As an elderly person, I have passed through a great many experiences in human life. Under the sovereign hand of the Lord, I have been in a great many different circumstances. I have known poverty, and I have known what it is to have my needs supplied. I can testify that in all the circumstances of human life anxiety is present. Anxiety is a word that can sum up human life. The totality of human life is anxiety. If you ask an older person about anxiety, he will tell you that he has known anxiety almost every day of his life.
Paul speaks of anxiety in 4:6 because he realizes that it is the totality of man’s life. Paul also realized that forbearance is the totality of a proper Christian life. Paul knew that human life is constituted of anxiety and that the Christian life is constituted of forbearance. Thus, to live Christ is to have forbearance without anxiety.
It is not possible to understand Philippians 4 adequately simply by studying this chapter in letters. We need experience with the Lord in order to understand Paul’s meaning. Fifty years ago I did not have a proper understanding of this chapter. But through many years of study and experience, both in human life and in the Christian life, the Lord has opened my eyes to see that the genuine Christian life is a life of forbearance. I have come to realize that just as anxiety is the totality of human life, so forbearance is the totality of the Christian life. This is the reason Paul uses the words forbearance and anxiety together in charging the saints. Positively, we should make known our forbearance. All those who come in contact with us should know our forbearance. Negatively, we need to have a life without anxiety.
To be a proper human being we need to be Christians, and to be normal Christians we need to have the church life. However, if we are to have the proper and genuine church life, we need a life full of forbearance but without anxiety. To have such a life is to live Christ.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Years ago, I began to read books on this verse. However, I could not understand what it meant for Christ to live in me. The explanation of Galatians 2:20 is found not in Galatians, but in Philippians. In Philippians Paul says not only that Christ lives in us; he goes on to reveal that to live is Christ. To live Christ surpasses simply having Christ live in us. Living Christ means that we have a life full of forbearance but without anxiety.
Any amount of anxiety decreases the measure of Christ in our experience. Even a little anxiety causes the measure of Christ to diminish. The extent to which Christ is present in our daily life is determined by the amount of forbearance and anxiety. If we have forbearance, we have Christ. But if we have anxiety, we are short of Christ. In your living day by day, how much forbearance do you have and how much anxiety? Which is greater—the degree of forbearance or of anxiety? Probably most of us would have to admit that in our daily life we have more anxiety than forbearance.
I wish to emphasize the fact that to live Christ is to have forbearance but no anxiety. If we have forbearance we shall not have anxiety. But if we have anxiety, we shall not have forbearance. Forbearance and anxiety cannot coexist.
Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Paul opens 4:10 with the words, “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly.” Furthermore, in 1:18 Paul, speaking of his affliction, says, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is announced, and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice.” Paul’s word about rejoicing is especially significant when we consider his circumstances. He was a prisoner in Rome, and certain of his opposers were doing everything possible to damage his ministry. Nevertheless, Paul declares, “For I know that for me this shall turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (v. 19). As we have pointed out previously, salvation here means to magnify Christ by living Him. Thus, Paul says, “According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death” (v. 20). Paul did not expect to be put to shame in anything.
Suppose one of Paul’s co-workers visited him in prison and found him anxious, sorrowful, and full of worry. No doubt the one visiting him would have said, “What a shame to see the very apostle who ministered Christ to us so sorrowful and anxious!” If this had been Paul’s situation, he would have been put to shame. But Paul magnified Christ. No matter how difficult his circumstances were, he did not have any anxiety. Because Paul was not anxious in anything, he was not put to shame in anything. Instead, Christ was magnified in him.
Paul could magnify Christ because he had forbearance. Even during his imprisonment, Paul had a great deal of forbearance. He considered the churches, he had a proper understanding of the saints, and he had the ability to supply the saints and those around him with love, mercy, kindness, and sympathy. Because he exercised his forbearance in full, there was not a trace of anxiety. Paul could even say that he expected Christ to be magnified in him whether through life or through death. This indicates that Paul was not worried about death. The thought of death did not make him anxious.