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Su
pp
lemen
tal No
tes:
The B
ookof
Philippians
Chuck Missler
© 2001 K
oinonia House Inc.
Page 3Page 2
Th
e Bo
ok o
f Ph
ilipp
ians
Intro
du
ction
Ph
ilipp
i
Philippi was founded by the great M
acedonian king whose nam
e it bears.It is on or near the site of ancient w
ells or fountains known as “C
renides.”Its natural advantages w
ere considerable: it was in the neighborhood of
gold and silver mines, w
hich were exhausted in early tim
es by theP
hoenicians and Thasians. T
hey passed successively to the hand of thepow
ers of civilized Europe: the A
thenians, the Macedonians, and the
Rom
ans. During the R
oman occupation w
e read little of them. T
he plainon w
hich it was situated w
as remarkable for its fertility.
How
ever, its primary im
portance was its strategic geographical position
comm
anding the great road between E
urope and Asia. T
he almost
continual mountain barrier betw
een the East and W
est has a depressionhere w
hich forms a gatew
ay for this thoroughfare between the tw
ocontinents. It w
as the advantage of this position that led Philip the
Macedon to fortify the site of the ancient C
renides.
It was this w
hich marked out the very battlefield w
here the destinies ofthe R
oman E
mpire w
ere decided, and which led the conqueror to plant
a Rom
an colony on the scene of his triumph.
Philippi w
as the scene of the decisive battle ending the Rom
an republicin 42 B.C. B
rutus and Cassius, m
urderers of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. , w
eredefeated by the com
bined forces of Mark A
ntony and Octavian, w
holater becam
e Em
peror Augustus. B
ecause of Philippi’s assistance,
Augustus granted R
oman citizenship to these P
hilippians when he
became em
peror.
Augustus founded at P
hilippi a Rom
an military colony w
ith the label,“C
olonia Augusta Julia P
hilippensis.” He conferred upon it the coveted
privilege of “Italic right,” giving its inhabitants the same rights as if they
were living in Italy. (W
e will sense this w
hen we explore A
cts 16:21.)
Th
e First C
hu
rch in
Eu
rop
e
Paul’s first visit to P
hilippi is recorded with a m
inuteness that has fewparallels in L
uke’s history. Luke joined P
aul just as he crossed over into
Au
dio
Listin
g
Intro
du
ction
Background. P
aul’s First V
isit to Philippi (A
cts 16). How
God G
uides.
Ph
ilipp
ians 1
Tim
othy. Our S
ecurity in Christ. T
he Christian’s D
eath Benefits.
Christian C
onduct.
Ph
ilipp
ians 2:1-11
Four Pillars for Christian U
nity. The K
enosis. The G
reat Parabola. Jesus’N
ames.
Ph
ilipp
ians 2:12-30
Practical E
xamples. L
iving for Others. T
he Sanctity of a C
omm
itment.
Ph
ilipp
ians 3:1-11
The A
dvent of the Judaizers. Happiness vs. Joy. L
osses Result in G
ains.T
he Ultim
ate Goal.
Ph
ilipp
ians 3:12-21
Winning the R
ace! Forgetting the P
ast. Finishing W
ell.
Ph
ilipp
ians 4
Getting A
long with C
hristians. The M
eaning of Prayer. G
od’s Rules for
Doubtful T
hings.
Su
mm
ary
Page 5Page 4
Sam
othracia: highest in elevation of northern Aegean islands, m
idway
between T
roas and Philippi. N
eapolis: harbor of Philippi, 10 m
i. inland;(favorable w
ind: two days; later it took five days).
12]A
nd from thence to P
hilippi, which is the chief city of that part of M
acedonia,and a colony: and w
e were in that city abiding certain days.
Paul always focused on strategic centers. H
e arrives about 20 years afterthe foundation of the C
hurch at Jerusalem.
13]A
nd on the sabbath we w
ent out of the city by a river side, where prayer w
asw
ont to be made; and w
e sat down, and spake unto the w
omen w
hich resortedthither.
The story of tw
o wom
en: Lydia and a channeler! T
here was no syna-
gogue (which requires 10 adult m
en); simply a w
omen’s prayer m
eetingthat w
ould become the first church in E
urope.
14]A
nd a certain wom
an named L
ydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira,
which w
orshiped God, heard us: w
hose heart the Lord opened, that she attended
unto the things which w
ere spoken of Paul.
A sales rep. T
he celebrated purple dye was m
ade from the m
urex, ashellfish. (R
ef. by Hom
er.) Inscriptions of the guild of dyers have beenfound at T
hyatira. (Thyatira w
as one of the cities Paul had to om
it onhis w
ay to Troas.)
15]A
nd when she w
as baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If yehave judged m
e to be faithful to the Lord, com
e into my house, and abide there.
And she constrained us.
(“Constrained”: only here and at the end of the E
mm
aus Road.)
16]A
nd it came to pass, as w
e went to prayer, a certain dam
sel possessed with a spirit
of divination met us, w
hich brought her masters m
uch gain by soothsaying:
“Divination”: pu,qw
n puthon; in Greek m
ythology the name of the
Pythian serpent or dragon that dw
elt in the region of Pytho at the foot
of Parnassus in P
hocis, and was said to have guarded the oracle at D
elphiand been slain by A
pollo. Origin: from
Putho (the nam
e of the regionw
here Delphi, the seat of the fam
ous oracle, was located).
The priestess at the fam
ous temple at D
elph was called the P
ythoness;the term
Python becam
e equivalent to a soothsaying demon. S
he was,
Europe, and he w
as with him
during his stay in Philippi. He seem
s to haverem
ained there for some tim
e after Paul’s departure—
the first personplural is dropped at P
hilippi (Acts 17:1) and resum
ed in the same place
after a lapse of six or seven years (Acts 20:5).
This com
bines to make the visit to P
hilippi among the m
ost striking andinstructive passages in L
uke’s narrative.
Acts 16
5]A
nd so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in num
ber daily.6]
Now
when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of G
alatia, and were
forbidden of the Holy G
host to preach the word in A
sia,
The R
oman P
rovince of Asia (the region w
here the seven churches ofR
evelation 2 & 3 are located).
7]A
fter they were com
e to Mysia, they assayed to go into B
ithynia: but the Spirit
suffered them not.
Tow
ards the north, but blocked. Bithynia S
E shore of S
ea of Mam
ora,S
. Shore of B
lack Sea.
8]A
nd they passing by Mysia cam
e down to T
roas.
Note the third person, “they.” A
lexandreia Troas, a port on coast of
Mysia, 30 m
iles S of D
ardanelles.
9]A
nd a vision appeared to Paul in the night; T
here stood a man of M
acedonia,and prayed him
, saying, Com
e over into Macedonia, and help us.
10]A
nd after he had seen the vision, imm
ediately we endeavoured to go into
Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the L
ord had called us for to preach thegospel unto them
.
Notice the “w
e” by Luke. S
ome suspect that he, L
uke, was the m
an inthe vision!
11]T
herefore loosing from T
roas, we cam
e with a straight course to S
amothracia,
and the next day to Neapolis;
When P
aul and his gang crossed the Dardanelles, they changed the
whole course of W
estern Civilization!
Page 7Page 6
thus, Apollo’s “channel.” [T
here’s nothing “new” about the “N
ewA
ge”!]
17]T
he same follow
ed Paul and us, and cried, saying, T
hese men are the servants
of the most high G
od, which shew
unto us the way of salvation.
The occult is alw
ays motivated by self-interest. E
ven “truth” is used to“suck them
in”; soon it is mixed w
ith error.... On each previous occasion
(Mark and L
uke), Jesus comm
anded the acknowledging dem
on tosilence.
18]A
nd this did she many days. B
ut Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit,
I comm
and thee in the name of Jesus C
hrist to come out of her. A
nd he came
out the same hour.
19]A
nd when her m
asters saw that the hope of their gains w
as gone, they caughtP
aul and Silas, and drew
them into the m
arketplace unto the rulers,
If infiltration doesn’t work, then direct oppression. O
utright violencedem
onstrates that one of the enemy’s strongholds w
as being attacked(C
f. 2 Cor 10:4; E
ph 6).
20]A
nd brought them to the m
agistrates, saying, These m
en, being Jews, do
exceedingly trouble our city,21]
And teach custom
s, which are not law
ful for us to receive, neither to observe,being R
omans.
The pride and privilege of R
oman citizenship confronts us at every turn.
This is the sentim
ent which stim
ulates the blind loyalty of the people “byadvocating custom
s unlawful for us R
omans to accept or practice.” T
hisw
ill be the basis of the redress and forces an apology in vv.37-39.
22]A
nd the multitude rose up together against them
: and the magistrates rent off
their clothes, and comm
anded to beat them.
23]A
nd when they had laid m
any stripes upon them, they cast them
into prison,charging the jailor to keep them
safely:24]
Who, having received such a charge, thrust them
into the inner prison, and made
their feet fast in the stocks.25]
And at m
idnight Paul and S
ilas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the
prisoners heard them.
Adoration and w
orship. (Not, “deliver your servants,” etc.) C
f. Ps 113;
115:11; 116:3,4,15,17; 118:6,29; 114:7.
The concert w
as so successful that it brought the house down! O
therprisoners w
ere “attentively listening...”
26]A
nd suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison
were shaken: and im
mediately all the doors w
ere opened, and every one’s bandsw
ere loosed.27]
And the keeper of the prison aw
aking out of his sleep, and seeing the prisondoors open, he drew
out his sword, and w
ould have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been fled.
He w
as accountable to pay their debts if lost. [Cf. T
etelestai: “paid infull” as the com
pletion of their “certificate of debt.”]
28]B
ut Paul cried w
ith a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm
: for we are all here.
29]T
hen he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trem
bling, and fell down before
Paul and S
ilas,30]
And brought them
out, and said, Sirs, w
hat must I do to be saved?
Good question. W
e all need to be certain of the answer.
31]A
nd they said, Believe on the L
ord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and
thy house.
“And thy house”: a prophecy, not a doctrine. T
he first male convert in
Europe.
32]A
nd they spake unto him the w
ord of the Lord, and to all that w
ere in his house.33]
And he took them
the same hour of the night, and w
ashed their stripes; and was
baptized, he and all his, straightway.
34]A
nd when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them
, andrejoiced, believing in G
od with all his house.
35]A
nd when it w
as day, the magistrates sent the sargents, saying, L
et those men
go.36]
And the keeper of the prison told this saying to P
aul, The m
agistrates have sentto let you go: now
therefore depart, and go in peace.37]
But P
aul said unto them, T
hey have beaten us openly uncondemned, being
Rom
ans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily?
nay verily; but let them com
e themselves and fetch us out.
Whoops! T
hey had a jurisdiction problem! V
alerian Law
: no Rom
anshould ever be bound: this w
as considered to be an offense against theem
pire. Pocian L
aw forbade any R
oman to be flogged.
Magistrates w
ere at substantial risk themselves! I love the w
ay Paul
“rubs their noses” in it!
38]A
nd the serjeants told these words unto the m
agistrates: and they feared, when
they heard that they were R
omans.
Page 9Page 8
39]A
nd they came and besought them
, and brought them out, and desired them
todepart out of the city.
Oh, please, w
ould you be so kind as to leave quietly! This aspect w
ill alsobe im
portant for us to remem
ber when w
e turn from L
uke’s narrative toP
aul’s letter to the Philippians. A
ddressing a Rom
an colony from the
Rom
an capital, writing as a citizen to citizens, he returns in his thinking
to the political franchise as an apt symbol of the higher privileges of their
heavenly calling, to the political life as a suggestive metaphor for the
duties of their Christian profession:
Conduct yourselves in a m
anner worthy of the gospel of C
hrist...Phil 1:27
Our citizenship is in heaven.
Phil 3:20
40]A
nd they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of L
ydia: and when
they had seen the brethren, they comforted them
, and departed.
Th
ree Very D
ifferent C
on
verts
Neither Jew
or Greek, slave nor free, m
ale nor female, for you are all one
in Christ Jesus
Gal 3:28
The P
urple-Dealer and P
roselytess of Thyatira: an A
sian; engaged inan im
portant and lucrative business; devoted to the truths of the Old
Testam
ent.
A G
irl with the D
ivining Spirit: a Greek; treated by the law
as a mere
chattel without any social or political rights, em
ployed by her masters
to trade upon the impressionable ignorant; bearing the nam
e of theP
ythian god, the reputed source of Greek inspiration, represented the
equivalent what is presently called the N
ew A
ge.
The R
oman Jailer: equally rem
oved from both, held a subordinate office
under government; w
hose worship w
as likely essentially political intone.
First the proselyte, next the G
reek, and lastly, the Rom
an: they would
seem to sym
bolize the progress of Christianity throughout the w
orld.T
hey also illustrate the two great social revolutions C
hristianity hasaffected: the am
elioration of wom
an, and abolition of slavery (Cf. A
cts16:13; 17:4; 17:12). C
f. The solicitation of peace betw
een Euodia and
Syntyche (Phil 4:2-3). This is also the first recorded instance w
here whole
families are gathered into the fold. L
ydia and her household and the jailerand all belonging to him
are baptized into Christ.
As in ancient days, the patriarch w
as the recognized priest of his clan,so in the C
hristian church the father of the house is the divinelyappointed center of religious life to his ow
n family: the church in the
house of Philem
on grew into the church of C
olossae (Philem
on 2); thechurch in the house of N
ymphas becom
es the church of Laodicea
(Colossians 4:15); the church in the house of A
quila and Priscilla
becomes the churches of both E
phesus and Rom
e (1 Corinthians 16:19;
Rom
ans 16:5).
The history of P
aul’s connection with P
hilippi assumes a prom
inencequite out of proportion to the im
portance of the place itself.
The persecutions w
hich the apostle endured here were m
ore thanusually severe and im
pressed themselves deeply on his m
emory, for he
alludes to them again and again:
But even after that w
e had suffered before, and were sham
efully entreated,as ye know
, at Philippi...
1 Thess 2:2
Having the sam
e conflict which ye saw
in me, and now
hear to be in me.
Phil 1:30
His m
arvelous deliverance is without a parallel in his history before or
after, and his labors surpasses his earlier and later achievements.T
heunw
avering loyalty of his Philippian converts is the constant solace of
the apostle in his numerous trials. T
hey are his “joy and crown,” his
“brothers ... whom
I long for” (Phil 4:1). F
rom them
alone he consents toreceive gifts of m
oney for the relief of his personal needs (Phi 4:15); to
them alone he w
rites in language unclouded by any shadow of displea-
sure or disappointment. (T
his is only paralleled with Jesus’ letter to
Smyrna (R
ev 2:8-11); more of the possible parallels w
ill be explored later!)
In fact, Paul’s first visit to P
hilippi ended abruptly in the middle of the
storm of persecution; the apostle left behind a legacy of suffering to this
newborn church. T
he afflictions of the Macedonian C
hristians, and ofthe P
hilippians particularly, are more than once alluded to in P
aul’sletters (2 C
or 8:2; cf. notes on Phil 1:7, 28-30).
Page 11Page 10
Ho
w G
od
Gu
ides
Understanding doctrine:
Unanim
ous agreement
No sense of direction:
Persistent obedience
Relations w
ith others:R
esponsible concernIrreconcilable differences:
Cordial separation
Custom
s, rituals:Im
portant principleD
irections to take:S
ense of Peace
Major change:
Vision or call
* * *
Later V
isits
About five years elapsed betw
een Paul’s 1
st and 2nd visit to P
hilippi; butm
eanwhile his com
munications w
ith this church seem to be frequent and
intimate.
In A.D. 57, when P
aul was residing in E
phesus, he dispatched Tim
othyand E
rastus to Macedonia (A
cts 19:22; Cf. also 1 C
or 4:17; 16:10; 2 Cor
1:1). It would seem
that Tim
othy did not go with E
rastus to Corinth but
remained in M
acedonia.
Lib
eral Su
pp
ort
Despite their abject poverty and sore persecution, the P
hilippian churchw
as foremost in prom
ptness and cordiality of their relief of the needs oftheir poorer brethren in Judea:
How
that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and theirdeep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. F
or to theirpow
er, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they w
ere willing of
themselves; P
raying us with m
uch intreaty that we w
ould receive the gift,and take upon us the fellow
ship of the ministering to the saints. A
nd thisthey did, not as w
e hoped, but first gave their own selves to the L
ord, andunto us by the w
ill of God.
