LIVING TOGETHER WITH THE RIGHT CONDUCT
Philippians 1:27-30
INTRODUCTION
A. We often fail to live with the right conduct in the church.
1. One day a little boy complained that his new shoes were hurting his feet. His teacher looked down at his feet. No wonder they hurt, his shoes were on the wrong feet. When she changed them he felt better and was soon the liveliest little fellow in the group.
2. We often go through life, even as Christians hurting. Perhaps it is because we fail to live with the right conduct as Christians.
3. We have become like the man who gave up his seat on a bus to a lady. She fainted. On recovering, she thanked him. Then he fainted. Courtesy has become a lost art, and often right conduct has become a lost art.
4. Paul was calling the Philippians and us to live by the right conduct, and not let it go out of style.
• You have Partnership in the Gospel (vs. 5), Proclamation of the Gospel (vss. 13-18); Conduct in the Gospel (vs. 27).
a. He has called for us to live together advance the gospel and to live together with the right desire.
b. He wrote in light of his imprisonment and impending trial. Now he tells us the right conduct is important no matter what happens.
B Paul calls us to conduct worthy of the gospel.
1. It made no difference whether Paul was released, forced to remain in prison, or executed, they must conduct their lives in a manner appropriate to the gospel of Christ.
• This is the instruction they needed if he did not see them again.
2. It makes no difference whether a decision in the church goes our way or not; we ought to conduct ourselves properly. There ought to be no fighting, grumbling, or arguing because we do not get our way, but simply live by the right conduct.
3. Our conduct ought to be the same as a good citizen acts in his country. That is what the word means. Paul is saying, "Behave the way citizens are supposed to behave."
4. The Philippians would understand this because they were proud of their Roman citizenship, since Philippi was a Roman colony.
5. They knew that Paul had used his Roman citizenship to bring about a speedy and dignified release from imprisonment there (Acts 16:36-40). Now they were challenged to live with a more significant citizenship; indeed their citizenship was in heaven (3:20) we are to behave like it.
6. This was a much more significant matter for them than for us.
a. We can be citizens without participating in government, without even voting.
b. For them the community they were citizens of was everything.
c. So Paul is saying to us that we are to live together as members of a community for the advancement of the Gospel.
d. We do not behave in order to go to heaven, as though our good works could save us; but we behave because we are already citizens of heaven.
e. Our conduct should be determined by the Lord’s standards: Babe Ruth illustration.
George Will writes in Men at Work: "Baseball umpires are carved from granite and stuffed with microchips...they are professional dispensers of pure justice. Once when Babe Pinelli called Babe Ruth out on strikes, Ruth made a populist argument. Ruth reasoned fallaciously (as populists do) from raw numbers to moral weight: ’There’s 40,000 people here who know that last one was a ball, tomato head.’
"Pinelli replied with the measured stateliness of John Marshall: ’Maybe so, but mine is the only opinion that counts.’"
The Christian must realize that God’s opinion is the only one that counts in determining our conduct.
7. When we fail to live together with the right conduct look at what happens.
a. The right of the individual becomes supreme and everyone does what he wants
b. When the organization dominates instead of the task, the individual is suppressed and it takes a Luther or Calvin to reestablish a relationship with God.
c. When community is obscured, we lose our concern for each other.
d. When creed becomes law, it takes a Campbell to call the church to unity and freedom in the Word.
KEY STATEMENT
That is what Paul calls us to.
LIVING TOGETHER WITH RIGHT CONDUCT RESULTS IN...
I. …COOPERATION — Vss. 27,28,
A. There often is division in the church.
1. There was certainly division in the church at Philippi. It was mainly a disagreement. Two women, Euodia and Syntyche, could not get along with each other.
a. Apparently the members of the fellowship were taking sides with one or the other of them. They were spending all of their time determining who to side with and who was right and wrong that the work of the church was hindered.
b. Actually, the tragedy of such a circumstance is that the church never actually splits wide open, but it could not effectively minister as long as everyone’s attention was taken up with the disagreements between these two women.
c. What is more, the disagreement apparently did not amount to much. It was things like how to organize the Sunday School or when the choir should practice.
2. This is the kind of thing that happens sometimes in athletics. Some team member decides that he is not needed on the team because somebody else scores most of the points or gets all the publicity. A wise coach will realize that the other players are important, too. A star cannot do it alone.
3. Sometimes a team does have a glory hound, someone who has to be in the spotlight and get all the praise. Such a person makes it difficult for the rest of the team.
