Heavenly Citizens (Phil. 2:16-21)

In this set of verses, Paul calls on his readers in Philippi to a consistent lifestyle. He wants those Christians to express unity and he mentions how they can maintain and develop it. First, they must have the same standard (the same rule); secondly, they must have the same attitude (humility); and thirdly, they must have the same examples to imitate. The rule that they must live by is to do everything for Christ, the attitude they are to have is Christ’s humility, and the examples they are to follow are Christ’s people, particularly the apostles.

We are not to think that Paul was being proud when he said that he was an example to follow. The reality is that each of us is an example: we are either an example to follow or an example to avoid. Every Christian should be an example to follow. They should not allow themselves to become bad examples. While they will never be perfect examples of grace in action, they should be credible examples in all areas of what Jesus has done in their lives.

The enemies of the cross

Why did Paul want his readers to behave in such a way? He wanted them to live in humble, practical unity because of the danger posed by false teachers, those he describes as ‘enemies of the cross of Christ’. It is this description that reveals the importance of following the leaders of the church, because their role is to protect the church from false teachers. 

The false teachers that Paul has in mind are probably the Judaisers who nullified the offence of the cross by attempting to get the believers to adopt the Jewish ceremonial practices. They wanted their religion to be Jesus plus the ceremonial law in contrast to Paul whose religion was Jesus only. These Judaisers were not helping the cause of Jesus; in fact, they were recruiters for the enemy army.

Whether it was the Judaisers or not that Paul had in mind, the same description can be given of all other religious movements that teach a modified Jesus – they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. It is amazing how many different alternatives there are to the real Jesus.

Paul mentions four features of these false teachers: their destiny, which is destruction; their idol, which is their own satisfaction (a person uses his belly for what he enjoys); their boasting, which is their activities (which Paul says is actually what should shame them; so they were proud of what they should have been ashamed); their short-sightedness, which is that they cannot see beyond this life (they do not understand the glory of Jesus, the wonder of the resurrection of the saints, or the awfulness of divine judgement).

While these four aspects had their outworkings among the Judaizers, they also have similar consequences in all who reject the cross. Some find it too simple for their imagined intellectual powers, others find it too dismissive of their self-righteous living, others find it too impractical for a successful life and irrelevant because of its emphasis on the next world. Whatever the reactions, people become enemies of the cross.

The sorrow of the apostle

Yet we should note Paul’s attitude towards these false teachers. He opposed them wholeheartedly and consistently, but his opposition to them was marked by tears of sorrow. As he thought of them at the moment of his writing these words, he was crying. Were tears falling on the scroll? 

Why was he weeping? One reason could be the havoc that they were causing in the church, bringing great problems and confusion by their wrong teaching. Another reason for his tears was their destiny – eternal destruction. Paul could not think of the fate of his opponents without becoming distressed.

Paul’s response here reminds us of a prominent feature of his character, and that is that he was an emotional man. We are prone to think of Paul as an intellectual giant (and he was so) and as a strong-willed, determined person (and he was). Yet he was not a stoical, clinical person. His heart, his emotions were very strong, a fact that we can deduce from this letter itself by the number of times he refers to joy and rejoicing. And his emotions also showed themselves in another way, in his tears.

This incident as he wrote this letter is not the only reference to his tears.  In Acts 20, in his address to the elders of the church in Ephesus, he twice refers to the many tears that he shed during the three years he ministered there. In verse 19 he reminds them that he had served ‘the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews’; and in verse 31, as he thought about the savage wolves that were going to attack the sheep of Christ, he charges the elders: ‘Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.’

In 2 Corinthians 2:4, Paul explains to the church there why he had written previous correspondence: ‘For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you.’

In Romans 9:2, as he thinks about what has happened to his nation of Israel, he writes: ‘I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.’ 

And even in this letter, as he had been thinking about the recovery from illness of Epaphroditus, he writes in 2:27: ‘indeed he was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.’

