Philippians 3:17-4:1 | Set Your Mind on Things Above
The Second Sunday in Lent | March 16, 2025
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
When World War II ended, Germany was split up into two nations. West Germany was allied with the west, the United States and other nations, while East Germany was controlled by the communists. For this reason, East Germany was officially atheist, but there were still many Christians living there. In fact, at its founding, 80% of the country belonged to the Lutheran Church.1
Dr. Siegfried Krügel was a theology lecturer at the Lutheran Theological College in East Germany during these years. He knew well the students and other faculty members at the college, but they did not know him very well. No one ever questioned why he wasn’t often at work in the mornings. Whether they didn’t notice or didn’t care, it might have helped if they did.
Where did Dr. Krügel go in the mornings? He would make his way to an apartment building, where he knew a man named Alexander was waiting for him. One morning, Alexander handed him 24 tickets to five upcoming opera and theatre performances. And the two men talked. They talked about what was happening at the Theological College. They talked about the people Dr. Krügel knew.
It might have been all innocent, but it wasn’t. Dr. Krügel was a spy. He worked for the East German Ministry for State Security known as the Stasi.2 The Nazis had the Gestapo, The Soviets had the KGB, East Germany had the Stasi. Intelligence services.
And it was impressive. By the time East Germany fell, the Stasi had used 1.7 million informants, and had spied on half the country’s population.3 They had 180,000 informants at any given time. Stasi officers would meet with their informants regularly in “conspiratorial apartments” – these were apartments either rented or owned by the Stasi for the sole purpose of having a secret place to meet. Dr. Krügel would often meet his officer for three or more hours, discussing what he had seen, and handing over documents like the meeting protocols of church bodies, letters to and from the college, confidential memos from the Bishop. The more information, the better.
Of course, this was the era before computers, so the files for the Stasi were massive – millions and millions of pages. They had large spreadsheets with tables of who knew who and what in a given area.4 They would record even the most mundane details. There was so much information that the Stasi was not able to destroy it all when East Germany fell. That’s how we know some of these incredible stories.
There was an entire division of the Stasi devoted to churches. The head of the department was an atheist named Joachim Weigand. He learned early on that the best way to deal with the churches was not outright persecution. Don’t try to eliminate the church entirely. 80% of people were Lutheran. It wouldn’t work. The Soviet Union’s KGB sent Christians to penal camps.5 But the Stasi had a different approach: “infiltrate the ranks.”6 Make friends. Get informants and spies who would advocate for what the government wanted. The pastors were the spies.
Some would do it simply out of loyalty to the state. But others took special care. They were in it because they knew that the Stasi could get things that would make their lives better.
That’s why Dr. Krügel got opera tickets. It was one of the perks of being an informant. It’s not the only thing he wanted – over his time as an agent, he requested a travel permit to visit West Germany, tickets to a Baltic Sea resort, even for his son to get into a better school. All of which the Stasi provided. Their spies gave better information when they got what they wanted.
And Weigand knew that many people could be bought very cheaply. Some coffee, baked goods, tobacco products, and a little bit of cash satisfied one agent for quite a while.7 Another simply wanted a travel permit to West Germany, and a West German lamp. Joachim Weigand, the head of the Stasi wasn’t cynical. He was just realistic: “If a bishop is willing to trade his integrity for a lamp, why should [he] not take advantage of it?”8
What would you trade your integrity for? I find it amazing how little the pastor spies of East Germany required.9 I mean – a lamp? Would you really spy on your friends and family for a lamp? The pastor spies of East Germany are such a clear example those Paul talks about in our Epistle reading who walk as enemies of the cross. He says, “their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” When your god is your belly, it means that the most important things to you are the things you get to consume. When your mind is set on earthly things, then you will trade anything and everything else in life to get those earthly things – even your soul. No price is too high to have the things of this world.
What would you trade your soul for? Maybe your price is higher than a lamp. But do you have a price?
Like the Stasi, the devil knows your price. And like the Stasi, he has no problem giving it to you. He’ll give you all the wealth you can imagine, if it will keep your mind occupied on things other than Jesus. He’ll give you all the friends you want, as long as you’re worried more about pleasing them than you are Jesus. He’ll give you a phone and lots of time on the internet if it will distract you from your prayers and shorten your attention span so that you can’t focus on your devotions. He’ll give you lots of great sports and vacation opportunities if they will keep you away from church. He’ll even give you a high position in our congregation. He’ll fill your belly with whatever you want, because he knows that it’s all worth very little in the grand scheme of things. As long you give him your soul in the process.
And like the Stasi, the devil doesn’t feel bad about what he’s doing. The devil has no conscience. He will do whatever it takes for you to fall. But he can only do that if you set your minds on these things. If you say that you can’t or won’t live without these things. Because then you have a price. You have a something you would sell your soul for in order to get back.
It’s worth asking yourself today: Where have you set your mind? Is it on earthly things? Is it on the next thing you get to consume and experience and buy and use?
I find it interesting that Paul wants our minds set on him. He puts himself forward as an example of how to keep the devil from getting a foothold, how to not set your mind on earthly things.
