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Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:5-6, 12, 18-20, 27
In the books written by the apostle Paul, only Philippians speaks in a particular way concerning the preaching of the gospel. Philippians 1:5 says, “For your fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now.” Paul opens this book with his prayer in which he joyfully thanks the Lord that the Philippians are in the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel. Here the apostle uses the word fellowship instead of preaching. This is very meaningful. To speak merely of the preaching of the gospel is a little shallow, but to speak of the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel is very deep. We Christians today may not know clearly what it means to have the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel.
Many Bible students recognize that the church in Philippi was a church that preached the gospel. The apostle Paul prayed for them that their fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel might be carried on to work out God’s purpose. In verse 6 he continues, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun in you a good work will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Through this prayer we can realize that God’s intention is that a local church would have the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel, not only for one period of time but continually, until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, until He comes back. In reading this word we can also realize that the apostle was burdened that this fellowship would not be interrupted. Therefore, he said he was confident that He who had begun in them a good work would complete it until the day of His coming back. By this we can see that there is a real battle. God’s intention is to have the local churches in the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel, but there is the possibility that this fellowship, which is a good work begun by the Lord Himself, might be interrupted. I have the sense and the burden that it is right to apply this word to us. A good work has begun among us, but there is the possibility that it will be interrupted; it may be stopped. Therefore, we have to pray that the Lord will keep this work going on and on until the day of His coming back.
Paul told the Philippians that his imprisonment would also work to the advancement of the gospel. Verses 12 and 18 say, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that the things concerning me have turned out rather to the advancement of the gospel...What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truthfulness, Christ is announced; and in this I rejoice; yes, and I will rejoice.” Even his being in prison was a kind of furtherance of the gospel.
He also said that while he was imprisoned, he had the desire, the burden, to magnify Christ. Verse 20 says, “According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.” This tells us that the genuine preaching of the gospel is not merely the preaching of the word but a life of magnifying Christ.
Then at the end of this chapter, he tells us that we must have a kind of conduct, a daily walk and living, that becomes the gospel of Christ. Verse 27a says, “Only, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, that whether coming and seeing you or being absent, I may hear of the things concerning you.” We must have a life, a conversation, a walk, which corresponds with our gospel. Then verse 27b says, “That you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving together along with the faith of the gospel.” The word strive here means to labor, to fight. We have to labor, fight, and strive together. The word together is also very meaningful, having the sense of “as one man, shoulder to shoulder in absolute cooperation.” This requires that we be in one spirit and with one mind.
There are a number of matters in these verses that I am burdened to pass on to you so that you may put them into practice. First, we must learn that the preaching of the gospel is a matter not merely of individuals. It is a matter of the Body. In verse 5 the apostle Paul uses the word fellowship, speaking of the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel. If this were a matter of individuals only, there would be no need for fellowship. The move of the preaching of the gospel must be a matter in fellowship, because it is a matter of the Body.
John 15 tells us that all the branches should bear fruit (vv. 1-5). A tree has not only one branch; it has many branches, and all the branches bear fruit in a way of fellowship. This is why later in that chapter the Lord Jesus tells us that we have to love one another (vv. 12, 17). If we love one another, the people of the world will see that we are the disciples of Christ (13:34-35). If we preach Christ yet do not have fellowship and do not love one another, our fruit will be very limited; we will not be very fruitful. In order to be fruitful, we have to love one another. This is the strongest testimony to the unbelievers.
All people deep within are seeking a life and love in real mutuality. This desire for mutuality is in the human nature as something created by God. Not one human being truly wants to live by himself or herself individually. However, because of the damage done by the evil one, there is no real mutuality among humanity and in human society. There is no mutuality in life, in love, in truth, and in sincerity. If we Christian brothers, however, live together in pure love and sincerity, this will become a strong testimony. This sincere, pure love lived out by us is the very life of Christ. This love is Christ expressed through us. When we live by Christ, in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ, we have love for one another, and this mutual love becomes a strong testimony. This is the outworking of the inner life and the power to bear fruit.
In order to be prevailing and fruitful in the preaching of the gospel, we must pay our full attention to the Body life. The more we live in the Body life and have the reality of the Body life, the more we will be fruitful. Such a life will be a strong testimony to our relatives, friends, schoolmates, and neighbors. When all these people see the kind of mutual love we have among us as Christian brothers, they will be very impressed and influenced. This will pave the way and open the door for the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. To have the real Body life helps us to be prevailing. I believe that this is the very reason why the apostle Paul uses the word fellowship in Philippians 1:5. All the branches bear fruit together, one with another. Not one branch bears fruit individually.
