A Practical Walk Through Philippians Part 2: A proper response to bad circumstances!

 

In part 1 I talked about prayer for others. I will tell you I didn’t accomplish the challenged I set forth. I made it the first day by day two I was at the forefront of my prayers, this will be an ongoing challenge going forward. In this posting I want to dive into Paul’s response during his imprisonment. This was Paul’s first imprisonment. That means there was a second. There was no guarantee that he would get out. However, this letter uses the word joy 5 times. Now how someone can have peace, while wrongfully imprisoned is difficult to understand, but for someone to have joy is unprecedented. Here are the verses

 Philippians 1:12-18

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. 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. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

 Paul’s Situation

We must understand that Paul was in prison due to false testimony. He was innocent of the accusations that the Jews had brought against him and by no means had he desecrated the temple or the Law. The funny thing is that Paul is not worried about his circumstance whatsoever. Not only was he not worried he was boldly proclaiming that his circumstance, though as foul as it was, actually brought about the advancement of gospel. If you have read the letters and Acts you will find out that others came to the faith by Paul’s imprisonment. So not only was Paul not bitter about his situation, he took the message of the Gospel to others, it even reached “throughout the imperial guard”. We see Paul says that others became bold due to his suffering to proclaim the gospel. Logically you would believe that people would shrink in fear, but no, they became bolder.

 

However, what would have happened if Paul had become bitter or fearful in his imprisonment. Would these brothers still proclaim the name of the Lord so boldly? Would the Gospel spread to others as it did? No, the very reason of this persecution was to shut him up. I believe that the Gospel would have been hindered if Paul would have responded differently. What if Paul had thrown a pity party and said “all that I have done for you Lord and you send me to prison, I quit”?  Praises be to the Most High that He was given the strength to withstand this suffering for the sake of Gospel. Listen to what he said again in verse 12

 

 “12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,” 

The Believers Application

There is constant temptation of the believer to read God’s word and do absolutely nothing. Another temptation is to say “well that worked for Paul, but I can never do that”. Every time we open our bibles it is for the sole purpose of TRANSFORMATION. Conformity to Christ is the end goal of Bible Study. Not to store facts and not to say “oh that was nice”. Our hearts are to thirst for God and we are to ALWAYS read the Bible ready to meet God. That leads to the practical application of these verses.

 

We all have bad circumstances, some of us our born into them, others are later introduced to them, through different circumstances; however, sooner or later, you can best be assured that you will end up in some circumstances you wished you were never in. Since, this is inevitable you can respond two ways:

1. You can respond as one who does not know the Savior
2. You can respond like Paul did in verse 12

A proper view of God’s sovereignty in the key to unlocking this mystery.  How we respond to our circumstances has an implication of our vertical relationship. God is in the proving business. Our faith will be tested and consistently tested. James says in the first chapter of his epistle that this “builds endurance”. If we truly believe that “all things work for our good” and that our heavenly Father loves us, we can look at our circumstances and rejoice as Paul tells the Philippians to do numerous times in his epistle to them.

 

Biblical joy is a static position and does not fluctuate with circumstances. Our joy is in a person, Jesus Christ, who “never changes”. He is at the right hand of the Father “interceding for us”. We are His bride and He gave His life to purchase us. This should allow us to persevere in hope, regardless of where we find ourselves. Rather that is working for a terror of a boss, a professor that has it out for us, a spouse who mistreats us, parents who reject us, friends who abandon us (Read the last chapter of 2 Timothy), or we just lost our job, house, or children. We understand that God really does hold us in His hand. We can rest assure that the unchanging love of Christ will not allow us to bear more than we can. The author and finisher of our faith is concerned about us and knows what is best.

 

So how should we respond in bad circumstances? Paul gives us a great example. We are to respond as he did when he found himself in prison, with joy and contentment. We sometimes don’t understand the power God has given us to be His ambassadors. We are to reflect Christ to a world who doesn’t know him, and if we have the woest me syndrome, our witness is destroyed and Christ is misrepresented. Just think if a mighty king sent a representative to another nation and the king was misrepresented. What do you think will have to that representative when word gets back to the king? We serve the King not a king and we are his representatives. That is a privilege that we are not to take lightly.