Reading through his Letter to the Philippians we cannot miss Paul’s emphasis on suffering. He mentions three kinds of suffering, suffering by persecution, by sacrifice and by illness. All three are regarded as for the sake of Christ and the gospel. We do not know if Paul deliberately narrowed down the theme in the context of the gospel because it is too broad otherwise. Maybe we can say that ‘our lowly body’ refers to a fourth, more general and broader kind of suffering, although in the context of the section in which it is mentioned it cannot be disconnected with the sufferings of Christ.
In the context of the whole letter it may not be correct to mention sacrifice as a separate kind of suffering, as it is the overarching characteristic. A choice lies behind it, a mind. This mind is in stark contrast with the ‘selfish ambition or conceit’ and with ‘his own interests’. Two ways are presented, one leading to destruction, the other to glory.
Some argue that ‘the sufferings of Christ’ is in its essence the denial of His will over against the will of the Father, with reference to Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemanee. But this is a distorted picture. Gethsemanee is not a clash between Jesus’ will and the will of the Father but rather the opposite. This has implications for us, followers of Christ. A wrong approach of our own will over against God’s will can give us a dejected impression. Paul’s admonition is not to bear with resignation the hardships that God lays on our shoulders. Taking up our cross to follow Jesus is indeed self denial, but always as a response to His cross. Self denial is not suffering; it does not shun suffering. It is with joy, faith and courage we follow Jesus, whatever the cost may be, because we know that what it will cost us can never be compared to what it has cost Him and it can never weigh up to the eternal glory that is our inheritance that He obtained for us by grace, through His resurrection. And although from God’s point of view He may expect us to commit our lives to the course of the gospel, because of the sacrifice He made to save us, and although rejecting God’s gift of salvation in Christ results in His judgement of eternal damnation, our following of Jesus remains purely voluntary.
Paul writes to the Philippians that for Christ’s sake it has been granted to them not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake. Like Peter and John in Acts 5 rejoiced that they ‘were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name’, the Philippians should know that it is a privilege to partake in the conflict that the coming of the Kingdom of God has aroused and continues to arouse in the world.