Your word is a self-attesting divine revelation. Your whole authority stands behind your word, and yet we acknowledge that though there is no problem with the authority and clarity of your word, the problem is with our minds and hearts as they are affected by sin. So we pray with the psalmist, “Open our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Help us overcome our native ignorance, indifference, prejudice, rebellion, and all the other carnal attitudes which we would naturally bring to your word, and give us hearts that respond in faith and love to all that you have said.
Philippians 4:1 “Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.”
A pastor once asked me, “You preach four times a week. How do you manage to produce sermons?” I said my sermon production factory follows a three-step process: M.R.D.—Meditate, Read, Depend.
I meditate on the verse a lot. I carefully read and reread it multiple times to take in all the minute details, and then I keep mumbling and meditating, going and coming through the week’s situations. Initially, you may not understand, but slowly your understanding will grow. Part of meditation is exegesis—this is major work. The first step is to ask the five W questions: Who, whom, what, why, where. Who is writing and to whom? What is the writer saying? What is the key message—is it a command, a promise, or an encouragement? Why is he saying this, and from where and to where?
Within these questions, you apply the L.A.C. principle: What is the literary style or genre? Is it history, poetic, prose, or prophetic? For grammar, you look at the meaning of individual words, the syntax arrangement of words, and how they are connected to one another. Sometimes, you may refer to lexicons of the original languages. Context covers the five Ws—historical, cultural, social, and the passage context. Finally, for A, you ask, “How does this compare with other portions of scripture?”
Lastly, what are the applications? This is a lot of work and very difficult: How can we make it relevant to our lives today? How can the passage challenge or encourage us to live differently? All of this I put under meditation—my efforts to grasp the text. By this, you will get most things in place.
Then comes the second step, R—a lot of reading of good commentaries and sermons on the passage. This will always enrich your message. When you struggle to express some thoughts, commentaries and other sermons will help you. Then, finally, and very importantly, D—I depend on the Holy Spirit to help me not only grasp the meaning but also to make my heart aflame. Without this last step, the sermon will be dull. So, that is M.R.D. Or, if it helps you, you can remember M.R.I.—Meditate, Read, Influence of the Holy Spirit. Just as you use an M.R.I. to find out the depth of a physical body, you can do a spiritual M.R.I. to find out the depth of a scripture verse.
Let me show you how I do this with this verse. Paul starts with a connection—”therefore.” He then addresses the Philippians with five words, which speaks of Paul’s care and deep love for them: “my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown.” Then, in that warm love, he gives a key command: “So stand fast in the Lord, beloved.”
So we will grasp this verse with three headings—the 3 Cs: Connection, Care and Deep Love, and Command. As I explain, you will see how each heading developed because I did the M.R.D. process: Meditated, Read, and Depended on the Holy Spirit.
First, Connection: Philippians 4:1 should have actually been the last verse of chapter 3. We have to understand that the chapter and verse divisions were not an inspired word of God. When Paul wrote this letter, he did not write it with chapters and verses; he wrote it continuously as one epistle. Later, men added these chapters and verses, putting them where they thought the divisions were best. We should be very grateful, as these divisions are a very helpful and easy way of locating the various passages. Imagine otherwise, I would have to tell you, “Bible, page 1671, 17th line,” and your Bible page number might be different, causing much confusion. So they are very helpful, but in a few places, the divisions are not correct, like with this verse.
Now, why do I say that? You will notice verse 1 begins with the word “therefore,” and that word is a connective word. It is the final, important, practical application of all that Paul said in chapter 3. The key command of the verse is “stand firm.” How to stand firm? He says, “so” or “in this way,” which is all connected to the manner Paul explained in chapter 3 through his own testimony. So the first verse of chapter 4 is actually an application of all that Paul said in chapter 3 and even chapter 2.
It is my duty again to briefly remind you of the flow of the epistle. This is an epistle of joy. From chapters 1 and 2, Paul has been teaching that we will experience increasing joy if we abide in our union with Jesus Christ. Paul’s great concern is that he wants us to grow in our rejoicing in the Lord, just as he is rejoicing even during difficult times in prison. So he tells us to follow him in rejoicing. But there are two dangerous poisons in the Christian life that will erode our ability to rejoice in the Lord and destroy any Christian joy. This is why millions of Christians are not happy today, and some of you are not happy Christians because one of these two poisons has infected you.
