groups. That is standing fast. In all of this, I will suggest that Paul's verb here in chapter 1 is rooted in a Jewish context overall, a Jewish eschatological context; he's imagining the people of God here. But he knows that the Philippians will also be thinking of their context in Philippi as a Roman colony.

IV. Standing Firm in the Face of Opposition

So we're to do something in a worthy manner. But what are we supposed to do? And that's where we get into looking at the verb that Paul uses here. He doesn't use it anywhere else in his work, and the verb itself contains as a root the word for city, or polis. And so we're wondering, okay, what does Paul mean here? Now, some translations will say things like "conduct yourself in a manner that is worthy of the gospel," but other translations will say "conduct yourself in a way worthy as citizens," and they'll add this word "citizen." And you wonder, "Well, where is that coming from?" It's coming from this verb and the overall context of this verb, which includes the word polis, from which we get the word city. So we have to think about why would Paul use this verb, and then what is he nuancing here? And there are really two choices: either he's calling to mind the Philippian reality that Philippi is a Roman colony, or he's calling to mind the Jewish idea that they are a group dedicated to God.

We find in the letter to the Philippians, not only this particular verb, but later in chapter 3, Paul will use a related noun that also carries connotations of citizenship. This is in chapter 3, verse 20. And so people point to both of these terms and they make the argument that Paul is drawing on the Roman political reality that the Philippians live in. He knows that they'll be thinking, "Oh, I'm in a Roman colony right now." And so Paul is making a contrast between the values, the virtues, the way of life that Romans foster versus the way of the gospel. And he wants them to walk in the way of the gospel, not as the Romans do—not with emphasis on social hierarchy, valuing people based on social worth, honoring the emperor, and following the "more is more" that the Romans push—but rather self-sacrifice on behalf of others that is appropriate for those who follow the Gospel.

But there are others who say that Paul actually is drawing on a rich Jewish history here, using this verb to describe their lives. In one case, a famous Jewish historian, Josephus, who lived in the last quarter of the 1st century, uses this verb as he talks about his life as a Pharisee. So the idea that one could think of themselves as a unit, a commonwealth, is both a Roman and a Jewish idea. So how might we make this decision? Where is Paul going in this? Which theory works best? I think if we return to make our decision, we return to what Paul's overall focus is, and that might help us make a determination. Paul is committed to the idea of the Kingdom of God, and he talks about how this kingdom will be established—that Christ as Savior will establish it, will come back, and transform us. So whatever this picture is that Paul is presenting here in chapter one, verse 27, it carries with it an eschatological future. What we do now, what counts as worthy now, is related to what is to come—this Kingdom of Christ that will be established. So Paul has this kingdom focus. And I would say probably, then, I would lean towards this Jewish notion of community, a commonwealth of like-minded followers of God.

However, I think it is also the case Paul had to know that this language would be in direct conflict, if you will, with the Roman political authorities, which are the focus in this passage—those who are opposing you, those who are causing you to struggle. In other words, these opponents are the officials. I don't know how far up the line, how big of a problem this might have been in the eyes of the Romans who are running the colony, but at least they're on the radar of some of these leaders. Paul recognizes that they are these Gentile leaders, but he is wanting the Philippians always, through the whole four chapters, to continue to renew their mind on who they are in Christ. These leaders here in chapter 1 are likely town officials; in chapter 3, where the noun is used, they're likely Jewish opponents. And yet the same prescription is offered by Paul. Both groups must be strongly resisted because both groups, in their individual ways, represent the present age with the values of the present age. But as believers, we look to the new age, to the reign of God in Christ.

So Paul says we stand firm. His injunction is that you stand firm. Chapter 1:27, "Stand firm in the spirit," in one spirit. I don't know if Paul imagines here a static pose like, you know, if you stand at the seashore, you walk into the waves and all of a sudden you experience a high wave or strong winds, but you just stand there; all you're doing is trying to stay steady. Or does Paul imagine when he says this to "stand fast" that he means a little bit more of an active posture, meeting the enemy in battle? I don't know. Maybe to split the difference, could we imagine Paul saying plant your feet steady, but you're on the deck of a rolling ship? So you are constantly moving and adjusting to the waves that move the bottom of the ship. The believer doesn't know whether they face calm seas today or very rough seas, but they're planted firm. They're able to move and adjust as the situation warrants. The security, of course, is that the believers are tightly held in the Spirit's grip. So they stand firm, but they are also standing firm together; each is helping the other.

