Phi 1:2-3
I. Think of the beauty of the circumstance that Paul thanked God for the blessing of kind, loving, helpful men. Man serves God by aiding God's servants.
II. The more enlarged and susceptible the heart, the more easily can service be rendered to it.
III. Learn how good a thing it is to serve the great, and inferentially how sublime a thing it is to live and die in the service of the Greatest.
IV. Each of us should leave a memory that shall be cherished and blessed.
V. The Apostle stands forth to us as an illustrious man, while the Philippians are not known to us by more than their general name. The hidden workers are not on that account to deem themselves useless.
Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 176.
Phi 1:3
The text speaks to us of the feeling which ought to exist between a minister and his congregation, more especially how he ought to be able to speak of them and what he ought to make his special prayer for them whenever, in the providence of God, he is for a time separated from them.
I. St. Paul was able to thank God, in his compulsory detention at Rome, for all that he remembered of his beloved Church at Philippi. Whenever he prayed, he was able to make his prayer for them with joy. He could think of them as earnestly and resolutely set upon practising and helping the Gospel; they did not shrink even from suffering for it. If St. Paul had been writing to us, could he have thus expressed himself? Could he have said with regard to the great bulk of our congregations that in their several stations, at their various ages, according to their different gifts and talents, they were truly loving and living the Gospel?
II. One thing St. Paul was able to say alike for himself and for them: that there was the strongest possible tie between them of mutual love. Surely, where a minister and his congregation love each other fervently, there must be something of. Christ in that feeling and in that place. St. Paul loved and was loved by these Philippians, and he showed and returned it by his prayers for them. He recognised and valued their affection; he felt that their love for him sprang out of love to Christ and showed itself in an active and diffusive charity. But he knew also that in this world it is not safe to rest on that which is; while we stay here, we must always be moving onwards: and what he desired for them was that their love might abound yet more and more in a deeper knowledge and a more experienced judgment. This great gift of judgment or, more exactly, of perception, comes only from being much with God, from being often in His presence, hidden privily, as the Psalmist expresses it, in His pavilion from the strife of tongues, from the conflicts of selfishness, from the din of earth.
C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 1.
References: Phi 1:3-5 . J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 422.Phi 1:3-11 . J. J. Goadby, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 152; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 48.
Phi 1:4-5
I. Prayer may be varied according to the different spiritual moods of the suppliant. The mood need not impair the sincerity.
II. Christianity is the most influential of all heart-uniting forces. Men who are one in Christ are united in the highest ranges of their nature. Paul is in Rome, his friends at Philippi; but in the great heart of the Apostle Rome and Philippi are but different names of the same place. The union of the Church is guaranteed by the principles on which it is founded; the moral is the immortal.
Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 177.
Phi 1:5
I. In the text we see age and youth together. (1) The old will contribute the wisdom of experience; the young will quicken the animation of hope.
II. In the text, though age and youth are together, yet age takes precedence of youth. It is Paul and Timotheus, not Timotheus and Paul.
III. In the text, though age takes precedence of youth, yet both age and youth are engaged in common service. See how one great relationship determines all minor conditions and attitudes; looked at as before Christ, the one Lord, they were both servants.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 215.
Reference: Phi 1:5 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 216.
Phi 1:6
The Apostle lays down a great principle respecting the Divine method of working, viz., to begin is to finish, and that principle, wide enough to encompass the universe, will also comprehend every detail of Christian service.
I. God works by a plan; His plan is to prepare mankind for the final day.
II. God is not fickle in the prosecution of His purposes; He begins, not that He may conduct an experiment, but that He may perform a design.
III. God has so revealed Himself in the education of the individual and in the training of society as to justify the most emphatic expression of confidence on the part of His Church.
Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 178.
References: Phi 1:6 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 872; Homilist, 3rd scries, vol. ii., p. 149; R. Davey, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 10; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 213; vol. vii., p. 217; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 108; Preacher's Monthly, vol. iv., p. 289; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vi., p. 245.
Phi 1:7
A Man in Rome carries the Philippian Church in his heart.
