One character trait it’s easy to be frustrated by is laziness.
People can be lazy for all kinds of reasons. Not just those who are poor. Not just those who are rich. We can all be lazy. Those who have a lot can be lazy. They don’t need to work hard. Their life is already just the way they want it. Those who don’t have much can be lazy. They could improve their lot in life. But they can’t be bothered.
There’s also such a thing as spiritual laziness. We Christians all too easily take our foot off the pedal. Stop putting any effort in. We do it for all kinds of reasons. If we’re doing well as Christians, we don’t need to work hard. Our life is already just the way we want it. If we feel a bit of a novice in our Christian walk, we could improve our lot in life. But we can’t be bothered.
And here’s the irony: Sometimes we use the concept of God’s grace to justify our spiritual laziness. God’s grace is a wonderful thing. It says that God is good to us just because he wants to be. That we could never earn our way into God’s good-books. That it’s not about what we do.
That’s a most wonderful truth for sinners like you and me. But then we take that and abuse it. We twist it. We make it say that there’s no need to put any effort in. That spiritual laziness is just fine.
Here’s why that’s an irony. Paul is talking about spiritual laziness in Philippians 3. And he argues that the reason why we shouldn’t be lazy as Christians is because of God’s grace.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s remind ourselves where we are in Philippians.
Recap
Paul started the church in Philippi. That was many years ago, and they’ve remained partners ever since. They’ve just sent him a very generous financial gift.
But now Paul is in prison. And he’s concerned that the Philippian church remains united. If they start squabbling. If they start pulling rank on each other. What will suffer is the gospel. The Christian message of good news will get drowned.
And it’s too good for that. The one thing that matters for Paul is that people get to hear about Jesus. That new people start following him. In fact, he’s happy to be in prison. He doesn’t even mind if his trial ends in execution. If that is what most advances the gospel, he’d be delighted. And he wants the Philippians to have the same attitude.
But there’s another threat to the gospel in Philippi. We met that last time. And that is the risk that the Philippians move from the gospel. Some people have started teaching that we need human effort to get into God’s good books. If they fall for that, they’ll also stop spreading the good news. Because the Christian message is that Jesus died and rose again so that we can be forgiven. We have new life as a gift.
Before he met Jesus, Paul was a very religious man. And that was part of why he thought God would accept him. But now he’s consigned all those achievements to the rubbish heap. The one thing that matters is knowing Jesus. Nothing else matters any more.
And the Philippians must hold on to that wonderful message of grace. Because if they don’t, they won’t hold out that wonderful message of grace.
But now Paul pauses. “Please don’t misunderstand me,” he says. I’m not saying this means you should be spiritually lazy. In fact it’s the opposite.
It might help to think of life like a journey.
We’re on a journey to heaven. On a journey to living with Christ in glory. So far, Paul’s corrected one wrong idea about that journey. We mustn’t think of ourselves as travelling under our own steam. I used to cycle quite a lot. I’d think nothing of cycling 15 miles instead of getting the train into London. But that’s the hard work way. It’s my feet pushing the pedals. It’s my calories that get burnt. My own effort gets me from A to B.
If that’s one mistake, Paul now moves to correct a different wrong idea. He doesn’t want us thinking that there’s no need to travel at all. There are two paragraphs in our reading, and each one picks a way in which we might be tempted to think that we can just stay put in the Christian life. Some people stand still because they think they’ve already arrived. They think they’re already at B. Others know they’re just starting out, but they’re quite happy where they are. Why travel from A to B, if B isn’t so great, and A is quite a nice place to be?
So let’s look at the two ways we might be tempted to be lazy, to be complacent, as Christians
I am in heaven
The first is to say to ourselves: I am in heaven. I am in heaven.
Verse 12: Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect.
Obtained what, Paul? What he was talking about in the previous paragraph. Knowing Christ. Gaining Christ. Becoming like Christ. He’s not there yet. He’s not yet at his destination.
We may have made so much progress as Christians. But we haven’t arrived. We’re not in heaven yet. There is so much that we don’t yet know about Jesus. So much we don’t understand. And so many ways that we’re not like him either.
You read the Gospels and you discover his prefect patience. But I run out of patience so quickly. He was always truthful, but I squeeze the truth. He loved others, always concerned for what’s best, whereas I always end up thinking of myself.
And so Paul says we mustn’t think we’ve arrived. We’re not perfect.
Instead he gives this picture of the athlete. Verse 13: One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
That verse was the memory verse from last year’s summer holiday club. We used a different translation: I run towards the goal, so that I can receive the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done. This is from Philippians chapter 3. What verse? Verse 14.
We used that verse because the club last summer picked up on the Olympics. Paul is picking up on the Olympics here. Some of the words are almost technical terms from the ancient games. So he invites us to consider the trained athlete.
It’s not just the arms and legs that have to operate perfectly. There is discipline in the cheek muscles. In the eye muscles. You don’t get Usain Bolt looking up to the crowd to wave to his nephew. He doesn’t look over his shoulder to see how the others are doing. With Bolt, his competitors are always behind him, let’s face it, but the minute he looks at them he’s lost. And on the 400 metres, as the runners come round that last bend, it’s all eyes on the finish line.
That, says Paul, is what following Jesus should be like. Not looking back at the progress you’ve already made. Sure we should celebrate the ways that God has already led us to know Jesus. We should be encouraged by the ways we’ve become more like him. But no looking over our shoulder. It’s eyes front.
When I was growing up, my parents used to own a little bungalow in Dorset, and we’d often go there for our holidays. We’d visit Lulworth Cove, and I remember on one occasion climbing the hill there in the hot summer sun. Every few paces, I’d look back at the car park, and be cheered on by the way the cars were a bit smaller each time I looked. “Look how far we’ve come”, I’d say. To which my Dad would reply: “Look how far we’ve got to go.”
