Philippians 1:14 - BASE-jumping for Jesus!

"...and the many of the brothers, trusting in [the] Lord by my bonds, even more so to be daring fearlessly the word to be speaking."

-The words here describe the actual action of telling people about Jesus, of speaking the Truth of the Good News, ostensibly even to people who don’t want to hear it.  Hence the word for courage here - tolmao.  It means courage in action.  It is not just the feeling of bravery, it is the actions of bravery.  Which is the whole point, isn’t it?  Bravery is not a feeling, it is an action.  But Paul says the brothers were also fearless.  Speaking out about Jesus in this time and place was not only uncomfortable but also risky business.  Paul says that many - albeit not all - of his fellow Christ-followers in Rome were inspired and emboldened enough by his example to take the risk to tell others what they knew about Jesus.  Fear and faith are incompatible.  If I am afraid, I am focusing on the wrong thing.  Focus on Jesus (Hebrews 12.2).  Focus on the Jesus we see in the life of someone like Paul.

-Trust.  Daring.  Fearless.  That is the order.  The person who jumps out of a plane or off a cliff show us the way.  They have complete trust - in their training, in their equipment, in their preparation.  They’re not shrinking back out of fear over what might happen.  Fear shuts down feats of daring.  Trust enables them.  That’s the whole point of Hebrews 11, the ‘Faith Hall of Fame’ (cf Hebrews 11.32-38).  Those heroes of faith found courage and performed daring feats of power and suffering because they had trust - but their trust(=faith) was in the God Who is completely trust-worthy.  It was not in themselves or their experience or their education or their ability.  God is able, and with Him all things are possible, even and including that which is seemingly impossible.  Trust in Him and do great exploits!  Conquer kingdoms.  Put armies to flight.  Heal the sick.  Raise the dead.  Love the unloveable.  Forgive the unforgiveable.  Find strength in weakness and temptation and in prison and in sickness and in death.  But above all else speak the Word.  That’s what the believers in rome were doing.  They were inspired by Paul’s example - his trust, his boldness, as well as by the results they saw with so many people hearing and responding to the Gospel through Paul’s fearless witness.  He was daring to speak the Word amidst extremely trying and risky circumstances, and as a result many others were being emboldened to do the same.  And to that point, courage is contagious.  When the stakes are high and folks are milling around tempted to circle the wagons, somebody needs to be the first to jump off the cliff...