Philippians

The Epistle of Triumphant Joy

1. Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, the ones being in Philippi, with overseers and deacons. ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

³I thank my God on every remembrance of you, ⁴always in every supplication of mine for all of you making the supplication with joy ⁵at your fellowship in the good news from the first day until now, ⁶having been convinced of this very thing, that the one having begun in you a good work will be completing it until the day of Christ Jesus, ⁷as it is just for me to think this about you all because I have you in the heart, all of you being my fellow partakers of grace both in my chains and in the defense and establishment of the good news. ⁸For God is my witness as I long for you all with the affections of Christ Jesus. ⁹And this I pray, that your love [agape] may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all perception ¹⁰for you to test the things that differ, that you may be pure and not causing stumbling to the day of Christ, ¹¹having been filled with fruit of righteousness which is through Jesus Christ to glory and praise of God.

¹²I want you to know, brothers, that the things with me have come rather to the progress of the good news, ¹³so that my chains in Christ have become manifest to the whole palace guard and to all the rest, ¹⁴and most of the brothers in the Lord, having gained confidence by my chains, dare more abundantly to speak the word fearlessly.

¹⁵And some indeed because of envy and strife, but some also because of good will, preach Christ, ¹⁶these indeed from love [agape], knowing that I am set for the defense of the good news, ¹⁷but those from selfish ambition proclaim Christ, not in purity, supposing to arouse tribulation in my chains. ¹⁸What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. But I also will rejoice, ¹⁹for I know that this will turn out for salvation for me through your supplication and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ ²⁰according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing will I be put to shame, but with all boldness as always and now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. ²¹For to me live is Christ and to die, gain. ²²But if to live in the flesh, this to me is fruit of labor, and which I will choose I don’t know, ²³but I am pressed from the two, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, for that is very much better. ²⁴But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. ²⁵And having been convinced of this I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy of the faith, ²⁶that your boasting may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my coming again to you.

²⁷Only conduct yourselves worthily of the good news of Christ so that whether having come and seen you or being absent, I hear the things concerning you, that you are standing fast in one spirit, with one soul striving together for the faith of the good news. ²⁸and not being made afraid in anything by those opposing, which is to them an indication of destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God. ²⁹For to you it was given on behalf of Christ not only to have faith in him, but also to suffer on his behalf, ³⁰having the same conflict such as you saw in me and now hear to be in me.

2. If there be therefore any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love [agape], if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affections and compassions, ²fulfill my joy that you think the same thing, having the same love [agape], united in soul, thinking the one thing, ³nothing from selfish ambition or from vainglory, but with humility of mind considering one another as superior to yourselves, ⁴each of you not looking to your own things, but each of you also to the things of others. ⁵Have this way of thinking in you which also was in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, being in the form of God, did not consider it something to be held onto to be equal with God, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men, ⁸and having been found in appearance as a man he humbled himself, having become obedient to death, but death of a cross. ⁹Therefore indeed God highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every other name, ¹⁰that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in the heavenlies and those on the earth and those under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

¹²Therefore my beloved ones, as you always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling work out your own salvation, ¹³for God is the one working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. ¹⁴Do all things without murmurings and arguments, ¹⁵that you may become faultless and pure children of God, unblemished in the midst of a generation crooked and having been perverted, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶holding forth the word of life, for boasting for me in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. ¹⁷But if indeed I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and I rejoice with you. ¹⁸But you rejoice the same way and rejoice with me.

¹⁹Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I may be of good soul, having known the things concerning you, ²⁰for I have no one of like soul who will genuinely care for the things concerning you. ²¹For they all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ. ²²But you know his proven character, that as child with father he slaved with me in the good news. ²³Therefore I hope to send him immediately when I see clearly the things concerning me, ²⁴but I have been convinced in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.

²⁵Now I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus. My brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your apostle and minister to my need, ²⁶for he was longing for all of you and being deeply distressed because you heard that he was ill. ²⁷For indeed he was ill, nearly to death, but God had mercy on him, but not on him alone, but also on me, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow. ²⁸Therefore I sent him all the more speedily, that having seen him again you might rejoice and I might be less sorrowful. ²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy and have such in honor, ³⁰for because of the work of Christ he came near to death, having risked life [ψυχhv] that he might fill up your lack of ministry to me.

3. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, but safe for you.

²Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Beware of the mutilation. ³For we are the circumcision, those worshipping in the Spirit of God and boasting in Christ Jesus and not having confidence in the flesh, ⁴though I might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I more: ⁵by circumcision on the eighth day, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, according to law a Pharisee, ⁶according to zeal persecuting the church, according to righteousness which is by law having become faultless. ⁷But what things were gain to me, these I have considered loss because of Christ. ⁸But indeed therefore I consider them all to be loss because of the being superior of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because of whom I suffered the loss all the things, and I consider them waste that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having my righteousness which is of law, but that through faith of Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith; ¹⁰to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain to the outresurrection which is from the dead.

¹²Not that I obtained it already or have already been perfected, but I am pressing on if indeed I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself to have laid hold, but one thing: forgetting the things behind, but stretching to the things ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward to goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵As many therefore as are maturing, let us think this way, and if in anything you think differently, God will also reveal this to you. ¹⁶Nevertheless, to what we attained, keep in step with it.

¹⁷Become imitators together of me, brothers, and observe those walking thus as you have us as an example. ¹⁸For many are walking about whom I was telling you often, but now I say even weeping, the enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, those minding earthly things. ²⁰For our commonwealth is in the heavens, from which indeed we are awaiting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who will transform the body of our humiliation, conformed to the body of his glory, according to the energy enabling him to subject all things to himself. 4. Therefore my beloved and longed for brothers, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, beloved.

²Euodia I exhort and Syntyche I exhort to think the same thing in the Lord. ³Yes, I also ask you, true yokefellow, help these women, who strove with me in the good news, with also Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. ⁵Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near. ⁶Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, ⁷and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

⁸For the rest, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things venerable, whatever things right, whatever things pure, whatever things lovely, whatever things well spoken of, if there be any excellence and if any praise, take these things into account, ⁹and what things you learned and received and heard and saw in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

¹⁰But I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that now at length you revived thinking about me, about which you were thinking, but you were lacking opportunity. ¹¹Not that I speak with regard to need, for I learned to be content in the circumstances I am in. ¹²I know also how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to do without. ¹³I have strength for all things in the one empowering me. ¹⁴Nevertheless you did well sharing in my affliction.

¹⁵But you also know, Philippians, that in the beginning of the good news, when I went out from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone, ¹⁶for even in Thessalonica both once and twice you sent to my need. ¹⁷Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit increasing to your account. ¹⁸But I have all things and abound. I have been filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things from you, a soothing aroma of a sweet fragrance, an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God. ¹⁹But my God will fill every need of yours according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. ²⁰Now to our God and Father be glory into the ages of the ages. Amen.

²¹Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers with me greet you. ²²All the saints greet you, but especially those of Caesar’s household. ²³The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Introduction

John Eadie, a Scottish theologian and commentator on the Bible, wrote a commentary on the Greek text of Philippians which was published in 1858. His opening words in giving the background of the epistle are so well written that I wish to quote him at length before going on to my own thoughts on the letter. I have updated the language slightly, but this is virtually as he wrote it. It is a bit difficult to read, but I think it is worth it. Forthwith:

