Philippians 3: 17-21
(17) Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
Paul has been seeking God and His ways in how to live his life, and now he's telling his hearers to live their lives also according to how He has learned, and to watch those who also have conformed their lives to God's ways instead of the attitudes of the world.
(18) For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,
He's thinking of people he knows, who he's come to love, that have turned away from the Lord and are teaching other things than the Truth of God, to gain followers for themselves.
(19) whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
If they don't turn back to the Lord as Paul preaches, because he teaches the truth, then they will be destroyed. Their first priority seems to be their own pleasure and comfort in material things and worldly activities.
(20) For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
We know that we will only be here in this world temporarily, we're just passing through, on our way to our real home in heaven. Jesus will be returning to the Earth soon, to gather all of His people to carry us with Him into eternity.
(21) who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
Jesus has been given Lordship over all Creation by the Father when He created everything. I see God the Father as the Brain, God the Son as the Brawn, and God the Holy Spirit as the Life and Light. This is my personal idea, and is very simplistic. But John says that God spoke and the Word He spoke is the Son who created everything that exists. And the life in Him is the light of mankind, the Holy Spirit He gives (John 1: 1-4; 14: 26).
Jesus will transform our physical bodies into spiritual bodies of light, like His body as He appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos (Revelation 1: 13-15). This is His redemption: He has bought us out of the slave-market of sin, cleaned us up, put His Holy Spirit into us to make our human spirit alive, and severed the connection to the flesh body, so it has no more pull on us to sin. He is now leading us to live lives of purity and integrity.
That's why Paul advises us all to pattern our lives after his and others who live godly lives, so that we will grow up in Christ into the maturity of the full stature of the Son of God. We are His body, and the final Redemption will be completed when He returns to this Earth to set up His Kingdom here. We will rule with Him, sitting in His throne as He sits in the Father's throne as sovereign Lord and King and God over all.
O my Father, You gave Moses the pattern for the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and You gave us Jesus as our pattern for living. You taught Saul how to be Paul and live according to that pattern, and You want all of Your children to think and act as members of Your family.
Teach us all, Father, how to pattern our thinking processes and attitudes after Yours instead of our own. Your thoughts are not our thoughts, as so often our ideas are opposite to Yours, and therefore detrimental. O Father, our enemy has deceived the world so deeply, and blinded their eyes to see reality! Please help us, strengthen us to stand firm against the onslaught of negativity hurled at us constantly. Show us how to show the world Your ways, that will rescue them from the snares and traps that hold them.
Father, help us to reach out to all who are searching for You, that we might be able to teach them Your ways, how much You love them and care for them, and want to save them from themselves.
Fill Your house with Your uncountable children, my Father; surround Your grand Banquet Table with all of Your family, to feast and fellowship with You and one another forevermore!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
