Passion Shapes Outlook
So let’s start this morning with a pop quiz. I’ve got just a two-question theology quiz … I’m going to say two sentences and I want you to fill in the blanks. You ready?
God saves us by grace through faith in _______.
Answer: Jesus
Once we put our faith in Jesus, God, by his Spirit, begins the work of conforming us into the image of _______.
Answer: Jesus
The Bible teaches us that in our our lives as Christians God is continuing the good work that he began in us (Philippians 1:6). That means that he is conforming us into the image of Jesus. He is progressively, slowly but surely, making us more and more like Jesus, and we are called to be like Jesus. Every Christian in here agree with that? We’re called to be like Jesus.
Jesus or Paul?
Okay, so what about verses like this:
1 Corinthians 4:16 — this is Paul speaking and he says:
“… I urge you … be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.”
2 Timothy 1:3 — Paul tells Timothy:
“Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me …”
And later in that letter, as an encouragement to Timothy, Paul says:
“You have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions…” (3:10)
Paul says later in this letter to the Philippians, 3:17,
“Brothers, join in imitating me …”
He says in Chapter 4, verse 9:
“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things …”
So, fair question: Are we supposed to be like Jesus or are we supposed to be like Paul?
Well, the key here is Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1 when he says:
“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
Which means we are called to be like Jesus, and to be like Paul when Paul is like Jesus … and in all the ‘ways of Paul’ that we find in the New Testament, he is being like Jesus. Paul models for us Christlikeness. Paul is an example of Christ that we should follow, including what he says here in this introduction, in this personal update.
And so what is that? What is Paul’s example here — what is Paul’s example overall?
What Is Paul’s Example?
We should have clarity on that, right? If we’re supposed to imitate Paul as he imitates Christ, we need to know what Paul was like.
Several years ago I was at a conference leading a workshop on leadership development, and I was making the case that, before churches can develop leaders, we need to know the kind of leaders we want to develop. Standard precedes system. And I appealed to what Paul says here in Philippians, that Paul’s example is one we should follow, he sets a good standard, and so I asked the room: What was the apostle Paul like?
It was a workshop, so I had asked the folks to get in small groups and read through the Book of Acts and Paul’s letters, and try to summarize, from the Bible: Who was Paul and what was his passion?
And I had a big post-it note, and after a few minutes, I was ready to write down some observations from the groups, so I asked everyone, about 50 people, What made Paul tick?
And a dear sister raised her hand, and I had my marker ready to go, and I said, “Okay, tell us, what drove Paul?”
She said: “Paul fought for women’s equality!”
And I said, “Okay … yeah, Paul believed that.”
Another guy, spoke up: “Paul wanted to make America great again!”
Answers were all over the place. This story really happened (most of it) … I think about it twice a week, because it reminds me that although we can make biblical and theological arguments for all kinds of important things, there’s a difference between things that are true and a passion that drives you. There’s a lot of good, true things, and we thank God for them, but only one thing can be an all-consuming passion — and we will never understand Paul until we know what that passion is.
We see it in Philippians 1. It will be most clear in our passage next week, but it comes through in our verses today, 12–18. We need to know how can Paul say what he says here. And so if I had to summarize it, if I had to put Paul’s example in one sentence, it’s this:
Paul cared most about the glory of God magnified through the advance of the gospel.
The glory of God magnified through the advance of the gospel.
That was Paul’s all-consuming passion. More than anything else, Paul was a theologian-pastor-missionary who wanted the glory of God displayed through people hearing and learning and embracing the good news of Jesus Christ. That’s what drove him. That’s what led him to see the world the way he does here in verses 12–18, and that’s what I want to show you.
I want to show you three ways that this passion for Paul shaped the way we saw the world, and then I wanna give us some ideas for how we could follow his example.
Father in heaven, thank you for your Word and for our brother, the apostle Paul. We ask now that by your Holy Spirit, give us a clear sightline into his example, and more than anything, overcome our hearts with the glory of your grace in the gospel. In Jesus’s name, amen.
