00:00:00:30 – 00:00:39:09
Clint Loveall
Hey everybody. Thanks for joining us again. We continue through the third chapter of the book of Philippians here, working our way toward the end of the chapter. Really a couple of sessions now in a row, some really great texts and, some of that here today, but maybe, a little different tone than we’ve had. I would, I would say the last two passages we’ve looked at have been, maybe a little more positive in their affect, but we’ll go back at it here, verse 17 and, read to the end of the chapter, come back and have some conversation.

00:00:39:14 – 00:01:09:56
Clint Loveall
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me. Observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. I have often told you of them. Now I will tell you, even with tears, their end is destruction. Their God is the belly. Their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:01:10:01 – 00:01:51:45
Clint Loveall
He will transform the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I think at some point nearly anyone who is trying to live as a Christian, trying to be a person of faith, finds themselves disheartened by how difficult that is and how out of step faith can be with the world around us.

00:01:51:45 – 00:02:30:09
Clint Loveall
I think it is a near universal experience for Christians to at some moment just look around and think, this, this world, this place, these people are broken. For some reason that often comes as a surprise to us. But Michael, it never surprises the scripture. If we were if we were to complain to the Bible how bad people can be, the Bible essentially goes, yeah, yeah.

00:02:30:12 – 00:02:58:31
Clint Loveall
Did you expect something else? And so when we hear this language, people live as enemies of the cross. They care about their their appetites and their glory is in doing shameful things. And their mind is set on earthly things. It I suppose there is a sense here where Paul is is being critical, but but I think maybe more so.

00:02:58:31 – 00:03:39:38
Clint Loveall
This is just a reminder that yes, being faithful in an unfaithful world is hard. And yes, being a Christian makes us different than many of the people around us. For for better and not for easier and I don’t know that there’s a lot to do with that. I think, you know, we want to be very careful when we start applying these labels to individuals, but the reality that the world is broken and somewhat at some level unfriendly to the faith is taken for granted by Paul.

00:03:39:43 – 00:04:07:51
Michael Gewecke
I think that Clint, it’s really easy to read a text like this to make assumptions about what we think it’s saying, and then just simply move on. But I think you’re very, very right to draw us in, to look a little closer. Because when we do, I think we’re going to be surprised. Look here in verse 18, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ, and we live in a moment.

00:04:07:53 – 00:04:25:31
Michael Gewecke
Now, there’s been many moments in history in which that enemy language is very compelling. We hear that a lot in public discourse right now. And I think what’s fascinating, when you see Paul engaging with this idea of the enemies of the cross, right? Because you can imagine what comes next. You know, we need to put on the full armor, right?

00:04:25:31 – 00:04:53:54
Michael Gewecke
We need to get into our aggressive stance. We need to go take ground that belongs for Christ. No, no, look what happens. I have often told you of them, and now I even tell you with tears. Right? There is compassion. There’s pity, there’s pain. There’s this recognition that when one is living for only this world, when one is only living.

00:04:53:54 – 00:05:25:28
Michael Gewecke
As Paul uses this language for our own bellies, right? For today’s experience, for today’s nourishment. What you miss going all the way back to the prayer that Jesus taught us, is that fundamentally, all of those are God’s gifts. And so every time that we fill our life with the experiences, with the power, with the acquisition for whatever the thing that we fill our day with the entertainment, when we get to the end of it, all we have is the sum total of what we have in that day.

00:05:25:40 – 00:05:58:15
Michael Gewecke
And Paul makes, I think, an abundant, a clear call here that fundamentally, that is completely missing the intended end. The purpose. Why God has given us all of these gifts. In other words, it’s not about the enemies of Christ are to be pitied, that we have tears because they simply don’t know that all of this is the smallest tip of the iceberg, that if one has the eyes of faith to see what’s beneath, there’s so much more to life than just this day is concerned.

00:05:58:15 – 00:06:24:02
Michael Gewecke
Just this days, full belly. And I think Clint, when Christians engage in this dualistic reality that there’s a kingdom of God, there’s the kingdom of the world. Jesus taught this frequently here. We’re seeing it reflected in this text. That is a true reflection of the scriptural witness about what it’s like to live in the life of Jesus Christ.

00:06:24:07 – 00:06:47:44
Michael Gewecke
But what’s striking in a moment in which so much of our enemy language is attack or defend, that here, it’s it’s pity, here it’s compassion. Here it’s understanding that one is in a very unenviable situation to not live for the hope of citizenship in the different kingdom. And that’s what I see is, portrayed here so beautifully.

00:06:47:49 – 00:07:22:20
Clint Loveall
I think it’s possible, Michael, that it goes even further than that. And it’s very it’s very difficult and probably somewhat suspect to interpret by what is in there. But notice what Paul doesn’t say. He does not say that those people are our enemies. They may be enemies of the cross, but nowhere does he infer that somehow that makes them our own enemies in.

