October 18, 2026 | By Life or Death
By Life or Death | Philippians 1:18–26
Philippians 1:18–26
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. (ESV)
Writing from prison, Paul declares that he will rejoice because his hope rests not in his circumstances but in the certainty of his salvation through Christ. He is confident that Christ will be honored in his body, whether he lives or dies. For Paul, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Life means fruitful labor for the spiritual growth and joy of others, while death means being with Christ, which is far better. In this sermon, Jed Gillis challenges us to reconsider what makes life good. Rather than organizing our lives around comfort, success, or security, we are called to treasure Christ above all else and live in joyful allegiance to Him, trusting that He will be honored in every circumstance.
Transcript of By Life or Death | Philippians 1:18–26
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What Is the Good Life?
Jed Gillis: This morning we will be continuing in Philippians chapter one. So I invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Philippians one with me.
As we do, I want you to think about some of our modern slogans. Things, mottos, if you will, that you're likely to see on a shirt or on a bumper sticker, or you're likely... Maybe you don't see it worded quite this way, but you see these ideas everywhere. You see things like, "Life is good." And maybe you wanna know which life it is that they found that's good. Maybe yours doesn't feel good all the time. You'll see things like, "Good vibes only." Which sometimes feels like people just wanna hide from whatever's hard. You'll see things like, "Oh, you should treat yourself." "Find your happy place." "Pursue the good life."
Which raises a very interesting question, right? When somebody says, "I wanna pursue the good life," well, who decides what's the good life?
Who defines what's good? Because your idea of a good life and my idea of a good life are very different. And then sometimes your idea of a good life gets in the way of somebody else's idea of a good life. And so what sounds like a, a wonderful motto to many people in our world, "find the good life and live it," Runs into some major problems because life includes challenges, because there are different people in the world.
So how does a Christian combine living in a world where there's good and bad circumstances with joyful optimism in this life? How does a Christian answer that question, or maybe not even answer the question, maybe just ask a different question than, "what do I think is the good life?" And I think that's really what Paul is doing as we read this section.
Philippians 1:18-26
Jed Gillis: I'm gonna read starting in verse 19. Paul says... Actually, I'm gonna back up and start in 18. Paul says, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice.
For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, But that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet, which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again."
That's our section for this morning. And really what we're going to do is we're going to look at a few phrases. Uh, the teaching time this morning really is gonna be meditating on a couple different phrases. Some of them are found directly in this section. Some of them may not be directly there, but we can, we can recognize the theme in what he says.
I Will Rejoice
Jed Gillis: And the first one, as simple as it is, is where Paul says, "Yes, I will rejoice." Now think about where he is. He's in prison. He's not able to go do what he wants to do. His freedom is severely limited. He's not comfortable. He's not able to travel and go see the Philippians like he wants to, or any of these other churches where he has deep friendships and deep relationships.
He's not able to do any of that. Instead, here he is, chained up, imprisoned, and he says, "I rejoice that Christ is being preached and I will rejoice." He commits himself, in other words. He's not just saying, "I feel joy right now. We'll wait and see what tomorrow brings." He says instead, "I do rejoice and I will rejoice."
He commits himself to joy in difficult and unpleasant circumstances, at least at this stage of his life. And he does so for a reason. He says, "I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance."
Now, one question you could have as you read this text, when you see this word deliverance, say, "well, he's in jail." Does he mean this is going to turn out where I get released from prison, or is he talking about some other kind of spiritual deliverance? That... the word doesn't help us that much because the word translated here as deliverance is just the word salvation. So he... You could literally read it as, "this will turn out for my salvation."
And consistently where Paul uses that word throughout the New Testament, he's referring not to physical deliverance, but to his spiritual salvation, his spiritual deliverance. And we can know that from the context anyway, even if you didn't go look up the word and you don't know what word that is. You say, well, he's about to say, "I'm going to honor Christ by life or by death. So whether I'm released or not, this is still the result, my deliverance." So it seems he's not rejoicing because he's confident of a good earthly result. He's rejoicing because he's confident of a good spiritual result. That's why he can commit himself in difficult circumstances to say, not just, "I feel joy now, but we'll see what tomorrow brings," but to say, "I will rejoice."
