the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Philippians 1:19-30
The heart of man is so constituted that it cannot be left empty. It feels a hunger, which the world, like a large departmental store, makes every effort to satisfy by a wide variety of its most desirable products. But we know from experience that however attractive a display of food may be before lunch, it ceases to attract us after it! This somewhat familiar comparison helps us to remember this: nothing else exercises an attraction for a heart filled with Christ. It was so with the beloved apostle: Christ was his one object, his only reason for living. Who would dare to apply to himself this v. 21? However, Christian progress consists in realising it more and more. Christ alone was enough for Paul, both to live and to die. Facing these alternatives, "he did not know what to choose. By dying he gained Christ; by living he serves Christ" (JND). Love for the saints inclined him rather to remain.
The defence of the gospel, as in every combat, involves sufferings (1 Thessalonians 2:2 end). But these sufferings are as much a gift of grace from the Lord as is salvation, a privilege He grants to the saints (v. 29). Instead of pitying the Christians who are persecuted, should we not rather envy them? At least let us pray for them. We shall thus take our part with them in the conflict for the truth.
