The Second Sunday in Lent

March 16, 2025

Philippians 3:17-4:1

God’s Surprising Strategies—

No Detours Allowed!

17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We all know that there are many teachings in the Bible that many people find difficult if not impossible to embrace. Whether it’s the Creation of the world or the Incarnation of the “Word who became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14), whether it’s what the Bible teaches concerning the social issues that are dividing our society today or what the Bible teaches concerning the obedience and the respect that we owe to the government God has given to us— it is getting more and more difficult to find agreement even among those who claim to be His followers. (Pointing to the cross)

In my opinion, one of the clear Biblical teachings that many people find difficult to embrace is that from God’s perspective there are only two groups of people on the earth: believers and unbelievers, sheep and goats. From God’s perspective all of these people are following one of two paths. There is the wide path that leads people directly into hell and there is the narrow path that leads people directly into heaven. (See Matthew 7:13-14) Purely by His power and purely by His grace God has placed us on the narrow path that leads us home to Him. Today the apostle Paul reminds us that while we may be tempted to step off the narrow path and travel down the wide path we need to remember that when it comes to getting home to heaven there are: No Detours Allowed!

Historians refer to the City of Philippi as a “little Rome.” Philippi was home to many Roman citizens. Philippi was also a very popular place for Roman soldiers to retire. We know the City of Philippi as a “shining light” in the early Christian church. (See Philippians 2:12-18) The congregation in Philippi was founded by the apostle Paul on his second missionary journey. You may recall how Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” (Acts 16:6ff.) When we read Paul’s letter to the Philippians it becomes clear that the congregation in Philippi was near and dear to Paul’s heart. That close personal relationship comes out very clearly in our text for today. One of Paul’s concerns, however, was that having been called to faith in Jesus, the Philippians now needed to consciously strive to stand fast against two groups of people. There were the Judaizers who said that even the Christians need to follow the Law of Moses in order to be saved. And then there were those who maintained that since Jesus died to free us from the rules and the requirements of the Law, we are now free to live our life however we choose to live it. With those two groups of people in the back of our mind, let’s look at our text.

Paul’s love and Paul’s concern for the Philippians are seen in the opening verse of our text. He writes, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”

Is Paul actually boasting about himself? Is Paul beating his own drum or tooting his own horn? Not at all. Since the Philippians were so near and dear to his heart, Paul couldn’t bear the thought that they might start listening to one of those two groups of people and start walking down the wrong path in life. Therefore Paul was determined to do everything he could to make sure that did not happen. To achieve that goal Paul used himself and other faithful Christians as examples for the Philippians to follow.

It doesn’t take much for us to realize why Paul offered himself as an example for the Philippians to follow. The only reason Paul was a “good” example for the Philippians was because they undoubtedly knew all about Paul’s background— how Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, and how Jesus transformed Saul the Persecutor into Paul the Apostle. They knew that Paul was a good example to follow because they could see and hear Paul’s own close personal relationship to Jesus and his trust in what Jesus had done for him. Paul didn’t want people to know how “great” he was. Paul wanted them to know how “great” God is in his life. It was the Lord who had so dramatically turned Paul around. It was the Lord who now kept Paul on the narrow road that would lead him home to heaven. And it was the Lord who could and would do the same for the Philippians.

Who is near and dear to your heart, my friends? Whether it is a family member or a friend who do you dearly want to be in heaven with you? What can you do to help make sure that happens? Not only can you talk to them and encourage them to stay close to Jesus but consider how you could be a good example for them to follow. Remember that the unspoken example of your daily life oftentimes speaks louder than your words!

To help the Philippians see how serious it is for them to stay on that narrow road — without taking any detours!— Paul reminds them of something he had told them many times before. Look at verses eighteen and nineteen of our text. Paul writes, “For, as I have often told you before and now say even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”

Who is Paul talking about here? The easy answer is to say that Paul is talking about those people— the people who do not believe and trust in Jesus as their Savior. To this day we can look around at those people and see how they are living as “enemies of the cross of Christ.” To this day we can look around and see those people whose “god is their stomach.” Either literally or symbolically they live to satisfy their physical and sensual desires. To this day it is very easy for us to look around and see those people whose “glory is in their shame.” Not only do they boast about things that God considers “shameful,” not only do they support and promote things that God considers “disgraceful,” but they will attack you if you try to warn them of how “shameful” and how “disgraceful” God considers the things in which they “glory.” It’s also not difficult for us to look around and see those people— the people whose “mind is on earthly things.” When you listen to what they say, when you watch the things they do, when you observe how they are living their life it appears as though they are focused on only the perishable things of this world.

