“Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (II Cor. 3:2).

Since the Corinthians were saved by Paul’s gospel (I Cor. 15:1-4), the apostle calls them his epistles. Webster said that an epistle is “a writing… communicating intelligence to a distant person.” Surely the “intelligence,” i.e., the information that the Corinthians communicated to the world was that even the most sinful of men could be justified by God’s grace (I Cor. 6:9-11).

But if Paul could say to the Corinthians, “ye are our epistle,” why does he go on to say that they were “manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ” (3:3)? Ah, a letter written by an apostle under the inspiration of the Spirit was a letter from Christ! And since everyone who is saved today is also saved as a result of having believed Paul’s gospel, you too are a Pauline epistle! And so the debate over whether Paul wrote 14 or just 13 epistles is over! The apostle penned millions of letters over the past many centuries.

It has often been said that you are the only Bible that some people will ever read, and this is sadly so. What a responsibility this places on us to live lives worthy of the Lord! Handwriting experts can tell who a letter is from by the way the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, etc. Can men tell who sent you, Christian friend? Are you dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s when it comes to godliness? Many Christians who wouldn’t dream of corrupting the written word of God found in Paul’s epistles (II Cor. 2:17) carelessly corrupt the living epistles of their lives by inconsistent godliness. Remember, letters don’t get time off! They read the same today as they did yesterday, and we too should be as consistent in our Christian testimony. If you are holy on Sunday and a holy terror the rest of the week, this is unacceptable to God (Rom. 12:1,2).

Since the epistle of our life is “known and read of all men” (II Cor. 3:2), we want to make sure we don’t give men a faulty “reading” of Christ. All men understand by the stars that God exists, as the stars too are known and read of all men (Psa. 19:1-3). But while all men understand by the stars that God exists, all men understand by us what kind of God He is. When we live “soberly, righteously, and godly” (Titus 2:12), we prove to others what is acceptable to the Lord (Eph. 5:8-10).

“Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).

Interestingly, whenever Paul uses the phrase “stand fast,” it is always to challenge people to stand fast in an area in which they were not standing fast! For instance, he tells the Corinthians to “stand fast in the faith” (I Cor. 16:13), for they had lost their faith in one of the fundamentals of the faith, the resurrection (I Cor. 15:12-50). He told the Galatians to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Gal. 5:1) because they were forsaking grace for the law. He told the Thessalonians to “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught” (II Thes. 2:15), especially the “tradition” of working for a living (3:7-12). The Thessalonians had become so excited about the Rapture that many of them quit their jobs in anticipation of the Lord’s coming!

But here in Philippians 1:27, Paul tells the Philippians to “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” This is because two ladies in the church were quarreling (4:2), and some in the church were siding with Euodias and some with Syntyche. “Striving together” is the Greek word sunathleo. The prefix sun means together with, and athleo is the word from which we get athlete and athletics. Athletes are often teammates who must strive together to achieve a common victory, and this is what Paul was calling on the Philippians to do for the cause of Christ.

Notice Paul isn’t talking about faith in the gospel. The faith of the gospel is our faithfulness or fidelity to maintaining the gospel as God gave it, just as old “high-fi” or “high-fidelity” records claimed to be highly faithful to the sound recorded in the studio. We are to strive together to maintain fidelity to the gospel God gave to Paul.

Finally, Paul does not say we should strive with one another for the faith of the gospel. He rather says we should be striving “together” as those who see the fellowship of the mystery with those who don’t. With all the talk about “peace on earth”, how refreshing it would be if we could enjoy the “conversation peace” Paul longed to see in Philippi! (Psa. 133:1; Eph. 4:3).

Our month January is named after Janus, the mythical Roman god of gates and doorways. Janus had two faces which looked in opposite directions, just as January looks back on the old year and forward to the new. Hypocritical people are often called “Janus-faced” or two-faced. Abraham Lincoln, not known for his good looks, was once called Janus-faced. He responded, “If I had two faces, do you think I’d wear this one?”

We can avoid being Janus-faced spiritually by putting off the old man and putting on the new man (Eph. 4:22-24). But many Christians find this difficult. Some feel they could more easily muster up the spiritual fortitude to live a consistent Christian life if they could just speak to the Lord “face to face” on a daily basis, as did Moses (Ex. 33:11). This blessing is of course not available to us during this dispensation—or is it?

When Paul told the Corinthians that one day they too would see the Lord “face to face” (I Cor. 13:12), he spoke not of the day when they would see His face in heaven, but of a face-to-face relationship with the Lord that they actually lived to see and enjoy. You see, as Paul wrote these words the Bible was not yet complete. Consequently, men were able to see God only as “through a glass, darkly.” The crude glass of ancient days gave men an unclear view of what was on the other side.

It reminds me of how before the launch of satellite telescopes, Earth-based telescopes labored under the limitation of having to peer at the stars through the earth’s atmosphere, which distorted man’s view of the heavens. One scientist likened it to bird-watching from the bottom of a lake! But the launch and perfecting of the Hubble telescope gave science a crystal clear image of Creation.

In much the same way, the addition of Paul’s last epistles completed the Word of God (Col. 1:25), and launched our understanding into the heavens (Eph. 1:3). Now as we look into the pages of God’s completed revelation, we are able to see God Himself “face to face.”

Paul used yet another metaphor to drive this point home. Looking into the unfinished Word of God was also like looking into the crude mirrors of those days. Mirrors in Paul’s day gave imperfect reflections, and so while everyone else knew exactly what Paul looked like, Paul himself knew what he looked like only “in part” (I Cor. 13:12). Similarly, with the Bible incomplete, men had an unclear view of the image of God. But once the Word of God was complete, Paul predicted: “then shall I know even as also I am known,” i.e., then he would know God as clearly as men knew him.

