A dilemma is often described as a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more, usually undesirable, alternatives. You could say the Apostle Paul was facing a dilemma, his alternatives were Roman imprisonment or death. Paul however, viewed his circumstances as a win – win scenario:

For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

How could Paul come to this conclusion? As Paul evaluated his situation, he concluded that if he were to continue to live in prison, this would mean fruitful labor for him and prove to be a benefit to the other believers. The desire of his heart however, was to depart and be with Christ. Paul’s belief in the sovereignty of God gave him a refreshing perspective that enabled him live above his circumstances.

The phrase for to me is emphatic and revealed the personal nature of his heart. Paul affirmed that his purpose in life was to live for Jesus. What is it that makes your life worth living? If we don’t know what we’re living for, it could be that we don’t have a purpose worth dying for.

The word live refers not simply to our physical lives, but to the quality of our lives. Paul declared that living for Christ was his raison d’être and gave his life it’s truest meaning and complete fulfillment. Paul knew that the Christian life is not living in accordance with a set of principles, rather it is living with Christ as the center of our lives.

The world sees death as the loss of all for which one has lived for, but for believers, Paul declared that it is actually gain. Paul reminded the Corinthians that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, but that was not his preference:

but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)

When we are when are present with the Lord, then we are free of life’s limitations. Jim Elliot realized this perspective as he wrote in his journal, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” When you embrace the reality of your finitude, then you are free to invest yourself in a cause greater than yourself. You give up what you can’t keep so that you may gain what you can never lose.

The philosopher Seneca gave us this warning, “Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing.” Can you agree with the Apostle Paul, for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain?

Rick Higgins

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark