Christ Exalted by Life or Death

In Philippians 1:20 the apostle Paul wrote that the choice between his desire to keep on living and his desire to die and be with Christ was a difficult one.  The great Puritan writer Thomas Manton's comment on this verse is very thought-provoking.  Whichever occurred, he wrote, Paul's choice was not determined by a base or selfish motive.  He did not want to keep on living only to pursue his own pleasure or profit.  He did not want to die only to escape suffering.  Paul was influenced by one over-arching purpose: God's glory.  Whether he lived or died, his earnest expectation was that Christ would be exalted.  To merely go on living was not enough for him.  Life  for Paul was wasted apart from the great purpose of magnifying God.  In whatever happens to us, we should seek our happiness in the same goal.