Because he has the same confidence: remember a few weeks back we talked about this from Philippians 1:6: God will complete what He started. That was... There he says, "I'm convinced that that's true of you, Philippians." But here he's saying, "I can rejoice because I believe the same thing about me, that God started this salvation in me, and God will finish what He starts."
I think this is... it's important for us to realize Paul, Paul puts his money where his mouth is. Do you know that phrase? Right? It's one thing to tell other people, "God will finish what He started in you. Just have joy," While you sit in a really comfortable situation. But here Paul is chained up saying, "I'm confident of that for you, and I'm confident enough in God's work in my life while I'm chained up, while I can't do what I want to do, while I'm uncomfortable. While all that's true, I'm confident enough in all of those things." He says, "I will rejoice, for I know this will bring about my salvation, my deliverance."
Remember from a few weeks ago, when, when this word salvation is used in scripture, sometimes we think of it only as like the start of our salvation. But really, it's, it's a process all the way from the beginning when you are dead in your trespasses and sins, and God gives you life and transfers you from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son, like Paul says in Colossians. From the beginning of that all the way to the end of that process when you're glorified with Him forever in heaven. Salvation can refer to all of that.
So Paul is saying, "God has started that in me. I know He will finish it." And we could ask him questions. We could say, "Even if you don't get released from jail?" Yes. "Even if others are preaching Christ out of pretense to harm you?" Yes. "Even if the rest of your earthly life is under house arrest and discomfort?" Yes. That's, that's what he's doing. He's saying, "I am so confident of this spiritual result that I can have joy."
The Spirit and Our Prayers
Jed Gillis: But notice how this confidence works. At the beginning of verse 19, he doesn't just say, "I know it will turn out," he says, "Through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ."
So two pieces. Let, let's take the second one first. Through the help of the Spirit of God. He says, "I am... I know this will turn out for my salvation, and I will rejoice, not just because I work up the willpower to do it, but because I know the Spirit of God is within me accomplishing His purposes." He's dependent on God because God's the one who brings it to completion.
Maybe today you look at your life and you know there's circumstances that are hard, and maybe you don't see a way out. You say, "I don't know how this is gonna turn out." Paul's example is in the middle of that hard circumstance to say, "I don't know how the physical, earthly circumstance turns out," whether by life or death. We'll get to that in a minute. But he says, "I'm confident in the spiritual result because I know the Spirit of God is at work within me to finish what he started."
But Paul could have left it at just that. So if you look, if you look at your, your scripture at verse 19, he could have just said, "I will rejoice, for I know that with the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance." But he didn't. Instead, he said, what's the word? Through the what? Prayers.
He could have sounded really spiritual. "Oh, I trust God. That's all I need. I don't need anything else but the Spirit of God." Which is true on one level, but he draws your attention specifically to the prayers of the Philippians. Prayers that his salvation will be completed. Prayers that God will continue the work that he has begun in Paul.
That's part of this, this mindset. Remember that Paul said at the beginning of this chapter, Paul says, "Here's the mindset of people whose allegiance is to Jesus. We remember one another continually with joy and gratitude, always making prayers."
So what does God want your prayers to do? He wants them to be part of keeping His people. If you look around the room and take whoever, don't point fingers, whoever you think is the most spiritual person that you've met in this body of believers, they need your prayers that God will keep them and guard them.
They need your spiritual prayers. It's good to pray for one another on physical needs, when we have bodies that ache and hurt and don't work like they should, when we have financial needs, when we have all those things. Those are all good prayers. Paul's not talking about that, though. He says, "Through your prayers, this is going to lead not to my deliverance from prison," we'll get to that in a minute, "but to my salvation. I need God to continue working in me, and part of the means He uses for that is for God's people to pray."
