2:1 You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our
coming to you was not in vain,
2:2 but though we had already suffered and been shamefully
mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to
declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.
2:3 For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure
motives or trickery,
2:4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted
with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please
mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts.
2:5 As you know and as God is our witness, we never came
with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed;
2:6 nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or
from others,
2:7 though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.
But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her
own children.
2:8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to
share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves,
because you have become very dear to us.
I will be looking at our motivation for evangelism from this text.
My church has a hard time with evangelism I think because they see
it as pushy, salesman type stuff. But 2:8 makes it clear that it is
our love for people that we share God and our selves with others.
What I struggle with is how do I show this kind of evangelism to the
congregation? any suggestions?
I am preaching on this and wanting to answer the question - HOW do
we love God and finding the answer here: We live in a way which
brings honor to God We live by God's values We love others We speak
of our love for God to others Which, of course, is evangelism. I
struggle with an introverted church that doesn't want to get too
close. Or is that all churches? I just returned from spending time
with my daughter who is nursing her baby. And the lessons are so
clear there - you have to stay close, what you eat can affect your
baby, and there is an element of sacrifice. Anyway, beginning to
think about this passage - and know that evangelism is right in the
middle of it all. Marg
I am going from the perspective of 2:8, a model of the Christian
life. Paul models it for us, but is also bonded with those who have
suffered with him persecution for the sake of the Gospel.
I believe that everyone has a story. I'm talking about something
that has happened in your life that has changed you in some shape,
form or fashion. Some experience that if you shared it, someone
might say, "you know what you're talking about. You've been there
and you've done that." And whatever that thing is, it might be
something that happened to you, or to someone close to you, but that
thing has changed you forever. You're not the same as you once were.
It is even more meaningful, if you go through a traumatic event with
someone or a group of people. There becomes a bond between you and
those other people. Why does this happen? I think because you are
able to identify with those who you went through that traumatic
event with. And your perspective changes. The way that you think and
act change because your priorities change. Arguments that you may
have had in the past, just don't seem to matter much anymore.
You remember that the letter to the Philippians was a very joyous
letter. Yet we find out only now what really happened in Philippi,
they were (v.2) "shamefully mistreated". But it was joyous because
they went through a hard time together. They were bonded together
through the suffering for Christ and the gospel of God. Paul is
reminding them of the suffering that they went through together. And
he is glad to say that they went through it together because they
are now bonded closely together. And that proves his love of God and
love of them. In other words, he has been there and done that. But
not only that, they were with him during their persecution in
Philippi and so they can identify with each other. They bonded in
this trauma and pulled together.
Paul is glad that they were seen as worthy to be persecuted for the
gospel of Jesus Christ as we see in v.4 "but just as we have been
approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even
so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our
hearts." He is saying that, not only is it ok to be persecuted for
the faith, but it proves that we are worthy to be entrusted with
such a valuable asset as the gospel. But we weren't put here to
please man, we weren't put here to be a people pleaser. We were put
here to please God. And we have done it, and been proven worthy of
the gospel by the persecution because of the gospel.
In addition to that, Paul tells us not to listen to him because of
his status in the early church organization, but rather listen to
him because he had been there with them when they were persecuted.
He had been there and done that. He is telling them that there is no
hierarchy here, rather we are siblings, brothers and sisters in
Christ Jesus.
There is a certain amount of authority that we give to people who
have been through trauma. When I did my hospital chaplaincy program,
I heard some of the saddest stories I have ever heard. And I new
most of them to be true. So many people have these hard luck
stories. I don't know why some horrible things happen to some people
and not to others. I just don't know. If you have had a boring,
uneventful life, count yourself as blessed of God. ‘Cause being
tested in the fire of trauma is no fun, and many times it hurts, and
leaves ugly scars. Still working... t from ga
t from GA: A class I had in seminary had as a term paper assignment
to interview someone about their life and faith or lack of. He
commented, after reading the papers, how every year he gives this
assignment and is astounded at the amount of pain there is in the
world. Can you imagine reading 150 papers of peoples' lives and
hurts and joys? It's so often the hurts that form our faith journey.
Sally
