Thinking Like the Messiah. What Paul Believed About Life After Death and Why It Still Matters

What does it mean to think like the Messiah, and what did Paul believe would actually happen when he died. Those two questions sit at the center of this moment in Philippians, and they open a window into how Paul understood faith in the real world. Not the imagined world where everything is neat and polished. The real world of pressure, uncertainty, and fear.

Paul writes this section from prison. He is chained, waiting for a trial, and fully aware that many people in his situation never made it out alive. With that hanging over him, he invites the community in Philippi to take on the mind of the Messiah. Not as an abstract idea, but as a way of living that shapes how they respond to their circumstances and to each other.

Before getting into what he says, it helps to remember how a letter like Philippians works. These writings were meant to be heard from start to finish, not split into tiny pieces. Most of Pauls letters can be read in fifteen minutes. When you hear them that way, you start to feel the flow of thought instead of just seeing isolated verses. Sometimes chapter numbers and verse numbers, while helpful for study, interrupt that natural flow. Reading the whole thing several days in a row helps the themes rise to the surface.

In Philippians 1, Paul begins with a prayer that their love would grow richer and deeper through knowledge and wisdom. He sets that framework intentionally, because everything he shares next is a real life picture of that kind of love and wisdom at work inside a life that is falling apart.

Paul tells them that his imprisonment has not stopped the gospel. It has actually helped it advance. The Imperial Guard knows why he is there. Other believers have become more confident and bold because of his suffering. This runs directly against how we tend to imagine influence. We assume strength, control, and freedom are the ways the kingdom of God moves forward. Paul insists that God’s kingdom grows through weakness. It spreads when people surrender rather than dominate.

Then he raises a strange tension. Some people are preaching Christ out of love. Others out of envy, rivalry, and selfish motives. Some actually believe that by preaching about Jesus as king, they will make Paul’s situation worse. In the Roman world you did not casually announce another king. Caesar was lord. Talking about a rival king was politically charged and dangerous. They expected Paul to suffer for it.

But Paul does not get lost in their motives. He basically says that as long as Christ is announced, he will celebrate it. He refuses to let the mixed intentions of other people consume his energy. There is a quiet freedom in that posture. At some point you have to let go of the small stuff so you can focus on what is actually in front of you. That is one piece of thinking like the Messiah. Not the absence of discernment, but the refusal to let pettiness derail you from the work you are called to do.

Then Paul opens up in a way that is deeply human. He says that for him, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If he lives, he has more work to do. There is encouragement to give, communities to support, and people who need the presence of someone who loves them. But he also admits that he has a desire to depart and be with Christ, which he says is better by far.

This gives us a surprising window into one of the biggest questions people carry. Where do I go when I die. Paul makes something clear. If he dies, he expects to be with Christ. Present with him. At rest. But Paul does not see that as the final chapter. His larger hope is resurrection, where God will renew creation and raise his people to new embodied life. That distinction matters. What happens right after death is not the same as the final hope of Scripture. Paul holds both together without fear.

But what he does with that perspective is what matters most. He does not use the hope of being with Christ as an excuse to check out or give up. Instead he says it is better for the Philippians that he remain. They still need support. They still need encouragement. They still need someone to walk with them. So even with death as a real possibility, he sees his life as a gift to others. That is another picture of what it means to think like the Messiah. Your life matters for the sake of someone else. There is a good work for you to do. Something unfinished that God is inviting you into.

Paul turns from there to how we live in public. He writes that their behavior must match the good news of the king. This is a strong and necessary word. Philippi was a Roman colony defined by loyalty to Caesar, public rituals, idol worship, and the pursuit of status and pleasure. For these believers to follow Jesus meant stepping away from practices that everyone else considered normal. It created tension, social pressure, and in some cases real suffering.

Paul refuses to let that suffering justify harshness or hostility in return. Other peoples bad behavior is never an excuse for your own. If they want to honor Christ, their public behavior has to reflect the kingdom they claim to belong to. That is not about pretending everything is fine. It is about becoming the kind of people whose lives actually look like the Sermon on the Mount. People who refuse to answer insult with insult, who see others as humans rather than enemies, and who choose the way of Jesus even when it costs them something.

He tells them to stand firm with one spirit, striving side by side rather than turning against each other. That is hard. Especially when there are real theological differences that feel important. I have felt that tension myself. Leaving a church because of theological conviction does not mean you turn the people you left into enemies. They are still your brothers and sisters. You can disagree deeply and still root for the kingdom of God to grow through them.

Paul ends by reminding them that their suffering connects them to the very story he is living. The story of a king whose power is revealed not through domination but through self giving love.

This entire section is preparing the ground for what comes next, where Paul will describe the mind of Christ in a way that has shaped Christian imagination for two thousand years. A Messiah who empties himself, takes the form of a servant, and walks the path of humility for the sake of the world.

For now, Philippians 1 leaves us with a simple and challenging invitation. Learn to let go of the small things that steal your energy. Remember that your life has real work to do for the sake of others. And live in a way that reflects the good news of the king in public, not just in private belief. Thinking like the Messiah is not about perfect knowledge. It is about slowly allowing Jesus to reshape the way we see ourselves, the way we treat others, and the way we move through a complicated world.