Philippians: 2:12-18

Philippians: 2:12-18

Based on the doctrine or theology of who Jesus was, there needs to be practical application in our lives. Paul gives us that application in verses 12 through 18. But we often misunderstand what Paul is saying. In verses 12 and 13 we come to that passage where we are told to “work out our salvation” and that “God is to will and to work.” This by no means indicates we earn our salvation but that God is the one working in cooperation with us to accomplish His will. Here is where we often miss the point Paul was making. “Work out your salvation” and “God is working” are primarily not about individual or personal behavior. Notice the context. This chapter begins with a call to unity. Paul refers to having the “same mind, “same love,” being “united in spirit,” and having “one purpose.” Following this passage in verses 14 and 15, Paul warns against those things that disrupt unity, “grumbling and complaining.” It would seem unlikely that in the conversation about the cooperative unity of the body that Paul would suddenly slip in a couple of verses about personal development. No, this passage is about working out our salvation in cooperation with God and doing so by sorting out what we are to be and do as and in the community of faith. 

In so many ways we miss the reshaping ministry and growth that God wants to bring about when we are not being shaped by a close contact community. God's will for us is to work toward humility and unity in the context of community. As a community we approach the matter of unity with “fear and trembling.” This is not the paralyzing fear that produces a deer in the headlights effect, but the wholesome, serious caution that is careful to get it right. It is what we see in the motorcyclist approaching a sharp curve, the skydiver packing his parachute, and the pilot approaching a landing in windy conditions. For this work of unity, God is the energy and the One who energizes, and we are the power tools working on unity.

Two final brief thoughts: when we see gross disunity and refusal to allow the frictions of faith and life to shape us, we are seeing some level of disconnect from God. We cannot look at church splits and fights with an ‘Oh well’ attitude. It is more serious than that. We should also note the contrast between “fear and trembling” and “grumbling and complaining.” The former pair will prevent the latter pair. The presence of a latter pair will indicate that we did not take the matter of unity seriously enough.

“Lord, help me to work out my place in your community of faith with holy fear and trembling. AMEN”

Philippians 2:1-11

Philippians 2:1-11

The life of holy living Paul describes in 1:27-30 is more than our personal piety. It impacts the lives of those around us in the faith and often those who are not even close to us. The Philippians will impact Paul all the way over in Rome. This powerful passage presents a powerful effect of unity (v. 1-2), how to protect it (v. 3-4), and the reason we do so (v. 5-11).

Perhaps the most effective tool that Satan has in his toolbox is the disunity of the church. From individual congregational splits to denominations warring against each other, when our focus becomes conflict, we are utterly ineffective at being all the things that the Lord wants us to be. We cannot, in the midst of such conflict, exalt the Lord in our worship, make disciples of all nations, or serve the body of Christ. Compared to the damage caused by disunity, all the scandals of theft, drunkenness, addiction, or immorality among church leaders are minor. Satan, however, will often mix a cocktail of vice with disunity to wreck congregations. Paul describes unity in verse two with mind, love, spirit, and purpose. These terms, including love, are not terms of emotion or feeling. Unity in the church doesn't happen because of an emotional or sentimental rush. Certainly there can and will be an emotional connection within the church, but it is not the foundation for unity; it is a by-product. These four descriptions are choices of the will, the deepest decision-making facility in our person. This is demonstrated in verse 3 when Paul dictates for us specific prohibited behaviors. We make the choice either to or not to do things from motives that are selfish or proud. Unity is a decision that we make out of our will by denying ourselves and following and obeying Christ. This is not easy. In fact, it is profoundly difficult! To look to the interest of others is essential for unity but personally challenging.

But Paul is not calling for compromise to satisfy an ungodly person. In fact he takes the whole matter away from us and turns it to Christ. How do we deny ourselves? The incarnation of Christ is the example Paul uses. Verses 5-11 may have been the first doctrinal statement of the church or creed to recite. In it we see Jesus was fully God but set aside all the advantages of being God to accomplish the purpose. Follow that example, and the church will be united.

“Lord, help me to set aside my rights, my will, and my control, in order to accomplish what You want. AMEN”

Philippians 1:27-30

Philippians 1:27-30

We have to a great degree lost, in our churches and in our lives, the concept of holy living. We have often reduced it to a form of legalism. In this way of thinking, we believe we are living holy if we avoid the gross sin from a bad sin list we made up. And we have ways to let people know we are avoiding these sins. We can take an empty-headed stand on certain social justice or political issues that have social popularity, by which we can demonstrate our virtue. If we do these things, we imagine that we are okay.

