Does Motive Matter

Philippians 1:15-18

In this passage Paul explains that some are preaching Christ out of envy and others out of selfish ambition, rather than pure motives. Nevertheless Paul says that whenever Christ is proclaimed he will rejoice.

I’m reminded of a similar passage in Mark 9:40 when John came to Jesus and told him that the disciples had tried to hinder someone who was casting out demons in Jesus name, but was not following them. Jesus replied to him “he who is not against us is for us.”

These instances cause us to ask the question does our motive really matter. I think we must consider that perspective from two views. First, the Holy Spirit can use any method to work in the heart of the unbeliever. Those who receive and embrace the message of the Gospel are responding to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives and from that perspective the messenger is not important.

On the other hand I don’t believe the one who proclaims the Gospel out of envy or selfish ambition is going to receive eternal rewards for doing that. They are getting their reward right now. That leads me to believe that motive is important from a personal perspective because one day we will be able to lay the rewards we have gathered for service at Jesus feet as we worship Him. Those who labor from a selfish perspective will not be able to do that. Christ talks about motives in Matt. 6 and three times (v. 2, 5, 16) explains “they have their reward in full”.

I think there are two lessons we can take from the passage. First, we must be careful about judging the motives of others and look for the good that may be realized for Christ. Secondly, we must make sure that our motives are pure when we labor for Him or share our testimony to others. We must do it for His glory and not any benefit we will receive.

Handling Adversity

Philippians 1:13-14

“…so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.”

As I have studied the life of Paul I’ve been impressed with the way he handled adversity in his life. We have the opportunity to observe him in many difficult circumstances including prison and trial, shipwreck, being physically beaten and in physical pain. He describes the adversity in his life in II Cor. 11:23 “…in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.” Through all of these situations he remained positive and maintained his testimony for the Lord.

Adversity comes into our lives for many reasons and it is important that we handle it well. Sometimes God may teach us through a trial or testing. At other times he may use difficulties in our lives to teach or reach others with whom we have influence. There is also the possibility that we are being disciplined for sin in our lives.

One of the most significant difficulties in my life has been handling the physical and mental deterioration of my mother. Our relationship, in essence, was reversed as she became the child and I became the parent. I became very aware that others were watching how I handled that situation. I also realized that I had to keep it in perspective. It could not become more important than my relationship with God or my relationship and responsibility to my wife. One of the significant benefits to me during those years was the enhancement of my prayer life and my dependence on the Lord to give me strength.

I don’t know what adversity may come into your life, but I know God allows it with a purpose. Run to Him, depend on Him and He will see you through it and you will grow from it.

No Accidents With God

Philippians 1:12

“Now I want you to know, brethren that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel…”

I’ve marked in the margin of my Bible beside this verse Romans 8:28 “and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

The first place in the Bible this concept is mentioned is in Genesis 50:20 when Joseph is addressing his brothers late in his life. There he says “and as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” Joseph was speaking of his brothers selling him into slavery when he was a young man. We know that God protected and matured Joseph so that one day he would be in a place to rescue his family and provide for them.

Paul really believed in the sovereignty and providence of God and in Philippians 1:12 expresses the thought that his time in jail was a part of God’s plan to cause the spread of the Gospel. Other believers who have witnessed Paul’s attitude toward his circumstances have developed the courage to share the Gospel.

Really believing that God uses every circumstance or difficulty we encounter for good allows us to have a different perspective as we walk through tough times. Those are often times when we are tremendous testimonies to others. As we endure trials with an attitude that honors God, others see the Christian faith at work in our lives. That is the positive manifestation of the cliché “your actions speak louder than your words”.

It is God’s design that we don’t know what the future holds. However, we can be confident in Him who has planned our future and we can face each situation with the assurance that God is walking through it with us and if we yield to His will all things will work together for good.

God’s Perfecting Work

Philippians 1:6

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

I think we can take this verse very personally. A good paraphrase for this verse is that saying we have seen on T-shirts “Be patient, God is not finished with me yet.” God began His good work in you the day you were conceived. Ephesians 1:3 says that “He predestined us to adoption as sons”. If you have trusted the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior the Holy Spirit resides within you causing you to grow in your relationship with the Lord. That work of maturity will not be complete until the “the day of Christ Jesus”. That day is the day the Lord Jesus calls Christians home to be with Him in heaven (I Thes. 4:16-17).

To some extent that perfecting work is dependent upon us because God has given us a free will. We can resist God’s work in our life or we can embrace it. We resist it by insisting on having our own way; by not following God’s leading. He doesn’t force His way on us. We can passively resist it by not praying, by not being diligent to study God’s Word, by not worshipping Him and by not fellowshipping with other believers. All of these actions (praying, studying, worshiping, fellowshipping) will help us grow and mature in Him.

I can assure you this is not a good approach to life. By resisting God’s will you will not experience the joy we read about in this book. As you resist God’s will you are allowing the old sin nature to control your life. You are quenching the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Someone has said that there is no one as miserable as a Christian out of fellowship with God and I think that is true.

Sometimes we tend to get impatient with God but we must remember that His timing is perfect. He knows what is best for you at each point in your life and is at work molding you into the person He wants you to be. You can be confident that He will complete that work and that your joy will be complete.

