Their motive is actually, Paul writes at the end of verse 17, to afflict me in my imprisonment.
Don't miss that. Their underlying motive, you can render it, is to make my bonds more galling. They want to make Paul's life miserable, and now you're thinking, okay, we've got to be talking about a cult. We can't be talking about the church. We can't be talking about believers.
Yes, we are. Well, why in the world would a Christian, a pastor, a church leader, ever want to make Paul suffer even more? Did you know that many Christians in the early church abandoned Paul? They didn't come to his defense. They gossiped about him. Some even considered his suffering to be judgment from God. But as surprising as that is, what's more surprising is the way Paul responded to it. This is wisdom for the heart.
Stephen Davey is in a series called Moving Forward. There's an expression that's sometimes used in our culture called mudslinging. It's a phrase we use when someone tries to make another person look bad. Has that ever happened to you?
Keep listening to learn a biblical response. Well, in any election season, you know how all of the rhetoric sort of ramps up and the brochures start flying and filling up your mailbox. And those of you who are in leadership, whether in the church or in the marketplace, can sympathize with political candidates on both sides of the aisle simply because you understand the impossibility of being able to fully defend your record and your reputation. I was reminded of this all over again in this most recent election cycle. In fact, I know a few men who ran for office.
I'm sure each candidate probably felt like they were running uphill. Those 30 second commercials can be devastating. Maybe you were watching a game or a news show and one of those 30 second commercials came up sponsored by whichever party is sponsoring it and it effectively says a few things about the candidate but it attempts to fully demolish the opponent. And if you're like me, you watch that commercial and you're left thinking, man, that person is a lousy person. I can't believe they did that or said that or believed that. And then a few minutes later, the other side sends up their 30 second commercial and you're left saying, I can't believe how terrible they are.
In fact, after watching these commercials, you're convinced both of them ought to be put into prison forever and never seen again. Well, you've come to expect that kind of activity during a political campaign. In fact, the higher the stakes and the closer you get to election day, the more mud goes flying through the air. Party politics, unfortunately, is part of politics. You've come to expect that in an election for good or bad.
What you don't expect is to find that in the assembly. Rivalry in the world is one thing. Rivalry in the church is another.
The truth is a party spirit, a factious, divisive spirit, is more devastating in the church than in any political campaign or in fact in the political world. For one thing, playing politics in the body of Christ is never out of season. You don't have to wait two years or four years to scoop up some mud and throw it. You get a pass year round.
Throwing mud is always in season. And it can get ugly, not just in politics, but in the pews of the average church. The problem isn't new for politicians and it isn't new for the church either. In fact, the Apostle Paul is about to reveal a divided church in Rome. If you'll take your New Testament letter of Paul to the Philippians, we're in chapter one.
We're going to discover this. While you're turning, you might remember that the Apostle Paul has delivered some good news. His imprisonment in Rome looked like it was taking him backward. It was actually moving the gospel forward. That's the good news.
Now he's going to deliver some unfortunate news. Let's back up into verse 14 and get a running start. Philippians chapter one. And most of the brothers, you could run to that brothers and sisters, have become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Now here's the bad news. Some preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, but thinking, hoping, planning to afflict me in my imprisonment.
Now here's what's happening in a nutshell. Paul's imprisonment in Rome has created division. In fact, there is a majority and a minority. The majority are accusing Paul of certain things and have created this party spirit, this divisive spirit. In fact, it sort of turned into something like an election campaign. And church leaders are actually leading the way, as if they were running for office. We'll get into the details in a moment, but let me first off alert you to the fact that we're about to witness the apostle Paul with mud splattered over his body, his face, so to speak. But we're about to watch Paul respond to accusations, to misinterpretations, to a factious party spirit that is in earnest in the pew. Now as we go back and unpack what we just read, I want to point out several actions in Paul's response to all of this. Paul is covered in mud, but he's about to model a godly response to this factious attitude.
In fact, we're going to discover why we should imitate Paul, and we're going to find him imitating Jesus Christ. So if you're keeping an eye on it, let me put it this way. Let me give you five ways to model a good response to mud. Okay?
Number one. First, Paul openly identifies the problem. Now we're almost back to looking at the paragraph.