2 Cor 8:2-5
Rep
eated V
isits
In the autumn of 57 A.D., P
aul, released from his engagem
ents in Asia,
revisited his European churches. H
e visited Macedonia on the w
ay toC
orinth (2 Cor 1:15-17; cf. 1 C
or 1:5, 6).
Ap
plicatio
n
“Why doesn’t G
od guide us today like in the Book of A
cts?”
Paul m
ust have been puzzled:
•Q
uarrelling with B
arnabas, he parted from him
;•
He w
anted to preach the Gospel, so he passed through S
yriaand C
ilicia, and came to D
erbe and Lystra, and there he m
etT
imothy.
•H
e wanted to go on to proconsular A
sia, and he could not doit: H
e was sick; an infirm
ity of the flesh was upon him
and hecould not go on. It w
as necessary to that he should takeanother direction and he w
ent into Galatia and preached there.
•T
hen he turned back again. There w
as no reason that he couldunderstand. It w
as a picture of cross currents, of difficulty,perplexity and darkness.
•T
hen he felt the lure of Bithynia; he w
ould go there. No, he m
ustgo w
est and on he went, perplexed.
•T
hen came the vision of the m
an of Macedonia (...and w
hen hetalked it over w
ith Luke in later days, L
uke would w
rite thestory w
ith hindsight.)
The S
pirit forbade him preaching in A
sia. The S
pirit of Jesus drove himever and ever on tow
ard Troas. T
he guidance of the Holy S
pirit isvalidated by the results: P
hilippi, Thessalonica, B
erea, Athens, C
orinth.
The guidance of the S
pirit was subsequently recognized by these m
en:...not alw
ays by flaming visions;
...not by words articulate in hum
an ears;but by circum
stances,by com
monplace things,
by difficult things,by dark things,by disappointing things.
The m
an the Spirit w
ill guide is the man w
ho is in an attitude in which it
is possible for the Spirit to guide him
. ...an attitude of life; of loyalty tothe L
ord, faith in the guidance of the Spirit, and constant w
atchfulness.
It is the watcher for the L
ord who sees the L
ord.
Page 13Page 12
of false play, no reproaches for disorderly living, no warnings against
serious sins. (There appears to be one source of strife or rivalry, but these
differences seem related to social rather than doctrinal issues.)
* * *
Ph
ilipp
ians 1
1]P
aul and Tim
otheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in C
hrist Jesusw
hich are at Philippi, w
ith the bishops and deacons:
Tim
oth
y
A young convert closely associated w
ith Paul. Eunice (II T
im 1:5), as w
ellas her m
other Lois, had instructed T
imothy in S
criptures from infancy
(2 Tim
3:15). Tw
o of Paul’s letters are addressed to him
: “My ow
n sonin the faith” ( I T
im 1:2, 18; II T
im 1:2).
In six of Paul’s Epistles, T
imothy joined in salutation. T
imothy w
as with
Paul on his second m
issionary journey...at Ephesus during the days of
strife ...with him
on last journey to Jerusalem ...w
ith him on his first
imprisonm
ent ...Paul sent for him
in the loneliness of his secondim
prisonment.
Paul considered T
imothy his son, his child, his com
rade in the fight...P
aul circumcised him
so as not to offend Jewish prejudices (som
ethinghe w
ould not have done if he were a G
entile, like Titus).
It is distinctive that Paul and T
imothy take no official title here: sim
plythe servants (dou/loj doulos, bondslaves) of Jesus C
hrist (Cf. E
x 21:5,6; D
eut 15:15-17). They, as bondslaves, had renounced all to serve the
Lord, as those w
ho are alive from the dead. [N
o one can become a servant
of Jesus Christ until they realize that by nature they are a slave to sin.]
One can becom
e a slave:by conquest;
Ps 19:13by birth;
Ps 51:5by debt.
Rom
6:23
One could gain freedom
by earning it; by purchase; or as a gift. Only
One could pay sin’s price on our behalf.
He had intended to sail directly to Israel, but receiving inform
ation abouta plot against his life, he changed his plans and returned by land (A
cts19:21; 20:1-3). T
hus, Macedonia received a double visit. H
is affectionaterelations w
ith Philippi seem
to rivet him there. T
he second letter to theC
orinthians and the letter to Galatians w
ere written from
here.
Pau
l at Ro
me
Paul’s appeal challenged the hostility of the greatest pow
er the world
had ever seen. The very em
peror to whom
the appeal was m
ade bearsthe ignom
iny of the first systematic persecution of C
hristians, which
raged for several centuries, and which ended in establishing the G
ospelon the ruins of the E
mpire.
And it isn’t im
probable that Paul foresaw
the importance of his decision
when he transferred his cause to the tribunal of C
aesar. He “m
ust visitR
ome” (A
cts 19:21); he had “been longing for many years” to visit the
imperial city
(Rom
1:10-16; 15:22-24, 28); the heavenly vision strength-ened his purpose, “Y
ou must also testify in R
ome” (A
ct 23:11).
Som
e scholars believe that Luke “V
olumes 1 &
2” (including the Book
of Acts) w
ere the legally required pre-trial documents required to
precede the appellant before Caesar. (L
uke seems to take pains to
emphasize that at each uprising it w
as the Jewish leadership—
not Paul
and his companions—
that were the cause. A
lso, it is interesting thatcenturions are alw
ays “good guys,” etc.)
Paul remained in R
ome for “tw
o whole years” (A
cts 28:30). How
ever, itdidn’t seem
to impede the progress of his m
issionary work! H
e hadw
ritten to Rom
ans three years before; six full years before the Neronian
outbreak.
Paul was a prisoner for 4-5 years (A.D. 58-63); ½
in Caesarea; ½
in Rom
e.D
uring this period he wrote four letters: to the P
hilippians, to theC
olossians, to the Ephesians and to P
hilemon, all probably from
Rom
e.(W
hile scholars differ, there seems to be evidence that P
hilippians isdistinctive from
the other three, and was the earlier of the series.)
It certainly is distinctively affectionate, intimate, and provocatively free
of any doctrinal exhortations. There is no appeal to his apostolic
authority, and in no letter is his comm
endations more lavish, or his
affection deeper. There are no m
isgivings of their loyalty, no suspicions
Page 15Page 14
The saints as a w
hole are greeted, and the elders and deacons arespecially m
entioned. This is unusual. It im
plies a particular sense ofobligation to the elders and deacons on the part of the apostles, probablyin connection to the assem
bly’s gifts of support.
“Saints” are sim
ply those “set apart.” “Elders” m
ay, or may not, be
official. Those possessing the qualifications listed in the epistles to
Tim
othy and Titus should be sought out to take responsibilities in
oversight in the house of God. [T
o fail to acknowledge such w
ould failto be in subjection to the W
ord of God, but a true bishop or overseer
would be the last m
an to insist upon obedience to him. H
e would rather
lead by serving the saints and by the force of a godly example.]
“Deacons” are those w
ho minister in tem
poral things, chosen for thispurpose. T
he word m
eans “servant”—not a “bondm
an” but one actingvoluntarily in response to the expressed desire of others.
Note the w
ord “all.” It is used very significantly in this epistle to bindall together into one bundle of love, refusing to recognize any incipientdivision am
ong them.
2]G
race be unto you, and peace, from G
od our Father, and from
the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Grace w
as the general Grecian salutation. Peace, that of the H
ebrew. Paul
always links them
together, and in that order (God’s order). T
rue peacerests upon the w
ork of the Cross, evident of H
is precedent Grace (C
f.L
uke 2:14; John 14:27; John 20:19; Phil 4:6-7).
3]I thank m
y God upon every rem
embrance of you,
[I wish som
eone could say that about me: I’m
afraid any such “remem
-brances” about m
e would be a m
ixed bag at best!] Paul’s prayers alw
aysbegin w
ith thanksgiving...
4]A
lways in every prayer of m
ine for you all making request w
ith joy,
Joy is the main them
e of this intimate letter. Inner joy occurs 16 tim
esin these four brief chapters.
5]F
or your fellowship in the gospel from
the first day until now;
Fellow
ship is mentioned three tim
es in this epistle: our fellowship w
ithG
od, our fellowship w
ith the Holy S
pirit, and our fellowship in the
sufferings of Jesus Christ. F
ellowship in the gospel m
ay be exercised invarious w
ays: by prayer; by participation in the public testimony; by
furnishing the means to enable the laborer to go forth unhindered by
perplexities and anxieties as to necessary means to carry on his w
ork.
Ou
r Secu
rity in C
hrist
6]B
eing confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good w
ork in youw
ill perform it until the day of Jesus C
hrist:
This is one of the three great passages w
hich focus on our security inC
hrist:
And I give unto them
eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shallany m
an pluck them out of m
y hand. My F
ather, which gave them
me, is
greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them
out of my F
ather’shand.
John 10:27-28
For I am
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, norprincipalities, nor pow
ers, nor things present, nor things to come, N
orheight, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us fromthe love of G
od, which is in C
hrist Jesus our Lord.
Rom
ans 8:38-39
There are other less form
al allusions:
The L
OR
D w
ill fulfill his purpose for me.
Psalm 138:8 (N
IV)
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified.H
ebrews 10:14
...I have loved thee with an everlasting love...
Jeremiah 31:3
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; w
e are perplexed, butnot in despair; P
ersecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
. . Know
ing that he which raised up the L
ord Jesus shall raise up us alsoby Jesus, and shall present us w
ith you.2 C
orinthians 4:8-9, 14
This assurance is also suggested by the im
ages that are applied tobelievers throughout the B
ible:
Page 17Page 16
...trees that do not wither (P
s 1:3); cedars of Lebanon, year to year (P
s92:12); house built on a rock (M
t 7:24); Mt. Z
ion that cannot be moved
(Ps 125:1).
Paul had no doubt as to the final outcom
e of every true believer. God
finishes what H
e starts. [Has H
e started a good work in you?]
If so, He has saved you for a purpose (R
om 8:28ff). A
nd He’s not finished
with any of us yet.
There is no C
hristian listening to my voice w
ho will think as w
ell of himself
five years from now
as he does this morning.
–Donald G
rey Barnhouse
7]E
ven as it is meet for m
e to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart;
inasmuch as both in m
y bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel,
ye all are partakers of my grace.
“All” believers included: v.4, 6-7. L
it.: “all of you being participants with
me of grace.” N
o room for divisions here.
8]F
or God is m
y record, how greatly I long after you all in the bow
els of JesusC
hrist.
“Longing”: not just tolerance.
Pau
l’s Prayer (C
f. Co
lossian
s 1:9ff)
9]A
nd this I pray, that your love may abound yet m
ore and more in know
ledgeand in all judgm
ent;
We are to be fruitful. F
ollowing the fam
iliar Eph 2:8, 9...
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God: N
ot of works, lest any m
an should boast.
...is verse 10:
For w
e are his workm
anship, created in Christ Jesus unto good w
orks,w
hich God hath before ordained that w
e should walk in them
.E
phesians 2:8, 9, 10
God w
ants productive children.
10]T
hat ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye m
ay be sincere andw
ithout offence till the day of Christ;
“Sincere” =
without w
ax; translating eivlikrinh,j heilikrines, sun-tested;found pure w
hen tested in sunlight. Fine porcelain w
as greatly valued,but it w
as so fragile that only it could be fired with the greatest difficulty
without being cracked. U
nscrupulous dealers would fill any cracks w
itha pearly-w
hite wax w
hich could pass without being readily detected. If
held to the light, however, the w
ax appeared as a dark seam. H
onest Latin
dealers marked their w
ares “sine cera” (without w
ax).
11]B
eing filled with the fruits of righteousness, w
hich are by Jesus Christ, unto the
glory and praise of God.
Fruitfulness: W
ant to prosper? In Psalm
1, v.3 is preceded by v.2.
Blessed is the m
an that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. B
uthis delight is in the law
of the LO
RD
; and in his law doth he m
editate dayand night. A
nd he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and
whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psalm 1:1-3
Su
ffering
You can’t appreciate the next several verses unless you can put yourself
in the shoes of Philippian C
hristians. It had been at least four years sincethey had seen P
aul; they had heard rumors of the things that had
happened to him and they w
ere worried. N
ews had reached Philippi from
Rom
e that their fellow church m
ember, E
paphroditus, had been sick. The
news bearer updated them
on Paul also but some tim
e had elapsed. They
would be asking serious questions: W
as Paul still in chains? W
as hesick? H
ad he already come to trial? O
r had he been martyred? ...they had
no way to deal w
ith these speculations.
But now
they had a letter from P
aul! At lease he w
as alive! How
eagerlythey w
ould have read it. Can you im
agine them reading the first eleven
verses with references only to them
selves?
12]B
ut I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things w
hich happenedunto m
e have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
At least he w
as alive!
Page 19Page 18
At the tim
e of writing to the P
hilippians he could have no confidence hew
ould ever be free again.
Things have turned out quire different from
what P
aul had planned forhim
self. He had carried the gospel to various parts of the w
orld: Syria,
Crete, A
sia Minor (w
hat we know
as Turkey), and G
reece. He planned
to go west even to S
pain after returning once more to Jerusalem
and thento R
ome.
Instead, he found himself on trial for his life. H
e faced entirely falseaccusations leveled at him
by his own people (A
cts 21:28). He w
as nearlylynched by a religious m
ob and ended up in a Rom
an prison, havingescaped a flogging only by pleading R
oman citizenship (22:22ff). H
isw
hole case was a m
ockery of justice: although right was on his side, he
could not secure a hearing. He w
as the subject of unjust and unprovokedinsults and sham
e (23:2), malicious m
isrepresentation (24:5; 25:6), anda deadly plot (23:12ff; 25:1ff). H
e was kept im
prisoned due to corruptofficials.
Then cam
e the storm at sea, and then to chains in R
ome aw
aiting—for
two years—
the uncertain decision of an earthly king. Nevertheless, still
imprisoned, still chained, still unheard, still uncertain, he looks back and
avers, “what happened to m
e served to advance the gospel.”1 A
ll thefrustration, all the delays, all overshadow
ed by the fact that it served tospread the gospel.
13]S
o that my bonds in C
hrist are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;
“Palace”: praitw
,rion praetorion. Originally assum
ed to refer to abuilding; how
ever, since the 17th century m
any ancient manuscripts
have been uncovered that mention the R
oman P
raetorium and in none
of these manuscripts does the w
ord ever refer to a palace or a buildingof any kind. In all of them
it refers to people: to the Praetorian G
uard, theofficial bodyguard of the em
peror, which also took charge of all im
perialprisoners.
These very soldiers that guarded him
were brought to hear the gospel;
it is evident that great numbers of them
believed (Cf. 4:22). (From
Paul’spoint of view
, the chains were to keep them
from getting aw
ay! Can you
imagine being chained to P
aul for a full shift?)
14]A
nd many of the brethren in the L
ord, waxing confident by m
y bonds, are much
more bold to speak the w
ord without fear.
And others w
ere not only encouraged; they went from
fear to boldnessas a result of P
aul’s example.
Ch
ristian T
rou
blem
akers
15]S
ome indeed preach C
hrist even of envy and strife; and some also of good w
ill:
There is hardly a problem
in the church today that did not exist in some
form in the church of the first century. (C
orinth being one of theconspicuous exam
ples, but Rom
e, too.)
16]T
he one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction
to my bonds:
Paul speaks of those w
ho preached Christ out of “envy and strife” and
“contention.” These w
ere Christians w
ho were trying to get P
aul intotrouble w
ith their preaching! [Christians are w
ell known for arranging
their firing squads in circles!]
He also alludes to this friction in other books: he indicated that m
ost ofthe C
hristians had deserted him. It is not generally recognized how
poorly Paul had been received in Rom
e. The pastors w
ere jealous of Paul.T
hey neglected him for that reason. W
hen the pastors forgot their duty,the people follow
ed suit. In time P
aul was alm
ost forgotten.
The proof of this lies in the fact w
hen Onesiphorus, a visitor to R
ome,
tried to find Paul som
e years later, no one could tell him w
here Paul w
as.It w
as only by a diligent search that he found him (2 T
im 1:16-17).
Paul is reporting that they preached C
hrist out of unworthy m
otives:jealousy, strife, and partisanship. D
id you know that Paul very likely lost
his life as a result of the trouble caused by the troublemaking C
hristiansin R
ome?