How the course of the apostle was divinely shaped, so that it brought him to Philippi, is stated in Acts 16:6-12 :—“Now, when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia, after they had come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit did not allow them. And they, passing by Mysia, came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, ‘Come over into Macedonia, and help us.’ And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis; and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.” The apostle, during his second great missionary journey, had gone through a large portion of Asia Minor, and wished to extend his tour into proconsular Asia. But a curb, which he durst not resist, was laid upon him, though its precise object he might not be able at the moment to conjecture. The Holy Spirit, in forbidding him to preach in Asia, meant to turn his steps towards Europe. But he and his colleagues reached Mysia, and when they made an effort to pass into Bithynia, they were suddenly stopped on the frontier, for the “Spirit of Jesus” did not allow them not to enter. This double check must have warned them of some ultimate purpose. Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas, but not to labour, as they might have anticipated, in a city surrounded by the scenes of so many classical associations. The divine leading had so shut up their path as to bring them to the seaport from which they were to set sail for a new region, and for a novel enterprise. As Peter had been instructed and prepared by a vision to go to the house of a Roman soldier, so by a similar apparition Paul was beckoned across the Aegean Sea to Europe. The low coasts of the Western world might be dimly seen by him under the setting sun; the spiritual wants of that country, still unvisited by any evangelist, must have pressed upon his mind; the anxious ponderings of the day prepared him for the vision of the night, when before him “there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, ‘Come over into Macedonia and help us.’” He was now in a condition to respond to the prayer, for a narrow sea was the only barrier between him and the shores of northern Greece. The object of the vision could not be mistaken, and the supernatural limitations set to previous inland journeys would now be comprehended. The prediction had been verified in the apostle and his colleagues —“I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have not known;” [Is. 42.16] and the promise, too, was now fulfilled—“I will make darkness light before thee, and crooked things straight,” [Is. 42.16] for the vision so impressed them that they were “assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.” No time was lost – they loosed from Troas; the wind was fair – no weary tacking, no idle flapping of the sails in a calm; a steady southern breeze urged them through the current that rushes from the Dardanelles; they passed the island of Imbros, running “with a straight course to Samothracia,” and cast anchor the same night, in the smooth water of its northern shore. Half the voyage had been made, and next day, after skirting the isle of Thasos, they arrived at Neapolis, a harbour that seems to have stood in such a relation to Philippi as Ostia to Rome, Cenchrea to Corinth, Seleucia to Antioch, and Port-Glasgow, according to the original intentions of its founders, to Glasgow. When, at a subsequent period, Paul recrossed from Philippi to Troas, the voyage occupied five days; but now, “the King’s business required haste,” and to speed it, “by His power He brought in the South Wind.” The historian briefly adds, “and from thence to Philippi;” that is, along a path ten miles in length, ascending first a low ridge of hills, and then leading down to the city and the great plain between Haemus and Pangaeus, where their last battle was fought and lost by the republican leaders of Rome. After a sojourn of “certain days,” the apostle and his companions went out to an oratory on the side of the river Gangites, and met with a few pious Jewish women and proselytes “who resorted there.” This humble spot was the scene of Paul’s first preaching in Europe; but the divine blessing was vouchsafed, and the heart of Lydia was opened as she listened “unto the things which were spoken by Paul.” It was “a man of Macedonia” that invited the apostle across into Europe; but his first convert was a woman of Thyatira, in Asia. The heart of a proselyte, who must have been an anxious inquirer before she relinquished Paganism, was in a more propitious state for such a change than either Jew or heathen, as it was neither fettered by the bigotry of the one, nor clouded by the ignorance of the other. The dispossession of a female slave, “who had a spirit of divination,” happened soon after; her rapacious and disappointed masters, a copartnery trading in fraud, misery, and souls, finding that the hope of their gain was gone, dragged Paul and Silas into the forum- εἰς τὴν ἀγοράν-before the magistrates, who, on hearing the charge, and without any judicial investigation, ordered the servants of God to be scourged, and then imprisoned. But their courage did not fail them. On losing a battle in that neighbourhood, the vanquished warriors dared not to survive their defeat. The intriguing Cassius, “the last of the Romans,” hid himself in his tent, and in his panic ordered his freedman to strike. Brutus fell upon his sword, and his sullen and desperate spirit released itself by this self-inflicted wound. But Paul and Silas, unjustly condemned at the bidding of a mob, “thrust into the inner prison, and their feet made fast in the stocks,” fixed in that tormenting position, and their backs covered with “wounds and bruises and putrefying sores which had not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment”-these victims of wanton outrage did not bewail their fate, nor curse their oppressors, nor arraign a mysterious Providence, nor resolve to quit a service which brought them into such troubles, and desert a Master who had not thrown around them the shield of His protection, nor conclude that the vision at Troas had been a cunning and malignant lure to draw them on to Philippi, and to these indignities of stripes and a dungeon. No, “at midnight Paul and Silas, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name,” “prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.” The prison was shaken, and their “bands were loosed;” the jailor and all his house believed in God, and “he and all his were baptized.” The praetors – οἱ στρατηγοί – in the morning sent an order to the lictors for the release of the prisoners; but Paul’s assertion of his privilege as a Roman citizen, when reported to them, alarmed them; and knowing what a penalty they had incurred by their infraction of the Valerian and Porcian laws, they came in person, and urged the departure of the evangelists from the city. “They went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed,” passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and taking up their abode for a brief season in Thessalonica. Such were the apostle’s experiences when he first trod the soil of Europe, and such the first conflict of Christianity with Hellenic heathenism and the savage caprice of Roman authority.

Thus ends Eadie.

You can read of Paul’s coming to and experiences in Philippi in Acts 16, as referred to in Eadie’s words above.

PRISON EPISTLES

My literal translation. All the versions have translations that are not strictly true to the Greek. Some seem to be what the translator thinks the author meant to say. Some even seem as though the translator wrote what the author ought to have said. There are many paraphrases that are not true translations, but the paraphraser’s interpretation. The Living Bible and the NLT are examples. I have no problem with these so long as the reader understands that he is reading a paraphrase, not a translation. It is my belief that in close Bible study the translation should be as nearly literal as possible. Not what the translator thinks the author meant or should have said, but exactly what he did say. My translations are not polished English, but as nearly as possible exactly what the Greek says. There are places where there has to be a bit of deviation because the way the Greeks wrote something will not translate into sensible English. I hold these to a bare minimum. Sometimes words have to be supplied in the English because they are not there in the Greek. Where I have supplied a word I have put it in italics. The bottom line is that my translations are exactly what the Greek says insofar as I can render it. You can be sure that I am not writing what I think the author meant or ought to have said, but exactly what he did say. I reserve my opinions to my exposition, not to the translation.

We are often told that Philippians is the letter of joy. That is certainly true, but it is much more. Words of joy, such as joy and rejoice, are used about fourteen times by my count, but words of suffering about nineteen times. Paul speaks of his imprisonment, people who try to make trouble for him, his facing death, his doing without things needed, sorrows, and so forth. The more accurate designation of Philippians as the epistle of joy is to say that it is the epistle of triumphant joy, joy out of suffering and sorrow.

Several themes appear in Philippians. There is Paul’s love for them (1.7, 4.1). He writes of his joy with the progress of the good news even from his suffering. He has that surpassing statement, “For to me live is Christ and to die, gain,” the heart and meaning of life. One of the most sublime statements in the Bible occurs in 2.5-11. Paul gives instructions for Christian living. Returning to the centrality of Christ he says that his goal in life is to gain Christ, “to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.” He writes of our glorious transformation from this body of humility at his coming. He shows how to deal with anxiety and has his own version of positive thinking. He says that he has learned the secret of contentment no matter what. And he expresses his gratitude to the Philippians for sharing with him in his needs. We will deal with all of these as we go through the epistle.

1. Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus,

In most of his epistles Paul begins by calling himself “apostle.” In Romans he calls himself “slave” and “apostle,” in Titus, “slave,” and in Philemon, “prisoner of Christ Jesus.” Here in Philippians he calls himself and Timothy “slaves.” Some would object to such a harsh term as “slaves,” but that is what the Greek word means. Two factors bear on the use of this word that help our understanding. One is that we are all slaves to something. For example, Paul writes in Rom. 6.16-17 that we are slaves to either sin or obedience, and in v. 22 that we have been freed from sin and have become slaves to God. Many in sin think that they are free to do whatever they please. That is a lie from the father of lies. Sin is a slavery that will lead to destruction. Slavery to God is freedom indeed, for we are free from sin and its destruction and free to enjoy the guidance and presence and blessing of God in this life and eternity with him. You are a slave. Choose your master.

The other factor I learned from Erwin Lutzer, pastor of the Moody Church. He points out that in the New Testament days slavery was a way of life. The population of the Roman Empire at its height was about 65 million. It is estimated that 30-40% of the population on the Roman Empire were slaves, meaning that there were 20 to 26 million slaves. These slaves did much of the necessary manual labor and performed many other tasks, such as teaching the children of wealthy families and even holding positions in banks and other institutions. This is in no way a justification of slavery, but Lutzer asks what would happen if all these slaves were suddenly freed. They would be out of work and have no means of earning an income. The Apostle Paul and other Christians do not state any opinion as to their views on slavery, though Paul does give a few hints (1 Cor. 7.21-24), and they certainly had no power to change the system. Except – by preaching the good news. We know that over many centuries the spread of Christianity had much to do with the abolition of slavery, though that evil institution still exists to some extent in the modern world. My point is that Paul was not called to abolish slavery, but what he preached did lead to a great extent to its abolition.

to all the saints

“Saints” literally means “holy ones,” that is, those set apart for God, Christians. There are saints in the Old Testament, too, but I think Paul was referring to those who have faith in the Lord Jesus in his letters. The “set apart for God” part refers to all Christians, but the Scriptures are quite plain that we are to be made actually holy in heart and conduct, for example, Heb. 12.14. God told his people in Lev. 11.44 to be holy, for he is holy, and Peter refers to tis passage in his first epistle, 1.15-16.

in Christ Jesus,

Spiritually we are “in Christ.” The church is the body of Christ. He is the Head. We are the body. He is in us and we are in him. This theme is not dealt with in Philippians, but we know of it from other Scriptures and this is, I believe, the meaning of “in Christ.”

In Philippians Paul variously refers to the Lord as Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus, and Christ. I do not place a lot of weight on these differences, but there may be some emphasis. Jesus is the human name of the Lord. Christ is actually not a name, but a title. “Christ” is the Greek word for the Hebrew “Messiah,” which means “God’s Anointed.” Possibly Paul is emphasizing the fact that the Christian Savior is the Jewish Messiah when he calls him Christ Jesus.

the ones being in Philippi,

Obviously the recipients of this letters are residents of Philippi, a Macedonian city.

with overseers and deacons. 

Overseers are the same as elders. The Greek word is episkopos, from which we get the word “episcopal.” The Greek work literally means “overseer,” one who oversees the church. We see that they are the same as elders in Ti. 1.5-7: in v. 5 we learn that Paul left Titus in Crete to appoint elders (presbuteros, from which we get “presbytery” and “Presbyterian”) and that he listed qualifications for the job in v. 6. Then he continues with the qualifications in v. 7 where he calls the elders “overseers,” showing that the two are the same. The word episkopos, overseer, is sometimes translated bishop, but the New Testament knows nothing of what is called a bishop in our day, a church official who has oversight of several or many local churches. An overseer has oversight of one local church, and there is always a plurality of elders. The New Testament does not have one man over the church, but several elders. We see in 1 Pt. 2.25 that the Lord Jesus is The Elder and The Shepherd.

Deacons in the New Testament were men well attested and full of the Holy Spirit who took care of the serving of the widows with food (Acts 6.1-6). The Greek word for “servant” in this case is diakonos, from which we get the word “deacon.” The New Testament deacons were not a governing or advisory body in the church, but servants of the widows. They were to take care of this responsibility so the elders/overseers could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry (diakonia) of the word. They were also deacons, servants, but they were not called that and they served the word, not the food.

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace is one of those great themes in the Bible. It is usually defined as unmerited love, which it certainly is, but it goes far beyond that. I do not know how to explain grace fully, for I cannot explain God fully. Grace is what God is by nature. If God were a computer, grace would be his operating system. Everything from God is of grace, intended for good and freely given. We cannot pay for it, but we can receive it by trusting in God.