One poison is what seems to be a very devotional, committed Christianity with strict man-made rules and no joy. This is the poison of legalism. It came in the form of Judaizers who did not know what it meant to rejoice in the Lord. All their rejoicing was in their confidence in the flesh: what they did, their credentials, their own personal devotions, attainments, morality, or religious privileges and good works. On the opposite side, the other poison that will destroy divine joy is antinomianism—people who live only for bodily pleasures. Their joy exists only when they have bodily pleasures, like animals; they do not know anything higher. If they have no money or if there is a trial or difficulty, all their joy evaporates like smoke. Their god is their belly, they mind the things of the world, and they are enemies of the cross; their end is destruction.
Then Paul contrasted this by saying that a true Christian’s citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body so that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. So Paul warns about these two poisons that destroy our joy and tells us to follow him as he is pursuing to become more like Christ. Paul links this verse to all he said previously. Because we are following Paul, our life’s goal is to become more like Christ, and because we have such a glorious, triumphant hope for when Christ comes, therefore, we should stand firm.
The natural sequel of such a hope is steadfastness. The Christian life should not be lived joylessly, following legalistic rules and the whips of a conscience, nor with an antinomian liberty of living only for worldly and bodily desires. Rather, it should be lived in the divine joy that comes from such a hope. Hope and joy are animating motives which make sacrifices easy, burdens light, and turn labor into delight.
Because hope in Jesus’s coming makes us realize that our sacrifices, labor, and service are not in vain. A person who has such a hope will be steadfastly serving the Lord more and more with cheery hearts, and with full assurance that what they are doing will have a great result. So you see the connection. It is a natural connection—just as any small soldier or army facing much opposition will stand firm when they know their emperor is coming with a vast army, they know they will surely win, whatever the opposition.
Hope makes us stand firm. You see this same connection in 1 Corinthians 15, a great chapter about the resurrection. Look at his conclusion in verse 58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
This also teaches that steadfastness—always abounding in the work of the Lord—is the only evidence of true hope. People can say, “I believe Christ is coming, I am going to heaven,” but if you do not have steadfastness in serving the Lord and growing in that, you show you are lying and do not have true biblical hope. So we see that as a grand conclusion to all Paul has said so far, the key message of verse 1 is to stand firm.
So we see the connection in the first word. Secondly, we notice Paul’s care and deep love.
He talks about the Philippians in a very unique way, not to be found anywhere else in the New Testament or in any of his other letters to any other church. Such an accumulation of tender expressions brought together in such a density of descriptive words in one short verse can never be found in the entire Bible. It is a diverse combination of five different terms. It is full of gushy, bubbling emotions. Notice: “my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown.” Then he ends the verse as a capstone, by repeating the term “beloved.”
What is he doing? Is he using these as filler words, like some people praying say, “Father God… Lord Jesus… Father, Lord…” just so they have time to think what to say next? Some people even use “uh” while talking while they are thinking. “Uh… my idea is… uh… I would do this…” while waiting for the next thought to come. Is Paul doing that with these words? No, the apostle was using these terms purposefully. Even when he used them repeatedly, they were never used thoughtlessly or carelessly. Every time he used them, he felt that bond between them.
I think he is explaining three thoughts in these five words: his relationship, his affection, and his estimation. First of all, he is demonstrating his own relationship with the Philippians. How are Paul and the Philippians related? “You are my brethren.” This is not a common word like “bro,” but a family word used among intimate family members. Paul could have called them “children” because God used Paul’s ministry to give them new birth. However, he does not use his apostolic authority, but instead identifies himself as one of their brothers, a family member. Though they are from diverse backgrounds—remember, Paul was a Jew and even a Pharisee with a heart full of national prejudice, hating Gentiles, who were not fit to be called humans but were seen as unclean dogs—now, through the gospel, these people from diverse backgrounds and religions have become one family of the living God. They are united to Christ, indwelt by the very life of God, they all have the seed of the Holy Spirit inside them, they have been adopted into the family of God, and they are constituted as brethren in Christ. Paul is celebrating the grace of God and how these raw pagans, who were worshiping idols in a place farthest from Israel (one was a demon-possessed girl and another was an idolatrous jailer), are now his brothers. He emphasizes his relationship with the Philippians and does it repeatedly in this epistle. You can take it as homework and tell me how many times he calls them brethren in this epistle. Let us see who passes that test.