The inform
ation that exists from the early church age about the events
that led up to the death of Paul points to this conclusion: envy led som
eC
hristians to denounce Paul and, as a result of their denunciation, P
auland perhaps others also, w
ere presumably executed under N
ero:
1)W
e noted that when O
nesiphorus arrived in Rom
e, no one seemed
to be able to tell him w
here Paul was (2 T
im 1:16-17). T
hen Paul beganto m
ake converts through the Praetorian G
uard. His view
s spread
Page 21Page 20
through Rom
e, provoking jealousy among the leaders of the R
oman
congregation. Paul alludes to that here and in his 2
nd letter to Tim
othy.
2)S
uetonius, a Rom
an historian who w
rote the lives of the Caesars,
tells us that “since the Jews constantly m
ade disturbances at theinstigation C
hresus [Christ],” thinking that C
hrist was the ring
leader. Claudius expelled them
from R
ome. T
his expulsion of bothC
hristians and Jews is alluded to in A
cts 18:2.
3)A
Rom
an Christian, C
lement, w
rote a letter to the believers in Corinth
about 90 A.D; in chapters 3 to 6, Clem
ent warns the C
orinthiansabout the bad effects of jealousy w
hich had resulted in suffering anddeath am
ong God’s people. H
e alludes to seven examples from
theO
ld Testam
ent, and seven from m
ore recent times, including P
aul.(1 C
lement 5). Jesus w
arned his disciples that they would betray one
another (Mt 24:10).
17]B
ut the other of love, knowing that I am
set for the defence of the gospel.18]
What then? notw
ithstanding, every way, w
hether in pretence, or in truth, Christ
is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Paul’s m
ind was filled w
ith Christ. (M
entioned 17 times in this chapter
alone!) Even the false teachers can serve? [G
od can use tainted vessels.T
hat should encourage us: we, too, can be on the team
!]
No
Disap
po
intm
ents
Everything hum
an is stained with disappointm
ent.
19]F
or I know that this shall turn to m
y salvation through your prayer, and thesupply of the S
pirit of Jesus Christ,
20]A
ccording to my earnest expectation and m
y hope, that in nothing I shall beasham
ed, but that with all boldness, as alw
ays, so now also C
hrist shall bem
agnified in my body, w
hether it be by life, or by death.
“Asham
ed” = disappointed (in B
iblical usage).
...hope maketh not asham
ed;R
omans 5:5
and thou shalt know that I am
the LO
RD
: for they shall not be ashamed
that wait for m
e.Isaiah 49:23 (quoted tw
ice in Rom
ans)
God does not disappoint us: three verses, all contain “asham
ed:”
(#1):F
or I am not asham
ed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the pow
er of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek.
Rom
ans 1:16
(The G
ospel is defined in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.)
(#2):F
or the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am
notasham
ed: for I know w
hom I have believed, and am
persuaded that heis able to keep that w
hich I have comm
itted unto him against that day.
2 Tim
othy 1:12
My deposit is safe w
ith Him
.
(#3): A
ccording to my earnest expectation and m
y hope, that in nothing I shallbe asham
ed, but that with all boldness, as alw
ays, so now also C
hrist shallbe m
agnified in my body, w
hether it be by life, or by death.Philippians 1:20
What scope!
1)P
aul knew that C
hrist would ultim
ately be exalted and rule in power
until He had crushed all enem
ies beneath His feet (P
s 2:1-2; 110:1-7; 1 C
or 15:24-25; Phil 2:9-11).2)
Paul knew
that God’s determ
ination to exalt His son also extends to
those who are united to H
im by faith [yes, even you and m
e!]. Thus,
Phil 1:6.3)
Paul recognized that C
hrist would be m
agnified in him w
hether helived or died.
We tend to live in tw
o worlds: the “sacred” and the “secular.” B
ut JesusC
hrist knew no such divisions in H
is life.
I do always w
hat pleases Him
. John 8:20
So it w
as with P
aul.
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or w
hatsoever ye do, do all to the gloryof G
od. 1 C
orinthians 10:31
Page 23Page 22
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G
od, that ye presentyour bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G
od, which is your
reasonable service.R
omans 12:1
How
? By:
Casting dow
n imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of G
od, and bringing into captivity every thoughtto the obedience of C
hrist;2 C
orinthians 10:5
Wh
at is Ch
ristianity?
Christianity is a person.
21]F
or to me to live is C
hrist, and to die is gain.
I am crucified w
ith Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but C
hrist livethin m
e: and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Sonof G
od, who loved m
e, and gave himself for m
e.G
alatians 2:20
These tw
o verses, one from the early days of his m
inistry and one fromthe end, sum
marize the living essence of Paul’s faith: the very heartthrob
of his life.
22]B
ut if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet w
hat I shall chooseI w
ot not.
Th
e Ch
ristian’s D
eath B
enefits
Unfortunately, death holds no benefits for unbelievers. Subconsciously,
every non-Christian know
s this: death looms large as a dreadful enem
y.
Men fear death as children fear the dark.
Francis Bacon
People know
that in death a person must m
eet his Maker. H
ow grateful
Christians can be that C
hrist came to free us from
such terrors!
Forasm
uch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he alsohim
self likewise took part of the sam
e; that through death he might destroy
him that had the pow
er of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them
who
through fear of death were all their lifetim
e subject to bondage.H
ebrews 2:14-15
23]F
or I am in a strait betw
ixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be w
ith Christ;
which is far better:
“Depart”: avnalu,w
analuo, to break camp. (F
rom w
hich we get the
English, “analysis.”) It carried the idea of leaving som
ething perma-
nently behind.
When the R
oman arm
y reached the end of a long march, they m
ade camp:
and this was a very elaborate affair. A
n adequate rectangle was paced
off, and the entire encampm
ent was secured by a m
oat and rampart, often
to a height of 10-12 ft. The top w
as reinforced and the cornersstrengthened. W
hen the camp w
as struck, the soldiers moved on,
leaving behind the fortifications like a discarded chrysalis, mute testi-
mony to the fact that they had been there.
This is w
hat need to do: leave behind all that is not useful: all the sin, allthe pain, all the care and anguish of this w
orld.
For the C
hristian, death is not a gain of the worst in life; it is an
improvem
ent on the best!
24]N
evertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
He is sticking around for your benefit, P
hilippi!
25]A
nd having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue w
ith you allfor your furtherance and joy of faith;
26]T
hat your rejoicing may be m
ore abundant in Jesus Christ for m
e by my com
ingto you again.
We have no clear record of w
hether this desire was fulfilled, but there
are early church traditions that it was. W
e know he w
as released fromhis first im
prisonment, and allow
ed to go about in freedom for several
years before being again apprehended and martyred for the sake of
Christ, follow
ing him even unto death.
Ch
ristian C
on
du
ct
Privilege implies responsibility.
27]O
nly let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of C
hrist: that whether
I come and see you, or else be absent, I m
ay hear of your affairs, that ye standfast in one spirit, w
ith one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
Page 25Page 24
“Conversation” w
as employed by our ancestors as a w
ord of far wider
scope that is generally suggested today. It meant not only talk, but
included our entire behavior; our whole m
anner of life. But the
translation difficulties go deeper. In the NIV
, it used six words to
translate it:
“conduct yourselves in a m
anner worthy...”
politeu,omai politeuomai, is based on the noun m
eaning city: polis, andactually refers to citizenship. In the classical age, the polis w
as thelargest political unit and the G
reek belonged to it as we belong to a
country, and in his culture it was the biggest thing in his life. T
he verbm
eans “to conduct oneself worthily as a citizen of the city-state.” W
egot a taste of this last tim
e when w
e reviewed A
cts 16:
And brought them
to the magistrates, saying, T
hese men, being Jew
s, doexceedingly trouble our city, A
nd teach customs, w
hich are not lawful for
us to receive, neither to observe, being Rom
ans.A
cts 16:20-21
We, how
ever, have our citizenship in heaven:
...from w
hence also we look for the Saviour, the L
ord Jesus Christ:
Philippians 3:20
We are to be a citizen of heaven, like A
braham,
By faith he sojourned in the land of prom
ise, as in a strange country,dw
elling in tabernacles [tents] with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs w
ith himof the sam
e promise: F
or he looked for a city which hath foundations,
whose builder and m
aker is God.
Hebrew
s 11:9-10
The em
phasis here is to stand together. One m
ind and purpose.
The C
hristians at Philippi knew
what it m
eant to stand fast as Rom
ansat the frontiers of the R
oman w
orld... Some C
hristians publicly wash their
hands of all involvement in com
munity and national life. N
o one lookedm
ore earnestly for the Lord’s quick return than P
aul, but it was preem
i-nently P
aul who set w
ith all the enthusiasm he could m
uster to claim the
world for C
hrist! So m
ust we. W
e must carry the battle for hum
an soulsbeyond the confines of our churches to the universities, the law
courts,the corporate boardroom
s, and the marketplace.
“T
he early Christians did not say in dism
ay: “L
ook what the w
orld hascom
e to,” but in delight, “
Look w
hat has come to the w
orld.”–E
. Stanley Jones
Stan
d U
p an
d B
e Co
un
ted
The battle is joined and there w
ill be persecution.
28]A
nd in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them
an evident tokenof perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of G
od.
“Perdition”: T
hese unholy adversaries read their own doom
in the happyfellow
ship of the saints of God, and see in it proof of the L
ord’s words,
...upon this rock I will build m
y church; and the gates of hell shall notprevail against it.
Matthew
16:18
This is often m
isunderstood: it is not the assembly of G
od that is as acity besieged; rather it is H
ell—or H
ades—the realm
of darkness that isbesieged by the forces of light; it is the forces of light w
ho are carryingon an offensive w
arfare—not defensive; and it is to them
that the promise
is given that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” This is the
“perdition” spoken of above.
29]F
or unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him
, butalso to suffer for his sake;
30]H
aving the same conflict w
hich ye saw in m
e, and now hear to be in m
e.
If you squeeze an orange, you should get orange juice;If you squeeze a lem
on, you should get lemon juice.
If you squeeze a Christian, you should get C
hrist.
* * *
Next C
hap
ter:
Rem
edies for ourselves:a) W
e need to develop a low opinion of ourselves;
b) We need to have a better opinion of others.
c) We need to possess the m
ind of Christ.
Com
ing: the famed K
enosis.
Page 27Page 26
Ph
ilipp
ians 1 S
tud
y Gu
ide
Stu
dy Q
uestio
ns:
1)W
hat made P
hilippi strategic from a R
oman perspective?
2)W
hich of Paul’s letters w
ere written from
Philippi? F
rom R
ome?
3)R
eview P
aul’s several imprisonm
ents. How
did they advance theG
ospel?
4)W
hat are the several ways that fellow
ship in the Gospel m
ay beexercised?
Nam
e three key passages emphasizing our security in C
hrist.
Discu
ssion
Qu
estion
s:
1)W
hat is “Christianity”?
2)A
re there distinctions between the sacred and the secular in the
Christian w
alk? Justify your answer from
Scripture.
3)W
hat makes a “house church” unusually effective in personal
growth?
4)W
hat were T
imothy’s personal strengths? W
eaknesses?
5)H
ow should w
e, as a fellowship, deal w
ith “Christian troublem
ak-ers?” H
ow does M
atthew 18 fit into the picture?
6)H
ow is “gossip” the m
ost painful sin?
Fo
r Fu
rther R
esearch:
1)C
ompile a list of passages supporting the hom
e fellowship, in
contrast to the elaborate cathedrals of history.
Notes:
1.E
xcerpted from H
.C.G
. Moule, P
hilippian Studies, Pickering & Inglis, G
lasgow,
n.d., p.71, 78; q.v. Boice.
Ph
ilipp
ians 2a
Intro
du
ction
Many consider the forthcom
ing passage as the most sublim
e mystery
in all of Scripture.
But first: O
thers
The last four verses of C
hapter 1 and in the opening verses of Chapter
2, Paul focuses on the relationships am
ong believers.
Only let your conversation [conduct; citizenship] be as it becom
eth thegospel of C
hrist: that whether I com
e and see you, or else be absent, I may
hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one m
ind strivingtogether for the faith of the gospel; A
nd in nothing terrified by youradversaries: w
hich is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of
salvation, and that of God. F
or unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ,
not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; H
aving the same
conflict which ye saw
in me, and now
hear to be in me
Philippians 1:27-30
It is a matter of unity. It is a necessity in tim
e of war.
Ph
ilipp
ians 2
1]If there be therefore any consolation in C
hrist, if any comfort of love, if any
fellowship of the S
pirit, if any bowels and m
ercies,
“If” = “S
ince...”; intensive form.
Here there are four pillars for C
hristian unity [NIV
]:
1)because there is “encouragem
ent”;2)
because there is “comfort from
His love”;
3)because there is “fellow
ship in the Spirit”;
4)because there is an experience of “tenderness and com
pas-sion” of G
od.
1)[K
JV “bow
els”: bowels, intestines (and the heart, lungs, liver, etc.)
were regarded as the seat of the m
ore violent passions, such asanger and love; but by the H
ebrews as the seat of the tenderer
Page 29Page 28
affections, esp. kindness, benevolence, compassion; hence, our
heart (tender mercies, affections, etc.) Y
et, we are alw
ays tempted
to divisiveness in ways that injures our w
itness...]
Encouragem
ent: Jesus prayed:
That they all m
ay be one; as thou, Father, art in m
e, and I in thee, that theyalso m
ay be one in us: that the world m
ay believe that thou hast sent me.
John 17:21
Som
e take this to refer only to a spiritual unity that all believers possess,regardless of actual deeds and feelings. Y
et, there is a unity that thew
orld can see and on the basis of which people can com
e to believe inJesus: this unity m
ust be expressed in deeds, gestures, and speech: i.e.,the w
ay we think about, talk to, and act w
ith other Christians.
Love: C
hristians have a duty to see more than another C
hristian’s faults.O
ur love is actually to be an outpouring of His L
ove through us as we
are transformed by the indw
elling presence of His S
pirit.
A new
comm
andment I give unto you, T
hat ye love one another; as I haveloved you, that ye also love one another.
John 13:34
This leaves no room
for qualification. [Cf. The W
ay of Agape for practical
instruction in this area.]
Christian F
ellowship: N
ot merely hum
an fellowship based on com
mon
interests: a fellowship created by G
od; because by grace we have been
made m
utually dependent mem
bers of Christ’s body.
That w
hich we have seen and heard declare w
e unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship w
ith us: and truly our fellowship is w
ith the Father, and
with his Son Jesus C
hrist.1 John 1:3
Mercy of C
ompassion:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G
od, that ye presentyour bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G
od, which is your
reasonable service.R
omans 12:1
If we have been delivered from
the fires of Hell by the m
ercies of God,
how can w
e fail to show com
passion to those who also confess C
hrist’snam
e, even though they might have offended us or disagreed w
ith ourinterpretation of S
cripture? Thus,
2]F
ulfil ye my joy, that ye be likem
inded, having the same love, being of one
accord, of one mind.
By this shall all m
en know that ye are m
y disciples, if ye have love one toanother.
John 13:35
“I’m T
hird
”
[A m
ysterious plaque above a desk: God first; O
thers second; I’m third.]
It is evident that Christians w
ill never see eye to eye on all points. We
are all influenced by habits, by environment, by education, by the
measure of intellectual and spiritual apprehension to w
hich we have
attained, that it is an impossibility to find any num
ber of people who look
at everything from the sam
e viewpoint. Y
et,
3]L
et nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of m
ind let eachesteem
other better than themselves.
4]L
ook not every man on his ow
n things, but every man also on the things of others.
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law
of Christ.G
alatians 6:2
Be kindly affectioned one to another w
ith brotherly love; in honourpreferring one another;
Rom
ans 12:10
Cf. M
atthew 25:31-46.
As P
aul admonishes the P
hilippians to “consider others better thanyourselves” and to look “to the interests of others,” he w
as actuallycarrying them
to the frontier of the great war being w
aged between the
powers of light and darkness.
[Preamble: C
ontrast with the Fall of Satan: E
zek 11-19; Isa 14:12-14.]
Page 31Page 30
Th
e Ken
osis
The U
ltimate E
xample. K
enosis from the G
reek, here rendered “emptied
Him
self” or “divested Him
self;” here, “made H
imself of no reputation.”
The passage of P
hilippians 2:5-11 is the NT
equivalent of the prophecyfound in Psalm
110:1
The L
OR
D said unto m
y Lord, Sit thou at m
y right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool.
Psalm 110:1
This verse is quoted, directly or indirectly, 27 tim
es in the NT
, and was
the verse that Jesus used to confound the Pharisees (M
t 22:41-46). Itteaches that the O
ne called David’s L
ord, the Messiah, w
ill one day reignover all things and that all H
is enemies shall be defeated.
