The words
"Christ shall be magnified in my body"
(Philippians 1:20) not only provide the key to the
epistle to the Philippians but also the secret of Paul's
radiant and fruitful life. All through the four chapters
he took pleasure in expressing his joyful appreciation of
the relevance of Christ, and his passionate desire that
this might become evident to the Philippians and to all
believers, including us. To Paul it did not even matter
whether he lived or died, so long as Christ was magnified
in that body of his.
We shall consider how the chapters stress four aspects of
his experience and enjoyment of Christ, realising that
each one of them was written so that his readers might
have a share in this rich life.
Christ
My Life
The first
statement is that Christ was Paul's life - "For to
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (1:21). He
neither had nor desired anything beyond this, that his
very being and existence in the world should provide room
for Christ. It amounted to this, that wherever one could
find Paul, there the Lord Jesus could also be found,
since his one reason for being anywhere was that Christ
should use his mortal body for the expression of His Own
divine presence. Wherever Paul was, there Christ could be
found, with consequent blessing to others, as we would
expect.
If Paul's experience is anything to go by we are forced
to conclude that there were some extraordinary places in
which the Lord Jesus chose to be. Take the Philippian
prison! It seems that Christ wanted to be present in that
prison, although to us this might seem most
inappropriate. There it was, however for the Lord Jesus
has no objection at all to going to prison if thereby
eternal interests can be served, so naturally enough Paul
must be prepared to go there too. He was, and we know
what blessing resulted from that experience. From this
chapter we know also that Paul welcomed the hardship of
yet another prison - this time in Rome - since by his
presence there Christ was able to enlarge His kingdom in
the hearts of men. Places of apparent limitation and
restriction became places of enlargement and liberation,
just because Paul kept true to his commitment that Christ
was his life.
The man who talks as Paul did must be prepared to find
himself in some strange and unexpected locations, but if
he really means what he says the outcome will always be
glory for God and the magnifying of Christ, not only in
his thought processes but in his actual bodily
experiences. This happened as the apostle went from place
to place. Christ was there because he was there, so
whether it was the inner dungeon at Philippi, lying
stoned and left for dead outside the city of Lystra, or
fighting with beasts at Ephesus, it was all the same,
since clearly Christ was choosing such means for the
expression of His presence and powers and this was what
Paul wanted.
It seems an audacious claim on the part of the apostle
and one which we ourselves would hardly dare to make, for
much as we know that Christ is our very life and we are
completely dependent on Him, we might feel it
presumptuous to suggest that we are taking Him into the
many and varied situations of our daily life.
Nevertheless if we can say, "For to me to live is
Christ" this surely means that so long as fellowship
with the Lord is kept clear and uninterrupted, there is
no place so dark or difficult, no situation so hard or
problematic, but what an opportunity is being provided in
our very bodies for the magnifying of Christ.
Of course we realise that Paul had only reached such a
position by a complete abandonment of himself to Christ;
he had no other interests and no other ambitions, for
everything in his life was subjected to the one divine
purpose. If we have some alternative to Christ, some
side-line of our own interests, some indulgence, some
rival to His lordship, then this experience is not for
us. In such cases death would clearly involve loss - loss
of those personal interests and ambitions. To die is only
gain if Christ is all.
Christ
My Disposition
The second
thing that Christ was to Paul was his "mind"
(2:5-9). We are exhorted to have the mind of Christ.
This, of course, does not refer to intellect; it is
wholly concerned with the attitude of heart. We are told
in these verses not how much technical or academic
understanding the Lord had but what was His disposition,
and we are shown that this disposition was one of perfect
meekness. All that was His by right He was willing to let
go, humbling Himself to the extreme limit for the glory
of God and the help of others. This was His attitude of
mind, and the same thing is expected of us, though in any
case we have few, if any, rights to let go of.
The apostle was referring to a background situation at
Philippi in which two prominent workers were stubbornly
holding on to their own positions, each refusing to give
way, standing on her own dignity and waiting for the
other to apologise. The root sin of all sins is pride. It
is the one thing which the Word of God discloses to be an
abomination to the Lord, whereas to Him one of the most
beautiful things is "the ornament of a meek and
quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great
price" (1 Peter 3:4).
