Philippians 1:12-18 Picking your Battles Wisely for the Advancement of the Gospel

¹² I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, ¹³ so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. ¹⁴ And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

¹⁵ Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. ¹⁶ The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷ The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. (Philippians 1:12-18)

Recap

The freedom of an innocent and harmless man has been taken away. When Paul formerly persecuted, beat and dragged Christians into prison he had all the freedom to do so. But the moment Paul becomes a follower of the crucified Messiah and begins preaching Christ, he becomes a marked man. It was okay in the world’s eyes for Paul to live by violence, but the moment he lives by the righteousness of God, he suddenly becomes a threat. The enemies of the Gospel in silencing Paul have deliberately tried to silence the Gospel. This Gospel which Paul preached was an offense to the world and the authorities. This new found religion was considered a cult, threat, offense and even a vulgar joke. Paul’s freedom is now severely restrained. He now finds himself confined in prison. The freedom of movement he first enjoyed during his early missionary journeys was now restrained to imprisonment.

Bruised Flowers Advance the Gospel

The late Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, founder of the international organisation called ‘The Voice of the Martyrs’ was a Romanian evangelical Pastor who wrote the deeply moving book ‘Tortured for Christ.’ He found himself in a very similar situation to the Apostle Paul. Soon after the communists seized power in Romania in 1944, Russians troops began pouring into the country. Pastor Wurmbrand begins ministering to his oppressed fellow countrymen and to the Russian soldiers, printing one million Russian Gospels of John. One year later the communists invite all the religious leaders in Romania to conference called the ‘Congress of Cults.’ Pastor Wurmbrand and his wife Sabina also find themselves in attendance. It was the aim of the communists to get the religious leaders to swear allegiance and loyalty to the new communist regime. In effect they were saying you can have religion, but you will have it our way. As many of the religious leaders all begin stepping forward to swear their allegiance and loyalty to the communists, many of whom where vicars and pastors; Sabina famously whispers to her husband “wipe the shame from the face of Jesus.” Pastor Wurmbrand, knowing the cost, steps forward and tells the 4,000 delegates that their duty as Christians is to glorify God and Christ alone. This obviously didn’t impress the communists.

In 1948, after leaving a Sunday morning church service, the secret police kidnap him and place him in a solitary prison cell. Locked up in prison they soon arrest his wife and throw her into a forced labour camp. Their son Mihai is left abandoned and Sabina is told by the authorities that her husband died in prison. Three years later she is released and reunited with her son and continues to work with the underground church. After serving eight and half years in prison, mentally and physically tortured the communists allow Pastor Wurmbrand to go, but warn him never to preach again. He soon resumes his ministry, only to be arrested again a few years later and handed a 25 year sentence.

In his book “In God’s Underground,” Wurmbrand describes the various horrors he suffered in prison: sleep deprivation; starvation diet; forced to race around his tiny cell for hours until he collapsed; beatings with truncheons and boots; water funnelled down his throat until it filled his stomach, which was then violently kicked; the soles of his feet flogged Inquisition-style; guards urinating and spitting into his open mouth; drugged into delirium; and terrorized by dogs kept inches from his throat.

¹² I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel…

But it didn’t stop there because what has happened to Pastor Wurmbrand has really served to advance the Gospel. Let me share with you briefly how the sufferings of Pastor Wurmbrand and his family really served the advance of the Gospel:

• Some years into his sentence Pastor Wurmbrand and his family are ransomed for $10,000 and allowed to leave the country. They go to Washington D.C. and before a senate testify of what happened. His story spreads rapidly across the U.S. and all over the world.
• 1967 - The ministry of “The Voice of the Martyrs” soon begins and his testimony is published in the book “Tortured for Christ.” The first issue of a monthly newsletter begins spreading the news of the persecuted church all over the world.
• 1968 – 1969 – Voice of the Martyrs launches balloons with Chinese Gospels into China and begins Scripture balloon launches into North Korea.
• 1970 – VOM equips Christians and Churches with Bibles and other literature in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Guatemala. Many young people are won to Christ.
• 1972 – Russian songbooks are written by hand and smuggled into the country. It is reported that Russia had the fastest growing church in Europe.
• 1972 – Most North Koreans do not have radios, so a powerful loudspeaker is set up on the border between North Korea and South Korea to broadcast the Gospel.
• 1973 - Spanish tracts are dropped off boats and floated into communist Cuba.
• 1990 – After 25 years of exile, in 1990 Richard and Sabina returned to Romania and helped set up a Christian printing facility. In fact, the city of Bucharest offered one of the very cells Wurmbrand had been held to store Christian books.
• 2010 – VOM continues stronger than before. Supporting the persecuted church in countries like Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq. The work continues with hundreds and thousands of Pastors, workers and missionaries all over the world making known the Gospel in some of the darkest places in the world.

¹² I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, ¹³ so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. ¹⁴ And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. (Philippians 1:12-14)

Can God turn what is intended for evil into good?

Oh beloved, God is sovereign in every situation of your life. What is meant for evil, God can use for His good. God is not caught off guard or confused when His servants are thrown into prison. God doesn’t need to come up with plan B when things look like they are going wrong. Paul in prison was part of God’s plan. Pastor Wurmbrand was also part of God’s plan. If you are in a similar prison right now, or maybe in the future, you can rejoice in knowing that you are part of God’s bigger plan. Colossians 3 tells us to be spiritually minded and to seek the things that are above where Christ is. Set your mind on things above and begin to see the bigger picture of God’s hand.