Now, I know we like to ask all these questions, and especially, I think, in our, our Western American mind, we're like, "I wanna figure it all out." Like, wait, so Paul, if God completes what He starts and He uses the prayers of His people, well, what if we don't pray? Then does God not complete what He start... Like, we wanna know all those kinds of questions, and that's not what Paul really does here. He doesn't answer all those questions. He just says, "This is part of how God works. Through the prayers of His people, He guards me." Paul says that.
So I wanna encourage you, like Paul does, you should long for people to pray for your spiritual life. I hope you want that.
You can always, I'll just go ahead and tell you, you can always pray that for me. Pray that God keeps me. Pray that, that guard, that God guards me.
When you look around and you see anybody who has a physical need, you wanna pray for them. My, my encouragement would be this. If you are in the habit of praying for God's people, which I hope you are, every single time you pray for a physical need, pray for a spiritual one alongside it.
And if you don't know what their specific spiritual need is, if somebody's going through, you know, surgery, for example, pray for health, pray for recovery, yes. Also, pray that God will guard their soul from worry and anxiety. Pray that God will fill them with trust in who He is. Pray for the spiritual side of that need as well as the s- the physical one. And I'll tell you, at least speaking for me, I'd rather you pray for the spiritual one than the physical one if you have to pick one.
That's part of what Paul looks at. He says, "I am going to rejoice." Why? "Because I know you Philippians are praying for me," that's part of it, "and because I know the Spirit of God is working in me so that this whole thing will turn out for my deliverance." The prayers of God's people are part of his confidence. That's part of what we as a body of believers need to do for one another.
And by the way, notice when he says your prayers are part of his confidence, that means Paul has to know that they're praying, right? They've told him. When Epaphroditus came, they said, "Hey, here's, here's a, a blessing for you physically, and we're praying for you, and here's what we're praying," right? So when you pray for other people, I would, I would encourage you, pray for people and let them know you prayed for them.
You don't know... Well, you probably do, actually. You know how it's encouraged you when people do that. You don't know how much that one sentence you say to somebody, "Hey, I was praying this for you this week," you don't know what that does in their life. But, you know, Paul looks at it and he says, "That's part of my confidence while I sit here in jail that I can rejoice, is I know God's people are praying for me."
So our first phrase is, "I will rejoice because I know the prayers of God's people." I'd ask you, is that true in your life?
Honor Christ in Your Body
Jed Gillis: Second phrase, Paul says in verse 20, "With full courage," the last part, "now as always, Christ will be honored in my body." Take that phrase, "honor Christ in your body." Paul is confident that that's going to happen.
He's confident that he is going to honor Christ in his body, and, and he's confident and he rejoices in it because he says, "I will not be ashamed."
Now think about when you honor something. Have you ever honored something, praised something that turned out to not be very good? Probably. And when, when that happens, you know, you, you tell your friend, "Oh, this is, this is the company you wanna use for roofing. It was great, it was fantastic, they're the greatest people." And then they come and do a crummy job for your friend. And you're like, "Nevermind, I don't wanna recommend anything." Because you honored something that put you to shame.
When you say, "Hey, this is the best restaurant ever," and somebody goes and they try it and they're like, "Oh, it was awful." "Forget it. I don't wanna recommend anything anymore." Why? Because there's a sense of, "I honored that and it didn't live up, so therefore I'm put to shame."
Paul has confidence that he will not be put to shame by honoring Jesus. No matter what happens by life or death, whatever circumstance comes in his life, Paul says, "I'm going to honor Christ in my body, and I know if I do that, I will not face shame." Because unlike the restaurant and unlike the roofing company, Jesus doesn't let anyone down.
So what's it look like to honor Christ in your body? As one of the questions I'm, I'm gonna say at the end, I want you to sit with through this week because I can't list off what it's like for every one of you to honor Christ in your body in your specific situation. We'd be here all day long and I still wouldn't get it all right. But I wanna ask you, what does it look like?
