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fourth gain
Philippians 2:12-18 (JDV)
Philippians 2:12 For this reason, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own rescue with fear and trembling.
Philippians 2:13 You see, it is God who is achieving things in you – both to want and to work according to his good intention.
Philippians 2:14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing,
Philippians 2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are unblemished in a crooked and corrupted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world,
Philippians 2:16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.
Philippians 2:17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am still glad and rejoice with all of you.
Philippians 2:18 In the same way you should also be glad and rejoice with me.
fourth gain
In 1:21, Paul said that if he were to die for his faith, it would be gain. I already said there were three ways this would be considered gain. He would consider such a death “gain” for him, because it would be a witness to his faith in Christ. It would be a gain for Christ, because it would honor Christ with his body. It would also be gain for the gospel, because as Tertullian put it “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” (Apologeticus, Chapter 50).
Here is the fourth way that a martyr’s death would be gain. Paul spoke of being “poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of (the Philippians’) faith. If his death accentuated the truth of the gospel which the Philippian Christians were believing and preaching, it would be gain for him, because his whole life is centered around decalring that gospel.
Lord, may we hold firm to the gospel, so that those who gave it to us at the cost of their lives will not have died in vain.
See also
https://jeffersonvann.com/2013/07/02/acst-61-the-advents/
https://marmsky.com/2011/05/06/joy-from-others/
https://www.afterlife.co.nz/2013/08/looking-at-1-thessalonians-510/
https://jeffersonvann.com/2013/08/02/looking-at-1-thessalonians-510/
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