Grace comes from God the Father, the perfect Father who is all and everything a father should be. And it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son who is the full expression of the nature of God (Heb. 1.3), and I would say that it comes from God through the Lord Jesus who willingly left Heaven and perfect fellowship with his Father to make it possible for ruined sinners like us to receive grace by his experiencing the turning of that Father away from him as he suffered and died on the cross.

Peace is another such great theme. We tend to think of peace as peace of mind or lack of worry and lack of conflict, as in the absence of war. That it is, but how many soldiers who have been through war and known such lack of peace firsthand have no peace in their own hearts? Biblical peace is not just the absence of conflict, but a condition of rest in the Lord. In Rom. 5.1 Paul writes that we who have been justified by God have peace with him. That is peace with God. Paul says here in Phil. 4.7 that if we trust in God in our requests of him that we have the peace of God. It is not just a lack of enmity with God, but the peace that fills our hearts as we trust in him. In Mic. 5.5 and Eph. 2.14 we learn that the Lord Jesus is our peace. He dwells within us and is our peace. He is the Prince of Peace. Peace is not just a feeling that we have or hope to have, but a Person.

³I thank my God on every remembrance of you, ⁴always in every supplication of mine for all of you making the supplication with joy ⁵at your fellowship in the good news from the first day until now,

There seems to have been a special relationship between Paul and the Philippian church. Here he expresses his thanks to God for them and apparently indicates that he thought of them often. He prays for them with supplication, a rather strong word for prayer indicating deep need, and he expresses joy at their fellowship with him in the good news, pointing out that this fellowship has lasted from the first day “until now.” More on this in v. 7.

⁶having been convinced of this very thing, that the one having begun in you a good work will be completing it until the day of Christ Jesus,

This is a strong assurance to all of us about the work God began in us at the beginning of our relationship with him, and before, too, as he was convicting us and calling us to himself before we thought of following him: “… before they call, I will answer” (Is. 65.24). Will we make it to the end? As far as it concerns God we will. He will do his part and no one can pluck us out of his hand. We must go on with him, of course. As we do, he will complete the work.

⁷as it is just for me to think this about you all because I have you in the heart

Paul picks up the thought of his love for the Philippians by saying that he has them in his heart. This verse could also be translated as “you have me in the heart,” but I believe the former is what Paul had in mind. He is expressing his love for them.

all of you being my fellow partakers of grace both in my chains and in the defense and establishment of the good news,

How could Paul help but love those who have shared with him in his imprisonment and by their contributing to him for his material needs, as I believe he indicates here and expands on later. In 2 Cor. 11.8-9 Paul writes, “I robbed other churches, having taken wages from them for service to you, ⁹and being present with you and in need I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers having come from Macedonia filled my need….” Philippi is in Macedonia and surely had a hand in supporting Paul. When they so share they are partakes of grace with him, God blessing them for their help to Paul for his need and for the furtherance of the good news.

⁸For God is my witness as I long for you all with the affections of Christ Jesus.

Paul again stresses his love for his readers by saying that he longs for them, and this even with the affections of the Lord Jesus which have been worked into him by the Lord: “the fruit of the Spirit is love.”

⁹And this I pray, that your love [agape] may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all perception ¹⁰for you to test the things that differ, that you may be pure and not causing stumbling to the day of Christ, ¹¹having been filled with fruit of righteousness which is through Jesus Christ to glory and praise of God.

Note: I have put the Greek word agape, pronounced uh-GAP-ee, in brackets after the English “love“ because there are different Greek words for love in the New Testament that have different meanings and I want to indicate which word is used in a given case. Agape is used primarily in the New Testament for God’s love or the love of God in Christians for God and people, though there are a couple of exceptions. As it is, this is the only word for love used in Philippians, but I wanted to point what the word “love” means in each case. An interesting aside: “Philip” and “Philippi” mean “horse lover,” using the word phileo, another Greek word for love.

Paul writes in 1 Cor. 8.1, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” If one goes just for knowledge, he may end up being proud of his knowledge rather than loving God and his people, but if he pursues it in love, God will see to it that love abounds in full knowledge, and not just head knowledge of facts, information, but heart knowledge and perception. One may know a lot and not be of much use! But the right kind of knowledge gives perception, the ability to make wise use of the knowledge in knowing what to do in a situation. Paul writes in 1 Tim. 1.5, “But the goal of our instruction is love, from a pure heart and a good conscience and unhypocritical faith.” Knowledge is not the beginning. A pure heart and a good conscience and unhypocritical faith lead to love, and love leads to full knowledge and perception. Another aside: “unhypocritical” is not an English word, but that is exactly what the Greek says and it means literally “under judgment.” If you are a hypocrite you are under judgment, whether it be before the judgment seat of Christ for Christians or the great white throne of Rev. 20.11-15, where such hypocrites are eternally lost. Be sure of your salvation and avoid hypocrisy. 

With this full knowledge and perception one is able to “test the things that differ.” This phrase can be translated as I have done, or as “to approve the things that are excellent.” We encounter many situations in life that appear neither black nor white, but gray. Satan certainly knows how to confuse matters. What do we do? With this progression from a pure heart and a good conscience and unhypocritical faith to love and to full knowledge and perception, we are equipped to “test the things that differ” and “to approve the things that are excellent.” Paul writes in 2 Tim. 3.17 of “having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This is the pathway to being thoroughly equipped.

Another result of this process is that “you may be pure and not causing stumbling to the day of Christ, ¹¹having been filled with fruit of righteousness which is through Jesus Christ to glory and praise of God.” One of the sins that the Lord Jesus condemns in the gospels is the causing of others to stumble. If we follow this path we will not commit this sin, but will be able to help others not to stumble, but to go on with the Lord. This is because we will be “filled with fruit of righteousness which is through Jesus Christ,” and this will lead to the glory and praise of God, perhaps the chief goal of our lives.

Additional note on the word “pure” in v. 10: The Greek word is eilikrines (pronounced ee-li-krin-EES). The origin of this word is not certain. There are two possibilities. It comes from a combination of two words. The last part of the word, krines, means “to judge.” One possibility is that the first part of the word comes from the word “sunlight,” in which case the meaning would be “pure” in the sense of having been judged in full light, light as bright as the sun. The other is that the first part comes from a word meaning “rapid shaking,” as in something being pure because of having all impurity shaken out. In either case it is a very picturesque word. Being a word nut, I enjoy seeing the pictures some of the Greek words present.

¹²I want you to know, brothers, that the things with me have come rather to the progress of the good news, ¹³so that my chains in Christ have become manifest to the whole palace guard and to all the rest, ¹⁴and most of the brothers in the Lord, having gained confidence by my chains, dare more abundantly to speak the word fearlessly.

Paul was in chains in the palace guard, a place one would not choose to be, and this must have been quite a hardship, especially in those days of the rough treatment of prisoners. But God has purpose in everything he allows into the lives of his people, and Paul says that this situation has “come rather to the progress of the good news.” I take v. 13 to mean that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that his chains are in Christ. In Christ! Elsewhere Paul describes himself as a “prisoner of Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3.1, Phm. 1, 9). He did not see himself as the prisoner of Rome, but of Christ Jesus. We noted earlier that Paul may have been emphasizing the fact that Jesus was the Messiah when he called him Christ Jesus. The anointed one was the king. Was Paul saying here in Philippians and in Ephesians and Philemon that he was not the prisoner of the king of Rome, but of the King of kings?

The progress of the good news is seen further in the fact that most of the brothers in the Lord, rather than having been scared into silence by Paul’s chains, were made bold to preach fearlessly! Sometime braveness and boldness can be contagious. Those around Paul were emboldened to share the good news of the Lord Jesus by his willingness to risk punishment or even death for the Lord. How many times have we failed to say that we are Christians or to speak a word in his name because we are afraid of what someone will think or say? I had a mild stroke nearly two years ago. I came through it alright, but there is one change at least in me. I am bolder to speak the name of Jesus. When you have faced death, at least in my case, I don’t care what people think of me. I care what they think of the Lord Jesus and their own eternity.

¹⁵And some indeed because of envy and strife, but some also because of good will, preach Christ, ¹⁶these indeed from love [agape], knowing that I am set for the defense of the good news, ¹⁷but those from selfish ambition proclaim Christ, not in purity, supposing to arouse tribulation in my chains.

Then Paul points out that there are even some who preach Christ out of envy and strife, from selfish ambition, hoping in some way to bring trouble to Paul so as to further their own ambitions. He was a prisoner and easy to be reached and persecuted. Perhaps those preaching from wrong motives thought they could stir up trouble for the ringleader, Paul, while they, unknown, could fade into the crowd. It is one of the sad truths of our day that there appear to be many preachers who seem to be preaching for money. There are some who preach that if you will send them money God will make you rich. I think that is disgraceful. Paul supported himself by making tents (Acts 18.3) and he says in 1 Cor. 9.18, “What then is my reward? That in preaching the good news I should offer the good news free of charge.” Even though he had the right to make his living by preaching (1 Cor. 9.8-18). He did have contributions from some of the churches, including Philippi, as we saw in v. 7.

But there were those who preached out of good will, from love. Even though Paul was an easy target, they knew that he was set for the defense of the good news and would want them to preach fearlessly, as noted in v. 14. 

¹⁸What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. But I also will rejoice, ¹⁹for I know that this will turn out for salvation for me through your supplication and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ ²⁰according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing will I be put to shame, but with all boldness as always and now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.

Paul was not concerned about what happened to himself, but that Christ be preached. If he were further persecuted because of the preaching of Christ, by him or by others, whether from pure motives or impure, he rejoiced. Christ was being preached! And, he said, “I will rejoice.” Why? Because this preaching of Christ would turn out for salvation for him. How?  Paul was not writing about initial salvation when one first puts trust in Christ. He was writing about the ongoing process of salvation all through life. In 1 Cor. 1.18 Paul wrote of those “being saved,” that is, those who were saved initially, but are now knowing the saving work of God in them as he deals with their flesh, deals with their damage from their own sin and from abuse, and forms Christ in them (Gal. 4.19). Salvation is a lifelong process that will end in final salvation, the redemption of the body (Rom. 8.23) and the “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pt. 1.5). His suffering for the Lord will turn out for his total salvation, body, soul, and spirit. God is using it to mature him in Christ, as he wants to do with us also. ( See my article, Aspects of Salvation.)