What does it look like when people honor something in their body? Here's a, an imperfect example for sure, but if you think of Arlington Cemetery in Washington, DC, and you think of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. These guards commit anywhere from nine months to two years, and sometimes more than one tour, of their lives to guarding this tomb in a rotation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Maybe you've seen the pictures, like this hurricane coming through DC and this guard's still out there. They meticulously care for their equipment. A gun that they will very likely never fire. But they clean it and care for it and check it repeatedly. They care for their uniform. They memorize large amounts of information about the, the cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Why do they do that? Not so they can tell anyone, because they don't talk to... They're not tour guides. But so that they know what they're doing, so that they get the weight and the gravity. They voluntarily avoid wearing ranks on their uniform so that they won't visibly outrank anybody they're honoring.
And even after they've served that, that term, their status as a guard can be removed if they dishonor the country or the army that they've spent their time honoring. Their whole life, day after day after day after day, 21 steps down the mat, 21-second hold, a sharp turn, 21 steps back. Their whole life is organized around honoring something. And I'm sure there are days they didn't want to do it.
But they honor the country ultimately, the soldier ultimately in their body. So to honor Christ in your body is to organize your life so that it constantly displays how great he is.
Paul says, "I know I'm going to do that. Put me in jail, I'm gonna do everything I can to organize the life I have so that Jesus is seen as valuable." I'm not worried about the rank you can put on my sleeve because Jesus is way better.
His whole life is organized around honoring Christ in his body. And we could ask the question then, what would bring shame to you? Paul, you say, "I'm confident I am not gonna be ashamed." Well, what could bring shame? One I already mentioned.
Well, if Jesus let him down, if Jesus wasn't worthy of that honor, then that would bring shame. Well, we know scripture teaches there's no way that ever happens. But look at the way Paul phrases this. He says, "With full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body." So what else would bring shame in Paul's mind?
If I operated with cowardice, if I was too afraid to live my life that way to honor Jesus, that would bring shame.
I think even when he says full courage, like if I were even just half-hearted. If I were like halfway there, "Oh, I think Jesus is worthy, but I'm not really sure," Paul's like, "I don't wanna live like that. I know that with full courage, now as always, I'm going to honor Christ in my body." And he says, "I'm confident no matter what happens, if I stay in jail the rest of my life and I never get to go do these other things I wish I could do, I won't be ashamed because I honor Christ in my body."
Paul's confident of one eternal result for his life: The completion of his salvation, no shame for him and honor for Christ. That's the result he knows is coming. Regardless of his earthly, earthly circumstances.
You know, if you take whatever circumstances in your mind come up, whether the business venture works out or the business venture doesn't, whether the friendships work out or the friendships don't, whether your financial world and your retirement is what you want it to be or whether it isn't, whatever happens. What shapes Paul is he's completely confident that his salvation will be completed, he will not face shame, and Christ will be honored. That's what anchors him. That's why he can say, "Yes, I will rejoice."
But while he's confident of one eternal spiritual result, he knows there's two big categories of physical results, which he states here, the end of verse 20, "Whether by life or by death." Says, "Look, there's two pretty significantly different possible outcomes here." And, and he starts talking about his specific situation.
Says, "Look, I'm in jail. I might die. They might execute me, or I might live and be freed, or anywhere in between. I might be house arrest. I mean," he's like, "There's, there's two big categories, by life or by death." And so he states these broad categories first and continues to think about them out loud, because he's not just saying this for his benefit, he's saying it for the Philippians' benefit.
To Live Is Christ
Jed Gillis: And he gets to one of the most famous mottos in the Book of Philippians, and maybe in all of scripture, "For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." So think about that for a minute, the... It's poetic in English. It's even more succinct and poetic in, in Greek. Literally, he says, "For me, to live, Christ. To die, gain."