I. He who carries the world elsewhere than in his heart will soon wish to cast off his burden.
II. He who carries the good in his heart will never be desolate.
III. He whose heart is engaged with the tender offices of affection is the profoundest interpreter and the most efficient servant of mankind.
IV. He who enshrines his benefactors in his heart has broken the dominion of selfishness.
Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 179.
Phi 1:8
The Tender Heart of Jesus Christ.
I. What is a tender heart? What is included in it? What is the chief characteristic of such a heart? A tender heart must always be a sensitive heart; where there is life there is sensitiveness; a tender heart is one ready to receive and retain the very softest impression; a tender heart is one that is endowed with a more than ordinary power to love; it is also a heart that is easily pained. A man of tender heart will be sure to live a life in harmony with it.
II. It was absolutely necessary that our Lord Jesus should be characterised by tenderness of heart. He had a nature that assimilated to itself the very griefs and sorrows of others. Christ's heart was intensely sensitive, and therefore subject itself to pain. It was the exquisitely tender nature of Christ that made the thought of being alone an anguish. Christ's heart, being tender, shunned giving pain. A truly tender heart will be agonised at the thought of having perhaps unintentionally wounded another's spirit. Then a tender heart not only is susceptible to pain, and not only shuns giving pain to others, but it will always feel the pangs that others endure. Over and over again this sentence concerning Christ occurs in the New Testament: "moved with compassion."
III. The tenderness of Christ's heart was shown by tender actions. The tender-heartedness of Christ comes out in every action; it is not shown merely in what He does: it is heard in what He says, for "out of the abundance of the. heart the mouth speaketh." We have not a High-priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Let us therefore remember that our Saviour is the tender-hearted Christ, and let us not grieve Him by our sins, but let us reflect to the world the beauty of His love.
Archibald Brown, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 1099.
The Source of Christian Love.
We see here
I. The Witness of Paul's tender regard for the Philippians: "God is my Witness." This expression should be reserved for periods of peculiar solemnity. Paul on the verge of martyrdom, not expecting to see these brethren again till he should meet them at the great white throne, takes the name of God, not in vain, but in reverent truth, into his lips, and confirms his testimony by his oath. It is healthful to the soul to be constantly reminded of another onlooker. God is not mocked. To go about the business and intercourse of life under the sense of God's presence would cast out all the malice and envy from the heart, would banish all falsehood from the lips. He requireth truth in the inward parts. As the mists of night are driven away by the rising sun, the face of God chases away malice and envy, so that they cannot harbour in the heart.
II. The source of his love for the brethren. He longed after them in the compassion of Jesus Christ. From that fountain his own pity flowed. Partakers of Christ as far as their finite nature will permit, Christians partake also of His affections towards the Church on one side of the world or the other.
III. The measure and manner of the Apostle's fond desires after these Philippian Christians: "I long after you all." Probably they were not all alike attractive either in person or character. If he had regarded them from a merely human and earthly view-point, he would have held to some and despised others; but he had risen to heavenly places in Christ, and therefore his tenderness shone on them all. A lamp lighted on the top of a pillar casts light on some objects and a shadow on others, but the sun spreads day over all. The love that is grafted into Christ is universal, like His own. There is no respect of persons with God, and none with the godly, as far as they act in accordance with their character.
W. Arnot, The Anchor of the Soul, p. 112.
Phi 1:9
Hindrances to Spiritual Growth.
I. The first and greatest hindrance to our abounding more and more is this: inability to see what it is that we ought to improve, where it is that we are defective, and so long as we are content simply to look at ourselves and our doing by the light of our preconceived ideas it is easy and natural for us to be content with ourselves as we are. Our Divine Master has set before us a perfect example of what we ought to be, and He has promised to give us help and grace to enable us to tread in His steps if only we will try to do so, because, try as we will, the copy will fall very far short of the original. The very first step, then, towards improvement is to study the life of our blessed Lord, to learn the principles by which His life was governed. Here, then, is the highest standard by which to measure ourselves. What is the motive which governs our life? Is it a desire perfectly to fulfil the will of God, or is it self in one of the many forms in which self is manifested?
