Philippians 1:12-18, Part 1

I love this passage for what it shows about God’s amazing creativity and providence in the way he accomplishes his purposes. And let’s not forget, as well, what it reveals about Paul’s whole-hearted fixation on the glory of Jesus Christ.

There is a definite shift in focus from 1:11 to 1:12. In the previous section Paul had concentrated on the faith of the Philippians and concluded with a prayer on their behalf. Here, Paul shifts to his own experiences and does so in a way that, one, casts in sharp relief the sovereignty of God and, two, holds himself up as a model of behavior for his young disciples.

We see first that God’s ways are subversive and thrilling. Whereas one would have expected that the opposition of the Roman authorities and the local leaders would have brought a halt to the proclamation of this rebellious following of Christ as king, instead, the apostle argues, his own imprisonment has advanced the message and its fruits (12). So right off the bat we see a contrast between what is expected and what really happens.

That God should perform his most marvelous work in the midst of—or rather, through—adversity should come as no surprise, however, since Jesus’ own crucifixion evidenced the victory of God over sin and death. When we season our hearts with this truth we come to a new appreciation of the trials in our lives and of the fact that God orchestrates such events to accomplish his aims.

The results of this advance—or perhaps the clarification of it—are two-fold. Only someone as committed as Paul is to proclaiming Christ could be enthusiastic about the first one, for it likely means further suffering for himself. As a consequence of his imprisonment, the “imperial guard” come to know that the reason why he is in prison is because he is pronouncing someone other than Caesar as Lord, namely, Jesus who is the Christ (13). It would have been hard for someone asserting what Paul was to hide from the authorities.

Now, it’s possible that Paul means to suggest that some of the imperial guard respond to his message with acceptance of his claims. More likely, I think, is that Paul is simply indicating that his message became crystal clear to a group of people who had other allegiances. This hits me hard as I tend to regard acceptance as success in God’s economy; acceptance often drives the way I even discourse about Christ’s claims to allegiance. Here we see at the very least, though, that in one sense the announcement itself is evidence of success. For God is pleased when the message about Christ rings forth. And sometimes, as it does with Paul here, this occurs in situations of great conflict.