That’s the easy answer to the question, “Who is Paul talking about here?” A far more difficult answer is: Paul is talking about his fellow Christians, which means that Paul is talking about you and me! Staying on that narrow road can sometimes feel very restrictive and very boring. Without even consciously realizing it we may want to take a little detour— just for a little while. We may want to throw ourselves into Fat Tuesday and enjoy the pleasures this world so freely offers to us anticipating that one day we will give up all those pleasures for Lent and go back to walking on that narrow road. But for now we want to walk on the wide road and have a little fun. I don’t have to tell you how dangerous it is to take that detour. Once we are on that wide and easy road, once we get caught up in all the “fun” that people have been telling us we are missing out on, not only can it be difficult to come back to the narrow road, but our “road” in life may come to an end much sooner than we had anticipated.

With that in mind look back to what Paul says at the beginning of verse nineteen, “Their destiny is destruction.” The word that is translated here as “destiny” is the word, “telos.” “Telos” means “goal.” Whether they realize it or not the “telos,” the “goal,” the “destiny” of everyone who is traveling down that wide easy road is “destruction” — eternal “destruction”! This portion of our text reminded me of what Asaph wrote in Psalm 73. As Asaph looked around at all those people, when he saw that they were living happy, carefree lives, when he saw the prosperity they were enjoying, he said to himself, “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain I have washed my hands in innocence.” And then? And then he wrote, “When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their final destiny.”

After encouraging his dear brothers and sisters in Philippi to follow his example as well as the example of “those who live according to the pattern we gave you,” after warning them not to take a detour so that they could indulge in the pleasures of this world, Paul now focuses the attention of his dear brothers and sisters on their “telos,” on their “goal,” on their “destiny.” Look at verses twenty and twenty-one. Paul writes, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Here is where we need to remember that the City of Philippi was an important Roman colony. It’s possible that many of the people in this congregation were Roman citizens. Even if they weren’t Roman citizens themselves they were very familiar with the rights, the privileges and the protection that came with Roman citizenship. What Paul is reminding his dear brothers and sisters in Philippi is this: as valuable as Roman citizenship is, their “citizenship in heaven” is infinitely more valuable! I found it interesting that the verb that is translated here as “is” is not the ordinary regular verb for “is.” The verb that the Holy Spirit had Paul use here very literally means, “to be at one’s disposal.” The noun form of this verb is translated, “possession.” With that in mind we might say that Paul is reminding his dear brothers and sisters in Philippi— and Paul is reminding us!— that our true “citizenship,” the most precious “citizenship” there could ever be is our “heavenly citizenship”! And if the Philippians thought that Roman citizenship brought with it tremendous rights, privilege and protection, that was nothing compared to the rights, the privileges and the protection that they had as their “possession” because of their “heavenly citizenship”!

After lifting up our eyes to heaven Paul then reminds us why we want to stay on that narrow road— without taking any detours. As “citizens of heaven” we are “eagerly awaiting” for the day when our dear Lord and Savior will return to this earth from heaven above. On that day He will use His almighty unlimited power to “transform our lowly bodies to that they will be like his glorious body.”

Picture that truth in your mind, my friends. The bodies that you and I have now are “lowly” bodies. They are “humble” bodies. The longer we have these bodies the more we realize just how “lowly” and how “humble,” just how weak and just how perishable they are. That is why the older we get the more “eagerly” we “await” the day that Jesus will “transform” the very same bodies that we have now so that they will be like His “glorious body.” This automatically reminds me of what the Holy Spirit had Paul write in 1 Corinthians 15, the great Resurrection Chapter of the Bible. He writes, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body … I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44; 50-54). This is what we “eagerly wait for” as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven! This is the “telos,” the “goal,” the “destiny” that belongs to everyone who is walking that narrow path through life!

Paul then closes our texts by once again expressing that close personal relationship he enjoyed with his brothers and sisters in Philippi as once again expresses his goal for them. He writes, “Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!”

Because the members of the church in Philippi had such a special place in Paul’s heart, he urges them to “Stand firm.” “Stand firm” against anyone who says that even though you believe in Jesus in order to be saved you still need to follow the Law of Moses. “Stand firm” against anyone who says that since Jesus has fulfilled the Law for you, you are now free to enjoy your life in whatever way seems best to you. “Stand firm”— not in your own power, not in your own cunning, but “Stand firm in the sphere of the Lord.” (Pointing to the cross.)

Paul’s willingness to openly express his love and his concern for his brothers and sisters in Philippi along with Paul’s heartfelt plea that they “Stand firm in the Lord” is something that we would all do well to take home with us today. We all have people who are near and dear to our hearts. We all have people whom we dearly want to spend eternity with us in heaven. Therefore, may God grant that we will follow the example of the apostle Paul. Warn them not to walk the wide and easy path that only and always leads to eternal destruction. Encourage them to stay on the narrow path, the path the good Lord has placed them on, the path that only and always leads home to heaven. And when necessary remind them: No Detours Allowed!

To God be the glory!

Amen