V. Theology of Christian Suffering

This struggle, the standing firm that Paul speaks of here, includes—and this is in verse 30—a term that refers to an athletic contest or a gladiatorial contest. It can mean in the philosophical texts a striving against your passions. So we see in verse 30, "You're going through the same struggle that you saw that I had." These situations that the Philippians face are matching Paul's struggle. And what is his struggle? Well, he's currently in chains in prison, but he sees a great advance of the gospel. So these struggles are related to the gospel. They're not just regular struggles that all humans have, because that's life in our broken, fragile world, but these are struggles that are related to the testimony of the gospel. They come from the civic Roman community in some way, and they are in some way similar to what Paul is going through. And so these believers are told, stand firm. Stand fast, stand together in this, and do not fear.

That's an interesting call, although we find God often saying, "Do not be afraid." This is all over the Old Testament and we're enjoined in the New Testament as well. Deliverance will come from God, but the lack of fear here does something even more, because the Philippians show a fearless stance to the civic authorities. Their stance actually signals the ultimate overthrow of the rejection of the gospel, which these Roman authorities are representing. Let me say it again. The Philippians are called to not be fearful. Don't be afraid. And it's not just so that they feel better or that Paul is just saying, you know, "We've got this, Christ has got this," kind of encouraging them. It is that, but it's even more. Their lack of fear testifies to their absolute confidence in what God will do. And as their antagonists, as their opponents are attacking their faith, are challenging their faith, are making things harder for them because of their faith—when they see that the believers are not afraid, Paul says that shows, that's evidence that shows that the opponents are wrong, that the opponents are on the losing side.

The guilt of the oppressors is displayed in the persecution of the righteous. As the righteous show no fear, but total confidence in God, the oppressors' ultimate destruction is even more assured; it becomes even more evident. Paul says that there's a sign when you show no fear, when you're not frightened by them: that is a sign to them that they will be destroyed. And so this posture of faithfulness that Paul calls on the Philippians to model is a public witness to the truth of the Gospel. As they stand without fear, perhaps some who are not their opponents, but just their neighbors, as they look on, might be curious about this faith. But the opponents, in seeing their confidence, Paul says, confirms to the opponents that what they are opposing is actually correct and right, and it's their position that will be defeated and destroyed.

Paul goes on to say here to the Philippian believers that they're called to do two things as they stand fast, as maybe the ship rolls, as they stand without fear. Even amidst the attack, Paul says all of this is expected because you were called to believe and to suffer. Paul says to the Philippians they are called not only to believe, but also to suffer. It's an incredibly important summary of the gospel. It shows us the reality and permanence and solid rock of our forgiveness of sins through Christ's death and resurrection, but it also indicates that our salvation establishes us in the family of God, God our Father, and this family life will include suffering because of our testimony. And so Paul is reassuring the Philippians here that this suffering is testimony to Christ's work on the cross. This suffering is in a way similar to that, and thus is redemptive. This suffering is an indication of the end of this current evil age, this age that is marked by oppression and evil and sin.

The term "to suffer," the verb that Paul uses here, this noun that is similar to the verb, is the term from which we get the word Passover. And I think that might help us visually kind of make a connection, make the connection that Paul is pointing to here. In 1 Corinthians, as Paul writes to the Corinthians in chapter 5:7, Paul describes Jesus as the Passover Lamb. And we know from John's Gospel, John the Baptist, when he sees Jesus, he declares, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." And so by Paul using this term, when he says that you're called not only to believe, but also to suffer, he's calling up this rich imagery of Jesus, our Passover Lamb. It frames suffering as so intimately connected with the Lord's suffering. And we'll see that as well in chapter 2, when Paul describes Jesus' suffering.

Paul will also use this phrase in chapter 3, verse 10—a related phrase, related term—when he talks about wanting to participate not only in the resurrection, but participate in the suffering of Christ. We'll get into that later as we look at chapter 3. But what I want you to see here is that in chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, the theme of suffering is clearly woven through, but it's a particular suffering. It's a suffering that imitates Christ and it's related to the gospel. I can't help but think of Romans 8:18, where Paul says that our current circumstances of suffering are going to seem like a mere speck on the screen, a momentary inconvenience compared to the all-surpassing greatness that we will enjoy in the new heavens and the new earth through grace by faith in Christ.

