“Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. 18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
Here in verse 17 of our text we find another of those places that make us cringe just a little inside, as Paul invites his readers to follow his example and to walk according to the pattern he has set for them and the tendency is to think to ourselves that we could never be so bold. We know our faults and our own failures, and I think there is also a tendency to venerate Paul, great Apostle that he was, and to feel that he had attained to some high spiritual plane that is unreachable for the rest of us.
Well of course we would all agree, I’m sure, that Paul was a very great man and that he was probably the best preacher of all, second only to the Preacher, Jesus of Nazareth. After all, we develop most of our sermons from what we have been taught by the Apostle. But let’s be reminded that Paul expressed a personal dissatisfaction with his spiritual maturity; not in the sense of a self-prideful self-flagellation over personal failures he saw in himself, but in the sense of an awareness that there would always be a work going on in him to conform him to the image of his Lord until the day he was taken home.
In other words, Paul didn’t worship Paul and he was not calling for us to worship him when he wrote, ‘…join in following my example’.
What he was conveying was that he was absolutely and joyfully certain of his eternal acceptance with the Father on the one hand, and on the other acutely aware of the fact that God was not finished with him yet and he was therefore determined to cooperate in the sanctifying process, walking in the way of holiness, in the world but not of it, confident that God would complete what He had begun.
That is the example Paul wanted his readers to follow. His example of belief and practice. Assurance and diligence. Not anything mechanical; not mimicking some act or idiosyncrasy distinctive to Paul, but the pattern of absolute confidence in the finished work of Christ to make him secure before the throne of God for eternity, and earnest, relentless reaching forward for the heavenly prize that awaits him which is ultimate conformity to the very image of Jesus.
In that, we can indeed follow Paul’s example and insofar as we are doing so we can, without false humility and without hypocrisy, encourage others to follow our pattern also.
We have a crown of righteousness laid up and waiting for us who have loved His appearing. We know that when we see Him we shall be like Him for we shall see Him face to face. He has made it a surety for us and promised us He will return and take us there.
In the meantime He wants to call us deeper in and higher up, and forsaking the things of the world and the flesh we are pressing on toward that upward call. Follow this example we are setting…observe the pattern.
Do you fully grasp what I’m saying? Paul didn’t say, ‘copy me’, he said, ‘I’ve found the right and the only path upwards to the Celestial City and the crown of life. Come along! Don’t look back! Walk this way!’
HOW THE MANY WALK
I want to call your attention to something here so we don’t miss it as we go along. Look at verse 18. “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ.”
This is not exaggeration. For Paul to say he was weeping, using the present tense, if he was not, would have been to lie. This is the Bible and we’re reading the words of the Apostle Paul. As he wrote these words to the Philippian church he was weeping.
That’s important. Paul is talking about people who, unless they find repentance and turn to God through Christ, are going to spend eternity in torment away from God.
Now Paul could be saying some very harsh things about these people. He is talking about false teachers. He is even talking about some who have treated him as a personal enemy. Included in this group would be the ones referenced back in chapter one, who have such animosity for the Apostle that they wish to be able to cause him distress while imprisoned and helpless.
That’s mean.
But how does Paul react to the thought of these people; these enemies of the cross of Christ which he preaches exclusively? He weeps for them.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” Matt 5:43-45a
Those are words spoken by Jesus early in His sermon on the mount. Do you think Paul was praying for these enemies of the cross as well as weeping for them?
When Jesus said, ‘so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven’, He wasn’t teaching that the act of praying for and loving your enemies will make you God’s son. He was teaching that in this you will resemble your Father who loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.
Even the false teacher, if he comes to repentance, will be saved by God’s grace through faith. After all, wasn’t Paul a false teacher in his ignorance before his Damascus road experience? Listen.
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; 14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” 1 Tim 1:12-16
Christians, whenever we catch ourselves getting our hackles up at people because of the things they do and say in unbelief, we should let the Holy Spirit check us – stop us in our tracks, as it were – and think back to the days we acted in unbelief; perhaps even days as believers that we have acted in unbelief, and remember that only by the grace of God do we now stand in hope.
But Paul, even weeping, still must warn. Because after all, being enemies of the cross of Christ makes these people a danger to the church if they are not discerned. So he goes on…
THEIR END IS DESTRUCTION
“These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,” 2 Thess 1:9
When Paul wrote those words to the Thessalonian church he was speaking of the Judaizers and false teachers just as he is here to the Philippians.