Because of his faith, Paul was whipped five times, beaten with rods… three times, and survived four shipwrecks.10 He was adrift at sea for a night and a day. He was constantly in danger, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from his own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure [2 Corinthians 11:24-27]. He was put in prison and could have been released, but he chose not to, and he was ultimately beheaded for his proclamation of the Gospel. Not even his freedom, not even his life was worth giving up his soul.
Where was Paul’s mind set on? It was on heaven. It was on the goal of being united to Christ for all eternity. He could have sold his soul at any moment and lived a more comfortable life until the day he died. But he knew that it wasn’t worth it. His mind was on heaven.
Paul isn’t the only example we have. We also have the example of the saints who have gone before us. Many of them didn’t have half of the basic amenities that we set our minds on today. Yet they suffered the loss of everything they had in order to remain Christian. They are our examples. One of the reasons our adult Bible Study is studying the early church is to be inspired by the lives of our fathers in the faith.
One of the ways they can really help us is to remind us of practices we’ve forgotten. For instance, the practice of fasting at certain times during the year is one way they kept their minds out of their bellies. Fasting trained them to take their minds off of the desire to feel full, the desire for a good meal, even the desire to fit in with those who are eating. When they felt these things, they fixed their minds on things above. It worked well for them – by following their example we too can learn how to keep our minds off earthly things.
But we shouldn’t just look way in the past at dead people for our examples. We should also look in our congregation for those who have set their mind on things above. A lot of the time it’s the older folks we look up to because have learned simply through experience how not to focus on the things of this world. On the other hand, maybe you are old, and the only people you can look up to are younger than you. Maybe they’re doing what you now realize you should have when you were that age. Who you look up to doesn’t matter. Find someone whose mind is not set on the things of this world, and imitate them.
Of course, our greatest example is Jesus. Jesus is more than our example, obviously – he’s our Savior – but the one place in the Bible where Jesus is explicitly called our example is when he is suffering innocently for us [1 Peter 2:21]. Leaving the things of the world behind. Setting his mind on his heavenly citizenship.
That’s why Jesus is not just an example for us to follow. His cross is the standard we rally behind. We lift high the cross because that it how he made us citizens of his heavenly kingdom. His death is what brought us out of the kingdom of darkness. And his resurrection raises us from the death of our sins even now so that we can look with hope to where we will someday be.
In other words, you have been raised with Christ. So seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God [Colossians 3:1]. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control [Galatians 5:22-23]. All the fruit of the Spirit, everything that pleases God, the good life you will have in heaven, his word and the Lord’s Supper, where he joins you to himself. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory [Colossians 3:3-4]. He will transform your lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Nothing else can give you this glory. That’s because nothing else lasts. Nothing else gives true joy. Earthly things will only disappoint you.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. To many of the people inside, it was a big surprise, because it had just seemed like East Germany would last forever.11 Even more surprising was how quickly it all came down. Many of the Stasi were amazed at how powerless they were to stop it – their tactics didn’t work once everyone knew what was going happen.
So it is with us. It looks like the earthly things we like will always be there. That we’ll always be able to fill our belly one more time. But the end can come quickly, and you will be powerless to stop it. One day the doctor diagnoses you with diabetes. One day a car swerves into your lane. And just like that’s it’s over.
You won’t have time to shred your files. Everything you have done, everything you are, will be laid bare before the Almighty God. Today is the day to set your mind on the things that matter.
I find it interesting that once the Berlin wall fell in Germany, there was a mass exodus from the Lutheran church. Because many were only in it in order to oppose communism, and when they no longer needed the church for that, they left. The pastor spies were not the only one whose minds were set on earthly things. Today, that region of Germany – what used to be East Germany – is one of the most atheistic places in the world. Only 4% of people regularly attend church services.12
We need to commend ourselves this day to the Lord in such a way that even if all our soup suppers and Christmas program and VBS all disappeared, we would still be in church. We would still follow the example of our fathers in the faith. We will focus on heavenly things. We will still stand firm … in the Lord.
By the grace of God, we will lift high Jesus’ cross no matter what comes. Even if there’s only two or three of us left to do it. Join us in setting your mind on the things above, no matter what comes, no matter what Satan gives us – good or bad. Earthly things cannot compare to the joy we have in Jesus. Let us pursue him above all else, because there is nothing else worth having.
LSB 837 goes well with this sermon. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons I cannot reproduce it here.
Elisabeth Braw, God’s Spies, 14. All of the information about the Stasi comes from this book, even the information I did not directly cite.
Braw, God’s Spies, xvii.
Braw, God’s Spies, xvii.
I remember reading this in Braw’s book, but I can’t find the page at the moment.
Braw, God’s Spies, 228.
Braw, God’s Spies, 18.
Braw, God’s Spies, 150.
Braw, God’s Spies, 148.
This idea (along with Braw’s book) was first presented to me by Dr. Adam Koontz in an episode of his podcast A Brief History of Power, though I do not remember which one. I thought it would make a good sermon.
I am assuming that 2 Corinthians was written during Paul’s Third Missionary Journey recorded in Acts, and that therefore the shipwreck recorded in Acts 27 had not yet happened when these verses were written.
For example, Erich Mielke. See Braw, God’s Spies, p.16, 238.
Braw, God’s Spies, xxi.