When Paul uses this language of suffering, how did his audience understand it? For the Jewish believers, I think they could pull on the rich history of Passover and the traditions of the Jews. But what about these Gentiles? They would have been raised to think of suffering as related to fate—deterministic, gods manipulating things. And so their answer to suffering was either to kind of redefine things as though the goal is to be free from all passions. We get the word "apathy" from it, although we changed the meaning a little bit from the ancient world, but this idea that nothing will affect me and my passions; everything is unessential to me. That's one way to face suffering: just kind of say it doesn't matter. It's not easy to do. The Stoics had their own theory around how one could practice that. But others, rather than follow the Stoic path to try and deal with suffering, others would use charms, magic spells, try to ward off these evil spirits. And they were frightened of the potential for fate or some god or goddess to be displeased and go after them.

Paul says in this, when he tells the Philippians, "You've been called not only to believe, but also to suffer," he's reframing what suffering means so that they understand it's part of God's redemptive plan that will make all things right on the Day of Christ, so that they don't lose heart, so that they don't fall into trying to use magic or throw up their hands in, you know, just like we might say, "throwing in the towel"—it's all fate. The Christian today might be tempted, even like just for fun, to say, "Oh, let me read my horoscope." And I would say that we should be very careful not to draw on anything that is of this deterministic, fate-based, not faith-based—fate-based posture. The world is not determined by forces that can be manipulated and controlled. The world is ruled by the one true God who loves us, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is in us and guides us.

The Philippians, like Paul, are suffering for the testimony of the gospel. How might they be suffering? Well, if they're members of a guild—which a lot of them were in the ancient world, you had trade guilds, metalworkers, fabric workers, that kind of thing. These guilds would kind of run the organization of all these various sort of independent contractors, using modern language here. But they're craftsmen who would be part of the guilds, and these guilds would have both human patrons that would donate, sometimes for an annual meal, maybe would donate some money to have a proper burial of one of their members, but there was also a god or a goddess that was honored. Well, if you have this new believer who is a member of a guild, and they go to the annual dinner, and they're expected to offer a libation to the pagan god, they can't now. Well, it could lead to the expulsion from the guild, which may effectively end their employment possibilities. Is there some real suffering that is possible for these Philippians based on their testimony? Not necessarily that they'd be put in jail or arrested as Paul is, but by analogy, unable to do the work, care for their family.

And Paul says, "Let's live worthy in the midst of all of this—live worthy as those who are members of a group, a people who are in Christ and who await this heavenly reality that will happen when our Savior returns." Salvation, as Paul sees it, is not only forgiveness of sin, but it's the creation of a new being, one who is in Christ themselves and part of a community that is in Christ. I think of it as maybe—an analogy would be marriage, that you have this moment, this wedding day where you effectively become a new person; you're now spoused with another. But then you have the actual marriage, living out those vows. And I think that it's a limited analogy, but that may help us to see what Paul is getting at: to believe and also to suffer. Although I'm not saying that marriage is all about suffering, let me be clear. This is a limited analogy, but talking about to believe where it can be a moment, but then to suffer and experience the joy—because Paul is definitely joyful, joy-filled as he's there in prison, right? It's that life, the beginning of it, and then the life of it that Paul is establishing here for the Philippians.

VI. Divine Grace & Habitual Faithfulness

Well, I'm going to ask one more question. What if you don't walk in a manner worthy? What if you don't live the way that Paul asks, you don't conduct yourselves properly for this? I might call to mind Peter's experience with Jesus Christ. Peter denied the Lord as Jesus was going to the cross. And what happened after that? Well, Jesus sought out Peter. And so we can be sure that God will always, always seek us out, ready to forgive. Christ sought Peter; he didn't wait for Peter to act. He reached out. So walking in a worthy manner does not mean walking sinlessly; it means walking forward in Christ. Paul will say in chapter 3 that he forgets what's in the past and he strains forward. That's the model here—not always being perfect each and every day, perfect in the sense of sinless.