In preaching the gospel, we have to learn the Body life. By this kind of preaching we will be built up together more and more. If we are burdened for a neighbor, we will ask some brothers to help us bring this neighbor to the Lord. If we are burdened for a classmate, we will ask some others to help us bring this classmate to the Lord. We will work not just by ourselves, but we will invite the brothers to work together with us in a way of coordination. I say again, if we have the spirit of the Body life, people will sense it. If we have love among us, people around us will sense what we have, and that love and living will be a very strong factor to convince the unbelievers—our neighbors and friends—to open their spirits to the Lord. We need the Body life, and the best way to be built up together is for us to have the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel.
It may be hard to bring a certain relative to the Lord, but we can invite him to our home and on the same night also invite three or four brothers and sisters. Then we can work together on this relative. However, this must not be merely an outward activity. If we do not have the mutual love and the reality of the Body life, even if we invite three or four to come, they will bring only coldness. They will not bring warmth, and there will be no reality. If on the other hand, we are in the Body life and we have the reality, nothing will be able to conceal that reality. When three or four brothers and sisters come to our home, there will be the influence; there will be something that warms people. People will realize that among these Christians there is something very special, something quite attractive. We must have this kind of love.
The more we go on to have the preaching of the gospel, the more we will be built up together. We will be thoroughly joined and knit together. This will be a strong testimony, not only to man but also to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies. This will be a shame to them. We need to learn how to preach the gospel in the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel in the Body life. This too is neglected by today’s Christianity. Many Christians today think that to preach the gospel is a matter of the individual. Someone may say, “Since I love the Lord, I preach the gospel. That is good enough.” This kind of preaching can be prevailing to some extent, but the most prevailing and fruitful way to work in the gospel is to have the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel, to preach the gospel by the Body life and in the Body life.
All the souls of the unbelievers are still usurped by the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies. Those powers would not give up anyone, so we must fight a battle, not by ourselves individually but by keeping the fellowship in the Body life. How fruitful we are in our preaching depends on how much of the reality of the Body we have. According to Philippians, the genuine, fruitful, and prevailing preaching of the gospel is a kind of fellowship. We have to do the preaching in the Body. If we are out of the Body, we cannot fight the battle, because we are disarmed. We must have the Body. Try it; then you will prove that this is the case.
Philippians tells us the secret of experiencing Christ. After the book of Romans there are the two Corinthians, and after these are four short books: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. These four short books are the deepest books. God’s central thought, eternal purpose, and economy are revealed in them more than in all the rest of the sixty-six books of the Bible. Colossians tells us who Christ is and how much Christ is. In order to know who Christ is, you have to study Colossians. In relation to God, Christ is the image of God. In relation to creation, He is many items. In relation to the new creation, He is all the members of the Body. Christ is so much; He is everything. He is life to us, our hope for the future, and all in all. Galatians tells us that this all-inclusive Christ must be experienced by us not merely outwardly but inwardly. Christ is revealed in us, Christ lives in us, and Christ has to be formed in us (1:16; 2:20; 4:19). Then in Philippians, Paul tells us the secret of how to experience this all-inclusive Christ. Finally, Ephesians speaks of the Body, the church. The Body comes into existence from Christ and by Christ as the Head. This can be possible only through our inward experience of Christ according to the secret of experiencing Christ.
The book of Philippians is the unique book that tells us how to experience Christ. The experience of Christ is for the preaching of the gospel, and the preaching of the gospel is the very experience of Christ. In other words, the preaching of the gospel is the expression of Christ. When we express Christ, when we live out Christ, and when Christ is expressed through us, there is the preaching of the gospel. Consider the branches of a tree. The bearing of fruit by the branches is the branches’ experience of the tree. When the branches experience the life of the tree, the bearing of fruit eventually comes out. Bearing fruit is the outworking of the inner experience of life. A branch cannot experience the life of the tree without bearing fruit. The more the branches properly experience the life of the tree, the more fruit they will bear. In the same way, the preaching of the gospel is the outworking of Christ experienced by us. If we experience Christ, there is the outworking of this life, that is, the preaching of the gospel.
Paul and Silas were put into prison in Philippi (Acts 16:23-25). The magistrates charged the jailer to keep them securely, so he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks. At that time Paul and Silas did not preach. They were simply filled with Christ and filled with the Spirit, and at midnight they sang hymns of praise to the Lord. That was not merely preaching in word; that was the expression of Christ, the outward expression of the inner life. That was a strong example of the genuine preaching of the gospel, and the jailer, the keeper of the prison, was saved. If we put that story together with the writing of the book of Philippians, we can realize what the proper preaching of the gospel is. The proper preaching of the gospel is the very expression of Christ.
