To Live Is…
October 3, 2010 Phil 1:18b-26
Intro:
How would you finish this sentence: “to live is…”? Take a few moments to think about that – in your experience and from your perspective, what does it mean to “live”?
Our answers might include the physical: “to live is to have a heart that beats and a brain that functions…”
It might include the emotional: “to live is to feel joy or pain, to really feel alive…”
It might include the intellectual: “to live is to be engaged in a purpose or a problem, trying to figure something out…”
It might include the active: “to live is to do things of value, hands-on, important, productive…”
And it might even include the idea of love: “to live is to love”.
I think most of us would want to include at least several if not all of these in our response to the question, “what does it mean to live?”. Our emphasis will reflect our personality and the way we are made spiritually. In general, we see true living as more than “existing”, we see it as purposeful, intense, experiential, and engaging. We often equate it with the “highs” of life – like “the days my kids were born were the days I really felt alive”, or “that time I knew with all my being that Jesus was real and close and my sins were forgiven and I was accepted, that was living”. And in my experience with people, it isn’t limited to the “good” times of life, but rather the “significant” times of life even when those are really hard. The moments when things really matter. Our passage of Scripture in Philippians causes us to ask the question that follows the one I posed first: are we really alive?
Background:
Our fall study of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi continues this morning in verse 18. Remember Paul is writing from prison to his friends, who are deeply concerned about how Paul is doing as he sits in a Roman jail, very possibly facing death if he is convicted of the charges against him. We saw last week Paul expressing that he really only cares about the message of Jesus getting out to people who don’t yet know, and we heard Paul talk about rejoicing wherever and however the message is being spread. We pick it up in the middle of verse 18, where I believe Paul starts a new paragraph continuing to share honestly and emotionally about how he is doing and what he is going through and how he is understanding and perceiving his life.
Phil 1:18b-26 (NLT):
And I will continue to rejoice. 19 For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance. 20 For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. 21 For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. 22 But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. 23 I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. 24 But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.
25 Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith. 26 And when I come to you again, you will have even more reason to take pride in Christ Jesus because of what he is doing through me.
Paul’s Choice:
At first glance, we might think that Paul is talking about a choice between life and death. But that would be mis-reading what Paul understands about death, which he sees here in terms of death’s function as carrying us from this present life into a greater, eternal life. I don’t want to dive deeply into Paul’s whole understanding of death, as an attempt for evil which God has (in Jesus) defeated and now turned to good, for the sake of time, but I do want us to see clearly in our passage that Paul’s choice is really between life here on earth, and the life-after-death where we believe that Christians will be bodily resurrected to a new, eternal, perfected life. The choice is not life or death, it is life or more life. That is Paul’s struggle.
It is a little difficult to see in our English translation, and since I don’t know or read Greek I’ll have to trust my commentators who report that the way this is written is intensely emotional, it is Paul pouring out his heart, it is not a well-thought through and carefully composed argument, it is passionate and real and the tension and conflict is raw and on the surface. We see a bit of that when we read, “I really don’t know which is better… I’m torn…”
Considering “death”:
What Paul is “torn” by is his “long(ing) to go and be with Christ” versus his love for others, “for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live (ie. earthly life)”. I’m not going to dive into a theology of death but I do want us to consider Paul’s emotional perspective on death. As we look at the passage, do we see fear? do we see anxiety? do we see hesitation or reluctance? On the other side, do we see a suicidal person? someone running from trouble, looking for an “out” from struggle? someone who wants to give up? I don’t see any of those things.
The emotional perspective I see here in Scripture towards death is one of acceptance and peace, and even of anticipation, which is rooted in the experienced truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The obvious question for us is this: is this emotional perspective on death our emotional perspective as well? It can be. If our focus is also on the experienced truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection in our lives.
I’ve had the deep opportunity, on many occasions, to see this same emotional perspective in my work as a pastor. It was deeply moving for me to sit at the hospital bedside of people we love and hear them say essentially the same thing. Bruno Walter was one of the most vocal and confident, Eileen Spillett and Trevor Lang had this perspective, so did Audrey Taylor and Jim Dickie. Others as well, and their example stands with Paul’s example to teach us that this is real, it is possible, it is healthy, and it is true. Those friends embraced acceptance, peace, and some sense of anticipation while also deeply wanting to continue to live on earth. I’ve sat at other hospital bedsides and seen fear, and the other example is much to be preferred. To get there, if you are wondering, mostly involves the same thing as we will see in a moment as the key to “truly living” in this earthly life: it is having Jesus First. I mentioned that last week as a main theme of Philippians, it is here this week as well, and it will shape and form our emotional perspective on death, for ourselves and for those we love. So if your emotional perspective on death is not the same as Paul’s, the way to move in that direction is to truly make Jesus first.
Considering “life”:
Paul’s other option is to continue to live on in this earthly life, and this is the choice he makes. He wants to continue to live so he can continue to help others grow in faith. We see again, Jesus first. Paul wants to and chooses to keep living so that he can continue the work God has called him to, and equipped him for, and blessed him in: the work of continuing to share the good news about Jesus and seeing people grow in their faith and “experience the joy of your faith”. This is, I think, what it means for Paul to really “live”. He has just said, “For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.” We know it better by another translation, which says, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” There is that “Jesus First” perspective we keep seeing.
My question at the top of the sermon came from this verse: I asked you to complete the sentence, “to live is…”, because in this passage we see how Paul completes that sentence. “to live is Christ…”. As he elaborates in the remainder of the passage we see that this “living in Christ” is entirely about seeing the impact that Jesus makes on the lives of others: “if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ… But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live… I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith.”
So, gut-check time… how many of us in considering that question at the top of the sermon went to the place of living being about others? About how we could serve them, help them grow, bear fruit for them to enjoy? As I wrote it and thought about it early in my prep, I didn’t. My perspective was about the aspects that make me “live”, not about the perspective from Paul which says, “for your sakes it is better that I continue to live… so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith.”
What does that say about me? Probably that I am more deeply formed by my culture than by my Saviour. Probably that even though I spend my life in ministry as a pastor, there is still an underlying attitude and perspective that places me at the centre of my life rather than Jesus and rather than others. And for that, I must confess, and repent.
Conclusion:
And then I must seek Jesus. We’ve done that in song and prayer, we next do it around the Lord’s Table. After we celebrate, I’ll have a few closing, benedictory thoughts from the passage about how to live, but let’s allow our reflection of what it really means to live and what the Scriptures tell us this morning, to prepare us to join together at the Lord’s Table and “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” As the servers come and join me, take some moments in silent reflection and preparation.
Benediction:
“I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ”. This is early in the passage, and the thought leads Paul into his struggle and discussion of life and death, and anticipates his conclusion that he chooses to continue to live so that his life can lead others to Christ and to growing in faith, and I believe it gives us one of the keys to truly living: being “bold for Christ”. We’ve just re-enacted the Passover feast which Jesus re-interpreted for His disciples on the night He was betrayed to death, which as we know resulted in victory over death and a new life for all who are “in Christ”.
As I dismiss us now, as we “get up from the table”, may the experience we have of the risen Lord Jesus overpower every other impulse and influence, may it make us not ashamed but rather “bold for Christ”, because as we live with that bold conviction rooted in eternal historical truth and our experience of it, we will discover what it means to really live. “To live is Christ…”, go now and live. Freely, powerfully, completely, and generously.
