III. Paul's Circumstances (1:12-1:26)

1. Prisoner Minstry (1:12-1:14)



Some Key Words (04/16/24-04/17/24)

Circumstances (mallon [3123]):
| more, rather. | To a greater degree, rather.  More than before, with the before state often left implicit. [The challenge here is that the term directly taken as indicating what is more is simply ta, the.]
Imprisonment (desmous [1199]):
| a band, a shackle, and impediment. | a bond, captivity.
Praetorian guard (praitorio [4232]):
| The governor’s court-room.  Used also of the whole hall or camp of the governor’s guard. | headquarters, thus the tent of the commander-in-chief in a Roman camp.  The governor’s palace or residence.  The camp of the praetorian soldiers, as used here.
Trusting (pepoithotas [3982]):
[Perfect: Completed past action with present result.  Active: Subject performs action.  Participle: Verbal adjective.  Perfect participles describe a state.  Accusative: Direct object.  Focuses the action’s goal or extent.  The only accusative in this section would be the word.]
To persuade.  Depending on, having confidence in [given the dative use of bonds which follows.]
| To convince [active], To assent to evidence [passive], to rely on [perfect]. | To trust, have confidence [being in the perfect tense].  The dative noun following would indicate what that confidence is in.  Here, it is Paul’s imprisonment.
Because of (mou [3450]):
[Genitive: Showing relationship between nouns.  May serve as object of verbs or adjectives.  Possessive.  In the ablative usage, has a sense of departure from some antecedent.]
| of me. | personal pronoun, taking a possessive form in this case.
Courage (tolman [5111]):
| to venture, be courageous. | To not dread.  To bear oneself boldly.
Without fear (aphobos [870]):
| without fear, fearlessly. | boldly.

Paraphrase: (04/18/24)

Php 1:12 – Know that my circumstances are leading to greater spread of the gospel.

Key Verse: (04/18/24)

Php 1:12-14 Know this, brothers:  This imprisonment is just providing greater opportunity for the gospel.  These guards who guard me can clearly see that my imprisonment is for no other cause than Christ, and word spreads through their ranks that this is the case.  Those hearing my case can clearly see that the charges are baseless.  And our brothers in the city see this as well.  They see how even these Roman soldiers are coming to appreciate this faith, and some even joining us in faith, and so, they are less fearful, boldly speaking the word of God without worrying about reprisals.

Thematic Relevance:
(04/17/24)

Paul is able to remain content in his imprisonment, seeing and doing God’s work regardless.

Doctrinal Relevance:
(04/18/24)

Even hard providences serve God’s purposes, working to the good of His own.
That good may not look so good to His own at the time.

Moral Relevance:
(04/18/24)

How do we respond when serving God brings trouble?  How do we respond when somebody we have looked to in the faith meets with hardship or death?  Some of that likely depends on how they themselves face the situation.  I’m not talking fallen pastors, here, or those raked over the coals when they are dead and gone and cannot defend themselves against accusation.  But think, for example, of those pastors imprisoned for resisting lockdowns, or in communist regions simply for preaching.  How does this impact their constituents?  Does the church scatter, or does it become the more invigorated?  Historically, the latter answer is the more common.  And if we look at Acts, even where it scattered, still ministry continued and continued stronger.  If we have become somewhat fearful of potential persecution here in the West, perhaps it’s time we looked to our forebears, looked to our God, and sought such maturity as will play the man.

Doxology:
(04/18/24)

Behold your God!  All around this situation are those who seek to put an end to this Christianity business.  Paul is here because the Jews back in Jerusalem would not hear it.  Nero, if not at this stage, soon enough, would seek to bolster his popularity by persecuting these believers.  And that would spread through the empire, and indeed, grow worse before it got better.  But look at the result!  Seek to suppress the church, and she grows bolder to preach.  Imprison their leaders, and the others come to fill the gaps.  As Paul says elsewhere, I may be in chains, but the gospel is not bound.  This is as Jesus declared it would be.  “I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not stand against it.”  Nothing has changed, for God has not changed.  This continues to be our story today.  Praise God for His undeterred will.  Praise God for His unstoppable, undefeated plan and purpose.  Praise God, for He is God – He alone – whatever noise may be made about it in the world.

Questions Raised:
(04/17/24)

What’s with the syntax here?
How does his imprisonment encourage boldness to preach in others?

Symbols: (04/17/24)

N/A

People, Places & Things Mentioned: (04/18/24)

Praetorian guard
[ISBE – Praetorium] This term is primarily a reference to the official residence of the governor in whatever region.  It would often have been simply the Roman camp, but came to refer to the place chosen as residence for provincial governors, often appropriated palaces.  This was the case, for instance, in Caesarea Philippi.  In Jerusalem, this would also have been Herod’s palace.  In this letter, the reference is not to place, but to the guard itself, some ten thousand soldiers from among which were drawn his guards while in custody.  [ISBE – Praetorian guard] This has specific application to our text, and is the consensus view as to Paul’s meaning in referring to the Praetorium.  The sense is that Paul preached to, or at least in the presence of such soldiers as were chained to him as his guards, and they in turn spoke of his situation, that he was suffering wrongly, to those back in the camp.  This camp, established by Tiberius, was outside the city to the Northeast.  This guard also served as bodyguards to the emperor, and some of their number would have lodged in buildings next to the palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome.  That barracks in Rome is not in view, as if Paul had been taken to that place for closer guarding or some such.  [We know, after all, that he was paying for his own housing.  That is explicitly stated in Acts.]  This term was also applied to that group of officers who would gather in the general’s tent for council of war.  This would be a usage familiar to Paul, and though not directly transferrable to the idea of the imperial guard as a whole, it could as readily indicate a council of judgment, assisting the emperor in his judicial decisions.  There, the emperor presided, with the prefect of the guard and twenty assessors.  These would present their opinions to Ceasar, in this case, Nero, and he would render his judgment the next day, presumably having reviewed those opinions.  Thus, the idea here is that Paul’s trial is well advanced, and his innocence quite obvious to these assessors.  Our understanding of this reference informs our understanding of the order in which his prison epistles were written.  Philippians used to be considered the earliest of these epistles due to its similarity to Romans as to content.  But if this trial was already progressing, which trial completed in 61 AD, as appears to be the case if this is in fact reference to that tribunal, then our letter is late indeed, later than those others written when he was still occupied with preaching and ministering to the locals.  This impression is confirmed by later mention in the letter that he expects release soon.  There is also the absence of mention of Luke, who was still with him when he wrote others of those letters.  Here, they are apparently away, off on missions such that only Timothy remained.  Overall, then, we are left with Paul reasonably confident of positive outcome in this trial, and liberation from his imprisonment, as in fact turned out to be the case.  [Fausset’s] This would in fact be the barracks next to Nero’s palace.  Thus the reference to Caesar’s household at the end of the epistle.  The emperor was the praetor, or commander in chief.  The sense here is that the whole camp, whether that local contingent or the larger camp outside the city, is in view.  This would indicate that Paul was no longer in his hired house, but in the guard-house proper, under stricter custody with the change of prefects from Burrus to Tigellinus.  Thus, word was spreading from those who served chained to Paul as they returned to their fellows.  [Me] This is the first I’d heard this idea that he refers to the court case itself, or those adjudicating the case.  Whether this is correct, or whether Fausset is correct with the idea that Paul had come under stricter custody towards the end of this period, it remains late in his imprisonment.  The one view gives cause for his apparent confidence.  The other gives cause for his awareness that things could still go either way.  I suppose it’s just possible that both ideas are at play, that as the trial drew near, he was in fact under tighter guard, perhaps due to animosity on the part of Tigellinus, but also, that his trial was begun in earnest, and he had a reasonable sense of how those on the tribunal were seeing his case.

