There are a few thoughts at the close of the first chapter which might be well to consider. We didn’t touch upon them last Lord’s Day night, as the time was occupied considerably in connection with the gospel, but there is a very important line of things presented at the close which, I believe, gives character to the chapter. The apostle said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He has Christ evidently as the object before his own soul. All he is looking for; all he has before his eye now, is Christ. You will remember, he said he rejoiced that Christ was preached. He wasn’t occupied with the fact that he was put in prison.; not so much with the difficulties the saints were passing through, but rejoicing in the fact that the gospel was being preached, and after that he breaks out with, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
The only object, therefore, it seems, that was before the apostle’s heart, was the Lord Jesus. So he can say, “Whether I live or whether I die, it is all well. If I live, it is to live Christ; and if I die, it would be gain.” He would go to be with Him. So, to depart and be with Christ is far better, but he had the assurance given him that for the saints at Philippi, he could say, “For your sakes it was needful I should be left,” and in this he was assured that he would be left here for their good. It is Christ to be manifested here, whether in living or in dying, and then he can say, “If I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor,” or as a New Translation puts it, “It is worthwhile living.” “I have a desire to depart, though it is worthwhile to live.” Why? For their good.
Is this the natural man? No. If we were to think what the natural heart would bring out, we get that farther down. “For all seek their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ.”
Why is it we find so little in connection with the things of God? People say, “Where is the profit?” They say, “I haven’t time for that. I have to attend to other things.” We have our own desire, but has Christ His place in our hearts?
I don’t mean that we should neglect what the Lord puts into our hands to do. For people to neglect their children or families—things really their duty—on the plea they have to serve the Lord, is wrong. The Lord doesn’t give us one responsibility and overthrow it for another. Everything must be fulfilled, and done as for the Lord. But that isn’t what we find in the heart. The natural heart is after his own things.
For the apostle, it was simply to live Christ. He says, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” Do you think it was an easy place to be contented in prison? He might say, “I must get out, for I can’t serve the saints as well.” But he said in whatever place God saw fit to put him he was content. He has a desire. For his own good it would be better for him to be with that One he had seen in glory, but he is a strait betwixt two. For that which is dear to the heart of the Lord, is now dear to him; he said, “I am in a strait betwixt two, whether to be here for your good; or to go there for my good.” But the assurance the Lord gave him, he was here for their good, and he would therefore abide.
Now, he says, “I want you to be like Christ, and your ways to correspond with what He is,” and so he can say, “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”
What made the apostle to have such desires, so strange to man’s natural heart? What a blessed manifestation of the result of the Spirit in him, and of the new life he had received. We all know full well, it never came from the natural heart. Just the opposite. Grace wrought it. He can say, “In nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.” He says, “Don’t mind that adversary.” Was he minding him? Not at all. He has still perfect confidence, and so he has the Lord before his heart, and although enemies put him in prison, he was not doubting at all about the gospel going out. He saw evidently there was a need to be striving together in the unity of the Spirit for the gospel, and not to be afraid of the adversary. Had there been a gift given to the Philippians? There was given to the apostle—it was told him at the beginning what great things he must suffer for Christ’s sake. “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”
Beloved, can we for a moment rejoice if we are given to suffer some? What is it for us? One is made to feel we are in a path of rejection, but if we can get the blessed Lord Himself before our hearts, and what joy He brings to us, then we can say there is a little suffering in rejection, but it is nothing when we think of what the apostles went through. They were persecuted. What were the trials for in the earlier days? It was to lead them out of the way. Satan tries us. Many things are brought to try us. What are these temptations for that he puts in our way? A little bit of the glory of this world for some. It was what was in Adam’s heart, and ever since we are partakers of it. It is in one way and another the enemy comes with his trials upon us, and the object of his trials is always to lead us out of the path of faithfulness. It is given to us to suffer for Christ, and we have to suffer, although it may not be in the same way the saints did at that time.
God grant that we may have Christ before our souls, as our object, and that we may be over comers under the trials Satan brings upon us. Satan’s trials are so subtle now, and that is why so many are led astray. He is lulling them to sleep. No doubt, if Christians were burned at the stake now, there would be more loyal hearts today.
“Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.” We don’t have the same conflict. The apostle and the saints at Philippi had evidently the same trial. They were suffering then just as the apostle, and they were not discouraged because of the bonds of the apostle, but encouraged to stand more faithful and proclaim the glad tidings. But that which would keep them in faithfulness was what had filled the apostle’s heart, and that was Christ. So we might remark in the first chapter we have Christ as our object.
In the second, Christ as our pattern.
In the third chapter, Christ as our joy.
In the fourth, Christ as our strength.