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passages torn from their contexts. It is well for us to remember that Phil. 2: 4 is one of
the key thoughts of the epistle:
"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."
In other words, unselfishness is the fruit of the Spirit which is stressed here. And in
order to exemplify it, concrete examples are brought forward by the apostle. First of all
that of the Lord Jesus Who thought not of Himself, but for our sakes left the glory that
was His by right and stooped so low as to die the death of a criminal, that all who trust in
Him should not die eternally. Next Timothy is cited, of whom Paul writes: "I have no
man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state" (2: 20). Then Epaphroditus:
`For the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack
of service towards me' (2: 30). In chapter one the same spirit is manifest. The apostle,
instead of bemoaning his lot in his Roman prison, declares that even this has turned out to
the furtherance of the gospel (1: 12). And even if some were preaching Christ of envy
and strife, the fact remained that the person of the Lord was coming to the forefront:
`What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is
preached; and I therein do rejoice' (1: 18) and then follows verse 20 in which Paul
declares `so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by
death'. All thought of self and self advancement has been laid aside by this great servant
of the Lord. His one ambition was to put the Lord Jesus Christ first and to glorify Him.
Even when Paul talks of departing and being with Christ or remaining in the flesh, he still
unselfishly says that he knows he would continue with them for their furtherance and
their joy of faith, not his own (verse 25).
What does he mean by departing and being with Christ? In spite of having taught that
resurrection and the Lord's coming would unite the believer with his Lord--so (in this
way) would he ever be with the Lord (I Thess. 4: 17), it would appear on the surface that
here, the apostle of the Gentiles was contradicting this definite teaching, by asserting that
death, without resurrection, was his hope. However this is not true if the whole epistle be
studied and the remoter context be taken into consideration. In chapter 3 verse 10 we
read:
"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained . . . . ."
On the surface this passage presents an insuperable difficulty. It would appear that
Paul, although a saved man, was not sure of being raised from the dead if he should die,
but he longed to attain to resurrection. If this is true then it strikes at the very root of all
Christian hope, for if such a saint as the apostle was in doubt of resurrection, we may be
sure that the average Christian of to-day stands very little chance of experiencing it. But
this is impossible. Resurrection was part of orthodox Judaism. "I know that he shall rise
again in the resurrection at the last day", said Martha, referring to her dead brother
(John 11: 24). It was the Sadducees, the rationalists of that time who rejected this truth;
`the Sadducees which say that there is no resurrection' (Matt. 22: 23).