II. There is another point on which we need to examine ourselves: whether we are seeking to abound more and more. Holy Scripture assures us that we are not sufficient of ourselves to obey the precepts laid down by our Lord. It is only through Christ strengthening us that we can keep free from sin. We must fulfil the conditions through which we have the promises of gaining what we need; and the very first condition to which these promises are attached is that we should have faith in what Christ has wrought in our behalf. Faith is at first weak, but by continual exercise it develops and grows until it overshadows our whole existence. The more real and true and sincere our faith is, the greater will be the harvest of good works in which we shall abound more and more; whilst, again, the more faithfully and zealously we bring forth such good works, the brighter and deeper and clearer will be our faith: the one will react upon the other; each will minister to the other's growth.
Dean Gregory, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 321.
Christian Love Abounding.
The reference in our text is not primarily to love towards the Apostle himself, as some have supposed, nor yet love towards God in Christ although this is the spring from which all true Christian love flows but to love towards others, especially to them who are of the household of faith.
I. Let us consider the characteristics of this Christian love, which has proved in the world and in many a Church and home the mightiest spiritual force on earth. (1) One of the first things which distinguish it from other kinds of love is its absolute unselfishness. Selfishness, whether in the nation or the individual, leads to sin, and is the chief antagonist of the love which seeketh not her own, and doth not behave herself unseemly, which is inculcated in our text. (2) Again, the love spoken of here is opposed to all that is impure and unspiritual. Instead of devoting itself only to those who are attractive or winsome, it goes down to the degraded; it surrounds them with a halo of beauty, as being those for whom Christ Jesus died, and it is not satisfied until it can lift them upward and heavenward, and make them more worthy of being loved than they are. (3) Again, this love is distinctively Christian. It is not ours by nature, for none of us loves the unattractive from instinct; but it is generated in us when the love of Christ is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. It is, in fact, a continual manifestation of Christ's love to the world, which led Him to die for us "while we were yet sinners."
II. Consider two or three facts which make it necessary that such love should abound. (1) Such abounding love is necessary if we would do Christian work for others steadfastly and earnestly. (2) Besides being a stimulus to service, abounding love is necessary to us when we have to bear the infirmities of others.
A. Rowland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 181.
Phi 1:12-14
Circumstances the most untoward may in reality be advancing the Divine kingdom among men.
I. God's providence is not to be interpreted in fragments.
II. The moral is higher than the personal; Paul is in prison, but the Gospel is free.
III. The bonds of one man may give inspiration to the liberty of another.
IV. The spread of the Gospel depends upon no one man.
V. Even the afflicted Christian has a mission.
Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 182.
References: Phi 1:12-20 . Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 221.Phi 1:12-26 . J. J. Goadby, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 216. Phi 1:13 , Phi 1:14 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. i., p. 216.
Philipians Phi 1:15-18
I. Diverse developments of human disposition.
II. The possibility of doing a good deed through a bad motive.
III. The impossibility of entirely concealing motive.
IV. The actions of self-seekers turned into the good man's source of joy.
V. Man is never so diabolised as when making a good cause the means of grieving and tormenting the Church.
VI. The mere fact that a man preaches Christ is not a proof of his personal salvation.
Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 182.
Reference: Phi 1:15-18 . H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 108.
Phi 1:18
Christ Preached in any Way a Cause of Joy.
We see here a great law of Christ's providence over His Church. He furthers His own ends, not by affirmations only, but by negations: by faith and by unbelief; by truth and by heresy; by unity and by schism. It is a transcendent and intricate mystery, far beyond our intelligence. All things conspire to His purpose, and His will ruleth over all, not, it may be, to the purpose we imagine for Him, nor to our idea of His will, but to His own not as yet revealed. Would St. Paul have rejoiced, had he lived in our day, that, although perfect unity in truth and love were impossible, yet every way Christ is preached? Would the publication of truth even in contention, strife, rivalry, and pretence have given him cause of joy? Would he have said, Rather so than not at all; let Christ's name become gainsaid rather than buried in silence? I think he would
I. Because the name of Christ reveals the love of God. The mere knowledge that God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, the mere publication and proclaiming of this great fact, without Church or sacraments, without creeds or Scriptures, is a supernatural gift of truth revealing the love of God. And this is an inestimable advance beyond the state of man without this knowledge. Any light is better than darkness, any food than famine, even crumbs of bread which come down from heaven than the husks of this fallen earth.
