Gospel Citizenship - Philippians 1:27 Series

Philippians 1:27 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, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel 28 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. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Introduction

Have you performed your civic duty this week? Or would I be right in guessing that the phrase “civic duty” never even crossed your mind last week. In our culture, you usually only hear the words “civic duty” when people are trying to get you to vote (which is ironic, because voting is not actually a civic duty. You are not obligated to vote.) So what are you obligated to do as a citizen of the United States? What does it mean to be a good citizen?

Right now there is a lot of political debate about whether to grant citizenship to people who are here illegally. Citizenship is a very big deal to immigrants, but those of us who were born here probably never even think about our citizenship. I can tell you one time I did think about it. I was a trumpet player with a music group called the Continentals back in 1985, before the Berlin wall came down, and we went into communist East Berlin and did a concert in an underground church. We entered East Berlin at checkpoint Charlie, and the United States Marines who were stationed there told us to make sure we were back by midnight. They said if we weren’t, they would come in after us. This was during the cold war, and my dad had a job that gave him access to a lot of classified information regarding our nuclear capabilities, and so he was not allowed by the State Department to ever enter a communist country. At first they weren’t going to let me go either, but finally changed their mind. But before I went, they gave me all kinds of instructions on what to do if I was detained by the Communists. So after that, I was a little intimidated crossing through all the barbed wire and guards with their machine guns, and all the rest. So when those Marines said that they would come in after us, I have to say, I was glad to be a United States citizen at that point.

We have been studying verse by verse through the book of Philippians, and we come this morning to the beginning of a whole new section. Paul’s goal in this book is to improve their church unity by increasing their joy. That’s his goal, and his first strategy was to teach them how to have joy in the midst of suffering through his example. So the whole first chapter, all the way through verse 26, is all about Paul’s example of how to have joy even while you are suffering. And now, starting in verse 27, he is going to move to another tactic. Now that we have seen his example, he is going to give us some direct commands and instruction on how to be unified as a church. So you will notice a major shift. You are going to start seeing a lot of commands now. Up to this point, he has been talking about himself. Now, he is going to start telling us what to do. And it begins with citizenship.

Be a Gospel Citizen

Philippians 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Conduct (Be a Good Citizen)

That word conduct (your Bible might say manner of living) is an interesting word. Normally in a context like this, when Paul wants to describe day-to-day conduct, he uses the word “walk.” (Walk in a manner worthy…) He likes to describe life as a walk, and so when I looked up this word, I fully expected it to be the Greek word for walk. But here Paul chooses an unusual term - this is the only place in all of Paul’s epistles where he uses this word. It literally means to live as a citizen. It is the Greek word polituo. We get our words politics from it.

So instead of saying walk, like he usually does, he uses a word that means live as a citizen. Instead of “walk in a manner worthy of the gospel,” it’s “carry out your citizenship in a manner worthy of the gospel.” And it’s not at all difficult to figure out why Paul used that term when talking to the Philippians. The city of Philippi was a Roman colony, which was a very, very big deal. Being a Roman colony meant Roman citizenship – for all the people, and their children. It was just a tiny little city, but it was the most important city in all of Macedonia because of their status as a Roman colony.