Working Salvation (from Philippians 2)

. . . continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Phil 1.12-13)

As one old bishop put it, “We have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved.” Paul is here focussing on the present tense, what we are doing in the here and now.

This is an incredibly important passage for understanding how God works in us, and what our responsibilities as Christians are. How does it work?

Paul tells us that God is working in us right now; we normally understand this to refer to the work of the Holy Spirit (though, any time one Person of the Trinity is at work, they are all at work). The love of God is being spread abroad in our hearts through the Spirit, enabling us to suffer, persevere, develop a godly character, have hope, and to be witnesses for Jesus Christ (Rom 5.5). He is producing the fruit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in us (Gal 5.22-23).

These are not small things! And there is much more that could be said about the work that God is doing in us – but this is just a short blog.

Paul says God works in us “to will and to act.” Now the question becomes, whose willing and whose acting?

It is clear that both the willing and acting are ours. Here is the thing, though: we will and act in fear and trembling because we cannot see the Spirit at work; we must have faith that he is in us, and ministering his grace to us.

Having faith like this is not very easy these days, especially when there are so many voices telling us that we can hear God directly in so-called “conversational prayer,” telling us this or that. This essentially negates the need for faith here.

The hard fact of it is, as we are walking along in the world, to the physical eye we will not look much different from our neighbour; and the fact that our willing and acting is based on the foundational work of God’s Spirit within us will also not be visible to the naked eye. But this is what Paul is getting at.

We need not worry overmuch, brothers and sisters, what God’s will is for our lives when it comes to particular situations. We should instead have faith that he has been at work in us since the day we were born again, and trust that the good desires that we have, and the good things we wish to do, come from the work his Spirit has already been doing in us.

Humble Like Jesus (from Philippians 2)

I have been working on a project in the last month or so, researching and writing on pastoral ministry in the early church. One of the significant differences I found (I think) between their own practise and ours, is their emphasis on humility. Possibly this was because they did not often have Paul’s Pastoral Epistles in front of them (where Paul lays out his own understand of which character qualities he felt should be in pastors and deacons). In any case, a good argument can be made that humility ought to be right near the top of desired qualities in our leaders.

Paul talks about it in Phil 2, as he encourages the Christians in this direction by pointing them to the example of Jesus. In this by-the-way explanation of the nature of Christ, he highlights Jesus’ humility, noting that he had the most to be humble about.

. . . Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

Rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

One of the reasons why the first Christians worshiped Jesus as God was because he was able to do things that only God could do (e.g., calm the wind and waves; forgive sin), and that God the Father gave over to him some other things that only God can do (e.g., judge the world).

The thing that God gives over to him here is the worship that is due to God alone: “that every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,” is a quote from Isa 45.23, and there we find that it is to God alone that these things will happen.

Back to my main point – humility. The early church understood the truth of what Paul is saying here, and the importance of being humble with one another. It is like unto Micah 6.8:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Certainly, it is not always easy to be humble before others. I am sure Jesus was exasperated on many occasions. At what point would he not be able to say, “Man, I could do that better than that guy?” But he allowed them; he empowered them by lowering himself.

A good picture of Christlike humility is seen, I think, in the film The Great Debate, where we meet with a black butler working at Harvard university. The students who first meet him think of him only as a servant, a lowly butler; his humility has clothed his true nobility. Eventually, however, events show who and what he truly is.

While I don’t have much to be humble about, I still struggle in this area. But having Jesus as an example of this quality is certainly a good spur and motivation.

Suffer to Be Reminded (from Philippians 1)

Here in Africa, and back in NA too, there are churches which have forgotten: how to lament; what it means to lose; the hard truth about following Jesus; the need to be generous in giving; the certainty of suffering as a Christian.

Paul reminds us of some of this in his letter to the church people in Philippi:

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved – and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. (Phil 1.27-30)

The struggle that Paul talks of here does not necessarily mean death; he is talking about some of the normal penultimate things that might happen to a Christian. A job might be lost, friends might turn on you, you may be rejected in some circles, physical violence may even come against you, all because you confess to being a disciple of Jesus. Following Jesus, Paul takes it as a natural thing that Christian will suffer.