Let me say one other introductory comment. As hard as it is for us to imagine today, Paul was not well received in Rome. In fact, if your view of Paul is that he's this amazingly beloved apostle, if your conception is that there were balloons and banners when he arrived, think again.
That's a misconception. You need to understand that this veteran missionary and church planter, the ambassador of God to the Gentiles, was actually beloved by a few and disliked by the majority. Now here in verse 15, Paul reveals the two sides. Notice again, some preach Christ from envy and rivalry.
This happens to be the majority. Now the word for envy refers to not just wanting what someone else has, but this word actually refers to someone who is wishing the person who has it harm. That is, they don't just want to have what that person has, they really want the other person to be demolished, discredited. Their preaching evidently is including, you know, these 32nd commercials where they're intending not only to gather a following, but they're wanting to destroy the reputation of Paul. It's interesting that Chrysostom, the fourth century church leader, in one of his discourses uses this same word here for envy in our New Testament text when he referred to those who are, and I quote, plotting against one another and gloating over the misfortune of their neighbors. Now you can imagine this taking place in the world, right? Surely not among people who represent God.
I mean it's one thing to envy what somebody might have, it's another thing to envy to the point that you really wish them harm. Well let me just remind you of the religious leaders of Jesus' day. You remember how they were complaining and they're bellowing over how Jesus has upset the traditional cart and that he is not respecting the temple, in fact he's threatening to destroy the temple and he's blasphemed God and he's not washing his hands and they need to protect their heritage, they need to protect, you know, their religion, we need to protect the sanctity of the temple. All that sounds great, Mark just kind of, in his gospel, Mark pulls down that mask and says, even Pilate knew that they were handing him over because of envy.
Same word used here. The religious leaders really just wanted to protect their turf, their following. So Paul is openly declaring the truth at the envy of these leaders, these churches, even these pastors who are preaching Christ. And by the way, they do know and believe the gospel of Christ.
It's clear these are not false teachers. This is not some sect or cult. These are pastors, teachers, leaders, churches that believe the gospel. They're preaching out of the self-centered, personally ambitious motive and they're creating antagonism toward Paul. As hard as it is to believe, beloved, Paul is going to be ignored in Rome at best. He's going to be attacked by the believers in Rome at worst.
And why? They're filled with envy. Paul has shown up in Rome and they've been fine without him.
You know, send us a letter, don't show up. They frankly don't want their little following to lose interest in them and potentially follow him. So Paul attributes this attribute or this characteristic to them. Now he goes further and he attributes a really devastating characteristic. Not only are they envious of Paul, he adds in verse 15, they are preaching with rivalry. Your translation may read, selfish ambition or contention. One linguist wrote, this word rivalry from Erathea actually relates to political maneuvering and election intrigue.
And when I translated that word and did a little study, that's what kind of set the theme as to what's happening here. In other words, these pastors and churches and leaders are canvassing for votes and attention and support and Paul is in their way. He's on their turf. I mean, this is politics in the pew at its worst. And they're willing to go to any length to keep their churches from any sense of loyalty to the Apostle Paul of all people.
By the way, this explained for me something I've never quite understood. In fact, you might want to turn over, hold your finger here and just turn over to 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1 where Paul writes something that I didn't quite understand until Philippians chapter 1. He says this as he's writing, he is incarcerated. This is near the end of his life after spending several years in Rome. He says in verse 16 of 2 Timothy chapter 1, may the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. Note that in your memory. I'll refer to it again. He was not ashamed of my chains. Note this. But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me.
Are you serious? Onesiphorus arrives in Rome and he has to search diligently to find out where Paul is staying? The churches and leaders have so completely abandoned Paul that a few years after he'd arrived, nobody even knows now where he's living. No wonder Paul comes to the last few lines of this same letter. If you look over at chapter 4 in verse 16, he says right in the middle of the verse, but all have deserted me. All have deserted me.
And why? Back to Philippians chapter 1, envy? Envy? You've got something I don't have and I want it and I don't want you to have it anymore. Rivalry?