You Were There: (04/18/24)

There is an emphasis to this message, and the emphasis is evidence of a pastoral care in Paul that not merely transcends his bonds, but renders them all but irrelevant.  “Know, brothers.”  This is my primary concern, that you be not concerned for my situation, but remain attuned to the progress of the Gospel!  Yes, I’ve been chained here for a couple of years, and held in Caesarea Philippi for years prior, but look what’s come of it!  The Gospel is still going forward, and here, right to the very palace guard.  They all know.  They witness my example.  They witness the example of those who come to visit me, to hear me.  And they hear as well.  They are learning of our Lord, like it or not.  And as they learn, it becomes abundantly clear to them that this is no threat to Rome, no urging of revolution, but rather, the Way of our Lord is such as produces model citizens, a people commendable by all.

And look!  Those who come to me see my chains also see the impact on those who guard me, and as such, they are losing their fear of chains.  They see God at work in and around me, in spite of my circumstances, and faith grows resilient, commitment to see the kingdom of God made known grows more fervent, and the work goes on.  Fear not, but rather, rejoice.

Can you imagine how this would impact those in Philippi?  They had, it seems, been worried sick, first for Paul, and now also for their minister, Epaphroditus.  All had seemed terrible bad news.  But Paul has just upended all that.  No!  This is marvelous news.  God is at work, and the evidence is all around me.  Nothing in my circumstances changes that.  Nothing, dear brothers, in your circumstances will change that.  Just turn your eyes on Him, rest in Him, and do those things He has established beforehand for your doing.  He is with me.  He is with you.  And that is all that matters.  The rest is just noise.

Some Parallel Verses: (04/17/24)

1:12
Lk 21:13
This will lead to opportunity for your testimony.
Php 1:5
You have participated in the gospel from the first day until now.
Php 1:16
Some minister out of love, knowing I am tasked with the defense of the gospel.
Php 1:27
Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.  Let it be that whether I come to see you or not, what I learn of you is that you are standing firm in one spirit and one mind, striving together for the one faith of the gospel.
Php 2:22
You know his worth.  He has served me in furthering the gospel as a child serves his father.
Php 4:3
Help these women, for they have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel; Clement, too, and all those others of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Php 4:15
Since I first began preaching the gospel, when I had left Macedonia, no other church but yourselves shared with me in giving and receiving; only you.
1Ti 4:15
Take pains with these things.  Be absorbed in them, such that your progress is evident to all.
1:13
Php 1:7
Both in my imprisonment and in my defense and witness of the gospel, you are partakers of grace with me.
2Ti 2:9
For this I suffer hardship and even imprisonment as a criminal.  But the word of God is not imprisoned!
Ac 28:30-31
He stayed two full years, paying for his own quarters, and welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ openly and unhindered.
1:14
Ac 4:31
When they had prayed, the place where there were was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
2Co 3:12
Having such great hope, we speak with great boldness.
2Co 7:4
I have great confidence in you, boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort, overflowing with joy in all our affliction.
Php 1:20
My earnest expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but with all boldness, Christ shall be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

New Thoughts: (04/19/24-04/23/24)

A Pastor's Heart (04/20/24)

One interesting feature of this Greek language is the way it establishes emphasis.  As we look at a sentence, we tend to expect a certain order to the words.  Nouns precede verbs, for instance.  But in Greek, word order indicates emphasis.  And here, as Paul begins his message to this church so dear to him, the emphasis is on knowing.  It’s a most curious read.  Know, but you I would brothers, that the unto me rather unto furtherance of the gospel have fallen out.  That’s about how it reads if you simply go word by word.  There’s not even a direct mention of his circumstances.  It’s just, the unto me.  This, to my eyes, sets his circumstances in a highly de-emphasized position.

What comes across is this:  Paul’s biggest concern at the moment, even though imprisoned and facing trial before a rather unstable Nero, is that they not be overly concerned.  They need to know to the true state of affairs.  They need to know.  I really should have looked that one up.  I generally do, when I come across references to knowing.  Here, it is ginosko, as a present infinitive.  Let me pick that apart briefly, if I can.  So, first off, it speaks to understanding, gaining knowledge of.  There is a sense of being acquainted with that which is known, real understanding.  There is a sense of intimacy to it, such that in Hebraic usage, it might even speak to the intimacy of husband and wife.  The usual contrast is with eido, in its oida form, with its ideas of paying attention to, acknowledging, perceiving the facts.  The association of this latter word with the perception of the senses gives rise to the idea that oida is more inferred knowledge, whereas ginosko is experiential.  But then, I’ve seen references that take the opposite perspective here.

Okay.  We have this as a present infinitive, the infinitive being a verbal noun, perhaps indicative of purpose or result, perhaps used as subject, or simply as an explanatory point.  Being in the present tense, it has that internal viewpoint to it, the action ongoing, seemingly continuous.  We might apply this, in our case, to wanting this to be settled knowledge with them.  It applies not merely to the immediate situation, but establishes a framework of perception, a worldview by which to interpret such trials as might come their way.  And given what we see in Acts as to the opposition faced by those Christians in Macedonia, this framework was most needful.  The Philippians may have had a better time of it than, say, the Thessalonians, but persecution was already present due to perceived connection with Judaism, which Claudius had marked out as unfitting for Roman citizens.  Recall that Paul found the Jews outside the city for prayer.  That, because they were not permitted a synagogue within the city walls.  Such was the pride, and perhaps the fear, of Roman citizenship in that city.  Claudius doesn’t like it, and this place is packed with soldiers of his command.  Best we do nothing that might offend.  We are citizens, but what happens if he should find cause to disapprove of us?

So, where is Paul in this?  Paul is a pastor.  He has a pastor’s heart.  He has gone well beyond that training received in his youth.  That training had made him a lion for the law.  It had done little, it would seem, to fashion him for work as a shepherd of God’s sheep. That had required a different course of training, a crash course in Christ.  But he was an apt pupil, and the lessons took.  Now, here he is in prison yet again, a situation perhaps too familiar at this point.  He had been imprisoned there in Philippi, and most unjustly.  Now, here he was again, and he’d been here some time.  It had been in part his own doing.  One supposes he might have shortened the time while yet at Caesarea Philippi, either by buying his freedom, or by allowing the case to proceed.  But then, we know how that would have turned out.   And so, the Spirit-inspired appeal to Rome; his right as a citizen, but a right that came at a cost.  He would have had to pay his own fare, I expect, for that fateful passage across the Mediterranean, and he had to pay for his upkeep while imprisoned in Rome.  It’s unclear what would happen if he had not done so.  Perhaps a more familiar sort of imprisonment was reserved for those citizens unable to procure better digs for themselves.

