Analyze your lifestyle

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again 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. 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. 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! (Philippians 3:17 - 4:1)

With these words, Paul shows us the difference between those people who live as "enemies of the cross of Christ" and those who live as citizens of heaven. As we think about these two lifestyles, I challenge you to look at your own life and answer the question—which kind of lifestyle describes your life? Do you live like an enemy of the cross of Christ, or do you live as a citizen of heaven?

Paul tells us three things about the lifestyle that opposes the cross of Christ—for people who live this way, their god is their stomach, their glory is in their shame, and their destiny is destruction. Let’s take these one at a time.

Their god is their stomach. Your "god" is that thing which dictates how you live your life. If your God is the Triune God, you will live your life as if loving others is more important than seeing to your own pleasures. You will refrain from killing, stealing, or showing disrespect to your parents, because your God has told you that this is how you are to live.

But if your god is your stomach, your priorities in life will be different. If the most important thing to you is to feel good, then your decisions will be to embrace what gives you pleasure and avoid that which brings inconvenience or discomfort. When a person’s god is the pleasuring of their body, laying in bed for another hour’s sleep is going to win out over the sacrifice of getting up to go to church and worship God. When a person’s god is their stomach, there is nothing wrong in getting drunk, smoking, overeating or getting high, because all these things give immediate pleasure. When a person’s body is their god, there is no reason to wait until marriage to have sex, because their god has taught them, "if it feels good, go ahead and do it."

Such a life contrasts sharply with that of the person who regards himself as a citizen of heaven. The person who treats his or her lust for pleasure as the most important thing in life pays little attention to the future. He or she doesn’t think about the harm that alcohol or nicotine or methamphetamine will do to their bodies as the years go by; they don’t worry about high blood pressure or diabetes or cancer. They don’t consider that Jesus, who died a horrible death on the cross, paid an awful price to win them freedom from addiction to the harmful things of this world. The citizen of heaven, on the other hand, focuses most of his or her attention on the future. Such a person does not regard this sin-filled world as their permanent residence; he or she thinks about life in this world as a journey on a ship, where the final destination is heaven. Heaven is the country where such people plan to live forever; their King is the King of heaven, and although they are not living in heaven yet, they choose to live their lives according to the laws of that distant country, not according to the ways of the ship that they are passengers on, the ship called earth. In speaking of the faithful men and women of the Old Testament, Hebrews chapter 11 says: All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one.

The person who is a citizen of heaven is concerned with being a good citizen. Their King Jesus has said, If you love me, you will obey what I command (John 14:15). And what has the King commanded? Simply this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). Such commands are completely opposed to the desires of the body for pleasure. The body resents the sacrifices involved in having and raising a child. The body objects to hard-earned money being donated to proclaim the Word of Christ. The body resists setting aside time to listen to God in worship or in Bible study. But the citizen of heaven knows that children are a gift from God, and that He expects them to be raised as solid Christians—in Deuteronomy 6:6-7 God says: These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. The citizen of heaven knows that everything he or she has is a gift from God, loaned to them for use in service to God—in Luke 6:38 Jesus says, Give, and it will be given to you. The citizen of heaven knows that God expects us to devote time to Him on a regular basis; on the Mount of Transfiguration, God the Father said of Jesus: This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him! (Matthew 17:5)

Their glory is in their shame. People who live like enemies of the cross of Christ are proud of things that a Christian would find shameful. Such people are proud of being gay or lesbian, and expect everyone else to honor their sinful behavior. Such people promote abortion as giving women "the power of choice". Such people encourage the news media to pry into peoples’ private lives and announce to the world their every shortcoming, because people "have a right to know." Such people praise excessive shopping as a way to make oneself feel good. Such people honor those who are willing to do whatever it takes to be beautiful, trendy, or powerful.

Such a lifestyle is very different from one based on the pattern that Christ gave us. In 1st Corinthians 6:18 Paul writes, Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. The pattern of life that Jesus gave us regarding sexual orientation and marriage is this: Haven't you read…that at the beginning the Creator `made them male and female,' and said, `For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate (Matthew 19:4-6). In Psalm 139 David writes, You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The pattern of life that Jesus gives us regarding abortion is implicit in these words: Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these (Matthew 19:14)--to which God the Father adds, You shall not murder (Exodus20:13). In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus speaks of the importance of privacy when He says, If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. The pattern of life that God gives us regarding confidentiality is summed up in Proverbs 11:13, A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret. As for finding happiness through shopping, Jesus is quite clear: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21). And as to the importance of gaining popularity through being attractive, trendy, or influential, Jesus establishes this pattern for us: If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all (Mark 9:35).

Their destiny is destruction. This is the result of living a lifestyle that is hostile to the cross of Christ. Such a lifestyle is ultimately unfulfilling. The person who is focused on pleasure becomes an addict, always looking for another piece of chocolate, another drink, another sexual partner. The person who glories in his or her shame is constantly on the defensive, shrilly challenging anyone who disapproves of the decisions that they make in pursuit of their sinful lifestyle. But the dissatisfaction of a wasted life is nothing in comparison with the torment of eternity in hell. Jesus describes hell this way: their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Matk 9:48). This is figurative language, but it is grisly—the image that Jesus creates is of a body being eaten by maggots, a body being burned by fire—a body that undergoes terrible suffering that never ends, because that suffering body is never allowed to find relief through death.

How different a destiny this is from the destiny of those who eagerly await the return of the Savior. For these blessed people, eternal life is pleasure, not pain. God described heaven this way: There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4). There, the redeemed will be able to look at God and see Him in all His wonderful glory. There, the saved will be reunited with every loved one who died as a believer in Christ. Holy Scripture often describes heaven in terms of a wonderful banquet that never ends. One such example we find in Isaiah chapter 25: the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine--the best of meats and the finest of wines…He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces.

At the beginning of this meditation, I challenged you to evaluate your own life as we contrasted the lifestyle that leads to hell to the lifestyle that is influenced by the cross of Christ. How did you do? Based on this comparison, are you confident that your lifestyle is up to God’s standards? Or was this a humbling experience? Have you discovered that some of your lifestyle choices are at odds with what Jesus desires from you? If you have been honest with yourself, I daresay that like me, you have precious little to be proud of. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We deserve nothing but God’s divine anger for our shortcomings.

But Jesus knows that we cannot be perfect, no matter how hard we try. So He came to earth to be perfect for us; through His sinless life, Jesus met God’s expectations for a perfect life on our behalf. And then, since we each have earned eternity in hell because of our misplaced priorities, Jesus allowed Himself to be insulted, tortured and put to death, suffering for us all of God’s righteous anger at our sins. Because of Jesus’ obedient life and sacrificial death, we are spared God’s anger for all the times that we have chosen a lifestyle that labels us as enemies of the cross of Christ. Because of Calvary our past mistakes can be erased, and we can start today anew as citizens of heaven--people who follow the pattern of life given us by our Lord, people who wait in eager expectation of our Savior’s triumphant return. All this can be ours when we ask Jesus to forgive us, and place our hope for the future in His hands alone.

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!