The cross of Christ calls us to humility, and to look beyond this world to our eternal joy in fellowship with Christ. This is just plain weird to most of the world. We need the examples of other Christians to help us live this way, and at the same time, we should be willing to be that example for someone else. Above all, we focus on the promises of God for eternal life in the New Creation.

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PHILIPPIANS #16. Philippians 3:16—4:1.

¹⁶ In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. ¹⁷ Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. ¹⁸ For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things. ²⁰ Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
​¹ So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. (Philippians 3:16 – 4:1, CSB)

In 1993, basketball star Charles Barkley declared in a Nike advertisement: “I am not a role model. I am not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”

It’s important to know that at the time, Barkley had a “bad boy” image, and had been criticized for some of his off-court words and actions. I remember the cultural moment pretty clearly, The ad made it seem like he was encouraging kids to look to their parents, and there’s  a great deal of truth to that. But that ad was kind of a sanitized version of what was really going on in that cultural moment. There were other interviews and comments, and overall, the main thing Barkley seemed to be saying is that he felt that he didn’t have a responsibility to live in a way that others could constructively imitate. He suggested that he should be allowed to live his own life however he wanted, and he didn’t owe anything to the public. Marvel comics is famous for the line: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Barkley, at that time, seemed to be flatly contradicting this. He didn’t say it this way, but he gave the impression that in his view, with great power comes the right to do whatever the heck he pleases. He rejected any responsibility he had to others. He declared himself free from obligation, free to please only himself.

Two thousand years earlier, the apostle Paul vehemently disagreed with Charles Barkley’s perspective. We have a responsibility to live the kinds of lives that others can imitate. You might think you aren’t very far along as a Christian, and that might possibly be true in some cases, but, says Paul, you have the responsibility to live up to what you do know, so far. We don’t get to be like Charles Barkley, and live to please ourselves, and not care who might need us to be an example.

Now, I want to make something clear: this is not about our salvation, or about how God views us. Paul has made it abundantly clear already that we don’t put any confidence in our flesh—good, or bad—to make a difference in God’s love for us. So, being an example for others to imitate is not about earning points with God. Instead, it is about letting God use us to bless others.

One amazing gift that we have is that we have thousands of generations of Christians to look toward for examples to imitate. I can be inspired by the examples of my Dad, or of some of the missionaries I knew growing up. I can also look to C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Martin Luther, Irenaeus, and the apostle Paul himself. What a gift to have such a wealth of people I can learn from!

A second important point: no one except Jesus is a perfect example, not even Paul. I think about whether I could say to others: “Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.” I think there are ways in which I could say that. But there are other areas in my life that I don’t think would be a good example to imitate. Thankfully, this isn’t about perfection. But it is about stepping up (unlike Charles Barkley) and letting your life be lived for something other than your own preferences.

Paul’s next sentence flows on naturally from this one:

“For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things.”

Who is Paul talking about? I think he’s talking about people who claim to be Christians. At the time that Paul wrote there were probably fewer than 10,000 Christians in the entire world. Most people had not even heard of Christ in the first place, so it would be strange for Paul to think of them and be brought to tears that they were “enemies of the cross of Christ.” It makes far more sense that Paul is talking about some people who claim to be Christians, but still live as “enemies of the cross of Christ.”

Next question: What does it mean to live as an enemy of the cross of Christ, especially if such a person is claiming to be a Christian? One place to start is to understand the meaning of “the cross of Christ.” In the first place, Jesus called all who want to follow him:

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25, ESV)

Taking up our cross means dying to our flesh. It means being identified with the humble death of Jesus. It means that we are no longer are own people, but we belong to Jesus, even (maybe “especially”) when it feels like a part of us has to die as we follow him. Paul described his own experience like this:

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20, ESV)

Bible commentator Matthew Henry puts it like this:

Christ came by his cross to crucify the world to us and us to the world; and those who mind earthly things act directly contrary to the cross of Christ, and this great design of it.

Now, when Paul is talking about “enemies of the cross” I do NOT think he is referring to ordinary Christians who sometimes struggle to surrender everything to Jesus. I think he has in mind people who deny, in heart and mind and action, the call of Christ to surrender to him, to be humble, and even to lose all things in order to gain Christ.

In our present Christian culture I can think of at least one group of people who call themselves Christians, but deny the cross: Those who follow the “Prosperity Gospel” in its various forms. The heart of the prosperity gospel is that if we follow God, he will fulfill our dreams. If you do right, you will be blessed, and if you aren’t blessed in obvious, worldly ways (like financially, or having obedient children, or a great marriage, or a big influence, etc.) then it is your fault for not doing it well enough, or, God is testing you (but only temporarily). Such folks maintain that if you do and say the right things, eventually, in this life, God must bless you (according to your view of “blessing”).