Paul uses language that describes a different kind of life. Paul says, “Live a life worthy.” The Greek word is the root of our English word “axiomatic,” meaning self-evident. Let your life be self-evident as worthy of the Gospel. He includes in this verse a great word translated as “conduct” or “live.” It was not alive in the sense of biology. Rather, it was the word of being a proud citizen of a city-state. Originally it meant to be a good citizen-leader of the community to be able to promote the laws and well-being of that community. Being a disciple is to promote the kingdom! How do we do that? We do that by unity of spirit and mind or soul. This is a challenging passage to live up to. The unity here is not doctrinal. ‘Spirit’ may be the Holy Spirit or maybe our attitude. ‘Mind’ can mean the soul or life. By both the inner and the outer being, we are to be united within ourselves and with others for the purpose of contending for the faith. The words Paul uses are fascinating. We are to strive together, literally vigorously cooperate, to advance the gospel. The Christian faith expressed in the church is perhaps the ultimate team sport. One person or a very small group of people can ruin the local faith community when they would rather wreck the church than lose their power.

Holy living is not avoiding items on our personal sin list. Nor is it the virtue signaling of a few social justice issues. Holy living is dying to self and living for Christ in vigorously contending or cooperating for the faith. The vigorous struggle for the good news will produce confidence in us and will invite us to share in the sufferings of Christ. Often we are not really interested in suffering for or with Jesus. We want to make sure that our consumer-oriented faith is only a small slice of our life, and we don't want it messing with the rest of life and making us uncomfortable. Paul sees it differently. He sees the sharing of suffering as something that is “granted.” That is the same root word as grace, the gift that makes glad. We are gifted the suffering with Christ, which is not a common thought today.

“Lord, help me to vigorously join with other disciples to contend for the Gospel. AMEN”

Philippians 1:21-26

Philippians 1:21-26

Life without Christ is a horrible prospect. We would exist in lives of quiet desperation. Our goal might be to have enough wealth, power, and resources to ensure that these short years are filled with as much pleasure as possible, which itself is often disappointing and empty. We desperately fight a losing battle to extend our existence by weeks, or days, or hours, or minutes, a struggle in which we are doomed to fail. After death we go into something much worse than non-existence. All our lives would be as insignificant as a single grain of sand as others drive by on their way to the beach. Without Christ, this life means nothing, and what comes after death means even less.

But with Christ we are in the condition of Paul. “To live is Christ; to die is gain.” If we are in Christ, then our lives, ideally, are like the life of Christ. We desperately need to rethink our understanding of the life of Christ on Earth. Our mental picture of Jesus is far too shallow, two-dimensional, and negative. We have a picture of a poor traveling preacher who went around doing His thing and wanting to get His job done and get it over with. Our perception and values make it difficult for us to see Jesus properly. We see holiness as not doing stuff, especially the fun stuff. We see poverty as grinding, fearful hardship. We see unpopularity as the direst crisis. We see talking about God as something that has to be endured. We look at the life of Jesus as a hard, laborious, dull, drab life, and who wants that? 

The problem is not the life of Jesus but our poor understanding. Never in the entire universe was there a life of greater love, hope, joy, peace, and delight than the life of Jesus. When He talked about God, He was telling exciting good news. When He was unpopular, it was a reminder of the Father's love. Poverty was an opportunity to see God the Father's care. When He served or did miracles, it was giving a gift better than any Christmas gift possible. Prayer was a loving conversation with the beloved one. Never was there a more full, complete, spectacular life lived. 

As Christians, we enter into that life. The only thing that could be better would be to leave this earthly life behind, because it limits how much we experience living with Christ. So to live in this life that becomes the life of Christ, but to die is gain. The reason the Christian life is hard is because we have so little of Christ in it.

“Lord, help me to live the life of Christ.  Now and forever. AMEN”

Philippians 1:12-21

 Philippians 1:12-21

To have a life worth living, we must have something worth living for. Paul is not looking at life with the eyes of denial, nor is he wearing rose-colored glasses. He is not offering the “glass half-full” positive mental attitude as an escape from the brutal reality that he is facing. Paul is being profoundly realistic. He described how the purpose of his life, the reason for his existence, is being advanced. His circumstances result in God's will being accomplished. 

The circumstance is being a prisoner; the result is that the whole praetorian guard and everyone else knows about Christ. 

The circumstance is imprisonment; the result is that the believers become bold. 

The circumstance is false brothers talk about Christ to make life difficult for Paul; the result is Christ becomes the talk of the town. 

