Imitate the Apostle; Our Citizenship Is in Heaven (Philippians 3:16–4:1)

Phil. 3:16. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

This passage too is somewhat obscure. Our Russian translation—“however, to what we have attained, we must think in the same way and live by the same rule”—yields the following meaning: let us at least stand firm in what we have attained, on the level to which we have risen, in the way of thinking in which we have become established, and in the rules of life in which we have become confirmed. It is as if a concessive allowance: if for you it is too much to press always forward and forward with no end in sight—at least do not fall back; remain as you are, as you have been formed, without swerving either to right or left, be faithful to yourselves. — Or the meaning may be: we must conform our way of thinking and rules of life to what we have attained and understood, to what has been impressed upon us as conviction. This is akin to the rule that one must follow one’s conscience in all things, and, as it recognizes something to be true or obligatory, so must one conform one’s deeds and life to it. The Apostle says to them, as it were: although I said that if you think otherwise about anything, God will enlighten you—yet even without this, you certainly know the rule that one must follow what one has acknowledged as true and good; and I have clearly explained to you that you must not consider yourselves perfect, but always strive only forward, as ones who have not yet attained the required measure. Therefore you need not wait for special enlightenment from the Lord; take to conscience what I have clearly taught and enjoined, and act accordingly. — Or again: let us live and think as we have attained, as the matter of Christianity has unfolded in our consciousness, in no way offending our conscience, which always stands for the good that has been known. — What follows from this the Apostle leaves unspoken. But what will follow is the same as he has urged: life faithful to the known good will more and more unfold before consciousness the domain of the good and thereby expand the activity and strivings—and so we shall always press forward and forward.

To these same thoughts one can also turn the Church Slavonic translation: to what we have attained—“the same”—that very thing—that we have attained—“let us have in mind, and by the same”—that very same—as we have attained—“rule let us walk.”

So Oecumenius: “until God reveals it, let us stand firm in the measure we have attained, so as not to lose what has already been attained.” He also cites Photius: “until God reveals this truth to you, let us not destroy what we have attained. And how is it destroyed? If we relax from our former zeal or turn aside from the right path. We must live by one and the same rule—that is, strive with the same ascetic effort, show the same character, think the same concerning both life and doctrine. For just as he who changes anything in doctrine destroys all his previous right belief, so he who changes in the rules of life and does not keep the same fidelity to the commandments takes away the value of all that went before.”

Phil. 3:17. Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.

“Lest it seem that he enjoins something unfeasible and difficult, teaching them to labor all their lives in virtue and piety, he says: ‘be imitators of me, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.’ To walk here means to live. Before you, he says, are many ways of life. That you may distinguish who walks rightly and who does not—look at those who walk in the same manner as we walked, and follow them” (Photius, in Oecumenius).

“Fellow-imitators”—be co-imitators of them. — “Although I am not with you, yet you know the manner of my walk” (St. Chrysostom). Look there, and among yourselves, at those who imitate me, and together with them be co-imitators of me. It is not on you alone that I urge the pressing ever forward, not on you alone that I lay the burden of strict living. Look at me, look at others who go the same path. All run alike: there is no other path or manner of walking. Be animated, you too, for the same.

“Thus the Apostles were a pattern, preserving in themselves a kind of original image. Consider how strict was their life, since they were set as the original image, model, and living law! For what Scripture spoke, that very thing they manifested in all their deeds. This is the best method of teaching! But if someone speaks and reasons well, yet acts badly, he is still not a teacher; for to reason in words a pupil too can readily do; but instruction is needed, guidance in deeds as well. This both makes the teacher worthy of respect and disposes the pupil to obedience. How so? When a pupil notices that the teacher only reasons in words, he will say that the teacher demands the impossible; and that the teacher demands the impossible, the teacher himself first proves by his own non-fulfillment of it; but if the pupil sees that virtue is accomplished in deed, he cannot say this” (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 3:18–19. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their minds on earthly things.

