The Pulpit Commentary — Philippians — Section 124

Ill. BUT THERE ARE EVIL EXAMPJ,ES IN THE CHURCH. 1. Many who are calfor/ by the Name of Ghrist mind ecirthly things. 'fhey will not take up their cross and deny themselves; they serve their own lusts. Such men are really enemie~ of the cross of Christ; they hate the cross, they shrink from the cross, and they grievously check the progress of the gospel. The Nnme of God is blasphemed through them. The em! of such men is destruction. 2. Such evil lives cause real gruf to the true Christian. St. Pa.ul weeps when he speaks of them. Fools make a mock at sin; the apostle weeps. He knows the meaning of sin, its exceeding sinfulness, its awful danger. It is a miserable thing to see men laugh at drunkenness or other forms of vice; these things kill the souls of men, souls for whom Christ died. The apostle reminds us of the psalmist, "Rivers of water run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law." LESSONS. Learn: 1. To study the lives of holy men, to imitate their graces, to avoid their errors; their history is written for our admonition. 2. Above all, to study the one perfect Exa.mple, the life of Jesus Christ our Lord. 3. To set a good example ourselves, remembering the great influence of example for good or for evil. 4. To shun evil examples, to mourn over them. Vers. 20, 21.-The grounds for following St. Paul and other holy men. I. O= CONVERSATION IB m HEAVEN. The false brethren mind earthly things; follow us. 1. Our commonwealth is in heaven; we are citizens of the heavenly country. Here we are citizens of this realm of England; we have our sovereign, our magistrates, our fellow-subjects, our duties, our privileges. It is a shadow of heavenly things. The heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, is our true home, our continuing city. The almighty God, King of kings and Lord of lords, is the centre of that vast com- munion. The blessed angels, our guardians, are his ministers, standing before him, to do his will. The saints, living and departed, are our fellow-citizens, the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are WTitten in heaven, and the spirits of just men made perfect. There we have our privileges, the sacraments, the means of grace, the help of the Holy Spirit of God, the hope of everlasting blessedness. There we ba.ve our duties, all growing from the one highest law of love : "Thon shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; ... thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 2. Our real home is there now ( inrd.pxu). We are citizens of the heavenly commonwealth first, then of our earthly country. We are Christians first, then Englishmen. The name first given at Antioch is our highest title; it pledges us to unity, to holiness ; it pledges us to the service of the great Master, whose love passeth knowledge, whose life stands alone in its gracious beauty, in its perfect purity. Our home is in heaven, where he is; it is so now. "Ye are come to the city of the living God;" "Ye are fellow-citizens of the saints." 'l'herefore "seek those things which are above." There must our treasure be, there must we set our hearts. We should try by God's gractJ to fill our minds with the blessed thought of heaven, to accustom ourselves to med.ita.te daily upon its occupations, its never-ending worship, its unclouded contemplation of the Divine beauty. For there we hope to spend the ages of the everlasting life. It will be, we trust, our last, our unspeakably most glorious prize; let us try to fill our thoughts and imaginations with it now, not with the poor prizes of earthly success. Thus let us seek to realize those striking words," Our co=onwealth is in heaven." II. UHRIST IS IN Hl!:A VEN NOW; WE WAl'l' FOR ms COMING. 1. We are citizens of the heavenly country now; we have not yet its full privileges; we are heirs of the kingdom of heaven. llut Christ is there now; he will come a.gain as a Saviour. Then he will make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; we must be changed. He is changing our souls now (if we abide in him) by the power of his grace. '!'hen ho shall change our boJ.y, this body of our humiliation, the body which is now subject to disease and death, an,l sometimes, o.las I to the defilement of sensual sin. He shall make it like, in true and deop resemblance, to the body of his glory. Then shall be brought to pass the sayiug tha.t is written, "De11th is swallowed up in victory." 2. For he is able to subdue all things unto himself. All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth. Therefore we may not doubt his power. He can raise these bodies of ours from the dust of tho t>nrth, no longer natural, corruptible, mortal; but spiritual, incorruptible, immorto.l. Ue can do this, fur he can clo greater things than these.  THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. [cH. I[(, 1-21. -------------------------------- LESB01'-i>. LPnrn: l. To reg11rd heaven BI! our home. 2. To prnctiso it, employ- meots, 10 lenrn the new song hN'e on ellrth. 3. To remember that tho eternal lifo b,•gitu hPre. "This is life C'ternal, to know . . . God and Jesus Christ.. " 4. 'l'o love tho appenring of the Lord, to look earnestly for his coming. 6. 'l'o rejoice in tho hope ol rising in the glorious resurrection-body.