The Work God Won't Abandon

Introduction

What does Philippians 1:6 mean? Paul in prison writes to the church in Philippi that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. Revd. Mark Fletcher traces how prayer and joy sustain Paul in prison, and how love that grows in wisdom becomes the fruit of righteousness in an ordinary life.

It is perhaps a daunting thing to consider that who we become in this life, in the end, is not a consequence of who we are or where we’ve come from, but of the choices that we make day by day for better or very often for worse. Jean-Paul Sartre says, we are our choices.

And it’s true. But the good news is that does not need to be the whole story because God is in the business of turning lives around. And of course the apostle Paul himself is proof of that.

So if you were with us a couple of weeks ago when we reached the end of the book of Acts, you’ll remember that Paul had arrived in Rome as he had always hoped to do so, but he did so as a prisoner in chains awaiting trial. And can you imagine that for someone who had spent his life travelling, planting churches, defending and confirming the gospel, as he says in verse 7, to be in chains must have been a deeply painful and frustrating experience. We estimate he travelled something like 20,000 miles by land and sea over the course of his life, but in these last two years of his life, he will hardly travel anywhere at all. Add to that, he’s no longer as young as he used to be, and he is carrying the physical and emotional scars of the ill-treatment he has suffered. And really, there are days when he has just had enough.

And yet, far from being finished, what God has prepared for him in these last years of his life, is arguably greater and certainly more enduring than anything he had done before. It is never too late for God to use us. And what we have just had read by Tim is part of that legacy. Because from prison, Paul writes letters to the churches that he had helped to established. And these letters or epistole in Greek are the earliest documentary evidence we have of the early church. And they give an amazing insight into life and faith at that time. But more than that, from very early in their existence, they were recognised to be inspired by God, and were collected and incorporated into what was to become the New Testament.

This is one of them. This is the letter to the church in Philippi. Philippi is and was a major city on mainland Greece, and notable, it is the first church on mainland Europe. This is where the gospel came to our continent. And the first person there you might know to be converted was a businesswoman called Lydia, who would have been a foundational member of the church. It’s a wonderful epistle, incredibly rich, and I think that these are words to take hold of, to remember, to lay down in our hearts, a treasure that will sustain us in hard times. It is a letter of wise perspective on life and faith and happiness and meaning and the impact of Jesus on ordinary people’s lives.

As we said, it’s written by Paul. But did you spot also that it’s co-written by Timothy? And Timothy is a young minister who’s travelling with Paul to take care of him and to work alongside and to learn from him. But look at the word that Paul uses to describe them both. You know, don’t forget, Paul is probably the most important person in the early church, hugely significant, a great intellect and a powerful character. And yet he describes himself in verse one as a servant of Jesus Christ. And just as Jesus had said in the church, the greatest amongst you will be the servant of all. So that’s who Paul is. Real greatness is marked by authentic humility. There’s no self-importance, no pomposity. He is a servant.

And it all begins in prayer. Verse 3. Paul writes, I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you. How is this most industrious of men using his time in captivity? What has he learned is the most important thing? It’s prayer. No time is wasted when it’s used in prayer. And he has, despite the pain and the frustration of being incarcerated, used that time to pray for God’s people and there’s no better use of time. What God calls us to, first and foremost, is to learn to pray and we need to choose that day by day. It won’t happen by itself unless we make that choice.

And that prayer, remarkably, is key to his joy. Verse four, in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy. That phrase only really hits home when you remember his circumstances, when you remember the hardship and the suffering. Joy is not happiness, it’s deeper and more enduring than that. Happiness is hard to come by in trying times, but joy is always something that we can tap into because it is found somewhere deeper. It is found in the very presence of God. And what Paul’s prayer allows him to do is to glimpse a bigger picture. He is able to look through the prison bars and to see God at work in the world. He can see the kingdom coming. He can see the sun rising.

When times are hard, learn the example of the Apostle Paul and learn to pray. Not just because you should, although you should. Not just because you need it, although you do need it. But because in prayer we can learn to rejoice even in the darkest of times. In the Lord of the Rings there’s a lovely moment where the wonderful Samwise Gamgee is at his lowest point and he and Frodo are in the middle of Mordor with the darkness all around them. And then just for a moment the clouds part and Samwise catches the glimpse of a star. And it says this, he realised that in the end, the darkness and the shadow is only a small and passing thing. And there is light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. In prayer, we catch a glimpse of God’s kingdom of light and high beauty forever beyond the trials and darkness of this life. We learn to see not from our earthbound perspective, but from God’s perspective. And in that, joy is to be found, even in the most trying times.