Paul sees every circumstance in terms of, ‘How will this advance the gospel?’ In verse 18 we see the words “what then.” This is a phrase of almost defiant tone. It is as if Paul says to circumstances, to the world, and to the powers of darkness, “You have thrown your best shot at the gospel, and it advances anyway.” Paul's personal circumstances, agenda, will, or comfort have most emphatically not been advanced. Paul has lost himself so completely in the cause of Christ that he doesn't consider his agenda worth a hill of beans, so long as he sees the gospel advance. Almost all, if not all, the circumstances of Paul's life were negative, but Paul hardly mentioned them. If we look at the events of Paul's life in Acts or 2 Corinthians 11, we see hardship, suffering, and trial. But Paul would only see that the gospel advanced and Christ was being exalted in his body. (v 20) Too often we think of our body in reference to the Gospel as making sure we don't use our body to do bad things. A thoroughly biblical understanding of the relationship between our body and the gospel is much broader. God is glorified in our body by acts of service, by teaching and proclaiming, by giving a cup of cold water, or feeding the hungry. This is how the temple, that is our body, exalts Christ. It is also why any circumstance, even martyrdom, can be the circumstance that results in the good news being known. That is how Paul could say, “To live is Christ; to die is gain.”

“Lord, help me to live for Jesus in ever circumstance and moment. AMEN”

Philippians 1:1-11

Philippians 1:1-11

This was the most positive of all Paul's letters. While he makes some fantastic theological statements, this letter does not defend against a specific heresy or false teaching. Neither is this letter written to confront a matter of gross immorality, while he does teach and call for unity in one specific conflict. Nor is it written as an expression of orthodox doctrine and practice. 

This letter is written as an expression of the life of a disciple in the joy of being in Christ. Part of our life as a disciple is the life of joy that comes from and builds into the life of other disciples. We sometimes miss that what God wants from us is to live, love, and work in a close-knit community. That relationship ought to produce joy. As we schedule our lives as disciples, we ought to set aside time for worship, Bible study, service, or meetings. But do we block time off for the simple joy and delight of being with God's people? For those of us with more driven personalities or with workaholic tendencies, we might fail to make a point of being with other believers for the joy of that fellowship. It may feel like a waste of time, but Paul didn't seem to think so. As we look at this passage, we see that the Philippians were a source of joy for him and not just a success story he could retell. 

Who are the people that when you think of them, joy comes to your heart? What have you done of late to nurture that relationship? Paul is not trying to form a friendship club or feel-good society. He weaves together the work he is doing into and out of their affection. His ultimate goal is that they grow and mature in the faith and walk with Christ. Paul wants to see them partnering with him in his ministry (v. 7), becoming wiser in their spiritual understanding (v. 10), and ultimately living lives of holiness as a result of their relationship with Christ, resulting in praise and glory to God (v. 11). But these things will not happen apart from connectedness with other believers. In fact, the friction or struggles with other believers is a place where our ministry and understanding of holy living actually have a place to be worked out and refined. The disconnected disciple is not going to grow in certain aspects of their walk. We need each other. 

“Lord, help me to make a point of being in joy with other disciples.  AMEN”

Ephesians 6:10-22

Ephesians 6:10-22

Often we come to this passage, and we rush to the description of the armor of God for the disciple. We are eager to focus on the helmet, shield, breastplate, etc. But we need to be careful to first consider ‘why’ Paul thought it was so critical that we be so armed. Before we talk about what the armor is, we need to understand why the armor is needed.

Paul begins in verse 10 by calling a disciple to be empowered in the strength of God. We are, in and of ourselves, no match for the powers of darkness. Their superior wit, cunning, experience, and knowledge of our weakness will leave us with no advantages of our own. If left to ourselves, we are doomed to be beaten. But in the strength of God we are secure. The three “power words” that Paul uses in verse 10 roll over each other like an unstoppable wave. The first word, “be strong,” is a dynamic power, and it is the root for the English word dynamite. The second word, “strength,” is the word that means dominion or mighty deed. The third word, “might,” means the force to overcome resistance. These words stack on each other as an irresistible strength that will overcome the powers of darkness. But we must never forget the power is in us from the Lord and is not our own. Humility must be the attitude with which we hold ourselves related to any matter of strength.

God’s strength is the only reasonable protection from the schemes of the devil. There are two interesting words used here. The term “scheme” is from the word that gives us the English word “method.” It carries the idea of a way of researching or inquiring after something. When we face an attack or temptation by the dark powers, we must remember that those attacks are not random. Before the attack, the enemy researches us, searches our history of failure and vulnerability and circumstances, and looks for patterns of when we are most apt to fail. We are all objects of intense investigation by the powers of darkness that are bent on our ruin. Another word choice that we ought to note is Paul’s use of the word “devil” rather than Satan. Satan means opponent. ‘Satan’ might be the expected word in view of the picture of battle Paul is using. But instead he uses the term devil, which means the “accuser” or the “slanderer.” The scheme or method used by the dark powers is to accuse everyone of betrayal. The enemy would have us trust in no one and doubt everyone. The attack will always be for us to trust ourselves as our own god. The accusation or slander of the enemy is always an attempt for us to elevate ourselves to be god.

“Lord, by Your grace and power together let us defeat the enemy. AMEN”