The supplication, the earnest prayer, of the Philippians, will work toward this total salvation for Paul and for themselves, too. As will the provision of the Holy Spirit as he produces the fruit of the Spirit in his servant.

Paul’s deep hope is that he will not be put to shame by failing the Lord in his tribulation, but by his boldness for Christ in the face of persecution and even death that Christ will be magnified in his body “whether through life of through death.” Then comes one of those sublime statements of the Bible.

²¹For to me live is Christ and to die, gain.

How can anyone be qualified to comment on such a statement? To live is Christ – Christ is life. He himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He is the meaning of life. He is the purpose of life. He is the goal of life. He is the eternal reward of a life lived for him. But even so, to die in Christ is gain. Death in Christ releases one from the very presence of sin and all of its evil results. From persecution. From all of the sorrow of this evil world. But that is all negative. It also puts one into the very presence of God, the beloved. There is nothing in his presence but love, joy, peace – bliss! Total fulfillment. Total realization of all that God intends for all of us – for eternity.

I recently read a story in which several men were asked what life was to them. One said money, another fame, another power, another learning, and so forth. When Paul spoke up he said, “For to me to live is Christ….”

We wrote above about Paul’s love for the Philippians. Here he shows his love for the one he considers his very life itself, his beloved Lord Jesus Christ.

²²But if to live in the flesh, this to me is fruit of labor, and which I will choose I don’t know, ²³but I am pressed from the two, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, for that is very much better. ²⁴But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. ²⁵And having been convinced of this I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy of the faith, ²⁶that your boasting may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my coming again to you.

It is interesting that Paul struggles with his awareness of the possibility of life or death. He was in prison. It is not certain when or where this imprisonment was. Students of the Scriptures are divided. Paul had imprisonments in Caesarea and Rome, and some argue for an Ephesian imprisonment, though there is no record of such in the New Testament. There were also other what I would call minor imprisonments of few days in various places. His two-year imprisonment in Caesarea came near the end of his life after he had been arrested in Jerusalem, and it was from there that he was sent to Rome, where he apparently stayed in prison or in house arrest until his death. It seems likely to me that this letter was written from Rome because of Paul’s references to death as being a strong possibility. To me such questions do not matter a lot. They cannot be answered with finality and it does not affect the spiritual truth that Paul conveys.

But Paul was keenly aware of the apparently near possibility of death and was struggling in his mind as to which he should choose. His just stated love for the Lord caused him to have a desire to depart, that is, die, and be with the Lord. But he also knew that if he stayed and served the Lord there would be more fruit of his labor, and he concluded that that would be the case because he could be of benefit to his readers. He saw the possibility of leaving prison and seeing the Philippians again.

It is interesting to see a man such as Paul struggling with a choice that he saw as better for him and another as better for his readers. It was not really his choice anyway. It was God’s choice. If Paul was in Rome at the end of his life, then God would allow the Romans to be his means of moving on to Heaven. If God wanted Paul to live on, he would see to it that he did. That is true of all of us. Our times are in God’s hands. We may fear death and try to avoid it. Apparently some want to die, not by suicide, but having a desire to escape the difficulties of this earth and be with the Lord. Perhaps they are suffering deeply from loneliness, having lost loved ones, or from the pains and limitations of sickness. When we are in such situations we put the matter in God’s hands, where it is anyway. It was God who would decide whether Paul lived or died. It is God who will decide whether we live or die and when.

²⁷Only conduct yourselves worthily of the good news of Christ so that whether having come and seen you or being absent, I hear the things concerning you, that you are standing fast in one spirit, with one soul striving together in the faith of the good news, ²⁸and not being made afraid in anything by those opposing, which is to them an indication of destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God.

The word “conduct” literally means “live as a citizen.” We are to live as citizens of Heaven (see 3.20). That means that we live worthily of the good news. As Christians we are representatives of the Lord Jesus, indeed ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5.20) and of the good news and of the church. We do not want our conduct to bring shame on these. This includes “standing fast in one spirit,” having a common goal, ultimately the glorifying of the Lord. It includes striving with one soul in the faith, our faith in the good news of the Lord Jesus and the coming kingdom. Divisions are deadly to the church. How many church splits have there been because people could not agree and insisted on their way. Is it not more suitable for those who differ get on their knees before the Lord and seek what he wants, not what they want? In 4.2 Paul urges Euodia and Syntyche “to think the same thing.” How do we do that? By finding out what God thinks. The cross is the ultimate answer. Instead of arguing for my position I will die to myself. That is what all should do.

As we represent the Lord we should not be afraid to take a stand for him. I do not know that we can all have no fear, but we are not to let fear control us. What soldier in combat is not afraid? But by courage he overcomes fear. He knows that he is living and fighting for something bigger than himself, just as we are as Christians, and he is willing to risk his life, as we should be. Look at Paul and many others in the Bible and in Christian history.

 Our overcoming of fear “is to them an indication of destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God.” How is this an indication to them of destruction? Very often when an enemy sees the strong overcoming of fear by courage and bravery and determination, it strikes fear in their hearts. But keep in mind that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood (Eph. 6.12). Our enemy is Satan and his forces. We are not out to kill people, but to thwart spiritual evil. If we die for the Lord in the process it is salvation from God. We will be with him.

Rev. 7.13-17 says,

And one of the elders answered saying to me, “Who are these who are clothed in white robes and where did they come from?” ¹⁴And I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are those who come from the Great Tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the little Lamb. ¹⁵Because of this they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his Sanctuary, and the one who sits on the throne will tabernacle with them. ¹⁶They will not hunger any more or thirst any more, nor will the sun beat on them, nor any heat, ¹⁷for the little Lamb who is in the middle of the throne will shepherd them, and he will lead them to springs of waters of life, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

These martyrs come out of the Great Tribulation, but I believe it is true of all martyrs for the Lord that they are richly rewarded. Salvation. Utter salvation.

²⁹For to you it was given on behalf of Christ not only to have faith in him, but also to suffer on his behalf, ³⁰having the same conflict such as you saw in me and now hear to be in me.

In a passage that is difficult for some, perhaps all, Paul says that suffering on behalf of Christ is a gift. How could suffering be a gift? We all want to avoid suffering and consider it more of a curse than a gift. I certainly do not believe that we should try to bring suffering on ourselves, but be assured that it will come. When it does, receive it as a gift. God has a purpose in it.

In the first place, we are all cursed because of the fall and sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, God told Eve that she would suffer in childbirth and that her husband would rule over her. I take this to mean that men are physically stronger than women and some men use that strength to abuse their wives. It is not that God decreed that, but that it is simply a fact because of the fall. He told Adam that the ground is cursed and therefore people would have to work hard just to eat: “… by the sweat of your face you will eat bread.” Everyone suffers in one way or another. If you haven’t, you will. This is the result of sin and of our sin-nature, the flesh. We are personally cursed by being creatures with sinful flesh, the root of all sins. Me, me, me. I want my way and I will sin to get it. 

But God is merciful. He will use our very sufferings for our good. They will strengthen us, sometimes physically, always spiritually if we submit to him in them. Athletes suffer in practice and preparing for their sport. I was the manager of my college football team. I remember those big guys battering each other in the hot sun and running those lung-bursting wind sprints. Why would they do that? Because they love the game and want to be in shape and prepared to play an opponent. The suffering strengthens them. They did not love the suffering, but they loved the result. God will use our sufferings to make us spiritually stronger if we submit to him and let him use them so, rather than yelling to God, “Get me out of this!” We read in 2 Cor. 4.18, “For the momentary light burden of our affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory from hyperbole to hyperbole….”

In Heb 2.10 we are told that the Lord Jesus was matured by the things he suffered, and in 5.8, that he learned obedience through the things he suffered. He was the sinless, eternal Son of God and he had to suffer to be matured and to learn obedience? Yes, he lived as a human being like us and he had to go through what we go through to be a mature human. Heb. 2.17 says, “Therefore he was obligated to be made like the brothers in all things, that he might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” He was fully human and had to live as humans do to fulfill his mission.

Rom. 8.28-29 tell us, “We know that for those loving God all things work together for good, for those being called according to purpose.” What is that purpose? It is “that we be conformed to the image of his Son.” God uses our trials and sufferings to make us like Jesus, who also suffered.

The flesh must be crucified (Gal. 5.24), put to death. God uses our sufferings to gain that purpose, to release us from the tyranny of self.

Paul is one of the champion sufferers, as we see here in v. 30: “… having the same conflict such as you saw in me and now hear to be in me.” What they have seen is recorded in Acts, in the epistles, especially 2 Cor. 6.8-10 and 11.23-28. What they now hear to be is recorded in the first chapter of Philippians, vs. 13-17. He was in prison when he wrote this letter. I wrote at the outset that Philippians is the epistle of triumphant joy, joy out of suffering and sorrow. Paul is the prime example.

2. If there be therefore any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love [agape], if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affections and compassions, ²fulfill my joy that you think the same thing, having the same love [agape], united in soul, thinking the one thing.