The second word demonstrates Paul’s affection for the Philippians. What kind of brethren? “Beloved and longed-for brethren.” The first word, “beloved,” is often misused by preachers who say it without feeling or meaning, just to address the crowd. The term has lost some of its biblical impact on us.
Do you know this word first came to us in the New Testament not from a man on earth but from the mouth of God from heaven? When the Lord Jesus Christ came out of the baptism water, in Matthew 3:17, a voice came out of heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Now try to think for a moment about the inter-Trinitarian relationship. What must be the measure and quality of the love God has for his only Son? That is the word used here: “beloved.” Because of Christ’s work on us, we are united to Christ, and we are seen with infinite love by the Father as He sees Christ now. Do you know that? Because of my defilement and depraved heart, I may not feel God’s love, or I may feel a strangeness in my heart because I’m busy with worldly activities. But when I go to God daily in the morning, offer my burnt offering, and put my full trust in Christ, God sees us in His Son as “well beloved.”
Here, Paul, as a representative of God, feels the depth of God’s love for the Philippians and calls them “well beloved.”
Notice the next word that talks about his affection: “longed-for brethren.” This is the only place in the New Testament where this particular descriptive adjective occurs. Chapter 1:8 gives us a clue to the meaning of this word as he uses it as a verb: “For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.”
This is the word used in Matthew when Jesus had compassion on the crowds, with His whole viscera melting from the depths of His inner being. The force of God’s love was so intense that it flowed through even Jesus’s body, and He felt His intestines melting. Paul feels that same longing here. He yearned after the Philippians with a yearning that was produced by Christ’s love for His people. Paul takes that verb and changes it into an adjective form that now describes the Philippians as his “longed-for brethren.”
It’s like how a baby longs for its mother and its mother’s milk. Have you seen a baby screaming and then, when given milk, drinking it so hurriedly and breathlessly? It’s what a soldier feels when he gets married to a loving wife and has to go to war. With bombs bursting around the camp, he takes out his purse from a hiding hole and sees the picture of his beautiful wife and his three little ones. How he longs to come back and hug his wife and children. I had this feeling when I traveled to the US for a few months while Prasilla was three months pregnant. The first month was full of excitement, but from the next month onwards, I became homesick. I was yearning to come back. When I ate the same bread, cornflakes, and banana daily, I longed to eat my wife’s breakfast: dosa, omelette, vada, puri, flower idli, pongal, payasam. So Paul’s heart yearned for the Philippians like that.
It is what a wife feels when a husband is away on a long journey. Nothing just seems to be quite right. And everywhere she turns, she is reminded of him and of his absence. And there grows within her breast a longing for him and his return. I heard Prasilla had almost become a psychological patient, always thinking of me, dull, not eating properly, and not taking care of herself. I could call my wife, or she could call me, “my longed-for husband/wife.” Paul here is unashamedly acknowledging to the Philippians something of the depth and the breadth of his own affection for them. “Beloved” and “longed-for”—these two are inseparably connected. When your heart is full of love, it will inevitably long for that object. So this shows his affection.
Thirdly, the last two words show his estimation of them: “my joy and my crown.”
You see the progression? Relationship, Affection, Estimation. He describes them as his joy and his crown. They are his joy, an inward delight, pleasure, and gladness he feels when he thinks of them. It’s perhaps better described by its opposite: it’s the opposite of grief and pain. When we think of some people, they only bring grief. None of their memories bring joy. When he thought of the Corinthian church, despite all the effort he put into serving them, their lack of commitment to the gospel brought him grief. But not the Philippians. Whenever he thought of the Philippians, his heart danced within him. Their commitment to Christ and the church, and how they respected his ministry, efforts, and sacrifices, caused his heart to leap for joy. They were his joy. Remember he was in very difficult circumstances, in chains, many churches had forsaken him, and many Roman churches were causing him trouble. In the midst of all that, he found his joy in his flock. “You’re my joy,” he said.
But then he says they were his crown. In the New Testament, there are two basic words used for crown. One is diadem, a royal crown a king would wear. The word used here is different; it means a wreath, a laurel, a victory symbol given to an athlete who won a contest. Paul uses that in 1 Corinthians 9:25 when he speaks of people who strive in an athletic contest to obtain a corruptible crown. It’s that kind of crown—a crown of victory.
