Influences

“…so stand fast in the Lord, beloved” Philippians 4:1b

As a commentary to this passage William Barclay once wrote, “Only with Jesus Christ can we resist the seductions of temptation and the weakness of cowardice.” He goes on to make the point that the word Paul uses for stand fast is a word noted for battle, when the soldiers stand unflinchingly as the opposition charges directly at them. That’s a great word picture.

I often think about standing firm in different situations and how emotions and the people standing near can make us stand strong or fall easily. When I’m with one friend it’s easy to talk about the Lord and feel so connected. But, with another friend, it’s easy to get a little carried away and talk about things (people) that are less than building to the Kingdom. Isn’t life interesting? Our mood, our self-worth, our friends so influence our every moment. They not only influence our moments, they change our emotions, our attitudes and eventually our viewpoints.

That’s not always a bad thing but it’s almost always a universal truth. We are who we spend time with.

Having never experienced life before the fall I can only imagine exactly how God created us. Were we designed strong, unflinching, needing nothing and no one? No. Even in Adam’s perfect state, even with lots of creature naming to consume his time, Adam needed a companion, someone like him. Adam needed someone to walk life with, not help him garden, not to do anything for him necessarily, just to be with him (admittedly the doing can often show how much you love the being).  But even the then-perfect human, Eve, fell for the Evil One’s trick and thus Adam listened and acted as well. Even two perfect people fell when someone didn’t act in their best interest so what hope is there for us?

I often underestimate the difficulty of the battle. We’re inclined to think we can do it on our own. I don’t cheat; I don’t steal; I don’t do any of the “real” lies. I covet occasionally and am jealous- but I’m only human, what do you want from me? But that’s a big Catch 22- the blame game. It’s not my fault, it is my fault, it’s someone else’s fault….on and on. 

The big picture is not what separated us from God. It's not your lifelong measure of good or bad. It's not a scale of deeds or your morality. It was one sin. One act barred us from eternity with the Lord. One willing person to be complicit with evil instead of the Lord's command.

Paul writes stand fast in the Lord, beloved not from the barred side but from the side already experiencing eternity. He writes fully human, fully on earth but fully absorbed in the knowledge and faith of being God's beloved, so much so that he desperately wants the receivers of this letter to experience it too. They're not supposed to be normal and he's reminding them to stand fast BECAUSE they are God's beloved, because they are in the Lord. And because they are in the Lord, they will never have to stand alone.

And it makes me wonder, are we standing with our friends, our family, our acquaintances and allowing their habits and viewpoints to invade our lives or are we stand[ing] fast in the Lord? Are we standing with Him, and He with us, and letting that relationship direct our lives or are we unknowingly letting culture attach? Relationship is so undoubtedly critical to our livelihood, and many a blessing emerges from many of them. But what of the others and what of the broken ones we've not gotten around to working on? And most importantly, what of the ones where we need to throw aside momentary pleasures and stand firm in the Lord?