Off and on over the last couple months we have looked at the first twenty-one verses of this letter. In these three or four paragraphs, have you detected any depression on the part of the penman? Even though Paul refers to his confinement and “bonds”… Even though he points to people’s envy of him, despite (ironically) being incarcerated… Even though he has no date set for his release, or even his trial, does he sound dejected or downcast? I don’t think so. He is not unhappy to be wherever the Lord wants him to be. As a general statement, we don’t get to choose how our lives play out, the Lord does. He was content.
Yet even without the least hint of depression Paul STILL says, “the best thing possible for me would be to die.” From there he goes on to expose a little mental conflict he was having with himself. He concludes that what may be the best thing for him personally, was not really the very best thing. The next best thing, or the second best thing, is not always the very best thing. What is the next thing – the next opportunity – may not be the last thing or the best thing. Is beginning our eternity in the presence of the Saviour, better than to serve the Saviour here? Paul was caught in a conundrum between living in heaven with Christ, or serving with Christ on earth. Both were excellent options.
Let’s consider these six verses from three different perspectives: self-fill thoughts, Christ-filled thoughts and ministry-filled thoughts.
Without accusing Paul of being selfish, he did initially describe his situation from a position of SELF.
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” “For to ME… to die is gain.” That is certainly not true of 90%, 95% or perhaps 98% of the people of this world. For the person without Christ, with death he will instantly open his eyes in torment – Luke 16:23. And for him the eternal state of the second death is worse than a slow tortuous death to get there. But for Paul, and other children of God, to die instantly takes that Christian into the presence of the Saviour. There is no intermediate state between earthly life and either heaven or hell. There is no purgatory or soul-sleep. At the transfiguration of Christ, Moses and Elijah spoke with the Saviour. They had been perfectly preserved for hundreds and hundreds of years after their earthly departures. Death opens the door to an exquisite eternity of which “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
The Lord Jesus said to the believing thief who was hanging – crucified – next to Him: “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Paul used that, and other scriptures, to say to the Corinthian Christians, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” Paul had walked with the Lord from the day of his conversion, he was confident of being with Him for ever. And since Christ had been the essence of Paul’s physical life, he could expect Christ to be his eternal life as well. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
And what will go along with being in the presence of Christ? What will we, and Paul, enjoy after death? Jesus told His disciples that He had to pass through death into the life which He had before with the Father. And there on the other side, He would prepare a place for them. “And if I go and prepare A PLACE FOR YOU, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” – John 14. And “there shall also my servant be; if any man serve me (in this world), him will my Father HONOUR.” Paul had been a faithful servant, and he certainly could expect divine honor for his service. He could expect to hear: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the JOY of thy Lord.” Paul had taken Christ’s yoke upon him and therefore could expect an eternity of rest as Jesus promised. I’m sure he had often grown physically weary in his well-doing, and the rest which was to be found on the other side was going to be eternally refreshing. But there is a sense in which to continue to be useful to the Lord, and to continue to be tired, and is BETTER than to be glorified by the Lord.
Paul could have focused on these future things, as we often do. He could have dreamed about what it would be like to be instantly translated into Christ’s presence. But he doesn’t even bring up the subject of the rapture. He was potentially much closer to death than his miraculous translation, so that rose to the top of his mind. But still, he wasn’t dreaming, hoping or even planning on heaven at this point. He quickly laid aside whatever selfish thoughts were crossing his mind.
But in this case he wasn’t particularly looking at his death through CHRIST-FILLED THOUGHTS either.
I’m not saying he wasn’t thinking about his Saviour. I’m not saying he didn’t have his eyes set on things above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. He was thinking about the Lord Jesus when he said, “For to me to live is Christ.” And he said, “Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.” He said, “When I do leave this world, it will to forever be with Christ.” “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ…”
How often does Paul refer to the Lord Jesus in these two dozen verses? Christ was constantly on his mind, as He should be on ours. He said, “We are servants of Christ” and “we are writing to the saints in Christ Jesus.” We pray for grace and peace “from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” The day of Jesus Christ is coming, and the Lord will preserve His work until that day. “I pray that you be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.” “And that you (will) be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ.” “My bonds are in Christ, and we preach Christ.”