Because the work which is at hand is not our work, it is God’s. Verse 6, Paul writes, I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. What a verse that is. Hold on to that. Memorise that. Lay that down in your heart. I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. Paul is in prison. He’s anxious for the churches that he planted and the safety and well-being of the Christians that he loves, and yet he is reminded that it was never his work in the first place. He was simply joining in with what God is doing in this world. And if God began that work, then God is faithful and he will bring it to completion on the day of Christ’s return. And your faith is God at work in you. It’s not your doing. And so when it all seems too hard, when you’re struggling, never despair.

Because it isn’t ultimately dependent on you, but on what God is doing. We simply choose day by day to participate in his work in us. We choose faith each day, and God is faithful.

Now, wouldn’t it be an amazing thing to be able to know what it was that Paul was praying for the church in Philippi, and by extension for you and me? What’s the sort of heart of God as Paul sees it for God’s people? Well, we do actually get to see that in verse 9, because he says, this is my prayer. And what is his prayer for them? And I suppose for us too? It’s this, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. It’s a wonderful line. There’s a richness to it as well, which isn’t apparent at first glance, but another line to be held on to: Paul’s prayer for God’s people is love.

Never take that for granted. Do you understand how radical that is, how unprecedented that is in the history of the world? This is the Christian revolution, that the highest good, the greatest virtue is love. We take that for granted in our world, but this is where it comes from. And don’t forget how Paul began his life as a violent and bigoted, angry young man. But what he has become as a result of God’s work is an ambassador of love.

You know the easiest thing in the world when faced with hardship is to become hard-hearted. The easiest thing in the world when faced with anger is to become angry. The easiest thing in the world when faced with injustice is to become bitter. That is true of so much of our world. But this is the work of God. This is evidence of the spirit at work, that faced with injustice and anger and hardship, we actually become more loving, more compassionate. We find joy that God brings goodness out of suffering, love out of hate, and even uses that suffering to make us more like Christ.

And that love which Paul talks about isn’t just sentimental. He says, this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Can you hear what he’s saying there? That he wants that love which is the foundation to become richer in terms of its understanding, its depth of insights. Relationships may well begin in great emotion and feeling, but they need to grow into something more resilient in order to be sustained. The green shoot needs to become a strong tree that bears fruit. Love needs to long to know more of the beloved. And so love needs to abound in knowledge and depth of insight.

There’s a tendency in the church, I think, to divide between sort of head Christians and heart Christians. There should be no division. Whichever one of those you tend towards, you kind of need to become a bit more of the other. The two things have to go together. Our head and our heart are not separated. We need to do theology and study scripture and learn to pray for the purpose of growing in love of God and of others.

And a life like that bears good fruit. Verse 11, to pray that you might be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. This is what the work of God produces in us: the fruit of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. That is the fruit of righteousness. That is the evidence of God at work in us. And of course, that is the kind of life that brings glory to God. Discerning, learning to wisely live to produce good fruit for the glory and praise of God, that your light might so shine before this world that people see your good works, see the fruit of righteousness, and glorify your Father in heaven.

God is in the business of transforming our lives, each of us. We don’t need to be defined by our bad choices and our mistakes. We can choose to join in with what God wants to do in our lives. And so choose each day. Choose love. Choose faith exercised in prayer. And you will become what God is making you because God is at work in you.

Isn’t this wonderful? Isn’t it? That this letter from 2,000 years ago should speak to us today and should set before us the highest aspirations, the greatest values. To say that the greatest thing really is love. Not just because we feel that that’s true, but because God is love. And strangely as well, we should be grateful for Paul’s imprisonment and for his hardships. Because if it wasn’t for them, if he hadn’t been locked up for those two years, we probably wouldn’t have these letters and therefore we probably would never hear these words. Because God uses even the hardest of times to do amazing things and to, in this case, inspire some of the greatest writing in history.

Who are you becoming? Make your choice this day and each day what you’re joining in with, what matters most to you, that you might be defined by the choices that you make, but that those might be good choices that bear a rich fruit of love and of goodness. Amen.