Thus there is no excuse for us to be two-faced Christians. As we peer daily into the pages of the written Word of God, we can see God “face to face,” and can sculpt our lives into His image:

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Cor. 3:18).

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

While probably everyone has an idea of what it means to be kind, the precise definition of kindness might surprise you! Let’s begin by seeing how the Bible defines this word, as we compare Scripture with Scripture:

In II Chronicles 10, Rehoboam had just inherited the throne of Israel upon the death of his father Solomon (9:29-31). When the people asked if he would ease the financial burden that his father had placed upon them (10:1-5), Rehoboam “took counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon” (v. 6). These elders wisely replied,

“If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever” (v. 7).

However, the parallel passage in I Kings 12 records their words differently:

“If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever” (v. 7).

Far from a discrepancy, this variation in what these men were heard to say that day is God’s way of defining kindness. To be kind to a man means to be a servant to him. This agrees with Webster’s definition of the word “kind”: “Disposed to do good to others, and to make them happy by granting their requests, supplying their wants…,” etc.

How important is kindness? When Rehoboam “forsook the counsel of the old men” (I Kings 12:8), and determined to be more unkind than his father ever dreamed of being (vv. 14,15), “Israel rebelled against the house of David” (v. 19). This was the beginning of the great division in the twelve tribes of Israel, as Jeroboam led ten of the tribes in revolt away from the house of David, driving a wedge between the ten tribes of Israel and the two tribes of Judah (I Kings 12:20-33). In other words, millions of people were divided for a thousand years—all for the lack of a little kindness!

In closing, while your lack of kindness is not likely to have that kind of monumental effect in the world, it will affect someone. Why not rather decide right now to be Pauline in practice as well as in doctrine, and “be ye kind one to another!”

“Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates…” (Titus 3:1).

Who are these “principalities and powers” to whom we must be subject? Well, we know there are different kinds of principalities and powers, since in Ephesians 6:12 we are told to “wrestle” them, while here we are told to “be subject” to them! Ephesians, of course, speaks of the unseen demonic host, “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” who wrestle with us as we proclaim God’s Word. But Titus 3:1 speaks of the human rulers of this world, the “magistrates” in government to whom God says we must be subject (Rom. 13:1-7).

You wouldn’t think Christians would need to be told this, but once we learn we are already citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), it is easy to think that this somehow negates the responsibilities of our earthly citizenship. But remember, while there is “neither bond nor free” in Christ (Gal. 3:28), Paul still tells servants to “be obedient unto their own masters” (Titus 2:9). While there is also “neither male nor female” in Christ (Gal. 3:28), Paul still tells wives to “submit yourselves unto your own husbands” (Eph. 5:22). And while in Christ we are already citizens of heaven, we must still be subject to magistrates.

Solomon warned, “fear thou the Lord and the king; and meddle not with them that are given to change” (Prov. 24:21). This refers not to voting men out of office, but rather to getting involved in subversive anti-government activities. God has said that the meek in Israel will inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5), and so He plans to fix all of earth’s governments for them prior to the establishment of His kingdom (Rev. 11:15). But this world is not our inheritance, we’re “just a-passing through” it, and so fixing her governments is not our fight.

An example from Israel’s past might serve to illustrate this. As Israel was passing through the wilderness on her way to the Promised Land, Edom refused to let her pass through their land (Num. 20:14-22). Why didn’t Israel fight, as they later fought those who resisted them in Canaan? Because God had instructed them to “meddle not with them,” since Edom was not their inheritance (Deut. 2:1-5)—they were just a-passin’ through! Just so, this world is not our inheritance, and so we should “meddle not with them that are given to change” its governments. We are called to “fight the good fight of faith” (I Tim. 6:12), and “no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (II Tim. 2:4).

Even in these challenging financial times, the greatest need of a Christian is not monetary. It is rather found in Colossians 1:11, where Paul prays that we might be

“Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all…”

Unto all what? Whatever it is, Paul is convinced we are going to have to be “strengthened” with “all might” according to “His glorious power” to obtain it. As we read on, Paul tells us the goal of all this empowerment:

“…unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.”

Patience? The reason we need all this mighty empowering is so we can be patient? While this may seem anticlimactic, we submit that patience is our greatest need. We need patience to put up with the world’s wickedness, the abortions, etc., patience in knowing the Second Coming of Christ will right the world’s wrongs. We need patience as televangelists continue to dominate the airwaves with their dilutions and pollutions of the gospel, and patience as Bible teachers muddle the minds of the saints by their failure to rightly divide the Word. And since no man today has the gift of healing, we need patience with our physical infirmities, and longsuffering as we wait for that wonderful change that will come to our bodies at the Rapture (Phil. 3:20,21).

Finally, we need patience with one another, as we learn to not just put up with other believers, but to actually give them the same unconditional love and acceptance God extends to us. Moses was patient with unbelieving Pharaoh, but lost his patience with his brethren. How like us! But ask yourself, when did David show greater spiritual strength, when he slew Goliath, or when he refused to slay Saul?

Paul says we are to be strengthened to all patience “according to His glorious power,” but what is God’s glorious power? The destructive power He exhibited at the Red Sea is called “glorious” (Ex. 15:6), but we suggest that God’s glorious power today is seen in His patience. The fact that God could put an end to the abortions and religious confusion, but doesn’t, is His most glorious power in the dispensation of grace.

The apostle concludes by praying that we might be patient “with joyfulness,” perhaps the hardest part of longsuffering. God doesn’t chafe under the vexations He receives from the world, religion, and the Body of Christ, and neither should we!

If this kind of power were not available to us, Paul would not be praying that we might have it. And so may his prayer also be the prayer of our hearts, as we enthusiastically study the only source of spiritual strength, God’s Word rightly divided.