And there's a little bit of wordplay in, in two different ways. The word for Christ and the word for gain sound kind of similar, Christos and Kerdos, so you can hear similarity in those two. So he's putting these two together for a reason, but there's another play on words that I think is, is really instructive for us.
Just like I said at the beginning, there are modern slogans like, "Life is good," "Good vibes only," "Treat yourself," all those kind of slogans. There were ancient Greek mottos too. There was one, I'll say it in Greek, Zan Krestos. That was a, a well-known m- well-known motto, which means something like, "Life is good."
Sounds familiar. Turns out not a lot of things change. Or, "Life is useful," or, "Life is kind," or something like that. That was a phrase they likely would have heard. It certainly was popular enough. Zan Krestos. Paul says, "Zan Christos." One letter different. He wants them to know, hey, you've heard people say life is good, life is good, life is good.
Paul's like, "Life's not good. I'm chained up to this guy over here. I'm in prison. That part's not good, but life is Christ." That's what life is all about. He says everything about living, again, honor Christ, his body. Think of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Everything about living, his idea of the good life is absolutely consumed in his allegiance to his king.
By the way, again, Christ, not saying Jesus, although obviously they both refer to the same person, but he's emphasizing his role as the anointed king. For me, Christ, the King, his allegiance to Jesus just consumes all of these things, which helps us understand what Paul is doing. See, people use mottos like this to kinda govern what, how they view life.
They say, "Life is good," meaning, "I have all kinds of good circumstances." Now, we might know there's bad things. Life is good probably gives us comfort sometimes, and sometimes you're like, "Don't tell me life is good. I don't wanna hear life is good, 'cause it's not right now." Some people try to govern their lives with this phrase, "Well, life is good," and just, like, create this blind optimism.
Paul says, "No, take that idea and how people organize their lives around that, life is good, so I pursue all the good that I can and just try to get through the bad things." He says, "No, no, no. Life is Christ." Not zē christos, zē Christos.
Your life isn't organized then around how do I get the best good circumstances I can and ignore as many bad ones as I can?
It's organized around my life is Jesus Christ. Or I said good is one way you could translate it. You could translate it useful. Some people do that. You know, life is useful. The circumstances that happen to me are productive so to accomplish my goals. Paul says that's not how you should think about life. Life isn't about finding your goals and all the circumstances around you being productive to get there. It's about Jesus.
And maybe we think of these things like in a self-oriented way. Life is good, so I need to have good circumstances. Life is useful, so it's useful to me. Or maybe life is kind, so life is supposed to be kind to me.
Or maybe we think in a less self-oriented way using the same mottos. And we say, "Life is good, so I want to be good to others. Life is kind, so I want to be kind to others," or, "Life is productive, useful, so I wanna be useful to others."
Those are all mottos that we don't necessarily consciously think of, but they govern the way our lives work. And Paul, by using this wordplay, is saying, "That's not what life's about." Is it good to be kind? Yes. Is it good to love others and be productive and useful? Sure. But that's not what drives Paul ultimately. What drives Paul ultimately is, "to live is Christ."
Paul says, "When I'm in jail, I can't go preach the gospel. These people are preaching the gospel out of, out of spite towards me. I can't go visit the friends I wish I could visit. I can't go further with the gospel in Rome where I wanna go. I can't do any of these things." But Paul says, "For me, to live is Christ."
That's what governs all of his life. I think many times we want to use Jesus to get our idea of what the good life is.
If the good life for us is good relationships and relative prosperity, we go, "Can Jesus help me get that?" If the good life is, like, relational peace, "Can Jesus help me get that?" Whatever we think of that's the good life, "Can Jesus give that to me?" We're sometimes, not always, but sometimes, we're less concerned about Jesus and more concerned about what He gives us.
In saying this this way, Paul comes back and says, "For me to live, the whole point is Jesus." He's redefining the good life, not saying Jesus gives you the good life. He's saying the good life is Christ.
