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1. What were the two different motives of those who preached Christ? (15-17) What was Paul’s response to them? (18) What was the important thing for Paul? 2. What is the secret of Paul’s joy? (18b) What is his personal faith in the midst of hardships of life? (19) What does it mean that what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance? (Rom 5:3-4) 3. What was Paul’s eager expectation and hope? (20) Why is it so important for him, even more than life or death? (21) What can we learn from Paul about the motive and purpose of our life? (Gal 2:20; Phil 3:10) 4. What was Paul’s inner conflict, and how did he resolve it? (22-26) Why did he want to remain in the body? What can we learn from him about the shepherd heart? 5. What was Paul’s exhortation for the Christians? (27) What does it mean to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ? (27b-30) Why is it important to live such a life in this generation?

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Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. But we cannot not see any hint of sorrow or self-pity in his letter. Instead, he was full of joy and encouraged the believers to participate in his joy. So this letter is called, “Epistle of Joy.” Usually, Paul wrote letter to churches full of problems in order to help them to resolve the problems. But this letter was different. He wrote it to express his thanks to the believers in Philippian church for their mature faith and financial support. So this letter is full of Paul’s personal testimonies and his inner spiritual struggles. May God bless us to learn Paul’s deep spiritual struggles so that we may grow as mature Christians. In this passage, may God help us to learn Paul’s secret of joy and eager hope and desire in his heart. 1. Paul’s Secret of Joy (15-18) When Paul wrote this letter, he was placed under house arrest to await trial. If he had been a worldly man he might have thought that his imprisonment was a great misfortune. Instead, he saw this situation as his opportunity to preach the gospel in Rome. Paul preached the gospel to the palace guards, until the whole palace guard was evangelized. When Paul was put into prison, there were two kinds of reactions among Christian brothers. Look at verse 15. “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.” Believers were encourage by Paul’s undaunted spirit, and spoke the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. They did in love for Paul. They worked hard because they loved Jesus and loved Paul. But there were some people who were jealous of Paul. They saw Paul’s imprisonment as an opportunity to beat him. So they worked hard. They did it out of selfish ambition. They hoped that they could stir up trouble for Paul while he was in chains. If Paul was humanly ambitious, he would be shocked by those who opposed him. Paul would be greatly troubled and possibly get heart-attack. But what does Paul say? Look at verse 18, “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.” Contrary of what they expected, Paul rejoiced after hearing all these news. He was rejoicing because Christ was preached in every way, whether from false motives or true. He could rejoice in such a situation because his life was Christ-centered, and he had a single point –Preach the gospel to the world. When Paul lived a Christ-centered life, he did not engage in human struggle. He lived in a different dimension of life. He was not affected by the troubles of the world. He had a joy like undercurrent of the sea, which is not affected by turmoil of it’s surface. His mind was huge in scale, like that of Christ. After meeting Jesus personally, Paul received the mission from Jesus to evangelize the Gentile world through the gospel of Christ. Since then, the whole world became his territory. Once he experienced great work of God in Ephesus. When he focused on disciple-making ministry in the lecture hall of Tyrenus, the great spiritual revival came to the city. Idol worshipers brought their scrolls and burn. It was worth 8 million dollars. But he did not stay there to build a mega church. He said, “I must visit Rome also.” At that time, Rome was the center of the Gentile world. After experiencing the great work of God by the power of the gospel, he saw the vision of world evangelism through Rome. Even though we left our own country and live in this Gentile world, we can still be narrow-minded when we do not have Jesus in our hearts. But when we have Jesus in our hearts, we can overcome our own limitations and boundaries and live a world-scale life of mission. Just visiting two days in Chicago, leaving Toronto, I felt that the world is big, and Jesus is working mightily throughout the world. I pray that we may frequently have chance to travel outside of Toronto and Canada and enlarge our heart and mind. We may overcome small troubles in our life and engage in the work of God with the scale of Christ. Let’s read verse 18. “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,” Here we learn the secret of joy from Paul. We can rejoice in any circumstance when our life is centered on Christ. As we know well, JOY stands for “Christ first, Others second, and Yourself last.” According to Dr. Paul Hong, one’s lifetime can be divided into 3 periods. First period is the young age when we must be faithful. Our young generation must be faithful in your study and in your spiritual discipline. Second period is the middle age