In what sense could Paul describe the Philippians as his crown of victory? Because for all the efforts he put in for the Philippians, seeing their commitment, growth, obedience, and witness for the gospel, he values them as his crown of victory. See Philippians 2:12-16: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”
He calls them his “crown”—the verb is in the present tense here. Even in prison, “I am wearing a crown. I am crowned.” If someone were to come to him and say, “Paul, you have lost everything and served the church and Christ. What have you achieved with all your efforts and sacrifices? What use are all those efforts, Paul, all that sweat and those tired, sore muscles?” Paul would say, “I am crowned with victory.” The person might reply, “Where, Paul? I only see chains. You are imprisoned.” Paul would say, “Go to Philippi, and you will see my achievement. These Philippians are my crown. You are my present crown, the reward of my years of labor, sacrifices, and ministry. You are my achievement, my victory crown. You are the proof of my effective service. You are the reward that says this has been an effective life.” The affirmation of any person’s life is those people that God has used him or her to touch.
You, a group of people from every ethnic, religious, and cultural background, are bound together in a bond of faith in Jesus Christ, standing against the tremendous pressure of Roman paganism in thought and lifestyle. You are fully committed to the church, living lives worthy of the gospel as lights, doing all things without murmuring and disputing in a crooked and perverse generation. You are the monument of my true success as a minister. Just as parents boast about their children when they achieve something and live great lives, making their parents proud (“See my child! My pride, my crown, my strength!”), Paul’s joy was in this church and the spiritual progress they were making.
They were not only his crown now, but in the future, when Christ comes, he will receive a crown of victory because of them. Caesar may wear his crown and stand as a royal emperor ruling the whole Roman kingdom, but he is a pathetic, empty man. He will soon die as an empty man, and his crown will fade. “But I may be sitting in jail, looking like a beggar. I am wearing a royal crown now and will wear an eternal crown when Christ comes. What is the guarantee? You are the sign of that. Your commitment and life are the cause for that.”
So I hope you can see these are not just empty fillers. In these words, Paul is showing his relationship, his affection, and his estimation of the Philippians. Why does he say all this? So that they may stir themselves and give earnest, utmost attention to the command he now gives. Look at the key command in the verse.
Verse 1: “Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.”
This is going to be the key command, not only as the conclusion of the epistle but as the key command in this entire chapter: Christian stability. Oh, how much we need it. Can I tell you that all our problems as individual Christians and as a church can be summed up because we are an unstable people and an unstable church? There is no stability. Let us learn about Christian stability from Paul.
There are three aspects to this command: the central command, “stand fast”; the manner, the little word “so,” which means “in the same way”; and the strength by which we realize this stability, “in the Lord.”
Stand Fast
First, “Stand Fast.” It’s an imperative command and a military word, which means to stand your ground and stand your post in the midst of a battle. It means to hold your position while under attack. The idea is to stand against antagonistic forces. Standing is by no means an easy thing when we face attacks on every side. Think of the different attacks in a Christian life. Many things will conspire to draw you away from standing in Christ. The world, with its vanities on the one hand and its worries on the other, will assault you continually. Practically, think of the daily, tiny, continuously acting forces of daily life—duties, occupations, and distractions of various kinds—which tend to move us imperceptibly away, as if by the slow sliding of snow, from the hope of the Gospel. There is nothing as strong as a gentle, constantly applied pressure, like waves, that gently and slowly change the shape of rocks and move big rocks and even mountains. It is far stronger than a sudden impact. The little things that are always at work upon us are the things that have the most power to sweep us away from our steadfastness in Jesus Christ.
The flesh will also operate to bring you into subjection to all its basest lusts. We read about confidence in fleshly religion and how subtle it is. In Philippians 3:3, if we are not rejoicing in Jesus Christ and worshiping God in spirit, we will slide unknowingly into a confidence in fleshly religion. There is in us a continual proneness to self-confidence and self-dependence. We are always ready to lean on our own understanding to guide us, our own righteousness to justify us, and our own strength to preserve us. It is a great matter to have the soul brought to a simple reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. But we must live entirely by faith in Christ.
Think of the weakness of the flesh, the ups and downs of our own nature, the fluctuations of a fallen human heart, where faith seems to ebb and falter and love to die down almost into cold ashes. How soon we lose patience, get angry, and get carried away by even the slightest wind. Oh, how unstable we are! One moment we are so joyful in the Lord, and the next moment we act in the flesh over the simplest things in life. While we will always be liable to these fluctuations of feeling, it is possible for us to have, deep down below them, a central core of our personality in which unchanging continuity may abide. The depths of the ocean know nothing of the tides on the surface. There is constant stability. We can have in our inmost hearts steadfastness and immovableness, even though the surface may be ruffled. Do not allow your deepest heart to be disturbed. “Stand fast in the Lord.”