One writer said that since Paul was in Rome, he may have had the colosseum in view, where the gladiatorial games went on. When the fighters had finished they would look to the crowd, to see whether their thumbs would be pointing up or down – would they live or die. This scholar says that, for Paul, the thumbs-up sign has already been given by God in the fact of the church’s solidarity in the Spirit, and that they did not fear even in the midst of trials.

I do not have anything profound to say about this passage; my own sufferings have been slight to say the least. But from watching the M*slim-background church up-close here in Cameroon and Nigeria, I can affirm what Paul says. These people have suffered much – some of them even unto death – and they live under the shadow of oppression every day. Yet to the extent that they fear not, we can see that they are living in the favour of God.

Suffering has been granted to them, and they have received with grace. Would that we all might say the same.

To Die Is Gain (from Philippians 1)

According to Lactantius, an early Christian writer, it was the Pythagoreans and Stoics (two of many philosophic parties) who were enamored with suicide, following men like Socrates and Cicero. Christians did not believe in killing themselves, which Lactantius said was akin to homicide.

In recent decades, however, commentators have played with the notion that suicide was just what Paul had in mind when he wrote these words:

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain. (Phil 1.20-25)

This is tough passage, to be sure. My first inclination is to go with Lactantius and other early writers (like Chrysostom, for instance), and say that Paul was not here contemplating doing away with himself. On the other hand, …

When powerful forces come up against us, like automobiles or gunshots, we do not always have the choice of whether we live or not. But in most cases (thinking here of the scenario given in Million Dollar Baby, where the heroine was physically incapable of ending her life as she wanted to), we do have the choice of whether we might die.

Back in Canada right now, there is the macabre situation where the federally mandated MAID (Medically Assisted Death) program is enabling more and more categories of people to get help to end their life. It began small, being limited to those who were in great pain, whose death was imminent, but who were still conscious and able to make a decision. Minors were not allowed to access the program, nor were the clinically depressed.

Now, however, fierce advocates of the program within the health care system are offering the services of death to people who are simply calling them for help. They are also arguing that it should be available to babies who have what they consider to be incurable diseases – or, better, they are offering the “service” to the babies’ parents. This Is not quite pro-choice yet. But it is infanticide.

Paul was in a Roman prison, not knowing what the future held. He only knew that death was, for him, a gate-way to being with Christ. Even so, he made the conscious choice to continue to struggle for life in order to help the people who were counting on him, like his readers in Philippi.

This debate is bigger than a little blog, and I have neither the time or the competence to do the subject justice. But I do know that Paul chose struggle and life, and that we probably ought to as well, God helping us.

Mixed Motives (from Philippians 1)

I remember preaching about motives once. My point was that, as sinful humans, we Christians will rarely, if ever, have anything close to pure motives for any good deed we might perform. Maybe we will have a half-hidden pinch of pride in there; or perhaps, we want to impress someone; or we may have the thought of some karmic redound effect from our otherwise altruistic action.

There were times when I had the thought to do something good, and I was suddenly struck by the thought of some benefit I might receive from it; or else, my mind went to meditate on what others might think of me if I did the thing. At that point I would be somewhat paralyzed in my action, squarely facing my lower motives.

Upon reflection, however, I would usually pull out of it, and simply go ahead do what I thought was the right thing. I had realized that, yes, my motives might be far from pure – but the right thing to do was still the right thing to do, and I had best just go ahead and do it.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi he says a remarkable thing – remarkable at least in light of what we sometimes think of respecting our motives. Here are his words in full:

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. (Phil 1.15-18)

The gospel of Jesus is a great treasure; the pearl of great price; not to be cast before swine. It is a precious thing, needing to be handled with care, and passed on into trusted hands.

