Philippians 3:17
“Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your
eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”
This section in Philippians (2:19-3:21) comes
right after Paul’s beautiful and powerful description of the work of Christ on the
cross, and his call for us to imitate Christ and his example of
self-sacrificial, self-emptying love. We should constantly be seeking to
imitate Christ, and the cross should shape our entire lives. But as we seek to
imitate Christ, it is always helpful to have other influences in our lives that
can show us how to live the Christ-centered lives that we ourselves are seeking
to live. Therefore Paul spends some significant time in this section describing
the type of mature Christians that we should seek as examples for ourselves.
Bottom line: It is critical that we have mature, Christ-centered
influences in our lives. And the reason that this is so critical is that we are
influenced by so many things that shape who we are and how we view the world.
And if we are not careful, we will be influenced by people and things that do
not point us towards Christ-likeness, but that in reality lead us away from
Christ. And I can think of at least four ways that we can err when it comes to
the influences that we allow in our lives.
1. We allow
too many influences in our lives.
How much influence do your friends and family have
over you? How much influence do the games you play and media you use have over
you? Given the astronomical amount of media consumption by the average college
student,[i] I
would argue that most of us have altogether way to many things influencing us.
And this may seem overly simplified but it needs to be said: if these
influences are not Christian influences, they are not going to point you
towards Christ. And even if you do have Christian influences in your life that
do point you towards Christ, they will be massively overshadowed by the
staggering amount of other influences that you have in your life that point you
away from Christ.
2. We limit
the influences in our lives, but we allow the wrong influences in.
Maybe we can be discerning and realize that there
are too many people or things that are influencing us. But it is one step to realize
that and another step to limit those influences to people or things that will
point you towards Christ. Often we will let family and long time friends
influence us, not because we have evaluated the quality of their influence, but
simply because there is so much longevity and closeness in those relationships
and we equate that closeness with reliability. The question should not be, how
close are you to the person you allow to influence you? Rather, the question
should be, how close is that person to Christ?
3. We do
not allow ourselves to be influenced at all.
Once we realize that there are a lot of negative
influences surrounding us, it can be tempting to go too far in the opposite
direction and just shut out everyone and everything, and not allow ourselves to
be influenced at all. Often people who have been hurt or abused can easily shut
everything out, simply as a form of self-protection. But this creates all kind
of problems. It leads to a kind of self-centeredness, where we only allow
ourselves to be influenced by our thoughts and our feelings, and not by God. It
can also become destructive to friendships and relationships, because when you
refuse to allow someone to influence you, there is no way for that relationship
to grow. It is a very helpless feeling when you realize that you cannot
influence someone that you care about. Those relationships will not last. So we
cannot just shut out every influence, because then we would just be left with
our (broken, sinful, deceitful) selves.
4. We think
we are not influenced by people and things that really do influence us.
“This ____________________ doesn’t impact me.”
That is a line that has been used countless times to justify sinful behavior.
Fill in the blank. This movie with graphic nudity doesn’t impact me. This
pornography doesn’t impact me. This show with constant profanity doesn’t impact
me. My messed up family doesn’t impact me. My friends who like to get drunk and
party don’t impact me. This may seem like a statement of strong willpower. But
it is really just naïve. These people and things DO impact us, and often their
influence goes far deeper than we could possibly imagine. Studies have shown
for example, that pornography not only impacts us relationally, but actually
alters our brain biochemically, hurts us physically, and is linked to a whole
host of emotional struggles.[ii]
And that should rightly freak us out. So instead of carrying on the game that
the influences in our lives don’t really influence us, we need to acknowledge
that they do influence us and seek to have more Christ-centered influences in
our lives.
So the challenge as we enter this next section of
Philippians is to consider what the influences are in our lives, whether or not
they point us to Christ, and to seek more Christ-like influences to help us as
we grow in our relationship with God.
1. Who has influenced you the most in your life?
How has this person influenced you? Has this been positive or negative?
2. We are shaped by any number of influences in
our lives: family, friends, teachers…even video games and media influence us.
How have these influences shaped you? Have these influences drawn you closer
towards Christ or away from Christ?
3. What are the areas where you need to grow in
your faith? What kind of Christians should you seek to be around in order to
grow in these areas?
4. What are ways you can learn from mature
Christian leaders that you cannot learn from other influences?
[i]
Given the tendency of younger generations to multitask their media (i.e. be on
their phone, watching tv, and gaming all at the same time), it is now possible
to consume more than 24 of media in a single day.
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