But his concern isn’t for his chains.  His concern isn’t for the expense.  His concern, at least his foremost concern, is not even with the outcome of his trial, which appears to be more imminent at this point than it has been.  No, his eyes are on the gospel and its progress.  He may be in chains, but that just means he has a captive audience.  And he has, through these years, been free enough to welcome visitors, to preach and teach from his prison cell.  And so, as he has done this, his guards have had opportunity to truly gauge the character both of Paul and of these believers in their midst.  Indeed, as is somewhat intimated here, and is made more explicit by letter’s end, the guards themselves now have believers in their midst.  There are those even in the household of Nero – imagine that!  And imagine just how stressful that might become as events unfolded – who have come to a living and resilient faith in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

This is Paul’s most fundamental message here.  Don’t worry about me, the gospel is taking root.  Don’t worry about those who come against you up there in Philippi.  The gospel is taking root.  Don’t worry about circumstances, period.  Worry about seeing the work of the kingdom pursued in whatever fashion it may be pursued.  Don’t let your care for me, or for your comfort, swamp your trust in Christ or your passion for His Lordship proclaimed to one and all.  Make this gospel known, come what may.

You can see this message forming throughout these verses.  My circumstances?  Hardly worth mentioning, other than that what was meant to be evil for me has proved to be opportunity for the gospel.  Look at this!  The whole of Caesar’s guard know the gospel now, whether they accept it or not.  And either way, they know that this gospel is at worst no threat to Rome.  At best, they are seeing God as He is, seeing the futility of their own pantheon, and turning to Christ for forgiveness even as they maintain their position. 

And isn’t that in keeping with the message that was proclaimed at the outset?  There were those soldiers who came to John the Baptist, touched by the message but unsure what to do with it?  How are we supposed to repent?  We can’t just quit the army.  It doesn’t work that way.  John’s response?  “Don’t use your position to rob others.  Don’t level false accusations against anyone.” And get this, which is right in line with the message of this epistle, “and be content with your wages” (Lk 3:14).  In other words, be the most upright soldier you can be.  Do your job and do it well, but don’t abuse your power.  Be just.

The message is much the same for each one of us.  For the most part, there is no call to uproot your life, walk away from your profession, and dedicate yourself, Paul-like, to be a wandering itinerate evangelist.  No.  The change is not in vocation nor in location, but in character.  But I digress.  There’s a surprise.

Come back to Paul’s cell.  Observe what he observes.  He doesn’t particularly observe his chains.  They don’t matter.  People come, people go.  And as they do, the gospel spreads.  And he can look out the window.  He hears the reports from those who come.  Those who had been perhaps fearful to declare the gospel given the expulsion of the Jews under Claudius, and given the uncertainty of the times under Nero, were growing bolder.  It is again a most curious bit of phrasing.  They are, “trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment.”  It’s a most unlikely bit of cause and effect on the face of it, which I will consider farther on in this study.  But it’s having God’s desired impact.  They see Paul undeterred by his predicament, and they lose just a bit of that fear.  They see, perhaps, the impact on his guards, and begin to realize the power of this gospel.  It’s not Paul, it’s the message.  It’s God.  God is greater than the Praetorian, greater than Caesar.  You may not wish to go shouting that news in the streets, but you can most assuredly take it to heart.

So, let’s bring this forward to our own time.  The truth is unchanged.  God is greater.  We look at the insanity that has gripped western society, and it’s enough to leave one dismayed.  We look at the corruption infesting seemingly every corner of life; government certainly, not that there’s anything particularly new about that, education, information, entertainment, even the ostensibly skilled professions like science, medicine, technology, where one would think a grip on reason and correctness might be more to be expected are now not merely touched by insanity, but infested with it.  And we are stuck here, imprisoned, if you will, in the present order.  We are small islands of the kingdom in what appears a rising tide of antichrist.  And this really shouldn’t be a surprise to us, give that it is the emphatic teaching of our Lord that this would be the case, and has been all along.

What is our right response?  Do we huddle in our homes, keeping our faith to ourselves?  Do we save it for those times when we are together in worship?  This is certainly what we are advised to do, requested to do, and in many cases coerced to do.  But it is not the answer.  Look to your forebears in faith.  Here is Paul, chained to those who, to their minds at least, have power of life and death over him, and where is his concern?  Come what may, his concern is to proclaim the true gospel of the true and living Lord of all.  His trust is not in his strength.  What strength does he have?  He’s getting older.  He’s been through a lot.  His body has been battered and beaten more times than he can readily count.  And here he is, in chains, bound to those very individuals who could, if they chose, add to his injuries with impunity.  No.  His trust is in the God whose gospel he was charged with proclaiming.  He had, after all, been warned of this day from the very outset of his ministry.  “I will show him how much he must suffer for My sake.”  But he had also learned this: “He is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” (Ac 9:15-16).  He had a job to do, and so long as breath remained in him, he would be doing it.

We need to come to a place of having that same resolve in ourselves.  And we need to come to it by the same means as did Paul.  It won’t come of working ourselves up to the task.  It won’t come of long hours preparing for the occasion, steeling ourselves to have the nerve.  It will come only as God works in us to make it so.  It will come only as He progresses in His work in us, rendering us both willing and able to the task.  This is not, then, a message which should drive us to despair, or self-recrimination, or to a more strident, more urgent effort at self-improvement.  That game, quite frankly, is never going to be one we can win.  Rather, it’s a call to know, to truly know this true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It’s a call to know, to truly know, the enormity of His love for us, the unconquerable extent of that work He has already accomplished on our behalf.

It's a call to come into this place of contentment, of resting in Christ.  That resting doesn’t mean we become passive lumps, sleeping our way through our days.  As has been observed somewhere, God, though he rested on the seventh day, did not cease from the work of maintaining what He had created.  As the song says, “Jehovah never sleeps.”  His mighty hand ever protects us.  Bear in mind, this is no assurance of a garden path lifestyle.  Indeed, the promise is quite the opposite, and well you know it.  “In the world you have tribulation” (Jn 16:33).  That’s not a potentiality.  That’s a certainty.  You may have peace in Him, but you will have tribulation in the world.  And there’s that other certainty of his message.  “I have overcome the world.”