Nor will Satan be idle. He, with all his confederate hosts, will strive by innumerable wiles and temptations, either to teach us wrong principles, poison us with legalism or antinomianism, or to spoil our practice.
So you must expect all manner of conflicts. One goal of all these attacks in life is to stop you from standing fast in Christ. You must stand firm against all these forces. Determine in life that neither life’s joys nor sorrows, trials, fears, or situations must be allowed to separate you from standing in Christ. So the central command is to stand firm.
Manner and Strength
The manner: “Stand fast.” “In what way, Paul?” The little word “so” means “thus” or “in this way.” The NKJV has “so,” the NIV, “in this way” or “in this manner.” That unlocks everything. In the way that I’ve outlined for you in chapter 3, stand fast by trusting in Christ’s righteousness alone for your acceptance and for God’s love. Don’t add anything of your confidence in the flesh. Bask in the joy of justification. You are perfectly loved and accepted by God only because of Christ’s righteousness. It is not because of your devotion or your own righteousness that comes from keeping the law, but because of Christ and what he did on the cross for you. Always exercise your faith and put your full weight on that. You will always experience joy, no matter what your situation is. Stand firm in that. It is so very important to grasp, people. Justification is the fuel that drives the vehicle of sanctification. Naturally, we stray away from God so easily. We become strange and don’t feel like coming back or feeling his closeness. What do I do? I offer a burnt offering, not for any particular sins, but as a sacrifice for the whole defilement and depravity of my being, and I feel God’s love and acceptance as perfectly righteous before God because of Christ’s work.
When standing fast in Him, you are tempted to say, “Well, if I have a perfect righteousness in Christ, I can boast and relax. It doesn’t matter how I live. I can sin.” No, I have told you, if you are so fully justified and adopted as children of God, you should pursue sanctification. You should pursue like me to know the power of his righteousness to overcome temptations and sins, to live a victorious Christian life. You should know the fellowship of his suffering, so you may attain the righteousness of the dead. I do not count myself to have laid hold, but “This one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, I press toward the mark of the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Follow me in the pursuit of perfection, the pursuit of Christlikeness. Grow in the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ. I have told you, if you are citizens of heaven, if you have that hope that when he comes, he will transform your lowly body into his body of glory, then don’t live like people whose god is their belly. Seek the things that are above. Oh, Philippians, stand fast in the Lord in this manner. “Beware of dogs,” avoid any doctrine, any person, or any act that lessens your practical dependence upon Christ, weakens your desire to be like Christ, or darkens our hope of ultimate, total conformity to Christ.
The strength: “It is not easy, pastor. Steadfast consistency is my Christian life struggle for 20 to 30 years. I am so discouraged. One moment I am strong, the next I keep drifting away.” Your problem is you have never practically learned that small phrase that brings all strength in the Christian life. Notice what Paul says: “Stand fast, not in your own strength, not in external religious tradition, but stand fast in the Lord.” Oh, what a small, important phrase, “in the Lord,” in your union with Christ. Don’t be budged from the present, conscious, constant realization that you are in Christ, you are united to Christ, and you are perfectly righteous in him. The strength for this steadfastness comes from abiding in the Lord. The ground on which a person stands has a great deal to do with the firmness of his footing. You cannot stand fast on a beach where waves continuously drag the sand.
“In the Lord” is the character of every believer. He is united with Christ by faith and is grafted into him as a branch of the living vine. The main thought of it is that of continuous steadfastness in our union with Jesus Christ. It is only in proportion as we keep ourselves in union with Christ, in heart and mind, that we shall stand steadfast. The lightest substances may be made stable if they are glued onto something stable. You can stick a thin stick to a rock, and it will stand strong.
So it is only on the condition of our keeping ourselves in Jesus Christ that we are able to keep ourselves steadfast and to present a front of resistance that does not yield one foot, either to imperceptible continuous pressure, to sudden assaults, or to the fluctuations of our own changeable dispositions and temperaments.
“Stand fast” is Paul’s version of our blessed Lord’s beautiful words in John 15, “Abide in me.” Our Lord warns us against the danger of separation from him. “You will bear much fruit only by this; without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” We can stand fast only in union with Christ. He has all fullness of blessings treasured up in him for our use. “He is made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;” and from him we must receive them all.