when we must be humble in success. Third period is the old age when we must be joyful always. Paul was now in his old age, and he was in prison. He could feel sorry to God when he had to suffer in prison after giving his whole life to the gospel ministry. He could feel a sense of loss. He could be discouraged when he heard that some brothers worked hard out of selfish ambition. But that was not the case for Paul. He was full of joy and he determined to be a joyful old man, not a cranky one, no matter what happens in his life. When we are filled with Christ, we are filled with joy. When our hearts are sad or discouraged by any reason, we must examine our hearts before God. We repent and welcome Jesus in our hearts. When Christ enthrones our heart and life, our joy is restored. Look at verse 19, “for I know that through your prayer and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.” This verse tells us another secret of Paul’s joy. Here, “deliverance” has the same meaning with “salvation.” Salvation is consisted of three components – justification, sanctification, and glorification. We are born again when we are justified through faith in the blood of Jesus. When we die, we will be glorified with the resurrection body. But during our life on earth, we must work out our salvation through sanctification. Paul rejoiced because he knew that his sufferings would be a wonderful tool for sanctification to make us grow in the image of Christ. So he said in Rom 5:3-4. “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” When we know the meaning of sufferings, we can rejoice even in the midst of sufferings. 2. Paul’s Eager Hope (19-21) Let’s read verses 20 and 21. “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” In these verses, Paul shared his deepest desire and eager hope with the Philippian Christians. Even though he was in prison, his eager hope was not freedom from the prison. It was to exalt Christ in his body, whether by life or death. He was indeed a free man because of his eager hope to exalt Christ in his body. We wonder how he could have such a holy desire, while man’s desire for exalting himself is so strong. Especially men’s desire is stronger than that of women. In order to have a such desire, we must know who Jesus is. When Paul did not know Jesus personally, he thought he was a great man. He said in Philip 3:4-6. “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” He boasted his human conditions and lived for his own glory and honor. But on the way to Damascus to arrest Christians there, he met Jesus personally. Since then, his life direction was completely changed. His single desire was to know Christ. He said in Phil 3:10. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” As we studied Colossians, his knowledge and understanding of Jesus was outstanding. The more he knew Jesus personally, the more he was overwhelmed by the greatness of Christ.. Finally, Christ became everything to him. Like the hymn song says, “He is my King, he is my song, he is my life, and he is my joy. He is my strength, he is my sword, he is my peace, and he is my Lord.” Paul was willing to lose everything else, even his own life, in order to gain Christ. In verse 21, Paul confessed, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” So like Paul, we must know Jesus personally through deep Bible study. When we prayerfully study the Bible, we can meet Jesus personally. All God’s promises point to him, and he fulfills them all. When we come to know who Jesus truly is, God changes our desires and purpose of our life. We come to eagerly expect and hope to exalt Christ in our body like Paul, whether life or death. Paul said in Gal 2:6, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” When we meet Christ personally, we die to our sins and sinful nature because we have been crucified with Christ. Our sinful nature of pride, selfishness, and selfish ambition has been crucified with Christ. We realize how useless and wasteful such things are. Christ living in me takes the throne of my heart. We are fully satisfied by Christ’s love and his recognition. We are driven by the single purpose to glorify God and exalt Christ in our life, no matter what happens, and wherever we are. When Christ is exalted in our life, we are truly happy and joyful, and we become blessing to others. May God bless us to devote ourselves to deep Bible study until we come to know Christ personally and until we have burning desire to exalt Christ in our life. This year I was recommended as a member of UBF ministry and had a privilege of attending North America Members’ meeting. I felt great when I was introduced to great servants of God and was greeted by them. I felt that God exalted me to the high ground. But as I was studying this passage with M. Mark Yang, I realized how immature I was spiritually. I was ashamed of my childishness before Paul’s great desire to exalt Christ in his life. I was also moved by Mother Barry whose single desire was still growing in Christ and exalt his name through her life even in her old age. Because of Jesus she is full of spirit and joy, and her voice is like that of roaring lion. May God purify my desire and help me to have a single and eager desire to exalt Christ through my life of faith, no matter what happens. May God bless us to be filled with joy in all circumstances because of Jesus. May God give us burning desire and hope to exalt Christ through our lives.

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