Th
e Great P
arabo
la
This passage is am
ong the most glorious sections of the N
ew T
estament.
This carries the descent of the L
ord Jesus Christ from
the highestposition in the entire universe dow
n to the death on the cross, and thenup again to see H
im seated once m
ore on the throne of His glory before
which every knee shall bow
.
In these few verses w
e sweep from
Christ’s life from
eternity past toeternity future, and are adm
itted to the breathtaking purposes of God in
human salvation. T
hey teach:the divinity of C
hrist,H
is preexistence,H
is equality with G
od the Father,
His incarnation and true hum
anity,H
is voluntary death on the cross,the certainty of H
is ultimate trium
ph over evil,and the perm
anence of His reign.
Som
e scholars attempt to dism
iss the distinct doctrines of Christianity
as late developments in the history of an historically conditioned and
evolving church. There w
as no evolution of the doctrines. There have
been attempts to clarify them
, and advances toward a fuller understand-
ing of their significance.
5]L
et this mind be in you, w
hich was also in C
hrist Jesus:
6]W
ho, being in the form of G
od, thought it not robbery to be equal with G
od:
The first view
we have of Jesus is in reference to H
is preincarnate state:in the form
of God and as G
od’s equal.
In the beginning was the W
ord, and the Word w
as with G
od, and the Word
was G
od. The sam
e was in the beginning w
ith God. A
ll things were m
adeby him
; and without him
was not any thing m
ade that was m
ade. In himw
as life; and the life was the light of m
en.John 1:1-4.
And now
, O F
ather, glorify thou me w
ith thine own self w
ith the glory which
I had with thee before the w
orld was.
John 17:5
Philips’ paraphrase: “L
et Christ Jesus be your exam
ple as to what your
attitude would be. F
or he, who had alw
ays been God by nature did not
cling to his prerogatives as God’s equal.”
Who is the im
age of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: F
orby him
were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dom
inions, or principalities,or pow
ers: all things were created by him
, and for him: A
nd he is beforeall things, and by him
all things consist.C
olossians 1:15-17
Another parallel passage:
God, w
ho at sundry times and in divers m
anners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
also he made
the worlds; W
ho being the brightness of his glory, and the express image
of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his pow
er, when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat dow
n on the right hand of theM
ajesty on high;H
ebrews 1:1-3
Jesus cannot be understood on the basis of his earthly life alone. He is
a man. H
e is also God. T
here are two key w
ords: morfh, m
orphe, which
points both outward to the shape of an object and inw
ard to indicatethings that cannot be detected on the surface; and, i;soj isos, equal; suchas in isom
er, a molecule having a slightly different structure from
anotherm
olecule but being identical with it in term
s of its chemical elem
ents andw
eight; isomorph, having the sam
e form; isom
etric; in equal measure.
Page 33Page 32
These phrases slash across any lesser confessions of C
hrist’s deity. We
are speaking of the unique and eternal Godhead.
Th
e Glo
ry of G
od
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work w
hich thougavest m
e to do. And now
, O F
ather, glorify thou me w
ith thine own self
with the glory w
hich I had with thee before the w
orld was.
John 17:4, 5
These verses highlight four aspects:
1)Jesus possessed a glory before the incarnation;
2)T
his glory was G
od’s glory;3)
He did not have it after the incarnation;
4)T
here is a sense in which H
e did possess it while on earth for H
erevealed it by finishing the w
ork the Father gave H
im to do.
In the early years of the Greek language—
of Hom
er and Herodotus—
there was a G
reek verb (dokew dokeo) from
which the G
reek noun for“glory,” do,xa doxa, sprang, m
eaning “to appear” or “to seem”; and the
noun that came from
it mean “opinion” (thus, orthodox, heterodox, and
paradox).
In time, the verb w
as used only for having a good opinion about some
person, and the noun came to m
ean the “praise” or “honor” due to oneof w
hom a good opinion w
as held. It is in this sense that Psalm
24 speaksof G
od as the King of glory.
This understanding of G
od’s glory was reinforced in the E
nglishlanguage by a w
ord which m
eans almost the sam
e thing: the Anglo-
Saxon word “w
orth.” It refers to intrinsic character. Consequently, w
henpeople are engaged in praising G
od they are acknowledging his w
orth-ship. D
ropping the difficult consonants, this becomes “w
orship.”P
hilologically, the worship of G
od, the praise of God, and the giving of
glory to God, are identical.
Th
e Sh
ekinah
Along this conception is an entirely different m
eaning of the word glory
which entered the G
reek language later from its contact w
ith the Hebrew
culture: it is the idea of “light” or “splendor” which is found in G
reek onlyafter the S
eptuagint translation of the OT
.
Moses:
But if the m
inistration of death, written and engraven in stones, w
asglorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the faceof M
oses for the glory of his countenance; which glory w
as to be doneaw
ay:2 C
orinthians 3:7
Cloud that overshadow
ed the Tabernacle, E
x 13:21, 22; et al; Transfigu-
ration, Mt 17; D
amascus R
oad, Acts 9:3ff.
God is conform
ing you to the image of Jesus C
hrist:
But w
e all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the L
ord,are changed into the sam
e image from
glory to glory, even as by the Spiritof the L
ord.2 C
orinthians 3:18
7]B
ut made him
self of no reputation, and took upon him the form
of a servant,and w
as made in the likeness of m
en:
The next view
we have is in H
is condescension. He had been above all
humans, above all angels. Y
et He becam
e lower than both in love for
humans and in obedience to H
is heavenly Father.
For ye know
the grace of our Lord Jesus C
hrist, that, though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty m
ight berich.
2 Corinthians 8:9
Can G
od become m
an? Can H
e enter His creation?
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given... Isaiah 9:6
Note the tw
o verbs: Jesus was alw
ays God’s S
on; thus, as a son He w
asgiven. In the incarnation, H
e became a m
an; thus, a child is born, notgiven. A
nd again,
But w
hen the time had fully com
e, God sent his Son, born of a w
oman, born
under law,
Galatians 4:4 (N
IV)
Paul uses three different w
ords to describe what it m
eant for the eternalS
on of God to becom
e man.
Page 35Page 34
morfh, m
orphe, which points both outw
ard to the shape of an object andinw
ard to indicate things that cannot be detected on the surface. First
used in the very nature of God (v.6); here, the very nature of a servant
(v.7).
o�moi,wma hom
oioma, outw
ard appearance, identity.
sch/ma schema, the habitus, as com
prising everything in a person which
strikes the senses, the figure, bearing, discourse, actions, manner of life
etc.
Christ endured all that w
e endure in this world: its pressures, its longings,
its circumstances, its influences. A
nd He w
as tempted as w
e are:
For w
e have not an high priest which cannot be touched w
ith the feelingof our infirm
ities; but was in all points tem
pted like as we are, yet w
ithoutsin.
Hebrew
s 4:15
Cf. M
atthew 4: the three tem
ptations... Physical, spiritual, vocational
(Psalm
2 detour?).
And H
e was even like us w
ith disappointments! H
e wept real tears over
Jerusalem:
O Jerusalem
, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them
which are sent unto thee, how
often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not!
Matthew
23:37T
he Purpose, and the T
ragedy, of all history. Thus,
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Matthew
23:38
But the T
riumph of all history follow
s in the next verse:
For I say unto you, Y
e shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, B
lessedis he that com
eth in the name of the L
ord.M
atthew 23:39
Th
e Nad
ir of th
e Parab
ola
8]A
nd being found in fashion as a man, he hum
bled himself, and becam
e obedientunto death, even the death of the cross.
The cross is the m
ost important event in the history of the universe. It
is the central fulcrum of the entire B
ible. 2/5 of Matthew
’s Gospel is
concerned with the final w
eek in Jerusalem. 3/5 of M
ark, 1/3 of Luke and
nearly ½ of John. It w
as in the initial announcement to Joseph:
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his nam
e JESU
S: forhe shall save his people from
their sins.M
atthew 1:21
Jesus Him
self spoke of the suffering that was to com
e (Mark 8:31; 9:31;
et al), linking His m
ission to the crucifixion:
And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw
all men unto m
e. This he
said, signifying what death he should die.
John 12:32
This w
as even anticipated in Num
bers 21:8, 9, as Jesus explained toN
icodemus:
And as M
oses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so m
ust the Sonof m
an be lifted up:John 3:14
This explanation gave rise to the m
ost famous quote of all:
For G
od so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.John 3:16
John emphasizes that the crucifixion w
as the key to the whole program
:John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1. Jesus review
ed this by goingthrough the entire O
T on that seven-m
ile Bible study on the E
mm
ausR
oad (Luke 24:25-27).
There w
as no depth to which Jesus did not go. H
e relinquished His
rightful position to become the S
aviour of Sinners. B
ut in addition to itstheological role in paying our ransom
, it also serves as our example:
For even hereunto w
ere ye called: because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that ye should follow
his steps:1 Peter 2:21
Here, in P
hilippians, that is the subject: the sufferings of Jesus as anexam
ple of the patient endurance under the strictures of Rom
an rule.
Page 37Page 36
Peter continued:
Who his ow
n self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that w
e, beingdead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by w
hose stripes ye were
healed.1 Peter 2:24
Th
e Sin
Bearer
But now
he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away w
ithsin by the sacrifice of him
self.H
ebrews 9:26 (N
IV)
On Y
om K
ippur, the Day of A
tonement, tw
o goats were chosen, one as
a sin offering for the sins of the people and one to fill the role of thescapegoat:
And A
aron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, andconfess over him
all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all theirtransgressions in all their sins, putting them
upon the head of the goat, andshall send him
away by the hand of a fit m
an into the wilderness: A
nd thegoat shall bear upon him
all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited:and he shall let go the goat in the w
ilderness.L
eviticus 16:21, 22
This w
as to remove the sins, bearing it on him
self. The first w
as to providethe blood that w
ould be placed on the Mercy S
eat, representing thepaym
ent for the penalty to satisfy divine justice. All this w
as anticipatedas early as E
den, when G
od Him
self replace their self-made coverings:
Unto A
dam also and to his w
ife did the LO
RD
God m
ake coats of skins,and clothed them
.G
enesis 3:21
... teaching them that by the shedding of innocent blood they w
ould becovered.
Jesus died to remove sin; to satisfy divine justice; and to reveal G
od’slove:
Herein is love, not that w
e loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his
Son to be the propitiation for our sins.1 John 4:10
For G
od so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.John 3:16
And, thus, our response:
I am crucified w
ith Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but C
hrist livethin m
e: and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Sonof G
od, who loved m
e, and gave himself for m
e.G
alatians 2:20
Th
e Ap
og
ee Fo
llow
s
9]W
herefore God also hath highly exalted him
, and given him a nam
e which is above
every name:
The final picture w
e have is of Jesus again in heaven. Four tim
es in His
ministry, Jesus spoke on this text:
And w
hosoever shall exalt himself shall be hum
bled; and he that shallhum
ble himself shall be exalted.
Mt 18:4; 23:12; L
k 14:11; 18:14
He lived the text. T
he 1st half of each clause has an active verb. T
he 2nd
half of each clause has a passive verb. Everything that is said in the 1
st
four verses of Philippians 2:5-11 has Jesus H
imself as the subject.
His N
ame(s)
He is the M
essiah, the Anointed O
ne. He is the prom
ised delivererthrough w
hom blessing com
es to Israel and the Gentile nations, the
climax of all history.
Jesus is the Son of M
an. This phrase m
eans far more than sim
ply His
humanity. It originates in D
aniel:
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of m
an came w
iththe clouds of heaven, and cam
e to the Ancient of days, and they brought
him near before him
. And there w
as given him dom
inion, and glory, anda kingdom
, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his
dominion is an everlasting dom
inion, which shall not pass aw
ay, and hiskingdom
that which shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:13, 14
Page 39Page 38
Jesus is the Son of G
od. So G
od Him
self declared on two occasions (M
t3:17; 17:5). T
hus, Satan so addressed Him
(Mt 4:3, 6). It w
as the high pointof the disciples’ confession (M
t 16:16). Thus:
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of G
od, God dw
elleth in him,
and he in God.
1 John 4:15
Jesus also is the great “I AM
”: His w
as the voice in the burning bush(E
x 3:14; Jn 8:58).
Seven “I A
M” statem
ents punctuate John’s Gospel:
I AM
the bread of life (John 6:35f);I A
M the light of the w
orld (John 8:12; 9:5);I A
M the door of the sheep (John 10:7f);
I AM
good shepherd (John 10:14);I A
M the resurrection and the life (John 11:25);
I AM
the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6);
I AM
the vine, ye are the branches (John 15:5).
10]T
hat at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
, of things in heaven, and thingsin earth, and things under the earth;
Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them
take counsel together: who hath
declared this from ancient tim
e? who hath told it from
that time? have not
I the LO
RD
? and there is no God else beside m
e; a just God and a Saviour;
there is none beside me. L
ook unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth: for I am G
od, and there is none else. I have sworn by m
yself,the w
ord is gone out of my m
outh in righteousness, and shall not return,T
hat unto me every knee shall bow
, every tongue shall swear.Isaiah 45:21-23
The K
JV adds the w
ord “thing” in each of the phrases as an added word
by the translators even though there is no corresponding word in the
Greek. A
ctually, the three phrases are translations of three adjectivesin G
reek, and may refer to either things or people. It is better to refer to
them as personalities: “beings in heaven, beings on earth, and beings
under the earth,” and refers to angels, humans, and dem
ons.
11]A
nd that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is L
ord, to the glory ofG
od the Father.
There is another “nam
e” that appears to be “above every other name”:
Lord.
The G
reek is ku,rioj kyrios, the title that citizens of Rom
e used toacknow
ledge the divinity of Caesar. T
his title was never used of the
emperors until they w
ere thought to be deified through religiouscerem
ony. The test phrase K
yrios Kaiser m
eant “Caesar is L
ord.”C
hristians were executed for not saying these w
ords, insisting that Jesusis L
ord, not Caesar, as divine.
The H
ebrew term
, ynIdoa adonai, is even more declarative, since it served
to replace the “unpronounceable” name of G
od, hwhoy> (Yehovah, Y
ahveh,et al.). E
ven in the written places, the vow
el points were altered to rem
indthe reader to say “A
donai” instead. Thus, the O
T A
donai became
virtually synonymous w
ith the tetragamm
aton in practice.
Thus, w
hen early Christians m
ade their confession, “Jesus Christ is
Lord” they w
ere actually confessing that Jesus of Nazareth is the G
odof Israel, Jehovah, the only true G
od. Furtherm
ore, the word A
donaicontains a personal ending: it does not just m
ean “Lord” or “G
od”; itm
eans “my L
ord” or “my G
od.” It is the word that M
ary used of Jesusin the garden on R
esurrection morning. It is the confession of T
homas,
made eight days later, that John used to provide a clim
ax to his Gospel.
In both cases the words w
ere personal.
It is no enough merely to acknow
ledge mentally that Jesus C
hrist is God.
The devils also do that and trem
ble (James 2:19). Jesus m
ust be your God.
He m
ust be your Lord.
Jesus Is C
om
ing
Ag
ain
There is another great truth in the title, “L
ord.” It means that Jesus is G
od.It m
eans that Jesus is sovereign. It also means that Jesus is com
ing again.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. F
or in that he put allin subjection under him
, he left nothing that is not put under him. B
ut noww
e see not yet all things put under him.
Hebrew
s 2:8
He has yet to return to conquer evil and to establish H
is righteous will
forever. He is not only our K
insman-R
edeemer, H
e is also our Avenger
of Blood.
Page 41Page 40
Have ever notice the nam
es that Paul uses to refer to Jesus in his letter
to the Thessalonians? A
ll through his letter he uses the personal, most
human nam
e: Jesus.
When he begins to talk about C
hrist’s return, however, he no longer
refers to Jesus as Jesus but to Jesus as Lord. F
rom this point on the nam
eoccurs five tim
es:
For this w
e say unto you by the word of the L
ord, that we w
hich are aliveand rem
ain unto the coming of the L
ord shall not prevent them w
hich areasleep. F
or the Lord him
self shall descend from heaven w
ith a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trum
p of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: T
hen we w
hich are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the L
ord in the air: and so shallw
e ever be with the L
ord.1 T
hessalonians 4:15-17
Paul associated the second com
ing with the fact that C
hrist is Lord. T
hisanticipation is also preserved for us in a prayer in the A
ramaic language
at the end of 1 Corinthians: m
aranatha. (It is actually composed of tw
oA
ramaic w
ords run together: the word of com
e and the word for L
ord:
Maran-atha “O
ur Lord is C
oming” (Indicative); M
arana-tha “Our L
ord,C
ome!” (Im
perative). John also includes this idea in the next to the lastverse of the B
ible:
He w
hich testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. A
men. E
venso, com
e, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22:20
Paul is not here—
as elsewhere in his epistles—
combating an error of
faith: he is pleading for a life of love.
