“For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live. Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith. And when I come to you again, you will have even more reason to take pride in Christ Jesus because of what he is doing through me.”
In yesterday’s post, we saw how Paul had risen above the haters who were trying to put him to shame. He continues here by saying that there will never be any shame in preaching the Gospel. If people want to kill him, fine. If he lives and keeps preaching, awesome. I wonder if there is a bit of sarcasm here as Paul leaves it up to his mockers and haters to decide whether he lives or dies. Either way, the Gospel is worth it.
Nevertheless, Paul has a sense that he will live. He seems to have a prophetic understanding that he will continue to help the Philippian church mature. He has faith that he will see them again and when he does he will see the fruit of his mission. We actually do not know if Paul ever actually made it back to Philippi (read about Paul’s possible fourth journey here, but the book of Acts ends with Paul’s imprisonment in Rome during which time he wrote this letter).
Paul has a very acute understanding of the reality that he is not in control of his own life. Remember the opening of this letter to the Philippians? He’s a slave of Jesus. Kill him, don’t kill him. Either way you will not stop God’s purposes. The mission isn’t about Paul, and it’s not going to be stopped by earthly threats. The Gospel will be spread to the whole world. Paul is sure that he will be alive to see the fruit of his work with the Philippian church. Whether or not that was true in an earthly sense, it was certainly true in the end. Paul was confident that death could not be the end of his story. For eternity, Paul will see far more fruit from his missionary journeys than he probably could have dreamed possible. A couple years in prison is a small price to pay for that eternal reward.