Philippians 1:20,21

Paul's Eager Longing

Vine says the word translated "earnest expectation" means "primarily a watching with outstretched head....signifies strained expectancy, eager longing, the stretching forth of the head indicating an expectation of something from a certain place". Paul did not look forward to failure, but to success in showing Christ more clearly to others. He might do that either through his life or death (1 Peter 1:20).

He lived only to show forth the Savior. Paul could count death as gain because it would bring a long awaited reward of rest. In fact, in one letter he wrote, "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." He explained further that such knowledge made him "groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 5:1-8; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; Revelation 14:13).

One has to know how to live to be able to die with the same assurance Paul expressed (1 Peter 1:21). He told the Galatian brethren, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).