Barnabas saw the infantile church at Antioch. If you want to grow in grace, he had only one thing to say, a beautiful phrase. Acts 11:23: “with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord.” This is absolutely necessary for Christian growth.
Steadfast continuance of personal union with Jesus Christ, extending through all the faculties of our nature and into every corner of our lives, is the sum of Christian duty.
You have to stand fast in the Lord. Whatever temptations may come to us, whatever trials may beset us, whatever disappointments may crash in upon us, whatever heresies may seek to plague us, if there is one word that is the distillation of all our biblical duty, here it is: “stand fast in the Lord.”
Two Applications
First application: Introspection from Paul’s care and love for the Philippian church. Do you see what a beautiful relationship there is between a pastor and a church? As I look at Paul again, I am so ashamed of my relationship to you as my church. Do I have this kind of relationship as a family member? Do I have the affection of “beloved and longed-for”? Do I have the estimation of “my joy and my crown”? To an extent, but it’s so far from his. That comparison challenges me and makes me feel a deep need to change.
As a church, yes, there is so much grace among us, but we should never be satisfied. We have to grow so much more as a church. Can I ask you to look at the Philippian church and compare ourselves with it? Take it as a challenge, feel it deeply, and be encouraged to change.
I had an opportunity to preach at Pastor Kannan’s church last week. More than they learning from me, I think I learned a lot from that church. As a pastor, Pastor Kannan looks so simple and humble. His church attendance is large, over 600 people. I understand why God blessed his ministry. The man is completely down to earth, so loving and caring. As a pastor, he is so committed to the church, sleeping only four to five hours a day, serving the church 24/7 with joy. His family fully supports him. We enjoyed their hospitality. The church is so organized; one person does this, and another does that. In a way, the whole church ministered to us and encouraged us. It was so beautiful and so warm. We felt a relationship, affection, and value among them. I felt like settling there; it left me with a longing to go back.
Yes, we are a growing church, but we can’t just be in a small, narrow box and think we are so great or that we have a big, sacrificial ministry. I was challenged and encouraged and learned a lot of lessons.
Can I ask, when someone comes to our church, do they feel a relationship, affection, and value? I have to ask all of us whether we know something about the love that Paul had for the people of God. We gather today as a group of people who are not a business, or a social club, or a political movement, but the Spirit-indwelt family of God. You know what a mature church is? It’s not about how great the preaching is. It’s a church of zealous, friendly, humble, and thoughtful people. They can approach anyone without any hesitation or timidity, and they sit and talk with all the people. I’m talking about those church members who know everyone and are interested in them, who greet all the members, young and old, and have time for everyone. They have that gift of making all they meet in the congregation feel loved. It’s a church that makes everyone feel they have a relationship, affection, and value here.
Oh, we are so far from that. All of this is because of pride and selfishness. We come here and only gather with groups we know and talk to people we know. We are so filled with our own plans, our own lives, and our own work that we have no time to serve others—including me. Do we realize our Lord warned that if we slight one of these little ones and cause a stumbling block, there will be terrible punishment for them? We sin by ignoring, snubbing, or cold-shouldering them. These are our eternal brothers, the ones we are to love and long for, our joy and our crown.
Do we realize that when the Bible gives the command “let us not love in word only, but in deeds and truth,” it is our duty to show our love in acts of service, by giving them our time, by sacrifice, and by serving whatever needs our brothers have? Frankly, I see very little of that in our church. Think this year: what deeds of service have you done for other members in our church in the last year? What is your service to the body of Christ? Small things show how we can love. John says if we say we love God whom we cannot see but don’t love our brothers and sisters whom we see, we are liars.
Again, when the Bible says “let us not love in words only,” we might think we shouldn’t show our love with words at all. That is wrong. It only says not to stop with words, but we must show love with words, too. That is what Paul is doing. Sad to say, we don’t even do that. We don’t speak a few good, loving words. Paul expressed his love in all kinds of words. Do we do that with one another? I don’t feel that love, at least in words, among us. When someone has done something good, they are worthy of such expressions as “beloved and longed-for.” How are they going to know they are loved and longed for unless you tell them?
