I don’t know a whole lot about advertising, but I know that when a movie studio wants to promote a movie, they usually come up with some sort of tagline to use on posters and in commercials. The tagline might be an important quote from the movie or some kind of hint about the plot, but whatever they choose, they try to choose a tagline that will capture the main message or story of the film. You might remember what movie these famous taglines are attached to:
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away”—Star Wars
“Every man dies, not every man really lives”—Braveheart
“Collide with destiny”—Titanic
I want you to ponder something for just a moment: if someone were to make a movie about your life, what would the tagline be? How would the producers summarize your life in one short statement? Would it be something like—“The Life of Bob Smith: One man’s quest to eat at every truck stop in America.” Would it be something funny? Something sad? Something serious? What would you want it to be?
In our study in the book of Philippians today, I believe we are going to see the tagline of the Apostle Paul’s life. He got to write his own tagline, and his tagline gives us a clear insight into the way that a Christian is supposed to view all of life. What I hope you’ll see in this passage of Scripture today is this:
Whether we live or die, it’s all about Christ!
Turn with me if you would please to Philippians 1. As we look at these verses, you’ll hopefully remember that Paul was in prison at the time that he wrote this letter. He is going to write about life and death here because he was in a situation that was literally a matter of life and death. He was awaiting a hearing before Caesar himself regarding some trumped-up charges, but the charges were serious enough that Paul could be given a sentence of death. So in these verses, Paul is going to analyze the options of life or death and show us how we should look at such serious matters. Follow along with me as I read the last half of v. 18 through v. 26 [READ vv. 18b–26]
We can see that Paul is ready to live or die, and he actually sees advantages in both, but as long as he still lives we see that he wants to live in a certain way. Let’s look at three goals that he has for himself, goals which we should adopt for ourselves.
I. We can live without putting Christ to shame by praying for each other (1:18b–20)
Paul had just written that he rejoices over the preaching of the gospel, whether its done with pure motives or sinful motives, and now he continues by saying [READ vv. 18b–20]. Let me point out a helpful Bible study tip that will help us understand what Paul is saying here. In v. 19 he writes, “for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance.” Now we know that the word “deliverance” tells us that Paul is thinking about some kind of danger or trouble, so we need to answer the question, “deliverance from what?”
Now our first thought might be that Paul is talking about deliverance from prison, because he talks about that just a few verses later in verses 25–26. But grammatically, this statement is connected to the idea in v. 20 of Paul being put to shame. He feels that he needs to be delivered from the danger of being put to shame, and its not that he’s worried about his reputation or anything like that—rather, he is worried about Jesus’ reputation. He is probably thinking about his hearing before Caesar, and as Paul says, he wants to exalt Christ with all boldness.
He wants to be a good witness for Christ and not be put to shame, because that would bring shame upon Christ, and Paul sees the idea of bringing shame upon Christ as a danger from which he needs to be delivered, and that is a very interesting perspective. Here is Paul in a situation where he really could lose his life, and his biggest concern is making sure that he doesn’t bring shame upon Jesus. Whether he lives or dies, its all about Christ!
But Paul is confident that he will be delivered from putting Christ to shame. In v. 19 he mentions two things that give him this confidence [READ vv. 18b–19]. Here he mentions something from them and something from God—their prayers and the provision of the Holy Spirit, probably referring there to strength from the Holy Spirit. Now please don’t miss how closely he connects these two things—the prayers of the Philippians are joined together with strength from the Holy Spirit to enable Paul to exalt Christ through his testimony. This is an amazing statement about how our prayers for each other fit together with God’s work in our lives.
Throughout the Bible, God calls us to pray to Him so that we might confess our sins to Him or make requests of Him or pray that He would work in behalf of others. And it is not that God needs our prayers; He can do what He wants whether we’ve asked Him to do it or not! But apparently God wants us to have the privilege of joining in His work through prayer. It’s like when you might ask your child to help you with a project that you’re working on. You don’t really need their help, but you want them to learn and to have the satisfaction of helping to accomplish something.
That’s what its like when God invites us to pray for others. It’s like He’s saying, “Pick up that hammer and give me a hand,” or “pick up those crayons and let’s draw something together.” God grants us the privilege of seeing our prayers joined with His work to accomplish great things in the lives of others. Let’s remember what an important work it is to pray for each other.
Paul’s second goal is this…
II. Our lives should be defined by a healthy tension between living to serve Christ and going to be with Him (1:21–24)
It’s here in v. 21 that we find the tagline for Paul’s life. He had just stated in v. 20 that he wants Christ to be exalted in his body whether by life or by death, and now he reveals the perspective that makes that possible [READ vv. 21–24]. Let’s look at both parts of this powerful declaration here. First, Paul says that for him, to live is Christ. He clarifies what he means in verses 22 and 24 where he says that if he continues to live, he will pursue fruitful labor for the Lord and he will seek to meet the spiritual needs of the Philippians. So for Paul, this is what life boiled down to—bearing fruit for Christ and building up the people of Christ. Christ was the lens through which he viewed all of life, which made him look at how he could honor Christ in every situation of life.
