Because of Paul’s chains, Christ was known (Phil. 1:13), and because of Paul’s critics, Christ was preached (Phil. 1:18). But because of Paul’s crisis, Christ was magnified! (Phil. 1:20). It was possible that Paul would be found a traitor to Rome and then executed. His preliminary trial had apparently gone in his favor. The final verdict, however, was yet to come. But Paul’s body was not his own, and his only desire (because he had the single mind) was to magnify Christ in his body.
Does Christ need to be magnified? After all, how can a mere human being ever magnify the Son of God? Well, the stars are much bigger than the telescope, and yet the telescope magnifies them and brings them closer. The believer’s body is to be a telescope that brings Jesus Christ close to people. To the average person, Christ is a misty figure in history who lived centuries ago. But as the unsaved watch the believer go through a crisis, they can see Jesus magnified and brought so much closer. To the Christian with the single mind, Christ is with us here and now.
The telescope brings distant things closer, and the microscope makes tiny things look big. To the unbeliever, Jesus is not very big. Other people and other things are far more important. But as the unbeliever watches the Christian go through a crisis experience, he ought to be able to see how big Jesus Christ really is. The believer’s body is a “lens” that makes a “little Christ” look very big, and a “distant Christ” come very close.
Paul was not afraid of life or death! Either way, he wanted to magnify Christ in his body. No wonder he had joy!
Paul confessed that he was facing a difficult decision. To remain alive was necessary for the believers’ benefit in Philippi, but to depart and be with Christ was far better. Paul decided that Christ would have him remain, not only for the “furtherance of the gospel” (Phil. 1:12) but also for the “furtherance and joy of [their] faith” (Phil. 1:25). He wanted them to make some “pioneer advance” into new areas of spiritual growth. (By the way, Paul admonished Timothy, the young pastor, to be sure to pioneer new spiritual territory in his own life and ministry. See 1 Tim. 4:15, where “profiting” is our phrase “pioneer advance.”)
What a man Paul was! He was willing to postpone going to heaven in order to help Christians grow, and he was willing to go to hell in order to win the lost to Christ! (Rom. 9:1–3)
Of course, death had no terrors for Paul. It simply meant “departing.” This word was used by the soldiers; it meant “to take down your tent and move on.” What a picture of Christian death! The “tent” we live in is taken down at death, and the spirit goes home to be with Christ in heaven. (Read 2 Cor. 5:1–8.) The sailors also used this word; it meant “to loosen a ship and set sail.” Lord Tennyson used this figure of death in his famous poem “Crossing the Bar.”
But departure was also a political term; it described the setting free of a prisoner. God’s people are in bondage because of the limitations of the body and the temptations of the flesh, but death will free them. Or they will be freed at the return of Christ (Rom. 8:18–23) if that should come first. Finally, departure was a word used by the farmers; it meant “to unyoke the oxen.” Paul had taken Christ’s yoke, which is an easy yoke to bear (Matt. 11:28–30), but how many burdens he carried in his ministry! (If you need your memory refreshed, read 2 Cor. 11:22—12:10.) To depart to be with Christ would mean laying aside the burdens, his earthly work completed.
No matter how you look at it, nothing can steal a man’s joy if he possesses the single mind! “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). Maltbie Babcock, who wrote “This Is My Father’s World,” said, “Life is what we are alive to.” When my wife and I go shopping, I dread going to the fabric department, but I often have to go because my wife enjoys looking at fabrics. If on the way to the fabric section I spot the book department, I suddenly come alive! The thing that excites us and motivates us is the thing that really is “life” to us. In Paul’s case, Christ was his life. Christ excited him and made his life worth living.
Philippians 1: becomes a valuable test of our lives. “For to me to live is ______ and to die is _______.” Fill in the blanks yourself.
“For to me to live is money and to die is to leave it all behind.”
“For to me to live is fame and to die is to be forgotten.”
“For to me to live is power and to die is to lose it all.”
No, we must echo Paul’s convictions if we are going to have joy in spite of circumstances, and if we are going to share in the furtherance of the gospel. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!”