And then, there’s that strangest of sales pitches Paul had used to encourage those freshly planted churches in Galatia, Cilicia, and such regions.  “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Ac 14:22).  Are you not encouraged?  Doesn’t this just bring folks running to the doors to join up?  I tell you, it’s hard to imagine a message farther removed from the so-called prosperity gospel.  Your best life now?  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  If this is my best life now, then the nihilists have it right, and we should seek to shorten it as much as possible.  If this is the best we’re going to get, why that urgent effort to prolong the agony?  Why so much energy given to extending lifespans, fighting off diseases, and so on?  What’s the point?  A longer period of suffering?  Oh, joy.  But the reality is that no matter how vehemently man may deny God, or even the idea of there being a god, there is something in him knows he is blathering patent nonsense.   There is something in us that knows that there is certainly more to life than this brief passage on the stage.  And what must come afterwards is surely cause for concern to those who so insistently reject God’s hand in this present valley of sorrows.

But let us not be like them, as if we were without hope in this life.  We have such a hope as goes beyond our greatest perceptions of it.  He who has us well in hand is able to do exceeding abundantly more than we ask or think (Eph 3:2).  This is His plan, His kingdom, His purpose.  He will do it.  Hear Him, and hear Him well.  “My purpose will be established.  I will accomplish all My good pleasure, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country.  Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.  I have planned it.  I will do it.  Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded, who are far from righteousness.  I bring near My righteousness.  It is not far off.  And My salvation will not be delayed.  I will grant salvation to Zion, and My glory for Israel” (Isa 46:10-13).  I usually satisfy myself with that bold part, but the whole should bolster our weak confidence.  This gospel will go forth and accomplish all His desire.  His children will go forth and accomplish all that He has purposed for them to accomplish.  This isn’t a lie back and wait for it message.  But it is the antidote for worries.  It is the necessary contravention for fear.  And it is the assurance that even in our failures, which are many, God is so working things out that not only will His purposes be accomplished in spite of us, but they will be accomplished in us.

Hear, then, your pastor Paul.  “You need to know this, and know it so intimately that it is a part of you.”  Look at my situation, but see God’s work.  Look at your own situation, but trust God to work.  None of this is pointless misery.  All of this is purposeful opportunity for ministry.  Trust God and get to it.  I don’t know about you, but it’s a message I can stand to hear, and keep hearing until it properly penetrates my thick skull.

The Praetorian Guard (04/21/24-04/22/24)

In verse 13, Paul begins to turn to the question of what is happening with his situation.  And one thing we must remain clear about here is that he is not doing this to draw attention to himself.  He is doing this to build up their confidence and comfort.  He launches into this with a reference to his imprisonment, though it is written in somewhat oblique terms.  In the NASB, it reads straightforward enough “My imprisonment in the cause of Christ.”  But it is more directly, “My bonds in Christ.”  Of course, with ‘in’, we are translating en, with its potential implications of instrumentality.  But before we get there, we need to consider the matter of those bonds.

Are we considering actual chains, here?  There is some suggestion that he would have spent his days physically chained to whichever soldier had guard of him at the moment, and perhaps this was the case.  After all, he was living, so far as we know, in rented quarters, not a prison.  He was not in stocks, as he had been in Philippi.  This begins to get us to the bigger curiosity of this passage, which is what exactly is mean by mention of the praitorio.  But I’ll get to that.  The first question, though, is whether Paul means to indicate literal bonds or chains, or whether he speaks more generally of being imprisoned, bonds standing as metaphor.  Clearly, the NASB has opted for the more metaphorical intent, or at least the less specific.  My imprisonment might include chains.  It might not.  Either way, he is confined, restricted, prevented from moving freely about the city.  The word itself is fully capable of bearing either translation.

In similar fashion, en can take on simpler or more significant meanings.  It could be simple statement of position.  But this, at least, seems clearly in the latter category.  The literal sense would simply be ‘in’.  Thus, for example, the NKJV has it as, ‘my chains are in Christ’.  Taken literally, that would incline us to understand that he is speaking of being bound to Christ, which would be a true statement, after its fashion, but not really to the point here.  The NASB, with ‘in the cause of’, indicates the more significant sense of the word is in play, indicating Christ as the instrumental cause.  Thus, Christ is the cause from which this effect of imprisonment flows.  Paul is, in himself, nothing.  He has done nothing to deserve this imprisonment, as is quite clear from the account of its beginnings in Acts.  He was taken into custody, it is true, because of charges leveled by a Jewish mob, but by the time he was being shipped off to Caesarea Philippi, it was more for his own protection than because of any wrongdoing.  And even there, though held over for years by one governor and then another, the thought of release meant exposure to Jewish attempts on his life, known to him, known to his captors.  Release would have effectively been a death sentence.  And so, the appeal.

And the message here is that what was plainly evident to the authorities in Judea some four years ago was equally evident to those guarding him in Rome.  “My chains are in Christ.”  I’m here solely for speaking of my Lord and God.  Many a pastor has languished in prison for the same baseless reason through the years.  Many a pastor has been put to death for no greater crime than this.  Of course, in this they but echo the treatment given our Lord, and prove His point that the servant is not greater than the Master.  “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours as well” (Jn 15:20).

Take that in the reverse.  “If they persecute you, they are persecuting Me.  If they keep your word, they are keeping Mine.”  That is the power of true witness.  That is the true situation wherever the man of God comes under persecution.  And in that situation, it is well to remember that you, dear one, are the apple of God’s eye.  And thus says the LORD of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye” (Zech 2:8).  This is our story, who are sons of His kingdom.  This is our story, particularly, as we are bold to speak truly in His name, pursuing His agenda as faithful ambassadors in this darkened world.

“My chains are in Christ.”  I do like that reading.  It points to Christ as the cause.  And in doing so, it points to the nobility of this suffering.  It is perhaps pointing as well to the injustice of it, though in this case, Paul has effectively put himself in his position by choice, though it may have seemed, as I have noted, that there was no real choice.  If he was appointed to declare the gospel before kings, it needed more than Felix and Festus.  It needed Rome and the emperor.  And being killed by Jewish assassins would hardly see that done.  But an appeal to Caesar?  I think we can account this a divine inspiration on his part.

Okay.  Let’s turn to the matter of the praitorio.  This is a term with manifold applications.  Out in the provinces, it would apply to whatever palace the local governor had coopted for his use.  Thus, when we find Paul in Caesarea Philippi, he is resident in the palace of the emperor, formerly Herod’s palace (though I’m not clear exactly which Herod).  It could also be a reference to the general’s tent in the army encampment, the command center, if you will.  And then, the ISBE brings up this application to those officers who would gather in that place to take counsel as to the course of the war.  And this, it is suggested, might well have applied to those who would form the tribunal hearing Paul’s case and offering their opinions to Nero prior to his passing judgment.  Okay.  That’s one theory.

The thing is, there is also that sense of the praitorio which would apply to the camp of the guard while in Rome.  This was a large force, and emperors were, by and large, a nervous lot.  And rightly so.  At any rate, this army as not permitted to come into the city, even though they were ostensibly the ones tasked to guard the emperor from harm.  All it needed was a general with ambitions, and the guard could soon become the usurping power.  It had happened before, and steps were taken to prevent its happening again.  They must camp outside the city, and the place of their encampment was to the northeast, at some small distance.  That said, there was also a barracks in the city, adjacent to Nero’s palace, for that contingent most immediately tasked with serving as his protection.  And there is some suggestion amongst the historians of the church that in the latter part of his imprisonment, Paul was taken there to be put under closer guard.

