For those of you who attended Sunday’s service, you will know Mandy delivered an excellent talk about one thing many people fail to miss in the Christian faith: joy. This felt particularly relevant to myself, given that I have just finished reading and studying the book of Philippians, where Paul centres a lot of his messages around rejoicing in the Lord. I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the other ideas in the book of Philippians, to follow on from Mandy’s talk.
Chapters 1 and 2 of Philippians have this strong idea of serving Christ, but Paul addresses it in a way that highlights the beauty of it, and how you can reap the benefits. Paul mentions in verse 12 of chapter 1, “I am a servant of Christ.” When we look deeper into the word ‘servant’ we understand that serving Christ is a two-way street: serving the Lord not only provides God with the power to expand the Church, but also allows us to receive benefits in the Spirit. A servant in the modern world is defined as “a person who performs duties for others, especially a person employed in a house on domestic duties or as a personal attendant.” (Oxford languages).
In the context of Christianity, we see that from serving Christ, we can receive our salary, much like a servant’s, from being employed in the household of Christ. Yet, I’m sure many of you may perhaps be wondering what we can receive from serving Christ. Unfortunately, many of us often turn to the patterns of the world, living for earthly things, such as money or possessions, and oftentimes we think, “Why can’t we receive these things from God, when He is so charitable and generous?” It’s true: God is charitable and generous (see John 3:16 and James 1:5 for examples), but many of us believe God is somebody who can give us these worldly things all the time, when in reality, God is not worldly himself.
So, what will God give us for serving Him? Serving is just one way to access so many benefits of the spirit, because in serving God, you are bringing yourselves into alignment with the Godhead. Paul writes in Philippians 2:5, “The attitude you should have is the one Christ Jesus had.” Here we can see that one part of making ourselves more like Jesus is serving, which Jesus does non-stop, and this is recorded in the Gospels. Bringing ourselves into greater alignment with Jesus brings us closer to God, and as we act to see His kingdom advance; we can expect to see miracles, healing and the presence of the Spirit plant themselves firmly in our lives. As The Wave, we are the H.O.P.E (healing, outreach, presence and empowerment), all of which we receive and can harness when we live our entire lives for Jesus, and part of this is through serving Him and His Church.
I think it’s also worth noting that we must be careful not to step into serving for our own personal gain, because despite the fact that we will receive our ‘Heavenly salary’, if we begin to work for ourselves (see Philippians 2:21), then we are not truly serving, nor ‘working together for the sake of the gospel.’ Earlier I referenced the modern definition of a servant, but a servant in the first century AD was viewed as different. Their view of a servant was a person who would voluntarily serve somebody, and so did it out of their own volition and kindness. This allows us to think about how Paul is serving Christ not actually for himself, but out of his love for God.
The other thing I wanted to touch on, relating to this, is Paul’s emphasis on living for God, and working together as a fellowship of believers, which he emphasises through chapters 3 and 4. In 3:14, Paul addresses how he runs ‘straight towards the goal in order to win the prize, which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above.’ Here, Paul is referencing how we are made for God’s calling, and how we should be running to what he has planned for us. Paul also mentions this in Galatians 5:13, writing, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.” Living with Christ sets you free, and we should be living for God and his calling for us. We should be standing together in the truth, which will set us free from the world. (See John 8:32).
In these letters, Paul also emphasises to the people of Philippi the great importance of being a ‘fellowship of believers.’ In Philippians 2:1, Paul writes, “You have fellowship in the spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another.” The word compassion actually comes from the Greek ‘paskhein’, meaning ‘to suffer’, and the noun ‘pathos’, which refers to pity and sadness. Essentially, compassion is about taking the weight off of other’s shoulders. Why is this important? Well, we know that sharing our problems can often help, not only allowing us to feel relieved, but it also can open us up to advice, and this is the crucial part of being a fellowship. When we seek advice from fellow Christians, we can ask that the Spirit flows through our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we can see God working through other people to help us, even when we don’t realise it.
Paul is a huge advocate for living for God, and being a servant to the Word, which I mentioned earlier when talking about serving. In Philippians 4, he discusses how a person should stand firm in their faith (see verse 1), which we ourselves can find difficult, when living in a world where many of the people around us are non-Christians. We can often feel swayed to turn away from God, especially in our periods of weakened faith. Recently, I have found it difficult to connect with God, and so that was the reason why I decided to read Philippians, and I feel like God has planted a number of seeds in my mind to restore my faith again.
Nonetheless, we must stand firm in our faith. This ties back very nicely to what I said earlier about the importance of fellowship: joining with other believers restores connection with God, and refills our hearts as we can see God working in so many different ways under one roof. Seeing God working in the world can often be difficult, but we simply aren’t looking hard enough, and because we aren’t as hungry to see Him as we are on a Sunday morning, or on the days of attending home groups, we may glance over God’s work in action. This leaves me nicely at the point of the importance of not being a ‘Sunday Christian’, and praising and worshipping God all week, and living for God all the time, which Paul also highlights. Therefore, I leave you with one of my favourite verses which corresponds to living as a Christian, Romans 12:2, where Paul reminds us that being a Christian is a full-time thing, writing, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
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