God’s people are different. As we’ve walked through this letter to the Philippians, we’ve seen that Paul, the one who writes this letter, is different. The very setting from which he writes this letter is different. He writes a letter of joy chained up between two soldiers. He’s different. He has joy in jail. And when we listen to the words that come off of his pen, we notice something different about Paul – he looks forward to death, but he longs to serve. And he was happy, yes, joyful about either prospect. He said, “It’s better for me to die, but it’s necessary for you that I stay.” For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. And in his confession, we learn something about the Christian life. We see death differently than the world does. We look at death as a gateway, a door, to an eternity with our Savior. We die differently than other people do. We die with confidence that we will see our Savior and that we will rise again when he comes again. For us, to live is Christ and to die is gain. And while we’re still here, we live differently. We live not for ourselves; we live for other people. We even face life with a different resolve. We stand out in this world because we’re not the kind of people who grumble and complain. This is why we shine like stars in this world. Yes, day after day, for us, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
And I could go on and on, just commenting on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. God’s people are different. We stand out in this world. We die differently than other people do. We live differently than other people do. We do different things than the world does. We do things for a different reason than the world does. We are different. For us, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Maybe you’ve caught on by now that the title of this sermon is “Different.” In fact, we’re going to work with that title over the next two weeks – that’s why this sermon is “Different, Part 1.” We’re goring our to be looking at Philippians 3 this week and next week, almost splitting the text of Philippians 3 neatly in half. We are different! Let’s let Paul explain what makes us different. Read: Philippians 3:1-14
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