Philippians 1.12-13 12 I want you to know, brothers, that
what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it
has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that
my imprisonment is for Christ. ESV
Most of us tend to think in terms of positive or
negative. If I have positive thoughts then I seem to do better at life and
things tend to not get me down. If I have negative thoughts then I seem to be
bothered by the small stuff and my general outlook is dimmer and more
pessimistic than if I was positive in my thinking.
I don’t think Paul was either positive or negative and I
think he would puke in our day at the sight and sound of what amounts to modern
pop-psychology deism. Paul understood who he was and what he was supposed to do:
give himself wholeheartedly to the furtherance of the Gospel in the world
around him to anyone who would listen. If Paul could’ve been labeled anything
at all, he was passionate.
Paul always pointed everything back to Christ. Neither
death, nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor persecution, or the sword or
anything else in all creation would deter him from engaging someone in
conversation and getting around to the question: do you know Jesus?
A fellow saint and friend used to say: we in Christian circles always seem to be
answering questions that no one is asking. But sometimes we need to ask
questions that no one wants to answer: do
you know Jesus? It isn’t positivism or negativism; it’s simply reality and
truth. And it’s passion and compassion for the one who’s struggling in all
kinds of ways who needs, as a first step, to come to know Jesus and find their
purpose and meaning in life in Him.
If Paul was anything, he was optimistic; he knew
everything in life centered on his relationship with his Redeemer. So he wasn’t
fooled by imprisonment. He wasn’t baffled by objections (fierce and otherwise)
to his message. Paul knew and understood the only end to every situation was
its perfect place in the heart and will of God. (I know some of my Pentecostal
friends might swallow hard at the thought of that…)
Today, I am thinking about a friend of mine who has been
diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis:
ALS (or as it is known: Lou Gehrig’s disease). I think my friend (once an avid
golfer, a family man, a devoted husband and father, and all-around good guy)
would say to you if you asked him: I want
you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to
advance the gospel. And I don’t think that because he’s a positive thinker:
he’s a knower of Christ. And he knows
through the difficulties of his present situation and the impending end he
faces that he is in the perfect place of God’s heart and will. My friend is
passionate about Jesus and compassionate that others come to know the Lord.
Today, whatever happens to me and you, matters only in
this regard: if we belong to Christ, what happens to us has really served to advance
the Gospel. Period. It may be a pain, but it’s pain with a purpose and it finds
it’s perfect place in the heart and will and love of God. It’s that important…
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