4. John had to deal with Diotrephes because he "loved to have the preeminence" (3 John 9). James and John brought this kind of division to the apostles by seeking the places of honor in the kingdom.
5. Often, the things that divide us in the church are things of little consequence, but we become preoccupied by them.
B. Paul calls for us to have cooperation.
1. He says that when we conduct ourselves properly then we will stand firm in one spirit, contending for the faith of the gospel. Right conduct means we all hold to the same values.
2. He uses a word from athletics that pictures the church as a team. A team has a unique comradery to it that we need to have in the church. It is in a team because they are all centered around one thing – their games.
3. Paul is calling for Euodia and Syntyche to contend together as they had once before (4:2,3). They had done so before and now need to do so again.
4. Paul shows this by using a prefix with this word that means "with" or "together." In fact he uses this prefix at least sixteen times in Philippians. The prefix makes this word for contending to mean "contending together as athletes."
5. If we all work together in this way, we will not be frightened by the enemy because we will all stand together.
6. Jackie Robinson illustrated this:
While breaking baseball’s "color barrier," he faced jeering crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. His own fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered.
Then shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
II. …SUFFERING — Vss. 29,30.
A. These battles prove that we are saved.
1. They are given to us on behalf of Christ -Vs. 29. Paul says the conflict is granted to us – it is a gift. It is a high honor to suffer for Christ, because he suffered for us.
• It shows the world they are lost as the church stands against them.
• The word “frightened” means the uncontrollable stampede of startled horses, but the church stands without being frightened.
2. We should not grumble when we have to give up things to serve Christ or when we need to allow someone else have their way.
B. Others experience the same conflict — Vs. 30.
1. The Philippians could be assured they were going through the same battle as Paul.
2. Satan wants us to think we are alone in the battle, that our difficulties are unique, but that is not the case. We can find people today who have the same struggles we have.
3. The right conduct leads us to suffering because we grow in Christ through spiritual conflict, and God gives us the strength to stand firm. In fact the word "struggle" is our word agony and it is the same word used for Christ’s struggle in the garden.
C. How right conduct leads to suffering:
1. When Micaiah the prophet was called to prophesy before King Ahab, he illustrates this (1 Kings 22).
The second reason why God permits Christians to be persecuted is that persecution is a token of damnation to the one who fails to believe. How? Let me illustrate by a story from the Old Testament found in 1 Kings 22.
During the days of the divided monarchy, while Ahab was King of Israel and Jehoshaphat was King of Judah, the two kingdoms were relatively strong compared to the kingdoms around them. And at one point Jehoshaphat went north to visit Ahab. Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "Look, why are we sitting here idle when Ramoth-gilead is in the hands of the Assyrians and we are strong enough to take it from them?" And Jehoshaphat replied, "I’m with you." Actually the Bible reports him as saying, "I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses." So they embarked upon their aggression.
Ahab was a wicked king and represented all that was wrong with Israel. But the kings of Judah were always a bit more sensitive to spiritual things. So before they went out to battle Jehoshaphat said, "Let’s ask the Lord what we should do." He was like many Christians in our day who have already decided what they are going to do, but who after they have decided to stop to see if they cannot get the Lord’s approval. This was no way to find the Lord’s blessing, but at any rate Jehoshaphat did it. And Ahab responded by collecting four hundred of the court prophets of Samaria. Like many politicians Ahab knew the value of religious opinion. He said, "Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?" And the false prophets answered, "Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king." These men were good prophets from Ahab’s point of view.
Jehoshaphat looked at the four hundred prophets and reacted like a back-sliding Christian. That was the answer he wanted, but he was made just a little bit uneasy by the thought that it was probably not really an answer from the Lord. So he said to Ahab, "Now look, it is very nice that we have these four hundred prophets, and that is the answer I wanted. But can’t we find a prophet of the Lord somewhere that we could enquire of him?" Ahab said, "Yes, there is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, but I hate him because he never says anything good about me." And Jehoshaphat said, "Is that any way for a king to talk? It doesn’t befit your dignity." So Ahab called for Micaiah.
While they were waiting Ahab staged a great reception for this one unpopular prophet. He set up two thrones in the marketplace of Samaria — one for himself and one for Jehoshaphat. Here sat the kings. And all around them were the armies collected for the war. They were on the outside of the square, Ahab and Jehoshaphat were in the middle and around them at the base of the thrones were the four hundred false prophets who had said, "Go out, and the Lord will deliver Ramoth-gilead into your hand." There they sat waiting for Micaiah to come and bear his testimony.