Paul refers to the Lord Jesus thirteen times before verse 21. He has definitely not forgotten his Saviour, and he’s not looking into the future without the lens of Christ. But his little mental argument is not filtered through either his thoughts of himself or Christ.
Paul is thinking about his future through MINISTRY-FILLED THOUGHTS.
He says, I know that if I should die today, or if I was executed by Nero next week, I will be better off. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is GAIN.” But if I continue to live and serve my Saviour here among you, I will continue to produce fruit for His glory. I have been made a son of God, so that I might serve and glorify my Heavenly Father. To be a Christian is to be a servant of the Saviour. So I am caught between two excellent choices and between two futures – to depart and to be with Christ or to remain here to glorify Christ through bearing spiritual fruit. How can I choose between what is best for me and what is actually THE best? God’s will is, by far, better than what I might think would be best for me.
And in this case, “to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” So having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and be delivered from these chains… “That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.” This sounds very egoistical – “Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”
How important are you and I in grand scheme of things? Would Calvary Baptist Church survive if you were suddenly taken away? Yes, it would. Could it survive if I was not here to lead in the service this coming Sunday or all next month? Absolutely. Spiritual victory and ecclesiastical success – church success – are things which belong to God alone. Looking through our own eyes, if we are being honest, we have to say, God can get things done without us. But what if – what if it is God’s will to use us for His victory and His success? Then there is a sense in which we become indispensable and even undefeatable.
Paul was looking through the eyes of his ministry under Christ when he said, “Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” But was he thinking of Lydia when he said this? Was he picturing some specific person? Couldn’t he have been thinking like the Saviour, as when the Lord said in Matthew 9, “The harvest is truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few, Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labourers into his harvest?” Paul could have been thinking of the entire field – ripe and ready for harvest. There is only one place where we may be Christ’s evangelists – it is in this world, not the next. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Until every creature has heard the gospel, we have an earthly ministry. I realize that I’m stepping into muddy, slippery ground here, but isn’t there a sense in which God had made Paul indispensable?
The Lord Jesus called Himself “the true vine,” which means He is the source of spiritual fruit. But He has ordained that, practically speaking, it is the branches which are attached to the vine that produce the fruit. Jesus tells us, “Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” Isn’t it safe to say, since that “for Paul to live was Christ,” we could say that he was abiding in the vine? By way of that earthly relationship, Paul had become a fruit-producer, a fruit-bearing branch of the true vine. That is something, I think, we all should strive to become.
In verse 25 he says, “I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith.” Paul was confident that his life was not finished, and that his chains would eventually be removed, so he could return to his ministry of evangelism and to the strengthening of the saints. He had faith to believe that his ministry would continue for the furtherance and joy of THEIR faith. Among other things, he wanted to assist the newer branches of the vine to grow in their fruit production. He wanted to minister to them in the furtherance of their faith and joy.
There is probably another Bible study in the relationship between this “JOY and FAITH.” “That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.” Notice how Paul’s restoration would bring them joy “IN Jesus Christ.” He didn’t want their rejoicing to be without an acknowledgment of Christ’s part in his return to them. And when he did return, he wanted to further both their joy and their faith. How many were struggling to believe that Paul would be released? Did they have faith enough? Pray for more faith; pray for more of the right kind of joy – joy in Jesus Christ. Just think about how spiritually strong we could be if these two fruit of the Spirit were strengthened in us.
What should we glean from these few verses?
Isn’t there a test for us here? Are you more anxious to depart and to be with Christ, than you are to stay and to minister? Are you more excited about mere good things than over the best things? Are you spiritually perceptive enough to know the difference?
And one more thing: How hard are you working to make yourself indispensable? “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better (for me). Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” Paul was saying, “And understanding that need, I am willing to stay here in this world as long as the Lord will use me.”