We can ask the question, Where did Paul learn to weep? Before his conversion, he was an intellectual man and a resolute man, but he never showed any compassion to those he was persecuting. Now he was a different man, and the reason for the change in his life was his knowledge of Christ. The thirty years that he spent developing a relationship with Jesus had turned him into a man of sorrows – he had become like his Master who had wept over the perishing city of Jerusalem.

There is a challenge to us here. We have heard of the incident when McCheyne asked Andrew Bonar what text he had preached on the previous Sabbath. On being told it was a text on hell, McCheyne asked him if he had preached it with tears. 

William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. One day, several of his officers asked him how they could save the lost. Booth wrote a very short reply, ‘Try tears.’ 

When Monica, the mother of the famous theologian Augustine, went to Ambrose to speak about her son for whom she had prayed with many tears. He replied, ‘The child of many tears can never perish.’ Whether that is the case or not, his words remind us of the efficacy of tears. 

And Paul’s words here may give us a clue to the secret of his spiritual success. Spending time with Christ makes a believer like his Master, and he while living here was the man of sorrows.

The status of each Christian (v. 21)

Paul reminds the church that each of them belongs to the heavenly city of God. He uses a privilege that was given to the citizens of Philippi by the Roman Emperor as an illustration of the eminence of God’s people. The Roman Emperor decreed that the citizens of Philippi, who were not living in Rome, were also citizens of Rome and possessors of the same privileges as those who lived there. In a similar but far greater way, every Christian is a citizen of heaven even although those still on earth are not yet living in the city of God in a physical sense.

Although they were at a distance from the heavenly city, they still shared in its delights. I cannot say if the citizens of Philippi ever received anything from Rome, but I can say that the heavenly citizens on earth do get great blessings from heaven because they have a living link, the Holy Spirit, who conveys to them continually the delights of heaven. They taste of its joy, its peace, its atmosphere, and always have access to the Ruler of the city.

The citizens of Philippi had also to be ready to defend the Roman Empire. Their privileges demanded fulfilment of responsibilities. They could not befriend the enemies of Rome; such an action would be treason as well as an expression of strong ingratitude. Similarly, believers have a duty to defend the cause of the heavenly city, and one way of doing so was by refusing the influence of the false teachers. To listen to such was an act of spiritual treason.

The future of each Christian (v. 21)

Paul describes what is going to happen to believers on the great and longed-for day when Jesus returns. On that momentous occasion he is going to change their humiliated body (humiliated by sin, disease and death) into a body of glory (powerful and beautiful). This will be a great change obviously, but it will also be a gracious change because we will not deserve it. The destiny of believers is that they going to be like Jesus Christ, fully conformed to his likeness. What that entails cannot be detailed, but altogether it signifies glorification.

This is the fulfilment of the desire that Paul expressed a few verses earlier when he said that his aim was to participate in the resurrection from the dead. He was not looking for mere resuscitation in which he would re-appear similar to what he was like when he was in the prime of his life. Instead, his intention was be one of those who would be perfectly like Jesus Christ, and therefore he resolved to become more like him day by day in character. He run the race to heaven with this target in view.

This future experience would also be the climax to him knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection. In many ways, Paul would have received power from Jesus to help in the process of sanctification, but he knew that he would not experience this aspect of the power of Christ until the time of the resurrection. Whatever happened to Paul before then, for example, the way in which his life would end, would not prevent this great moment from arriving. His opponents could destroy his body, but they could not prevent Jesus from resurrecting it and glorifying Paul.

Yet Paul says more than the wonderful fact that he was going to have a glorious future personally. In addition, he says that Jesus has the power to subdue all things to himself. Paul knew that on that great day when he would experience transformation, he would also see the whole intelligent universe confess that Jesus Christ was Lord. All his enemies, including those who are mentioned in this passage, will declare the sovereignty of Jesus. This is probably why he calls Jesus ‘Lord’ in this verse.

It is not surprising that the early Christians were eagerly waiting for the arrival of the Saviour. While they knew that they would go to heaven when they died, they wanted more. They longed for glory, not merely the environment of glory, but the personal experience of transformation. And they also knew that would be the time when the One they loved would be publicly acknowledged as the universal Lord.