I am sure many would have said to Paul “you shouldn’t have gone there, you should have taken precautions, you could have done this.” But Paul was where he was. Pastor Wurmbrand was where he was and what made them unique was how they dealt with their given situations. The intended evil turned out to advance the Gospel and be used by God for good.

v13…so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

“A flower if you bruise it under your feet, rewards you by giving you its perfume.” Richard Wurmbrand

Shake off the Martyr Complex

I often hear of Christians talk about suffering and persecution when someone disagrees with them, rejects their message or abuses them. My friends let it be known that this is not suffering and persecution, this is expected. Jesus said you will be hated by all for His names sake. Some Christians need to shake of this “martyr complex” they walk around with. They make it out as if they are the only righteous ones and that everyone is out against them. They haven’t got a clue what it means to suffer and be persecuted for the Gospel sake.

Believers can often adopt a kind of martyr complex in which they will take any form of rejection as spiritual validation. If people hate me, then I must be doing something right because people hated Jesus. If my church disagrees with me, then my theology is probably correct since the religious rulers of Jesus’ day disagreed with him too. We see ourselves as a kind of heroic martyr figure. Beloved in Christ, let this not be named amongst us who go by the name of Christ. This kind of thinking easily allows us to deceive ourselves. Instead of probing the nature of our rejection, we immediately exalt ourselves as being all the more Christ like.

If anyone had a reason to be like this it was the Apostle Paul or even Pastor Wurmbrand during their imprisonment for Christ. But their words of joy and comfort tell us something about their spiritual maturity in Christ. These are not the words of angry, bitter or even confused men.

¹² I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, ¹³ so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. ¹⁴ And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

“A flower if you bruise it under your feet, rewards you by giving you its perfume.” Richard Wurmbrand

Pick your battles wisely

¹⁵ Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. ¹⁶ The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷ The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

The Apostle Paul had decided not to pick any battles whilst in prison because in his estimation the great priority of the Gospel was being preached. Paul could have got his hands dirty and decided he was going to deal with all those individuals one by one. But Paul was not only wise, he was mature.

In verse 18 Paul says “What then?” What then should he do? He has this group of people of his left who are nothing but jealous, envious and full or rivalry. He has this group of people on his right who have pure intentions. What then? Paul decides he was going to take the middle route and let them be and let them continue, so long as they preached Christ. In this he rejoices. He acknowledged these smaller and lesser battles of wrong motives and didn’t downplay them at all. He was not suggesting for one moment that it was okay. However he was certain that God would have the final say. Paul was not trying to be the thought police or motive police. I am pretty certain that there are those types of Christians out there who would have quickly branded him “compromised” or “liberal.” This was far from being compromised or liberal; it was a display of Christ like maturity and wisdom.

Christian Maturity

The signs of maturity in a Christian’s life is the battles you see them fighting. Far too often Christians get caught up in battles which are unnecessary. They expend their time, energy, strength and resources on vain issues. They are dealing with the bugs and creepy crawlies in their back garden whilst the enemy stands on the lawn of their front garden. It’s not to say these creepy crawlies don’t need to be dealt with, but we must learn to prioritise the more important things in our lives.

In military history hills have always been an important part of achieving victory. However an entrenched force on a hill is often a thorny enemy. So it is possible that many commanders have asked themselves, “Is taking this hill worth the many casualties our army may suffer?”

¹⁷ The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What then?

Friends, we need to pick our battles wisely. Don’t beat a dead horse and don’t burn your bridges. You may need to walk across them again one day. I like what John Piper writes:

As a nation during wartime focuses its collective resources on winning the war, so also we seek as individuals and an organization to focus our resources on the goal of achieving our shared mission. We believe that this involves pursuing strategic simplicity with regard to non-essentials in order that more resources may be channeled to the war effort. As individuals, each person must determine for himself how the Lord wishes for him to live out a war-time lifestyle. As an organization we will seek a wartime approach not only in the use of resources but also in pursuing strategies and processes that are effective in winning the war (Desiring God)

Like in all areas of life, we need to learn to choose our battles carefully. Don’t die on the wrong hills. Paul tells Timothy:

²³ Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. (2 Timothy 2:23)

⁹ But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. (Titus 3:9)

Paul is saying to avoid anything which is foolish and ignorant. Avoid them like the plague. Remaining silent is a strength and not a weakness. Do not feel like you always have to have the last say in everything.

Don’t Fight Blind

However, if you do feel the Lord has called you to fight certain battles, then be prepared, well trained and make sure you yourself are example. The worst thing you can do is fight a battle you’ve never gained victory over or have clearly understood. Study God’s Word thoroughly; be well acquainted with what the Bible teaches in that area and share your convictions with humility, love and gentleness. You need to understand if it is an essential or a non-essential battle you are about to fight and draw the lines early. Remember, blind guides lead blind followers into pits. Jesus said “And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Paul tells Timothy:

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

Far too often when a Christian forms a conviction about a certain doctrine they begin forcing it upon others and become quite aggressive in making everyone around them share their conviction. When they see others do not conform to their conviction, they begin labelling others as compromised or lukewarm. A.W. Tozer wrote:

“Be hard on yourself and easy on others. Carry your own cross but never lay one on the back of another.”

Jesus strongly rebuked the Pharisees and religious leaders of His time for not dealing with bigger issues of justice, mercy and faithfulness. They spent most of their time focusing on the petty little issues.

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ²⁴ You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!  ²⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Beloved in Christ, be like Paul in advancing the Gospel. Do it with humility and joy. Be like Pastor Wurmbrand who when stepped on, gave off a fragrance to the glory of God.

That I May Know Him 2010

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Tags: Desiring God, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, Philippians 1:12-18, Tortured for Christ, Voice of the Martyrs

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