II. The preaching of Christ even in the most imperfect form is a witness against the sin of the world. And what are these two great truths, the love of God and the sin of the world, but the two poles on which all our salvation turns? The mere sound of the name "Saviour," "Redeemer," "Ransom," and "Sacrifice," is a testimony against the natural conscience. The powers of truth are not bound; they, like the presence of God and the nature of man, are universal. Wheresoever they alight, as seeds wafted by the winds, or by the sweep of tides, or by the flight of birds, though not sown in order nor by the ministry of man, they germinate.
III. The preaching of Christ brings men under the law of responsibility; it reveals the four last things: death, judgment, hell, and heaven; it testifies to the commandments of God, and the law of charity, and the need of holiness. And all these things, addressed to the conscience of man, produce their own response of fear, hope, obedience. What is the ripe civilisation, the fair peace, and harmonious friendship of states and kingdoms, the alliances and relations of national systems, the temperate sway of princes, the liberty of subject people, the purity of domestic obedience, but a second crop of fruits shaken from the faith of Christ, as from the fig-tree in its later season?
All that has been said rests on two undeniable truths: (1) first, that all truth has life in it to those whose heart is right with God; (2) that the duty of believing the whole and perfect truth is absolutely binding on pain of sin to all who know it.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 60.
References: Phi 1:18 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 370; T. Wallace, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 20c
Phi 1:19
I. Mark the confidence of the declaration, "I know ." Righteousness is a prophetic power.
II. Mark the ground of this confidence. The Apostle's joy does not arise from the fact that certain persons preached, but from the higher fact that Christ was preached.
III. The extension of the truth is the best guarantee of personal happiness.
IV. The Gospel has everything to hope from being allowed to reveal its own credentials.
V. The greatest man in the Church may be served by the supplication of the good.
Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 207.
References: Phi 1:19 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1139; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iv., p. 85.
Phi 1:20
I. We all see in some points what St. Paul must have meant by this expression. It was a thought frequently present to him. If he lives, if his earthly life is protracted through toils so constant and sufferings so intense, this shows the supporting hand of the risen, the immortal, Saviour. There must be some marvellous power out of and above him, or he must long ago have sunk under such pressure; there must be One above, whose grace is sufficient for him: sufficient to keep him meek under provocation, courageous under intimidation, and steadfast in the face of danger. Christ is thus magnified (not made great, but shown to be great) in his body by life. And if death comes, then Christ, who makes him willing to die for Him, Christ, who gives him grace, courage, and constancy to die for Him, shall be magnified in him still, magnified in his body, as by life, so by death.
II. Such was the meaning of the words before us for St. Paul himself. Have they any meaning for us? It is in the power of a Christian, so the words import, to magnify Christ; that is, to show the greatness of Christ in his body. Temperance, purity, activity by these we may magnify Him. And there are yet two ways besides these more common ones. (1) One of these is suffering. Christ is dishonoured by fretfulness, by repining, by dwelling upon past happiness, by a dejection which refuses to be comforted; He is magnified by a manly and Christian composure, by a resignation gradually brightening into cheerfulness, by a courageous hope, and by a steadfast expectation. (2) And then at last death has to be borne. It is a secret thing, a thing which no man knows save by once for all passing through it himself. When a man can really find peace on his deathbed from a tortured body and an agitated mind in the long-tried support and comfort of a Saviour who died for him and rose again, he pays a tribute to His greatness, and to His truth, and to His character at once the noblest and the best. "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death."
C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 41.
References: Phi 1:20 . A. J. Bamford, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 102.
