We might say that we live for Christ, but what we mean is that we live for Christ and for work, family, ministry, wealth, and so on.

How can we get to Paul’s place of living for Christ period?

It is not as though Paul did not have a ministry or friends. He knew what his ministry or call was — to preach Christ and not to baptize, for example (1 Cor 1:10–17). He submitted to God’s teaching — he learned to be content (Phil 4:10–13), and he discovered that God’s grace is sufficient (2 Cor 12:7–10). He actively critiqued the wider world’s social and cultural definitions of success (Phil 3:4–14). He devoted himself to love (1 Cor 13) and never forgot that this present age is passing away.

Sometimes God reminds us of these truths in direct ways. In the mid-1990s, my husband, Jim, was drawn to join a new ministry that involved building and managing a pediatric rehabilitation hospital in Kenya. I had just completed my PhD and was eager to start looking for full-time work.

During those long years of dissertation writing, I promised God that this degree was his to do with as he pleased. After much prayer, it was clear to both Jim and me that God was calling us to Kenya. However, I had no teaching job lined up — in fact, no job at all.

I realized then that when I thought I was giving my degree to God, what I was really saying was that I’d take (just about) any teaching job. I never expected that God might decide to closet the degree altogether.

As it turned out, I did have teaching opportunities in Nairobi, but these emerged after we arrived in Kenya. It was an important lesson for me, challenging me as to whether God really has providential and wise authority over my life, work, and family.”

—Eager Expectations by Lynn H. Cohick

1. Paul does not see himself as a “lone ranger” … He embraces the help of his teammates, the Philippians, whose prayers make a difference.
2. Labor is not limited to the apostles, pastors, or missionaries; fruitful labor is the birthright and responsibility of all those born anew in Christ.
3. Paul declares that his fate is secure — he is in Christ. Thus life and death hold importance only as they shape his relationship with Christ.
4. Possible torture and hideous death might await [Paul]. So how can Paul have any hope? [His] hope is not wishful thinking but is based on the sure reality of Christ’s glorification and honor.
5. Labor is not limited to the apostles, pastors, or missionaries; fruitful labor is the birthright and responsibility of all those born anew in Christ.
6. Paul defines “progress” relative to God’s call on every believer’s life to be obedient. In this Paul’s message differs from the philosophers of the day, who stressed progress as working hard. Such people could boast in their own efforts. But Paul makes clear that believers’ progress is grounded solely in God’s work in and through them.
7. Paul sees even more clearly than did Job that suffering [signals] the disorder of this present age. But that is not the last word. Christ has been raised, and we now know that the end is closer than when we first believed (Rom 13:11).
8. A word to pastors and lay leaders: notice Paul’s personal goal in ministry — joy. What does ministry look like if one’s goal is joy? It means, at least, that numbers don’t matter.
9. Paul teaches that salvation includes becoming a member of Christ’s body. No believer lives only unto himself or herself.
10. The missionary is no more obedient to God’s call than the housewife and stay-at-home mother. I’ve been both — I know. In each case, obedience is the operating factor.