Suffering and Friendship: The Value of Humble Obedience

Based on Philippians 2:1-11

For years my dad quietly took care of my car. I was embarrassingly old before I figured out that my oil needed changing, my tires needed rotating, and my windshield wiper fluid could run out. This is because for so long every time I came home from college, or for a visit, my dad would sneak my keys and disappear while I was sleeping or busy doing other things. He’d bring it back fully maintained, and I was none the wiser.

My dad was doing this while also running a company, sitting on non-profit boards, teaching Bible studies, and caring for numerous friends and family. Taking care of my car should not have been his priority. He had every right to leave that to me. In fact, he was in many positions to demand being served… yet he didn’t see himself in that way. Instead, he saw himself as a servant – and so he spent his “spare time” serving others.

This is the same kind of humble service and obedience that Paul encourages his friends with in Philippians chapter 2.

Chapter 1 is full of encouragement about the good purposes of suffering, and ends with the promise that his friends will also suffer if they stay close to Christ. Then in Chapter two, as though Paul understands the weightiness and fear that might accompany that kind of promise, Paul immediately encourages them by pointing them to Jesus’ own example of enduring hardships.

Jesus, being fully God, could have demanded us to save ourselves and to serve him. Yet, he chose to humble himself and take on the role of the servant. Jesus served us all the way to the cross – not even avoiding death for our sake.

If Jesus could eagerly, willingly, lovingly suffer for us, how much more ought we to eagerly, willingly, and lovingly suffer for his glory?

In Philippians 2:13 (what I view as the theme verse for Philippians) we come to the promise that it is God who both gives us the willingness and the power to walk through hardships.

…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Philippians 2:13

Paul is not naïve to think that a self-help motto or 5 step program is going to give his friends the strength they need to delight in their sufferings. After all, delighting in suffering sounds rather crazy… and it would take a complete transformation to allow us to find joy in hardship. But at the same time, Paul also knows it’s not impossible:

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the same, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2

Count is all joy, my brothers, when you meet trails of various kinds…

James 1:2

So, how do we apply this to our own suffering? I think Paul summarizes the application well in Philippians 2:12-18:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Philippians 2:12-18

1. Our humility should lead us to obedience, even in our suffering.
2. Suffering is not an excuse to stop obeying the Lord – instead it should spur us on toward greater obedience.

It takes a lot of work to obey in the middle of hardship… yet the hard work of obedience to Christ is never a vain pursuit. For when we suffer, it’s like our lives are under a microscope to those around us, our friends especially see the hard things we walk through, and when they also see our obedience to Christ – that sends a powerful message.

Paul specifically lists the following ways we can act in obedience in our suffering:

• Do all things without grumbling or disputing (vs 14)
• Hold fast to the word of life (vs 16)
• Be glad and rejoice (vs 18)

This is a hard list… I know…

But when obedience feels impossible I go back to Philippians 2:13, and I ask the Lord to give me the desire and the ability to persevere.

I encourage you to pray this week and ask the Lord which of those three acts of obedience he wants you to focus on doing. If you want to email me, I’ll joyfully pray alongside you this week and celebrate the ways God is using you to encourage others in your difficult season.