Only let your manner of life be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.

I. THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS THE TRUE STANDARD OF CHRISTIAN PIETY AS WELL AS "THE POWER OF GOD TO SALVATION." It is so:

1. By virtue of the doctrines it reveals for our comfort.

2. By virtue of the precepts it inculcates for our guidance; for it embodies in itself that which is at once "the law of Christ," "the law of love," "the law of liberty."

3. By virtue of the privileges it confers to secure holy living.

4. By virtue of the prospects it holds out as "a recompense of reward.

II. CHRISTIAN LIFE MUST BE ORDERED ACCORDING TO THIS STANDARD, The original term suggests membership in a society, according to the idea of privilege which makes believers fellow-citizens of the saints." Our practice must accord with our profession. Like the gospel of Christ, we must be true and faithful, peaceful and loving, gracious and humble. Our walk must be consistently the same, whether our religious guides are present or absent.

III. THE CHRISTIAN WALK IS TO MANIFEST ITSELF IN A FIRM AND SOLID UNITY. "That ye stand fast in one spirit." There were divergences of action, if not of thought, manifest among the pious Philippians, which made it necessary to counsel them to a steadfast unity of position and effort. We cannot grow in grace unless we live in peace, and we cannot hold our ground against the rushing tides of worldliness and sin which threaten to overwhelm us unless we are strongly rooted in Christ and his gracious gospel. This stability of position will have a twofold effect.

1. It will enable us to fight in concert for the faith of the gospel. "With one soul striving in concert with the faith of the gospel." If there was to be striving at all, it must not be in a way of contention, but of united endeavor to promote and defend the cause of Christ. Unity immensely enhances the power of the truth. This language implies

(1) that there is "one faith;"

(2) that it is worth striving for, as it contains the message of mercy to man;

(3) that it is injurious to piety to undervalue truth;

(4) that the stability of Churches as well as individuals depends much upon unity of faith;

(5) that there may be a oneness of heart under intellectual differences.

2. It will make you superior to the fears of adversaries. "And in nothing terrified by your adversaries." There will be no wavering on your part, through the assaults of unbelieving Jews or Gentiles. There is a double argument or encouragement here presented: "seeing it [your fearlessness] is to them an evident token of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that of God."

(1) Their fearless maintenance of the truth, implying as it did the power of the gospel in their hearts, would be a proof to the adversaries that they merit destruction by rejecting it and by continuing steadfast in their wickedness. The sentiment is parallel with that in the Thessalonian Epistle, in which the suffering endured through the envy of the Jews was "a token or proof that God will inflict heavy punishment on the adversaries of the Christian faith' (2 Thessalonians 1:5).

(2) It was also a proof that the God who now sustained them would finally reward them. This implies

(a) that suffering Christians will certainly be saved,

(b) and that their salvation will be great as well as certain. - T.C.

I. The NEED Of it.

II. The PROOFS of it.

III. The ADVANTAGE of it; it is a sign of perdition to your foes — of salvation to you.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. YOUR ADVERSARIES are numerous, mighty, terrible, yet they will certainly perish.

II. YOUR SALVATION is near, sure, glorious, and that of God.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

Perdition means hopeless ruin. A token is a premonition. The natural world is full of warnings. A change in the atmosphere or in the order of things, a coming disaster or great event, is heralded by certain phenomena, which long experience and observation know how to interpret. So also in the political, social, moral, and religious spheres. So evident are these tokens to the discerning that it is not difficult to forecast the future. On this principle Paul interprets the conduct of adversaries. And every preacher of the gospel is warranted in accepting certain traits of character and developments of depravity as "evident tokens of perdition" in those in whom they are found, and hold them forth as warnings, "beacon lights" in the world. Let me specify a few such tokens, not from the infidel, or openly immoral classes, but from the respectable and Church-going class of sinners.

I. A STATE OF HABITUAL MORAL INSENSIBILITY on the momentous .and infinitely interesting matter of salvation.

II. A QUIET, SLEEPING CONSCIENCE, under the sunlight of the Bible, and the faithful and searching appeals of God's ambassadors.

III. CONVICTIONS OF SIN LOST, AND RELAPSE into greater carelessness and insensibility than ever before, after a period of religious interest.

IV. PASSED BY AND LEFT UNDISTURBED in their sins — left, it may be, to scoff and oppose — when God's Holy Spirit has been sent down in mighty power to awaken and convert souls and gather in the harvest.