You're getting more attention than me and I don't want you to have any of it because I want all of it. Envy and rivalry taking place not in a political campaign, but in the church turning one Christian against another, even worse causing one Christian to throw mud at another one. That's the first faction or grouping. Notice the second faction back in chapter 1 of Philippians in verse 15. Now there are those who preach Christ from good will.
It doesn't really need much of an explanation. Good will simply refers to someone desiring the best for Paul, someone thinking the best of Paul. So here you have Paul's honest and open identification of a major division in the body.
This is politics in the pew. You've got this one group, the majority, envy and rivalry and the other one clinging, choosing to cling to thinking the best of him and for the most part, so few that nobody even knew where Paul was staying. Secondly, Paul boldly reveals their motive. He reveals their motive.
There's something else going on. It isn't just envy and rivalry. He's actually going to dig a little deeper. He isn't just going to say there's a problem with envy and rivalry. He's going to tell us what the motive is behind that.
He's going to take it to the tap root and show you. Look at verse 16. The latter, that is those who preach from good will, do it out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. Apologia, the word defense, apologetics is the word we get from this. The other, that is the other faction, preach out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former faction proclaimed Christ out of rivalry.
So stop for a moment. Paul makes it clear the problem here is not the message. They're preaching the same message, the gospel of Christ. The problem is not their message.
The problem is their motive. And Paul provides a clue as to perhaps why so many in the church in Rome are finding it easy to effectively bump him off their radar, not even visit him, bring a casserole or send a card or nothing, just completely write him off. Notice the phrase in verse 16 again, the latter, do it out of love. Watch this, knowing that I am put here. That word, verb, put here can be rendered appointed. They know I am appointed. I am destined by God to be in this place. In other words, the sympathetic believers who loved Paul understood that he had been appointed to imprisonment for the sake of and opportunity of teaching apologetics, defending the gospel.
The verb was also used in the military world for someone receiving a special assignment. This was Paul's attitude. Now I have to tell you, he must have at this point been very grateful for the church in Philippi.
He's writing, faithful supporters, those who were thinking the best of him. They knew he had been appointed for imprisonment by God. A few in Rome understood it as well, that his apartment and his handcuffs to that Praetorian guard were part of God's assignment.
And that apartment was his classroom where he would teach apologetics, defend the gospel. Notice, on the other hand, this ambitious faction, verse 17, they have a different motive. He goes deeper than just envy or rivalry. He goes, their motive is actually, Paul writes at the end of verse 17, to afflict me in my imprisonment.
Don't miss that. Their underlying motive, you can render it, is to make my bonds more galling. In other words, they want to pour salt in the wound.
They want to make Paul's life miserable. And now you're thinking, okay, we've got to be talking about a cult. We've got to be talking about the church. We've got to be talking about believers. Yes, we are.
Yes, we are. Well, why in the world would a Christian, a pastor, a church leader, a believer, ever want to make Paul suffer even more? I personally think the clue is given to us in this deeper motive, and it tells us what's going on behind the scenes.
First, let me just take you back to that scene. Historically, this is a culture in which a prison had a huge stigma attached to it and a prison sentence, which for the most part ends your credibility forever. Much of that stigma has remained to this day. One historian writes of Paul's generation, Paul was certainly aware that his incarceration reflected negatively on his credibility. In other words, it's hard to say you're right when you're handcuffed. They understood that prison, this man writes, was a place of dishonor. Considerable pressure was exerted on those who knew a prisoner, get this, to treat him with revulsion or to abandon him entirely. Could that be the case with Paul?
I think so. In fact, it explains Paul's remark to Timothy that I asked you to just tuck away in your memory, where he says, when Onesiphorus came to see me, he was not ashamed of my chains. He wasn't ashamed. He was willing to bear the stigma of associating with me.
Let me add to that another thought. Keep in mind these Roman believers had certainly heard how God had rescued Paul earlier from prison. Remember that wonderful story, the earthquake and the chains fall off, the jailer gets saved. Man, that's a story for the church, isn't it? That'll make the testimony meeting. Why not now?
Why not now? I wonder. No miracle. Surely they had heard of Peter's miraculous escape. The angel appears, his chains fall off, he walks right through past all the guards who didn't see him while we're sleeping. Now that's God's work.