00:07:22:22 – 00:07:51:43
Clint Loveall
And he speaks of them through tears that they has as of yet they have not experienced the grace of Christ. They have not heard the calling. They don’t know about this pressing on and this, surpassing greatness that makes everything even good things in life pale by comparison. And that Paul hurts for them, even as he recognizes that they can in fact do damage.

00:07:51:43 – 00:08:26:20
Clint Loveall
And then he moves on to say an incredible thing. And and Michael, I think this is a stunning statement that you could easily read past without thinking a lot about. Verse 20 here. Our citizenship is in heaven. If there is a better summary of the ideal in the New Testament of the Kingdom of God, that we are no longer people of the world, we have been called to have a new identity.

00:08:26:20 – 00:09:00:14
Clint Loveall
We have a new personhood. We are made new in Jesus Christ. And and Paul here can just say we are citizens of heaven. We don’t belong to the the world that is of these made of these other things and filled with these other things. We are different because of Jesus Christ. And, the citizenship language is, is may be lost on us to some extent.

00:09:00:14 – 00:09:26:29
Clint Loveall
It’s probably more accessible in the ancient world with Rome and some of those realities, those of us, particularly in America. I, I don’t know what we do or don’t make of a phrase like this, but this is a stunning thing for Paul to claim and is such a good summary, I believe, of the way in which the rest of the New Testament talks about our identity in Christ.

00:09:26:29 – 00:09:29:22
Clint Loveall
It’s not something that should be missed.

00:09:29:27 – 00:09:50:48
Michael Gewecke
It’s been a while since I’ve done some of this reading, so I’m going to stay pretty broad here so I don’t misspeak. But I would highly encourage you to do a little bit of reading about what made Philippi unique as a city. And one of the things that is unique is that people were very proud of the fact that they were citizens of Rome.

00:09:50:52 – 00:10:12:58
Michael Gewecke
It was a unique place because it was on the eastern side of the Roman Empire, and yet it was a very Roman city with a lot of privileges and a lot of economic power. And there were a lot of people from all around the world who either earned their Roman citizenship through serving the military or economically. They bought in.

00:10:13:03 – 00:10:52:13
Michael Gewecke
And the reason I’m sharing this, Clint, is just to say, in their context, in in their world, it would have been absolutely normal for someone to been originally from Egypt. And now to be a citizen of Rome, living in Philippi. And so for them, it would have made complete and perfect sense that one could be a resident of Planet Earth, a resident in the city of Philippi, but had your citizenship with all of the rights and blessings that that deal with that citizenship granted to you in the heavenly realm, this to them would have been a very natural idea.

00:10:52:13 – 00:11:11:24
Michael Gewecke
And I think to your point, Clint, it’s not so much to us, especially if for you, you grew up in a place and you’ve always been in that place, this is going to be lost on you. But this is a treasure. It’s a gift. And in the ancient world, people fought their entire life to get citizenship in a country because of the benefits that it brought.

00:11:11:29 – 00:11:27:22
Michael Gewecke
And realistically, here you see that being lived out Christians by grace because they’re in Christ leveraging Paul’s other letters. Then you are a citizen in heaven, and that citizenship is not one that could be taken by an earthly power.

00:11:27:27 – 00:11:53:44
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And and obviously in our national conversations, we are having lots of noise about citizenship and what that means and what it doesn’t mean. But but for Paul, what it fundamentally means is that those who are in Christ belong to a different kingdom. They have a different set of assumptions. They have a different code that guides their behavior.

00:11:53:49 – 00:12:17:33
Clint Loveall
They have different morals, different ethics, different practices that that we are to some extent out of place in the world around us. And therefore we should not be surprised. We should not be shocked when we find that not only is discipleship difficult, sometimes the world around us doesn’t care about it at all, even could be hostile to it.

00:12:17:38 – 00:12:48:25
Clint Loveall
And for Paul, that that all makes perfect sense because we don’t belong here. This isn’t where we claim our membership or our identity. This is not our citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven, which is where Jesus Christ is going to return from. And he will transform us, that we may be conformed to the body of his glory by the power that enables him to make all things subject to himself.

00:12:48:25 – 00:13:27:29
Clint Loveall
So, I hope we’re doing a decent job of teasing out some of how important this concept is for Paul, because I think it’s it’s deeply influential in the New Testament. And I think it’s foundational to how Paul understands both the faith and the living out of the faith. And then just the last thing I’d point out, Michael, is, this is one of those instances where if if I were doing the numbers, I would have left verse one of chapter four in chapter three.