V. WHERE PROVIDENTIAL CHASTISEMENTS FAIL OF THEIR END, and, instead of humble, penitent submission and tearful recognition of God's hand in them, there is a proud, unyielding spirit of bitterness. Now where such things appear, "perdition" is nigh; the final wrath is imminent; the last sands of hope are falling; the knell of despair is ready to sound!

(Homiletic Monthly.)

I. A FALSE HOPE OF PIETY. There are many who deceive themselves with a spurious religion, and while they have a name to live, are dead.

II. PREMATURE DEPRAVITY. Though the principle of sin is inherent in every human bosom, it attains a more early and rank luxuriance in some cases than in others.

III. INVETERACY IN TRANSGRESSION. The almost invincible force of habit is a subject of universal remark.

IV. CONFIRMED BELIEF OF DESTRUCTIVE ERROR. The confidence which the votaries of error repose in its delusions is widely different in different persons. With some it is little more than a cherished wish that their system were true.

V. UNSANCTIFIED WORLDLY PROSPERITY.

VI. APATHY OF MIND UNDER DIVINE CHASTISEMENT.

VII. RETURN TO INSENSIBILITY after serious impressions.

VIII. AN IMPENITENT OLD AGE.

(Christian Age.)

John Noyes, kissing the stake, said, "Blessed be the time that ever I was born for this day." To his fellow martyrs he said, "We shall not lose our lives in this fire, but change them for a better, and for coals have pearls." Hugh Laverocke, comforting John-a-Price, his fellow martyr, said unto him, "Be of good comfort, my brother, for my Lord of London is our good physician. He will cure thee of all thy blindness, and me of my lameness this day." Joyce Lewis — "When I behold the uglisome face of death, I am afraid; but when I consider Christ's amiable countenance, I take heart again." John Huss said to a countryman who threw a faggot at his head, "Oh, holy simplicity, God send thee better light! You roast the goose now, but a swan shall come after me, and he shall escape your fire." Huss, a goose in the Bohemian language; and Luther, a swan. Castilia Rupea — "Though you throw my body down off this steep hill, yet will my soul mount upwards again. Your blasphemies more offend my mind than your torments do my body." Doctor Taylor, as he was going to martyrdom: "I shall this day deceive the worms in Hadley churchyard," and fetching a leap or two when he came within two miles of Hadley, "Now," saith he, "lack I but two stiles, and I am even at my Father's house."

The rendering of the Revised Version is very happily chosen. The word is used of horses shying in view of any unusual or unexpected object. Believers are apt to be so scared; but then it is implied in the word used that a sudden fright or panic may after all arise from trifling cause. It is that which need not disturb. Whatever it is that causes the alarm it is seen to be powerless, even to vanish whenever it is boldly approached. All such trials to God's people are like the lions in the narrow path leading to the Palace Beautiful of Bunyan's allegory. They were chained as the Pilgrim espied them, but he knew it not. They have therefore only to be courageously approached, and then the voice of Watchful is heard, "Fear not the lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those that have none. Keep in the midst of the path, and no hurt shall come unto thee."

(J. Hutchison, D. D.)

Christians, Paul, Philippians, Timotheus, TimothyPhilippiAdversaries, Affrighted, Alarmed, Antagonists, Anything, Clear, Demonstration, Destroyed, Destruction, Evident, Fear, Fearlessness, Frightened, Impending, Indeed, Moment, Nothing, Omen, Opponents, Opponents-which, Oppose, Opposers, Opposing, Perdition, Proof, Quail, Salvation, Saved, Sign, Sure, Terrified, Token1. Paul testifies his thankfulness to God, and his love toward the Philippians,
9. daily praying for their increase in grace;
12. he shows what good the faith of Christ had received by his troubles at Rome;
21. and how ready he is to glorify Christ either by his life or death;
27. exhorting them to unity;
28. and to fortitude in persecution.