What a lofty goal for life, and if you think about it that goal will give meaning and purpose to everything we do, even things that seem mundane or “non-religious.” We have developed an unhealthy perspective today of viewing our jobs as “non-religious” activity. We tend to think that we’re doing religious things when we come to church, but going to work is a “non-religious” activity. It’s not if you have Paul’s perspective. Perhaps you think, “Well, I’m just a farmer, I’m not a missionary or anything like that.” Really? Are you not a witness to the hired men who work for you, or the family members that you work with? Are you not obeying God by working to provide for your family and to have something to give to others who are in need? Are you not serving and loving other people by growing food for them to eat?
Or maybe you think, “I’m just a teacher; there’s nothing religious about that!” Really? Are you not a witness to the people that you work with? Are you not serving others by investing your time to teach them useful things that will help them be educated and mature and skillful?
Or maybe you think, “I’m just a stay-at-home mom. There are many days where I don’t see anyone but my kids. I’m not making a big impact for Jesus.” Really? Are you not obeying God by teaching your children to love the Lord? If you’re doing that, you’re not just raising your children—you’re discipling them!
You see friends, if we will adopt this perspective, then we can say, “For to me, to farm/teach/be a homemaker is Christ.” And beyond simply our jobs, all of life can be viewed through this lens, so that everything we do is focused on bringing glory to Christ.
So Paul tells us that to live is Christ, but then he goes on to say that to die is gain. He tells us why this is in v. 23, where he says that to depart (or to die) means that we will be with Christ, and he says that is very much better. You’ve got to love the way that he says that—it’s not just better, it’s very much better than remaining alive. The only way that that perspective can be true is if we learn to love Jesus more than we love the things of this world—including the people in this world.
For so many people, death is an enormous loss, and that’s why it’s such a crushing blow. They have spent their lives trying to grab hold of the things that our world says are important—things like money, fame, power. If that’s what you’re pursuing in life, then death is a tremendous loss because you have to leave all of that behind. But for the Christian, when we compare the loss of those things against the gain of being in the presence of Jesus, there is no comparison! If our lives are focused on serving Christ, then death is no longer a loss—it is a gain because we will get to be with the one that we love more than anything. But as I said, that’s only true if we do in fact love Christ more than anything—even more than our friends and family, because death separates us from them as well, at least until they pass away or the Lord returns.
So that’s Paul’s second goal in these verses, to have a healthy tension between serving Christ and going to with Him. As long as we live, we should be eager to serve Christ, but our love for him should make us ready to say good-bye to everything when our time comes to be with Him. We see our third and final goal in vv. 25–26.
III. As long as we live, our growth in the faith should be accompanied by joy (1:25–26)
In v. 25, Paul writes, “Convinced of this,” and he’s referring to what he concluded in v. 24. He knew that at the moment, it was more beneficial for the Philippians if he remained alive so that he could continue to instruct them. So he writes [READ vv. 25–26]. I like the way that the NIV translation reads in v. 26. It says, “so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.” That really captures Paul’s idea well—the Philippians would be able to rejoice in Christ because Christ had allowed Paul to come back to them. And Paul says in v. 25 that his return to them will be for their progress and joy in the faith. His focus would be on helping them grow in the Christian faith, but please notice what characteristic he ties together with progress here—it is joy! As we grow as Christians, our growth is supposed to be accompanied by joy!
To many people, I don’t think Christians have the reputation of being a joyful people. That could be because people just don’t know us well enough, but I think it’s a perception that lives on still in the minds of many people. People think of Christians and the Christian life as dull; they think its all about saying “no” to anything that’s fun, or they think its about frowning all the time and reminding ourselves how wretched we are.
Let’s make sure that we don’t reinforce those kinds of stereotypes. I’m not saying that we should plaster fake smiles on our faces all the time, because everyone understands that life isn’t always fun, but we should be able to show people that the Christian life is about hope and grace and forgiveness and love, things that allow us to live with joy in our hearts. Philippians has been called the book of joy because Paul tells us several times to rejoice in the Lord, so let’s make it our goal to take that message to heart.
I want you to think again about the idea that I started with this morning—the thought of coming up with a tagline for a movie of your life. What if the tagline for your life were the same as Paul’s tagline here: “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain?” How would that tagline fit with the movie of your life? Would the tagline say “for to me to live is Christ,” but then the movie would show you not reading Christ’s words very often, not praying very often, not living as a witness for Christ? Or would the tagline say, “to die is gain,” but then the movie would show you filling up houses and barns and storage units with stuff that your kids will just sell off when you die?
How well does that tagline fit your life? Are there some areas that don’t match up? If right now you can’t say, “for to me, dating is Christ,” what needs to change? Or if you can’t say, “my marriage is Christ,” what needs to change? Let’s look at every area of our lives from that perspective, to ask how we can seek to honor Christ in every area of our lives. And if we find areas that don’t line up with that tagline, let’s endeavor to change. But change is never easy, so let’s pray for God’s strength to carry us through.
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