To live is Christ
My devotional this week has called us to contemplate on Paul’s words concerning his words to the church in Philippi. As Philippians 1 crescendos, Paul magnifies what many have described as The most famous mission statement in all of the New Testament, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21 ESV) [1] Think about this for a second, Paul is in prison (as per usual) for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and let’s be clear, being a prisoner in a Roman prison was no walk in the park. Roman prisons were small, dark, smelly due to the poor ventilation and the likelihood of them being underground. Yet, in this atmosphere, Paul finds it fitting to write to the Philippians that his imprisonment has served to advance the Gospel that he preached.
The perspective that Paul had was extreme, and yet at the same time, glorious. His moments of anguish and suffering were not ones that moved him to find comfort, but were ones that moved him to continue to share the message of Jesus. It was in this message that he preached where Paul’s comfort was found. When speaking about the providence of God for those early martyrs that were put into dungeons, exiled and killed by the hands of the Romans, John Calvin says that “The only proper question under the circumstances was, “What did God intend by their suffering?” [2] This too was Paul’s question, and he answers it by letting the Philippians know that for him, whether imprisoned or in freedom, he would find ways to advance the kingdom of God.
If we were to sincerely reflect on this declaration, how differently would our priorities change. How differently would we look at the small things that don’t go our way, how differently would we live in this world that often promotes self-fulfillment, success, or comfort, sometimes at the expense of others. We would be challenged to ask ourselves, What do we live for? Is Christ truly at the center of our decisions, our relationships, our aspirations?
If we were to truly live as Paul and declare that “to live is Christ,” we commit to making Him the reason behind everything we do, whether we’re at work, home, or interacting with others. It's a call to embody the love, humility, and purpose of Jesus in our everyday lives. Paul’s life was inseparable from Jesus’. Every aspect of his decisions, of his actions and of his sufferings were tied to him glorifying God. In his epistle to Polycarp, Ignatius writes to him exhorting him that “A Christian has not power over himself, but must always be ready for the service of God.[3] Today, let this ring loud for us, whatever it is that we are going through in our lives, as much as it hurts, as much as we don’t want to go through it, what is Jesus trying to do with it? He is more precious, more valuable and satisfies us more than anything this world could provide.
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.
[2] Joseph Haroutunian and Louise Pettibone Smith, Calvin: Commentaries (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958), 39.
[3] Ignatius of Antioch, “The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 96.
The perspective that Paul had was extreme, and yet at the same time, glorious. His moments of anguish and suffering were not ones that moved him to find comfort, but were ones that moved him to continue to share the message of Jesus. It was in this message that he preached where Paul’s comfort was found. When speaking about the providence of God for those early martyrs that were put into dungeons, exiled and killed by the hands of the Romans, John Calvin says that “The only proper question under the circumstances was, “What did God intend by their suffering?” [2] This too was Paul’s question, and he answers it by letting the Philippians know that for him, whether imprisoned or in freedom, he would find ways to advance the kingdom of God.
If we were to sincerely reflect on this declaration, how differently would our priorities change. How differently would we look at the small things that don’t go our way, how differently would we live in this world that often promotes self-fulfillment, success, or comfort, sometimes at the expense of others. We would be challenged to ask ourselves, What do we live for? Is Christ truly at the center of our decisions, our relationships, our aspirations?
If we were to truly live as Paul and declare that “to live is Christ,” we commit to making Him the reason behind everything we do, whether we’re at work, home, or interacting with others. It's a call to embody the love, humility, and purpose of Jesus in our everyday lives. Paul’s life was inseparable from Jesus’. Every aspect of his decisions, of his actions and of his sufferings were tied to him glorifying God. In his epistle to Polycarp, Ignatius writes to him exhorting him that “A Christian has not power over himself, but must always be ready for the service of God.[3] Today, let this ring loud for us, whatever it is that we are going through in our lives, as much as it hurts, as much as we don’t want to go through it, what is Jesus trying to do with it? He is more precious, more valuable and satisfies us more than anything this world could provide.
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.
[2] Joseph Haroutunian and Louise Pettibone Smith, Calvin: Commentaries (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958), 39.
[3] Ignatius of Antioch, “The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 96.
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