To him
that overcometh w
ill I grant to sit with m
e in my throne, even as
I also overcame, and am
set down w
ith my F
ather in his throne.R
evelation 3:21
* * *
Stu
dy Q
uestio
ns:
1)W
hat are the four “pillars of Christian unity?”
2)W
hat is the Kenosis, and w
hy is it significant?
3)W
hy is it called “the great parabola”?
4)L
ist the places where the Shekinah glory appears in the O
ldT
estament. A
nd New
Testam
ent.
5)C
ontrast the “child” and “son” in Isaiah 9:6.
6)L
ist the “I AM
” statements m
ade by Christ in the N
ew T
estament.
7)E
xplain why the death of C
hrist was not a tragedy, but an achieve-
ment.
Discu
ssion
Qu
estion
s:
1)H
ow can love be a duty?
2)F
rom your ow
n experience(s), give examples of “putting the m
ostcharitable construction” on a situation.
3)D
iscuss the various examples of N
ew T
estament quotes of P
salm110:1, and how
it was used to confuse, etc.
4)D
iscuss the four aspects of Christ’s glory—
and its limitations from
the incarnation—as reflected in John 17:4, 5.
5)C
ontrast the use of kyrios and adonai in the New
Testam
ent.
Fo
r Fu
rther R
esearch:
Explore the role of the M
ercy Seat, and its possible prophetic role for
being the very Throne from
which the M
essiah will rule in the M
illen-nium
. (Cf. 2 C
hronicles 35:20ff; Isaiah 18; Zephaniah 3:10; etc.)
Ph
ilipp
ians 2b
[Review
of P
hilip
pian
s 2a]
It’s not clear who it w
as who first thought that “being spiritual” m
eansw
ithdrawing from
the world. B
ut the idea certainly entered the Church
Page 43Page 42
at an early period and has had detrimental effects ever since. T
here areall kinds of stories of m
onks and others who resorted to strange and
unnatural antics to separate themselves from
their mission field. T
heB
ible does not support this view of spirituality.
Certainly it is essential to spend tim
e alone with G
od in prayer. Yet the
Bible never allow
s us to think that meditation has achieved its purpose
for us unless it results in practical application. There is no value to a
mountain-top experience unless it helps us to live in the valleys.
Ph
ilipp
ians 2
Call for unity (vv. 1 - 4); then K
enosis (vv. 5 - 11). The “G
rand Parabola”
of the Kenosis—
the condescension of God to becom
e a man, H
issacrificial death, and H
is ultimate reign over all creation—
these sublime
doctrines were introduced into this letter, not for their ow
n sakes, butfor very practical purposes. T
hey were included for an exam
ple for therole of obedience and hum
ility in living the Christian life.
And P
aul will include three m
ore very practical examples before w
econclude this chapter.
Ap
plicatio
n (vv. 12 - 30)
12]W
herefore, my beloved, as ye have alw
ays obeyed, not as in my presence only,
but now m
uch more in m
y absence, work out your ow
n salvation with fear and
trembling.
Notice that P
aul uses “wherefore” tw
ice in three verses (v.9 and v.12):“because of this...”: tw
o parallel results of Jesus’ conduct: Jesushum
bled Him
self; and He becam
e obedient to death, even the death ofthe cross: therefore G
od exalted Him
(v.9). Jesus showed the course of
humility and obedience, therefore the C
hristian is to work out his or her
salvation (v.12).
“Work out”? N
ot a self-help salvation. On the contrary, because you
are already saved, because God has already entered your life in the
person of the Holy Spirit, because you, therefore, have H
is power at w
orkw
ithin you ...because of these things you are now to strive to express
this salvation in your conduct.
[It does not say “work for your salvation,” or “w
ork toward your
salvation,” or “work at your salvation;” it says “w
ork out your salva-tion.]
There is a clear parallel betw
een vv.12-15 and Deut 32. (T
he words
“children,” “blameless, and “crooked and depraved generation” in v.15
also occur in Deut 32:4-5. P
aul seems to have had this passage in m
ind.)
The deliverance of Israel from
Egypt w
as not because they merited it; it
was entirely because G
od loved them. If they had their w
ay they would
have stayed there. In fact, they wanted to go back. B
ut God trained them
for 40 years and now they w
ere at the Jordan River.
Moses knew
that he would not be allow
ed to continue with them
. He
knew that G
od had called them and led them
and was w
ith them even then.
On this basis he argues that they are to possess the land and live there
as God’s obedient children.
Paul w
as about to be taken out of this world him
self as Moses w
as. They
had been in bondage to sin and God had delivered them
, too. So they,
too, are to “strive” for the realization of God’s love, peace, holiness,
goodness, and justice in their lives. [And so are you to!] It is G
od the Holy
Spirit in us w
ho does the working:
13]F
or it is God w
hich worketh in you both to w
ill and to do of his good pleasure.
Adam
had lost his free will in his disobedience; he proved it by running
away from
God w
hen God cam
e to see them in the garden. T
hat geneticdefect is now
passed on to us. We are helpless but for G
od’s initiatives.
No m
an can come to m
e, except the Father w
hich hath sent me draw
him:
John 6:44
The w
ell-known verses in E
phesians speaks twice of w
orks:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God: N
ot of works, lest any m
an should boast. For w
e are hisw
orkmanship, created in C
hrist Jesus unto good works, w
hich God hath
before ordained that we should w
alk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10
One kind of w
ork is condemned because it com
es out of ourselves andis contam
inated by sin. The other kind of w
ork is encouraged becauseit com
es from G
od as He w
orks through the Christian.
Page 45Page 44
These verses are P
aul’s own com
mentary on P
hilippians 2:12-13.
Wh
at are Yo
ur G
oals?
Most of the critical skills in life cannot be learned from
a book while sitting
on the sidelines. That’s w
hy we have bootcam
ps in the military, training
camps for sports, and academ
ies for leadership. Most professional
activities involve contrary-to-instinct behavior. [Scuba diving, and
grand prix driving examples...]
While w
e are not to be of this world, w
e are to be in this world. W
e livefor Jesus C
hrist in the midst of a w
icked and ungodly generation. We are
not to retreat from the m
ission field we find ourselves in.
How
can we live for C
hrist in this world? D
on’t fret: “What is this w
orldcom
ing to?” But proclaim
: “What has com
e to this world!”
Paul now
lists three specific goals:
14]D
o all things without m
urmurings and disputings:
Disputings: dialogismo,j dialogism
os, from w
hich we get the E
nglishw
ord, “dialogue.” The concept here is not to be in rebellion against
God’s w
ill.
15]T
hat ye may be blam
eless and harmless, the sons of G
od, without rebuke, in
the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, am
ong whom
ye shine as lights inthe w
orld;
We are to be in com
plete submission to G
od:a) doing all things w
ithout complaining or arguing;
b) our life is to be blameless before other people;
c) our life is to be blameless before G
od also.
We are to be like D
aniel. He lived in the m
idst of the fountainhead ofungodliness, B
abylon. He didn’t hide in a corner: he lived in the king’s
palace and became his key advisor. H
is enemies tried to find fault w
ithhim
, but could only accuse him of his w
orship of YH
WH
!
Then said these m
en, We shall not find any occasion against this D
aniel,except w
e find it against him concerning the law
of his God.
Daniel 6:5
We are to live blam
eless before God. T
he word here is the sam
e as inE
phesians,
According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and w
ithout blame before him
in love:Ephesians 1:4
This does not m
ean that we com
e to the point where w
e will be w
ithoutsin. R
eal sanctification lies in the increasing realization of how sinful w
eare. W
e need to be open before Him
.
Search me, O
God, and know
my heart: try m
e, and know m
y thoughts:A
nd see if there be any wicked w
ay in me, and lead m
e in the way everlasting.Psalm
139:23, 24
This process w
ill continue throughout life. Sounds im
possible? Not
with G
od, the God of the Im
possible! We, ourselves, are incapable of
living out the kind of life that God requires of us. B
ut God is capable of
living out that life in anyone who yields to H
is Spirit. H
e does for us, andin us, w
hat we cannot do for ourselves. T
he Bible tells us how
this will
happen:
I am crucified w
ith Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but C
hrist livethin m
e: and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Sonof G
od, who loved m
e, and gave himself for m
e.G
alatians 2:20
Paul now
includes three practical examples of w
hat he is talking about.
Exam
ple #1: P
aul H
imself
16]H
olding forth the word of life; that I m
ay rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have
not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.17]
Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and
rejoice with you all.
“Offered”: spe,ndw
spendo: to pour out as a drink offering, make a libation,
part of a pagan sacrificial offering; following a burnt offering of an anim
al,the offeror w
ould take a cup of wine and pour it on the altar; it w
ouldim
mediately disappear in a puff of steam
.
Paul is a prisoner in R
ome and expecting to be offered up upon a pagan
altar. When he w
ould be killed it would only be the drink offering poured
out upon the far greater offering of their faith.
Page 47Page 46
His achievem
ents—even his pending m
artyrdom—
he place very low on
the scale. Does our hum
ility among other C
hristians match his?
18]F
or the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice w
ith me.
Exam
ple #2: T
imo
thy
19]B
ut I trust in the Lord Jesus to send T
imotheus shortly unto you, that I also
may be of good com
fort, when I know
your state.20]
For I have no m
an likeminded, w
ho will naturally care for your state.
21]F
or all seek their own, not the things w
hich are Jesus Christ’s.
22]B
ut ye know the proof of him
, that, as a son with the father, he hath served w
ithm
e in the gospel.
We learn four things about T
imothy:
1)P
aul had “no one else like him.” In m
any ways, he w
as like Paul.
2)T
imothy w
as concerned for others; sincerely.3)
Tim
othy put Jesus Christ first in his life.
4)T
imothy learned to w
ork with others; he had developed a skill of
cooperation.
This also says a lot about P
aul, as a father and teacher. Served “
with”
me...jointly.
Our youth now
love luxury. They have bad m
anners, contempt for
authority, disrespect for older people. Children now
adays are tyrants.They no longer rise w
hen their elders enter the room. They contradict their
parents, chatter before company, gobble their food, and tyrannize their
teachers.– S
ocrates, 500 B.C.
We m
ust remem
ber we are but bondslaves. B
ut we also should express
leadership in setting standards and lead by example.
23]H
im therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how
it will go w
ithm
e.24]
But I trust in the L
ord that I also myself shall com
e shortly.
Exam
ple #3: E
pap
hro
ditu
s
Of all the m
en Paul honors in this epistle, E
paphroditus gets the most
attention.
It is a eulogy that builds to a climax.
25]Y
et I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, m
y brother, andcom
panion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your m
essenger, and he thatm
inistered to my w
ants.
A brother in C
hrist (a new ideal in P
aul’s day!): Fellow
ship among
guilds, soldiers, etc., was exclusive. T
he world w
as polarized into Greeks
and Rom
ans; Jews and G
entiles; aristocrats and plebeians; citizens andsoldiers, etc. T
here was nothing exclusive—
exclusionary—about the
early Christians. [D
oes that describe the church(es) today?]
A com
panion in labor: Com
mitted, not just “involved.” T
he church inE
phesus was lauded by Jesus:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for m
y name’s sake hast laboured,
and hast not fainted.R
evelation 2:3
Despite financial and num
erical “success,” the churches in Am
ericahave increasingly becom
e identified with the popular culture and so
have become unable to speak prophetically to it. It has becom
ecom
placent and lost its intellectual and cultural dynamic.
It needs to be reconstituted as a working church:
1)intellectually: scout the shelves of m
odern day bookstores and youfind a denial of the fundam
ental doctrines of Christianity. W
e needclear thinkers, w
insome w
riters, and persuasive apologists toreverse the trends and publish w
orks of real and lasting value;2)
socially: we need to recapture an active role in addressing the social
concerns. (Cf. the earlier abolition of slavery, the child labor law
s,etc.)
3)evangelism
: the people need to be won; on a one-to-one basis.
Fellow
Soldier: Epaphroditus fought side by side w
ith Paul.
Rom
ans pioneered shoulder-to-shoulder fighting which led to their
successes. The R
oman Phalanx w
ere a terror to the ancient world. A
wall
of shields; esp. the “tortoise” formation, etc.
26]F
or he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard
that he had been sick.
Page 49Page 48
Philippi w
as about 800 miles from
Rom
e, a traveling distance of at leastsix w
eeks. The m
essage that he was sick w
ould have made a round trip
in no less than three months.
27]F
or indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but G
od had mercy on him
; and not onhim
only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow
upon sorrow.
This is a refutation of the faith healers w
ho insist, like Job’s comforters,
that sickness is result of sin, a lack of faith, or God’s chastening.
28]I sent him
therefore the more carefully, that, w
hen ye see him again, ye m
ayrejoice, and that I m
ay be the less sorrowful.
Paul clearly did not teach “healing in the atonem
ent” or that it was a
birthright of all Christians. W
e never read of him or his fellow
-laborersbeing m
iraculously healed. Sickness is often a badge of honor am
ongG
od’s children.
29]R
eceive him therefore in the L
ord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation:
30]B
ecause for the work of C
hrist he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life,
to supply your lack of service toward m
e.
Livin
g fo
r Oth
ers
The high point of P
aul’s praise for his friend Epaphroditus w
as hissacrifices of his ow
n interests for others. Paul w
as in prison and most
of his friends had deserted him. [C
f. our own experience: bankruptcy,
earthquakes, etc., accompanied by abandonm
ent of our “Christian
friends,” etc.]
The concept of a fiduciary.
Servants, be obedient to them that are your m
asters according to the flesh,w
ith fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto C
hrist; Not
with eyeservice, as m
enpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the
will of G
od from the heart; W
ith good will doing service, as to the L
ord,and not to m
en:E
phesians 6:5-7
Obedience to “m
asters according to the flesh”; i.e., physical and mental,
not spiritual or of the conscience. “In singleness of heart” (60 minutes
of each hour paid); also, as a fiduciary. “As unto C
hrist”: no distinctionbetw
een secular and “sacred.”
So
me V
ocab
ulary
Faithful (1 C
or 4:2)F
irmly adhering to duty; of true fidelity; loyal; true to allegiance;
constant in the performance of duties or services; true to one’s w
ord;honest; loyal.
Fiduciary
The relation existing w
hen one person justifiably reposes confidence,faith, and reliance in another w
hose aid, advice, and protection is soughtin som
e matter;
The relation existing w
hen good conscience requires one to act at alltim
es for the sole benefit and interests of another with loyalty to those
interests;
The relation by law
existing between certain classes of persons (as
confidential advisors and the one advised; executors or administrators
and legatees or heirs...corporate directors or officers...)
Th
e San
ctity of a C
om
mitm
ent
Society’s desperate need: D
iligence only when the boss is looking?
Slacking off w
hen the boss is away is a form
of dishonesty.
A C
hristian can perform any good w
ork as a ministry to C
hrist... fromthe heart. B
eing a witness; vs. “W
itnessing”...[“Undercover C
hris-tians”...] W
hat if the master is overbearing, abusive, unreasonable? “A
sunto the L
ord” (!) Your w
ages are only temporal. O
ur real rewards are
from H
im.
* * *
An old m
issionary returning from m
any years of sacrificial service inA
frica was on the sam
e ship with P
resident Theodore R
oosevelt,returning from
a big game hunt in A
frica: When the ship docked, great
crowds, press, et al., greeted the P
resident. The old m
issionary and hisw
ife walked off unnoticed and m
ade their way to a cheap hotel. “It
doesn’t seem right! W
e gave our lives in Africa to w
in souls to Christ
and when w
e arrive home there’s nobody to m
eet us. The president
shoots some anim
als and receives a royal welcom
e!” the missionary
complained.
“That’s because w
e aren’t home yet,” the w
ife noted.
Page 51Page 50
Addenda:T
he R
equ
iremen
ts of a F
idu
ciary
Many form
s of conduct permissible in a w
ork-a-day world for those acting
at arm’s length are forbidden to those bound by fiduciary ties. A
trusteeis held to som
ething stricter than the morals of the m
arketplace. Not
honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the
standard of behavior. As to this there has developed a tradition that is
unbending and inveterate. Uncom
promising rigidity has been the attitude
of the courts of equity when petitioned to underm
ine the rule of undividedloyalty by the “
disintegrating erosion” of particular exceptions... O
nlythus has the level of conduct for fiduciaries been kept at a level higher thanthat trodden by the crow
d.Justice C
ardozo, Meinhard v. Salm
on
A director of a corporation is in the position of a fiduciary. H
e will not
be permitted im
properly to profit at the expense of his corporation.U
ndivided loyalty will ever be insisted upon. P
ersonal gain will be denied
to a director when it com
es because he has taken a position adverse to orin conflict w
ith the best interests of his corporation. The fiduciary
relationship imposes a duty to act in accordance w
ith the highest standardsw
hich a man of the finest sense of honor m
ight impose upon him
self... While
there is a lofty moral ideal im
plicit in this rule, it actually accomplishes a
practical beneficent purpose. It recognizes the frailty of human nature;
it realizes that where a m
an’s imm
ediate fortunes are concerned he may
sometim
es be subject to a blindness often intuitive and compulsive. T
hisrule is designed on the one hand to prevent clouded conception of fidelityand a m
oral indifference that blurs the vision, and on other hand, tostim
ulate the most lum
inous critical sense and the finest exercise ofjudgem
ent uncontaminated by the dross of prejudice, of divided allegiance,
or of self-interest.Justice S
hientag, Litw
in v. Allen
Stu
dy Q
uestio
ns:
1)C
ompare P
hil 2:12-15 and Deut 32.
2)G
ive examples, in addition to P
aul, Tim
othy, and Epaphroditus, of
allowing the life of C
hrist to flow in one’s life.
Discu
ssion
Qu
estion
s:
1)W
hat does Paul m
ean when he says, “W
ork out your own salvation
with fear and trem
bling”? I thought your salvation was entirely H
isdoing...
2)D
iscuss examples w
here professional skill involves contrary-to-instinct behavior.
3)D
iscuss examples in the S
cripture of the error of “murm
uring.”
4)D
iscuss the role of fiduciaries in our modern society and relate them
to our responsibilities as mem
bers of the Body of C
hrist.
Fo
r Fu
rther R
esearch:
1)E
xplore examples of enforcem
ent of fiduciary responsibility intoday’s jurisprudence.
Ph
ilipp
ians 3a
The third chapter of P
hilippians is probably the most beloved chapter
of Paul’s letter. It lays out som
e of the most cardinal doctrines of the
Christian life. It also unveils, in stirring language, P
aul’s own key
personal goal: to know and serve the L
ord Jesus. His key challenge is
to be joyful!
[Stop and consider the situation: it w
as Paul, a prisoner in R
ome—
anduncertain of his continuing to even be alive in the days ahead—
who w
asencouraging his friends in P
hilippi, who w
ere free, to be joyful. One
would think it should have been the other w
ay around! They should
have been encouraging him.]
What robs us of our joy? T
hings. Paul w
ill give us a lesson on “How
to count.”
Verses 1-11: P
aul’s Past. P
aul, the Accountant.
“I count.”>
New
values.V
erses 12-16: Paul’s P
resent. Paul, the A
thlete“I press”
> N
ew vigor.
Page 53Page 52
Verses 17-21: P
aul’s Future. P
aul, the Alien.
“I look”>
New
vision.– W
iersbe
Rem
ember, P
hilippi was a R
oman colony, “R
ome aw
ay from R
ome.” In
a sense, we, too, are a colony of heaven on earth. O
ur citizenship is inheaven...Philippians 3:20 (N
ASB)
The key w
ord in the first 11 verses is “count”: to evaluate, assess.
The unexam
ined life is not worth living.
Socrates
Ph
ilipp
ians 3
These first three verses em
phasize that joy is founded to a large degreeon sound doctrine.
1]F
inally, my brethren, rejoice in the L
ord. To w
rite the same things to you, to
me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
(“Finally...” = yet tw
o more chapters! W
hat Paul really means is, “For the
rest...”; in contrast to his “finally” in 4:18.)
Rejoice in the L
ord: Jesus promised you for those w
ho followed H
im.
This w
as announced from the very beginning:
And the angel said unto them
, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. F
or unto you is born thisday in the city of D
avid a Saviour, which is C
hrist the Lord. A
nd this shallbe a sign unto you; Y
e shall find the babe wrapped in sw
addling clothes,lying in a m
anger.L
uke 2:10-11
Joy is the birthright of all true believers. Jesus declared:
These things have I spoken unto you, that m
y joy might rem
ain in you, andthat your joy m
ight be full.John 15:11
Jesus prayed to the Father:
And now
come I to thee; and these things I speak in the w
orld, that theym
ight have my joy fulfilled in them
selves.John 17:13
2]B
eware of dogs, bew
are of evil workers, bew
are of the concision.
The orthodox Jew
would call the G
entile a “dog,” an unclean animal; but
here Paul calls the orthodox Jew
s “dogs”! He isn’t just calling nam
es:he is com
paring these false teachers to the contemptible scavengers.
Th
e Ad
vent o
f the Ju
daizers
From
the very beginning, the Gospel w
as sent “to the Jew first” (A
cts3:26; R
om 1:16). T
he first seven chapters of Acts deals only w
ith Jewish
believer, or Gentile proselytes to Judaism
(Acts 2:10). In C
hapter 8 them
essage went to the S
amaritans—
the “part-Jew.”
When P
eter was called to open the G
ospel to the Gentiles—
without first
becoming Jew
s—it created an uproar that w
as ultimately confronted at
the Council of Jerusalem
in Acts 15. Paul w
as specifically sent out by theH
oly Spirit to m
inister to the Gentiles (A
cts 13:1-3; 22:21).
But the dissenters did not desist: they follow
ed Paul everywhere, stirring
up trouble as they went. (L
uke Volum
e 2, the Book of A
cts, makes the
responsibilities for the uprisings quite clear.)
The B
ook of Galatians specifically addresses these issues, and it is these
very “Judaizers” that Paul is addressing in these first tw
o verses here.
“Evil w
orkers” were teaching that salvation w
as by faith + w
orks,especially the w
orks of the law. Paul is indicating that their “good w
orks”w
ere really evil works because they w
ere of the flesh and not the spirit,and w
ere an incumbrance to salvation.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God: N
ot of works, lest any m
an should boast.Ephesians 2:8, 9
For w
e ourselves also were som
etimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and
hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of G
od our Saviourtow
ard man appeared, N
ot by works of righteousness w
hich we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the w
ashing ofregeneration, and renew
ing of the Holy G
host; Which he shed on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; T
hat being justified by hisgrace, w
e should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:3-7
Page 55Page 54
Concision:
katatomh, katatome, to cut up; m
utilation. A pun on
“circumcision.” T
he Judaizers taught that circumcision w
as essential tosalvation (A
cts 15:1; Gal 6:12-18). P
aul sees it, in itself, as only am
utilation. Even in the O
T, true circum
cision is always of the heart (D
eut30:6).
The true C
hristian has experienced a spiritual circumcision in C
hrist:
In whom
also ye are circumcised w
ith the circumcision m
ade without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ:
Colossians 2:11
3]F
or we are the circum
cision, which w
orship God in the spirit, and rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Cf. R
om 2:25-29. W
e are His w
orkmanship (poi,hma poem
a, from w
hichw
e get poem; E
ph 2:10).
Confidence in the flesh? D
ismiss the com
mon claim
, “The L
ord helpsthose w
ho help themselves.” N
ot so. This is just as w
rong today as itw
as in Paul’s day. T
he Lord helps those w
ho come to the end of
themselves!
Hap
pin
ess vs. Joy?
Every C
hristian virtue has its worldly counterpart:
World:
Christian:
SexL
oveSecurity
Trust
Self-gratificationPeace
Happiness
Joy
Happiness is our translation of the L
atin word fortuna, w
hich is closelyrelated to chance. H
appiness is circumstantial; joy is not. Joy is a
supernatural inner quality of delight in God. H
ow does one get this joy?
1)B
ecoming a C
hristian. Understand w
ho you really are, and theprogram
God has provided for you, and lay aside any self-effort,
trusting Christ for it all.
2)O
btain a mature know
ledge of God’s W
ord.
The statutes of the L
OR
D are right, rejoicing the heart: the com
mandm
entof the L
OR
D is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Psalm 19:8
I have rejoiced in the way of thy testim
onies, as much as in all riches.
Psalm 119:14
If ye keep my com
mandm
ents, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have
kept my F
ather’s comm
andments, and abide in his love. T
hese things haveI spoken unto you, that m
y joy might rem
ain in you, and that your joy might
be full.John 15:10-11
Cf. E
xodus 13:9; Deut 6:4-8; 11:18.
This book of the law
shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou m
ayest observe to do accordingto all that is w
ritten therein: for then thou shalt make thy w
ay prosperous,and then thou shalt have good success.
Joshua 1:8
3)P
ursue a life of righteousness and peace.
For the kingdom
of God is not m
eat and drink; but righteousness, andpeace, and joy in the H
oly Ghost.
Rom
ans 14:17
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication w
iththanksgiving let your requests be m
ade known unto G
od. And the peace
of God, w
hich passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6, 7
Pau
l’s Balan
ce Sh
eet
Hum
an ruin (Serm
on on the Mount):
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your F
ather which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew
5:48
A chain is ineffective is just one link breaks. O
ne sin shatters any claimto the righteousness of G
od’s standard.
Page 57Page 56
Hum
an righteousness—at its best—
is still inadequate to qualify for thedestiny G
od has in mind for us.
Paul illustrates this from
his own experience:
4]T
hough I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other m
an thinketh thathe hath w
hereof he might trust in the flesh, I m
ore:
Paul fills out his “balance sheet:”
5]C
ircumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of B
enjamin, an
Hebrew
of the Hebrew
s; as touching the law, a P
harisee;
Israelite: Israel was the covenant nam
e of God’s people, just ast the w
ord“Jew
” emphasizes their racial origins.
Benjam
inite origin was source of pride: B
enjamin and Joseph w
ereJacob’s favorite sons. T
hey were born to R
achel, Jacob’s favorite wife.
Israel’s first king came from
the tribe of Benjam
in. Benjam
in was the one
tribe that remained loyal to Judah w
hen the civil war divided Judah from
Israel after the death of Solom
on.
The P
harisees were the m
ost faithful of all the Jewish sects in their
adherence to the Law
, and regarded as the summ
it of religious experi-ence.
Paul w
as personally taught by the great rabbi Gam
aliel (Acts 22:3), and
his career was a prom
ising one (Gal 1:13-14); yet he gave it all up to
become a m
ember of the hated “C
hristian sect.”
6]C
oncerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is
in the law, blam
eless.
Paul’s zeal in defending orthodoxy included zealous attacks on the
followers of “that deceiver” (M
t 27:62-66), and participation in thestoning of Stephen (A
cts 7:54-60). Cf. A
cts 22:1-5; 26:1-11; 1 Tim
1:12-16.
Seven achievem
ents: some inherited; som
e earned. These “assets” w
ereactually liabilities: they kept him
from G
od:
Lo
sses Resu
lt in G
ains
It would seem
, on the surface, that Paul is boasting, in the flesh. B
utactually, he is dem
onstrating precisely what needs to be avoided! H
e is,autobiographically, an ideal exam
ple:
7]B
ut what things w
ere gain to me, those I counted loss for C
hrist.
“But”: perhaps the m
ost important w
ord in this chapter! What is
impressive from
a human point of view
is quite different from G
od’s pointof view
. Paul had enough m
orality to keep him out of trouble, but not
enough righteousness to get him into heaven! H
e was spiritually
bankrupt! Paul had to lose his “religion” to find salvation...
How
could anyone go so wrong? B
y using the wrong m
easuring stick.L
ike the rich young ruler (Mark? re: M
ark 10:17-22) or the Pharisee in
Christ’s parable (L
uke 18:10-14), Saul had been looking at the outside
rather than the inside. [Jesus, in the Serm
on on the Mount, em
phasizedattitudes and appetites as w
ell as actions.]
8]Y
ea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus m
y Lord: for w
hom I have suffered the loss of all things, and
do count them but dung, that I m
ay win C
hrist,
It would be difficult to find a m
ore forceful refutation of human effort to
please God that w
hat Paul has presented here. (F
our Greek participles,
avlla. menou/nge kai., alla menoun ge kai, introduce the strong statem
entsof v.8.)
Paul’s confrontation on the road to D
amascus cause him
to see every-thing in his life quite differently! (C
f. Acts 9:1-21.)
This did not m
ake him repudiate his heritage: H
e did not become less a
Jew; it m
ade him a com
pleted Jew—
one who had found his M
essiah!
It is this personal relationship that is paramount; T
hat is what Jesus
prayed for with H
is Father:
And this is life eternal, that they m
ight know thee the only true G
od, andJesus C
hrist, whom
thou hast sent.John 17:3
Page 59Page 58
Tw
o K
ind
s of R
igh
teou
sness
Works righteousness (vv.1-6) and faith righteousness (vv.7-11)
9]A
nd be found in him, not having m
ine own righteousness, w
hich is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of C
hrist, the righteousness which is of G
odby faith:
This verse is a sum
mary of the B
ook of Rom
ans: the heart of salvationin one verse.
All are classified w
ithin three spiritual types:R
omans 1:18-22, Self-justified;
Paul indicts in vv.21-28;
Rom
ans 2:1-16, the Moral P
erson;W
ho still falls short of God’s requirem
ents;R
omans 2:17-29, the R
eligious Person;
But G
od looks at the heart (1 Sam
16:7)
All are short of G
od’s requirements. T
hat’s God’s am
azing predicament.
How
can a just God forgive sins?
It may be that deity can forgive sins, but I don’t see how
.– S
ocrates, 500 B.C.
The A
nswer: by an am
azing gift! The gift of H
is Son, to pay the price,
and thus enable the Redem
ption of those who w
ould accept God’s
program.
Gaining the righteousness of C
hrist: the technical term is im
putation: toput to one’s account. C
f. Rom
ans 4:1-8 carefully. [Our sins had, con-
versely, been put on His account!] R
omans 9:30-10:13 is the parallel
passage that deserves our careful study.
The only indefeatible barrier to truth is the presum
ption that youalready have it.
Fello
wsh
ip w
ith C
hrist
One of the m
isconceptions we see prom
oted today is the celebration ofa “decision for C
hrist” as some kind of clim
ax or ending. It should be seenas only a beginning—
a launching.
You say you are saved? W
hat have you done with it? W
hat fruit hasit yielded? . . .
Faith is not an instantaneous event: it is a path of grow
th. Abraham
isa prim
e example. G
od called him out of the U
r of the Chaldees; but he
didn’t fully respond until his father died! He sim
ply moved up river for
a spell (Acts 7:2-4). B
ut his pilgrimage is a journey of grow
th (Heb 11:8,9).
By the tim
e you get to Genesis 22, his faith included the ostensible
resurrection of Isaac! (Heb 11:17-19; R
om 4:20-21).
Th
e Ultim
ate Go
al
The ultim
ate goal, of course, is fellowship:
10]T
hat I may know
him, and the pow
er of his resurrection, and the fellowship of
his sufferings, being made conform
able unto his death;
Fellow
ship: koinwni,a koinonia, partnership; participation. P
aul ex-changed a set of rules—
the Law
—for a F
riend, Master, C
ompanion.
The sufferings here are not the substitutionary sufferings on the cross.
Only C
hrist could qualify for those. Paul did aspire to participate w
ithC
hrist in suffering for the sake of righteousness. (God had used A
naniasto tell P
aul what he w
ould do as a servant of Christ, cf. A
cts 9:16). The
Apostle did, indeed, suffer for C
hrist because he represented Him
soopenly and truly (cf. R
om 8:36; 2 C
or 4:10).
Often, the ultim
ate intimacy is arrived at, ironically, through w
hat some
have called, “The D
ark Night of the Soul,” w
hen even God seem
s to haveisolated us from
Him
—no m
atter how m
uch we pray, etc. T
his is thesubject of our book, F
aith in the Night Seasons, a practical guide to the
really dark times w
hich God uses to draw
us to deeper intimacy w
ith Him
.]
“And the pow
er of His resurrection”
11]If by any m
eans I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Cf. E
ph 1:15-23; 3:13-21 for the forecast of what it can do in your life!
The w
ord translated “resurrection” is a unique translation of evxana,stasijexanastasis, a w
ord used nowhere else in the N
T. It m
eans a partialresurrection out from
among other corpses; literally an “out-resurrection.”
