Philippians 1.18B-26.
1.18B I’ll also rejoice 19 because I’ve known that what I’m going through will result in my freedom, thanks to your prayer requests, and the ministry of the Spirit of Messiah Jesus, 20 just as I have eagerly anticipated and hoped: Nothing will come back to embarrass me, but in boldness as always, I will lift up Messiah in my body—either because I get to live, or I get to die.
1.21 See, to me, life is Messiah, and death is profit. 22 If life, in a body, this means work—and fruit. So, which is better? I don’t know. 23 I’m confronted with the two: the desire to be set free and be with Messiah is much stronger. 24 Staying in the body may be necessary because of you, 25 and being persuaded of this, I knew I would stay, and stay with you in your progress and joy of faith. 26 Thus your boast might be the overabundance of Messiah Jesus in me—through my return to you.
The average Christian’s naïve response to trials is, “I don’t need to worry. God will get me through this alive, intact, with all my stuff—my possessions, my family, my reputation, my position—back. I just need to trust Him.”
Yeah, we do need to trust Him, but unless God personally guarantees it, there’s no guarantee we’ll get anything back. He might take it all away. He might need to take it all away—it’s stuff we should never have had in the first place. Or it’s stuff that we’ve clung to so tightly, and said, “Anything but this, God!” that we’ve made idols of it, and God is a jealous god.
Life is sacred. But life isn’t that sacred. God allowed Satan to take everything away from Job but his life, (Jb 2.6) but God offers no such guarantee to us. He could take our lives. And we mustn’t esteem our lives so highly that we’re not okay with that.
Paul had got used to the idea that his life could be forfeit at any point. People had been trying to kill him since he first became a Christian. But he was ready, at any point, for this to happen. He had reached a point where he wasn’t just okay with it; he looked forward to it as sweet release from all his labor, when he would finally get to be with Jesus in Paradise.
Now, just as there are Christians who fear death, there are likewise Christians who go the other extreme and embrace death. They follow Paul’s lead and say, “When we all get to heaven,” (of course, mistakenly thinking they go to heaven when they die, instead of after Jesus returns) “what a day of rejoicing that will be; when we all see Jesus we’ll sing and shout the victory!” And plenty of other Christians likewise see death as sweet release.
But what they don’t entirely get is that this is a unique attitude towards death that hadn’t been taught by any major religion before. Even the Egyptians, with all their insane over-preparation for the afterlife, didn’t look forward to death; they didn’t fear it, but they wanted to live. The Old Testament doesn’t present death as something to welcome, but as the end: “The dead know nothing; they have no further reward; they’re not even remembered.” (Ec 9.5) Death sucks.
Paul’s attitude was healthy in that it didn’t eagerly grasp death, nor did it eagerly grasp life. Death was fine; life was fine. Whatever God wants. That’s the priority: God’s will. If it’s God’s will for Paul to live, preach the gospel to the Romans, and go back to the Philippians to help ’em out, so be it. If it’s God’s will for Paul to die, and let his martyrdom shock the church into following Him more closely, so be it. This isn’t fatalism, or pessimism, or apathy. This is submission. God’s will takes precedence. Always. And whatever it is, Paul is happy with it.
As should we be. Y’know, sometimes we’re only content to follow God so long that we get something out of it; living forever is apparently not enough, ’cause we want prestige and happy relationships and nice stuff and no stress. Jesus promises us none of those things in this life; just the opposite. The fact that we get any of that stuff is only because of the giant oasis He created in the United States; other countries experience exactly what Jesus warned us Christians we’d get. Well, enjoy it while it’s here… and pray for everyone else in the real world.
1.18B: Ἀλλὰ καὶ χαρήσομαι, But also I will rejoice, 19: οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι τοῦτό μοι for I have known that this [thing] to me ἀποβήσεται εἰς σωτηρίαν διὰ τῆς ὑμῶν δεήσεως will disembark into deliverance through the (of you all) requests, καὶ ἐπιχορηγίας τοῦ πνεύματος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ and contributions of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20: κατὰ τὴν ἀποκαραδοκίαν καὶ ἐλπίδα μου, according to the eager anticipation and hope of me, ὅτι ἐν οὐδενὶ αἰσχυνθήσομαι that in nothing I will be ashamed ἀλλ᾿ ἐν πάσῃ παρρησίᾳ ὡς πάντοτε but in all boldness like always, καὶ νῦν μεγαλυνθήσεται Χριστὸς ἐν τῷ σώματί μου, and now I will enlarge Christ in the body of me, εἴτε διὰ ζωῆς εἴτε διὰ θανάτου. either because of life, or because of death.
21: Ἐμοὶ γὰρ τὸ ζῆν Χριστὸς for to me the living [or, to live] Christ, καὶ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν κέρδος. and the dying [or, to die] profit.
22: εἰ δὲ τὸ ζῆν ἐν σαρκί, & if the living [or, to live] in flesh, τοῦτό μοι καρπὸς ἔργου, this [thing] to me fruit of work, καὶ τί αἱρήσομαι οὐ γνωρίζω. and what I will choose: I don’t explain.
23: συνέχομαι δὲ ἐκ τῶν δύο, & I am surrounded out of the two, τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἔχων εἰς τὸ ἀναλῦσαι καὶ σὺν Χριστῷ εἶναι, the yearning having in the freedom [or, to be set free] and with Christ to be, πολλῷ [γὰρ] μᾶλλον κρεῖσσον· [for] to much more better:
24: τὸ δὲ ἐπιμένειν [ἐν] τῇ σαρκὶ ἀναγκαιότερον δι᾿ ὑμᾶς. & the staying [or, to stay; in] the flesh by force [or, necessarily] because of you all.
25: καὶ τοῦτο πεποιθὼς οἶδα and this [thing that] had persuaded I had known ὅτι μενῶ καὶ παραμενῶ πᾶσιν ὑμῖν that I will stay and I will stay by all of you εἰς τὴν ὑμῶν προκοπὴν καὶ χαρὰν τῆς πίστεως, in the progress of you all and joy of faith,
26: ἵνα τὸ καύχημα ὑμῶν περισσεύῃ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ so that the boast of you all might be over and above in Christ Jesus ἐν ἐμοὶ διὰ τῆς ἐμῆς παρουσίας πάλιν πρὸς ὑμᾶς.in me through the coming of me again to you all.
