Borrowed Light

It’s always a bit troublesome to me whenever I see something in a text that others aren’t seeing. That’s usually how heretics are made. But I’m absolutely convinced that what I’m seeing in Philippians 1:19-26 is completely orthodox and more importantly it’s there in the text.

This isn’t a major point but I think it helps us to understand more the meaning of what Paul is doing here in the text. When most people preach/teach on Philippians 1:19-26 the emphasis is on Paul’s conundrum and his very quotable statement, “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” That’s incredibly easy to preach. Can you say that for you to live “is Christ” and can you say that if you died today it would be “gain”. That’s the sermon—tie a bow on it, give some response time and call it a day.

I’m convinced there is something going on underneath of this passage that is often overlooked. Why has the Spirit of God inspired Paul to “think out loud” here? What’s he doing? Why give them his conundrum?

Because Paul is modeling for us here.

Consider Philippians 1:9-11. This is Paul’s prayer for the church at Philippi. He is praying that they’ll have a grounded love so that they will choose what is excellent and so live in such a way that they won’t be ashamed when they stand before Christ. The picture is of a person having a million choices and a stamp which can only deem one thing necessary at any given time. Paul is praying that love would motivate that selection. And if it does you can guarantee that one will not waste their life.

Now come to Paul’s conundrum. If he dies then it’s far better for him because he gets to enjoy Christ for all eternity. But if he lives it will mean fruitful labor and a benefit to the church at Philippi. So what does love choose? It chooses to forego personal gain so that others can have a taste of this treasure. Rather than see the race completed in his life, Paul knows that he must continue so that the gospel will advance in the life of others.

True treasure does this. Rather than being an end in itself it actually motivates us to share. If I have a candy bar that I’m bogarting all for myself then I’m communicating that it’s only big enough to satisfy me. But if I must share it then I’m showing that it has a value far beyond myself. It’s the same way with Christ. You’d think that Paul would choose Christ—that is his treasure. But he doesn’t, true treasure is meant to be shared.

And I believe this is confirmed by where Paul goes next in his argument. He points to the self-giving love of Christ. Jesus was enjoying the Godhead fully. But he did not consider that a thing to be grasped but made himself to be a servant. So what did Jesus do? Love motivated him to bring others into this treasure rather than keeping it all to himself.

This is precisely what Paul is doing as he is thinking out loud. And it’s precisely what a potentially disunited congregation at Philippi must do as well. Euodia and Syntyche must choose love over personal benefit. Of course Paul’s argument doesn’t work if life doesn’t equal fruitful labor and death doesn’t equal gain. But I think by only preaching that point we’re missing the main point of what Paul is doing in this text.

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The Hardest Rebuke to Hear

May 31, 2019Mike Leake

One of my favorite memes are those of the There, I Fixed It variety. I enjoy them so much because there are likely things around my house which could make it on their website. I am slowly waking up to my propensity to spend an inordinate amount of time and effort “fixing something” which would be far better to just replace.

It’s amazing to me the dedication that I’ll put into making an old rust bucket still functional. It’s a rust bucket! But it was my rust bucket. And in that moment it seems far easier and more frugal to come up with a life hack than to admit that I need to get a new one. It still technically “works” even if it’s not up to a certain code.

Jeroboam was one of those There, I Fixed It guys. He had a political problem and came up with a great life hack. The Law of Moses called for worship in Jerusalem. But that was in the Southern Kingdom—that wasn’t a good idea for him to allow his people to see the glorious temple of Solomon. That would have led to them questioning the wisdom of breaking away from the family of David.

So Jeroboam grabbed his duct tape and got to work. He crafted two golden calves—one for Bethel and one for Dan. Then he tells all the people—“It’s too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt”. No sense in going to Jerusalem, the building code is just a suggestion anyways. God is everywhere so why not just set up a temple here and worship him in our homeland?

Jereboam made religion a matter of convenience. He allowed the people to set the plumb line. God’s Word was no longer the standard because Jeroboam had come up with a genius fix. It was no longer about what God wanted—or what was right—it was now about what worked. Bethel was shorter, so worship there. It’s easier.

Religion became convenient and then it also become non-judgmental. They forgot the God of justice. They weren’t hating on Jerusalem. It was fine to worship there. Bethel is fine to worship at. So is Dan. It doesn’t really matter…so long as you are sincere.

And it’s “working”. At least practically speaking. The Northern Kingdom experiences a time of great prosperity. There isn’t much conflict. Everybody is getting along just fine. “No judgment here”. So apparently God doesn’t care much about where he is worshipped. It’s a new day…a new era.

And then a prophet named Amos comes to town, from Judah of all places, and tells them their life hack isn’t up to code. Amaziah cannot believe that he’d have the audacity to say such a thing. Everything is working. “Check your plumb line again, Amos. Cause stuff is going great in the Northern Kingdom”.

And isn’t this true of us even today? The idols which are the most pernicious and hard to fell are the ones still working. When our idols come up empty and we see them for what they are it isn’t nearly as difficult to abandon them (usually for another shiny thing). But it’s really hard to hear a word of judgment (truth) when we are in the midst of prosperity. “Maybe we were right to move our moral compass—look at how great the economy is going!”

It’s also really hard to hear a word of judgment from somebody outside your camp. In Amos 7:12 Amaziah uses different words for prophets. He’s basically telling him that he needs to stay in Judah and they don’t need his voice up in the Northern Kingdom. “Do we really need to hear from minorities or immigrants about how to run our country?” “Is it really okay for someone without a uterus to speak about abortion?”

Listening to Amos’ message would have been tough. He is coming into a land where everything seems to be working and he tells them they need to change everything in order to be up to code. It’s so much easier to just say, “Your code is stupid, my life hacks are working, stay in your lane and leave me to my own business!”

Amaziah’s response to Amos is concerning to me, because I feel in my bones how easy it is to take up such a response when confronted with the plumb line of God’s Word. It’s far easier to go with the cultural tide than to stand with God’s Word. And none of us are immune to the “cultural tide”. Bleeding-heart liberalism isn’t the only godless culture in our nation. God-belittling conservatism is just as deadly.

Amaziah resorted to blame-shifting, silencing, and an ‘only God can judge me’ theology. When we see our own hearts responding similarly we really should pause and try to discern whether we’re combating “the other side” or we’re actually warring against God’s plumb line. We try to silence what we fear. We blame-shift when we don’t have a foundation to stand upon. And we hide behind weak-theology when the living version is far too terrifying for our comfortable universe.

The most grating rebukes are always the ones which come from the hand of a God not like us.

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Photo source: here