Paul here turns from his thoughts on suffering to exhorting the Philippians to be united. There seems to be quite a love relationship between Paul and the Philippians. When he writes “If there be, I think he is really saying that there is so live up to it. There is encouragement in Christ. All of the Philippians should be encouraged because in this wicked world they are in Christ, the safest place to be. Even death cannot hurt them – they will be with the Lord. There is comfort of love. These people loved each other and could comfort each other in trouble and sorrow. The word for “comfort” literally means “to speak beside,” implying comforting words. Their fellowship as Christians was in the Holy Spirit, sharing the same life, that of Christ. They had affection and compassion. Since this is the case, fulfill Paul’s joy that he has brought out in chapter 1 by thinking the same thing. That is, by being of one mind in serving the Lord. By having the same love for one another and for Paul. By being united in soul. The soul consists of mind, emotions, and will. Let them agree on what the Lord’s mind is before the Lord. Not what I think, but what does God think (see 1.27 and my comments there). Let them not be guided by emotions that are not in agreement with the leadings of God. Let them determine together what the will of the God is and proceed as the Lord Jesus did: “Not my will, but yours be done.” By thinking the one thing. What is the one thing? It is the Lord Jesus himself. In v. 5 Paul writes to have the same way of thinking that the Lord Jesus has. He is giving a bit of a foreshadowing of that word.

³Let there be nothing from selfish ambition or from vainglory, but with humility of mind considering one another as superior to yourselves, ⁴each of you not looking to your own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

It is not the way of the Lord for his people to act from selfish ambition. Within the church it is so easy for us to want a position of importance, to be thought a great teacher or preacher, even a great Christian. I doubt that any great Christian thinks he is one. He knows himself all too well. Some may want to be thought a great servant. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Outside the church in the world there may be Christians who are ambitious to be thought great in the world.

We are to nothing from vainglory, trying to bring the glory to ourselves. The glory belongs to God and he says that “my glory will I not give to another” (Is. 48.11). Paul writes in 2 Cor. 10.18, “For the one commending himself – not that one is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

Humility is one of the great virtues. Indeed God says in Prov. 3.34, Ja. 4.6, and 1 Pt. 5.5 that he resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Instead of congratulation ourselves on what great Christians we are, let us think others are better than ourselves. But give all the glory to God. Be more concerned about the well-being of others than of ourselves. If we are walking with the Lord in faith and obedience he will take care of us.

⁵Have this way of thinking in you which also was in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, being in the form of God, did not consider it something to be held onto to be equal with God, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men, ⁸and having been found in appearance as a man he humbled himself, having become obedient to death, but death of a cross. ⁹Therefore indeed God highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every other name, ¹⁰that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in the heavenlies and those on the earth and those under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Now we come to what I think is one of the most sublime statements in the Bible.

⁵Have this way of thinking in you which also was in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, being in the form of God, did not consider it something to be held onto to be equal with God, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men, ⁸and having been found in appearance as a man he humbled himself, having become obedient to death, but death of a cross.

Who is qualified to comment on this passage? I certainly do not feel qualified to do so, but I will say what I can. “Have this way of thinking.” The way we think has very much to do with our behavior. Everything that exists came from an idea, except God himself. Has it ever occurred to you that God thought of everything there is before it existed? He made everything himself by a word, or he made what it took to make all the manmade things that came from human ideas. Why am I typing on this computer? I don’t see how that is possible, but someone thought of it and here it is. We need to think the right way. What is the right way? Fundamentally it is the way the Lord Jesus thinks. And how does he think?

He is in the form of God and equal with God. He is God as a member of the Trinity. Yet he did not consider that reality something to be held onto with those grasping fingers that we have. Because it was the will of the Father he emptied himself. I do not believe that means he ceased to be God, but that he emptied himself of the use of divinity to live in this world as a man. He lived as humans do, and did so perfectly. He lived by complete faith in and obedience to his Father God. He took “the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men, having become in the likeness of men.”

The word “form” means the essence of something. In v. 6 we read that the Lord Jesus was in the form of God. That is, he was fully divine. That is his essence. In v. 7 we have the form of a slave. He laid aside his divinity as his way of living and became a slave, a slave to his Father. A slave has no rights. He is not entitled to do his own will. He must do what he is told. In Jn. 5.19 we read that the Lord said, “Amen, amen I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he may see the Father doing, for the things that one may do, these things also the Son likewise does.” The Lord Jesus had a human will, but he lived by the saying, “Not my will, but yours be done.” As a man he became a slave.

The Lord was “found in appearance as a man.” He looked like a man. This does not mean that he was not really human, as some think. He looked like a man because he was a man. He was God in the flesh, but he was fully human and looked like any other man.

The Greek word for “appearance” is much like the word for “likeness,” but it is more detailed. The Lord did not just look like a man, but he had the habits of man, speech, actions, and so forth. In this obviously human appearance “he humbled himself.” The degree of the humility to which he submitted himself was to be “obedient to death, but death of a cross.” When Paul adds “death of a cross,” he shows the depth of the humility. A cross was not just a means of death, but it was the Romans’ particular way of executing the worst criminals. Our Lord Jesus did not die as a great martyr of the faith, but he died the shameful death of a blasphemer, the Jewish charge, and a traitor against Rome – a rival king. It is difficult for us to imagine of the ignominy to which he subjected himself.

I would like to share a lengthy quotation written by J. Pengwern Jones, a missionary in India in the early years of the twentieth century. He was close to Praying Hyde. If you do not know about Praying Hyde, I suggest the book Praying Hyde, a book edited by Capt. E.G.  Carré and containing summations of Hyde’s remarkable life by Francis A. M’Gaw, Jones, and R. M’Cheyne. Hyde said to Jones,

“Let me tell you, what a vision I had – a new vision of Christ!” His face as he spoke seemed to be illuminated; he has come truly from the secret of His Presence, and I shall never forget his words, they gave me a new vision of Christ, and as he spoke to me I could not keep the tears back; at time I felt that it could not be true – that Jesus had never suffered so much for me, but as Hyde lifted Him up before me, I had to believe, and my heart went out to Christ in love and gratitude such as I had never felt before, and also in shame and sin – my sin – had brought Jesus so low, into such suffering, and that vision of my dear Saviour is still before me. How I wish I could repeat it as Hyde brought me step by step to see Christ that evening.

He showed first of what a condescension it was for (1) Christ to become a man. I saw something quite new in Christ “emptying himself,” leaving His glory and entering our world, our sinful world; what it must have cost Him to live in the atmosphere of sin; it was no wonder that He often escaped from the haunts of men, from the depressing, suffocating odour of sin to the mountains, to have a breath of the fresh air of Heaven. How Hyde described the environments of sin and the Holy Person living in the midst of it! I felt that even the Incarnation was an Infinite Sacrifice, even if the death on Calvary had never taken place.

Then he stopped and said, “And He took this place – became man – for me.” I saw the vicarious sufferings of Christ then, in a new light. After a little time he began again and said (2) “Christ became a slave for me. He washed His disciples’ feet – this was the work of a slave. He stooped and became a slave for me.” Then he described the life of a slave, and how Christ in every sense of the word had voluntarily become a slave – not like one – but actually He became a bond-servant, a slave, He who was King of kings, who had the worship and adoration of the hosts of Heaven, a real slave on earth! “And all, said Hyde, “for me, for me.”

For some time he wept; we both wept, I wept at the thought of the sufferings of Christ for me, and how unfaithful I had been to Him; but Hyde was thinking of what he was going to say next, and what he said gave me such a shock that I hardly knew how to repeat the words lest they should be misunderstood. Hyde continues speaking and weeping. “I saw more. I saw that my Jesus became a dog, a pariah dog, for me.” Is it blasphemy to use these words? (3) Jesus became a dog for me.” Hyde said that he was thinking of the Syrophenecian woman, and how Jesus applied the contemptible word “dog” to her and the Gentiles, and then, he said, “the Holy Spirit led my thoughts to the truth that Jesus had died for the Gentiles, for these dogs – then it must be that Jesus had taken the dog’s place. At first,” he said, “this was too awful to think of, but when I thought of his life, I had to come to the conclusion that the life of Christ had more of the characteristics of a dog’s life, than anything else, and that is what I have been doing,” he said, “worshipping Him and praising Him for this.” He explained that it must have been the intention of Christ to teach the truth by this miracle; Christ would never have used the epithet “dog” of a human being without a great purpose in view, and it was this: He wanted men to realise that He had gone down, even below men, for the purpose of lifting them up.

Then Hyde showed the similarity between Christ’s life and the pariah dog of the East.

Christ had nowhere to lay His head. That is how the dogs of the East live; they have no place which they can call “home,” and Christ was homeless, and “to think of Christ suffering all for me,” said Hyde.

The dogs of the East have constant kicks and blows from men, and that is how men treated our beloved Saviour, driven away from men, receiving oftentimes great unkindness at the hands of men, cruel words, scoffs, blows, and at last cruelly killed. Shall I ever forget the tenderness of Hyde as he spoke of the sufferings of Christ.

I remember nothing of the dinner that night, my impression is that we both sat on that bed for hours, speaking of Christ. I shall never forget it, and never forget the vision I had of the love of Christ, going lower and lower, suffering more and more, and all for me.

“Greater love [agape] than this has no one, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Was it worth it?

⁹Therefore indeed God highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every other name, ¹⁰that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in the heavenlies and those on the earth and those under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This one who died as a man has been exalted far above the realm of man. He is not only the highest one of earth, but has a name above every other name. No other name can even come close. And “in the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, of those in the heavenlies and those on the earth and those under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Satan and all the great villains of human history will bow the knee to him and confess his name. Every religious leader will bow to him. His name is above the great heroes of the faith such as Abraham and Moses and above the archangels. Every tongue will confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. “Far above all, far above all, God has exalted him far above all.”

That is the way our Lord Jesus thought – total selflessness. “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and follower of Jesus, who lost his life in April, 1945 in a Nazi prison camp … had a phrase he used to describe Jesus. He put these words on paper in that German prison cell. ​Jesus is ‘the man for others’​” (Copyright © 2021 FirstCovGR).

“Have this way of thinking in you.” How many of us fully measure up to this standard? None of us. But is that the intent of our hearts? God give us grace.