The Judaizers will inherit eternal destruction because they add to the cross of Christ by teaching that there must also be human works, such as circumcision and the keeping of the Law of Moses in order to be saved. In so doing they minimize the power of Christ’s atoning work to save.
The gentile false teachers mingled demonic, pagan practices with their teaching, denying the power of the cross to transform lives. Therefore they also deserve destruction.
When men preach an easy gospel, one that promises material gain and deliverance from all trouble and never calls for repentance or the exercise of faith in tribulation, they are enemies of the cross of Christ.
Do not be deceived by their apparent success and acclaim. Their ultimate destiny is eternal destruction.
THEIR GOD IS THEIR APPETITE
Next he says their god is their appetite. This is pretty straightforward if you just consciously think about the word appetite, or as some translations say, ‘their belly’. It’s not just about food. It’s about all pleasures and comforts of the flesh. They worship their bodies and pamper them like they would a favored deity.
THEIR GLORY IS IN THEIR SHAME
The very things they should be ashamed of are what they glory in. Remember all the things Paul considered loss? Remember those things he cast away from himself for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord?
They glory in their trash. They boast about the things that cause them to lose out on Christ.
THEY SET THEIR MINDS ON EARTHLY THINGS
Paul has named last the very foundation for the rest. This is what is ultimately going on. Their minds are set on earthly things; on the things of the world. J.B. Phillips translates the end of verse 19, “this world is the limit of their horizon’. (In a few minutes I want to share his translation of verses 20-21 with you also.) Therefore they value their accomplishments and their credentials, they worship their bodies and their end will be destruction.
Since this world is going to be destroyed and it is this world they cling to that just makes sense, doesn’t it? If you’re in the car when it goes over the cliff you’re going to hit bottom the same time as the car.
My friends and family, your behavior will always be determined by what you believe, and what you believe will be manifest in your behavior.
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked.
No matter the label you wear, no matter the name you put over your breast pocket, if your mind is set on earthly things – by that I mean your thinking, your desires, your passions, your interests, your trusts – your behavior will tell tales on you.
By behaviors I don’t just mean low living and carousing in the bars. I mean your reactions to life, your responses to people, your lack of interest in spiritual growth and in knowing Christ or commending Him to others.
And let’s not miss that Paul said there are many. Many. Many walk in such a way that exposes them as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Not just enemies of Christians, not just enemies of the church, not just enemies of Paul. He chose his words carefully as always. They are enemies of the cross of Christ, because of what it stands for.
They aren’t enemies of the Ten Commandments or principles of Christian living. A lot of people are for those things because they think that having those things in a society makes it better; keeps things nicer.
They even want to argue for having the Ten Commandments posted in public schools and court buildings, even though the first commandment is to believe in and worship the one true God who they have turned their back on and even blaspheme.
And they want people to have what they call ‘Christian values’ so they will be good upstanding and productive citizens.
But they will get downright nasty with you if you begin to tell them that they are dead in sin and need a Savior and that the only Savior is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who died on a cross to pay for their sin and rose bodily from the dead as He promised He would.
They’ll even go to court if you’re loud enough, to get you to shut up about Jesus being the only way to God and Heaven.
What are they? They are enemies of the cross of Christ. They worship themselves, they worship the earth, they cling to the comforts of the flesh, they boast of their credentials and when their house burns up with an intense heat they are going to be Bar B Que.
What you really believe will always determine your behavior; will always reveal to whom you belong.
CITIZENS OF A FAR COUNTRY
Ok here’s the J.B. Phillips translation of verses 20-21
“But we are citizens of Heaven; our outlook goes beyond this world to the hopeful expectation of the Savior who will come from Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will re-make these wretched bodies of ours to resemble his own glorious body, by that power of his which makes him the master of everything that is.”
The first thing I want you to think about as we go on to see this infinite contrast between those who are of this world and those of us who are not is that the present tense again comes into play here.
We are citizens of Heaven. Paul didn’t say we’re going to be. We are citizens. We are a colony of pilgrims, traveling far from home.