In the meantime the messenger had found Micaiah and had tried to warn him before his meeting with Ahab. He said, "The king wants to see you, and he wants your prediction on the battle. I’ll just tell you this beforehand: everybody has said that it is going to be all right, and you had better do the same. If you give the same prediction as the false prophets and you are wrong, well, Ahab will be dead, and nobody will care what you said. But if you say that the kings will lose the battle, Ahab will dispose of you. And that will happen regardless of the outcome. So why don’t you just go along with what the four hundred prophets have forecast, and nothing will happen to you." Micaiah answered, "What the Lord has told me, that will I speak."
Samaria sits high on a great out-cropping of rock in the midst of a plain. And from the top of Samaria Ahab and Jehoshaphat and the four hundred prophets and all of the armies looked down to see Micaiah coming with the messenger. It would have taken at least thirty minutes for Micaiah to ascend the hill of Samaria, and all the while tension was building. Everyone was wondering what Micaiah was going to say. At last Micaiah came to the gate of the city, the soldiers and the false prophets parted, and Micaiah stood before the kings. "All right," said Ahab, "let’s hear it."
Now Micaiah was one of those rare men who are always in great possession of themselves. And in the midst of all of this pressure he actually made fun of the kings. Micaiah said to Ahab, "Go, and prosper; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king." This was mockery, for Micaiah was using the exact words of the false prophets. And everyone knew that this was not really the word of Jehovah. Ahab said, "I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord." Micaiah said, "All right then. I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, “These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace." Ahab turned to Jehoshaphat at that point and said, "See, what did I tell you? Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?"
Micaiah then went on to give the rest of the prophecy, "I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, “Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said this on the matter, and another said that on the matter. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, By what means? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. ...Now, therefore, behold the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee."
How unpopular the testimony of Micaiah was! Yet the story ends by showing that events did fallout the way Micaiah had predicted. Ahab was killed. Israel was scattered. And Micaiah is never heard of again. He appears in the Old Testament only in this one brief moment of history. But in that moment he bore his testimony to what was true. And his testimony stood, not only for what we might call a token of his own salvation, but as a token of the destruction that was closing in on Ahab.
2. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse’s testimony at the sight of an accident:
Once as pr. Donald Grey Barnhouse was parked on the street of a large city on the west coast, he witnessed an accident a few yards away. A car wove through the traffic and collided head on with another car that was coming in the opposite direction. The driver was apparently drunk. Another man in the car pushed the drunk aside and got behind the wheel himself. When the policeman came the sober man began to berate the driver of the other car, saying he was at fault. At this point Dr. Barnhouse came forward and gave his testimony to the policeman. He said, "I saw what happened. This drunk was the man who was driving; the accident was his fault, and after the crash this man exchanged places with him." As Dr. Barnhouse said this the crowd that had gathered around the scene of the accident began to growl: "What business do you have interfering?" "Let them argue it out!" "Leave it to the police!" Dr. Barnhouse replied that it was not a matter of intrusion, but of right and wrong: "If this man perjures himself in court by saying that it was the innocent driver’s fault, I will fly to the west coast from Philadelphia and will testify against him. And I’ll identify this drunk by the scar on his cheek." Then he gave his name and address to the driver of the other car and to the policeman and walked away. As he did so the crowd yelled out after him and cursed. Dr. Barnhouse believed that a Christian must stand up and be counted whenever there is a clear-cut moral issue. And he knew that this must be true even though the crowd would hate him for it.
3. Lorne Sanny, when president of the Navigators, said, "If you are suffering without succeeding, then someone will succeed after you.... If you are succeeding without suffering, then someone suffered before you."
CONCLUSION
A. Right conduct is important, then. We should not let it go out of style.
B. God’s Rule illustration: Our home is not determined by where we live, but by how we live.
While serving as a missionary in Laos, I discovered an illustration of the kingdom of God.
Before the colonialists imposed national boundaries, the kings of Laos and Vietnam reached an agreement on taxation in the border areas. Those who ate short-grain rice, built their houses on stilts, and decorated them with Indian-style serpents were considered Laotians. On the other hand, those who ate long-grain rice, built their houses on the ground, and decorated them with Chinese-style dragons were considered Vietnamese.
The exact location of a person’s home was not what determined his or her nationality. Instead each person belonged to the kingdom whose cultural values he or she exhibited
So it is with us: we live in the world, but as part of God’s kingdom, we are to live according to his kingdom’s standards and values.
-- John Hess Yoder
Portland, Oregon
