10/13/13

From Jim McGuiggan... Finishing a Good Work

 

Finishing a Good Work




Here's a tiny group of people different from the rest of the happy pagan world. Because they were different they were having a hard time (1:28) and it appears they were wavering a bit because the man who began the work in their city was himself thrown into prison (1:12-18). Since we all have the sense that happiness should accompany truth and goodness hardship is a bit of a blow.
So was Paul's agenda to create a community of believers in Jesus Christ at Philippi? And if so, wasn't it likely that it would all end in tatters and failure?
Paul told them he prayed for them all the time both with thankfulness and confidence (1:3-6). His thoughts weren't gloomy. The size of the pagan world and all its power didn't drive him into depression because he wasn't the one who began the good work in the Philippians, it was God himself (1:6)!
The good work has only "begun". They weren't to see it as already completed. They hadn't "arrived". This that they were experiencing was real enough and glorious enough but it was only part of a bigger and more glorious picture. Knowing that a tough piece of narrative is part of a bigger and grander story brings relief as well as hope. It has a happy ending! Knowing that makes it easier to work through the really gritty parts. It was a "good" work God had begun in them and he would see it through.
And would Paul say that to us? Of course he would. So what does a passage like Philippians 1:6 mean to us? It means that one day we (yes "we", not others) in a better world will be standing close to Jesus Christ and some angels will whisper in awe as they look in our direction, "How like the Master they look. They're the absolute image of him." And how can we be sure that this is our future? He is faithful who called us and he will do it (Philippians 4:19).
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.