[I order books online from used book dealers. AbeBooks is the one I use most. Booksprice.com purports to find the lowest price from several used book dealers.]

¹²Therefore my beloved ones, as you always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, with fear and trembling work out your own salvation, ¹³for God is the one working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The word “therefore” in the Bible is important. It means that because what has just been said, this is true or the right response. Therefore, since vs. 5-11 are true, continue to obey. How? By working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Does that mean that we are to save ourselves? Certainly not! Someone has said, “Work out what God has worked in.” You have salvation. Now live it out by faith in and obedience to God. Live no more for yourself, but for God. Seek his will, not your own. “God is … working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Let him lead you in his will and work that he has called you to. We saw that our Lord Jesus is the man for others. Let us follow his example, but more than follow him. He is inside us. Let him work through you.

¹⁴Do all things without complaints and arguments, ¹⁵that you may become faultless and pure children of God, unblemished in the midst of a generation crooked and having been perverted, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶holding forth the word of life, for boasting for me in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Paul here comes to practical application. “Do all things without complaints and arguments.” I think of the little boy who was ordered to go stand in the corner because he had disobeyed. He went to the corner, but he said, “I may be standing in the corner, but in my mind I am outside playing.” It is possible to do God’s will without submitting ourselves to his will. We obey him, but in our hearts we are not obeying. We are complaining. God’s will is that we submit our wills to him, that we be wholly surrendered to him: “Not my will, but yours be done” again. “I delight to do your will, my God, and your law is in my heart” (Ps. 40.8). The Lord Jesus delighted to do the will of his Father, even when it meant the cross. Does that describe us?

Our goal is to become good representatives of God, examples of what he is in a crooked and perverted generation, The Lord Jesus said that he is the Light of the world (Jn. 8.12), and in Mt. 5.14 he said that we are the light of the world. Are we doing that? Are we holding forth the word of life to this lost generation? It is glorious to think on such a passage as Phil. 2.5-11, but do we work it out in or lives. We are to have the way of thinking that our Lord Jesus had.

Paul wants to be able to boast in the day of Christ, at his return, not in the sense of proud boasting which we see so often in this world, and have probably done ourselves. There will not be any of that sort of boasting in Heaven, but we will receive the Lord’s “Well done” if we are faithful and obedient to him. He does not want to “run in vain or labor in vain” in his service to the Lord. One of my own deep desires is that my life count for the Lord. Paul had that same desire.

¹⁷But if indeed I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and I rejoice with you. ¹⁸But you rejoice the same way and rejoice with me.

Several of the sacrifices made by the Jews in the Old Testament included a drink offering along with the animal sacrifice. Paul is himself fulfilling his instruction in Rom. 12.1, “I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your logical worship.” His life is a sacrifice to God, on the altar, a drink offering poured out on the sacrifice, and in this case he is doing that for the faith of his readers, to strengthen that faith. And if he is such a sacrifice, which he is, he rejoices in himself and he rejoices with the Philippians. And he calls on them to rejoice with him. It is of note that in the phrases “You rejoice” and “rejoice with me” the verbs are imperative, as though Paul were commanding his readers to rejoice. He is not being a legalist, but we all should be rejoicing in the Lord no matter what our circumstances are, because he is with us and in us and is using our circumstances for our good if we will yield ourselves to him in them. Remember Rom. 8.28-29. He is our joy. Do we consider it joy to be poured out as a sacrifice for the Lord?

¹⁹Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I may be of good soul, having known the things concerning you.

I have translated very literally “good soul.” That is what the Greek word says. To be of good soul means to be at ease, to be comforted and encouraged, and so forth. Paul wants to send Timothy to them so that he can bring back news of the Philippians so that he may be “of good soul,” at ease about their situation.

²⁰for I have no one of like soul who will genuinely care for the things concerning you. ²¹For they all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ.

Paul has said that he wants to have a “good soul,” a soul at rest, and now he says that he has no one “of like soul” with himself except Timothy. We do not know all the facts or timing of Paul’s last period of time on this earth, but we read in 2 Tim. 1.15, “You know this, that all those in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes,” and in 2 Tim. 4.10 and 16, “For Demas has deserted me, having loved the present age…. At my first defense no one stood with me, but all deserted me.” It is so sad that after about thirty years of pouring out is life to bring people to salvation Paul comes to this end. As he goes on to say in v. 16. “May it not be charged to them.” Even in such a situation he prays for those who have deserted him. But he did have such supporters as Luke, Mark, and Tychicus, all in 2 Tim. 4, and he mentions a number of people who still supported him at the end of that chapter. Most importantly he says in 2 Tim 4.17, “But the Lord stood by me….”

Paul and Timothy were together in caring about the spiritual wellbeing of the people they had led to the Lord. Those who deserted him cared for their own things, not the things of the Lord. We call some people ministers. The word “minister” and the word “servant” are the same in Greek. A minister is supposed to be a servant. There do seem to be so- called ministers who are out for themselves, who consider godliness to be a means of gain (1 Tim. 6.5). 

We saw that the soul is made up of the mind, the emotions, and the will (Phil. 2.2). When Paul says that he and Timothy were of like soul he means that they were in agreement as to the Lord’s mind, his direction of them. People’s emotions may vary greatly and we do not know the emotional state of Paul or of Timothy, but they did not allow emotions to govern what they agreed on was the will of God. They were of one will, the will of God.

²²But you know his proven character, that as child with father he slaved with me in the good news. ²³Therefore I hope to send him immediately when I see clearly the things concerning me, ²⁴but I have been convinced in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.

Paul commends Timothy with strong words, that he treated Paul as a father, obeying him, and even slaving with him (that is the Greek word) in the spreading of the good news of the Lord. Paul hopes to send Timothy to them as soon as he sees what his circumstances are. He is in prison, as 1.13-14 tells us. Will he be released? Will he be executed? We cannot these questions because we are not given all the facts. Tradition has it, though the New Testament does not record it, that Paul was executed by the Romans. If so, was it at this time or some later time. Just as we are wondering what would happen when so was Paul. He tells us that he hopes to send Timothy to them, and indeed, is convinced that he himself will be able to go to them. Was he able to send Timothy? We do not know. Was he able to go himself? We do not know.

²⁵Now I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus. My brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your apostle and minister to my need, ²⁶for he was longing for all of you and being deeply distressed because you heard that he was ill. ²⁷For indeed he was ill, nearly to death, but God had mercy on him, but not on him alone, but also on me, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow. ²⁸Therefore I sent him all the more speedily, that having seen him again you might rejoice and I might be less sorrowful. ²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy and have such in honor, ³⁰for because of the work of Christ he came near to death, having risked life that he might fill up your lack of ministry to me.

We see something of Paul’s heart in this paragraph. Epaphroditus is a bit of the fruit of Paul’s labors in Philippi. Paul calls him a brother and fellow soldier, and an apostle – a “sent one” – and minister sent by the Philippians to him. It is characteristic of someone close to the Lord that in his own sickness Epaphroditus is distressed about the Philippians’ concern about him. The concern was in order- he nearly died. Paul is grateful to the Lord for Epaphroditus’ sake, and also for himself because of his love for his helper. Paul sent him back to Philippi and I take it that he sent this epistle along with him. Here is a man who risked his life to serve the Lord, as Paul did many times.

When Paul writes of the Philippians’ lack of ministry or service to him, I do not believe he was complaining that they should have done more. In 4.18 Paul writes, “I have been filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things from you, a soothing aroma of a sweet fragrance, an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God,” and he mentions in that passage that the Philippians had helped him before. The word “lack” may sound as though Paul were criticizing the Philippians, but think of the situation in those days. These people were very poor, as we see in 2 Cor. 8.1-2, “Now we make known to you, brothers, the grace of God having been given among the churches of Macedonia, ²that in much testing of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their generosity….” Their offerings were a genuine sacrifice. And travel in those days was an undertaking. We can just hop into the car and drive, or fly long distances in a few hours, or send something by mail or delivery companies. For the Philippians to send an offering to Paul means that someone had to walk a long way. If Paul was in Rome, as it appears, someone would have had to walk or ride an animal and sail about 500 miles, most of it walking. The Philippians’ “lack” was more a lack of opportunity than of how much they gave. They were generous and put upon to make such a gift. Paul was not complaining! He was very grateful.

3. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, but safe for you. ²Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Beware of the mutilation. ³For we are the circumcision, those worshipping in the Spirit of God and boasting in Christ Jesus and not having confidence in the flesh, ⁴though I might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I more: ⁵by circumcision on the eighth day, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, according to law a Pharisee, ⁶according to zeal persecuting the church, according to righteousness which is by law having become faultless.

It might appear that here Paul is coming to the conclusion of his letter. His possible parting word is that his readers rejoice, as he has been stressing already. When he writes, “To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, but safe for you,” is he closing the letter with a reminder that he has shared these things with them before and that the repetition is good for them? This reminds us of 2 Pt. 1.12-15:

I will always be sure to remind you concerning these things, though knowing them and having been firmly established in the truth present with you. ¹³But I think it right as long as I am in this tent to be stirring you up by way of reminder, ¹⁴knowing that my removal from this tent is soon, as also our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. ¹⁵But I will also always be diligent to have you after my exodus to make a remembrance of these things.

And 2 Pt 3.1: “This now, beloved, is the second epistle I am writing to you, in which [pl.] I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder….” I think we all tend to forget some of the things we learn, and there is so much information in our brains that it is easy to forget spiritual lessons. We can’t be thinking of everything at once! We do need to be reminded.

It may be that Paul was closing his letter and then thought of more he wanted to tell them. At any rate he continues. I wrote that I consider Phil. 2.5-11 one of the most sublime passages in the Bible. Now we come to the rest of chapter 3, another chapter that soars in the heavens.

²Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Beware of the mutilation. ³For we are the circumcision, those worshipping in the Spirit of God and boasting in Christ Jesus and not having confidence in the flesh,

Dogs were largely not thought well of in the Bible days. We live in a relatively rich age, at least in the western world, and can afford to pamper our pets. In the first century most, almost all, people were poor. Many did well to have enough to eat. There was no money for pets. I quoted above from a book which shows the standing of dogs in the ancient world, and even in the early twentieth century in India:

Hyde said that he was thinking of the Syrophenecian woman, and how Jesus applied the contemptible word “dog” to her and the Gentiles, and then, he said, “the Holy Spirit led my thoughts to the truth that Jesus had died for the Gentiles, for these dogs – then it must be that Jesus had taken the dog’s place.

When Paul writes, “Beware of the dogs,” he is writing about people who spiritually are on the level of dogs. We think of dogs in this connection as Gentiles, but Paul applies it to all evil workers, and he adds, “Beware of the mutilation.” The Greek word for “mutilation” is katatome. It is a play on words with the Hebrew peritome, circumcision. He says that the true circumcision is not of the flesh, but of the heart. Allow me to quote from my paper, The Appointed Times of I AM: In connection with Passover

Ex. 12.43-49, just referred to, indicates that all the males must be circumcised to partake of Passover. The matter of circumcision is very important in this context. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham given by God to Abraham in Gen. 17, but it was not just a physical requirement. The physical was a symbol of the more important matter of the heart. We see the heart matter in several passages in the Old Testament. Lev. 26.27-45 deals with the blessings of Israel’s obedience to God and the penalties of disobedience. In the course of these thoughts we have v. 41 which speaks of “their uncircumcised heart.” This is the first verse that says that circumcision is really a matter of the heart. Dt. 10.16 says, “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff necked any longer.” Dt. 30.6: “I AM your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your seed so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul and live.” Is. 29.13, quoted by the Lord Jesus in Mt. 15.8: “This people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” All of these men were circumcised.  Jer. 4.4 is a word from the great prophet when Judah had wandered far from God: “Circumcise yourselves to I AM. Take away the foreskins of your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done, burn with no one to quench it.” Jeremiah continues in 9.25-26: “’Look, the days are coming,’ says I AM, ‘that I will punish all them that are circumcised in uncircumcision, Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.’” Passover is for the people of God. No one else can feed on the Passover lamb. But this ultimately means that true Jews are circumcised in heart, and not just in their flesh. What does Passover mean to the Jews? Deliverance from slavery in Egypt and from the killing of the firstborn, but in God’s sight, deliverance in a state of heart circumcision.

As Paul puts it in Rom. 2.28-29, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision the one outward in flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.” He adds in Gal. 3.7, “Therefore know that those of faith, these are sons of Abraham.,” and in 3.29, “But if you are of Christ, then you are of Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” The church is the true Israel, the Israel of God (Gal. 6.16). Christians are the true, spiritual Jews. Paul is saying that circumcision of the flesh only and not of the heart is not circumcision, but mutilation. We worship in the Spirit, not in earthly ceremonies. We boast in Jesus Christ, not in our flesh.

⁴though I might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I more: ⁵by circumcision on the eighth day, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, according to law a Pharisee, ⁶according to zeal persecuting the church, according to righteousness which is by law having become faultless.

Paul writes that if anyone could boast in the flesh, he could do so more. He was a perfect Jew, having kept all the laws, and even persecuting the church, which he saw as his greatest duty as a Jew. He was the most zealous Jew of all. But then he says,

⁷But what things were gain to me, these I have considered loss because of Christ. ⁸But indeed therefore I consider them all to be loss because of the being superior of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because of whom I suffered the loss all the things, and I consider them waste

All his achievement in Judaism became worthless when Paul met the Lord Jesus. Knowing him is far superior to anything Judaism, or anything else, has to offer. They are as waste. The Greek word for “waste” is skybalon, literally “thrown to the dogs,” “like filthy scraps of garbage” (Helps Ministries, Inc.). “Beware of the dogs.” Anything less that the Lord Jesus is garbage thrown to the dogs.

Why is it thrown to the dogs?

that I may gain Christ

It is like the man in Mt. 13.44: “The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man having found hid, and from his joy goes and sells all, however much he has, and buys that field.” The Lord Jesus is worth the loss of everything else. Whatever you do, gain him. And I do think that Paul meant just to be saved. Being saved, being born again, is just the beginning. A newborn is a baby. A baby needs to grow and mature. So do we need to grow and mature spiritually (Heb. 6.1). It would be tragic and pitiful for a baby never to grow and mature. But how many Christians who have been saved for years are still spiritual babies? Sell everything! Buy the field!

⁹and be found in him, not having my righteousness which is of law, but that through faith of Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith;

Be found in him. Do not count on your own righteousness. I wrote a short paper, A Testimony About Righteousness, in which I shared that I had never thought of myself as self-righteous, but the Lord showed me that I was. It was a bit if a shock. I did not deserve Heaven. I was not good enough to get to Heaven, but I thought I was without knowing it. If we are counting on our own righteousness, keeping the law, living a good life, we are in serious trouble. Instead, seek the righteousness which is through faith, faith of Christ. He is the one who blesses us with faith when we trust in him, saving faith, and maturing faith. It is not my righteousness, but the righteousness of God based on faith.

There is a Greek word sometimes translated as “atonement” or “reconciliation.” The actual root of the word has to do with an exchange. In Rom 5.11 we read, “… rejoicing in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the exchange.” (See also Rom 11.15, 2 Cor. 5.18-19, where the translation is “reconciliation,” which is a good translation, but remember that the base of it is the exchange.) What is the exchange? It is the exchange of our sinfulness for the righteousness of Christ. Because of his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection, when we confess our sins and trust in him, we exchange our sins for his righteousness. What an exchange! Why doesn’t everyone make that exchange? When Paul met the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road he exchanged his righteousness based on his own works for the righteous of God based on faith. I do not want to sound flippant, but what a deal! Paul’s, and our, righteousness will end us up in hell. God’s will end us up in Heaven.

¹⁰to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain to the outresurrection which is from the dead.

But then Paul goes way beyond just gain saving righteousness and says that he wants to know Christ. There is a difference in knowing about Christ and knowing him. I know a fair amount about, say, George Washington, but I do not know him. I know quite a bit about the Lord Jesus because I have spent most of my life studying his word, but do I know him?

Then Paul gives some direction on how to know the Lord personally, or may I say, more deeply. Anyone who has met him is acquainted with him, but as we pass time with a person we learn to know the person more and more. My wife and I know far more about each other than we did the day we were married, and we know the person much more. It should be that way with the Lord. How do we grow in that knowledge?

One way is learning the power of his resurrection. What is the power of his resurrection? Resurrection life is eternal, indestructible, never dying. That is what we all need, but there is only one way to resurrection – death. There is the resurrection at the end of this age of those who have died in Christ (1 Thess. 4.16), but there is another resurrection. When we go through trials and suffering in this life, the Lord is trying to use those circumstances to put to death our flesh (Rom. 6.6 – we have died with Christ when he died, but God is working to make that death to self a reality in our lives by his dealings with us). As we continually die to self (1 Cor. 15.31, 2 Cor. 4.11 and the entire chapter), we continually experience the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus in us. We can have resurrection life spiritually now if we are will for the Lord to put our flesh to death. See also Gal. 5.24. Have we crucified our flesh with its passions and desires, actually an ongoing process, not a one-time event.

Another way of knowing the Lord more intimately is knowing the fellowship of his sufferings. We have just said that we gain resurrection life now by yielding to the Lord in our sufferings. The Lord Jesus himself was matured and learned obedience through the things he suffered (Heb. 2.10, 5.8), as we saw in dealing with Phil. 1.29. We are to walk in his steps, as we see in 1 Pt. 2.21: “For to this you were called, for Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example that you may follow in his footsteps.” The Lord Jesus came to do the will of his Father (Heb. 10.9, referring to Ps. 40.7-8), which included his sufferings and death, and he saw his sufferings not as something to complain about, but as obedience to the will of God. Paul writes in 1 Thess. 5.18, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Everything. That includes our sufferings. Do we give thanks in suffering? My first reaction to suffering is, “Lord, get me out of this.” It should be, “Thank you, Lord,” for he is trying to destroy what would destroy us, our flesh, to give us resurrection life. It is much like a medical treatment that hurts: we endure it because we know it will make us well or whole. That is what God is trying to accomplish in our sufferings. Remember that resurrection can come only out of death. And I would add that suffering is not just something that God imposes on us. It is the result of sin, the first sin causing the whole of mankind to be fallen creatures, and the sin of all of us that follows. When people say, “Why would God let such things happen,” my reply is, “God did not make the world this way. We did. It is our sin that brought sickness, pain, death. But thanks be to God, he uses that situation to help us to grow in him and to know him more closely.

Paul wants “to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death” so that “if somehow I may attain to the outresurrection which is from the dead.” Paul wants to know that life which comes out of death, resurrection life that cannot die. He uses a word that occurs only once in the Bible, outresurrection. What does he mean by this? Our dear brother T. Austin-Sparks writes,

Paul had two phases of resurrection in his heart and in his faith. Firstly, he had resurrection inwardly. The power of resurrection was at work in him all the time, so that death was being transcended in all its workings. In his spirit he was always above death. He knew the power of resurrection as an inward thing.

But then, in the second place, Paul had his heart and his faith set upon a specific form of its outworking, in what he called uniquely “the out-resurrection from among the dead.” It is Paul who brings into view such a thing. His desire and ambition was not just to attain unto the resurrection from the dead. You have to do nothing to attain unto the resurrection from the dead. If you are saved you will enjoy the resurrection from the dead without any attaining whatever. The fact that you have eternal life is the guarantee that you will be raised from the dead. The Lord Jesus made that perfectly clear, that He would give unto as many as He would eternal life and raise them up at the last day. But there is a day which anticipates the last day, and that was the day that Paul was after. He did not speak of the last day resurrection, he spoke of the out-resurrection from among the dead. This for him represented rapture, in which not even all those who are the Lord’s will participate. If Philippians 3:10 means anything at all, if language is to be taken seriously, it does most definitely indicate that this resurrection is not that general resurrection which comes with the gift of eternal life, but this is a prize. Resurrection from the dead in general is not a prize. It accompanies the free gift of God. A prize is always something worked for, striven after, and which may be missed, as Paul makes perfectly clear. This out-resurrection is a prize which extends him fully.