To Die Is Gain
Jed Gillis: And so we might ask, what stops us from living life like that? What stops us from being able to honestly say, like Paul does, "For me to live is Christ"? I think one of the things that stops us is the fear of missing out. We think if, if the good life is prosperity in some way, well, if I live as if that's not the main point, I might not get it.
And what happens if I run out of time? That's why the second part of this is there. For me to live is Christ, and to die is... What is it? Gain. Gain. To die is better. If the presence of Christ is better, then I can live now without whatever the world calls the good life. Because I'm not gonna miss out on what's truly good by living for Christ now.
I'll one day have gain. In, in other words, Paul has really taken you, you could take all of life as a Christian and put it under this banner. You have confident eternal results, and within that, you have some things called life, and you have some things called death.
Paul says, "Let's put that all underneath that banner and say, because I'm confident of the overarching salvation that God has given me, then I can live right now to say the good life is just to know Jesus. And when I die, I go to the better one." To live is Christ, to die is gain.
Fruitful Labor for Others
Jed Gillis: And having put those categories, then he talks more specifically about his spec- his situation as he's in jail. He says, verse 22, "If I am to live in the flesh." In other words, if I'm gonna continue, if they won't execute me, right? If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.
There will be more fruit. The emphasis is on the labor part, not the fruitful part, which is interesting because I tend to think of the fruit side. So he's saying, "If I live here, there's gonna be a lot more work." He's not saying that it's easier. There's gonna be a lot more work, but it's gonna be fruitful.
In other words, we could say it like this. Paul is more excited by spiritual fruit than he is intimidated by spiritual work. He's more excited by spiritual fruit than he is intimidated by spiritual work. He says, Philippians and all these other people that he's able to minister to, if I stay alive, if I'm freed from this prison...
Paul's not thinking, "If I'm freed from this prison, then I get to go sit on my retirement lake home, kick my feet up, not do anything." That's not remotely what he's thinking. He's like, "You know how I've been shipwrecked repeatedly and beaten and all these different things that have happened to me that were pretty bad? Like if I get freed from prison, guess what I'm gonna do? More of it." Why? Because of the fruit. Because he cares more about the spiritual fruit than he is intimidated by the spiritual labor or the spiritual work. In other words, he says, "For my brothers and sisters and the fruit in their lives, I prefer to live."
Think about how others-focused that is. He's not saying, "I wanna be released from jail so my life can be more comfortable." He's saying, "I wanna be released from jail so that I can continue to work so that I see more and more spiritual fruit in my brothers and sisters." But then he also knows that may not happen.
He knows that he might not be released. Says, "Which I shall choose," we could say prefer. He's like, "I'm not even sure which one I'd rather have happen." Because if I die, I'll be in Christ's presence. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. So with these two options, he's like, "I'm pressed between the two."
Like, I don't know which one I'd rather have. I don't know if I want them to walk in today and tell me, "You're free," so that I can go about traveling and spreading the truth of the Gospel to new people, as well as discipling people that he's already ministered to. He's like, "I don't know if I want them to walk in and say, 'You're free,' and then I'll go work and it'll be fruitful. Or if I'd rather them walk in and say, 'Your execution is today because of your allegiance to Jesus Christ.' I don't know which of those two I'd rather have." Because he knows what we already said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
But then he continues. It's like we get this, this glimpse into his inner monologue.
I know you all argue with yourself sometimes. Me too. You go back and forth. It's like that. He writes down what he's going back and forth, right? Fruitful labor, that's good, but it's work. And then, oh, but if I'm with Christ, that's better. Oh, but, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on their account.
The Philippians need me. Not just the Philippians, but that's one example. These people that I've ministered to, they need me to be able to help them to grow and, and grow in the faith. And so he's back and forth. So verse 25: Convinced of this, convinced that it really is necessary for me to help people like the Philippians grow in their faith.
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, stay on earth, stay alive, and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.
He thinks about them and says, "I want you to grow in, in faith, in trusting, in resting in this king who really does love you, in this king who really is more powerful than Rome, in this king who has died on the cross for you."