As members, if I don’t express my love and appreciation, how will you know my love? How many of you encourage me, just with words? Very, very few. You may want to think, “Oh, if we appreciate his ministry too much, he may become proud.” That’s absolute nonsense. When people appreciate me, I don’t go home proud as a peacock. It always humbles me—that God uses my weak words to touch hearts—and it encourages me to do more. It helps me to be faithful in the preaching of the word of God as long as I have breath. When no one appreciates and responds, not even with a verbal “Thank you, pastor, for the message,” it brings great discouragement. Do you see the atrocity you do? Some churches have a practice of thanking the pastor by shaking hands after the service, saying, “Thank you for the message.” We should make that a rule here. Oh, how long! Come out of sinful timidity. Let us all learn from Paul how to show love even in words.
This verse tells us that as a church, we should seek to be a people who will be a joy and crown of victory to our pastors. As a church, you have a responsibility to become a loving church like the Philippian church, to be the kind of congregation that makes it easy for your leaders to love you and to long for you. The Philippians were a model church; they obeyed and submitted to him. He could say in chapter four that of all the churches, “you alone had fellowship with me in the proclamation of the gospel from the first.” He calls them his joy, crown, and longed-for ones. Paul could never say these words to the Corinthian church; they brought him grief. They were unappreciative, ungrateful, and even questioned his apostleship.
Showing love in words is so important. Isn’t this also a problem in families? Not expressing love in words. Wives do so much work in the house, and some even go out and earn. Husbands work so hard to provide for the family. When you talk to wives privately, you find out the problem. The wife yearns, with tears, that her main problem is that her husband would just respect her and show his affection with some kind words. He never speaks kindly, always using rude words with impatience. The husband would say, “Don’t I prove my love by working hard and providing for the family?” Yes, they respect all that, but there’s a need that only words can meet. She wants to hear the words, “Dear, I love you. I have affection and I value you in my life. The reason I work so hard is that I want to provide for your needs. I want you to know the thing that keeps me going is my love for you.” Isn’t that right, ladies? It’s not enough that your husband gives dutiful, sacramental deeds. Don’t you long for appropriate words of love? Men, ladies yearn for that. We respect them, show our love, notice their dress, appreciate them, and value them. Or are you ladies made differently? Amens from the ladies?
In some cases, the opposite is true. The wife never says anything good about her husband, always talking about his faults. He yearns for her appreciation and value. The same is true with kids. When there is no relationship, no affection, and no value, 50% of problems in marriages would be solved if we learned to verbalize our love.
The second application is the command: “Stand firm.” We will study this more. I am very concerned that our church is an unstable church—unpredictable and with poor commitment. It is not a church that grows steadily and firmly, but is always trying to patch itself up, to fix itself, and to solve its almost inestimable number of problems.
We have excuses: “We have reasons, responsibilities, and family problems.” We don’t realize we have to live a committed, steadfast Christian life in the midst of all this. There will be attacks from the world, the flesh, Satan, false teachings, problems in marriages and in our families, struggles, and dilemmas. We are always under assault.
We have to stand fast. It means to hold your position while under attack. Stand firmly no matter what comes. You don’t crumble under persecution and troubles. You don’t crumble under testing and complain. You don’t crumble under temptation and sin. You stand firm, spiritually stable.
May I remind you again that this is a command? And may I remind you that we have somehow softened our view of God so that commands don’t seem like commands anymore? This is a command from the living God through His Holy Spirit by means of the apostle Paul. God says, “I want you to stand firm.” This is a command. It grieves my heart that we don’t take commands seriously.
Can we somehow regrip the reality that our sovereign God is commanding us in the imperative of verse 1 to stand firm? And in the command is the inherent capability to obey the command, which, of course, is supplied by God’s Spirit, who is able to make us stand. This is a command. And all I want to do this morning is plant that command in your mind. It comes from God. He demands it. It comes from our holy, almighty, sovereign, and glorious God.
“Stand firm.” The answer is not to try to do something, but to get a firmer grip on the life of Jesus Christ, who is intent on doing it in us. This is so important. The entire New Testament emphasizes this. Our Lord warned about instability repeatedly and was concerned about stability. Peter, John, and James all talk about the importance of stability. So, in the next few verses, Paul is going to teach us practical principles for how to be spiritually stable.
For those of you who have not come to Christ, Paul calls believers in Christ “my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, beloved.”
If Paul had to call you, the unbelievers, it would be the opposite: not “my beloved” but “my enemies”; not “longed-for brethren” but “most hated people”; not “my joy and crown” but “most cursed people.” You can never stand firm; you are slipping into hell. In your present state, one slip and you will fall into eternal hell. May God make you realize your natural state and make you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 