COVID-19 has infected churches as well as people. Arguments over masks and vaxes have turned many friends into enemies, and divided more churches than any worship wars ever have.

By the time it’s finished, COVID may well kill more churches than people. If it does, then the spiritual death toll will be far greater than the most horrifying CDC statistics.

Although COVID-19 is a deadly disease that we must take seriously, there’s no question that powerful people are using COVID-19 to undermine our hard-won national liberty. But the devil is also using COVID-19 to undermine our hard-won church unity. What have we gained if we win national liberty but lose church unity?

So, while we must fight for our national liberty, we must also fight for church unity. Before we get involved in another mask or vax fight, let’s ask ourselves, How hard should I fight for unity? Then remember Paul’s answer in Philippians 1:27-20.

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James longs for heaven and often expresses the wish to die young so that he can get there early. Susan loves life and doesn’t like thinking about heaven too much because there’s so much kingdom work to be done on earth.

Most of us are varying mixtures of James and Susan, which creates a confusing and painful tension at times. Sometimes we feel guilty about how little we long for heaven, other times we feel guilty that our desire for heaven is merely escapism from this world’s troubles. How do I balance my longing for eternal life with my longing for a useful life?

The Apostle Paul was a James-Susan mix, and, in Philippians 1:22-26, models the answer for us.

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Have you ever viewed death as a deliverance rather than a defeat?

That’s what Paul does in Philippians 1:19-21. He’s in jail and his beloved First Church of Philippi is in trouble. Rival pastors were fighting each other (1:15-18), the believers were fighting each other (1:27), and external opponents were fighting them all (1:28-29). How will God get me out of this? the Philippians asked each other.

Paul answers with a surprising view of deliverance, that we do well to embrace.

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“My favorite preacher has fallen, what now?” How many times has that happened to you? It seems like almost every few weeks, another well-known preacher bites the dust. Mark Driscoll, Tullian Tchividjan, James McDonald, Ravi Zacharias, Bill Hybels, and on and on it goes.

It’s perplexing and confusing isn’t it? They preached sound sermons and wrote good books. Do I now discount and deny all the benefit I got from them over the years? Do I stop listening to their sermons and reading their books? Can I separate their words from the one who spoke or wrote them?

Maybe it’s not that our favorite preacher has fallen, but they are falling in our estimation. We’re beginning to see things that concern us. Maybe it’s their lifestyle, their wealth, their vanity, their ambition, their self-promotion.

Or perhaps it’s their competitiveness and their love of controversy. They seem to enjoy putting down other preachers and pointing out all their faults, which usually makes themselves look far superior.

We’re uneasy and concerned but they seem to preach Christ still and are faithful expositors of God’s Word. What do we do with that? How do we relate to fallen (or falling) preachers? Let’s see how Paul answered that question in Philippians 1:15-18.

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“Invite failure in, embrace it, then pick its pocket.” So says the Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams in his bestselling semi-biographical book, How to fail at almost everything and still win big. His point is that failure comes with big pockets full of value if we would welcome it, embrace it, and pick its pockets.

That’s what the Apostle Paul did 2000 years ago when his Gospel mission “failed” and he ended up jailed. Let’s see what Paul finds in failures pockets as he helps us answer the question, how should I deal with personal setbacks?

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“How can I be more productive?” Paul shares the secret to productivity in Philippians 1:9-11.

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