Discipleship Week 2: Put the Gospel First

Philippians 1:1-26

“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much— just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self- denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad- minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races— especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of gospel, please.” –D.A. Carson, Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians

Paul references the gospel throughout this first section of his letter to the Philippians. It is clear that the gospel, the work of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins in our place in order to reconcile us to God, must be at the center of our lives. The gospel should radically transform us and shape every part of our being. But so often, as D.A. Carson notes above, we don’t want a gospel that radically transforms and messes up our lives, but want a watered down, domesticated version of the gospel that looks nice and feels nice, but that brings very little change in our lives. So the challenge in this first part of this book is to put the gospel first in our lives.

1. Why do so many Christians want a domesticated gospel?

2. How does our culture encourage us to have a domesticated gospel?

3. In what ways do you want to have only “three dollars worth of gospel?”

4. If the gospel was truly first in your life, how would your life look different from how it is right now? What needs to change so that the gospel truly is first in your life?