By Bob Bunn
When I was a kid, I went through a season when I tried building models, especially old military airplanes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very good at it. No matter how hard I tried, I could never get it quite right. I was careful with the glue, but I still got globs of it all over the model. I did my best to place the stickers straight and smooth, but they always ended up crooked and bumpy. And if paint was involved, well, you could forget about it! With every model, I followed the instructions, but my finished product never looked as cool as the picture on the box.
As you might expect, this was a relatively short season of my childhood. Eventually, I turned to reading books and playing sports. Every once in a while, I think about giving it another try, but the moment passes pretty quickly.
Sometimes, we can do everything right, and it still comes out wrong. We can follow the rules to the best of our ability and still come up short. It’s a frustrating aspect of humanity’s imperfection. Thankfully, what’s true in many areas of our lives is not true for our walk with Jesus. While we are saved by grace and not by works, we can experience more of Him in our lives through the things we do. Through spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible study, we can connect with Him in meaningful ways.
As Paul started to wrap up his letter to the Philippians, he focused on the role of faithful living in the Christian life. He reminded his readers that he had shown them how to act. He had taught them about the importance of unity in the body of Christ (Philippians 4:2–3). He had emphasized the contrast between joy and worry (vv.4–6). He had promised them that developing healthy prayer practices would reduce the fear and anxiety in their lives (v.7). And he had given them a how-to on nurturing pure thoughts that glorified Jesus (v.8).
In a sense, Paul gave the Philippians a clear instruction manual for walking as a Christ follower. He also gave them his own example to imitate (v.9). In Paul, they saw a life completely surrendered to Jesus. Because the character of Christ never changes, we have the same instructions and the same model as Paul did.
And thankfully, we also have the same promise for what we can become when we walk with Christ.
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