Suppose, on the other hand, that these two apostles had merely realized that their responsibility was to preach the gospel. They might have tried to do it with a long face, saying, “We preach that Christ is the Savior. You have to believe in Him. If you do not believe in Him, you will go to hell.” This kind of preaching would not have been prevailing. However, these two apostles did not do this kind of preaching. They were simply experiencing Christ. They were filled with Christ, so they were full of joy and singing. This kind of singing is simply the overflow of the indwelling Christ, that is, the expression of Christ. At that time God shook the prison, and the jailer was also shaken and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). Then he and his whole household were saved. That was the genuine preaching and the real experience of Christ.
Philippians 1:19 contains the secret to experiencing Christ—the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This is not only the Spirit of God but the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and with this Spirit there is the bountiful supply. These two apostles, Paul and Silas, lived in this Spirit and received the supply from the Spirit. Therefore, regardless of what kind of situation, in life or in death, even in suffering and in prison, they magnified Christ. To preach the gospel is to magnify Christ. As we have seen, it is a matter of the Body, but it also depends on the magnifying of the Lord in our life. Wherever we are, in school or at the store, among neighbors or among relatives, there must be the magnifying of Christ in our life. We cannot preach the gospel only by our word. We have to preach the gospel by magnifying Christ. We need to experience Christ within and learn the secret of how to experience Christ; then we will have an overflow of Christ. This overflowing is the real preaching. This will minister Christ to others.
We cannot bring anyone to the Lord merely by good fortune. Rather, the work of preaching the gospel to bring people to the Lord requires much patience. We need to learn Christ as our patience so that we may continually fight the battle to preach the gospel. The real preaching is a battle. We should not think that we can bring the gospel to people so easily. The apostle Paul used the phrase striving together (v. 27). This indicates that we need patience and endurance. George Müller prayed for a certain person to be saved, but that person was not saved during Müller’s lifetime. It was after Müller’s death that this one was saved. It is not very easy and quick to bring certain persons to the Lord. It requires a real struggle. We all have to learn this lesson. We cannot do a quick work in the preaching of the gospel. To preach the gospel is to have a harvest, and we cannot have a harvest in a quick way. We have to learn patience.
I was saved in such a way. A brother in the Lord worked on me for a very long time. For a time there seemed to be no result. I was too hardened in my heart, and I made up my mind to not care for what he said to me. I believe that more or less he was disappointed, and at a certain time he stopped coming to see me. However, one day after he stopped coming—although I did not know why—I made up my mind to go to a Christian meeting. That was the result of the work of that brother over a long time. We all have to learn patience in this work. As the members of a local church, we all must have this life of preaching. In this preaching life we should not expect to do things in a quick way. Rather, we have to labor. If we all will labor for a certain period, perhaps for two or three years, the doors will be wide open to us.
This is similar to a business in that we need to build up credit. I have seen this happen. In the north of mainland China, in my hometown, we spent more than eight years trying to build up credit for the gospel. In the first eight years, from 1932 to 1940, we never baptized over forty people at one time. Within those eight years there was a real struggle. By the mercy of the Lord, however, the brothers there did their best to keep preaching all the time. Then around 1940 the results burst out. From that time on, we always baptized one or two hundred people. Families, factories, hospitals, and schools—all the doors—were opened, and the gospel was very prevailing. In Taiwan we spent at least one or two years in this way. By that time we had learned more, and a group of trained persons came over from the mainland to carry on the work. This is why the work that began there went so fast. Eventually, the doors were opened.
Now we are just starting in this country. On the one hand, we need some time to be trained, and on the other hand, we need time to build up credit. We cannot sow a seed tonight and have a harvest tomorrow. That is the behavior of mushrooms. Mushrooms are not the right life; they even damage the genuine life. A tree bears fruit in its time. We have to learn patience and endurance. The neighbors, relatives, colleagues, and schoolmates with whom we are working may not be saved in this year. Some may be saved this month, but some may be saved only after five years. We do not know when they will be saved; only the Lord knows. I cannot explain why this is so, but it is a fact. Some will be saved very quickly, but some will be saved very slowly. We cannot care about that. We must simply go on and believe that gradually some fruit will be brought in. Therefore, we need patience.