Matthew in chapter 25 gives this teaching of Jesus where he commends those who have fed him, clothed him, visited him in prison. And the believers say—and this is eschatological, so Jesus is describing this, and they say—"but we didn't realize we were feeding you. When did we, when did we do that?" And Christ responds that when you care for those in need, you're caring for him. Their hearts were so attuned to God's wavelength, they were so filled with Christ's compassion and love, that they just naturally acted towards others as though the Lord would also have acted that way. And it was organic; it was how they responded in a way that showed they're living in a worthy manner. So that's a positive example from the Gospels that also might help us understand God's total forgiveness when we're not acting in a worthy way, and also how by continuing to act in a worthy way, it becomes a reflex, it becomes our disposition. And that's the goal that we have, that's the goal that Paul has for the Philippians—that they continue in that faithful living, looking for ways to be compassionate and loving and caring to their group and preaching the Gospel beyond.

VII. Countering Prosperity Theology

How would you respond to someone who goes to one of these rather well-known churches where the preacher says that all suffering is a result of sin and God wants you to flourish, and that means there's no suffering at all? Other than simply quoting the Bible to them, how would you help someone understand? Like when Paul tells Timothy that everyone who seeks to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted, will suffer—how do you deal with these people? There are people that live near where we are that are hearing this and they're devastated when their lives don't flourish.

Yeah, when we think about, when we try to understand God's working in our lives and working around us, we can think of Jesus' promise: "Take up my yoke, it's easy, my burden is light. I've come that you may have life and have it abundantly." And when we read that, we define those adjectives like "abundantly," or adverbs, as the world does. Abundantly means I have stuff, it means I'm healthy, it means I get my job promotion, it means my kids are never sick. So we fill in these words like "abundantly" or "my burden is light," and we define them in modern terms with a worldly perspective. But that's not how Jesus meant these words; it's not what Paul talks about when he describes the hardships that he has. He recognizes the power that is present in the—no, so I would say, first of all, be very careful how you understand terms like "abundant," because it's not more stuff and it's not health, it's not happiness. All of those things are so limited to something present or they're contingent on something else. What God talks about, and what Jesus would say, life abundant is life that is eternal, that life that is rooted in things that will never be weakened.

Let's say, secondly, there is a very important revelation that Paul has. He talks about it in 2 Corinthians 12, where he is in a struggle—we don't know what it is, he calls it a "thorn in the flesh," but we don't really know what that is, and it doesn't really matter what it is. The conclusion is what is important. God says to Paul, "Your ministry will flourish; you will be able to do your ministry only in my strength. It's my power that goes through you." So Paul says, "I'm weak, I'm frail, I'm mortal, I'm flesh. I need to sleep, I need to eat. You know, I am human, and being human means being finite. I'm not infinite, and I need to embrace that." God says that when I do, then his power in me is released, and I see God working around me. So that's another point we want to keep in mind when we think about suffering. Often we miss that this is an opportunity for us to say, "Whoa, I'm weak here. Oh, this is me being finite. I'm clinging to something that I need to let go of so that God's power is released," because it always comes back to God.

Then, finally, there are those who say, "Boy, if there's something wrong in your life, if you've had a serious diagnosis or your relationships aren't thriving, you know, your kids didn't turn out the way you hoped," all these really important things that somehow are supposed to be in our control, and when they go bad, we think, "Well, then we must have done something wrong to have these things happen." But that conclusion is based on a false premise. First of all, this world is broken. It is, as Paul calls it in Galatians, the present evil age; as he says in Ephesians, it's ruled by the powers and principalities of the air. There is evil around us that will exist until Christ returns. So we have to account for these kind of random bad things that happen; that's part of the fractures of this world right now.

And the book of Job, if it shows us anything, it shows us that maintaining confidence and faith in the goodness of God despite the problems and the unfairness that seems to happen—coming to God repeatedly, the Psalms do this as well, and saying, "God, what's going on?"—is the proper posture to have, because God is always able to answer. And as we saw with the Philippians right here, standing fast, standing firm against an evil assault is testimony that the oppressors will be destroyed, in the same way that Job's testimony and steadfastness proved Satan to be a liar. And so it's very important to think deeply and rightly about suffering. There are a lot of bad ways to think about it, a lot of wrong ways to think about it. But to remember that our suffering for Christ is rooted in Jesus as our Paschal Lamb, who suffered on our behalf for our salvation, and that our faithfulness in the midst of this suffering shows the world the truth of our testimony. And our testimony will be vindicated in the end when Christ our Savior returns and we are transformed into our new heavenly bodies and Christ's righteous reign is established. Those things we want to—those right things we want to keep in mind when we face, as we will face, sufferings, and our friends and family will face sufferings of all kinds. God has made a way in Christ for our good.