Concern for the welfare of the Apostle Paul as he is in prison, and he’s writing to them to comfort their fears as well as to encourage their faith. We are in chapter 1, verses 15 to 26. As we look to the reading of God’s Word, if you join with me in prayer.
Lord God, we do ask that you would guide us by your Word and by your Spirit, that in the light of your truth, that we would, Father, continue to see the freedom that you’ve given to us in your Son Jesus, that in your will we would discover the peace that you have blessed us with in him. And Lord, that we would be transformed to his image and likeness. And we pray and ask all these things in his mighty name. Amen. Amen.
Beginning in verse 15, some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed.
In that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope. That I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.
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 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. The word of the Lord.
Motives have always mattered. It’s the why behind the what. Salesmen have long known that giving you something small makes you feel obligated to buy something big. That’s the whole purpose of swag, you know, a free ball cap, a shirt, a jacket with their brand on it, and they give it to valued customers. And of course, you are now advertising for them by wearing it, and you also feel ever so inclined to make a purchase because of it.
The motive is to make money, to sell things, to buy their tools, their clothes, their cars, or other products. Motive matters. If you run into a house and carry someone out over your shoulder, you’re a hero if the house is on fire. You’re going to jail if it’s kidnapping. The why is important.
And from the Lord’s perspective, our actions and our motives are one and the same. The Lord judges the heart. The Lord weighs the motives. And as sinners, we also know that even our best motives are still mixed. There’s always a bit of the dross in our best gold.
In all of us, the treasure sits right next to the trash. What are we to do? Well, for God’s people, the good news is that in the process of purifying our hearts and sanctifying our motives is what the Lord is doing. And he has called us to surrender our agenda to his. And through the work of his Spirit, our hearts are being realigned by the good news of Jesus.
In our text, we see what motivated Paul, a motivation that enabled him to get past the petty envy of others, a motivation that was centered in the exaltation of Jesus, a motivation that enabled him to encourage others even when he was suffering himself. And this stood in sharp contrast to those who were using the gospel for self-promotion. Paul had been writing to them about what was happening in his imprisonment and speaking for Jesus. And in that, the Lord had used his own imprisonment to encourage others to be more bold in their proclamation. But he’s recognizing that not everyone was doing this for the right reason.
And that’s where he says in verse 15, some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. There were some who wanted to make Paul look bad. Who are these people? It’s hard to say for sure. Paul had enemies who opposed him.
We know that he was preaching to the Gentiles and that angered many who were Jewish Christians. And we also know there are other traveling teachers who are busy trying to gain a following really for financial and selfish motives. Others were generally encouraged by Paul and they wanted to emulate him. And Paul makes this distinction. He says in verse 16, the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.
The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. I think, well, why would they do that? They want to elevate their own position at the expense of Paul’s. So they’re doing something that is good for an envious reason, for selfish purposes. We’ve all seen this in one form or another.
You think about some of the multimillion-dollar donations that might be given to a cancer research hospital, but the person or the group doing it insists that, you know, a wing or something be named after them or their organization. They have a big press conference to make sure everybody knows about it, sort of a social media extravaganza so that people know they’re the ones who gave. So it’s a great cause, Not necessarily a great motive. And sometimes our envy so blinds us that the cause and the motive itself is deplorable. In school, you may have had a friend who starts telling rumors behind your back because in some way they’re jealous of you.
A while back, 2 middle school girls, 12 and 13, in Dallas were arrested and charged with felony online impersonation. They had set up a fake Facebook page so they could ruin the reputation of another classmate. For 2 months, they posted fake photos and said all kinds of crude and vulgar things, and they wanted to inflict on this young girl as much damage as possible, and they certainly did. And they’re not the only example of that. It’s happened actually quite a bit, people taking something false or presenting something out there in the social media world just to trash somebody else’s reputation.
But what’s so disappointing about this, about what’s happening to Paul, is that it’s being done at least by seemingly other Christians. There are some who are so desperate for self-promotion that they tear others down in order to try to look better by comparison. They can’t rejoice in the success of others because they see that success as competition for their own glory. And notice that Paul is not saying they’re giving a false gospel. He is aware of that.