All that has been said hitherto—his own example and the example of his other imitators—St. Paul brings forward in order to instill how necessary it is to live in strict self-denial and self-mortification, so that, having thereby communed in the sufferings of Christ, one may be counted worthy also of the glorious resurrection. But just as in paintings the shadows make the bright parts of objects stand out, so St. Paul, in order to make more evident how high a life the bearing of the Cross for the Lord’s sake raises Christians, sets before them the baseness of a life of ease and fleshly indulgence.

Live, St. Paul was saying, as I and many like me do; but by no means be drawn by the example of those who live only for their own pleasure. Example is captivating: choose what is better, what befits the spirit of your faith. When I was with you, I told you more than once that many live in such a way that they must be called enemies of the cross of Christ. And now I repeat the same with tears, because the evil does not diminish but grows, and many Christians are drawn into such a way of life. They are enemies of the cross of Christ because they not only bear no labors of self-denial and self-mortification, but cannot even bear to hear of them, and revile those who live strictly under this cross of Christ, amid privations and hardships. Their end is destruction; for those who seek ease have no part with Christ the Lord, who suffered and was crucified and commanded all His disciples to walk the narrow way; outside Christ the Lord is perdition. Their way is broad, but its “last things” look into the depths of hell. The center of such a life of fleshly indulgence is the belly. Everything is sacrificed to it; it is like a god to them; their only care is how to satisfy it. And such a base life they not only do not find shameful, but even count it to their glory. Or their glory is in their shame, because such persons, if they are glorified at all, are glorified only by shameful deeds. For a belly amply fed inflames the lower parts; and hence come shameful deeds of which it is not lawful even to speak. “Who set their minds on earthly things.” The concluding feature: all their aims and hopes are bounded by the earth. The goods above the earth are unknown to them. As a person cannot do without paradise, they hope to build their own—on earth.