One would think it should only be proclaimed by pure lips, by people with beautiful feet, and so on. But Paul says, No. It didn’t matter to him that those who were preaching might not have the best – or even good – motives. The important thing, he said, was that the gospel was going forth and being spread.

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is famous for being the Epistle of Joy. Here he rejoices over the good gospel being preached with bad motives. Perhaps the point goes against the grain, but it is clear enough: to do the good, the right, thing does not require pure motives, just action. At the end of the day, we will not be judged on our motives – we’ll be in big trouble if that starts to happen. We’ll be judged on what we did and didn’t do.

The Paradoxical Dynamics of Courage (from Philippians 1)

It is a funny thing about courage, how it in fact can be contagious. This was Paul’s experience while sitting in a Roman prison.

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. (Phil 1.12-14)

One would think, on the surface of it, that putting someone in chains would discourage everyone else from doing what that enchained guy was doing. But it seems it all depends on the guy in chains.

If the prisoner is despondent, bewailing his fate, and crying out that he will never do that terrible thing again, then, sure, no one else will want to do what he was doing. But if that guy, instead, glories in the fact that he is in chains for a good cause, that he is happy to suffer for his beliefs, then those watching him will think twice, and will consider that perhaps what has happened to him is so bad after all.

This happened to Paul and the Roman Christians around him (not all of them, but most of them); as they looked at his suffering, and how he handled it with courage and endurance, they themselves took courage and chose to continue to proclaim the goodness of God in Christ.

We have seen this happen in this field as well. Our Christian friends were being fiercely persecuted by many of those around them, but they continued steadfast in the faith, and did not waver in their resolve to continue following Jesus. As they were undergoing this trial, many of their children were watching them, wondering what it was that gave them this courage. These young men began attending the worship services at the church, and then they too decided that this Jesus was worth following and suffering for.

We all know that fear can debilitate us; it can paralyze us and stop us from doing the right thing that we know ought to be done. I have been prevented from doing the right thing because of my fear too many times to count. But when I have seen the courage of others, it has encouraged and inspired me to carry on and do the right thing myself.

Things to make us fearful abound, in Africa, and wherever. But so are there plenty of examples of courage around us. Oh God, help us to look and see those examples, and to be the example of courage for others.

Discernment (from Philippians 1)

Paul’s prayer for the Philippians (and us) sounds like this:

That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God. (Phil 1.9-11)

Last week I read something about discernment that set me off on a major (for me) Bible study on the word in the NT. There are several words that can be translated “discern” in the NT (usually in the King James version; other versions will more often translate the words as “prove,” “approve,” “test,” “examine,” and so on), and they are used about 60x in all.

Anyway, what I discovered was that, whatever word is used, discernment is always a strictly human activity. The way Paul has put it here in this prayer is a great illustration of the dynamic of God’s work with ours.

The first part of the prayer, “That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,” may be seen as the deep work of the Holy Spirit in a person. He is opening their eyes, enabling them to understand the things of God and so on.

This is all done, “so that” we will be able to discern what is best for our lives, ultimately to the glory of God.

This discernment is now not a matter of prayer for us, except as we might ask for wisdom (James 1.5). Discernment, here and pretty much everywhere in the NT, is a strictly human activity; this is our job, for which we have been empowered by the prior work of the Spirit of God.

Sometimes the word is used as a kind of signal that we ought now to turn to God and ask him to do the work of discerning for us; some teach that discernment is a process of praying and hearing from God. But this is nowhere found to be the case in the NT; discernment is always something that we do ourselves. It is our responsibility, for which God has already equipped us.

If we think of the story of the Good Samaritan we will get a feel for what is going on. The Samaritan man comes along the road, and discovers a man lying close to death in the ditch. There is no time for him to “discern” the situation through prayer and hearing from God; he already has the fruit of the Spirit in him, of love and kindness. He does not need to wonder; he can make an instant decision about what he ought to do.

To put it another way: God does not do the hard work of discerning for us, and then simply pass the result along. No, we ourselves are called upon to judge, to examine, to differentiate, to distinguish, to prove, to approve, to test, to question, to interpret, and to try (these are most of the ways the various Greek words are translated in the NIV). Ultimately, we will make the decision about whatever question is before us.

