A Time To Weep

3:18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ...

Here we have a strange sight: the apostle Paul sitting in chains weeping as he writes a letter to the Philippians. What should we make of this?

One of the most remarkable verses in the Bible is the shortest one: "Jesus wept." (John 11:35). Jesus is for us the perfect and ultimate example of true manliness. And Jesus wept. At least three times He wept: at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:35), looking over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), and at Gethsemane (Heb.5:7). He entered fully into our humanity. He felt our weakness and our sadness and our pain.

God wants His people to be emotional. We’re not supposed to be stoics. He wants each of us to have a robust emotional life. He wants us to be people who laugh and cry and who feel the full range of emotions He created for human life. But He wants us to experience these emotions at the appropriate time and for the appropriate reasons: everything for the glory of God.

Paul’s weeping is even more fully recorded for us in the NT than Jesus’. E.g.:

Acts 20:18-19 Paul “said to them, You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me...”

Acts 20:31 "Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears."

2Cor.2:4 "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you."

There are many Biblical times to weep. As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:1,4, "There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven–– ...A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance."

For example, we are to:

1- Weep for our sin - James 4:9

2- Weep for others’ sins - Psalm 119:136

3- Weep with compassion - Romans 12:15

But for what reason was Paul weeping as he wrote this letter to the Philippians? It is impossible to tell for sure, but I think it makes the most sense that Paul was weeping out of love for all Christ’s little sheep who had been or might yet be injured by these false Christians, these enemies of the cross of Christ. Because he loved the sheep he wept at the news of wolves. In the Spirit of Christ Paul cared so much about God’s children that he wept when their faith was disturbed (cf. 2Cor.11:29).

This isn’t just an historical fact about Paul. This is the command of God for us. God filled the apostle with the Spirit of Christ and then told us, "Follow his example." True love weeps when the beloved is hurt.

O Father, what a hard heart I have. How little I care for the ones You care so much about. Thank You for the remarkable love You have for us, Your little ones. Shake me with the realization of this love and fill me with the Spirit who can empower me to love the way Jesus did and the way His Spirit did through Paul. Fill me with Your love; melt my heart to tears on behalf of Your beloved ones, O Lord.Verse by Verse Devotional on Philippians by Pastor Jack #1