And here is where we start to face divergent understandings of what is being said in this passage.  If we follow the views outlined by Fausset, there has been a change in the procuratorship.  Where it had been Burrus, now it was Tigellinus, and as was noted in reviewing the history around this epistle, this latter procurator was far less congenial to Paul’s cause.  Here was the counselor who had convinced Nero to have his wife assassinated so that he would be free to marry another, in this case a Jewess.  Now, nothing is said directly as to her devoutness, but if one supposes there remains a fealty to Mosaic law, one could see that Paul now has two antagonists with Nero’s ear.

We can add to the picture.  Those who would form the tribunal would in large part come from that guard who could also be spoken of as the praitorio, i.e. those forces occupying the camp and the barracks.  It’s a question of scope and application.  If Paul is in the barracks, as Fausset suggests, then indeed, his movements are even more restricted than before.  No more visitors, no more dispatching of his companions.  And yet, we find Epaphroditus is still with him, as is Timothy.  That would seem to advocate against the idea that he was now, as it were, confined to the barracks, I would think.

So, there’s this alternate view, which the ISBE takes notice of, that Paul’s meaning here is to speak of those individuals who would be, or already were, his tribunal.  And if that’s the case, then the trial proper is already in progress.  He is already presenting his case, and a decision must be imminent.  Typically, after hearing his case, they would create a written assessment, whether individually or as a group I’m unclear, to be presented to Nero.  And, at least according to this article, Nero would give answer the next day.  Okay, this also seems to have issues as a theory.  If things were that far along, there would be little cause for a letter, or at least for one such as this.  Epaphroditus could be sent back because either Paul would be free shortly, or he would be dead shortly.  There was little sense in hanging about.  I suppose maybe he’d send Epaphroditus off to keep him out of harm’s way should things turn out to go against him.  But then, why not Timothy as well?

No, his reason for sending Epaphroditus at this juncture is much the same as his reason for penning the current portion:  To allay concerns among his friends and disciples back in Philippi.  They needed the comfort of knowing that their pastor was well, and that Paul was still ministering, still God’s man, come what may.

So, we have this wider sense of praitorio, which would suggest that Paul uses it to speak of that contingent who occupied the camp known by that name.   This has less immediate implications, but makes perfect sense.  He has been two years now in this situation where he is in a house, receiving visitors, teaching those who cared to listen, penning letters to churches throughout the empire (and doing so, we might add, by dictation to his amanuensis).  Those who guarded him were getting quite an earful.  They were seeing the real man, and the real impact of the gospel he proclaimed.  They could clearly discern his innocence.  And some, we are given to understand, were receiving this gospel that Paul taught to others.  Did he teach them directly?  I’m sure he did, given the chance.  Here is something of the ultimate case of being ready in season and out, isn’t it (2Ti 4:2)?  One suspects Timothy could think back on this period when he received that letter and take Paul’s example from it.

Okay, so where do we land, and why does it matter?  Well, we know from elsewhere in the epistle that Paul’s conduct during this time was indeed having an impact on those who served as his guards.  Look at the final greeting.  “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household” (Php 4:22).  Indeed, the gospel was unbound by Paul’s chains, whatever their form.  One could argue that Paul was unbound by those chains.  His movements might be restricted, but not his power to preach, nor his burning desire to do so.  And so, we have this picture of his guards, exposed day by day to the truth of God, and in at least some cases, that truth finding readied soil.  And, one suspects, whether they believed or not, they could perceive the innocence of this man.  There was a curiosity to his case, after all.  You saw it before he was sent to Rome, as the governor sought to come up with any sort of explanation as to why this man was a prisoner, and why he was being sent to Nero for judgment.  And those who had accompanied him on that fateful trip could testify to his upright behavior the whole time, his unwillingness to even attempt escape, and even to prevent the desertion of those fearful soldiers.  His character was well established.  And nothing in the two years since had dented that character.  Here was an innocent man, a good man.  And nothing in his preaching was other than would prove beneficial to the empire.

If, indeed, the tribunal was drawn from the guard, then news of this was coming to them from their own men.  Here was a most reliable set of character witnesses, so far as Roman jurisprudence was concerned.  Indeed, Paul had could reason to anticipate release.  He is not blind, of course, to the possibility that Nero could toss the assessment they rendered and do as he pleased.  If his wife was indeed poisoned against these Christians, (which might help explain his later activities), then the risk for Paul was still quite real, regardless of the progress of the gospel amongst the ranks, and even within his household.

So, why does all this matter?  I’m not sure I have a particularly good answer there.  The most I can draw from it is this: If Paul was undeterred by his circumstances, we have little excuse for reticence where we abide.  We are, after all, called to witness to the goodness of God, and to make known his actions undertaken to save mankind.  Christ was sent, ‘that the world should be saved through Him’ (Jn 3:17), at least, those who believe.  And those who believe are not left to carry on in self-satisfied security.  They are called to go forth with this incredible news and, “make disciples of all the nations, […] teaching them to observe all that I commanded” (Mt 28:19-20).  Those who witnessed Paul’s actions while imprisoned, we are told, found themselves emboldened to preach that much more openly of the God Who Is.  That’s why this matters.  That’s the impact of a sound example of steadfast faith.  And that shall be the matter under discussion in the next portion of this study.

There is another piece to this that needs to be noticed.  Paul adds to this reference to the praetoria that ‘everyone else’ is likewise aware of his innocence.  Is this referring to others in the guard?  If that’s the case, then the theory that he means his adjudicators when he speaks of the praetoria gains ground.  Or, is he widening his scope to take in all those visitors come his way?  After all, prior to this point, he was a stranger to those in Rome.  They may have heard of him, and depending who they heard it from, their views might vary.  If they came, for instance, having heard of him from those Jews in Thessalonica, or in Jerusalem, their opinions of him would probably have been negative. If, on the other hand, they were already believers, and knew primarily of his ministry amongst the Gentiles, then they probably had positive impressions of the man, and may have been shocked, and even a bit dismayed to find him a prisoner bound over for trial.  Whatever the case, it would seem that his reputation, his innocence of any charges, was clear to all who had interview with him in this period.

And I should think his reputation grew, for what they found was a man still actively committed to ministry.  Here he was in prison, and what do we learn?  “For two full years, paying for his own quarters, he welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ openly and unhindered” (Ac 28:30-31).  That’s Luke’s testimony of events, and it’s reasonable to think it was probably eye-witness testimony, coming from him.  He was apparently gone by the time this letter was written, sent off on some mission or other, no doubt.  But he had seen Paul’s example, and was struck by it enough to have undertaken the research needed to form his gospel record, as well as the historical account of Acts.  That was no small undertaking, and would not really have been possible during the period when he was with Paul.

The Impact of Steadfast Faith (04/22/24)

So, already we see somewhat the impact Paul’s steadfast faith under pressure was having.  It wasn’t just the immediate effects.  These were, and are, lasting effects.  Paul, of course, has the immediate more in view.  How could he know, really, what impact he would have down the years?  And it’s hardly the appropriate motivation for ministry anyway.  That’s the stuff of fame seekers, seeking a legacy of recognition.  Those who make such things their goal are hardly likely to achieve much for Christ. They’re too busy tending their brand.  Those who do achieve a lasting name, particularly in matters of ministry, are those who had no thought for themselves, but only set the ministry of Christ as their focus and their duty.  It didn’t require some exercise of effort to remain nameless and faceless to the world around them.  That just puts the focus back on the operator again, at least in his own efforts to fade away.  No.  True humility does not advertise.  True humility does not, I think, come of exercising oneself to try and at more humbly.  It comes of truly being humble.  That’s a bit of a tautology, I admit, but my point is simple enough.  True humility is the expression of true, inward character.  It’s not an act.  And it’s not some heroic effort.  It just is.  And it is, because God has so worked upon the individual character as to make it so.

This is the impact Paul had.  He didn’t have to work up bold confidence in himself.  Oh, no doubt he had his struggles, his times of doubt.  We get some sense of that as he moves on from Athens to Corinth.  He had need of that reassurance from the Lord that here, in Corinth, there were many who would respond positively to the gospel, not the indifference he had met with in Athens, and not the outright hostility that had driven him from so many places in thus far. Think about that for just a moment.  From the time he had come to faith, this had been the case.  In every city where he preached, opposition had been so intense, so deadly in intent, that he was forced to flee for his life.  And, as Table Talk noted the other day, there’s a message for us in that:  You are not required to make a last stand when the opportunity to flee violent intent exists.  There is no call to intentional martyrdom, when a way of escape presents.  Jesus is, after all, Lord of Life, not head of some suicide cult.

And with all that, what do we find Paul doing with his imprisonment?  We’ve already looked at it.  He was preaching.  He was ministering to any who would come to him.  And what that message conveyed was that there is a kingdom of God, ruled by Christ.  We saw that in Luke’s recap at the end of Acts.  He preached the kingdom of God, and Christ our Lord freely; and this, while attended constantly by Nero’s own guard!  This while imprisoned in the imperial city, awaiting trial before the emperor himself!

It’s a bit less surprising, considering that, to read how his chains were serving to encourage those believers in Rome to speak the word of God without fear.  I had wondered at this at the outset of this study.  How is this cause for boldness?  Were they seeking imprisonment in their own turn?  Were they hoping to somehow goad the emperor to take action against them as Claudius had done the Jews?  No.  This was not some self-destructive pursuit.  They saw.  They saw that Paul, here under guard and imprisoned for Christ, was utterly undeterred by those circumstances.  Nor was he suffering any repercussions for having done so.  The guard, after all, were hearing everything he had to say.  They had heard, for all that, everything he had to write in his epistles to dated.  There really wasn’t opportunity for Paul to be doing anything in secret.  That’s rather the point of being imprisoned under guard.  And if, as I believe was the case, he was physically bound to his current captor, there was not even opportunity for some whispered aside to escape their notice.  I would guess that even matters of toiletry were not private, under the circumstances.  There could be no secrets.

Thus, that summary to Timothy.  I think I mentioned it before, and this, I should note, would be from that later imprisonment, given that at present Timothy is right there with him.  “For I suffer hardship and even imprisonment as a criminal. But the word of God is not imprisoned!” (2Ti 2:9).  And this has been the story of the church consistently.  The enemies of the church seek to suppress its ability to proclaim the truth, but those efforts only serve to cause the church to grow.  They only serve to embolden those servants of Christ to speak more boldly.  It’s entirely counterintuitive, isn’t it?  It puts me in mind of Peter Gabriel’s line in ‘Biko’.  “You can blow out the candle, but you can’t blow out the fire.  Once the flame begins to catch, the wind will blow it higher.”  Now, that was penned in response to the abuses of the South African police during apartheid, and was something of a social justice anthem early on.  It remains a powerful song, in my view.  But here, we are looking at something beyond earthly injustice.  We are looking at matters of eternal consequence.  Indeed, we are looking at matters of heaven’s justice, and heaven’s proffer of mercy.

And those who have come to know the mercy of God granted us in Christ Jesus, and who have found in Him a call to ministry must surely feel this same fiery urgency to speak the truth in love, come what may.  You can imagine how the message of our Lord resonated with Luke, who had experienced the realities of ministry with Paul.  Jesus had warned His agents, the Apostles.  “Before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you.  They will deliver you to the synagogues and imprison you, dragging you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.  But it will lead to opportunity for your testimony” (Lk 21:12-13).  There is much more in that passage, as it considers, at least in the nearest fulfillment, events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem, and history shows that those believers in Jerusalem at the time heard it thus, and took heed to get out before the worst of it.

But it’s a longer-term message to the Church.  This is what you can expect, but understand the purpose.  Understand the opportunity, and take it.  Don’t deliver canned speeches (as that instruction of our Lord continues), but know that I Myself will give you words and wisdom such as will be irresistible and irrefutable.  And this is exactly what those around Paul were witnessing in him.  He had, admittedly, been uniquely prepared for this ministry, with his experiences growing up in the college city of Tarsus, out there at the junction of so many different societal groupings.  And he had the best rabbinical training, having learned from Gamaliel.  If ever one was well-equipped to defend the gospel to whatever populace he met, it was Paul.  He knew their language.  He knew their thinking.  And he knew his God.

And knowing his God, our God, the only God, he recognized that even the hardest of providences, coming from God’s hand, are intended to serve God’s purposes.  Even those things men clearly meant for evil, God works for good.  If ever one had the life experience to back his statements, it was Paul.  When he writes that all things work for good to those who love God, and are called according to His purpose (Ro 8:28), he is writing his own life experience.  We know this because we are living it daily.

So it is that those believers coming to visit Paul, and then returning to their freedom, did so with more courage, a greater ‘indifference to the consequences’, as the Amplified Bible explains the case.  They have Paul’s very present, very current example.  They could see how he preached without consequence, even their in his imprisonment, chained to guards who could clearly hear his message, and they learned not to fear consequences.  Whom God calls to preach, God has in hand.  Does this guarantee safe passage?  No.  Can you blithely waltz into a war zone and be assured you will escape unscathed because you’re preaching?  No.  That’s the false assurance of, ‘the temple, the temple, the temple!’ all over again.  What you can be assured of is that God’s purpose will be fulfilled.  What Paul’s confidence exudes is not that he holds a ‘get out of jail free’ card.  No.  His confidence, as he states plainly enough later on, is that whether he lives or dies, it will be to the purpose of God’s glory.  That’s what matters.  The kingdom purpose shall be served.  And honestly, death would simply mean opportunity to rest at last.  Is it any wonder he could look forward to that outcome?  And all the more because he saw the eternality of it.  To be with Christ is immeasurably better.  Your best life now?  Far from it!  If anything, for the believer, it is and shall be your worst life now.  “You will have tribulation.”  Or, to take Paul’s stunning encouragement to the church, “Through many trials we must enter the kingdom of God” (Ac 14:22).