Prayer

Philippians 1:4, 9-11

“…always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,…and this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God”
There are many things we can consider as we meditate on the passage. First, notice that Paul had a joyful attitude. Although he was in difficult circumstances, that did not affect his attitude. In fact, the practice of prayer most likely improved his attitude. I had the privilege of visiting an old prison cell in Rome that was said to be the one in which Paul was held. Even if it wasn’t it was similar. It was dark, cool and damp; candles were used for light. There was a stream in it. As I tried to place myself in Paul’s position I wondered why God had put him there and how I would handle the situation. Perhaps that was God’s way of giving time to Paul to pen many portions of God’s Scripture. It certainly gave him the opportunity to realize the value of his friends and to pray for them.

Paul tells us in v. 9-11 that he prayed specifically three things for those he loved in Philippi. First he prayed that their love would abound in “real knowledge and all discernment”. While God gives us wisdom I think we have the responsibility to obtain knowledge. We do that through the study of the Bible. I think Paul was praying that they would grow deep in God’s Word. That knowledge can lead to discernment if applied correctly. Spiritual knowledge and insight allows us to love God and others more.

Then he prayed that they “may approve things that are excellent, in order to be pure and blameless”. We must be careful not to settle for “good” but strive for excellence, especially in our relationship with God. Being pure and blameless means that we don’t have unconfessed sin in our lives, but are filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 includes the command “be filled with the Spirit”; a clear indication that filling is man’s responsibility. A Christian never needs more of the Spirit; he simply needs to be in right relationship with God in order to be filled.

If we are filled with the Spirit we will experience the fruit of righteousness. Gal. 5:22-23 tells us the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Consider how each of those is manifested in your life.

As we begin this year I encourage you to take account of your prayer life. Do you have a regular time to pray each day? Do you keep a list of those prayer needs? Do you remember to thank God for His faithfulness in responding to you? Prayer can be difficult but it is rewarding.

Grace To You, and Peace

For our next devotional study I have chosen the book of Philippians. The pages of the book are well-worn in my Bible because I have read and studied it many times. The book is personal and practical and dwells on the theme of living the Christian life. Once when I read through it I found sixty-eight statements about attitudes. The most often mentioned is “joy” or “rejoice”. I also found twenty-eight specific commands or exhortations.

Paul begins most of the books he wrote by identifying himself as an apostle. He identifies himself as a “bond-servant” in Philippians and that statement sets the tone of the book. Let’s plunge into this grand epistle and see what we can learn.

Joe

“Grace to you, and peace”
Philippians 1:2

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The order of words in this verse is very significant because without God’s grace there can be no real peace. We first really recognize God’s grace when we trust His Son, the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior. As His children it is through His grace that we are kept and strengthened; that we increase in faith, knowledge, and affection. Because of His grace we, as Christians, can realize real peace in our lives.

Peace is an attitude. I like to think of it as the confident assurance that God is in control. Others may be able to influence other factors of our lives, but we have total control of our attitudes. The closer we are to Christ, the more we experience the genuine peace that He gives.

Man constantly seeks peace, but on his own he can never achieve it. It must come from “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. As you study human history you will see that man has constantly been engaged in war in an attempt to achieve peace. This world will never know true peace until Jesus Christ returns in the millennium. During that period of time Satan will be shackled (Rev. 20:2) and the world will experience real peace.

Even the Christian struggles with peace because of the presence of the sin nature in our being. Paul talks about this struggle most explicitly in Romans 7:15-17 “For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me.” That battle will only be over for us when the Lord returns and calls us to Himself (I Thes. 4:1-17).

We can be thankful that God the Father has given us His Holy Spirit to help us overcome Satan’s attempts to rule our lives and that He has promised to forgive our sin if we will only confess it (I John 1:9). Christians need to appropriate that verse in their lives every time Satan tempts us.

I pray that you will live your life in a manner that allows you to continually experience God’s grace and His peace.

Growing Through Disagreement

Acts 15:36-41

This passage reveals two mature Christians in sharp disagreement. I think it also shows another way that God works through us to accomplish His will. We know that Paul and Barnabas were close friends. Barnabas came to Paul’s aid during his experience as a new Christian and they had ministered together for some time.

I believe one reason they worked so well together is that their personalities were completely different. Paul was a high-energy, aggressive, assertive individual probably with a pretty quick temper. Barnabas, on the other hand, was a quiet, calm, reserved man with much patience. Paul would act very quickly while Barnabas would carefully think through an issue before taking action. Most likely Paul was a talker and Barnabas a listener. In summary, I think Paul had a very sanguine personality and Barnabas was much more a phlegmatic.

As the two of them discussed a trip returning to visit the churches they had established Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them. For some reason he had left them earlier and returned to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). Paul felt that Mark had deserted them and must have felt that he would be a liability on the trip rather than an asset. Barnabas, however, saw potential in Mark and wanted to continue to disciple him. Because of that disagreement the men separated and Barnabas and Mark went to Cyprus and Paul and Silas went to Syria and Cilicia. By splitting up they were able to accomplish twice as much. I believe it must have been God’s will that they separate.

We don’t hear anything more of Barnabas or Mark in the book of Acts but we know from other Scripture that the disagreement didn’t permanently impair the relationship with Paul. In I Corinthians 9:6 and Colossians 4:10 Paul speaks favorably of both of them.

There are a couple of insights we can gain from this passage. We are not all alike and God may well put us together with someone of the opposite personality because we complement each other and are better for that. Often you will see that in the mate God chooses for you. Secondly, we are going to have disagreements with those we love and that is not necessarily bad. We must be careful not to let those agreements impair our relationship, realizing that God can use them to accomplish His will in both of your lives.