Paul’s prayer here gets us ready to do just that, so when the occasion for discernment comes, it will be faithfully done, in a timely manner.

Partnership (from Philippians 1)

Paul writes,

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. (Phil 1.3-5)

The word he uses for partnership there is koinonia, a Greek word which many evangelical Christians will recognize. This is a word that is also often translated as “fellowship.” It implies that there is a relationship between two or more entities (in this case, between an apostle and a church), where there is 2-way communication and exchange.

With Paul and the church in Philippi, the transaction included, first, the Good News about Jesus, which Paul had preached, and which the Philippians had accepted and received. Second, it included material goods, as the Philippians had sent resources to help Paul while he was in a Roman prison, which he had gladly accepted and received (Phil 4.10, 14-18). Further, they had exchanged personnel, as the church had sent Epaphroditus to help Paul in prison, and Paul was intending to send both Epaphroditus and Timothy back to them to them (2.19, 25).

Last, but certainly not least, partnership, koinonia, includes prayer for one another. This is what Paul is engaged in even in the writing of this letter.

When Sonya and I were visiting churches, prior to our coming out to Cameroon, we talked about what we hoped to see in our own partnership with those churches who were supporting us, and it looks remarkably like what we see in Paul’s ministry.

Partnership for us has several elements, prayer being the first among them. I have an email group of prayer warriors whom I have asked to pray for us on an on-going basis. I try to send out prayer updates every couple of weeks or so, to keep people abreast of what is going on here, and what things need their extra prayerful attention. On our side, I certainly empathise with Paul’s sentiments here, as I am praying for our supporting churches each day. When I know about specific issues within the churches, I will pray for that; when I have no other information, I am praying and asking God to strengthen the churches so that they can fulfill his mission for them in their own Jerusalem. I see this as the most important part of our partnership.

Of course, we could not be here without the financial support of our churches, and many individuals and families, whose partnership with us includes giving money specifically to our mission. While the living situation here in Cameroon and Nigeria presents many challenges, they do not come from a lack of funds on our part. On our side, we are tasked with reporting back to the churches when we return to Canada on furlough. Last time was during Covid (when we came out on a hastily scheduled Canadian Evacuation Flight), and so our ability to travel to many of our churches was limited. Next year we plan to be in Canada and, Lord willing, the U.S.A., once more, and hope to be able to give fulsome reports to as many of our churches as we can. If all goes well, I hope to begin in the Vancouver area towards the end of summer, 2023. “To Allah muwi,” as we say (as God wills).

Then there is letter writing. I do not have too much time, or internet connection, to be as diligent in this area as I would like (I used to be very good at this when I was younger), but I try to do my best. When we were still in Canada I had this thought that I would like to do regular video updates, but the on-the-ground reality here says we do not have the internet service for that. Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago we received a PDF file from a church, where they had scanned letters written by folks who had gathered for that purpose; that was a lot of fun to receive and read, and when you talk about spiritual uplift, sometimes it is those kinds of things that God can use most. There are also folks who write us regularly from Canada and the U.S., and it is always a joy to hear from them. Koinonia is connection, and this certainly helps with that.

Except for us coming back to Canada last year, we have not done much in the way of personnel exchange, but we hope that might change in the coming year. We are (possibly; TBA) looking to see a medical team next year. Its focus will, of course, be on the hospital ministry here in Banyo, but our hope is that we would also host small teams who are interested in a deeper partnership with our LRPG brothers and sisters.

Until then, I will be with Paul: thanking God every time I think of you.

A Pastor by Whatever Name (from Phil 1)

Still thinking of the first little passage we looked at yesterday, this time with respect to the governance of the church itself. Paul writes to,

To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons. (1.1)

This last little phrase there is quite famous, believe it or not. That is because when people today (or in the past; today they mostly have figured it out the way they want) want to know how the church ought to be governed, they look to see how it was done in the NT church.