In the book of Galatians, in fact, there are some who are giving a false gospel and Paul had nothing to do with that. But these people seem to be telling people about Jesus well enough. And Paul is able to maintain a bigger picture about what is happening. He says, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed.
And in that I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. Now, does that make what they’re doing okay? No, not at all. It’s still a terrible thing to be doing.
And surely this not easy for Paul. And there were times when Paul was being maligned that he did defend himself. We see that in some of his other writings because of these personal attacks. But here he’s not defending himself because he’s communicating with these dear believers who know and appreciate and trust him. And so there’s no need to defend himself.
And he’s saying, I’m okay, because his motives were to exalt Jesus. Amen. And you hear this all through what he’s writing, similar to what we see in John the Baptist in John chapter 3. John is ministering and doing his work, and some of his disciples were actually jealous because when Jesus came onto the scene at first, he said, look, people are following him and following him and not you. And John’s response to this was, he must increase.
And I must decrease. Because John’s motive was the exaltation of Jesus. And we see that’s what’s happening with Paul. Paul is recognizing that Jesus is to increase even as he decreases. The exaltation of Christ means more to Paul than his pride and his hurt feelings.
He’s not out there to promote himself. He’s truly— He’s not. Being joyful and knowing that even as he gets smaller, Jesus is getting bigger. And he’s able then to look to other people, just the very opposite of what these other Christians are doing. Paul can look to the good of others.
And we see that motivated him in this exaltation of Christ. He says, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. He’s rejoicing in this good thing happening for A bad reason, and he sees the benefit given to the Christians at Philippi in praying for him. He says, “Yes, I’ll rejoice.” He goes on verse 19. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.
He’s in jail for preaching about Jesus. He knows in the end the Lord was going to vindicate him in some way. Likely he’s quoting here from Job 13, but that word for deliverance. That we see here is also the same word for salvation. It can either refer to Paul expecting to be delivered from prison or ultimately his salvation when the Lord returns, saying, I’m going to be saved.
I’ll be delivered either in this life or in the next, so I’m okay with it either way. He’s grateful for their partnering with him in their prayers. Through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Christ. They’re motivated to pray for Paul’s wellbeing. There’s a real love and a care here.
And, and y’all see how dependent he is upon the Holy Spirit. It’s the Spirit of Jesus at work in him and in these believers. One commentator put it this way. He said, the Spirit will empower Paul to proclaim the words without fear and not be put to shame. A shame that has nothing to do with public opinion, but rather with one’s faithfulness.
Before God. Paul’s great concern is not that he’s going to be shamed in public. His great concern is, I do not want to be ashamed before the Lord and not remain faithful. He is calling upon them in their prayers that he would finish well in the midst of hardship. This is what Paul is looking towards.
And he has this in mind when he goes on to verse 20. It’s my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed. But that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. That’s his motivation. Christ honored, life or death.
Which leads into this remarkable statement we’ve all heard, for to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. And Paul’s view of death is seen within the context of Christ’s exaltation. He’s not being morbid. He’s not trying to be a drama queen. He’s got a healthy gospel attitude about his death, and he explains it.
He says in verse 22, if I’m to live in the flesh, staying alive, 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, to stay alive, is more necessary on your account.
His life is filled with difficulties, to be sure, but it’s filled with joy and satisfaction. And we hear that in his letters. Paul is no Eeyore. He’s not locked up in prison, probably going to rain, might as well die. No, he’s got real joy, real joy in Jesus, that he has something to live for.
He has the explosive message of hope in Jesus Christ that he’s just compelled to proclaim to the world. He sees men and women being set free from sin and death by the power of Jesus Christ. His life is a part of that message, that proclamation, and his life is gain for Jesus. But to die means he will be with Jesus fully, no longer looking, as it were, through a glass dimly, but face to face. And that is truly gain for himself.
So in light of eternity with Christ, believers should have a different motivation. Our values, our priorities should look different than the rest of the world. The family, the home, the car, the comfortable retirement— these are certainly blessings, but they can also be a curse if our motivation gets distracted because of them.