Philippians 1:28

     1449   signs, purposes

Philippians 1:27-28

     5293   defence, human
     8787   opposition, to God

Philippians 1:27-30

     7924   fellowship, in service
     8485   spiritual warfare, conflict

Philippians 1:28-30

     5879   humiliation

February 23. "For Me to Live is Christ and to Die is Gain" (Phil. I. 21).
"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. i. 21). The secret of a sound body is a sound heart, and the prayer of the Holy Ghost for us is, that we "may be in health and prosper even as our soul prospers." We find Paul in the Epistles to the Philippians expressing a sublime and holy indifference to the question of life or death. Indeed he is in a real strait, whether he would prefer "to depart and be with Christ," or to remain still in the flesh. The former would indeed be his sweetest …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

December 12. "To Abide in the Flesh is More Needful for You, and Having this Confidence, I Know that I Shall Abide" (Phil. I. 24, 25).
"To abide in the flesh is more needful for you, and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide" (Phil. i. 24, 25). One of the most blessed things about divine healing is that the strength it brings is holy strength, and finds its natural and congenial outflow in holy acts and exercises. Mere natural strength seeks its gratification in natural pleasures and activities, but the strength of Christ leads us to do as Christ would do, and to seek our congenial employment in His holy service. The …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Twenty Second Sunday after Trinity Paul's Thanks and Prayers for Churches.
Text: Philippians 1, 3-11. 3 I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, 5 for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now; 6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ: 7 even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as, both in my bonds …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Walking Worthily
'Walk worthy of God.'--1 THESS. ii. 12. Here we have the whole law of Christian conduct in a nutshell. There may be many detailed commandments, but they can all be deduced from this one. We are lifted up above the region of petty prescriptions, and breathe a bracing mountain air. Instead of regulations, very many and very dry, we have a principle which needs thought and sympathy in order to apply it, and is to be carried out by the free action of our own judgments. Now it is to be noticed that there …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Loving Greetings
'Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, 4. Always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, 5. For your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now; 6. Being confident of this very thing that He which began a good work …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Prisoner's Triumph
'Now I would have you know, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel; 13. So that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole praetorian guard, and to all the rest; 14. And that most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: 16. The one do it of love, knowing …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Strait Betwixt Two
'To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: 24. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. 25. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith.'--PHIL. i. 21-25. A preacher may well shrink from such a text. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Citizens of Heaven
'Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28. And in nothing terrified by your adversaries.'--PHIL. i. 27, 28. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that Philippi was the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a 'colony.' Now, the connection between a Roman colony and Rome was a great deal closer …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Comprehensive Prayer
'And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; 10. So that ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of offence unto the day of Christ; 11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.'--PHIL. i. 9-11 (R.V.). What a blessed friendship is that of which the natural language is prayer! We have many ways, thank God, of showing our love and of helping …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Good Man's Life and Death
If you would get a fair estimate of the happiness of any man you must judge him in these two closely connected things, his life and his death. The heathen Solon said, "Call no man happy until he is dead; for you know not what changes may pass upon him in life." We add to that--Call no man happy until he is dead; because the life that is to come, if that be miserable, shall far outweigh the highest life of happiness that hath been enjoyed on earth. To estimate a man's condition we must take it in …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Paul's Desire to Depart
I hope that the service of this morning may have the effect of leading every one of us to self-examination. I shall endeavor while preaching to search myself, and I pray that each one of you may be led to hear for himself, and I beseech you to put home each pertinent and personal question to your own souls, while in a quiet, but I hope in a forcible manner, I shall endeavor to describe the apostle's feelings in prospect of departure. Three things I shall observe this morning. First of all, the apostle's …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

7Th Day. Sanctifying Grace.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."--PHIL. i. 6. Sanctifying Grace. Reader! is the good work begun in thee? Art thou holy? Is sin crucifying? Are thy heart's idols, one by one abolished? Is the world less to thee, and eternity more to thee? Is more of thy Saviour's image impressed on thy character, and thy Saviour's love more enthroned in thy heart? Is "Salvation" to thee more "the one thing needful?" Oh! take heed! …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

Love and Discernment.
"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgment: that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."--PHIL. i. 9-11. One of the most beautiful elements in the Pauline Epistles is the intimate relation which evidently existed between the Apostle and his converts. This is especially the …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul

Of the Desire after Eternal Life, and How Great Blessings are Promised to those who Strive
"My Son, when thou feelest the desire of eternal happiness to be poured into thee from above, and longest to depart from the tabernacle of this body, that thou mayest contemplate My glory without shadow of turning, enlarge thine heart, and take in this holy inspiration with all thy desire. Give most hearty thanks to the Supreme Goodness, who dealeth with thee so graciously, visiteth thee so lovingly, stirreth thee up so fervently, raiseth thee so powerfully, lest thou sink down through thine own …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The Death of the Righteous
'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Phil 1:1I. Paul was a great admirer of Christ. He desired to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified. I Cor 2:2. No medicine like the blood of Christ; and in the text, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' I. For to me to live is Christ. We must understand Paul of a spiritual life. For to me to live is Christ, i.e.' Christ is my life; so Gregory of Nyssa; or thus, my life is made up of Christ. As a wicked man's life is made up of sin, …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

