“To live is Christ, and to die is gain” says Paul in his letter to the Philippians (1:21). The apostle was in prison in Rome and his future must have seemed bleak to his fellow Christians, but in spite of this Paul is optimistic and cheerful. You see, everything he did was comitted to furthering the cause of Christ. The once dedicated Pharisee who lived to push himself to prominence now says, “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7).
How can a prisoner of Rome be so upbeat in his chains? “My circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known . . . and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (Philippians 1:13-14). Paul’s focus is Christ and he says, “I know . . . that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).
Paul’s confidence is the result of his conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord and nothing else matters but faithful service to Him. This mind-set helps him focus on the work at hand without concern for what might go wrong or how he might suffer. If suffering is part of what it takes to serve his Lord, Paul is willing to endure it. He doesn’t waste time feeling that present conditions should be different. His catalogue of the adverse circumstances he met while proclaiming Jesus as Christ is impressive—more than enough to discourage the most stout-hearted (2 Corinthians 11:18-33). He says that his reason for putting up with and overcoming all these discouragements is this: “I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15).
There were times when Paul was downhearted, to be sure, but he did not allow such events to depress him. “We do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raised the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).
Paul learned the lesson that there is, beyond the present ordeals, continued life and peace with God. And so he steadfastly looks forward. “I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14). The most important concept for us to grasp is that we should constantly be “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”
Let’s “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”