It's like, "I want you to grow. I want that to progress in you." We saw that word before as well, uh, when we talked back in verse, um, twen- verse 12. "What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel," same word, to progress the gospel. He says, "I want the gospel to keep pushing forward in you, and I know that it's needful for me to be here to help you with that, so I'm convinced that God's gonna free me so that I can continue to love you well, to see fruit in your lives." He's motivated by the need in his heart for him to love other believers.
I ask you to think about your life and what motivates you. Are you that motivated by the spiritual fruit in your brothers and sisters? That can come about through your prayers, through your love, through your conversations. Are, are you that motivated by it? That's what motivated Paul. He says, "Look..." He cares more that he can help them grow in their faith and in their joy than he cares about being freed from jail himself.
Whether by Life or Death
Jed Gillis: And the last phrase that I want us to think about, so if we take the first one, "I will rejoice." One, "honor Christ in your body." "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." The last one I want you to think about was found in verse 20, "Whether by life or death." Now, here's the problem. That's easy for us to say, honestly, because most of us aren't faced with it.
Most of us aren't really wondering if our allegiance to Christ will cost our life this week, or ever. That's just not our context, so it's easy for us to read through that, "Whether by life or death." Sure. In some ways, it's easier, parents, to talk about your children and say, "Oh, would I take a bullet for my child?"
Sure. Would I jump in front of that? Yeah, absolutely. Would I sh- shield them with my body? Yes. And I think probably many or, or even all of us parents would. But it's a whole different thing to talk about that when you say, "Nobody's shooting at my kid," Than it would be if that were a real live choice right this moment.
Whether by life or death, what if we said this, "Whether by comfort or discomfort"? Now, that's the lesser thing. But what if we did? What if we look and think of our lives and say, "I am confident that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body whether my life is comfortable or uncomfortable"?
I, I don't know about you, I find it easier to go, "Yes, by life or death." Like, "Something feels uncomfortable right now. I don't know if I like that." Christ honored in my body, whether by comfort or discomfort. How about whether by certainty, like you can look forward and you know the plan for your life and you feel confident about it, or the unknown?
Are you committed to, with full courage, honoring Christ in your body when you go, "I don't know how this is gonna work out," as much as when you say, "I feel pretty confident in how it's gonna work out"?
Whether by earthly success or failure? We face that all the time. We face questions. Is my parenting going to be successful, or is it gonna look like a failure? Is my marriage gonna be successful, or is it gonna look like a failure? Is my business gonna be successful? Does it look like a failure? Is my ministry successful? Does it look like a failure? Whatever it is.
If the thing that drives you is to look like a success, then there's the possibility that that doesn't work and you face shame. But if the thing that drives you is Christ will be honored in my body, whether by success or failure, then you can say exactly like Paul does, "I know that I will not be ashamed because Christ is gonna be honored in my body."
Whether by productivity or frustration? Do you wanna honor Jesus when your week goes so well, you accomplished everything you could imagine on your to-do list as well as in the week where you're like, "I did nothing but add new things to my to-do list"? Christ will be honored in my body, whether by riches or poverty, whether by my strengths or my weaknesses.
Now at this point, it might start sounding a little bit like marriage vows. That's on purpose, and that's exactly right. Because what he's describing when he says, "Whether by life or death," he says, like, I am in the kind of covenant commitment relationship to Jesus Christ that transforms everything about my life so that I don't spend my time going, "Here's a list of bad circumstances. I've gotta try to avoid all those. Here's good circumstances. Oh, I really hope those happen." Instead of that, he says, "My whole perspective, my whole life is I wanna honor Jesus in my body, whether by life or death, whether by comfort or discomfort."
That's what he means when he says, "To live is Christ." He's saying all of those things, good and bad circumstances, all of those things are in service to Jesus, in love for Jesus, and I wanna honor him in all of them. To live is Christ. And when we die, as believers, it will be even better.