Phi 1:21
I. "To me to live is Christ." The connection in which these words stand seems to give us their primary meaning. The business of my life is Christ; my energy, my activity, my occupation, my interest, is all Christ. St. Paul regarded everything that he had to do, and he regarded everything that befell him, only in relation to, in its bearing upon, Christ. The words describe a condition widely different from that of most of us. Before St. Paul could say that his outward life was Christ, he must have been able to say it of his inward life. Before Christ can be to any one his object, his business, his work, in life, He must first be his trust and his hope, his known and tried refuge from guilt, from fear, from restlessness, from sin. A man must have Christ for the life of his soul before he can have Christ for the life of his life. Small as is the regard paid to Christ in our life, is there not less of regard for Him in our souls?
II. To St. Paul and in this respect St. Paul was but an example for the humblest Christian to St. Paul, inwardly first and then outwardly, in soul first and then in action, to live was Christ. And therefore, therefore only, was he able to add in truth and soberness, And to me to die is gain. Painful in itself and to all of us, painful in his case even beyond ours for he when he wrote expected life to be closed and it was closed a few years later by a death of martyrdom yet the death consummated and endured was a gain to him even in comparison with a Christian's life. Here to live was Christ; but even beyond that there was a blessedness into which only death could usher him. To have died is gain. If we would die the Christian's death, we must live the Christian's life; if we would find it a gain to have died, we must have found it to us Christ to live.
C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 54.
I. "To me to live is Christ." A bold figure, showing, for one thing, the rapid action of the Apostle's mind; a haste to express the main idea; an impatience, as it were, of the immediate and explanatory expressions. For another thing, it shows the mighty magnitude of the object in his esteem. He regarded all the grand truths and interests of religion as centring in Him, comprehended in Him, insomuch that His very name might stand equivalent to them all. How absurd, if He were not infinitely higher, greater, than a man, a prophet. Think how it would have sounded if, for instance, Elijah, the zealous and heroic advocate of the Old Testament law, when he at one time desired to die rather than live, had recovered to the consideration of his important mission and said, "To me to live is Moses."
II. "To me to live is Christ." His chief and immediate reference was to the important service which his prolonged life and apostleship would render to the Christian cause, especially to the Christian converts to whom he was writing; but he would include the happiness which he would the while enjoy himself, the communion with Christ to which he and all the apostles so often refer with great emphasis of delight, the hope, the assured prospect, of all that was in futurity for himself and for the world. Yet, with this consummation of animating interests in his soul, the happiest man probably on the whole face of the earth, he deliberately judged that to depart and be with Christ would as to himself be far better. The Apostle was of the highest order of Christians. But to every real Christian to die is gain. The sensible loss of all the evils of this present state will of itself be an immense gain. How mighty the duty, how transcendent the interest, of directing our utmost energy to the object that death may be gain.
J. Foster, Lectures, vol. ii., p. 252.
Phi 1:22-25
I. In the text St. Paul appears to weigh his life against departing and being with Christ. We must not suppose him to be speaking of his own case only, as an exceptional case, one of those grievously afflicted lives which make men desire death merely as a termination of their earthly sufferings; but we must rather understand him as declaring that to depart and be with Christ is absolutely far better than life here, better for all, a higher state of being, an existence of greater blessing. And it is evident upon what ground. St. Paul declares this preference: the departing is not a mere departing, but it is a departing to be with Christ. The magnification of Christ was the one great end of the Apostle's life: to realise Christ's love, to conform himself to Christ's image, to exhibit to mankind, not by word only, but by life and example, a picture of the life of Christ this was the thing for which the Apostle strove; and undoubtedly the light which ever shone upon his faith was this: the entire belief that one day he should be with Christ and see Him as He is. If in this life he had only a dim, faint view of Christ, and yet found even that unspeakably brighter and better than anything else which he could see in this world, what wonder if he desired that closer communion with his Lord which he believed would be granted to him when he had put aside the burden of the flesh?