Three Ways Paul’s Passion Shaped His Outlook
So three ways that Paul’s passion shaped his outlook. We’re going to see these in the text, starting with verse 12.
Paul’s passion for the glory of God magnified through the advance of the gospel shaped …
1) The way he interpreted how he’s doing. (verse 12)
Look at verse 12. Pauls starts, “I want you to know, brothers, ….”
And we can just stop right there for a minute. Remember that this is the introduction of a letter between good friends, and as good friends tend to do in communication, they start with an update on how they’re doing.
Paul wanted to know how this church was doing (which was the job of Timothy and Epaphroditus — they were supposed to bring news of this church back to Paul); and this church wanted to know how Paul was doing (which is what he’s telling them here in this letter).
Now the church at Philippi already knew what had happened to Paul. They knew that he was in Roman custody, in prison, in Rome.
And we know from the New Testament that Paul faced different types of imprisonment with different conditions, including once an imprisonment in Philippi.
The beginning of this church can be traced back to Paul and Silas being thrown into prison in Philippi in Acts 16. And in that imprisonment, the conditions were rough: Paul’s feet was locked into iron stocks. The best-case scenario of imprisonment was house arrest (which was the condition of Paul’s imprisonment in Acts 28), but we’re not sure exactly about the condition of his imprisonment when he writes this letter — and in this way, we’re like the Philippian church.
They knew Paul was in Roman custody, but they didn’t know the details — now they did know more than we do, that Roman custody in the first century was never a five-star hotel.
Historically (this would have been around the year 60) it’s a fact that Roman prisons were absolutely inhumane. They would have been underground with little to no ventilation. It would have been almost completely dark, with a terrible stench, crawling with disease. These prisons were not built to hold prisoners for a long time, but only until they were tried or executed. Maybe Paul is on house arrest right now shackled to a Roman solider — but either way, he’s imprisoned in Rome, good grief, how’s he doing? That’s what this church wanted to know.
Paul, how are you?
Paul says: “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.”
We would expect that he wants us to know how bad it smells or how hungry he is or how terribly he’s been sleeping.
Paul is in prison. Man, how are you?
— I gotta tell you about how the gospel’s advancing.
The Overfilled Americano
Understand that his answer here does not change his circumstances. The conditions were still terrible, and if he had the choice, he wanted to get out (in verse 19 he says that he hopes for that). So although his circumstances were bad and he did not like them, get this: he interpreted how he’s doing not through the lens of his comfort but through the lens of his passion.
And I’m convinced that we do the same thing, which is why we complain as much as we do. We also interpret our circumstances through the lens of our passion, it’s just that for us our passion is our comfort.
So if the church at Philippi were to ask us how we’re doing, the lens through which we answer that question is: “Have I gotten what I wanted when and how I wanted it?”
We tend to look at the world this way. Let’s be honest. We live in the land of whiners, and it is so much the air we breathe that a lot of times we don’t even know we’re doing it.
For example, a long time ago, like last year, I would go to a coffee shop at the same time two days a week and order a 16oz Americano with light water — which means I wanted “this much room.” And I would show them “how much room” with my fingers. But consistently the coffee people, who are great people, they would fill my cup to the very top with water (even when I did the fingers) … and I’d try to let it go because I don’t wanna be that guy, but then when Melissa would call me to check in and ask me how my day was going, you know what I’d say?
“Overfilled my Americano again.”
Now part of that was tongue and cheek, but another part of me was really bothered by it, and in reality, subtly, when asked how I was doing, I assessed the question through the lens of my comfort, of me getting what I want when and how I want it. Without meaning to, my passion is my comfort. Because that’s our default. And we know it.
But what if God has something better for us? What if we followed Paul’s example and our passion was the glory of God magnified through the advance of the gospel?
Clarifying Our Humanity
It would not mean that hard circumstances are less real, and it also would not mean that we never talk about them. Don’t misunderstand me here:
We are humans and we have needs and we should be honest about that.
Later when Paul was in prison, he did ask Timothy to send him a coat and some books (see 2 Timothy 4:13). Paul told the Corinthians that he despaired of life itself when he was in Asia (see 2 Corinthians 1:8). Later in this letter, Paul talks about his anxiety and his potential sorrow (see Philippians 2:27–28).
