As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
1For
you yourselves know, brothers, that our entrance which [was] toward you was not
empty 2but having been previously mistreated and insulted in
Philippi, just as you know, we were emboldened in our God to speak the gospel
of God in much agony.
“Emboldened in our God.” This, I would suggest, is one of the
great benefits of knowing the Lord – boldness. Faith, hope, and love all give
us a divinely endowed boldness to be who we should be and do the things we
ought to do. And that is important since we live in a world of “much agony” – a
world where we may in fact be mistreated and insulted or where, at least, it
seems sometimes every day is filled with obstacles and hardships.
“Boldness” without the Lord can be simply arrogance or
obnoxiousness. A person who “wants” something may be very “bold” to get it but
come off as only pushy or rude. The boldness God gives is something totally
different. Boldness from the Lord does not start with what I “want.” It starts
with my responsibilities, my duties, the things the Lord and others rightly
expect from me. As I face my life every day, there are many such things and
yet, everywhere I look I see obstacles and uncertainties and fears. But then I
remember this is not my world. This is God’s world. It’s not my life, it’s the
life God has given me. It’s not about what I’m doing but about what He’s doing.
I don’t need Him to help me live my life, I need His help to live the life He
wants me to live. The “results” are really not mine to worry about. Rather I
need to be about the things He’d have me do and then just have faith that He’ll
make it all work out.
In this passage, Paul is about the vocation God has given
him, being an apostle and a pastor and preacher. He was “emboldened in our God”
to speak the gospel in spite of many obstacles. But Christian boldness is for
every person in every occupation and in every responsibility that is ours
before the Lord. I go to work every day as an engineer and I have a lot of
people who are depending on me. Communities have all kinds of issues and they
need my help to figure out solutions and then get what needs to be done done.
But there are many obstacles. I am so thankful I can face those
responsibilities and just walk right straight into the issues believing that
somehow the Lord will help me. And here I am nearly 40 years into my career and
I can list off time and time and time again He has done just that. In a million
different ways, at just the right time, He makes things “work.” I love knowing
I can do just that – charge right into the face of the obstacles with faith in
my great God, with the hope that He will somehow make a way, and with the love
of sincerely wanting to help those who are depending on me. And that is
Christian boldness.
And I love that it isn’t necessarily limited to $12 million
treatment plants. It can be as simple as installing a new garbage disposal for
my wife. There are many obstacles. I don’t
have one to install. If I did have one, I’ve never installed one before. I don’t
know if I’ll figure it out. And if I do install one, it probably won’t work. So
what do I do? Just pray and press ahead. The Lord did provide one and suddenly
I’m reading the manual how to install it. Of course manuals today stink, so I
have to do a lot of “figuring out.” I finally gather all the pieces and dive
in. All along the way there are obstacles, yet I can press on. And suddenly it’s
finished, it works great, and I’m so thankful I could do that for her. How did
it happen? Christian boldness. I started out wishing I could do it for her but
faced with what seemed to be too many obstacles. But I believed I should, that
the Lord would want me to, and the next thing I know it’s done.
I guess somehow I just want to record, as I’m looking at
this verse in particular, that it is a wonderful benefit of knowing the Lord to
be able to enjoy this thing of boldness, this power to tackle life with faith,
hope, and love, and minute by minute get to see Him doing great things in my
world. I wish everyone could have this wonderful personal dynamo spinning
inside their heart. It sure makes life fun!
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