God’s love, which is stronger than death, is causing me to continue walking the path of the mission the Lord has given me (John 6:1–15). “At that very time some Pharisees came and said to Him, ‘Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill You.’ He replied, ‘Go tell that fox, “I will keep driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach My goal.” In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Luke 13:31–35). ...
Introduction
For me, "Philippians" is something special. The reason is that when I studied Th.M. (Master of Theology) at Fuller Theological Seminary, I wrote my thesis based on Philippians 2:1-4. Before I started writing the thesis, I went up to Professor Seyoon Kim, who was my supervisor at that time, and told him that I was going to write my thesis on Philippians 2:1-4. When he heard it, he told me that there was nothing much to write on that passage. Nevertheless, I wrote my thesis based on that passage because I was interested in the ecclesiology. So in order to write a thesis based on Philippians 2:1-4, I read many articles and books regarding that passage and the book of Philippians as a whole. As I was doing it, I got more interested in the book of Philippians. In the process, I read the whole commentary "Paul's Letter to the Philippians"(New International Greek Testament) written by the theologian Gordon Fee. Not only I read the whole book about 500 pages or so, I also wrote the summary of that book. I did not know it at the time, but now I look back and I don’t know how I read and summarize about 500 pages. Not only that, I preached the whole book of Philippians every Sunday in my church during the Sunday morning worship. The reason for this is that not only I wanted to learn about the Biblical ecclesiology (or community) that is written by my favorite apostle Paul but also I wanted to apply what I learned from the book of Philippians to my church so that my church could become like the Church in Philippi.
Finally, after meditating and preaching on the whole book of Philippians, I was able to sort it out and to compose all my writings on the book of Philippians. In the meantime, I thought about the title of this book. It was then I remembered what the theologian Gordon Fee wrote in his commentary regarding the theme of Philippians - "The Gospel." Although I agree with him, I thought that the theme of Philippians is also living a life worthy of that gospel of Christ. The base of my though is Philippians 1:27 – “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, ….” My personal thought is that we should focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the same time, I think what we need to emphasize is we must live worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian church believers and emphasized to them not only the gospel of Christ but also living the life worthy of His gospel. So I have titled this book "The Church That Lives Worthy of the Gospel of Christ." My small hope and prayer is that not only the church that I am serving now but also all the church throughout the world live life that are worthy of the gospel of Christ. May the Lord build His Church that lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
May 2019,
Pastor James Kim
(Praying for the Lord's church to live a life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ)
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