So look, we’re not ignoring our emotions. We’re not burying our heads in the sand. We are not talking about being super-humans, we’re talking about being consumed by a passion greater than our comfort so much so that the question of how we’re doing is interpreted, ultimately, through that passion. It’s not about knowing the right words to say. We should have no interest in shallow jargon. What I’m talking about here is seeing the world from a heart that is truly consumed with God.
Ultimate Non-Foolishness
The missionary Jim Elliot, who gave his life for the gospel, said,
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
And we could also say: He is no fool who interprets how he’s doing by what is destined for triumph rather than what is certain to wane.
“How we doing?” — there’s a lot of details we could get into, and I hope we can — we should — but what if we could be more like Paul and the question of how we’re doing takes us to:
Is God being glorified?
Is his gospel being advanced?
Are people hearing about Jesus?
Okay, here’s the second thing to see about Paul’s passion for the glory of God through the advance of the gospel.
2) Paul’s passion shaped how he understood the impact of his witness. (verses 13–14)
So Paul said that his imprisonment, as inconvenient and uncomfortable as it was, really served to advance the gospel, and now we want to know in what way. How did the gospel advance?
And that’s what Paul explains for us in verses 13 and 14. He says that there are two different ways — there’s one way in how his witness impacted unbelievers (verse 13) and there’s another way his witness impacted fellow believers (verse 14).
Manifest Chains
Look at verse 13 first. Paul explains that his imprisonment advanced the gospel, verse 13,
“so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.”
What is the “imperial guard”? Those were the Roman soldiers closest to the seat of imperial power. They would have guarded the palace and kept watch over prisoners. “All the rest” in verse 13 most likely refers to other Roman officials who worked in and around the capitol. It had been made known to these Roman unbelievers that Paul was in prison for Jesus.
Does that make sense? Everybody see this in verse 13?
Well, I think Paul is actually saying something deeper here than it first appears. It helps, I think, to know that the word translated “imprisonment” in verse 13 could also be translated bonds or chains. (If you read the New International Version you’ll see the word “chains.”)
And if we follow the original word order, a more literal way to translate verse 13 is to say:
“so that my chains in Christ have become manifest to the whole imperial guard and to all the rest.”
Now what does this matter? Well it means that what’s new for Paul is not “his chains in Christ” — that was how Paul understood his whole life. He was a bondservant of Christ. That’s how he introduces himself in this letter: “Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus.” But what’s new here, is that because Paul is imprisoned in Rome, his chains in Christ have become manifest in Rome. I think there’s a double-meaning here.
Ever since Jesus saved Paul, he’s been a new person who is bound to Christ. That’s who he is. And now that he’s in Rome, literally in bonds, in chains, then what has been true about him is now visible … the literal chains are a symbol of his heart allegiance to Jesus … and this serves the advance of the gospel because Paul understands that his witness to Jesus is not a lamp hidden under a basket, but instead, his witness to Jesus, his testimony to the worthiness of Jesus, is made visible in the epicenter of the world’s superpower.
The knowledge of Paul’s chains, the sound waves of his witness, are bouncing off the walls of the imperial palace. The Roman Empire has been infiltrated … not by a lobbyist, not by a protester, but by the talk of a man willing to give his life so that more and more people can hear about Jesus.
Boosted Confidence
But not only did Paul’s witness impact the unbelieving influencers of Rome, but it also impacted fellow believers, verse 14:
“And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”
Paul’s imprisonment, his witness, boosted these Christians’ confidence in Jesus and that resulted in them being more bold to share the gospel without fear.
How did Paul’s imprisonment boost their confidence? It was not that Paul made these brothers think: “Oh, prison is not that bad.” It’s that they said, “Jesus is that good. Jesus is worth it.”
Jesus is worth the risk of what Paul is going through because the worst thing that could happen to me is that I get killed, but then I get to be with Jesus and the gospel keeps advancing … so I don’t think there’s any way we can lose here.
At Your Work
Paul understood that what he was going through, his witness, was having that kind of effect — and one thing this means for us is: Don’t underestimate the impact of your witness when Jesus is more important to you than anything else. Think about your work right now. Your jobs.
Sometimes there are opportunities at work to tell people straight up who Jesus is and what he did, but a lot more times there’s just you in how you react and in how you inhabit your situations, and I want us to learn from Paul’s example: Wherever you are, be where you are and love Jesus more than anything else … and see what happens. Your witness will have an impact.
3) Paul’s passion shaped the way he viewed other ministries. (verses 15–18)
This is the final thing to see, in verse 15–18: Paul’s all-consuming passion for the glory of God manifested through the advance of the gospel shaped the way he viewed other ministries.
Look at verse 15. So Paul says that his imprisonment has emboldened fellow believers to preach the gospel and now he explains the fine print:
“15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.”
So there are two different kinds of Christ preachers here with different motives.
Verse 16:
“16 The latter [those who have a good will motive, they preach Christ] out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.”
Early Tribalism and Today
Now who is he talking about there? First, we need to be clear that he is not talking about false teachers. We know what Paul has to say about false teachers. Let them be accursed (Galatians 1:8). But these are people who are proclaiming Christ. They’re talking about Jesus in truth, it’s just that their motive, what drives them, is selfish and competitive. They were trying to one-up Paul and while he was preoccupied with being in prison, while his ministry was “stalled,” they saw it as a chance for their ministry to take off.
Isn’t it crazy that by the year 60 — we’re talking early days of the church — this kind of tribalism is already going on? I don’t need to tell you that tribalism is a problem in our day, right?
A lot has changed in 2,000 years, and a lot hasn’t. Sinful human nature is still the same, and there were gospel preachers in Paul’s day too who were driven by having a bigger social media platform than the next guy. They preached Jesus — they spoke the gospel — but they were driven by the clicks and likes and shares … they sought “their own interests” (see 2:21).
And right away you could be thinking about different applications in our day, but let me caution you first to never be quick to think that you know somebody else’s motive. When it comes to other gospel-preaching churches or ministries or people, our first thought should be what Paul says in Romans 14:4,
“Who am I to judge the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls.”
It’s not our job to discern the hearts of every other ministry. But even if, like Paul here, we have a pretty good read that the motive is bad, even if there is personal enmity, is our passion for the gospel bigger than our egos such that we can cut through everything to the main issue of Is Jesus being preached?
Is the gospel being told?
And if so, verse 18:
“18 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.”
What Drives Us?
Do you see what’s happening here? It’s not that Paul is being soft — it’s not even that Paul is being charitable to those who don’t like him — it’s that he is so consumed with the glory of God through the advance of the gospel, that’s what he cares about. That’s what drives him. That’s the lens through which he sees the world.
Is Christ proclaimed?
And we just need more of that. See, I wonder if a lot of the divisions in our day are less about real differences and more about passion. What really drives us?
Paul’s passion shaped his outlook … and ours will too — the question is: What is our passion?
If we follow Paul’s example, our passion would be the glory of God magnified through the advance of the gospel — and we say, Okay, we want that? But how do we get it?
We don’t have an “all-consuming passion for Jesus” switch that we can just flip on, right? So how we do get this kind of passion? The question I’m asking is: How might God answer this prayer that I pray for our church daily? I pray that Jesus would be our all-consuming passion.
I can tell you that it will not happen apart from us being completely overcome by the grace of God. That’s the game-changer. It’s when our own hearts encounter and remember what Jesus has done to save us. Do you know how much he loves you? Do you know how committed he is to your everlasting joy? And he’s never going to leave you. He’s never going to forsake you. Even if everything else disappears, Jesus will stand by you like he did for Paul.
And the more we get that, the more we know Jesus, the greater our passion will be, and that passion will shape our outlook.
And that brings us to the Table.
The Table
We come to this Table each week, not on the merits of our passion. This is not a table for the zealous. It’s a table for the hungry who know that Jesus alone is our hope. In the Father’s great love, Jesus has died for us and made us his own.
