Christoformity (Philippians 3:10–16)
Those Who Live as We Do
Philippians 3:17–19
Paul tells the Philippians, “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do” (Phil. 3:17).
That advice feels complicated in a time when so many of our heroes have disappointed us. Many of us have watched pastors, teachers, authors, parents, or other people we respected abandon principles we thought they represented. Sometimes it is ideological or moral failure, maybe a lack of principles, or maybe we discover something that completely change how we see someone.
Eventually, experiences like these can change the way we choose our heroes.
Part of the problem may be that we have been using the wrong measurements. We have often treated large platforms, influence, money, charisma, and success as evidence that someone is worth following. Those are the empire’s measurements of greatness, but they have very little to do with the life of Jesus.
Paul gives us another measurement: keep your eyes on people whose lives look like Christ. They may have smaller audiences and less impressive platforms. Their path might also be harder, they may lose status because of the people they associate with. They may be willing to risk their reputation to welcome people who have been pushed aside. The people worth watching are not necessarily the people everyone else is watching.
Christoformity
One way of describing this kind of life is Christoformity, which simply means being formed into the likeness of Christ. Rather than measuring Christian maturity primarily by what someone knows or believes, Christoformity asks whether the pattern and character of Jesus are increasingly taking shape in their life.
We can think about that formation in three connected ways:
Cruciformity the daily practice of allowing yourself to be formed by the cross. A cross-shaped life is willing to empty itself for the good of someone else. The central image of Christian worship is a broken body and poured-out blood that feeds everyone who comes hungry to the table. Cruciformity teaches us to recognize the countless opportunities we have to give ourselves away for others.
Basilei formity Basilei is used by Paul in Romans to describe the way the things reign over us. Basileiformity means being formed by the reign of Christ. It asks what is actually governing our decisions. Is it money? Fear? Power? Reputation? Or are the life and teachings of Jesus genuinely directing us? Basileiformity means deliberately allowing love, rather than those other powers, to drive our decisions.
Anastasiformity means being formed by the resurrection. Christians are surrounded by predictions of catastrophe and reasons to despair, it forms us into people who throw things —and people— away when they are broken. But resurrection forms us into people of hope. Scripture repeatedly presents new creation emerging through difficulty: chaos before creation, crucifixion before resurrection, and Babylon falling before the New Jerusalem arrives. Christian hope believes that death and destruction do not get the final word.
Together, these give us a different picture of Christian maturity: a person shaped by the cross, reign, and resurrection of Jesus.
Enemies of the Cross
Paul then gives a warning: “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil. 3:18).
It can be tempting to hear “enemies of the cross” and immediately imagine people outside Christianity. But Paul is warning about people within the Christian community. They embrace a Christian identity while rejecting the cruciform way of Jesus. They still measure greatness by status, recognition, power, and success, so they enter Christian community with the same ambitions people bring into the empire: to conquer, rule, receive recognition, and protect their position.
The cross threatens all of that because the cross requires us to move downward. Following Jesus may cost status. It may tarnish our reputation. It may require choosing people over opportunities or love over economic advantage. It may simply make us uncomfortable.
This is why all three parts of Christoformity matter. Christianity without the reign of Jesus can become concerned only with believing the right things so that we “go to heaven.” Christianity without resurrection can lose hope for this world and become preoccupied with escaping it. But Christianity without the cross becomes particularly dangerous. It leads us into authoritarians Christianity that embraces the opposite of the cross, power over and violence. It becomes dominating and proud, unable to humble itself.
If we want the reign of Christ and the victory of Christ without the self-emptying way of Christ, we still want a kingdom, but we have rejected Jesus’ way of building one. Without the cross, the only option left is the sword.
That is how Christianity becomes abusive.
Paul tells us instead to keep our eyes on people who look more like Jesus more often than not. Christian maturity is primarily about learning to recognize Christ-shaped people and, little by little, becoming those kinds of people ourselves.
House Church Discussion Questions
Who have been some of the heroes or role models in your life? What originally made you look up to them?
Have you ever had someone you respected deeply disappoint you or change in a way you couldn’t follow? How did that affect you?
Of the three ideas here, cruciformity, basiformity, and anastasiformity, which one feels most important for you right now? Why?
When you think about your everyday decisions, what tends to have the strongest pull on you: love, money, fear, reputation, comfort, something else?
Who is someone in your life who quietly looks like Jesus to you? What is it about the way they live that makes you want to “keep your eyes” on them?