00:13:27:34 – 00:14:04:19
Clint Loveall
But I they didn’t ask me. So therefore, brothers and sisters whom I love and long for my joy and crown, which is a beautiful thing to say about those people in the church, stand firm, and we’ve seen that language consistently. Stand firm. Don’t be moved. Hold on. So, Paul again goes back to a refrain that has been important to him, and what he wishes for the church is that they will be anchored in Christ and not be moved by the world around them, acknowledging and remembering that they don’t belong to it.

00:14:04:24 – 00:14:39:48
Michael Gewecke
I think there’s just two quick notes here for me at the end, and the first is don’t pass by verse 22 quickly without seeing that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that’s an exclusionary statement. To say that Jesus Christ is Lord means to say that Caesar is not. And so when Paul’s talking about the kingdom, when Paul’s talking about the citizenship, Paul wants the church to know that fundamentally, though, the world cares a lot about the flesh and blood of power, Christians are always redirected.

00:14:39:48 – 00:15:11:58
Michael Gewecke
Our compass always leads us to see beyond that horizon, to understand that the true Lord and the function of that lordship is that ultimately everything becomes subject to Christ through this next, an amazing statement that transformed the body of our humiliation so that it might be conformed to the body of his glory. Here we should hear the Christ, him in the background again, Clint, that fundamentally Christ took on the humility of being human, of suffering, even dying.

00:15:12:07 – 00:15:41:15
Michael Gewecke
But then when God raises him to power and to glory, that fundamentally our hope is that that is the very thing that God will do for us. Because I’m sure this isn’t news to anybody who was listening to this study with us, that fundamentally, our bodies are broken and we live in a broken world, and we’re going to be finding ourselves many times in our life being humiliated by the reality of our brokenness.

00:15:41:15 – 00:16:07:55
Michael Gewecke
And yet in the lowering and lowering the reality of the truth of what it means to be human, we actually find the greatness and the strength and the incredible opportunity in the glory of Christ, who by his promise will raise us up. And I just think, when we think about this idea of standing firm in the Lord, that that very last section, I think we would all do well to remember that this is what we stand firm on.

00:16:08:08 – 00:16:32:51
Michael Gewecke
We don’t stand firm that if you’re a good Christian, everything is always going to go well for you and it’s going to be proven in the substance of your life. Now we stand firm in the hope and promise, even in the moments where our humiliation is seen most clearly, even in the moments where we are at our literally the lowest in those places, the strength of Christ can be made great because it’s his power at work through us.

00:16:32:52 – 00:17:07:12
Michael Gewecke
I just think, don’t run past that. Don’t don’t, don’t move on to whatever the next thing that you think you need to do today is to be a better person or even to be a better Christian. Fundamentally, it’s not about your output. It’s not about your actions that will earn your way to the next step. No. Fundamentally, Clint, this is all about the fact that in Jesus Christ, what seems to us by all earthly forms to be brokenness can be made into something great and perfect, and that citizenship is a gift given to us, which we look forward to.

00:17:07:19 – 00:17:10:30
Michael Gewecke
It gives us the eyes to see it beyond the horizon that we can see.

00:17:10:30 – 00:17:38:40
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think if we put this passage in conversation with the Christ whom we see that because Jesus was out of step with the world, because he lowered himself and was humble, he is therefore elevated and raised. And what is Paul telling us? That as we do the same, Christ raises us up and makes us a part of his body by the power that subjects all things to himself, the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:17:38:40 – 00:18:10:36
Clint Loveall
And each one of those three titles tells us something ruler the person, Jesus and Christ, the Greek word for Messiah. The anointed one. So, that we we see in our life a a mimicry, a copy of Christ’s life that as we lower ourself, as we live out of step with the world around us, we too are elevated by the power of God, the power of Christ, and we are made new by his power.

00:18:10:40 – 00:18:37:37
Clint Loveall
Even that subjects all things to himself, ultimately, and therefore. In the meantime, what do we do? We stand firm as brothers and sisters who are loved and longed for and rejoiced over. It really, really great passage. Great and not an easy passage of some, you know, some rough language in it, but it’s saying very profound things.

00:18:37:42 – 00:19:00:41
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, and make no mistake, we’re just literally steps away from the press on language and from these things that people love. Philippians four, this is right in there. And that’s the context that we need to maintain as we go throughout the study, that there is this beautiful continuity of idea throughout this whole book and all of it binds the whole thing together.

00:19:00:41 – 00:19:19:37
Michael Gewecke
So so don’t forget, we just came from some of the highest parts of Paul’s writings about the fact that through Christ, we can do all things because he strengthens us. Well, remember that some of that strengthening will be even in the midst of great humiliation. And that’s the good news. Now, to keep repeating myself, thanks for being with us here today.

00:19:19:49 – 00:19:29:20
Michael Gewecke
Give this video a like if it has been helpful for you. Helps others find it in their own study of passages like this. Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode and studies like it. We’ll see you tomorrow.

00:19:29:22 – 00:19:29:59
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody!