In this series we offer brief introductions to the books of the Bible, including background, authorship, content, and application to the lives of today’s Christians.
Human Authorship—the Apostle Paul
Time and Place of Writing—Probably 63 or 64, written to the Philippian congregation from Rome, where Paul was imprisoned.
Major Theme—“Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” (1:27)
Do you know what an asymptote is? The word asymptote is a little-known technical term of mathematics that the American Heritage Dictionary defines as “A line whose distance to a given curve tends to zero.” But in a more general, non-mathematical sense, an asymptote is something that you can get increasingly close to, but never fully reach.
What in the world can that possibly have to do with our lives as Christians? It is this: letting our conduct always be “worthy of the Gospel of Christ”—the theme of this Bible book—is an asymptote: with the help of God, we can (and should!) continue daily to seek growth in sanctification throughout our lives, but we do so while knowing that we will never attain perfection in this life. The fact that we cannot perfectly let our conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, however, does not mean that what God is telling us here need not be diligently pursued. We won’t perfectly attain the goal, but we can keep getting closer to that goal day by day.
When Paul wrote, “Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ,” he was not uttering a trite platitude such as when the grocery store checkout clerk says, “Have a nice day.” Rather, he was beseeching us to embrace that goal as the focus of our everyday conduct. In his lectures on this book, Dr. George Stoeckhardt said that Paul’s purpose was “to exhort his Philippian Christians to a godly life and to strengthen their faith,” and Stoeckhardt then notes that “what he says to the Christians at Philippi concerning faith and life is designed to find general application with Christians, also in our time.”
When a clerk says, “Have a nice day,” he would probably be shocked if you responded, “Fine, but how do you suggest I do that?” But God doesn’t stop just with the exhortation. He also tells us how to do it. Beginning with verse 27 of chapter 1, we have God’s own instructions for how we are to pursue the goal of walking worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Remember, however, that these instructions are Law. They do not earn salvation; they serve as a guide to Christians who are already motivated by the Gospel to do them.
The first point of instruction addresses us as members of the Church Militant. “Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” (1:27) Joined together with other Christians, we are to contend for the faith of the Gospel against all enemies. The devil and the world constantly pressure us to compromise and even violate what the Bible teaches us; they say, “You’ve got to go along to get along.” Doing that, however, would be the opposite of letting our conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.
That first “how to” told us to strive against the world. This second one now turns from strife to harmony. We are told to be “like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” (2:2) Notice, though, that this working together is based on complete agreement, and that that agreement is referenced to something outside of ourselves, namely “the faith of the gospel.”
The third admonition gives us a frame of reference. Our natural tendency is to evaluate all things based on how they affect us personally. That is not God’s way, and it is not “conduct worthy of the Gospel.” God tells us, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” (2:4) Rather than “Why should I care about this?” we should learn to ask ourselves “How can I be of help to others in this situation?”
The final exhortation expresses the attitude we need in order to obey the previous one. Referring to Jesus as our example, we are told to be of the same mind: “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” The attitude of Christian humility will enable us to consider others before ourselves.
Dear Christians, pursue that asymptote: “Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
When a clerk says, “Have a nice day,” he would probably be shocked if you responded, “Fine, but how do you suggest I do that?” But God doesn’t stop just with the exhortation. He also tells us how to do it.
is a retired teacher and serves as assistant editor of the Lutheran Spokesman. He lives in Cape Coral, Florida.