Here is what St. Chrysostom says concerning such a way of life: “Nothing is more unseemly and inappropriate for a Christian than to seek repose and ease—a dissolute and indulgent life: nothing so contradicts our calling as a strong attachment to the present life. Your Lord was crucified, and you seek ease? Your Master was nailed to the Cross, and you give yourself to pleasures? Is this the conduct of a grateful soldier (of Christ the King)? Therefore Paul too says: ‘for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.’ Since there were people who outwardly adhered to Christianity yet lived in idleness and luxury, which is contrary to the Cross, the Apostle therefore speaks in this way. The Cross belongs to a soul that has entered into combat, that is ready for death and seeks ease not at all; but they live in the very opposite way. Thus, although they call themselves Christ’s, they are nonetheless enemies of the Cross: otherwise, if they loved the Cross, they would strive to lead a life fitting for the Crucified One. Was your Lord not crucified? If you cannot be crucified as the Lord was, you can imitate Him in another way. Crucify yourself, even if no one crucifies you: crucify yourself, I say—not so as to kill yourself, for that would be lawless—but crucify yourself according to Paul’s word: ‘the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Gal. 6:14). If you love your Master, die His death. Know how great is the power of the Cross, how beneficial were and are the effects it has produced. — Christ usually calls sufferings by the name of the Cross, when He says: ‘he who does not take up his cross and follow Me’ (cf. Mt. 10:38)—that is, whoever is not ready for death. And sensual people, lovers of life and of the flesh, are enemies of the Cross; and indeed everyone given to pleasures and earthly ease is an enemy of the Cross—that Cross of which Paul boasts, which he embraces and with which he strives to be closely united, as is evident from his words: ‘the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’ — ‘And now,’ he says, ‘even weeping, I tell you.’ Why? Because the evil has grown worse, because such persons are worthy of tears. Indeed they are worthy of tears—those who pass their lives in pleasures, who fatten the garment of their soul (that is, the body) and have no thought at all of the punishments in the life to come. Here you live in pleasure, here you revel today, and tomorrow, and ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred years—though that is impossible; yet let us grant it, if you like. What then is the end? What profit? None whatsoever. And therefore is such a life not worthy of tears and weeping? God has set us on this course to crown us, while we quit it without having done anything brave. So Paul weeps over what others laugh at and take delight in. — ‘Whose god is their belly.’ Therefore their god is: ‘let us eat and drink’ (1 Cor. 15:32). See how vile is pleasure? Some have money for their god, others have the belly. Are such persons not idolaters—or even worse than idolaters? ‘And whose glory is in their shame.’ Some say that by these words circumcision is indicated; but I say something quite different—namely, that they boast of that which they ought to be ashamed of. The Apostle says the same in another place: ‘What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?’ (Rom. 6:21). To do what is shameful is a grievous sin; yet the sin is somewhat lessened if the doer is ashamed of it; but when one even boasts of what is shameful—that is the height of insensibility. — But has this been said only of them? Does no one among us fall under this accusation? Is there truly no one among us who deserves it? No one who makes the belly his god? No one who places his glory in his shame? I earnestly wish—I deeply desire—that nothing of the sort could be laid to our charge, and I would even prefer not to know anyone to whom what has been said could be applied as a reproach; but I fear that Paul speaks more to us than to his own contemporaries. For if anyone spends all his life in drinking and eating, and gives little to the poor, and more of his means goes on the belly, does it not befit him too to apply what has been said? Nothing can more powerfully arouse shame and be more piercing than this saying: ‘whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.’ Who are these? Those ‘who set their minds on earthly things’—those who say: we will build houses. Where? On earth. We will buy fields—again on earth; we will get power—on earth; we will attain glory—on earth; we will grow rich—all on earth. — Here are those ‘whose god is their belly!’ For those who do not think about the spiritual, whose every care and thought is limited to the earth, truly have the belly for their god, saying: ‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (1 Cor. 15:32). — You laugh and amuse yourself, while by pleasures you are dragging the soul down to the dust. What forgiveness will you receive, having cast yourself into such insensibility, when even the body must be made spiritual? For this is possible, if only you wish it. You were given a belly in order to nourish it—not to expand it; to govern it—not to be subject to it; that it might serve you in nourishing the rest of the body’s parts—not that you might serve it; not so that you would overstep all limits. An overflowing sea does not cause so much harm as the belly does to the body and to the soul together. The sea floods the whole land; the belly floods the whole body. Set a boundary for it—sufficiency—as God has bounded the sea with sand. And if it surges, if it rages, forbid it with the authority given to you. See how God has honored you with reason, that you might imitate Him—and you are unwilling! But seeing the belly overfull and upsetting all your nature and turning itself into a swamp, you do not dare to restrain it and make it moderate.”

Phil. 3:20–21. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.

Imitate me, he says, in walking the narrow way of the Cross, but by no means be drawn by the example of those sensual pleasure-seekers, whose god is the belly and who think of nothing but earthly things. It does not become us to live as they live. “For our citizenship is in heaven.” “Let us not seek repose here, on earth; let us desire to be glorious there, where also our citizenship is” (St. Chrysostom).

“Citizenship,” πολιτευμα — citizenship, fatherland, our city, the heavenly Jerusalem. Toward it we must strive, for it we must prepare, to its laws and customs we must accustom ourselves—not set our minds on earthly things. Πολιτευμα also means the manner of life and occupation, as one says: his whole life consists in such-and-such—to signify that he is occupied with that alone. We must be occupied with heaven, be there in heart, be there in mind; let our treasure be there, and all our hopes there. We stand in complete opposition to those who rise no higher than the earth.

“From which we also eagerly await the Saviour.” He brings to completion the speech he began at the start of this section—that he desires to attain the glorious resurrection through communion in the sufferings of Christ. He had explained in every aspect the necessity of this communion and had stirred up zeal for it. Now he wishes to place everyone in a state of intense and unceasing continuance in this communion through a life of bearing the Cross and of self-denial—by lifting our gaze to heaven, where our citizenship is, and disposing us to await the Saviour from there. When he says that we await, by this he brings everyone into the state of those who wait—and consequently of those who are preparing to meet. Here is the same thought as in the parable of the steward.

