The Pulpit Commentary — Philippians — Section 52

Ver. 21.-.An ideal life blooming into a happy death. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is ga.in." Paul, having expressed in the close of the preceding verse his supreme resolve that Christ should be ma.,unified in his body, whether it be by life or by death, here describes the life he was dererrnined to live, and the death which he was certain to realize. The subject of these words is-An ideal, life blooming into a happy death. Here is-- L lJ IDEAL LIFE. "For to me to live is Christ." An utrerance this terse and pithy, carryin!! the divinest idea of life. The meaning may be thus expressed: living, 1 shall live Chrut. I shall live as he lived, with the same master purpose a.nd inspira- tion. In relation to this life two remarks may be mane. 1. It is sadly ra1·e. Indeed, it is rare to live at all; living and ezisting are widely different conditions of being. All who breathe, sleep, eat, drink, follow out their animal instincts, exist; but none but those who have some dominant purpose that fires their passions and concentrates their facultia;, live. To live means earnestness in some pursuit or other; the pursuit may be political, martial, mercnntile, literary, artistic, or religious, and all who are earnest in their quest may be said to live. But this kind of life is rare. Millions exist on this earth for seventy years, and do not in this sense live oi;i.e day; whereas those who have lived e.amestly have become grey and old in a single night. The martyr, tho night previous to hie execution, lives years in a few hours. The thoughtless thousands who bowed t.o the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, existed; the three Hebrew youths lived an age the night before they were thrown into the fiery furnace. Saul of Tarsus lived the three days and three nights after he was divinely smitten with the conviction of sin, while he lay still and sightlese. Indeed, to be earnest in anything is to live. If you take a census of tho;;e who ezist on the earth, you have only to count the numbers that breathe, and they are legion; but ff you take the census of those who live, you must count tlie souls that are really in earnest, and they are in a terrible minority. But whilst it is rare for men to live at all, it is for rarer for men to live to Clirist to live the ideal life, the life in which all bodily impulses are governed by tho intell~t and all the intellectual faculties governed by the conscience, and a.II the powers of the CC:nscience ruled by the will of God. To live as Christ lived is to become incar- nations of him. 'l'his was the life that Paul determined to live, and witli this deter- mination he broucrht all the rivulets issuing from tlie heart-ocean of his being into the majestic stream of a Christly philanthropy and devotion. Alas! again, how rare this life! If the masses of men who are really in earnest, and who therefore live, were to express their belief, they would say, "For us to live is wealth, power, s~ience; ~-no more. Christ is no more to them than any of the gods of Olympus. 2. It 1s manifestly i/11'1,erative. It is urged on every man by the authorit,y of reason, conscience, and the gospel. I( .An ideal life DLOOHLNG INTO A HAPPY DEATH. " 'l'o die is gain." To whom? To the LJ:Jan whose life is Christly. It is not gain to those who live to sensual enjoyments and 011, I, 1-30.] THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 17