Philippians Chapter One

...highlights in the first chapter.

“Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.”

I think this is one of the most remarkable verses in the entire New Testament – especially when you contemplate Paul’s circumstances.

At the time of this letter, Paul had been a prisoner in Rome for almost two years.  Prior to that, he was incarcerated in Caesarea for two years.  And in between those two imprisonments, he was transported in chains from Caesarea to Rome, a journey that lasted at least six months.  So for four and a half years, Paul had been off the mission field.

How could he say that his circumstances had turned out for the greater progress of the gospel?

I think the answer to that question comes in understanding two things: God’s providence and God’s process.

GOD'S PROVIDENCE

“Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.”

Instead of just one courageous preacher – Paul – Rome now had a multitude of men and women fearlessly proclaiming their faith. God had providentially intervened in a bad situation and turned it into a victory.

In 2002, the Chinese police found and raided a pastoral training center. They arrested and beat all the pastors, eventually releasing all but 19-year-old Brother Lu. To frighten the local Christians into seclusion and subjection, they beat Lu in public 28 straight days until he died. Their plan failed. Within one month, over ten thousand Christians sent letters identifying themselves to the police. They now had the courage to declare their faith because of Brother Lu’s life and death. God had providentially intervened in a bad situation and turned it into a victory.

The doctrine of providence teaches that God is in complete charge of His universe; He governs all things, and nothing can thwart His plans.

“His dominion is an eternal dominion. He does as He pleases with the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: ‘What have You done?’”

Therefore, we are never in the grip of chance or fate. Each event in our life comes as a new summons to trust, obey, and rejoice, knowing that God works all things in conformity with the counsel of His will.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Providence does not teach that every event comes directly from the hand of God  – the enemy is certainly at work in this world.

However, God’s providence overrides the schemes of the enemy.  But we are not passive in the unfolding of God’s purpose. There are certain criteria we must meet. God expects us to believe, and to obey, and to act. To resign ourselves to ‘whatever will be, will be’ is irresponsible and unbiblical.

Paul was believing, obeying, and acting. But in the end, God accomplished His will in His way. And Paul could rejoice in his imprisonment and give thanks to God who does “whatever He pleases, in the heavens and on the earth.”

GOD'S PROCESS

Paul also understood that his experiences would make him a more effective minister. He understood God’s process – the method He uses to make us like Christ.

God’s process involves difficulties.

“But in every way we show we are servants of God: in accepting many hard things, in troubles, in difficulties, and in great problems.”

I have a university degree in Art. In order to get that degree, the University forced me to take a class in Ceramics. I resisted as long as I could, but eventually, in the interest of graduating, I succumbed. (It wasn’t as bad as I thought. I got a few Mother’s Day presents and at least one good illustration out of it.)

The first day of class, the teacher showed us how to prepare the clay. We selected a large double handful of clay from a bin and brought it to the preparation tables. He then told us to slice the clay on a taut wire suspended from the front of the table to an elevated board in the back. After slicing our clay, we were then to slam it as hard as we could on the table. We repeated the slice/slam procedure for the next ten minutes. Our clay was now (apparently) ready for molding.

I wondered why we had to beat the clay senseless before we could use it. The instructor explained that raw clay had many air bubbles in it, and if not removed (a la slice/slam) they would expand in the heat of the fire and shatter in the kiln.

Many times since then I have remembered the slice/slam exercise. What an appropriate metaphor for God’s process. Being sliced and slammed is no fun, but if it doesn’t happen, we will shatter when we are put in the fire.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

God’s process involves delay.

Paul had experienced God’s delay. When he wrote his letter to the Romans in 57 AD, he informed them that he planned to come to Rome on his way to Spain.  However, it was three long years before he finally arrived in Rome – in chains. But God’s delay always has a purpose.

Moses learned the same lesson.

He knew from an early age that God had called him to do something special.  When he turned forty, he determined it was time to get busy fulfilling his destiny. He “thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.”

Forty years later, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush near Mount Sinai.  Forty years later? Why did it take so long? What was God doing in Moses during that time? Why does God’s process take so long?

Time has a way of killing selfish ambition.

When it was finally God’s time for Moses, there wasn’t much fight left in him. There was not much ambition, either. All that was left was fear and self-doubt – and, apparently, a willingness to trust in God’s ability. He was now a perfect candidate for God’s task. Martin Luther once said,

“God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.”

CONCLUSION

Paul’s circumstances had turned out for the greater progress of the Gospel because God providently intervened to accomplish His purpose. God also used those circumstances to make Paul more like Christ. Now, because of Paul’s example, we can also say, “My circumstances will turn out for the greater progress of the gospel.

That is a great comfort to me.