Philippians 1:12-30--The Advance of the Gospel​

The Advance of the Gospel​
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 selfish ambition, 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.

To Live Is Christ

Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

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These two passages are closely connected (as you can see that verse 18 lies in both passages).  Remember that there were originally no chapter numbers, verse numbers, or headings in anyone's bibles...even the structure of how we divide and order the books of the Bible differs between different Bibles that you might pick up.  In this text Paul makes a connection between the message we tell with our mouths and the message we live by our lives and that we need to both show and tell the gospel.  Those are very connected thoughts, even though they may be divided up separately by section headings for you as different ideas.

Let's start off with Paul talking about the gospel and its advance.  Paul wants to tell the Church in Philippi that even though he's imprisoned, the gospel is still going forth--even to the imperial guard that is guarding him and to the very household of Caesar.  Paul also adds that Paul's willingness to be put in prison and maybe even die for the gospel that he's been preaching has helped validate the authenticity of his words for some and made them even more bold to proclaim the gospel themselves as there are not many messages worth dying for.  This is why so many tyrannical governments use "the sword" to get people to recant because people that believe something false are quick to recant when it means their lives are at stake.  Rome and other governments were usually quick to kill them one way or another if they knew what they were saying was false and propagated lies, then they were a danger to society and got the death penalty anyways.  There of course is the option that you were just so crazy that you believed something that was clearly a lie and that you weren't mentally fit to make rational decisions and that you might pose a danger and risk to the general populous or to yourself.  This is the position that Paul was in--no matter which version the authorities believed they probably weren't going to believe that Paul sincerely believed this because it had changed him, but Paul will nonetheless use the opportunity to stand before kings and governors and even Caesar himself and share his testimony with them.  The gospel was advancing not in spite of persecution, but because of it.  Now that's a different way to think about persecution for sure!

So what about those that were trying to do harm to Paul while he was in prison with things like, "I have more converts than you" and "I've planed more churches than you" and "My church members are giving more money than yours."?  I can just imagine that things aren't that different between then now.  Churches and ministries try to could people and dollars and measure their success by these things.  To Paul none of that was nearly as important as the gospel going forth--no matter people's motives, Christ could sanctify the results and bring forth the harvest in a way that would still bring glory to him even if the ministers of the gospel were looking to stroke their own egos or create rivalries with other ministers of the gospel (we'll read about this specifically when we got back to the epistles to the Corinthians which most likely will be our next stop).  Paul says that even if these people were trying to use the gospel to fleece the flock (which still happens today) and the gospel was really going forth that he would rejoice in the work that Christ was doing through the advance of the gospel.

Paul chooses to rejoice and have an attitude of joy, even when everything seems to be falling apart and going so wrong.  He knows the end of the story and knows that even in death, he will be delivered.  He only prays that his life might be one that is marked by courage as he would not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ and would make a bold proclamation for Christ whether God lets him live to continue his ministry on earth or whether God takes him to heaven at this time.  He desires strongly to be with God, but He also loves his spiritual children here on earth and wants to help them grow and mature, so he is quite torn about which is the better option, but leaves it in the hands of God to decide and simply asks the church to pray for him that in all things, no matter the outcome, that Paul would remain faithful, the Christ would be glorified, and that the gospel would go forth.

​Paul seems convinced at this point in his life that taking care of the Church was God's plan for him, but this is one of the last epistles that Paul would ever write.  It's hard to line up the epistles of Paul exactly with the book of Acts because while Luke was a wonderful historian, he didn't give full detail of every moment of every day in the life of Paul, but we're near the end of the book of Acts in the timeline here so that Paul is about to go to trial, and probably would have won his case, but he would use his rights as a Roman citizen to appeal his case to Caesar as he knew God wanted him to go to Rome, even if it would end in his death.  We're just not yet there in the story, because otherwise Paul wouldn't have made this statement about being torn about what the outcome would be.

Paul encourages them that no matter if he comes or not, to let their conduct be worthy of the gospel (something that shows the gospel), as he would like to hear of their works and rejoice over the work that the gospel has done in their lives.  They should be united in working together to proclaim the gospel through their words and actions and not be frightened by any of the opponents to the gospels that we've already talked about (the Gnostics, the Judaisers, and others).  Their unswerving commitment to the gospel and to each other will be a testimony to the enemies of the gospel of their error and their future judgment and destruction.  This is why they hate the gospel and those who believe in it.

Paul then leaves them with an interesting "word of encouragement" to not be surprised if they face the same kinds of trials and persecutions that he has faced for the gospel and that they should rejoice that God is allowing and affording them the opportunity to partake in these suffering as well.  Really, Paul?  You want us to rejoice in the fact that we are getting murdered, harassed, fired from our jobs, having our houses burnt down and turned into a heap of ruble and being taken before sham trials only to end in death?  Paul will spend much of this letter telling the Church to rejoice in all things, especially in the face of persecution because no one can take Christ, our sonship, or our inheritance away from us.  We have much reason to rejoice in all things and in so doing continue to proclaim the gospel, its truth, and its power through our words and actions.