How many of you heard your mother say something like this when you were a child: “If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” We have probably all vowed that we will NEVER use lines like that with our kids, but I bet that many of us have found words just like that coming out of our mouths. I’m not sure how effective clichés like that really are any more, but we know of course that our moms were just trying to tell us to be careful about imitating other people or following someone else’s lead.
Perhaps some of you have heard of a little rodent called a lemming. Lemmings are often used as an illustration of the dangers of following the wrong leader, and for good reason. Like a lot of creatures, lemmings reproduce quickly, and so every few years they find themselves at a point where there current habitat can’t feed all of them anymore. So one day, some of the lemmings head out in search of a new home, and as they leave, they quickly attract many other lemmings to follow them. Now their typical behavior when they migrate like this is to set out in one direction and just keep going in that direction until they find a suitable place. Well, as you can imagine, sometimes that works out okay, and sometimes it doesn’t, because these little creatures don’t stop when they run into danger. Sometimes their path leads them to the edge of a cliff, and rather than head in a new direction they just run right off the cliff, and many—if not most—of them die. Sometimes their path leads them to the ocean, and instead of turning around they swim out into the ocean, and they just keep swimming until they eventually become exhausted and drown.
I think you can see how this illustrates the fact that we need to be careful about whom we choose to follow! Perhaps the people that we follow and imitate in our lives aren’t going to lead us off a cliff anytime soon, but could they be leading us into some sinful ways of thinking? Could they be pointing us toward the wrong goals for life? Those whom we choose to follow could be leading us down paths that a spiritual dangerous, so the lesson that we need to grab hold of today is this:
Make sure the people you choose to follow are leading you in the right direction!
And how do we know what the right direction is? From the Bible, of course. But we can also see it in the lives of people who are living out biblical principles in their lives. That’s what the apostle Paul is going to encourage us to look for in our study of Philippians today. Would you turn with me please to Philippians 3:17–21? Let’s read this together [READ vv. 17–21]. In this passage, Paul sets up a contrast between two groups of people—the kind that we should follow, and the kind that we should not follow. Let’s first see what he says about the kind of people that we should not follow.
I. Reject the example of those who seek only to satisfy their personal desires
Paul begins and ends this passage by talking about the people we should follow and the kind of mindset that they possess. But in the middle—in vv. 18–19—he describes the example that we should reject and the kind of people who set that example.
In v. 18, we see that Paul has tremendous compassion for these people; he says that he weeps over them. But nevertheless, Paul tells it like it is—he says that they are “enemies of the cross of Christ.” Notice that Paul doesn’t just say “enemies of Christ.” He focuses on the cross—they are enemies of the cross of Christ. From what Paul says about them in v. 19, it seems that these individuals are enemies of what the cross represents. As we saw in chapter 2, the cross of Christ represents humility. The fact that Jesus was willing to die in such a painful and humiliating way demonstrated his tremendous humility. The cross also represents self-denial, as we can see from Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:14—“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” These individuals however were advocating a very different lifestyle, and thus they were opposed to what the cross represents.
Because of this, Paul notes in v. 19 that they had a terrible end to look forward to. He states that their “end is destruction.” They may appear to have enviable lives now, but their ultimate end is utter loss and ruin. This is all because of their idolatry, which Paul describes next. The next three phrases describe their overall mindset—Paul writes, “whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”
Their minds were set on achieving earthly goals and satisfying their own earthly desires, and so they sought to indulge their physical desires and cravings, and they “gloried in” or took pride in doing things that they actually should have been ashamed of. And as I think of people in our own society today who would fit this description, my mind goes directly to celebrities—actors and actresses, rappers and rock stars, reality show stars, even sports stars.
Now certainly not everyone in those industries would fit Paul’s description in v. 19, but the vast majority of them are living examples of what Paul said here. When you look at the lifestyle that characterizes most celebrities—the drug use and alcoholism, the immorality and infidelity, the repeated cycle of divorce—it is clear that they are living simply to satisfy their own fleshly desires. And if we are going to take Paul’s warning to heart, we must make sure that we don’t follow their example.
But the reality is that we are probably already mimicking their behavior in ways that we don’t even realize. Friends, if we think we can watch TV for hours each week, and watch movies for hours each week, and listen to secular music for hours each week, and yet somehow emerge with our behavior unaffected by those things, we are simply being naïve. Consider a few things with me—think first of all about the slang words that you use, or the popular phrases that you use. Where did you learn those words? Maybe you learned them from a friend, but where did he get them? At some point down the line they more than likely came from a movie or a TV show. Lines from movies and TV have a way of entering our cultural vocabulary, and often times we end up using those lines without even realizing it.