The motivation is the exaltation of Jesus. That we will not look upon death as something to be drastically avoided so that we can live longer in a selfish way here. But we’ll see it as an actual gain because we get to be with Jesus. And that’s what Paul is saying, between these 2 things, in service to others or going to be with Jesus, it’s a win-win. And this bigger perspective beyond personal peace and affluence, this motivation allows him to be a source of great encouragement for other people.
And that’s why he says in verse 25, convinced of this, convinced that his presence is more necessary for their sake. I know I’ll remain and continue to be with you for your progress and joy in the faith so that you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. Now, he doesn’t know what’s going to happen. He doesn’t know if he’ll be released or not, but he does know that his continued presence will be a blessing to these believers. Paul’s not some sort of ego freak, that’s some prima donna, man, I’m so great, you need me.
That’s not his message at all. He has been called and equipped by God to be an apostle. The gifts that have been given to him for this Philippian church is important and valuable because it’s God who’s giving them. And that, again, it changes your whole motivation. It’s like if you’re in an area that’s way underserved with medical professionals and a doctor or someone else is able to go and supply what is lacking, that person’s gift and training is a huge blessing to the community.
And that’s what Paul is saying. He’s saying, God has called me, God has equipped me, and he’s put me here to bless others with these good gifts. Amen. And this God-given ministry is a blessing for these Christians to grow in their faith, to progress in the gospel, to have their joy in the Lord solidified. In his suffering, he’s thinking of them, of their needs, of their best interest.
Of course, you meet— you’re like, how do you do this? How’s that possible? His motivation is centered on Christ’s exaltation and not his own. The very end of verse 26, it’s possible coming into reason is the glory in Christ Jesus. It’s not in Paul.
He says that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ. That’s the purpose. That’s the goal. Being able to focus on the lives of others even when you are struggling encourages them in their circumstances. It helps them to see their troubles and your troubles in a very different way.
And we see in the Bible God uses this all the time. Our trials and difficulties are a part of the means that God uses to carry us safely to the end of our pilgrimage. That’s built into the system. It is these difficulties that God is using to change us and to change how we look about our circumstances and our trust and dependence on Him. The Holy Spirit uses these events to purify our motives.
Eyes off of ourselves onto other people. And this ability to encourage others while we are struggling, that has always been a marker to me of what true Christian maturity looks like. Someone would say, what does it look like to be a mature Christian? That. When you’re having a hard go of things and you’re able to enter in and help someone else who’s struggling, that’s Christ in you.
Amen. And it has nothing to do with age, intelligence, or gifting. This is for all of God’s people, that we can do that, to be able to enter in, to come alongside of the lives of other people regardless of what’s happening in our own. A wonderful saint in our church, many of you, you do not know, some of you have been here long enough. I’ve been here a long time.
I’m gonna— great joy to talk about her. Claire Hughes. Claire has been a wonderful, godly woman who has been struggling for some time now with advancing Alzheimer’s and poor health. And her and John watch from home on our channel because they’re not able to be here. And they are amazing Christian people.
But Claire has struggled— maybe you wouldn’t know— with debilitating chronic pain for years.
And there have been so many who have come to her for help and for prayer, have no idea of the depth of her own health concerns. She’s a tremendous prayer warrior who’s prayed and counseled many people without bringing herself and her pains into the conversation.
She didn’t use your problems as a springboard to talk about her own. That’s amazing. Think about that. We all struggle with that. Someone else comes and they say like they’re going through this thing and I know sometimes this sparks what’s happening in our own life, but someone will talk about, you know, this problem and you’re like, yeah, and I had something just like that.
And you go and you shift from their issue to talking about your issue. And we do that. It’s not a great thing, by the way. No. It’s something we should work on.
And when you see people who do that, who are able to take and hear your problems and to enter into them and to pray for you or to counsel you and to help you, that’s a glorious thing, particularly when it’s less than what you’re going through. Isn’t that part of it? We always want to say, oh, that’s nothing. You know, hard is hard. Somebody’s heart is their heart.
It might be different than yours, but it’s still hard. And to be able to not dismiss that or overlook it, but to see this person whom I love is struggling and I’m going to come alongside them without it being a springboard to talk about myself. That’s a life that’s been gripped by Jesus. It’s outward-focused, looking to the good of others. And I’ve seen that so much with Such a delight.