That’s physically. Spiritually we are made citizens of the commonwealth of Heaven, and we are welcome to come and go to and from the very Throne room of the King at will. His scepter of power is extended to us in welcome perpetually and He inspires His holy men to write things like,
“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb 4:16
and
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,” Col 1:13
and
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Eph 2:4-6
What a low and insulting view the world has of the Christian, and which I am afraid we as Christians so often have of ourselves because we are so short-sighted.
C.S. Lewis called for clearer vision with these words:
”I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes” “Christian Behavior” – C.S. Lewis
Being a Christian is not just being a nicer person than someone who is not. It is not a membership of an earthly organization. It is not an improved human or a corrected psyche or a more cheerful outlook on things.
There is a church that has an advertisement on television inviting people to ‘find your path’. It depicts people from all walks of life, all different vocations, even various lifestyles, such as same sex partners, leaving their troubled circumstances and walking together with head up, searching, finally converging in a peaceful wooded scene with sunlight filtering through the trees and once they are all together they are happy. And this is supposed to be the benefit of being a Christian.
NO. Believer, you are washed, you are regenerated, you are made a brand new creature who is not of this world at all and you are seated with Christ in the Heavenly places.
What you look for and forward to now is not a peaceful glen in which to shed the weight of your days, but the coming of Him who will transform your body instantly into the state that will make it able to enter that place where sin-affected flesh cannot go.
He is the Master of all things. All authority has been given to Him in Heaven and on earth. He is seated at the right hand of the Father in His place of Princely authority until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together (Col 1:17), and by the power He has to subject all things to Himself He will simply call you up and your wretched frame will be glorified.
NOT OF THE WORLD BUT STILL IN IT
I want to finish today calling your minds back to the present and your present circumstances. That may not seem fair, but it is needful.
When I was in Southern California during my Bible College days there was a young man in the church I served in who spent a great deal of time tucking himself away in prayer. He did odd jobs around the church for which they paid him and during service times he was usually playing some instrument to lead in worship. During the weekdays if he was assigned some menial task around the church property he would often disappear for a while and be found out in the lawnmower shed, or the back of the church kitchen or some other remote place, praying.
One day as I sat with the pastor’s wife in the church office this young man could be seen out the window, fiddling with a sprinkler head in the yard.
The pastor’s wife chuckled and said, “Kevin is so Heavenly minded he’s no earthly good”.
Well, the Bible tells young men not to harshly rebuke an older man (1 Tim 5:1), and although she was not a man she was the wife of my pastor so I held my peace.
But what I wanted to say to her was that the more Heavenly minded he was the more earthly good he was likely to be. It is the men and women in history who have thought most about Heaven who have had the greatest influence for good in this world. And that is my point. While we are here, Christians, waiting for the return of the Master, we ought to be all the good we can be for this world.
Not on behalf of the world and the spirit of the world, but on the behalf of Heaven.
An ambassador in a foreign land is there as representative of his supreme commander and the reason he is there is two-fold. 1. To bring the influence of his home country to the one in which he is placed, and 2. to be a benefit to the country in which he serves by sharing resources, ideals, even gifts from his homeland that can be of any help and assistance to the people among whom he moves.
Lloyd-Jones on this said, “Though you are away from home, remember that the honor and the dignity of the great kingdom to which you belong is in your hands.
There are those other people around and about you who do not belong to your kingdom; they are watching you and they will judge your country by you.” “The Life of Peace”, Lloyd-Jones, Baker Book House, 1990
And this brings me to repeat what I talked about earlier. What we truly believe will manifest in our behavior, in our responses, in our priorities, in every part of our life.
The highest good the Christian can be in the world in which he lives will be determined by the earnestness with which he longs for that far country where his citizenship is on record and from which he waits for His Savior who will come and is coming soon.
Would it ever be necessary to appeal to the true believer to walk worthy of his calling and dwell below in holiness if he was constantly aware that there is laid up for him a crown of righteousness that will not tarnish, and a body of glory that will not get old, will never be sick, can never die? That is our inheritance, believers in Christ, as citizens of a far country.
Be faithful now, though you live in a world ruined by sin, ruled by Satan, hostile to you and filled with enemies of the cross of Christ. Be faithful in patience and in service to the Supreme Commander who has temporarily assigned you here.
For the day is soon coming when you will hear His voice and you will be changed in an instant, and you will be filled with goodness as a mirror is filled with light, and you will only then begin as a day begins with the first rays of dawn, to enjoy the One who is the source of your glory.