II. We are all placed here in God's world, endowed with various powers and different talents; here we are to remain for some few years, and then all to pass away. Fifty years what is it in the history of the world? and yet in even fifty years how many of us will still remain in this life? The question then forces itself upon us as reasonable creatures, What are we put here for, and why should we desire to remain? The answer is simple: We are placed here to work out our own salvation and for the benefit each of the other. It need not distress any one to find that St. Paul's language is out of his reach; he had much better honestly confess that it is so, than pretend that it is not; but if a man desire this life, at least let him desire it for some good end. Let him take a deep, sober view of his mission in the world, for every one is sent for an important end; every one of us has his work and his Master, who will demand an account of it. We are all successors of St. Paul in this respect, and that which formed to him the principal chain of life ought to occupy a similar position in our minds to that which it did in his.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 2nd series, p. 245.
Phi 1:23
The Believer's Better Portion.
I. Paganism had cold comfort for its children. It is the religion of the Lord Jesus which can cheer and satisfy the soul. Our Divine Redeemer having "overcome death" and opened unto us the kingdom of heaven, the reign of the terrible destroyer, death, is broken, and his power over our mortal bodies is only for a brief season.
II. Well may we envy the portion of those who, "having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labours." So long as we are engaged in this warfare, we are exposed to the snares of the destroyer, and great must be the peace of having laid aside this mystery of probation.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 449.
The Blessedness of Death.
Why should departure out of this life be an object of desire to a Christian?
I. First, because it is a full release from this evil world. There is something very expressive in the word we here render by "depart." It means the being set free after the breaking up of some long restraint, or the unyoking of the oxen wearied with the plough, or the weighing again of our anchors for a homeward voyage. On every side its associations are full of peace and rest. What can better express the passage of Christ's servants from this tumultuous and weary world? So long as we are in this warfare, we must be open to the shafts of evil, and who would not desire a shelter where no arrows can reach us any more? What must be the peace of having put off this mystery of probation, when the struggle and the strife shall be over, and breathless, panting hope, dashed by ten thousand fears, shall be changed into a certainty of peace, into a foretaste of our crown! This one thought alone is enough to make death blessed. Well may evangelists say, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," and souls already martyred, like St. Paul, desire to depart. Even to us it may be permitted to feel our hearts beat thick with hopeful and longing fear when we wait for the voice that shall say to the least of penitents, "Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away, for lo! the winter is past; the rain is over and gone." Come to Me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, unto the everlasting hills and to the eternal years.
II. Thus far we have spoken of the desire to depart, which springs from a longing to be set free from sorrow and an evil world, from the temptations and burdens of mortality which weigh upon the soul. But these are the nether, and not the upper, springs of such desires. St. Paul longed for the spiritual body, raised in power and incorruption at the day of Christ, and meanwhile for that personal perfection in measure and foretaste which is prepared for those who die in the Lord and await His coming. Surely of all earthly sorrows sin is the sharpest. The heaviest of all burdens is the bondage of a will which makes God's service a weary task, and our homage of love a cold observance.
III. And this leads to another reason why to depart is blessed. It unites us for ever to the new creation of God. What is this new creation but the new heavens and the new earth, in which are gathered the whole order and lineage of the second Adam, all saints, from Abel the just, of all ages and times, in the twilight and the dayspring, in the morning and the noontide of grace, all made perfect, whether on earth or in rest, by the omnipotence of love? This is our true home, where all our reason, all our desires, all our sympathies, and all our love have their perfect sphere and their full repose.
IV. "To be with Christ." This is the true foundation of heavenly joy. To be with Him; to see His face; to follow Him whithersoever He goeth; to be conscious of His eye; to hear, it may be, His words of love; to see the gathered fruit of His Passion in the glory of His elect what, if not this, is heaven? It is only our dull love of this world, or our blindness of heart, or, alas! our consciousness of penetrating guilt, which makes this desire of saints a thought of fear to us. But for this, how blessed to go to dwell with Him for ever!
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 370.
References: Phi 1:23 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 274; vol. xix., No. 1136.
Phi 1:27
It is plain that every precept of holy living might be brought under this comprehensive charge. Let us narrow the compass of the exhortation. Let us say, Live inwardly and live outwardly as citizens of that kingdom which the Gospel has revealed.