A Believer's Privilege at Death
'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Phil 1:1I. Hope is a Christian's anchor, which he casts within the veil. Rejoicing in hope.' Rom 12:12. A Christian's hope is not in this life, but he hash hope in his death.' Prov 14:42. The best of a saint's comfort begins when his life ends; but the wicked have all their heaven here. Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.' Luke 6:64. You may make your acquittance, and write Received in full payment.' Son, remember that …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

For There were Even in the Apostles' Times Some who Preached the Truth Not...
16. For there were even in the Apostles' times some who preached the truth not in truth, that is, not with truthful mind: of whom the Apostle saith that they preached Christ not chastely, but of envy and strife. And on this account even at that time some were tolerated while preaching truth not with a chaste mind: yet not any have been praised as preaching falsehood with a chaste mind. Lastly, he saith of those, "Whether in pretence or in truth Christ be preached:" [2404] but in no wise would he …
St. Augustine—Against Lying

The Master's Hand
Heinrich Suso Phil. i. 21 "To me to live is Christ," and yet the days Are days of toiling men; We rise at morn, and tread the beaten ways, And lay us down again. How is it that this base, unsightly life Can yet be Christ alone? Our common need, and weariness, and strife, While common days wear on? Then saw I how before a Master wise A shapeless stone was set; He said, "Therein a form of beauty lies Though none behold it yet." "When all beside it shall be hewn away, That glorious shape shall stand, …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

Therefore if Haply, which Whether it Can Take Place...
16. Therefore if haply, (which whether it can take place, I know not; and rather think it cannot take place; but yet, if haply), having taken unto himself a concubine for a time, a man shall have sought sons only from this same intercourse; neither thus is that union to be preferred to the marriage even of those women, who do this, that is matter of pardon. [1981] For we must consider what belongs to marriage, not what belongs to such women as marry and use marriage with less moderation than they …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Marriage

Concerning Lowliness of Mind.
HOMILY. Against those who improperly use the apostolic declaration which says, "Whether in pretence, or in sincerity, Christ is preached:" (Phil. i. 18), and about humbleness of mind. Introduction. There is an allusion at the beginning of this Homily to some remarks recently made on the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. These occur in Chrysostom's fifth Homily against the Anomoeans, one of a set of Homilies which, from internal evidence, may be assigned to the close of the year 386, or beginning …
St. Chrysostom—On the Priesthood

Second Day. God's Provision for Holiness.
To those that are made holy in Christ Jesus, called to be holy.'--1 Cor. i. 2. 'To all the holy ones in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi. Salute every holy one in Christ Jesus.'[1]--Phil. i. 1, iv. 21. HOLY! IN CHRIST! In these two expressions we have perhaps the most wonderful words of all the Bible. HOLY! the word of unfathomable meaning, which the Seraphs utter with veiled faces. HOLY! the word in which all God's perfections centre, and of which His glory is but the streaming forth. …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Effects of Messiah's Appearance
The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped: Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. H ow beautiful and magnificent is the imagery, by which the Prophet, in this chapter, represents the effects of MESSIAH'S appearance! The scene, proposed to our view, is a barren and desolate wilderness. But when He, who in the beginning said, Let there be light, and there was light, condescends to visit this wilderness, the face of nature is …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Divine Support and Protection
[What shall we say then to these things?] If God be for us, who can be against us? T he passions of joy or grief, of admiration or gratitude, are moderate when we are able to find words which fully describe their emotions. When they rise very high, language is too faint to express them; and the person is either lost in silence, or feels something which, after his most laboured efforts, is too big for utterance. We may often observe the Apostle Paul under this difficulty, when attempting to excite …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Greeks Seek Jesus. He Foretells that He Shall Draw all Men unto Him.
(in the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) ^D John XII. 20-50. ^d 20 Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast [The language indicates that they were Greek converts to Judaism, such as were called proselytes of the gate. It is also noted that as Gentiles came from the east at the beginning of Jesus' life, so they also came from the west at the close of his ministry]: 21 these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee [See p. 111. They were possibly …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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