"Paul's Letter to the Philippians — To Live AND to Die — Christ"

The glory of what Paul has written here is so evident and clear.  To live and to die, all for his eternal glory, yes, but also for our gain!  This is simplicity indeed, but the details of it are unquestionably challenging.  We all can fill in the blanks from our own life experience since we became Christians.  The challenges of this life have been many  . . . and we know they will continue to be challenging.  But triumphing over them all is the theme found here and throughout Paul’s letters.  There are so many places where he highlights the dynamic resource found at the very center of his life, even the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. As we have seen, Christ has become “a life giving spirit” and lives his life in each of us who know him.  In today’s study we shall see how the apostle’s great desire in life was not only to live well, but also to die well.  By well, of course, meaning to bring glory to Almighty God.  He mentions “boldness” in living and how even in his body Christ would be magnified.  That was his unshakable confidence.  It is no wonder then that he would add these words in verse 21: “For to me to live [is] Christ, and to die [is] gain.”  For in the context of the first chapter of Philippians, for him that is the most natural thing of all.