Page 61Page 60
Why? D
id he doubt he would be raised from
the dead? Hardly. S
ome
suspect that he was using this w
ord to refer to the a‘rpa,zw harpazo, or
Rapture, thus expressing the hope that the L
ord would return during his
lifetime.
* * *
Stu
dy Q
uestio
ns:
1)D
efine “Judaizers” and explain their error.
2)C
ontrast “happiness” and “joy.”
3)L
ist three paths to true joy.
4)W
hat does Paul m
ean when he contrasts “a gain for m
e” and “lossfor C
hrist”?
5)W
hat does Paul m
ean when he says, “If by any m
eans I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead” (v.11)?
Discu
ssion
Qu
estion
s:
1)D
iscuss the realities of Matthew
4:8.
2)D
iscuss God’s P
redicament, as recognized by S
ocrates in 500 B.C.:It m
ay be that deity can forgive sins, but I don’t see how.
3)C
ontrast works righteousness (vv.1-6) w
ith faith righteousness(vv.7-11).
Fo
r Fu
rther R
esearch:
Explore fully the resurrection as detailed in 1 C
orinthians 15, and theharpazo declared in 1 T
hessalonians 4:13ff.
* * *
Ph
ilipp
ians 3b
In Philippians 3, P
aul is giving us his spiritual biography:• his past (vv.1-11), P
aul the Accountant;
• his present (vv12-16), Paul, the A
thlete;• his future (vv.17-21), P
aul, the Alien.
In the previous session we encountered “P
aul, the Accountant,”
revising his evaluations since discovering Jesus Christ. In the rem
ainingportion of this chapter w
e will encounter “P
aul, the Athlete,” pressing
toward the finish line w
ith renewed spiritual vigor; and w
e also see “Paul,the A
lien,” having expatriated his citizenship to heaven.
It is interesting to see Paul draw upon illustrations from
the military (“the
whole arm
or of God”, E
ph 6:10-18); from architecture (“you are the tem
pleof G
od”, 1 Cor 6:19, et al); from
agriculture (“what a m
an sows, that shall
he reap,” Gal 6: 7-9); and from
athletics (in the verses that follow).
An ideal: “S
omething that everyone is expected to honor but nobody is
expected to attain.” Som
e view C
hristian discipleship this way. T
hat’stragic but unfortunately prevalent.
Paul does not allow
this kind of thinking to continue. In verse 10, Paul
had expressed his lifelong goal:
That I may know
him, and the pow
er of his resurrection, and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being made conform
able unto his death;Philippians 3:10
But P
aul also recognized that many of his readers w
ould dismiss this as
an idealistic impracticality and unattainable. S
o Paul continues:
Win
nin
g th
e Race!
12]N
ot as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow
after, if that I may apprehend that for w
hich also I am apprehended of C
hristJesus.
This is the declaration of a C
hristian who never perm
itted himself to be
satisfied with his spiritual attainm
ents. A sanctified dissatisfaction is
the first essential to progress in any race or serious undertaking.
Page 63Page 62
“Perfect” here really m
eans completed, m
ature. We are continually
warned against a false estim
ate of our spiritual condition.
The church at S
ardis had “a name that thou livest and art dead,” (R
ev3:1). T
hey had a reputation without reality. T
he church at Laodicea
boasted that it was rich but w
as actually “wretched, and m
iserable, andpoor, and blind, and naked” (R
ev 3:17).
[It is sobering to realize that each of the representative seven churchesin R
evelation 2 & 3 w
ere surprised at their report card! That should give
us all pause for reflection...]
We are also rem
inded of Sam
son who thought he still had his old pow
er,but in reality it had departed from
him (Judg 16:20).
Verse 12 is not only a statem
ent of the demands of discipleship, it also
is an announcement of the principles by w
hich this calling should berealized:
1)H
e acknowledges that he w
as called by Christ Jesus;
2)G
od had a purpose in calling him;
3)H
e acknowledges that this puts an obligation on him
self—an
obligation to follow after Jesus.
We are called—
by the God the U
niverse—w
e didn’t choose Him
: He
chose us:
No m
an can come to m
e, except the Father w
hich hath sent me draw
him:
and I will raise him
up at the last day.John 6:44
Ye have not chosen m
e, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that yeshould go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should rem
ain: thatw
hatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in m
y name, he m
ay give it you.John 15:16
Did A
braham chose G
od? Hardly. H
e was perfectly satisfied w
here hew
as in the Mesopotam
ian river valley in a pagan, idol-worshiping
culture—but G
od called Him
to be the vehicle for His plan of redem
ptionfor m
ankind.
Moses likew
ise. David, the youngest of seven sons of Jesse. John the
Baptist—
before he was born!
Paul w
as in the process of persecuting Christians... In each case, it w
asG
od’s initiative. And so it is w
ith you and me. A
nd, in each case, it was
for a specific purpose.
And w
e know that all things w
ork together for good to them that love G
od,to them
who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom
ans 8:28
[And there’s m
ore:]
For w
hom he did foreknow
, he also did predestinate to be conformed to
the image of his Son, that he m
ight be the firstborn among m
any brethren. M
oreover whom
he did predestinate, them he also called: and w
hom he
called, them he also justified: and w
hom he justified, them
he also glorified.R
omans 8:28-30
13]B
rethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before,
Paul w
as certainly not complacent: he w
as intensely comm
itted tow
inning the race of life; of maxim
izing his opportunities.
“One thing”: an im
portant flag phrase for each of us:•
“One thing thou lackest,” Jesus said to the self-righteous rich
young ruler (Mark 10:21);
•“O
ne thing is needful,” Jesus explained to busy Martha w
hen shecriticized her sister (L
uke 10:42);•
“One thing I know
!” exclaimed the m
an who had received his sight
by the power of C
hrist (John 9:25);•
“One thing have I desired of the L
ord, that will I seek after,” testified
the Psalm
ist (Ps 27:4).
•O
ne of the secrets of discipline is to concentrate on “one thing.”
[Cf. B
enjamin F
ranklin’s pursuit of virtues: Ben F
ranklin’s Alm
anac...]
No athlete succeeds by doing everything; he succeeds by specializing.
Ben F
ranklin’s famous adm
onition is usually misquoted: “Jack of all
trades and master of one.” [not “none”!] F
or the Christian, the “one”
must be the B
ible. And he let’s nothing distract him
:
A double m
inded man is unstable in all his w
ays.Jam
es 1:8
Page 65Page 64
Fo
rgettin
g th
e Past
When the children of Israel w
ere delivered from the bondage of the w
orld[E
gypt] they repeatedly yearned for the earlier, more fam
iliar, life.
We rem
ember the fish, w
hich we did eat in E
gypt freely; the cucumbers,
and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: B
ut nowour soul is dried aw
ay: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before
our eyes.N
umbers 11:5, 6
“Forgetting those things...” P
aul simply m
eans that we need to break the
power of the past by living for the future:
And Jesus said unto him
, No m
an, having put his hand to the plough, andlooking back, is fit for the kingdom
of God.
Luke 9:62
[As the race driver said, as he ripped out his rear view
mirror: “W
hat’sbehind us doesn’t m
atter!”] We don’t w
ant to be a leeks-and-garlicC
hristian!
“Reaching forth”: literally, “stretching as in a race.”
14]I press tow
ard the mark for the prize of the high calling of G
od in Christ Jesus.
“I press!” This is the sam
e verb translated “I follow after” in v.12. It
conveys the idea of intense endeavor.
It is important for us to realize that P
aul is not telling us how to be saved.
That w
ould be by works and self-effort, and w
ould contradict what he
wrote in the first 11 verses—
as well as m
ost of the rest of his epistles!
In order to participate in the Greek gam
es, the athlete had to be a citizen!.H
e did not run the race to gain his citizenship. (In v.20, he will em
phasizethat “our citizenship is in heaven” [already].) B
ut since we are already
the children of God through faith in C
hrist, we have the responsibility
of “running the race” and achieving the goals that God has set for us.
[Rew
ards; Cf. 1 C
or 3:11-15, using an architectural illustration, etc. For
an excellent discussion, see The R
eign of the Servant Kings, by Joseph
C. D
illow, S
choettle Publishing C
o., Hayesville N
C, 1992.]
Fin
ishin
g W
ell
15]L
et us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus m
inded: and if in any thing yebe otherw
ise minded, G
od shall reveal even this unto you.
How
can you know G
od’s will? H
ow is it possible for som
eone to knowthe m
ind of God? If G
od has a plan for your life, how does he reveal it
to you?
Paul, here, focuses his readers on this issue: “A
nd if on some point you
think differently, that, too, God w
ill make clear to you.” (N
IV)
God is com
mitted to guiding us. N
ot necessarily more than a step at a
time. Just like an aircraft flying on instrum
ents. It works because it is
trusted.
God is com
mitted to revealing H
is will to us. T
here are a number of
principles to apply to this crucial area:
1)W
e can have this assurance because of the nature of God. G
od made
the world to reveal H
imself to those w
ho would ultim
ately live in it.
For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the w
orld are clearlyseen, being understood by the things that are m
ade, even his eternal power
and Godhead; so that they are w
ithout excuse:R
omans 1:20
2)W
e must be w
alking by God’s W
ord.
If any man w
ill do his will, he shall know
of the doctrine, whether it be of
God, or w
hether I speak of myself.
John 7:17
Nothing can be the w
ill of God for you that is not in accordance w
ith His
Word. H
is will for nonbelievers is also clear:
And this is the w
ill of him that sent m
e, that every one which seeth the Son,
and believeth on him, m
ay have everlasting life: and I will raise him
upat the last day.
John 6:40
If you are not a Christian, G
od is not interested in telling you whether
or not you should accept that job at (company X
); or whether you should
Page 67Page 66
marry S
ally or Mary (or H
enry or John); or whether or not to enlist in the
military, etc. H
e is interested in whether or not you w
ill believe in JesusC
hrist and receive Him
as your personal Savior. God’s w
ill for you startsat this point.
If you are a Christian, there is clear insight:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G
od, that ye presentyour bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G
od, which is your
reasonable service. And be not conform
ed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renew
ing of your mind, that ye m
ay prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of G
od.R
omans 12:1, 2
Thus, anything that contributes to your grow
th in holiness is an aspectof G
od’s will for you.
God’s w
ill for your work:
And w
hatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto m
en;K
nowing that of the L
ord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance:
for ye serve the Lord C
hrist.C
olossians 3:23, 24
Further,
Servants, be obedient to them that are your m
asters according to the flesh,w
ith fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto C
hrist; Not
with eyeservice, as m
enpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the
will of G
od from the heart;
Ephesians 6:5, 6
“With singleness [sincerity] of heart”: as in a fiduciary relationship...
What about the detailed events in one’s life: how
does one knoww
hether to go to certain movies, m
aking friends with people at w
ork,social drinking, et al? A
nother predictable factor:
Finally, brethren, w
hatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are
honest, whatsoever things are just, w
hatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which
ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and
the God of peace shall be w
ith you.Philippians 4:8, 9
3)A
nother principle is daily fellowship w
ith the Lord. H
e has assuredus that,
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the w
ay which thou shalt go: I w
illguide thee w
ith mine eye.
Psalm 32:8
To “guide you w
ith His eye” H
e must first catch our eye! A
nd you must
remain “eye-to-eye” w
ith Him
. We can’t know
His w
ill for us without a
knowledge of G
od’s Word.
Blessed is the m
an that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. B
uthis delight is in the law
of the LO
RD
; and in his law doth he m
editate dayand night.
Psalm 1:1, 2
Peter said that w
e are:
...born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word
of God, w
hich liveth and abideth for ever.1 Peter 1:23
Has the W
ord of God penetrated your heart? N
othing else will do it: not
the word(s) of a person, not philosophy, not history, not science.
That w
hich is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit.John 3:6
This is the first great blessing of B
ible study. The second is our
sanctification.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy w
ord is truth.John 17:17
It is through study of the Bible and fellow
ship with G
od that we are
increasingly as He w
ould have us to be. Unfortunately, C
hristians oftenseek holiness anyw
here but by God’s W
ord. They seek it through
reading other literature, by attending religious conferences, by emo-
tional experiences, even mysticism
.
Do you w
ant to know how
relevant the Bible can be to your life and how
God can use it to reveal H
is will to you? T
hen you must spend tim
e
Page 69Page 68
reading it daily. If you are a Christian, G
od has a specific path marked
out for you. You w
ill find it only as you discover His w
ill for you throughScripture.
16]N
evertheless, whereto w
e have already attained, let us walk by the sam
e rule,let us m
ind the same thing.
This typically requires us to reverse our standards to H
is. In the Navy,
they call that a “Turn 18.” W
e call that “conversion.”
There w
ere many in the B
ible who began show
ing great promise, but
failed at the end because they disregarded God’s rules. T
hey did not losetheir salvation but they did lose their rew
ards (1 Cor 3:15).
Lot (G
en 19);S
amson (Judg 16);
Saul (1 Sam 28:31);
Ananias and S
apphira (Acts 5).
...and it can happen to us.
Livin
g in
the F
utu
re Ten
se
17]B
rethren, be followers together of m
e, and mark them
which w
alk so as ye haveus for an ensam
ple.18]
(For m
any walk, of w
hom I have told you often, and now
tell you even weeping,
that they are the enemies of the cross of C
hrist:
How
strange, in a letter devoted to joy, to find Paul w
eeping! Not for
himself, not for his treatm
ent by the Rom
ans, but for others. He w
asheartbroken over the w
ay some professed C
hristians are living, peoplew
ho “mind earthly things.”
19]W
hose end is destruction, whose G
od is their belly, and whose glory is in their
shame, w
ho mind earthly things.)
Alien
s in a F
oreig
n L
and
20]F
or our conversation is in heaven; from w
hence also we look for the S
aviour,the L
ord Jesus Christ:
As w
e discussed in an earlier session, the Greek w
ord, poli,teumapoliteum
a, translated “conversation” means “citizenship;” it is the
word from
which w
e get the English w
ord, “politics.”
As w
e mentioned earlier, P
hilippi was particularly fond of its privileged
status as if on Rom
an soil. Just as Philippi w
as a colony of Rom
e onforeign soil, so the church is a “colony of heaven” on earth. I like the w
ayD
onald Barnhouse sum
marized us:
A group of displaced persons, uprooted from
their natural home, and on
their way to an extraterrestrial destination; not of this planet, neither in
roots nor in its ideals.D
onald Grey B
arnhouse
Because A
braham looked for a city, he w
as content to live in a tent:
For he looked for a city w
hich hath foundations, whose builder and m
akeris G
od....These all died in faith, not having received the prom
ises, buthaving seen them
afar off, and were persuaded of them
, and embraced
them, and confessed that they w
ere strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. A
ndtruly, if they had been m
indful of that country from w
hence they came out,
they might have had opportunity to have returned. B
ut now they desire a
better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore G
od is not ashamed to be
called their God: for he hath prepared for them
a city.Hebrew
s 11:10, 13-16
Paul concludes this chapter w
ith a glimpse at eschatology: O
ur Blessed
Hope.
21]W
ho shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working w
hereby he is able even to subdue all things untohim
self.
“Vile”: tapei,nw
sij tapeinosis: lowness; hum
iliation; low estate.
The body of glory:
For in this w
e groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from
heaven:2 C
orinthians 5:2
“House”: oivkhth,rion oiketerion: a dw
elling place, habitation; of thebody as a dw
elling place for the spirit. The only other place in the N
ewT
estament that this w
ord is used is in Jude:
And the angels w
hich kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto
the judgment of the great day.
Jude v.6
Page 71Page 70
...which refers to the fallen angels in G
enesis 6 who “disrobed” from
theirprevious existence to indulge in the m
ischief producing the Nephilim
.
Another insight into the hyperspace that w
ill be involved with our
resurrection bodies is given to us by John:
Beloved, now
are we the sons of G
od, and it doth not yet appear what w
eshall be: but w
e know that, w
hen he shall appear, we shall be like him
;for w
e shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:2
Which m
eans that we w
on’t simply be treated to a “3-dim
ensional”representation of a higher dim
ensional being: we w
ill enjoy the same
dimensionality—
“we w
ill see Him
as He is!”
More to com
e...
* * *
Stu
dy Q
uestio
ns:
1)R
eview the various prom
ises for “Rew
ards” for service and comm
it-m
ent (in contrast to salvation itself). 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 is good
place to start.
2)W
hich two of the seven churches w
ere distinctive in that nocom
mendation w
as given to them? (W
hich two had no criticism
s?)
