Don't Bend

By now he has spent somewhere in the neighborhood of four years in prison. He wasn’t in jail for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” but for little more than allowing himself to be entrapped by religious leaders looking for an opportunity to rid themselves of one who had once been a hero but now was viewed as a traitor.

Oddly, when he was their hero, it was okay for him to go out arresting people who believed in Jesus as Messiah and at least approving of, if not inflicting the death penalty. But once he became a believer, then some manufactured sense of disrespect to the Law and Temple had landed him in jail.  It’s a funny thing how easily religious people can be swayed when it comes to right and wrong by our sense of who is on our side and who isn’t. 

Four years is a long time to be in jail for what at best can be described as petty, trumped up charges. Certainly those four years have served to confirm for Paul that our trust can’t be in government – the Romans haven’t been overly helpful so far; and our trust can’t be in individuals who are a bit presumptuous about their standing with God – that’s what landed him in jail.

To the believers at Philippi Paul is writing to people who, like was true for him, were citizens of the Roman Empire.  It surely isn’t by accident that at the end of chapter three, Paul reminds them “but our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (3:20, NRSV) And then, in the same literary context in 4:1, he tells them, “stand firm in the Lord in this way.” 

It appears that for every believer, regardless of the cultural circumstances in which he or she may be found, there is this inherent conflict between the Christian gospel and the culture in which we live.  When I think about Paul’s circumstances – religious people had put him in jail and Roman officials have kept him in jail – it isn’t hard to realize just how clearly he would have understood the reality of standing firm when it comes to knowing where our trust must be placed.

The world will corrupt us – at least that is how Paul views things (3:17-19) thus we must, without hesitation, remind ourselves that our citizenship is in heaven – and from heaven we anticipate in confident assurance the coming of our Savior. Thus the Jewish officials who manipulated the Roman officials to arrest him are, when all is said and done, irrelevant. In that picture, only the Savior has the final word on our lives. If Paul can “stand firm” on that in view of his life story at the moment, where does that leave you and me?

In that context, Paul says, “don’t bend.” I find nothing in Paul’s writings to make me think I should pretend like the world doesn’t exist or that I am not called by God to bring about renewal and restoration.  But neither do I find a word that makes me think my future is somehow wrapped up in my worldly citizenship. 

The Christian gospel is not a “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” way of viewing the world. Rather it is a “a Savior is coming who will redeem the universe” way of viewing the world. When it comes to that kind of gospel, Paul’s word to the Philippians is “don’t bend!”

That’s not a bad way of looking at life – especially from the vantage point of one who understands how religion focused on self not God always fails and how government can never do what God has called His people to do. 

The sky can’t fall – from there we await a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Until that day, He calls us to be salt and light to a world ever tasteless and dark.