Striving Side by Side Philippians 1:12–14, 19–30; Isaiah 55:6–9; Matthew 20:1–16
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who loves us and strives for us.
We’re going to talk about Striving Side by Side, based on our Epistle, especially verse 27, 27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ… standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
We’re going to talk about striving side by side for the Gospel.
This involves four things:
1. Striving, endeavoring, do one’s best…
2. Side by side, together, in fellowship…
3. for the sake Gospel, or as our text puts it, for the faith of the gospel, believing…
4. … and not afraid, not intimidated by the enemies and critics of the Gospel, but boldly believing and confessing it.
First, let us strive…
… let us endeavor, let us try to do our best, in living a life that honors God, and is worthy of the Gospel… as our text says, 27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
The dictionary lists “doing one’s best” as one of the synonyms of “striving”.
But in this fallen life, when do we ever do our absolute best? We could always do better.
And with Gospel in our heart, and our mind, that’s what we want to do, more and more: to do better in this blessed, Christian life, each day to be more like Christ.
The genuinely Christian response to God’s grace and forgiveness, is to grow, and do better in living a life that’s worthy of and bears witness to the Gospel.
Grace, taken to heart, results in Christian growth.
While we’re never perfectly worthy, which is why we can only live by grace, as Jesus taught us in his parable in today’s Gospel… none of us are more, or less, worthy of salvation…
… all who are saved, are saved only and entirely by God’s grace, through faith in Christ, not by any good we’ve done.
We’re worthy of the Gospel, not by the moral quality of our lives, but by the grace and goodness of God.
Having said that, God’s grace, taken to heart, impacts and improves the moral quality of our lives, and our Christian love.
This is what Paul means when he encourages to live a life that’s worthy.
God’s love in us, His Spirit in us, makes us want to do better… to better obey our God… and better honor our Savior with our thoughts, and feelings, and words, and deeds...
… in our work, in our relationships, in our worship, in our devotion, and in our bold and loving witness of Him in the world…
… and in all the many contexts of our life… to strive to honor Christ in them all… for He is worthy… worthy of all blessing and honor and glory and praise, as Revelation 5 says… and we sing in our liturgy, with the words of, “This is the Feast”.
Let us strive to serve, honor and obey Him… side by side, together… close together… because as we’ve said many times before… together, we’re better!
But alone, we’re more vulnerable, which is why the devil is always striving… to separate and alienate us from the fellowship of the Church…
… always tempting us to ignore, or take for granted, or neglect, our relationships and our closeness, as the family of Christ.
We strive for Christ better, when we’re together.
In places where people are severely discriminated against and persecuted for being Christian, they better understand how much we need the fellowship in order to stay strong.
In those lands where the Gospel is opposed by unjust laws and corrupt governments, Christians leaders are sometimes imprisoned, with the intention that separating them from the closeness of the fellowship, will demoralize them to the extent that they might renounce Christ…
… and it’s done to try to intimidate other Christians, that the same persecution may happen to them, unless they give up the faith.
But the people of God keep their persecuted brothers and sisters close… by their prayers for them.
Let us not do the devil’s work for him, by voluntarily separating ourselves from the fellowship of God’s people around His Word, and His table…
… let us remain close together, in heart, and in person… as Hebrews 10:25 says, 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, to do better, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
In our changing, declining culture, which is increasingly unfriendly toward the Gospel, and toward the commandments of God, we need each more than ever... we need our weekly time together around God’s Word…
… we need to stay close and connected, so that the devil doesn’t pick us off one by one...
… which is his mode of operation, that’s usually how he does it… he tries to isolate us, and then he attacks our faith.
Let us strive together for the Gospel of Christ, side by side, close and better together…
… and not afraid…
As our text says, not frightened in anything by your opponents…
Let the world do its worst against us and our faith, we have better, we have Christ… and we have each other.
We have His Word, and His Sacraments, and prayer, and all the mighty weapons the Spirit, greater than any of the weapons of the world.
The weapons of the world are sin, and hate, and violence, and deception, and intimidation, and persecution.
In contrast, we have the weapons of love at our disposal… the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
And so we freely share them, fighting sin with goodness, fighting hate with love, despair with joy, betrayal of faith with faithfulness, fighting violence with gentleness, and overcoming weak morals with self-control.
We have the fruit of the Spirit to replace evil with good…
… and we have the weapons of the Spirit, the means of grace, to empower us to do that.
Ephesians 6 says, Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the devil’s schemes…
… Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, God’s true and holy Word, to refute and correct the lies of the world…
… and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ that saves us, given to us by faith in holy Baptism, and nurtured by the Gospel, to count as our own…
… and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace… which passes our understanding, Paul says…
… the Gospel through which we are abundantly forgiven, our Old Testament says.
In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one… the power of faith, which overcomes the doubts and temptations of a secular world and culture.
And take the helmet of salvation, crowned with salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God… the weapon we wield in truth and love, to overcome Satan and evil in the world, and to bring true love into the world, and salvation, and all the gracious life-giving gifts of God.
Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication… the power of prayer, of which the devil is terrified…
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
Striving side by side means praying for each other, and praying together, as we serve the world with God’s Word of truth…
… not frightened by the opponents of the Gospel, as our text says…
… but, as Hebrews 10:23 says, holding fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
He is with us, helping and strengthening us, as He has promised, “Lo, I am with you always.”
So let us strive to live a life worthy of the love of Christ, and this blessed life we bear witness to…
… let us strive side by side, because we’re stronger and better together.
And finally, together, in fellowship with God and each other, we have and we share, the peace that passes understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, whom we strive to love, honor, confess, and obey. Amen.