So Paul asks us in verse 15: Do you consider yourself mature? Those of us who say no are aware we’ve got some distance to go. But to those of us who say yes, he says: Have that attitude. No matter how far you’ve come, fix your eyes on what’s ahead. Look how far you’ve got to go.
The Philippian Christians could copy Paul in this. Verse 17: Join in imitating me.
But the trouble is that Paul is in prison. But there are people in their church who are a model. Who exemplify this kind of focussed Christian life. “You know who they are,” he says. Imitate them. “Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”
It’s the same for us. We can read about Paul’s priorities. But we’re 2000 years too late to meet him. But there are people in this church who have this kind of life. Who live to know Jesus. Who want to grow. To move forwards. I won’t embarrass anyone. You know who they are. Who are the keen ones? Who will do whatever it takes to grow in their Christian faith? Keep your eyes on them. Live like they do.
And I have to say that taking the opportunity to buy a book to read over the summer, or to get into the habit of reading the Bible regularly at home, would be right in line with this kind of focused living.
So there’s the first way to be lazy. Saying I am in heaven. Don’t do that, says Paul. Look how far you’ve got to go. Make your life like the Olympic athlete on the final straight. Eyes front. Fixed on the goal. And chase Jesus like there’s nothing else worth living for.
I’m happy on earth
There’s a second way to be lazy. That’s to say to ourselves: I’m happy on earth. I’m happy on earth.
Paul is moved to tears in verse 18. He’s worried about some bad influences on the Philippians. These are people who claim to know Jesus. But they deny it by the way they live. Verse 18 – it’s the way they walk that gives them away. They live as though knowing Jesus doesn’t need to change the way we live at all.
Verse 19 puts its finger on the problem. They live for their comfort. For their pleasure. Their god is their belly. How can I fill my belly? How can I have the good things of life? That’s what they live for. Or as the verse ends: Their minds are set on earthly things. They have no ambition beyond this life. It’s tragically short-sighted. Because the end is destruction. When Jesus comes back as judge, he’ll say he never knew them. And the things they glory in now, the lifestyle they enjoy – they’ll be deeply ashamed of, but it will be too late.
Perhaps no character in English literature embodies this more than Augustus Gloop. Remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Charlie was the only child to survive the tour of the factory in the same shape and size he went in. Augustus Gloop was the first to drop out, as his greed got the better of him.
‘Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop!
The great big greedy nincompoop!
How long could we allow this beast
To gorge and guzzle, feed and feast
On everything he wanted to?
Great Scott! It simply wouldn’t do!
However long this pig might live,
We’re positive he’d never give
Even the smallest bit of fun
Or happiness to anyone.
So what we do in cases such
As this, we use the gentle touch,
And carefully we take the brat
And turn him into something that
Will give great pleasure to us all–
A doll, for instance, or a ball,
Or marbles or a rocking horse.
But this revolting boy, of course,
Was so unutterably vile,
So greedy, foul, and infantile
He left a most disgusting taste
Inside our mouths, and so in haste
We chose a thing that, come what may,
Would take the nasty taste away.
’Come on!’ we cried, ‘The time is ripe
To send him shooting up the pipe!
He has to go! It has to be!’
And very soon, he’s going to see
Inside the room to which he’s gone
Some funny things are going on.
But don’t, dear children, be alarmed;
Augustus Gloop will not be harmed,
Although, of course, we must admit
He will be altered quite a bit.
He’ll be quite changed from what he’s been,
When he goes through the fudge machine:
Slowly, the wheels go round and round,
The cogs begin to grind and pound;
A hundred knives go slice, slice, slice;
We add some sugar, cream, and spice;
We boil him for a minute more,
Until we’re absolutely sure
That all the greed and all the gall
Is boiled away for once and all.
Then out he comes! And now! By grace!
A miracle has taken place!
This boy, who only just before
Was loathed by men from shore to shore,
This greedy brute, this louse’s ear,
Is loved by people everywhere!
For who could hate or bear a grudge
Against a luscious bit of fudge?'
And yet it’s a trap we fall into so easily. Chasing after the newest, shiniest thing. Or having a very modest existence, but being content with the comforts we enjoy. We like our life. We like things the way they are. We don’t want following Jesus to change that!
The trouble is that life will surely change. We can’t avoid it. Because one day we’ll grow old
Someone’s done some research into growing older, and how it affects our health. Apparently there are 4 main areas we will struggle with. Arthritis affects many people, along with fading vision, reduced mobility and mental health issues such as various forms of dementia.
That’s hardly ground-breaking research is it? Most of us knew that. Many of us experience it! Actually, you wouldn’t want to live forever. Not as things are now. Being content with what we get here and now is not the best ambition in life!
But one day Jesus will return. He’ll come back as our Saviour, according to verse 20. And if we’ve been waiting for him, he will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. That’s a future to look forward to.
So don’t say to yourself, I’m happy on earth. That’s the other way to be spiritually lazy – just to be comfortable. But ultimately it leads to destruction. Whereas following Jesus leads to life.
Conclusion
It’s easy to be spiritually lazy.
But God is a God of grace. He wants to know us, to forgive us, to give us life – all as a gift. And that drives us to be everything but lazy.
Jesus Christ has taken hold of us. He’s taking us to heaven when we die. One day he’ll give us new bodies to enjoy here on earth. But we’re not there yet. So we don’t just live for the here and now. And we don’t pretend we’re already perfect. Instead we press on, with the single-minded devotion of the athlete. We use every fibre in our bodies to know Jesus better, to become more like him.
And we wait for the day when he will return. When he changes our bodies to be like his. When everything God’s given us, everything we’ve lived for, becomes ours to enjoy forever.