Without boasting, Paul could truly claim to have imbibed
this spirit from his Lord. In the following chapter he
tells of his former self glory, and claims that he had
more right to boast than most other men, but since Christ
was not only his life but also his disposition of mind he
had been able gladly to humble himself. He was the man
who could say to the Corinthians, "The more
abundantly I love you, the less I am loved" and yet
still go on gladly spending himself for them (2
Corinthians 12:15). Although in this chapter he had to
record how fellow workers had let him down (Philippians
2:20-21), he gave no sign of bitterness but only of
praiseful devotion to God's people and readiness to
sacrifice himself for them. He it was who urged prayer
"for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18), whether they
approved of him or not. No doubt in his case, as in ours,
it did not come naturally to accept that self-emptying
which was so truly a part of Christ's nature, but as he
committed himself for this purpose he was led through
experiences - often painful ones - of learning to let go
of all that was personal for the one end of the glory of
God; and so he found that his own selfish disposition was
being displaced by that beautiful meekness of Christ.
Christ
My Objective
Thirdly,
Christ had become Paul's objective. "...that I may
gain Christ..." (3:8-9). From the day on the
Damascus road when he had a vision of Christ in glory,
his whole soul had been captivated. He was then taken in
hand by the Holy Spirit and given an ever increasing
understanding of Christ's glory which only deepened his
single purpose of heart to be "found in Him".
He knew now that for this purpose he had been arrested,
he had been taken in charge, but far from resenting this
experience he now gloried in having been captured and
captivated by his wonderful Lord. He went into solitude
in Arabia for two years and there the revelation grew, as
did also his determination to be wholly committed to
Christ. The unfolding of divine truth to him showed that
Christ has no desire to remain alone and isolated in His
exaltation, but plans to bring redeemed men into
fellowship with Himself so that they may be conformed to
His image and be partakers of His glory.
This realisation so gripped Paul that it left him with
one single objective in life and that was to be
"found in Him", to enter into the full purpose
which lay behind that arresting vision of the glorified
Lord. No wonder he was glad to leave the things which
were behind; no wonder that he was always stressing that
he had not yet arrived; he had seen, as it were, Christ
beckoning him on to share in the eternal glory and found
that nothing else mattered beside this marvellous
prospect. Christ was his objective.
Christ
My Strength
Christ was
also Paul's strength (4:13). It is so good that the
letter ends on this note, for it reminds us that Christ
is the power to make all the rest possible. If we had to
provide the resources for triumphant and self-sacrificial
living we might well despair, but we do not; what we have
to do is to learn to draw on Christ's resources, for they
are more than sufficient for every need which can
possibly arise.
Just as in Romans 8:28 Paul could rightly rejoice at
God's sovereign ability to use "all things" and
make them work together for good, so here in Philippians
4:13 he could affirm that "all things" were
made possible in his life because of Christ's inward
strength. A glance at the context shows that this did not
refer so much to the outward activities of Christian
service as to a capacity to endure every happening with
quiet content in the will of God. Paul was born to be a
gentleman but he had to learn to live as a slave, and
this he did by the inward strength of Christ, and did it
without the grumbling complaints which so often mar our
testimony. He found it quite possible to be abased, put
down, walked over, without showing any hurt or
resentment. He could do this because Christ was his
strength. What is more, he was able to abound, to know
prosperity and success, without falling into the peril of
losing his walk with God. High positions are more
precarious than low ones, popularity more dangerous than
persecution. The man who is being used and blessed of God
is in special danger, for the moment that any servant of
God allows himself to be made much of, is the time when
Christ is no longer glorified but rather obscured. Only
Christ's inward strength can keep us to our original
committal of utter dedication to Himself. Only He can
keep up to date, through adversity and prosperity, that
first purpose that "as always, so now also, Christ
shall be magnified" in these bodies of ours.
First published in "Toward the Mark" magazine, Mar-Apr 1972, Volume 1-2.