We in the West could stand to relearn the veracity of this.  We face a limitation on our choice of products and count it a trial.  We face indifference to our message and count it a trial.  Shoot, for many of us, we encounter fellow believers who differ over certain fine points of doctrine and count it a trial.  I will not downplay the trial of living in the sort of society we find rampant around us.  It wears on a Christian soul to have flagrant sins flaunted in one’s face, lauded by one’s government, and even encouraged by it.  “Woe is me, for I sojourn in Meshech, I dwell among the tents of Kedar!  Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace.  I am for it, but when I speak, they are for war” (Ps 120:5-7).  This is life for the believer in the present culture.  Even amidst the ostensible church, the tide rises.

I read of this Christian men’s gathering that brought in a male porn star to provide entertainment between sessions.  First off, who ever thought it needful to have entertainment at a gathering for ministry.  Second, who vetted this guy?  And lastly, when the obvious incongruity of it was pointed out by a minister who still took his ministry seriously, why was he ousted, and the party left to go on?  And why did those in attendance remain still in attendance?  This was so very off that the stench of it should have had them gagging as the fled the scene.  But we’ve become accustomed, I suppose, to the offense.  It fails to offend anymore.  And that’s not as it should be.  Rather, we should take courage to speak the truth.  Speak it in love, yes, but love does not consist in suppressing the message because we fear a poor reception.  No.  The love of God is not like that.  It’s not a giving in to the wishes of those we would love.  It’s that same sacrificial giving of oneself in doing what’s needful for that loved one even when said loved one rejects us for our efforts.

And so, we come to the Goodspeed translation of this verse.  “And so most of the Christian brothers have been exceedingly encouraged by my example to declare God’s message without any fear of the consequences.”  The consequences don’t matter.  Not on an eternal scale.  “Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell” (Mt 10:28).  And you, who believe, “Take pains with these things.  Be absorbed in their doing, so that your progress may be evident to all” (1Ti 4:15).  What things?  “The public reading of Scripture, exhortation, teaching, being an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, purity.”

Does suppression and persecution come our way?  Praise God for it.  Praise God for it, and make it your firm intention to play the man.  History shows the result.  Seek to suppress the church, and she rises up stronger.  Suppress the message, and she proclaims it all the more.  Imprison her leaders, and new leaders are seeded, arising to not only fill the gap, but pour through it.  From the outset it has been so.  They persecuted the church in Jerusalem, even killing James, and trying for a repeat performance with Peter.  What came of it?  The church expanded into the country.  Saul sought to stamp out this pesky group who kept preaching Jesus, even traveling into Damascus to further his efforts.  It must be stopped, this message!  And what came of it?  Saul met the living Lord, found himself truly touched by the Holy Spirit, and became the foremost evangelist of the very Way he had come to eradicate.  Rome would try.  They made Christianity illegal, put every Christian they could find to death, choosing ways they thought sufficiently gruesome as to deter the others.  But those others only sought the honor of being likewise martyred for their Lord.  And in the end, Rome did not defeat Christianity, Christianity occupied Rome.  China is, perhaps, learning the same lesson.  As to Europe, who can say?  Perhaps they are too far gone, but God is still the God of impossibilities.  Things could shift again, and faith be reignited.  For us here in America as well, the need for a renewal of faith is clear.  We need it in our churches, and we need it even more beyond our churches.  But the candle is lit, and God supplies the wind.  This fire does not die.  Ministry continues, and grows stronger, however it may appear to us in the trenches.

Look again at Paul.  Here he is, in his fourth year imprisoned.  Does he despair?  Does he cry out, “why me, Lord?”  No.  He preaches.  He holds fast to the truth of God, and he sees that God is producing the most unexpected results.  Even those soldiers who come to serve as his guards are, at least some portion of them, coming to faith.  Even in Nero’s own household there are now those who have set their trust on Christ alone.  One wonders what became of them as Nero’s madness grew, but whatever became of them in the present order, we have this same assurance, that their souls are even now with Christ our Lord, and they shall know the same eternity with Him as shall we.

Take courage!  Grow bold.  The darkness may increase.  Indeed, it seems the darkness must increase.  But this Light of Christ, having come into the world, cannot be consumed by darkness (Jn 1:5).  The light yet shines, and we, who have put on the armor of Christ are set upon the ramparts of the kingdom to reflect that light, to shine forth that light, that those sitting yet in darkness might see it, and rejoice in the Lord who is most assuredly coming to take full possession of His kingdom.

In the meantime, does the church scatter, or does it grow the more invigorated?  I pray God it is the latter.  May we, who feel the oppressive darkness, remember the light in us, and shine brighter.  May we, who see our Lord so roundly rejected, become only that much bolder to proclaim His true majesty.  May we look upon the lost not with fear, not with anger, but with compassion.  And may God be pleased not only to ignite our efforts, but to make them fruitful by His own power to the glory of His great name.  Amen.

The Takeaway (04/23/24)

I started this study by observing the emphasis Paul placed on knowing not his circumstances, but the purpose God had in them.  The gospel is going forth.  It isn’t in spite of his circumstances.  It is because of his circumstances.  It is not, however, because Paul is something special, though I dare say he is.  It is all to God.  God has arranged this.  God has purposed this.  And beloved, He knows what He is doing.

I could take the same perspective to our sense of self.  I feel it a most pertinent and much needed reminder to those more under the influence of the current worldly madness.  God made you.  He purposed you to be created as you were.  And, He is good.  His purposes are good.  He has a good reason for you.  There are, as Ephesians 2:10 reminds us, good works for which we were created, things prepared beforehand for our doing.  We have seen how Paul was created for his mission.  We’re not just talking that first combining of genes at conception.  Throughout his youth, he was being prepared for the works ahead of him.  By his exposure in youth to the thinking of Greek and Asian, he was being prepared.  Certainly, by his training as a rabbi, he was being equipped with the depth of knowledge of Scripture needful to his task.  Even in his misguided efforts to eradicate the Christian faith, he was in fact being prepared for his mission as defender and promotor of that very faith.

I say this is pertinent to our age in a new and visceral way, because we have so many who urge us to self-define.  You are not what you were created to be, you are what you wish to be.  That’s the thinking that is promoted today.  You may have been born thus, but if you feel (even if it is a passing phase) like you were supposed to be something else, then go for it.  You think you’re a woman trapped in a man’s body, or vice versa?  Well, let that inner person out!  Clearly, mistakes were made.  You think perhaps you were even born the wrong species?  Why not?  We can pursue that as well.  Just a slip up in the species assignment department.  We’ll get right on it.  It’s madness, pure and simple, a symptom of serious issues in the individual and in the society that chooses to aid the madness rather than treat it.  And the biggest issue, the one that goes untreated and unaddressed, is the emptiness of soul that comes of rejecting God.  Honestly, I think even the Canaanites had a hand up on this present order.  At least they believed in something.  We don’t find them under such delusions as pervade the culture today.  They may have had their effeminates, pursuers of sexual perversion, but they did not delude themselves into thinking they could truly take on the opposite function entire.  I don’t think you would have found those who spoke of ‘lactating persons’ amongst the crowds of Baal worshipers.