Notice there are no pastors or bishops here, just deacons (which in our Baptist churches we still have), and overseers. Both are in the plural, which means they had a group of people acting in those offices, not just one senior pastor, as we often have in small churches today. In other places in Paul’s letters he also talks about elders and bishops (in our English translations).

By comparing the way Paul uses these terms, we come to see that, for him, a bishop, an elder, and an overseer are synonymous terms; they mean the same thing (there must be some old joke on these lines – “One day, a bishop, an elder, and an overseer, walk into a bar. . .”). Basically, all of these are the equivalent to the pastor in our church today – and if, in your church, you have a group of pastors, that is even closer to the model we find here.

If we take all of those names – bishop, elder, overseer – and add that from Eph 4, of a pastor-teacher, we get a pretty full-orbed picture of what today’s pastor is all about, especially when we consider the word for “pastor” comes form the Greek word meaning “shepherd.” So a pastor today is called to shepherd his people; to oversee them with respect to their spiritual health and growth; to act as an elder in the church, advising and giving counsel. I was a pastor for about 20 years, in two different churches, and I consider that role to be one of the most significant in our world today.

I think it was last month, October, that is usually set aside as “Pastor Appreciation Month” in NA. Not a bad thing to do during the rest of the year either.

Holy People (from Phil 1)

I really enjoyed the discipline and learning I had when I was going through the Gospel of John here last month, so I have decided to try my hand at more of the same, this time in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

I picked Philippians because it is short, and we will soon be into the Advent season. Plus, it is a joyful letter, with a lot to teach me. there was a book written a while back called like something The Christian Hedonist. I never read it, so I am not sure what the phrase meant to the author, but I think I might be one of those. I say this because most of the things I do, in part I decide to do them based on how much joy I think they might give me. (For those who are worried about that, I will quickly add, that for me, part of the joy I get is the satisfaction of seeing God glorified, and his kingdom come, and so on.)

When Paul wrote his letter to the church folk in Philippi it from within a prison cell in Rome. Probably he dictated the letter to a secretary, as he paced the cell floor. The church in Philippi had sent Paul a gift through one of their own members, a man named Epaphroditus. But Epaphroditus had fallen deathly ill, and the church members were worried about him, so one of the reasons Paul wrote was to tell them how he was doing.

Along the way he has some interesting things to tell us in the 21^st century. So, let us begin our look inside.

Paul writes the letter together with his friend and colleague, Timothy, and they start like this:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1.1-2)

While the church is most definitely not a democracy, it can certainly be called a democratizing institution. That means that because it has been around, and is the way it is, democracy has gained a firm foothold in the world (though some would say that its foundations have been seriously cracked in some places).

Paul does not address himself first to the leaders, but to the people – the butchers, the bakers, the candle-stick makers. People without any title in the church, and probably not outside of it either. It is a good bet a number of them were slaves, as with many of the other churches he wrote to.

He calls them “holy people,” where the word “holy” (hagios) is the Greek word used to translate “saint.”

I remember when I was a young Christian, sitting in a Bible study where the Youth pastor was telling a story about his mother. She had been in church one Sunday (different church than ours), and the minister there had called all the people saints. This really offended her, because she felt it was an untruth, and that even though she was a Christian, she was not to be called a saint, since to her that was something quite different.

But as the Youth pastor explained (though, if memory serves, he told us he was too afraid to say it to his mother), his mother’s pastor was correct in his understanding. If a person is a Christian, then she is a saint. Perhaps not in the way that the Roman Catholic makes people saints on the basis of miracles and a holy life or something. That is not what Paul was getting at.

When he calls the people in the church at Philippi saints, he means that they have been set apart for God; this is the fundamental meaning of the word holy – to be set apart for God. We might call it the basement floor of holiness; getting to sainthood in the RC sense is raising it another level or two.

Anyway – if you are a Christian person, this is you. You are “holy” already – even as you have been called to be holy. Rejoice!