Day 2; Pilippians 2:1 "We are the mission field"

I had a friend who was suffering from a devastating disease. The Lord blessed him with two years of life when his physicians told him he had six months to live. During those years God did amazing things, from shrinking his tumors, to making some disappear, to melting hearts and bringing people to faith.

I went with him one day on the hour long ride into the City while he had a treatment. We talked about big things, we talked about small things, we sat in silence. "I wish I could go (he said speaking of my work in Tanzania). I wish I had my Africa." On that cold, dark morning he realized what Paul had, that our lives and how we live should have an impact on others.

What he didn't speak then, although he was living it, was that his very body was the "Africa" that God has chosen for him. It was the place that God would show forth his glory, not so much how he lived, but rather how he died and suffered. This was the call on Paul's life and it is what he is exhorting the church in Philippi to take comfort from.

We don't like affliction, we would rather chose comfort. Martin Luther King Jr. once remarked that the measure of a man's character is judged not when he is in comfort, but how he reacts with adversity. This summarizes Paul's theology of the suffering of Christ, himself and the church.

2:1 opens with the word "if", a subordinate conjunction. This has the weight of "if you are encouraged by may actions in my imprisonment and the sufferings of Christ". He does not say you must have a lot, he adds "any", like the faith the size of the mustard seed God will multiply it.

If any..encouragement; the act of emboldening an others faith or course of action. Like Job, his life (and ours) are sign posts to those around us. How we suffer points to our convictions. We don't trust ourselves, but rather Christ. This is the foolishness of the Cross, to put power in the one who was crucified. His humility and self-imposed subjection to the Father gave us the way follow.

Any encouragement of love...increased perseverance from the selfless acts of Christ and Paul

...any participation with the Spirit; acts of participating for self-interests. The Spirit is working the power of sanctification and glorifying the name of Jesus while Paul is allowing God to use his life (of which God alone saved) for the advancement of the Kingdom

...any compassion or mercy. This is deep-seated compassion, it's the source of the mercy not the mercy its self. The word refers to the inner bowls, where the ancient mind felt compassion came from. So, if these "transformed guts", or "new creation is in you and working"...

Paul understood that he was "Africa" and derived his strength, encouragement, desire to love, fellowship, his ability to go any where, do anything for the Gospel from the Cross.

Do you have this mind in you? Are you allowing God to use your life as "Africa"? Do you find it within you to share your confidence in the trials, or do you complain like the world? Where is your trust, your hope? Do you believe that all the troubles of this life pale in comparison to the all surpassing joy of knowing Christ (Phil 3:8)?
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"Surely this man was the Son of God"