My point is this:  As with those purposes, so with your person.  God made you.  Yes, I understand the science, at least sufficient to have recognition of how conception works.  Yes, there were two individuals involved in your conception, a mother and father come together, under whatever circumstances, to bring about your conception.  But the fact remains that God made you.  The fact remains that God knew you before the beginning.  The fact remains that He Who orchestrates the universe and keeps every planet and star in its proper course, also attends to the movements of these creatures who populate His lands.  He so moved upon your mother and father that they found one another desirable.  He orchestrated the timing, bringing them together at just that moment when the right egg and the right sperm were available to combine.  That may sound too mechanical for you, or too fatalistic.  It is not.  Your parents, like yourself, acted with full free agency.  They came together to bring you into being because it was their desire to do so.  They may not have had you intentionally in mind, but they had one another, certainly.  And, in the end, whatever their desires and motivations, the greater matter is that God had His purpose in it:  You.  And God has His purpose in you:  To do those good works which He prepared beforehand, and for which He prepared you beforehand.

You are as God intends you to be.  I am not speaking now in moral terms, but physical.  You were born as you were designed to be born.  I don’t alter that view because of any malady you may suffer.  I don’t alter that view in light of chronic illness, or crippling disease.  I have known too many who shine in righteousness in spite of such things.  I have known others, as well, who make these issues central to their being and become so focused on their handicap that it comes to define them.  And such as these give witness to nothing but sorrow.  They baste in their sense of offense.  To some degree, I think that here, too, we as a society have fed the issue rather than address it.  That probably comes across as harsh, and I don’t intend it to be such.  But we must learn that coddling those who so incline to turn inward and settle into resentment for how unfair life is to them does them no good at all.  Far better we should encourage the spirit of an overcomer in them, not demanding change, but demanding of themselves to shine the more for having such challenges.  This, to my mind, demands awareness that indeed, even in such a state, you are as God intends you to be.  It’s not some cosmic joke of which you’ve been made the butt.  It’s to a purpose, and a good purpose – at least this must surely hold if indeed you are a child of God, called according to His purpose and loving Him.

And I am, at present, far more concerned for those who fit that definition.  This is, after all, a message to the church.  Here it is.  God is with me.  God is with you!  We live amidst a world of chaos, and amidst wave after wave of impinging desires.  We are urged constantly to desire what we don’t have.  “All this and more could be yours!”  Look at the way of things.  Even as we have looked into a roof replacement, that siren song is sung to us.  Why shingle in the same fashion as has served for generations?  You could have all these whizzy new high-tech materials.  Do the make a difference?  Who knows?  Haven’t really been around long enough to find out.  Oh, and they cost a small fortune.  But you deserve it.

It's everywhere, and we know it.  And still, its temptation to take on more than we need or can rightly afford is there, isn’t it?  We deserve better.  It’s the song of the tempter.  It’s the same lie told Adam and Eve.  And there is that within us, as fallen people, which resonates to the lie.  And it is that resonating response that we must mortify.  God is with us, and that is all that matters.  That was all that mattered back in Eden.  Can you imagine?  These two had the inordinate pleasure of walking with God, fellowship with God so close they could chat as friends.  They dwelt in this place of perfection, fully supplied and without a care.  But came that whisper in the ear, “You deserve better,” and a hunger arose that refused to be satisfied with the wealth of their present situation.  Fellowship with God was no longer enough.  They had heard of equality with God, and that must now be theirs.  And so, the richness of their current state was lost.

But even that, awful as its continuing fallout is, was to God’s good purpose.  Even that was accounted for before ever the grand experiment of Creation was begun.  And even before Adam had been formed from the dust, already the coming of Christ, at the right time, was on course, covenanted as the plan and purpose of Creation by the Persons of the Godhead.  Jesus, Who was there at the beginning, and apart from Whom nothing that was created was created (Jn 1:2), was going about this creating fully aware that it must inevitably result in the Cross.  And still, He was with them.  Through the long history of Israel’s vacillations and failures, He was with them.  The Rock in the wilderness, from whence the waters flowed, Who was this, but Christ Himself (1Co 10:4)?  The One Who sustained the truth of God in spite of all man’s failings, and all those efforts to erase it from the record was this same Jesus.  The one Who is with you, in you, confirming you in faith and sustaining you in trial, is this same Jesus.

That’s the message Paul is shouting from his imprisonment.  God is with me, and that is all that matters.  The rest is just noise.  I face Nero?  Noise.  I may die?  Noise.  The gospel is being proclaimed?  Now, that’s significant.  Some preach in hopes of antagonizing me?  Fat chance!  The gospel is being proclaimed, and I could wish for nothing better.  What happens to me is, in the end, immaterial, for whatever happens to me, I know where I shall be.  Whether sooner or later, I shall be with my Lord Jesus, to be with Him and delight in Him for eternity.  Nothing else matters.

Beloved, is that your mindset?  Is it mine?  I suspect that like myself, the best you can manage in answer is, “Sometimes.”  But know this, and know it to your core.  He Who alone matters is with you.  He is always with you.  Even to the end of the age, He is with you.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  He will never let go of you, for you are His.  Whether you’re feeling it at the moment or not, it remains the case.  And He has given you purpose.  He has given you a part in His purpose.  Rejoice, therefore, and get on with it.  Let His word have its perfect work in you, and let it stir in you a boldness such as this, that even from the most constraining circumstances, your life and your words will proclaim that Jesus is your Lord, and you are his glad servant.

Lord, I know that this is spoken primarily to me.  Again, I am keenly aware that it is highly unlikely that any other should ever read what I write here.  It’s You and me, in spite of the way You have caused me to write.  I need to hear this.  I need to be stirred by this.  I need to attain to such boldness as this, that I would gladly speak of You and Your goodness and mercy (and yes, Your wrath and judgment of sin), to any who will sit still long enough to hear it.  I have to ask, Lord, why it is I grow so agitated with those who are already in such a place?  Is it resentment?  Is it untamed worldliness fighting my own spiritual maturing?  Whatever it is, it puts me the more in need of You.  And I know You shall provide for my need.  I know, too, that You have left me a free agent, though a bondservant of Your own possession.  So, I ask that You would so work in me, that I would work in You, boldly and gladly, with no thought as to consequences.  That is, after all, the call.  Help me to answer as I ought.  Keep me faithful to Your purposes, and let my love for You both grow and show.   Help me tune out the noise.

picture of Philippi ruins
© 2024 - Jeffrey A. Wilcox