I. How large a part of life is lived wholly within public life, social life, family life; these do not exhaust the whole being even in those who are most busy, most sociable, or most domestic. Within and beside all these there is for all of us a life yet more real, yet more important; and the danger of all these other kinds of life is lest they should obscure or paralyse or stifle this. It is for our soul's sake, for our eternal welfare's sake, that we must watch and pray against this danger. As in some senses we all have a secret life, which we cannot part with nor make public even if we would, so it is our great business to attend to this secret life, to regulate and cultivate it, in such a way that it may become, as it is here expressed, worthy of the Gospel. We ought to be living our citizenship inwardly towards Christ, our Lord and King. The state of our mind towards Him personally ought to be that which suits and is consistent with our relation to Him as His subjects.
II. And then that which is within will shine through into that which is without also. He whose inner life is that of one whom Christ has saved will be living outwardly also as a citizen of the kingdom not of this world; his aims and motives will be higher than those of men who know not God; he will not be a worldly man; he will not be a vain man; he will declare plainly by his acts that he is one who seeks a country.
C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 73.
References: Phi 1:27 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 640; F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 209; J. R. Woodford, Ibid., vol. xxi., p. 161; W. J. Woods, Ibid., vol. xxxvi., p. 280; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 345; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 145; Preacher's Monthly, vol. iii., p. 353; Church Sermons, vol. ii., p. 113.Phi 1:27 , Phi 1:28 . Homilist, vol. v., p. 189; A. Maclaren, The Secret of Power, p. 237.
Phi 1:29
The Sacrifice of the Redeemed.
I. Christ's sacrifice is no far-away fact, to be shown and gazed upon; it draws us also unto itself. For consider what exactly it was. Where does its vicarious efficacy for us lie? Surely in this: that Christ made His offering out of our very flesh. He laid hold of no foreign thing to offer; He looked not elsewhere for a gift. He looked at this world we live in; He took of its substance for His gift; He laid hold of its present nature, and offered that. Forasmuch as the children partook of flesh and blood, Christ partook of the same. As He found it, so He took it; just it, and no other; this, just this, is that in which He would accomplish His priestly work. But these are the very conditions in which we to this day live. That flesh which He took we still wear; still it is full charged with ache and torment; still it wastes and sickens. We then hold in our hands the very gift which Christ, our Master, offered. It was just these human sorrows that He turned into sacraments of allegiance. Are we blinded to our opportunities by the fact that they fall upon us by natural laws, or that they seem entirely accidental, or that they are brought upon us unjustly by wicked hands?
II. But consider the offering of Christ. What can possibly be more unlike a pleasing sacrifice to God than His death? What sign of its being a High-priest's offering broke through the shadow of this world's darkness? It differed in no degree whatever from any common disaster that happens to us. It came upon Him by simple natural means; it looked to the outsider as a most cruel and unfortunate and bloody accident. He offered then, and saved by offering, just that human life which still is ours today; and if so, His sacrifice is not only a vicarious act, but a revelation of the true use to which we may put this very world in which we stand, a revelation of the manner by which even it, with all its confusions, and disappointments, and sickness, and weariness, and anguish, and death, may be justified, may be hallowed, may be transformed into the fuel of the one sacrifice which alone can reconcile the world to God. We are drawn into the circle in which Christ's eternal energies work; the love of Christ lays hands upon us and constrains us; we, as we are uplifted by the prayer of His Passion, we, too, recover our priesthood; we may lift the offering of this our flesh to God, since that day when Christ died in the likeness of our flesh and sanctified it to become an offering to God. We may do it now, though we are severed from that great day by eighteen hundred long and weary years, for still today Christ, the ever-living Priest, pleads within that holy place, into which He has passed before us, that holy blood, once poured out in love for us, which makes Him still bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh; and still today, as the Father looks upon that blood, there breaks from His eyes ever and again the splendour of an unappeasable and exhaustless love, which hastens from afar to greet our poor and pitiful gift of ourselves to Him, kissing us and rejoicing, as God, the mighty Forgiver, can alone rejoice, that this His Son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found.
H. Scott Holland, Logic and Life, p. 133.
Reference: Phi 1 Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 24.