However, the way of the cross is completely foreign here. The idea that you might have to actually give up your non-sinful dreams is considered a lie of the devil. Christ calls us to die to ourselves, and that sometimes means dying to things that are not necessarily wrong or sinful. The gospel of Prosperity calls us to cultivate our own desires, and use God as a means to get them. The cross, however, calls everything else rubbish, as Paul said earlier in the chapter. Prosperity says suffering is an aberration, it’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen. To the way of Prosperity, suffering means we have done something wrong. We must try to avoid suffering by thinking and speaking the right ways, so that we don’t bring hardship upon ourselves. But the way of the cross says:

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, (Philippians 3:10, NLT)

Just to be sure we understand about the enemies of the cross, Paul describes them a bit more:

¹⁹ They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. (Philippians 3:19, NLT)

We see here the similarities with modern prosperity preaching. Their focus is on what they desire in this present life. They brag about promotions, and riches, and larger houses and a “bigger life.” They do often “give glory to God” for it, but that always strikes me as a kind of formulaic lip service thing they do to “make the system work.” And they are “giving glory” not to a God who calls us to trust beyond what we understand, but rather, to a god who gives us what we want.

I know this might be a bit strange, but I think one of the best illustrations of this attitude is Peter Gabriel’s song, Big Time. Give it a listen, if possible (but wait until you’re done with the sermon!) with headphones, or a system that has plenty of bass. It’s fun, but it’s also sad, when we remember there are so many people like that.

Here’s another contrast between enemies of the cross and followers of Jesus (the way of the cross): enemies of the cross are looking for approval and acceptance from the people of this world, while followers of Jesus die to their desires to be accepted by those who don’t love Jesus.

For example, I find this is a temptation for me with regard to my intellect. I am an intellectual. I’m tempted to be proud about it, which leads me to want the respect and recognition of other intellectuals. But, I’ve had to face the fact that it is not intellectually respectable to insist that God made the world—not even when I have good intellectual arguments for saying so. Above all, it is not intellectually respectable to claim that a human body was fully dead, and then was raised again to life. Again, I think I have rational reasons for believing the resurrection, but even so, following Jesus usually means dying to my desire to be considered “respectable” by my fellow intellectuals. In fact, many people would reject my self-designation as an intellectual, precisely because I do trust Jesus and believe the Bible.

Some corporate environments are all about “getting ahead,” chasing the next promotion, gaining more influence, and so on. The humble path of the cross is not a respectable alternative in such places. If you really follow Jesus, you might stand out in your workplace as kind of weird. Sometimes, you might even be called out for not being a team player (which means, in this context, not fully engaging in the corporate culture).

Another important part of “the cross” is humility. People today wear crosses around their necks, or get cross tattoos. It’s considered a cool symbol. But in New Testament times, when Paul was writing, the cross was seen primarily as the worst thing that could happen to a person. It was humiliating. It’s like the electric chair to us, or lethal injection. To accept the cross of Christ is to be identified with humility. So one mark of enemies of the cross is that they are not humble.

I think it is striking that Paul’s final word on these “enemies of the cross” is that they are focused on this (mortal) life. They are after what they can get, here and now.

In contrast, Paul says that we are citizens of heaven, and our hearts are looking toward that eternal home, and the appearance, at last, of our savior, Jesus. That doesn’t mean that we should not find joy or happiness here and now, in this life. It doesn’t mean that we can’t work hard to buy a needed vehicle, or look forward to a vacation, or enjoy sweet moments with our loved ones. But I do think it means we limit how much time and energy we spend on trying to make this life as comfortable as possible. Above all it means that our focus, energy and desire is mainly aimed at the life to come. C.S. Lewis said many useful things about this:

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next…

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you’ll get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you’ll get neither.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

So, focusing on the coming New Creation doesn’t lead us to neglect this world. It leads us to neglect our own earthly goals and desires for those of our savior, Jesus. And that often turns out to benefit this present world.

I think sometimes we forget how weird Christians ought to look to those who do not walk with Jesus. What Paul is saying is that we do not value what they value. We don’t pursue what they pursue, or worry about what they worry about. We are “not from around here.” We are citizens of a country that we haven’t yet been to, and it’s a country about which the world knows nothing. In fact the values of our heavenly country are strange to this world. If we are imitators of Jesus, and Paul and other mature believers, we are going to look strange, humble and unimportant to many others.

Paul adds:

He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

We should trust that there will come a time when our humility is lifted up by God.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, (1 Peter 5:6, CSB)

We will share in the glorious joy of the Lord. If we entrust our needs to the Lord now, someday we will find that the sufferings of this present life are not worth mentioning compared to the glory that is revealed to us (Romans 8:18). We can be OK with a life here and now that is far less than perfect, because we will have infinitely longer to enjoy a life that is more than we could ever ask or imagine, in the New Creation.

Paul closes this section with this exhortation:

So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

How do we stand firm? By

• 1) living up to what we know;
• 2) Imitating other believers who are, in some ways, more mature than us, while at the same time being willing to be role models ourselves;
• 3) Recognizing that the way of the cross is completely different from the ways of the world;
• 4)Looking forward to our eternal future with Jesus in the New Creation.