Philippians
3:17-4:1
Christian
Identity: Urgent Questions
James Sledge March
13, 2022
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| The Apostle Paul Rembrandt, 1633 |
I ask because I don’t know that I see very much evidence that people’s lives are driven by questions of what they are doing for others. Think about it. What are the most persistent and urgent questions in your life? For a young person they might be, “Where am I going to college,” or “What am I going to do with my life?” For others they might be about money. “Can I cover expenses until the next paycheck?” “Do I have enough in my 401k?” “What did the stock market do today?”
For some the most persistent question might be about raising children. For others about getting that new position at work. Some people might be focused on finding a life partner. I have questions about what I’ll do when I retire, whether we saved enough, and what sort of world my grandchildren will grow up in. I sometimes think about what I should be doing for others, but I’m pretty sure that’s not my very top, my most persistent and urgent question.
I started thinking about such questions when I was ruminating over today’s scripture passage and thinking about the theme of Christian identity that I’m exploring in my sermons as we work our way toward Holy Week and Easter. What sort of questions need to be near the top of your list if you’re going to have a legitimate, authentic Christian identity?
In the part of his letter to the congregation in Philippi that we heard, Paul contrasts two very different identities. One lives as an enemy of the cross of Christ, and the other has its citizenship in heaven. One’s god is their belly, a reference to a life driven by every want and desire, and the other lives in way that imitate the Apostle Paul.
Perhaps it would be helpful to say a little something about this first identity that has upset Paul to the point of tears. These people are Christians, but they seem to have misunderstood or misconstrued Paul’s basic proclamation.
Paul’s spoke a great deal about freedom. He speaks of being saved by grace, as a gift rather than by adherence to the Law. Freed from the Law; grace instead of works, says Paul. He also speaks of being freed from the power of sin. But some people heard Paul’s words on freedom to mean they could throw off all constraints and live lives of wanton excess. Some even proclaimed that such a lifestyle was proof of their freedom in Christ, encouraging others to imitate them.
I have met a few people who seemed to think that way. If God saves people by grace, no matter what they’ve done, what not just cut loose? But Paul insists that this is not the freedom he is talking about. Jesus frees us from sin so that we can discover a new life that is cross shaped, that lives in ways that help others, even when that is costly. To imagine that you’re free to do whatever you like, without regard to others is to live as enemies of the cross, says Paul tearfully.
It strikes me that there is a parallel distortion of freedom happening in 21st century America. People have interpreted it to mean, “No one can tell me what to do, and I’ll fight anyone who tries.” But that is not the understanding of freedom that undergirded the founding of our country. That notion of freedom was tempered by a responsibility to the other. To have freedom without responsibility is a recipe for chaos.
Paul contrasts those who have a distorted understanding of freedom with those whose citizenship is in heaven. This was language the Philippians would have understood well. Philippi was a Roman colony and as a result many of its population were Roman citizens. That did not mean they were from Rome or thought of Rome as home. Rather it meant that they were Roman and expected to live by the ways of Rome.
Paul means something similar. To be a citizen of heaven is to live by the ways of heaven, and Jesus came, in large part, to show us how a citizen of heaven lives. But interestingly, Paul speaks of imitating Paul rather than Jesus.
This is not because Paul thinks so highly of himself, and for the record, he has encouraged the Philippians just a few verses earlier to Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. But Paul lives in a very different time than we do. None of the gospels have yet been written. The Philippians have no Bible to open and learn the ways of Jesus. And so Paul employs what was a typical teaching pattern in the Greco-Roman world. Disciples learned by imitating their master, and then others learned by imitating these disciples.
Paul wasn’t one of the original disciples who was with Jesus when he was alive, but he has had vivid spiritual encounters with the risen Jesus. Plus he understands the very Jewish ways of Jesus much better than the Gentile Philippians do. Therefore Paul understands himself to be a disciple who has learned from the master and can share the master’s ways.
The Philippians knew Paul personally and knew how he lived and acted. They knew that he lived in stark contrast to those who encouraged a distorted view of freedom that wasn’t at all interested in taking up the cross, that was at odds with the ways of the cross. I know Jesus intimately, says Paul, and I live by the ways he showed me.
But we do not know Paul personally. We have no way of observing him and imitating him. But we do have a witness that Paul and the Philippians did not, the witness of the Bible. We can see how Jesus lived and acted and taught his followers to live and act, and so we can imitate Jesus, can live and act as we see him do.
But beyond imitating Jesus, I wonder if when Paul says, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us, we shouldn’t see some parallels in our congregation. Surely there are people in any congregation whose lives of faith are worth imitating. I’m not saying there are people who are perfect. But some live out their faith in ways that can be instructive to others.
The Presbyterian Book of Order says of elders and deacons. “(They) should be persons of strong faith, dedicated discipleship, and love of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Their manner of life should be a demonstration of the Christian gospel in the church and in the world.”[1]
That says to me that the leaders in a congregation should be people worthy of imitating. I know that can sound a little off putting. I didn’t like it when my parents told me I was supposed to be a good example for my younger siblings, and I’m not sure I like the idea of being an example for anyone else. But faith is a community activity, and so it needs to have those who are mature in the faith helping the less mature grow in faith.
American Christianity is sometime so individualized that people think of church as a place they go to get what they need or want and little more. But the Bible tells us that a congregation is a community. It is the body of Christ with each member bringing gifts to that body to make it whole.
Every congregation should be a place where people are being mentored in faith by others who are further along in their faith journey, and part of our Christian identity is to be both mentor and mentee. All of us should be looking to the example of others with Christ-like qualities, and all of us should aspire to imitate Christ in ways that others will want to emulate.
And that brings me back round to the subject of what is the most persistent and urgent question for people of faith. I’m going to go with, “Am I striving to become more Christ-like and to help others become more Christ-like?” If we can say “Yes” to this question, I’m reasonably certain that we will cover Dr. King’s “What are you doing for others?” question.
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