January 31, 1945, was the day that the life of Eddie Slovik came to an end. Eddie didn't die of natural causes, nor did Eddie live a long, prosperous, and glorious life. No, on January 31, 1945, private Eddie Slovik became the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion. He was executed because he deserted not only his country but those who needed him the most, which was a time of war. And when they needed him the most, when they thought they could count on him, not only to protect their nation but to protect their own lives, Eddie deserted them. And we may look at the penalty for desertion as rather harsh. Why would the military put a man to death? Well, the military understands the power and the need for unity. The military understands that there is strength in numbers. The military understands that if you can get people all working together for the same common goal, united against a common enemy, that they can do what seems to be impossible. They understand the need for unity. They understand that there's a tremendous strength that takes place when people of various backgrounds all come together and work towards a common goal. In their case, the goal was to win a world war.


The Goal of the Church

In the case of the church, our goal is the advancement of the gospel. And if you doubt, the power of unity, I would encourage you to go back to the book of Genesis and read the account of the Tower of Babel and see what God had to say about them as they began to work together. But in our text, in the previous paragraph, Paul said that for him to live was Christ. And when Paul said that he's referring to real life, he's not talking in theory. He's not talking in abstraction. He's referring to life as we were created to live. He lives to glorify Christ, he lives to enjoy Christ. He lives to love Christ. He lives to obey Christ. He lives, if need be, to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul says "for to me to live is Christ" he is telling us that he finds his fulfillment in Christ. He's telling us that he finds his satisfaction in Christ. He has found what so many people spend their lives desperately looking for. He understands that satisfaction in life, contentment in life, joy in life, peace in life does not come from all of the empty wells that we go searching through in order to find peace and contentment and joy and satisfaction.
Paul is saying that anything that is worthy of the word life is found in Christ. And we know the Bible tells us that God gives us all things richly to enjoy. But none of those things is to take first place in front of Christ. None of those things are to be the priority for us. Christ is to be the priority. And really that's a call for us all to examine our own lives and say, what is it that we are finding our enjoyment in? What is it that gives us the most enjoyment? For parents that could be their children. For husbands and wives, it could be each other. For some, it could be a career or it could be a multitude of other things. But we need to check up on ourselves and see what it is that brings us the greatest source of enjoyment, the greatest source of pleasure. What is it that is the priority in our lives? We are to enjoy nothing more than we enjoy Jesus Christ. And how would the world be changed if they saw Christians who actually lived that way? How would this world be impacted if they actually saw Christians who lived out what they believed? Instead of chasing the same goals that the unbelieving world does. Instead of trying to find their satisfaction, their joy, in the same way, in the same empty wells that the unbelieving world tries to find it in.
Well, now in the paragraph that follows Paul tells us as believers that we are to live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now, I want to be sure that we understand Paul is not introducing a new subject here. There's a tremendous unity to Scripture, obviously, and a tremendous unity to Paul's letter to the Philippians. So he's not introducing something new here. He may be explaining it in a different way but he's not necessarily introducing a new subject. He's continuing to show us what it means for us to live like Christ. He's continuing to show us what a Christ-centered life looks like. And when Paul summons us to live a life worthy of the gospel, he's issuing a call to self-examination. I wonder, do you on a regular basis take the time to sit down and reflect on your life and see why you're making the decisions that you're making? Do you ever sit down, just you and your conscience, and ask yourself what is it that is motivating me? What is it that is causing me to make the decisions that I'm making, which in turn leads to my actions, which in turn leads to my lifestyle? So here in Paul's summons, to live a life, to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, there really is a call to self-examination. To stop daily, frequently and examine ourselves, and if necessary to repent of what we see.


A call to self-examination

If we never take the time to examine ourselves, to see why we're doing what we're doing, why we are motivated in the way that we're motivated, we probably will never repent of those things that we need to repent of. See, even as Christians, we can sear our conscious and we can engage in sinful activities to the degree that after a while they lose their sting. And the weight of conviction is not felt as it should be. And before you know it, we don't even consider it a sin anymore. We don't even think about it anymore. We don't get that knot in the pit of our stomach, that kind of a warning bell saying, wait a minute, hold on, you shouldn't be doing this, check yourself. So implied here in the call to live a life worthy of the gospel there's a call to self-examination. We need to examine ourselves.
And then Paul goes on to help us understand what the characteristics of a worthy life are. And he's going to flesh them out for us. He's not going to leave us in the dark at all. He's going to show us how this truth, and, this is key, he's going to show us how this truth can be applied during a time of suffering. We must never ever forget that Paul writes to this church to this book to the church at Philippi as they were suffering. Yes, he writes them to help them to live with joy. But the backdrop of that is that they are suffering. They are a group of suffering believers, he makes that clear in his letter. And so he writes to them and says, hey, this is how you can, even in the midst of your suffering, even in the midst of your persecution, even during the time of darkest trial, you can still live in a manner that is worthy of the gospel.
And as I said last week, he does so by drawing on two images that were very familiar to them to demonstrate what this all looks like. The first image, as we saw last week, was that of being a good citizen. Some of the believers in Philippi had achieved status as a Roman citizen. And those who had certainly taken great pride in their citizenship. So Paul uses that image to help them understand how they should live because they are a citizen of a much greater kingdom. They are a citizen of a kingdom that is beyond compare. He wants them to help them to understand this is how you should live because you are a kingdom of heaven. You are citizens of heaven.
This week, I read some stories of those who immigrated to the United States and became citizens and the common thread when people become US citizens is they have great joy. They take pride in the fact that they have been able to accomplish a goal, a dream for them, and they have become a US citizen. And I thought to myself, what about us as Christians? Do we have the same kind of joy? Do we take the same kind of pride in our heavenly citizenship? Or do we slink around, not wanting anybody to know, living on the fringe, living on the edge, never telling people who we really are? What if Christians in this country, in this world, would stand up in mass and say, I'm a citizen of heaven? That's the most important thing. Yes, I was born in America. I was born in Canada. I was born in Istanbul, but I'm a citizen of heaven. And that means more to me than any other citizenship. Do you think the world would take notice of that? What if we quit fighting over the things that aren't going to matter for eternity and say, I'm a citizen of heaven. And so as a citizen of heaven, Paul says, you need to live in a manner that reflects that.
So here's the big picture. In order for us to show the world that we are citizens of heaven and in order to live as citizens of heaven, we need to live in unity. That's the big picture. And then there are three things in the text that Paul is going to show us, that demonstrates how we can live in unity. So here's the first one. By the way, let me just back up. I don't want to forget this. You know, there is tremendous power in unity. We've heard now since March "we're all in this together". And I know we may not, we may be sick and tired of hearing it, but the reality is, we are all in this together. And we can fight, kick, scream, whatever, but that's not changing the situation. And the reality is if we would understand that we are indeed all in this together and that we would be unified in what they would say is the possible solution to all this perhaps this would all be over much sooner. I said in the first service, I feel like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day, it's just the same after the same, after the same, after the same. I was at the dry cleaners and the lady said, "oh, it's it's almost the first of August." I say, can we just skip the rest of the year and go right to 2021? I'd be much happier that way, you know?


The power of unity

Unity. There's power in unity. The world understands the need for unity. The world understands that there's power in unity, but sadly, many Christians do not. And they show it by their actions. And Paul is advocating that Christians of all peop