How about your idea of what romance looks like? Do you think it comes from the Bible? Let me ask you—have you ever actually read the Bible with that question in mind? If the answer is no, then are you sure that your idea of romance comes from the Bible? Or does your idea of romance actually come from Twilight, or Sleepless in Seattle, or Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Gone With the Wind?
How about your attitude toward something like homosexuality? I imagine that we would all say it’s a sin, but do you really feel that it’s a behavior that destroys people’s lives, or is it something to laugh about with our favorite characters on Modern Family, or something to sweep under the rug about as we’re being entertained by Ellen DeGeneres?
So what I am trying to say, friends, is that we may be imitating celebrities and the Hollywood mindset in ways that we don’t even realize because its influence can be so subtle. And the best way to counteract its influence is to saturate our minds with Scripture and minimize our exposure to entertainment like TV and movies.
You can really think of it like a balanced diet for your mind. The Bible is the meat and grains and the fruits and vegetables that you should take in at every meal, and entertainment is like dessert—we should take it in only in small portions and less frequently than everything else.
I do think it is helpful for us to be aware of what the entertainment industry is producing, but I think a quote that Warren Wiersbe once applied to TV is very helpful here. He says, “True, we ought to [be familiar with it]; but only as chemists handle poisons—to discover their qualities, not to infect their blood with them.”*
So, we must make sure that we don’t follow the example of those who seek only to satisfy their personal desires. And in our passage, Paul points toward a better example for us to follow.
II. Follow the example of those who live as citizens of heaven in the here and now
In v. 17, Paul called the Philippians to follow his example, which he had just spelled out for them in vv. 2–16: namely, his example of placing everything on his list of values below the ongoing pursuit of gaining an intimate knowledge of Christ. At the end of v. 17 he also mentions others who are walking according to the same pattern. Undoubtedly he had Timothy and Epaphroditus in mind here, but there were probably others in the Philippian church as well who already followed Paul’s example.
Then down in vv. 20–21, he describes why his example is the correct one for us to have. At the end of v. 19 he tells us not to have our minds set on earthly goals and values and priorities, but why not? Well, he tells us in vv. 20–21 [READ vv. 20–21].
We are not to focus our minds on earthly things because our citizenship, our homeland is somewhere else! It’s like when you’re on vacation. When you go on vacation, you don’t have the same concern for the area that you’re visiting as you do for your hometown. You’re not thinking about putting down roots there because you know you’re only there for a short time. You don’t find yourself thinking, “Maybe I should go to the city council meeting here tonight and find out about the local zoning proposals!” No! You’re on vacation! You’re just passing through, so you don’t focus on settling in and making a life for yourself.
That’s the kind of mindset that we’re supposed to have about this world, because it is no longer our home. Our true home is in heaven, so that’s where we should center our lives; that’s where we should invest; that’s where we should put down roots! The old spiritual says it well:
“This world is not my home
I’m just a-passin’ through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me
From heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home
In this world anymore.”
Paul also goes on to remind us why we should be so eager for our temporary stay in this world to be over—we are awaiting the return of Jesus, who will make us fit to enter our homeland! In v. 20, Paul refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as “savior,” which is significant for more reasons than you might think. The Greek word here is soter, and its actually a title that many of the Roman emperors had adopted for themselves. They sometimes referred to themselves as the “Savior of the World” or the “Savior of Humanity.”
But we who have our citizenship in heaven know who the real Savior of the World is—the Lord Jesus Christ! Our highest allegiance is to Him, not to any petty rulers in this world who might put themselves in His place. And when He returns, He is going to complete the work of salvation that He has started in us by transforming our bodies to make them fit for our homeland.
I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that you are still living in a body that is under the curse of sin. We still have to live not only with daily aches and pains, but also with diseases that are much more severe and deadly. But someday, Jesus is going to return to “transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory.” As the apostle John put it in 1 John 3:2, “We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” We have that time to look forward to that is described in Revelation 21:4, where God “will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.”
That is our destiny! That is where our lives are headed—we are headed home! So that’s why we should focus our lives upon our homeland; that’s why we should live with heavenly priorities rather than earthly priorities. Just as it makes no sense to adopt a California lifestyle if you live in Kansas, it likewise makes no sense to adopt a worldly lifestyle if your real home is in heaven! So we must make sure that we follow the example of those who have this mindset, and not just follow them from afar, but develop a relationship with them and learn from them. It would benefit every one of us to cultivate a relationship with someone who is more mature in the faith than we are, so that is my challenge for you today. Find someone who is more mature as a Christian than you are and get to know them. Invite them over; take them out to eat; ask them for their advice and guidance and prayers. We will always be imitating someone, so let’s make sure we’re following the right example!
* Warren W. Wiersbe, Preaching & Teaching with Imagination, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Books, 2002.) pg. 75.
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