This will be a real test of our prayer life. Do not think that to save a soul is an easy task. It requires a certain kind of prayer. When we pray much for a certain person, that person will be saved. We may compare this to a balance. The person is on one side of the balance, and our prayer is on the other side. The more prayer we add, the more weight we have. When the weight of the prayers exceeds the weight of the person, he will be saved. There is no such thing as fortune in the preaching of the gospel. We cannot expect fortune. Rather, we have to spend much time to pray, to kneel before the Lord for a certain need. This is a real test.
No one can tell what the real result of our gospel preaching will be. The brothers and sisters throughout the centuries who did much work of preaching eventually learned one thing. At first, they liked to estimate, to reckon, what kind of result their work would have, but after going on with the Lord for twenty, thirty, or forty years, they eventually came to the point that they would no longer estimate. This is because the result of our work cannot be clear to us. Strictly speaking, we can never know the result of our work. In our preaching of the gospel we may work on six unbelievers in a diligent way. Eventually, three may be saved, while the other three remain stubborn. We cannot do anything with the stubborn ones, so we may become disappointed. It seems that the first three are wonderful, but that is their condition today. After another fifteen years, they all may become backsliders. Of the second three, however, one may become an apostle, and two may become the most profitable elders. If we would ask them how they were saved, they may say, “The first time I heard the gospel was fifteen years ago. At that time I was very impressed, yet I was too stubborn. However, that impression never left me, and after many years, I was saved.”
Out of six persons who are saved, two may be weak and four may be strong. After only a few years, though, the four strong ones may be very troublesome in the church, but the two weaker ones may become so living with much spiritual understanding. If we knew these stories, we would never estimate the result of our work. Our responsibility is to work and to pray. As to the result, we must leave this matter to the Lord and to time. I can never forget what C. H. Mackintosh said: It will only be in the presence of the Lord one day that we will know the real result of our work. The proper way to work is simply to bear responsibility. Never estimate the result. If you estimate the result, you will be either disappointed or proud. Learn the lesson to fellowship with the Lord, to work for Him, and to work in Him. That is good enough.
We must learn always to be in one spirit and with one soul with the brothers and sisters. To have one soul, to be joined in soul, and to be like-souled are repeated several times in Philippians (1:27; 2:2, 20). Chapter 4 speaks of two sisters, Euodias and Syntyche. These two were good sisters, but they had a problem. They were not in one spirit and with one mind. Paul told them to think the same thing in the Lord (v. 2).
Philippians is a book on the experience of Christ, and along with the experience of Christ there is the preaching of the gospel. This book tells us clearly that the preaching of the gospel is a matter of fellowship. In fellowship the most needful thing is the harmony. You can never play good music on the piano if all the keys are not in harmony. In order to work together shoulder to shoulder, there must be harmony. Someone may be an extraordinary ball player, but he is useless if he does not stay in harmony with the team; he even becomes a damage to the team.
There is the need of real harmony, especially in preaching the gospel. The more tender and delicate something is, the more it needs harmony. We especially need harmony in the things of the spirit, because the spirit is tender and delicate. The church life, the Body life, is something in the spirit. Do not think that the preaching of the gospel is merely a kind of activity to be carried out in a rough, crude way. We cannot preach in this way. Rather, preaching the gospel is a matter in the spirit. We must have the tender harmony, not only in one spirit but also with one mind and soul.
Many people have been brought to the Lord through a certain brother. He is not eloquent in speaking, but many persons have been saved through him. The special characteristic of that brother is that he always keeps the harmony. He opens his home to invite people to come. Then he never speaks, but he invites other brothers to speak. What harmony, meekness, and humility is in his spirit! This paves the way for the Holy Spirit to convince people. If among us there is no harmony, no tenderness and humility, we cannot expect people to be saved. We simply kill the saving Spirit. I have seen a group of brothers who meet together. They cannot preach much, but they have the harmony in tenderness and humility. Among them there is not much preaching, not even much speaking, but people are saved through them. Preaching the gospel is a matter absolutely in the spirit, not in the mentality and not in argument. Therefore, we need the harmony.
All the foregoing matters require our real practice. We cannot expect something according to our imagination. We cannot expect that today we will do something so successful, and then tomorrow we can forget about it. The preaching of the gospel is a lifelong matter. The word of the prayer of the apostle is that He who has begun in you a good work will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus (1:6). We have to keep going on and on. We must pray that the good work that has begun and been established among us by the Lord will keep going on and on, and that we all will learn the lessons. Not only must we preach the gospel to save others, to bring souls to the Lord, but we ourselves must learn the lessons. Then we will be built up together by the outreach of the gospel.