That's great. Wait, that's not happening to Paul. He's stuck. He's been there for years, a couple of years now. I wonder.
You can almost see where they're going. Their underlying motive of wanting Paul to suffer in prison was more than likely based on their belief that Paul's chains were his own doing. God would never allow his chief ambassador to languish for years in prison unless something was wrong with Paul himself. John MacArthur in his commentary on Philippians did a wonderful job just sort of imagining all the possible things that people could have been saying about Paul's imprisonment that would eventually cause them to abandon him. We know they did. He said it so well, I've just sort of edited it down from pages to a paragraph or two.
Let me go through them quickly as bullet points. He said this, well, like Job's friends, counselors, there would have been envious preachers in Rome claiming that Paul's imprisonment was the Lord's punishment for some secret sin. I mean, if we could see behind the scenes, there's probably something going on. Or still others might have thought that the Lord kept Paul in prison because of his inadequate and misleading preaching of God's Word. God just needed to shut him up. Others may have thought that Paul was old-fashioned and that a more relevant approach was needed to reach the sophisticated people of Rome.
He's outdated. Others may have argued that if Paul had been completely uncompromising and true to the faith, he would have been martyred long beforehand. He's evidently made a deal with the Romans to protect his life and secure favorable treatment. They, many of them, probably didn't know the Philippians were paying the rent on the apartment. Paul's in an apartment. He's got a deal going on.
He's saving his neck. Still others might have maintained that Paul was in prison because he lacked the victorious faith that would have gained his release. His prayers in the past were more powerful.
Now they aren't. He's still imprisoned. He's obviously failing to tap into the Holy Spirit's power. Others would have claimed that the very fact that they were free to preach and Paul was in prison was proof enough that God was finished with Paul and was now going to use them instead.
It's well put. Paul is out of the way and now those of us who matter to God can get on with it. Those who loved Paul, were willing to think the best, knew he wasn't in prison because of secret sin or an impure life or a lack of faith or because God's Spirit was finished with him. Now in fact, beloved, listen, these Philippian believers would have known that Paul is receiving his most difficult assignment from God ever. An appointment from God that would require the greatest faith.
An assignment that would depend upon the purest life. The most persevering trust in the Spirit of God that he has not abandoned him. Listen to what he wrote Timothy during these days.
I only read you the first part so I could save this part until now. He writes with chains around his wrists to Timothy just months before his execution, and he says, Everyone has deserted me, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me. These chains are not a disgrace.
They are a grace from God for his gospel and his glory. Paul openly identifies the problem. He boldly reveals the motive, and I think we can begin to appreciate now the third point, and that is this.
Paul graciously resists retaliation. Verse 18. Look at that first phrase. What then? Stop there. That's a sermon. Oh, it was tempting. What then?
You could translate that. So what? Well, so what?
What about it? In other words, what does it really matter if I'm loved or hated? This is God's assignment. Maybe for you, beloved, this morning, this is the message you need from God more than any other right now. Those handcuffs, those chains, those misunderstandings, those misinterpretations, that dishonor, that abandonment. You came in here, we can't see it, but you're splattered with mud.
Verse 18. Look, it should have opened with something more like, Well, let me tell you a thing or two. Let me set the record straight and go on for a chapter or two.
Wait till I get a hold of you guys. I mean, he could have skinned these Roman Christians alive, but he resists self-defense, self-promotion. He could have rattled off his resume. Have you forgotten who I am? The apostle of God to the Gentiles? Have you forgotten my epistle? Have you forgotten my past?
He could have reminded them of it all. No, that's how you respond. If you want to jump into the political fracas, and Paul refuses to play the game. As the apostle Paul faced and dealt with accusations, he modeled a biblical response for when that happens to us. We have more to cover in this lesson, but we need to stop right here. On our next broadcast, Stephen will bring the conclusion to this message.
This is Wisdom for the Heart. This message is called, Modeling a Godly Response to Mud. To learn more about Stephen and access all of the resources we have available, visit wisdomonline.org. That site contains Stephen's four decades of Bible teaching. You'll find all of these programs there. You'll also find Stephen's second daily program called The Wisdom Journey. Visit wisdomonline.org. Then join us back here next time for more Wisdom for the Heart. .