“We await the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” We await the Judge of the living and the dead. But the Apostle, in accordance with the purpose of his speech, names the One awaited only as Saviour and Lord, and sets the purpose of His coming as the resurrection alone. After the resurrection comes the judgment. Speaking thus, the Apostle wants them to conduct themselves always so well that, when the Lord comes, His judgment will not touch us, but only the one glory of the resurrection will shine upon us.

“Who will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory.” In this lies the goal of the whole discourse. — The body of Christ is glorified; but it suffered beforehand. Let us enter into co-suffering with it through voluntary labors and privations and through involuntary sorrows. And the Lord, when He comes, will transform our body—which on earth was being made like His body in suffering—into a glorious body, even as His glorified body is glorious. “Will transform”—He will not give it a new form, but will clothe it in new properties: from corruptible He will make it incorruptible, from weak—strong, from gross and dark—refined and radiant. It will become such as the body of the risen Lord. Ah, this body will be conformed to that body which sits at the right hand of the Father; before which the Angels bow, before which the bodiless powers stand; which is above every principality, authority, and power—to that will it be conformed. But what do you say, Paul? Conformed to that body?! Yes, he says, to that one. If then the whole world will weep bitterly over those who have lost this hope—will it weep adequately over the fact that, even with the promise given to us of being conformed to the body of Christ, our body departs together with the demons?! (St. Chrysostom).

“According to the working by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.” According to that authority of which the Lord Himself said after the resurrection: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Mt. 28:18)—and by virtue of which “He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:25). The Apostle mentions this not in order to prove that the Lord, as the God-man clothed with divine omnipotence, is able to do this, but to remind us that this will come at the same time as all enemies of the Cross of Christ are abolished. For the thought of the Cross and of the necessity of bearing the Cross for those who are being saved and who hope for the glorious resurrection runs through this entire section.

“Therefore, though you see the worldly-minded in joy, though you see them in glory—stand firm, be not tempted by their example and do not fear. The hope of the glorious resurrection is powerful enough to rouse even the most slothful and drowsy. — Those who run, who strive, and who are conformed to the death of the Lord, as Paul said, can be counted worthy of it; but those who sleep in no way can. Those who sleep cannot accomplish even worldly affairs, still less spiritual ones; those who sleep can receive nothing from friends, still less from God. Parents do not honor the sleeping, still less does God. Let us labor a little, that we may enjoy rest always. It is altogether necessary to suffer; and if we do not suffer here, we shall suffer there. Why do we not resolve to suffer here, that we may find rest there?” (St. Chrysostom).

Phil. 4:1. Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, beloved.

“Therefore,” ωστε — a concluding and inferential particle. The Apostle draws a conclusion from what was said before concerning advancement in the Christian life, which must consist in taking up the Cross of the Lord and following in His steps, in the hope of attaining—through communion in His sufferings—the glorious resurrection at His second coming.

“So stand firm in the Lord.” Stand thus, as I have explained to you; be steadfast in faith and in life according to faith, as I have known you to be until now. Stand thus “in the Lord”—in hope in the Lord, in a manner pleasing to the Lord, in the work of the Lord, praying to the Lord for this.

With what tender names does the Apostle surround this exhortation! Not only “brethren”—but “beloved brethren”—and not only “beloved”—but also “longed-for”—that is, those toward whom his soul is drawn irresistibly, with whom he would always wish to be and to dwell inseparably in the embraces of love. “My joy”—because they gladdened him with the sincerity of their faith and the purity of their morals; “my crown”—because they adorned his apostolic ministry by their perfection in Christianity. These two titles bestow great praise upon the Philippians. And at the end, again: beloved—as if his soul were insatiable in expressing its warm and tender love. In no other Epistle are such manifestations of heartfelt union with those to whom he writes made so frequently.