3)O
f those called for God’s purposes in the B
ible, list some exam
plesof those w
ho began with great prom
ise, but did not finish well.
4)W
hat does the word fiduciary m
ean? How
is it relevant to theC
hristian walk?
Discu
ssion
Qu
estion
s:
1)R
eview P
aul’s use of idioms:
From m
ilitary (or naval) life;F
rom accountancy;
From
athletics;From
politics (citizenship).
2)H
ow can our past be hindrances to our future?
3)Jesus gives us—
through grace—the greatest gift im
aginable. Yet,
does He also include “rew
ards” that are earned? Why? H
ow?
4)R
eview the L
etters to the Seven C
hurches in Revelation 2 &
3, andcom
pare them w
ith churches today.
5)H
ow can w
e practically determine G
od’s will in our lives?
Fo
r Fu
rther R
esearch:
1)R
esearch the use of incentives in the Scripture.
2)R
eview the concepts of inheritance in both the O
ld and New
Testam
ents, noticing particularly the elements that could be for-
feited and the elements that could not.
3)E
xplore the nature of nature of hyperspaces and their implications
regarding the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ.
Ph
ilipp
ians 4
Review
In Chapter 3, P
aul highlighted the conquests that Christ has m
ade forthose that trust H
im.
1)C
hrist died to bring us salvation and the righteousness that comes
by faith (3:9);
Our sins w
ere removed and punished:
As far as the east is from
the west, so far hath he rem
oved ourtransgressions from
us.Psalm
103:12
And I w
ill remem
ber their sins no more.
Hebrew
s 8:12; 10:17
Page 73Page 72
2)H
e lives that we m
ight enjoy the power of H
is resurrection (3:10,11).
3)H
e has promised to reveal H
is will to us (3:15), and H
is rules ofconduct (3:15-19).P
hilip
pian
s 4
1]T
herefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, m
y joy and crown, so
stand fast in the Lord, m
y dearly beloved.
These w
ords bridge the great doctrinal statements of the previous
chapter with the intensely practical chapter that concludes P
aul’sepistle.
“Stand fast.” A
military term
. Holding the ground that H
e has con-quered!
Put on the w
hole armour of G
od, that ye may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. F
or we w
restle not against flesh and blood, but againstprincipalities, against pow
ers, against the rulers of the darkness of thisw
orld, against spiritual wickedness in high places. W
herefore take untoyou the w
hole armour of G
od, that ye may be able to w
ithstand in the evilday, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girtabout w
ith truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness... etc.E
phesians 6:11-14
Gettin
g A
lon
g (w
ith C
hristian
s)
“Are all people m
embers of G
od’s family?” N
o. Cf. John 8:31ff.
The w
orst kind of lie: self-delusion.
“W
e be Abraham
’s seed, and were never in bondage to any m
an: howsayest thou, ye shall be m
ade free?”John 8:33
Never in bondage? E
gypt, 400 years; Philistines, A
mm
onites, Syrians,
Babylonians; and R
ome, as they spoke... [P
arentage? “W
e be not bornof fornication...” John 8:41?!]
“Y
e are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. H
ew
as a murderer from
the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. W
hen he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:
for he is a liar, and the father of it.”John 8:44
For G
od’s children, however, G
od comm
ands a visible, earthly, unity.P
aul’s ultimate exam
ple, was, of course, the kenosis, that w
e studied inC
hapter 2:5-11.
2]I beseech E
uodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the sam
e mind in the
Lord.
These tw
o wom
en had been at odds with one another and the disagree-
ment threatened the unity and effectiveness of the church.
3]A
nd I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those w
omen w
hich laboured with
me in the gospel, w
ith Clem
ent also, and with other m
y fellowlabourers, w
hosenam
es are in the book of life.
“True yokefellow
” is masculine in form
; probably a reference toE
paphroditus, who has already been described as “m
y brother, felloww
orker, and fellow soldier” (2:25) and w
ho would now
carry the letter toPhilippi from
Rom
e.
4]R
ejoice in the Lord alw
ay: and again I say, Rejoice.
In addition to working together, w
e are also comm
anded to “rejoice” inthe L
ord. (We, too often, rather spend our tim
e nitpicking...)
“Rejoice” is a variant of the w
ord “joy,” one the great Christian virtues,
a supernatural fruit of the Spirit of G
od. It is in contrast to “happiness’w
hich is a virtue of the world, entirely external, and circum
stantial. Joyissues from
the nature of God.
5]L
et your moderation be know
n unto all men. T
he Lord is at hand.
“Moderation:” “F
orbearing” (NA
SB
); “Gentleness” (N
IV).
Th
e Mean
ing
of P
rayer
Few
doctrines are more generally m
isunderstood than true prayer. Does
prayer change things? Does G
od change His m
ind as the result ofbelieving prayer? O
r does God m
ove us to pray?
Page 75Page 74
What does it m
ean “to pray without ceasing?” W
ho can pray? How
doyou pray? A
ny why should a person pray anyw
ay? [In any gatheringof G
od’s people, these questions are likely to generate different and evencontradictory answ
ers!]
Prayer is talking w
ith God. It is exclusively for believers only. T
he onlyprayer G
od hears and answers is one that is m
ade through His S
on, ourL
ord Jesus Christ:
Jesus saith unto him, I am
the way, the truth, and the life: no m
an cometh
unto the Father, but by m
e.John 14:6
He is not one w
ay among several: H
e is the only way. A
s in allconversations, w
e must know
people well before our conversations can
really flow freely. L
earn about Him
. Spend tim
e with H
im.
Barriers to P
rayer: Clinging to som
e sin in your heart:
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the L
ord will not hear m
e:Psalm
66:18
Behold, the L
OR
D’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither
his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated
between you and your G
od, and your sins have hid his face from you, that
he will not hear.
Isaiah 59:1, 2
Too soiled to present yourself before the throne? R
emem
ber the“C
hristian’s Bar of S
oap:”
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
Pray for others: it is called “intercession.” It is the heavy artillery in the
armory of G
od.
We never know
when the Spirit m
ay move us to hold up a brother or sister
in time of need. A
nd we are inevitably astonished to discover the
implications of w
hat may seem
but a whisper before the T
hrone Room
of the Universe...
[Trish, a neighbor w
ho was visiting N
ew Z
ealand, during the Sunday
church service became overw
helmed w
ith the need to pray for my w
ifeN
ancy. When returning to the U
.S., and com
paring notes with her, w
erealized that during that church service in N
ew Z
ealand, it was 5 P
.M.,
Saturday, August 1, in the U
.S.: the very time that our firstborn son, C
hip,died from
a stroke while jogging...]
1
A m
ust verse for mem
orization:
6]B
e careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made know
n unto God.
“Careful” =
anxious. This is G
od’s cure for anxiety. Experts tell us that
stress is one of the most destructive forces in the hum
an predicament.
“Worry is assum
ing a responsibility that God didn’t intend for you to
have.”
“Worry is a trickle of fear passing through the m
ind which soon cuts a
crevice so deep that it drains all other thoughts away.”
“Every thing”=
there is nothing trivial between you and your F
ather.
7]A
nd the peace of God, w
hich passeth all understanding, shall keep your heartsand m
inds through Christ Jesus.
That doesn’t prom
ise that we w
ill receive what w
e ask for. God know
sour real needs better that w
e do. We m
ust remem
ber to praise God for the
prayers that He doesn’t answ
er! (That is often one of the m
ore dramatic
discoveries we m
ake during a high school reunion...!)
And w
e know that all things w
ork together for good to them that love G
od,to them
who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom
ans 8:28
Rem
ember P
aul’s prayer in Rom
ans 15:
That I m
ay be delivered from them
that do not believe in Judaea; and thatm
y service which I have for Jerusalem
may be accepted of the saints; T
hatI m
ay come unto you w
ith joy by the will of G
od, and may w
ith you berefreshed.
Rom
ans 15:31, 32
Page 77Page 76
Paul w
as in Corinth and w
as about to go on to Jerusalem w
ith thecollection from
the Gentile churches. A
fter that he had planned to travelto R
ome as an am
bassador for the Gospel. A
nd he asked for three things:
1)“T
hat I may be delivered from
them that do not believe in Judaea;”
2)“that m
y service which I have for Jerusalem
may be accepted of the
saints;”3)
That I m
ay come unto you w
ith joy by the will of G
od, and may w
ithyou be refreshed.”
Were these requests fulfilled? N
ot as he expected.(1)
He w
as delivered—and then protected—
with a tw
o-year imprison-
ment at C
aesarea.(2)
His reception in Jerusalem
was hardly w
hat he had hoped for.(3)
His joyous journey to R
ome w
as at government expense as a
prisoner in chains. It was w
ith joy and by the will of G
od; but he was
hardly refreshed by the reception of the believers there. But he did
have the peace of God as prom
ised.
Go
d’s R
ules fo
r the D
ou
btfu
l Th
ing
s
Can a C
hristian drink alcohol or not? Can a C
hristian go to a dance? Can
he enter politics? Can he w
ork for a company that m
anufactures war
materials? T
o what extent can a believer adopt the standards of his tim
esand society? T
here are three principles which should assist in 99%
of thesituations:
1) Avoid legalism
:
For sin shall not have dom
inion over you: for ye are not under the law,
but under grace.R
omans 6:14
Even Peter fell into this trap; Paul rem
onstrated him (G
al 2:11-14); and helater defended the case for liberty at the C
ouncil (Acts 15:10-11). A
t thesam
e time, avoid the error of license (R
om 6:15); grace leads to holiness
(6:22).
2) All T
hings are Not E
xpedient:
All things are law
ful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things
are lawful for m
e, but I will not be brought under the pow
er of any.1 C
orinthians 6:12
All things are law
ful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are
lawful for m
e, but all things edify not.1 C
orinthians 10:23
That does not require us, how
ever, to attempt to live our entire lives on
what som
e others may say or think. T
hat will lead to hypocrisy,
schizophrenia, and madness.
And, here, P
hilippians 4:8:
3) The B
etter Things
8]F
inally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, w
hatsoever things are honest,w
hatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, w
hatsoever things arelovely, w
hatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if therebe any praise, think on these things.
What m
akes this verse remarkable is the virtues m
entioned here arepagan virtues! T
hese words do not occur in the great lists of C
hristianvirtues: love, joy, peace, patience, et al. T
hey are taken from G
reek ethicsand from
Greek philosophers. Fellow
ship with G
od does not necessarilyexclude the best values the w
orld has to offer. We can thrive on beauty
in music, art, architecture, literature, etc.
9]T
hose things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in
me, do: and the G
od of peace shall be with you.
A C
hu
rch C
on
cerned
10]B
ut I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now
at the last your care of me hath
flourished again; wherein ye w
ere also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.
After a lapse of 10 years, their loyalty to P
aul again results in theirgiving—
despite their own m
eager resources. Epaphroditus w
as dis-patched to R
ome w
ith their gifts.
11]N
ot that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in w
hatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content.
[Which proves P
aul is not a Texan.]
12]I know
both how to be abased, and I know
how to abound: every w
here and inall things I am
instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound andto suffer need.
Page 79Page 78
13]I can do all things through C
hrist which strengtheneth m
e.14]
Notw
ithstanding ye have well done, that ye did com
municate w
ith my affliction.
15]N
ow ye P
hilippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, w
hen Ideparted from
Macedonia, no church com
municated w
ith me as concerning
giving and receiving, but ye only.
“But ye only.” H
ow illum
inating it is to observe from w
here our realloyalties endure...
16]F
or even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto m
y necessity.17]
Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that m
ay abound to your account.18]
But I have all, and abound: I am
full, having received of Epaphroditus the things
which w
ere sent from you, an odour of a sw
eet smell, a sacrifice acceptable,
wellpleasing to G
od.
Th
e Go
d W
ho
Pro
vides
The P
recious Prom
ises!
For G
od so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.John 3:16
And w
e know that all things w
ork together for good to them that love G
od,to them
who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom
ans 8:28
I am the door: by m
e if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go
in and out, and find pasture.John 10:9
My sheep hear m
y voice, and I know them
, and they follow m
e: And I give
unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any m
anpluck them
out of my hand.
John 10:27-28
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication w
iththanksgiving let your requests be m
ade known unto G
od. And the peace
of God, w
hich passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6,7
And this is the confidence that w
e have in him, that, if w
e ask any thingaccording to his w
ill, he heareth us:
And if w
e know that he hear us, w
hatsoever we ask, w
e know that w
e havethe petitions that w
e desired of him.
1 John 5:14-15and, here, P
hilippians 4:19:
19]B
ut my G
od shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus.
My G
od. All your need. G
reatest need? Forgiveness. A
nd Fellow
ship.
20]N
ow unto G
od and our Father be glory for ever and ever. A
men.
21]S
alute every saint in Christ Jesus. T
he brethren which are w
ith me greet you.
22]A
ll the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household.
That’s revealing! W
e can only speculate on this one. Certainly a
significant percentage of the Praetorians that w
ere chained to Paul for
an entire shift at a time! C
an you imagine!
23]T
he grace of our Lord Jesus C
hrist be with you all. A
men.
<T
o the Philippians w
ritten from R
ome, by E
paphroditus.>
Am
anuensis: use of professionals...
Epaphroditus devoted him
self to the ministry beyond his physical
powers; the exertion w
as too great and he lost his health and almost his
life. His convalescence w
as succeeded by homesickness. H
e was
depressed by the thought that the Philippians w
ould have heard of hiscritical state, and w
as anxious to return to allay their fears (2:25-30).
[He is not to be confused w
ith Epaphras (C
olossians 1:7; 4:12; Philemon
23) for although the names are the sam
e, one was a native of P
hilippi, theother of C
orinth.]
Paul is believed to have visited m
ore than once to Philippi and his other
Macedonian churches in the interval betw
een his first and secondcaptivities (1 T
im 1:3).
* * *
Stu
dy Q
uestio
ns:
1)Is fasting appropriate in our day?
Page 81Page 80
2)W
hat are the basic requirements for prayer?
3)W
hat are the principal barriers to prayer?
Discu
ssion
Qu
estion
s:
1)D
oes prayer change things?
2)D
oes God change H
is mind as the result of believing prayer?
3)W
hat does it mean “to pray w
ithout ceasing?”
4)W
ho can pray?
5)H
ow do you pray?
6)A
ny why should a person pray anyw
ay?
Fo
r Fu
rther R
esearch:
1)S
tudy the interrupted prayer in the Old T
estament (D
an 9).
2)W
hat are the distinctions between prayer, praise, and w
orship? Be
precise, Biblical, and denotative.
Notes:
1.N
oted in our book, Faith in the N
ight Seasons.
Bib
liog
raph
y
Boice, Jam
es Montgom
ery, Philippians, B
aker Book H
ouse, Grand R
apids MI,
1971.
H. A
. Ironside, Philippians, L
oizeaux Brothers, N
eptune NJ, 1922.
J. B. L
ightfoot, Philippians, C
rossway B
ooks, Nottingham
, England, 1994.
D. M
artyn Lloyd-Jones, T
he Life of Joy and P
eace - An E
xposition of Philippians,
Baker B
ook House, G
rand Rapids M
I, 1992.
Warren W
. Wiersbe, B
e Joyful, Bible S
tudy of Philippians, V
ictor Books, W
heatonIL
, 1974.
Page 83Page 82
No
tes:N
otes:
Ab
ou
t Th
e Co
ver Desig
n(o
n th
e tape cassette alb
um
s)
Th
e “Fro
nt” co
ver:
The G
reek border: “I am A
lpha and Om
ega, the beginning and the ending,saith the L
ord, which is, and w
hich was, and w
hich is to come, the
Alm
ighty (Revelation 1:8).” T
he center design element sym
bolizes theW
ord of God Incarnate, illum
inated by the Holy S
pirit.
Th
e “Back” co
ver: (the “fro
nt” to
the Jew
ish read
er)
The H
ebrew border: “H
ear O Israel: T
he Lord our G
od is one Lord: and
thou shalt love the LO
RD
thy God w
ith all thine heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy m
ight (from the S
h’ma, D
eut 6:4-5).”
The center design represents the B
urning Bush, m
ade up of Hebrew
letters which proclaim
“the Eternal O
ne cannot lie.”
Th
e Sp
ine:
The spine includes a M
enorah from the O
ld Testam
ent, a Maranatha
Dove suggesting the N
ew T
estament, and the K
oinonia House logo at
the base.
Koinonia H
ouseP.O. Box D
Coeur d�Alene Idaho83816-0347
(208) 773-6310www.khouse.org
ISB
N 1-57821-165-4