Episode 1683: Striving Side by Side

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,683 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Keith Conley: I'm Keith Conley. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to become good stewards of all our gifts is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: In your secular work and grow and guide you so that you can live a life in human society that cares for others and loves first, gives grace first, gives mercy first. That's the gospel. Live the gospel, and that should influence your values, your priorities, how you think. Those things still [00:01:00] work if we work.

Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you

Keith Conley: can impact the world

Scott Maderer: In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about Philippians 1:21-30. I talk about how living for Christ means living for service to others, and I also talk about how the sacred and the secular are always connected Philippians chapter 1, verses 21 through 30 says, "For to me, living is Christ and [00:02:00] dying is gain.

If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet I cannot say which I will choose. 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 for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that by my presence again with you, your boasts might be might abound in Christ Jesus because of me.

Only live your life in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the Gospel, and in no way frightened by those opposing you. For them, this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation, and this is God's doing.

For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of [00:03:00] believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well, since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have." This is one of the epistles of Paul. Paul writes these letters to different churches, i-in this case, the church at Philippi, about things that are going on in those churches.

And it's important to realize that Paul is writing this letter when he's in prison in Rome. He's been imprisoned for his faith, for his beliefs, for what he's been representing and preaching and doing. And when you realize that he's incarcerated, it sort of begins to change some of these messages. Later in this same epistle, he tells a story of suffering and privilege, and here he is bound and imprisoned.

And in the end of the letter, he talks about rejoicing, and not [00:04:00] just rejoicing, but rejoicing always, which again, he's saying from behind prison bars. But here at the beginning, he begins this epistle by reminding the believers in Philippi that he's praying for them. He's praying for them from prison. He prays for them and, by extension, for all of us.

In our text, he's wrestling with life and death. I don't know about you, but I think if I was imprisoned and being possibly sentenced to death, life and death would probably be on my mind I probably would be having depression and anger and all of those other emotions and debate about my purpose and faith and life.

And yet here he says his decision to stay and not go is [00:05:00] based on being in service to others, based on being able to reach out to the church community, based on being able to tell other people the message of the gospel. It's not for his own benefit and his own good, but rather for the community, for the flock, for those that are listening to him, including this group from Philippi.

He writes that he's motivated to live and to work for the cause of Christ because of that community Let's not just assume that he's contemplating ending his life in prison or that he's considering surrendering his ministry and waiting for this sentence to be pronounced. Remember, ultimately it was, and he was put to death.

I don't think I would fault him for that. I don't think I would worry about that or think it was unusual. I think I would probably have that feeling myself. [00:06:00] I definitely wouldn't blame him for being overly concerned about the state of his soul in these final moments of life and freedom inside of prison, which isn't really free at all.

Instead, he sets himself aside and says, "I'm here to continue to encourage the church to build up the body So what's the response to that, to hearing that self-sacrifice? Paul asks the Philippians to live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. To live your life, he says. Live it well. Live it as Christ would have you live.

But that's not just about being a good boy or good girl. This isn't about the moral message. It's more than that. It is that, but it's more. It's also a call to unity and community. A life worthy of Christ [00:07:00] is a life lived in community. It's lived in shared mission and shared ministry, striving side by side.

That's not an accidental byproduct of the gospel. It is there in the design of it. And this unity, this shared striving, not perfection, but moving towards perfection, is the strength of the church. In fact, it's the strength to stand against those who would oppose it. It talks of enemies, a complicated word.

Some people don't feel like they have any enemies, and others see that their mission is to conquer enemies, destroy enemies, overcome enemies, vanquish the enemies. But Paul doesn't say that's our job here. Instead, he says faith and unity are protection against enemies, to not be intimidated by those who oppose.

It's about perseverance. It's about [00:08:00] commitment to the cause of Christ, regardless of the obstacles. And it's a reminder that the best way to do that is together, striving side by side while we stand together. Striving while we live our lives in a manner worthy of the gospel But the word here is politeusate, which means live your life.

It's also the word that we get politics from. It can be translated as conduct yourselves as a citizen in a manner worthy of the gospel. So as Christians, we're often told, "Don't get political." The worlds are separate, politics and faith, politics and the spiritual stuff, the secular and the sacred, and keep them separate.

But Paul is saying there is no separation. The sacred and the secular have to be entwined. How we conduct [00:09:00] ourselves as a citizen has to reflect our faith. Our faith has to come first. We have to be a Christian before we're anything else. That's what he's saying. The spiritual dimension of your life has to lead the decisions.

If it never shows up in your political decisions, in your secular decisions, then what good is it? It's separate. It doesn't really influence you or your community or the world. If your faith in Jesus has no impact on the priorities by which you live or the values by which you hold or the causes that you support, then it hasn't really transformed you.

It's not really sanctifying you. By the way, this isn't a call to belong to a particular political party, to vote a particular way, to support a particular party or candidate, but it is a call to say, "Be Christian first." Let your faith and the [00:10:00] community work and grow and guide you so that you can live a life in human society that cares for others and loves first, gives grace first, gives mercy first.

That's the gospel. Live the gospel. And that should influence your values, your priorities, how you think. Those things still work if we work. Thanks for listening.

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