And Paul tells us to emulate people like this. And that’s the beauty of Christ Jesus, that the more that you are with Him, the more you want to be like Him. Communion with Him draws you in closer. And there’s a paradox in this, that seemingly the more that you enter in near to Jesus, you see your own sin, you see your own wretchedness. And the wonder and the splendor of His holiness.
And it is in those places where you’ve got to push past and to be exposed. And in that exposure is the grace, the transformation. It’s when we try to hide, when we try to come back and to cordon ourselves off, that we are actually resisting the work of the Holy Spirit, that we are more concerned about our image than we are about the glory of Jesus. And so what we see with the Lord is an invitation to draw nearer to Him. And as we draw nearer to Him, He’s exalted and we’re diminished in a right way.
That we would find our life in Him as we would sacrifice it for others. Allow Him to purge us of our self-promotion, of our conceit, of our insecurities. And then we look to Him, our actions and our motives begin to merge in the right way. That our actions and our motives become one and the same. And of course, on this side of glory, never perfectly, but profoundly changed and different.
So as we see Paul saying here that others may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus. That’s the goal. That’s the goal. In the life that we have and we share in the strugglings of other people and in helping them, that Jesus would be glorified.
That is so contrary to the world around us of serve yourself, look out for number one, everything’s about me and what I’m going to get. And here in the midst of that, we come to lay that down in order that Jesus would be glorified. Amen. Receive the reward of His suffering, the honor due His name. And only in Christ are we able to do that, where others are actually lifted up, and in doing so, we are lifted up with them.
Not for the motivation of that, but for the motivation of Christ.
We’re not like, oh, how can I look better, be better? No, it’s like, how can I serve someone else because of what I have received from Jesus? And then Amen. You know, a rising tide lifts all boats. It’s beautiful to see in the church.
It’s beautiful to see how that goes into a community around us of people who are drowning in absolute selfishness, self-promotion, self-aggrandizement, and to be able to show them a different way in Jesus to free us. From the crippling power and grasp that our selfishness has in choking us out of real life. Again, this is like the paradox of our faith. This is precisely where life is found. And everything around us tells us, no, promote yourself, push yourself forward.
If someone else is benefiting, you aren’t. Push them down so it lifts you up. And Paul’s looking at that and going, no, no, no, no. Amen. I’m here for the good of Jesus.
And in serving others, if God takes me home early, man, I’m with Him forever. This is amazing. And if He holds off and He puts me here, and yes, it’s difficult and hard, but this is helpful for other people. And my life is now in the service of others because I have been set free from the tyranny and the bondage of self-worship. Amen.
And we see here the very heart of motivations begin to change.
That as we are participating with the work of the Holy Spirit, as we are entering into the lives of other people to help and to serve them, that there is this transformation.
And the wonder and the radiance of Jesus is lifted higher. Amen.
So Paul can even say of fellow Christians running his name in the dirt, in the end it really doesn’t matter. If people are hearing about Jesus because of it, that’s fantastic. I’m not saying it’s right, but he’s saying his heart is in a place where he is not limited at all by what others are doing and taking him down. Amen. Amen.
He is not limited by the defense of his own name. He’s saying, who cares? Jesus is what matters. If they’re hearing about Jesus through false motives, they’ll have to deal with God on their own. But man, people are being set free.
I’m grateful for that. And when we have that type of liberty with one another, that we are able to enter into that, We have ample cause to glory in Jesus. Pray with me. Father, as we come before you, we confess we don’t do this very well. Father God, we confess that the problems of others is a springboard to talk about ourselves.
Lord, change that, we pray. Amen. Change our hearts, Father, that we would be able to love, to share in the lives of other people for their good. Father, that you would, that you would continue to remove us from the center, to place you there. And Lord God, again, I would ask if there are any out here who do not know your Son Jesus, Father, I ask that you would open their eyes to see, that you would grant them saving faith.
Father, that you would open their ears to hear the good news and the proclamation of your Son. Amen. And Father, we would ask as well as your people that you would continue to change our motives, change the reason, the whys, that they would merge together with the what. And in all of this, that the name of Jesus would be lifted high. And this we would ask in his mighty name.
Amen.
Please stand. All I have is Christ.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.