Title For Christ's sake (Phil 03:1-12)
1. The relationship between physical illness and mental illness
2. Are you religious? Are you a believer?
Verses 2 and 3 are comparable. Verse 2 says, "Beware of dogs, beware of evildoers, beware of the circumcision of the hand." . If the person in verse 2 is a religious person, then the person in verse 3 can be called a believer. Religious people look like believers, but they still behave like dogs and live by doing evil. These are just religious people. However, the person in verse 3 is a believer. They serve in the Holy Spirit and boast of Jesus wherever they go. We do not trust the flesh, we live by trusting God.
The word that appears the most in Chapter 3 is ‘I’. Verse 1, “My brethren,” Verse 4, “I have confidence in the flesh,” Verse 4, “More so,” Verse 5, “I was circumcised on the eighth day,” Verse 7, “What was beneficial to me? ”, “I have for him” in verse 8, “I have the righteousness that I have” in verse 9, “I am with Christ” in verse 10, and “not that I have already obtained it” in verse 12. comes out a lot. Paul confesses that he was also a religious person. Verses 5-6, “I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the house of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal, persecuting the church, as to the righteousness of the law, blameless.” However, there were no internal changes. If I can draw one conclusion from this, faith is change and maturity. If you have lived your life of faith for three years, you must change that much. If your life doesn't change, you're wrong. If you have changed again, you must now mature.
Before meeting Jesus, Paul was only boasting about his human condition. He boasted about being circumcised on the eighth day, having pure Israeli blood, receiving Roman citizenship, studying under Gamaliel, and being a Pharisee according to the law. But all of this has come to be regarded as excrement. It's an amazing change. Verses 7-8, “But whatever was useful to me, I count not only as all loss for the sake of Christ, but also as loss of all things, because of the noblest knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because for him I lost all things and lost everything.” was considered to be For Paul, this is a remarkable change. If you have changed, you must now mature and grow.
Even in family life, a couple must change a lot. There is a series of husbands who are not loved these days. The husband who is not loved in his 30s is the husband who asks for love. A husband who asks for water and a newspaper is not loved. A husband who is not loved in his 40s is a husband who talks back and forth to his wife. A husband who is not loved in his 50s is a husband who asks where his wife has gone when she leaves. In their 60s, the husband who asks where he put his retirement money is not loved, in his 70s, the husband who follows his wife is not loved, and in his 80s, the husband who is still living and bullying his wife is not loved. When a couple has lived together, it has to change more and more.
Paul said in verse 16, “But whatever we have reached, we will do it.” No matter where our faith comes from, we must mature and grow. Verses 10-12, “I want to make known Christ, the power of his resurrection, and his sharing in his sufferings, imitating him in his death, so that I may somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead. I am going after him to seize the one that was taken away by Jesus.”
3. I must die.
The Apostle Paul says that there are six things that I gain by dying. ① I got Jesus. Verse 8 says, “They lose all things and count them as excrement, they gain Christ.” He said that he had forsaken himself and found Jesus. ② It is said that the resurrection has come (verse 11). You must die to be resurrected. Resurrection is impossible without death. ③ It is said that Jesus was arrested (verse 12). ④ It is said that you will receive the reward of your calling (verse 14). ⑤ It is said that he has obtained heavenly citizenship (verse 20). ⑥ It is said that the lowly body was transformed into a glorious body (verse 21). All these things cannot be obtained unless you die.
But what those who are enemies of God gain are ① their end will be destruction (verse 19); ② their spirit will be a ship (verse 19); ③ they will gain shameful glory (verse 19); .
Dear saints, I pray that you will become a saint who will throw away the life of enmity with God and live according to the word of God and receive wonderful blessings.