Living And Magnifying Christ Versus Anxiety
LIVING AND MAGNIFYING
CHRIST VERSUS ANXIETY
The book of Philippians is a book on the ex perience of Christ. To experience Christ we need to live Him that we may magnify Him (Phil. 1:20-21). Then we need to take Him as our pattern (Phil. 2:5-11) and pursue Him as our goal (Phil. 3:14). In our Christian life we should have the unique mind—the mind to pursue Christ and gain Him (Phil. 3:15, 12). After covering these aspects of the experience of Christ, Paul, some what to our surprise, speaks in Philippians 4 of forbearance and anxiety. On the positive side, we need forbearance; on the negative side, we should not have any anxiety.
Why at the conclusion of such a profound book on the experience of Christ does Paul men tion forbearance and anxiety? Apparently there is no connection between the matters covered in chapters one, two, and three and Paul's word about forbearance and anxiety. Years ago, I did not consider it worthwhile for Paul to speak of anxiety. According to my concept, he should have continued to speak about higher things,