by Jerry Senn
“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, … standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents” (Phil 1:27–28a).
The apostle Paul is here painting an interesting picture. The words refer to a set of scales. Picture an ancient scale with a crossbar and a little cup hanging from each end of the crossbar. On one side of the scale is the gospel and all it stands for. On the other side of the scale is our life. Our life—the way we live, the way we conduct ourselves—should be equal weight to the expectations of the gospel. That is our duty as Christians.
What does it mean to conduct our lives in a manner worthy of the gospel?
What is most important about our Christian life is not what we do but how long we do it. The failure in most of our lives comes, not because we don’t do the right things, but because we don’t keep them up long enough. Being a Christian does not just mean serving Christ when you are young or old, male or female. It means doing good whether the going is easy or not. Standing firm means perseverance and tenacity for the cause of Christ.
And we do not have to stand alone because we are fused together and are therefore never alone. So when opponents show up to distract us or persecute us, we “stand firm” without fear. When failures come we receive support and strength from one another.
“For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have” (Phil 1:28–30).
A Worthy Walk results when we’re fully committed to Christ as believers who value our relationship with Christ more than anything and place our greatest value on our common relationship with Christ Jesus.
The greatest use of life is to spend it
For something that outlasts everything!