Growing in Allegiance to Christ
Jed Gillis: And when we look at this text, it might sound impossible. It, it's one of the things as I looked at this Book of Philippians, I see over and over like, "Paul, I cannot measure up to what you talk about."
"I know how to be content in all circumstances." Like, well, Paul, I wish I could say that. "For me to live is Christ." I wish I could say that.
"Count everything as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." And if we're honest and we sit with ourselves and go, "Man, I wish I could really say that all the time."
These things can sound like impossible ideals, like, "This is only true for super Christians, Paul. What is going on?" But what we're reminded of throughout Philippians is that these kind of ideals, that's the fruit of Paul's allegiance to Jesus. Am I perfectly there? No. Are you perfectly there? No. As it turns out, Paul wasn't either.
He said in chapter 3 verse 12, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own." It's his allegiance to Christ that makes all of those things possible and helps him grow in that, his treasuring commitment to his King.
Prayer and Reflection
Jed Gillis: So I wanna ask you this week. I'm gonna give you two questions and one thing to do, and I'm not gonna give you these things because they're a checklist of like, "Oh, I did the right stuff, now my life's good." No. I, I wanna give you three things to say your allegiance to Jesus should grow you in this. It should transform you.
First, pray for one another spiritually. You pull out our church directory, there's a whole list of names there, and then there's some people who aren't in the directory, and you can pray for them, too.
But f- think of a name. Think around the room. Pray for one another spiritually because that's something that should grow as our allegiance, as we treasure Jesus, as we're committed to him. We say, "Jesus, help those people who are yours. Help my brothers and sisters, not just physically, but spiritually." Pray for one another spiritually. That's your thing to do.
And let me say this. The way I would work if somebody told me that in this context, "Yes, that's a great idea. Cool." And then I'll forget it until Thursday and like, "Oh, I wish I had done that. Maybe I could do something." Make a plan. I don't care what your plan is. Write a giant sticky note that says pray and stick it somewhere.
I don't care where you put it. But I think in this room there are many who say, "I want to pray like that, and I get busy and I forget." Do something to break that so that you can remember. Pray for one another spiritually.
Here's a second question. In the situat- or second thing. In the situations in your life, what would it look like for you to honor Christ with your body, whether by life or death?
Simple question, hard answer. Whether by discomfort or comfort, whatever situation, if you think, "Here's the weight on me from this past week," or, "Here's the weight I feel coming up this next week," when you think of that situation, spend time with God and say, "God, what does it look like for me to honor Christ in my body? To do like that soldier and organize my whole life around showing how great Jesus is. What's that look like?" And ask God to work that in you because of your love for your King.
What's it look like to honor Christ with your body? And then the other question, what would it look like in your life if your life wasn't about pursuing pleasant circumstances but if life was Christ? What would change?
And I'm not even gonna ask you right now to say, "So change it." I want you just to spend time with those two questions and God. What would it look like to honor Christ in my body, whether by life or death, whether by good or bad? And if life wasn't about pursuing pleasant circumstances everywhere I could, but life was Jesus, what would be different?
'Cause I think what happens often is we don't even think about it. We go about our lives on autopilot.
And if you sit with God on those things, as a believer with the Spirit of God in you and the prayers of God's people holding you up, if you sit with God on that and you say, "That's what it would look like in my family, or in my weekly schedule, or in my time at church, or in my relationships, or in my business. That's what it would look like," I think the Spirit of God is gonna be working to change you, to grow you in that allegiance so that some of these things Paul says you'll be able to say with greater confidence, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I count all things as loss compared to knowing Jesus."
And you'll also be able to say with him, "I'm far from perfect." But forgetting what's behind, forgetting the failures and the successes, by the way, which is equally important, I press forward to know Jesus Christ.
And we can do all of that because of our confidence just like Paul has: That we will not at all be ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in our individual bodies and in our corporate body whether by life or death.
I'll invite you, just take a moment and respond to God in prayer. And then we'll sing together.