Feeding The Dog (Philippians 3: 17-4:1) 3/3/13

          Over a life spent in the practice of law, I have had occasion to work with many fine individuals, for which I am most grateful. Unfortunately, one cannot spend so many years in one area without also being exposed to another sort of practitioner. There are also those who can’t handle the power, who can’t stay away from the limelight or the back room drama. There is an old saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power is intoxicating. You must handle it with great care or it will handle you. Power comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be just as addicting to be the lead teacher at it is to be superintendent, just as heady to be mayor as it is to be governor.  It all ends the same way. The misuse of power destroys those who wield it. Many fall during life, some from great and public pedestals and some in the silence of their own overwhelming guilt. But sooner or later, all fall from grace.

          A curious phrase: “falling from grace.”  We see sports figures and entertainment superstars and government officials engaged in scandalous behavior. Eventually they are marred so deeply that they fall from the public eye, having risen like meteors only to fall the same way. We call that falling from grace, in the sense that they are no longer our heroes and heroines.

          The apostle Paul talked to the Philippians about others who had fallen from grace. He warned his new church of those who would mislead them. But for Paul, those unnamed people were much more dangerous than the modern day sports hero or errant congressman. He called them “enemies of the cross of Christ,” a label that Paul pinned upon them with his own tears. He realized the great damage of which they were capable and he cried for the fledgling church for which he felt personally responsible. He called the members of the Philippian church his brothers, not just once, but twice. He feared for them because he understood what was at stake. To believe in anything other than the cross and all that it represented was to reject the only path to salvation.

          Who were the enemies of the Cross? Paul does not identify them specifically, except to say that they were espousing the wrong message. There are as least two possibilities. We have talked before about Judaizers, those who wanted the Gentile Christians to observe the rituals of the Jewish law, including circumcision. Paul rightly identified this as a salvation that wrongly mixed works with faith. This emphasis on legalism undermined the Cross.

Another possibility is that Paul was combating Gnosticism, a branch of which believed that salvation is only for the soul, that the body is inherently evil and separate from the soul. This was antinomianism, a belief that resulted in throwing off all moral restraints. Whatever was done or not done with the body was unimportant. Immorality reigned under the mask of legitimate religious practice. This too alienated those trying to follow the Cross.

Whether Paul was dealing with Judaizers or Gnostics or both, he had his hands full. These people were persuasive. Like so many others that you have met in your own lives, they had all the answers. The answers contained more than just a grain of truth in them. They were close enough to sound like the truth, but they were just far enough from it to miss the Cross completely. A little heresy can go a long way.  So Paul gave these new believers some practical advice. He said: Follow my example and the example of others who are like minded. Paul was not bragging. He lived his life so that his was an example to be trusted, and he also recommended others whose lives and example were similar in the faith.

Who do you worship? We all say that we worship God, but we need to pay close attention to whether our actions reflect our words. There is a new series on television called Golden Boy.  A young, smart, ambitious detective is climbing quickly through the ranks of the New York City Police Department. His partner, much older, becomes his mentor. The first piece of advice our hero receives is a caution: There are two dogs living in the pit of every man. One is good and one is evil. Which one will dominate? The one you feed the most!

That sounds dangerously close to the life that I have experienced. I’m never been that far from that hungry dog of selfishness, growling in the pit of my stomach. Have you had similar experiences? It would seem that life never changes, wouldn’t it? Essentially it doesn’t…unless you allow Jesus Christ to be your most important relationship. Jesus makes the difference in our lives. In the words of Paul, “the Lord Jesus Christ…will transform our lowly body to be like his body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Paraphrased in the words of the older and wiser detective, Christ is the dog we need to feed the most.

Our world is little different from that of the first century. Our church is the same in many ways as that of the early church. Today we have great roads and large powerful armies. So did Rome. Today we have small groups and house churches. So did Asia Minor and even Jerusalem in post Temple Israel. But today we have technology and smart phones. We have hospitals and automobiles. Today we have many advantages and life for many of us is much easier than it was for those of Paul’s day. And yet, today we also still have the poor and the disadvantaged. Nations still vie against nations for power. Our world is still worldly. Today, we are still misled by leaders in every arena of life from government to business to church itself.

Paul has the answer. We must be transformed. We await a coming Savior. Our god cannot be our belly or our job or even our family, for that would make us just like the Judaizers and the Gnostics of old and, incidentally, those old problems are alive and well today. The labels may have changed, but the problems persist.

Paul’s answer is about that dog that wants to be fed. Which dog gets your attention? Will you feed the god of selfishness? Will you spend your time and your energy worrying about whether you have enough? Enough money? Enough life insurance? Enough friends? What is enough? To spend your time chasing those shadows is to play right into the hands of those who miss the cross, who miss salvation itself.

Will you follow those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ? Or will you find those who walk according to the Christian example? Paul’s answer is to have the right allegiance. He says “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await our Savior…”

Listen to these words from Julia Ward Howe, penned in 1861.

She was watching a public review of Union troops outside Washington and a minister friend suggested that she write a new fighting men’s song. Staying at the Willard Hotel, she awoke before dawn with the words spinning through her mind. While she wrote six verses originally, four have traditionally survived in the printed version. What she wrote is laced with biblical passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Revelation and others.  Some have said it should be renamed “The Bible Hymn of the Republic.” These words speak to a citizenship that transcends the bonds of earth and reaches within us to something more noble, more lasting. Listen to how the hymn ends and think about Paul’s message to the Philippians That message resonates as much today as it did in the first century.

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;

As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,

While God is marching on.

Paul ends his appeal in the beginning of Chapter 4. He again calls upon his brothers. Gone is the trumpeting of the evangelist to his congregation. Gone is the ordering of the father to his children. What remains is the kind entreaty of a man who reaches out lovingly for his brothers. Paul has seen these people come to a belief in Christ and that makes them equal with him and brothers in Christ. He calls them his joy and crown.

To whom do you answer? To whom lies your allegiance? Where is your citizenship? The Apostle Paul’s words sing out to us as strongly as that Battle Hymn from yesterday’s war. Paul speaks to us today as strongly as if he were here.  He warns us to act with discernment, to beware of false teaching and faulty leaders, within and without the church. He reaches out to us to gather us back into the fold. He encourages, even pleads with us. “Stand firm in the Lord.” Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the right example.

Our power comes not from our armor. Our courage comes not from ourselves. Our salvation comes not from our works. It comes only from the saving grace of our Lord. Stand firm in the Lord, and only the Lord. Acknowledge, and cling to, your heavenly citizenship.