Philippians 1:27-30

     In the last lesson we saw Paul explaining to the Philippian church his views on the purpose and focus of his life.  In these last few verses of the chapter he is calling on the Philippians to live the kind of life that is ready to suffer for the sake of Christ.  Here is a man with the experience of great adversity, who is at that very moment in prison for his stand for Jesus Christ.  His thoughts are not of himself though, but of encouraging the members of the church at Philippi to prepare their hearts and minds to be able to have a victorious outlook when they come under persecution themselves.
     His first suggestion is that they "let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ"  At first glance you would assume this means that our speech should only reflect  the holiness of Jesus Christ.  Let's look at the definition of "conversation".  "Conversation" is translated from the Greek word politeuomai.  Vine's Expository Dictionary defines it in the following way:

"to be a citizen (polites), to live as a citizen," is used metaphorically of conduct

as in accordance with the characteristics of the heavenly community.

     We can see from this definition that "conversation" covers more than just our speech.  Another form of the word "polites" seen in the definition above is "polis".  This word means city.  Some people are very proud of their hometown or the city in which they live.  They're devoted to it.  Paul wanted the Philippians to have that kind of devotion and pride in their citizenship in heaven.  He also wanted them to understand that they needed to have that attitude whether he was present with them or not.  It needed to be a twenty-four/seven commitment that they ALL took part in.  There could be no disunity among them.  There had to be fellowship.
     So what is fellowship?  We think of it mainly as spending time with each other usually in a church connected function.  There's more to it than that though.  The main element that HAS to be there is love.  That love of each other allows us to make bonds.  Bonds that strengthen us and help us to be united in spirit and mind.  True fellowship has no place for pride, envy, jealousy or selfishness.  We are not meant to be loners.  God wants us to have that deep relationship with others that makes us strong as a group of believers.
     Philippi was not set apart from the world where it would never be affected by anything negative.  Like all the new testament churches it had it's own local enemies.  Paul was stressing their need for spiritual unity fellowship so that they could handle any attacks together.  Their proper "conversation" that we discussed above or lack of intimidation, would be a a sign of two things.

• it would reveal to unbelievers evidence of their own lost condition. Standing up under persecution can put the dark character of the persecutor in the spotlight.
• it would reveal to believers an assurance of their salvation from God.  Our willingness to suffer for the cause of Christ without being terrified is evidence of God in the fight with them.

     If the Philippians ever had any doubt that they would suffer for Christ, Paul squashes that idea in verse 29.  In fact, he tells them that they've been given the favor of suffering for Him.  Strong's Concordance gives the following definition for the phrase "it is given":

to grant as a favor, i.e. gratuitously, in kindness, pardon or

rescue:—deliver, (frankly) forgive, (freely) give, grant.

     So why is it so important that we have suffering in our lives?
     First of all it draws us closer to God.  We can often find ourselves taking our relationship with God for granted and not staying close to Him.  When Job went through his trials, he came out of it with a new found understanding of God.  Here in America we will seldom see someone suffer from persecution, but there are many other issues of suffering that pop up throughout our lives that we must turn to God with.
     Secondly, when we are in the midst of those suffering issues and we turn to God, the world sees the relationship you have with the Lord.  They don't have to guess where you're putting your trust and they can see Jesus in you.
     Lastly, suffering produces rewards in the future.  Matthew 5:11-12 says. "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely , for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad:  for great is your reward in heaven:  for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."  Those willing to endure suffering for Christ will be rewarded for their faith.
     I like the following excerpt from Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon by R. Kent Hughes.  It goes along with that thought of us being given a favor with suffering.

"'The grace of being permitted to believe in Christ is surpassed by the grace of being permitted to suffer for him, of being permitted to walk the way of Christ with Christ himself to the perfection of fellowship with him.'(Karl Booth)  The fellowship of Christ's sufferings moves the believer beyond the role of beneficiary of Christ's death to a sharer in his sufferings."

     Paul's final words of the chapter were to let the Philippians know that it was highly likely that they would have to endure some of the same types of sufferings (beatings, imprisonment) that Paul himself had endured.  They had been made aware of the things that he had gone through so they had a very good understanding of what they themselves could expect.
     It sounds like a very gloom and doom message from Paul, but if you look at it in the light of the the book passage I just shared above, there is great joy to be found in our integrity.  Websters 1828 Dictionary defines integrity as:

Wholeness; entireness; unbroken state. The entire, unimpaired state of any thing,

particularly of the mind; moral soundness or purity; incorruptness; uprightness; honesty.

     The wholeness spoken about in this definition is our steadfastness in our faith in Jesus Christ.  Paul's focus was to make sure the church as a whole was in unity and striving together--without fear-- in expectation of the joy to come.

Blessings,

Tracy