The Bible teaches quite clearly that there are rewards for Christians that can be gained or lost. I will not go into this in detail now, but see 1 Cor. 3.10-15 and Rev. 3.11: “Hold fast what you have, so that no one take your crown.” This was written to the Christians in the church in Philadelphia, the model church. They need not fear losing their salvation, but they can lose their crown, and there are other such rewards that can be lost. I will append at the end of this work a chapter on rewards from my booklet Mega Grace. You might also see my booklet, Unfulfilled Bible Prophecy.

What I say here will be controversial, but I will state my belief. If you do not agree I will not argue with you. We are usually taught that all Christians who are alive at the time of the rapture will be raptured. I tend not to believe that. I believe that rapture is a reward for faithfulness and obedience to God. I believe that there will Christians alive at that time who will not be raptured, but will be left to go through the great tribulation. I think that those who teach that all will be raptured are doing a disservice to the church. It says that it does not matter how you live as a Christian, just get saved and you will be raptured. It does matter. You can lose your crown. Look at Saul in the Old Testament. We are told in 1 Sam. 10.9 that God changed Saul’s heart. I take that as the equivalent of Saul being saved. But read 2 Sam. 1.10: “So I stood beside him and killed him because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen, and I took the crown that was on his head….” Saul’s heart was changed, but he lost his crown. So can we.

I believe that when Paul said he wanted to attain to the outresurrection, he was referring to rewards, one of which is rapture, if one is alive at that time. It is obvious that Paull died and will not be here at the rapture. It makes no difference. It is the same whether one is alive at the rapture or has died. Rewards can be lost, including the rapture. Again I will not go into detail, but read Rev. 2-3. These letters were written to churches, bodies of Christians, but it is only the overcomers who are rewarded. Make it you aim to attain to the outresurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I obtained it already or have already been perfected, but I am pressing on if indeed I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself to have laid hold, but one thing: forgetting the things behind, but stretching to the things ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward to goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul goes on to state that he has not yet obtained his goal. I was told by someone who knew him that he asked Austin-Sparks how he would define an overcomer. His reply, after a bit of time to ponder, was that an overcomer is one who is in the race at the end. See 1 Cor. 9.24-27 in this connection. None of us are perfect Christians. There are none. But where is our heart? Is our heart to know God, to trust him, to obey him, to do his will at all cost? Is he Lord of our lives? If we are still in that race at the end, whether it be death or the end of this age, we will be overcomers and we will be rewarded.

But, Paul writes, he is pressing on. He is still in the race. Then he uses an interesting phrase: “if indeed I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself to have laid hold….” He was literally laid hold of by the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road. He was laid old for something. The Lord had a purpose in laying hold of Paul and we all know what it was – his missionary and apostolic work and the thirteen books of the New Testament he wrote that are sheer treasure. We are dealing with one of them now, a letter written approximately 1958 years ago. It has stood the test of time. So – Paul wants to lay hold what he was laid hold of for. He wants to fulfill God’s purpose for him, and he is willing to pay any price to do so. But he says that he has not yet laid hold of it. The races isn’t over yet. Only at death or rapture will it be over, and he wants to be in the race at the end.

but one thing: forgetting the things behind, but stretching to the things ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward to goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

He forgets the past. That is gone. He cannot glory in the good things he did then and it is no use to mourn the bad things. He cannot do anything about that now. It is history. He is in the present. So now, in this throbbing moment, as one of my favorite authors liked to say (Paul Billheimer), he forgets the past and stretches for the things ahead. It is the picture of the race of 1 Cor. 9.24-27. He is stretching out to be the first to cross the finish line. Have you seen how runners in a race, when they get to the finish line, lean forward to get any part of their body over the line first? That is what Paul is referring to. Except you don’t have to be first in this race. All who finish are rewarded. And what is the prize? The upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The rapture if we are alive then, or its equivalent if we have died. Press on, brothers and sisters! A good commentary on this passage is Heb. 12.1-2:

Therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the entangling sin, let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking away to the founder and perfecter of faith, Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

¹⁵As many therefore as are maturing, let us think this way, and if in anything you think differently, God will also reveal this to you. ¹⁶Nevertheless, to what we attained, keep in step with it.

Maturing is one of the important matters of Christian life. Heb. 6.1 says, “Let us be carried on to maturity.” We noted above that babies need to grow. So do baby Christians, and maturing Christians need to keep on maturing. Peter writes, “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pt. 3.18), and that knowledge is not just learning more facts about Christ, but knowing him.

We are to think in the way Paul sets forth in this third chapter of Philippians, counting all things as loss and garbage for the sake of knowing Christ. And as he set forth in the second chapter, “Have this way of thinking in you which also was in Christ Jesus,” the one who emptied himself and poured out his life that we might be saved and come to know him. If we think otherwise, God will deal with that fact.

Paul has said that he has not yet attained what he wants to attain, but what he has gained in the process he keeps in step with. Don’t fall back. Keep going.

¹⁷Become imitators together of me, brothers, and observe those walking thus as you have us as an example.

I think that in one way Paul would not hold himself up as an example, this one who calls himself the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1.15), but when we look at the total abandonment of this man to God and his will, at any cost, we do see someone to imitate. Of course, the Lord Jesus is our ultimate example, but we can all confess that we have known men and women who have walked with the Lord in such a way that they inspire us, as Paul writes here, “observe those walking thus as you have us as an example.” We are thankful to the Lord for such examples that help us along the way.

We hear of the imitation of Christ, but we do not imitate Christ, trying to be like him. That is an impossibility. Instead of trying to imitate him we should so yield ourselves to him that he who lives in us can express his life through us.

¹⁸For many are walking about whom I was telling you often, but now I say even weeping, the enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, those minding earthly things.

The reason Paul says to imitate himself and others who walk with the Lord as he does is that so many are led astray by imitating those walking as enemies of Christ. How many young people have we known who have really damaged themselves by copying someone who walks in sin, but appears “cool,” smoking, drinking, doing drugs, being vandals, living an immoral life? Years ago I did something, not a bad thing, and someone said to me, “That is the coolest thing you’ve ever done.” My answer was that I was not interested in being cool. That is really a term that means you have the world’s approval. I am not interested in having the world’s approval. Paul writes in Rom. 2.29 him “whose praise is not from men, but from God.” I want God’s approval, not the world’s!

Paul describes these “cool” people: “… whose god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, those minding earthly things.” Is that the example we want to follow? “Enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹whose end is destruction.” Whose end is destruction.

²⁰For our commonwealth is in the heavens, from which indeed we are awaiting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who will transform the body of our humiliation, conformed to the body of his glory, according to the energy enabling him to subject all things to himself.

The commonwealth of these enemies of Christ is this world, and their end is destruction, but “our commonwealth is in the heavens,” and our end is not destruction, but to be with the Lord in Heaven. We are awaiting a Savior from the heavens, not a destroyer, but a Savior. All praise to him! That Savior is our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who emptied himself and went to a cross for us. And what will take place when he appears? He will “transform the body of our humiliation, conformed to the body of his glory.” This is far from destruction! I am 75 years old as I write. I know the aches and pains of the body. I have suffered a mild stroke and have had a hip replacement. It hurts to get down to the floor and it hurts worse to get back up! I know the slowing down of my mind. I can still function mentally, but I am slower at it. I often stop while typing trying to think of a word I have used a hundred or a thousand times. I am in a body of humiliation. We all are, even if we have not yet reached this age where all the parts of the body are wearing out. Anyone, from the womb to death, is subject to death at any moment. I just feel it more. But one day I will be “conformed to the body of his glory.” I will have a spiritual body that will no longer be subject to pain, disease, disability, death. Forever! And so will you if you are the Lord’s. See also Rom. 8.23 and 1 Cor. 15.42-44 and 51-52.

And the God who promises this is able to do it “according to the energy enabling him to subject all things to himself.” We serve an almighty God who keeps his promises.

Other verses that comment on our commonwealth without using that word are Heb. 11.10, 14, 16, 12.22, and 13.14.

Blessed be our God!

4. Therefore my beloved and longed for brothers, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, beloved.

Paul writes to people who are beloved to him and for whom he longs. He wants them to make it to the finish line. All that being the case, stand firm in the Lord. Don’t quit the race. Keep running even if your lungs are about to burst and your legs about to give out. Winning this race is worth everything. Beloved.

²Euodia I exhort and Syntyche I exhort to think the same thing in the Lord. ³Yes, I also ask you, true yokefellow, help these women, who strove with me in the good news, with also Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Now for a moment Paul turns from soaring in the heavens to more mundane matters.  Euodia (the Greek word means “good journey,” perhaps equal to “success”) and Syntyche (“with fate,” fate being a supernatural power that determines events, but not God). I give the meanings of the names just to show something of the world of the Philippians. There were beliefs in all sorts of mythological gods and forces. We still see much the same today in such things as Ouija boards, horoscopes, fortune telling, channeling (“a person’s body being taken over by a spirit for the purpose of communication,” Copyright © Fortune, Inc.), and so forth. These two Christian women in the church in Philippi apparently had a disagreement. Paul urges them to think the same thing, that is, agree. We saw this in 1.27 and 2.2. To think the same thing does not mean that they get together and talk things out and come to a compromise or an agreement. It means to get onto their knees before God and determine together what he thinks. It does not matter what I think, but what God thinks, unless I insist on what I think, and then there will be consequences that I will not enjoy. So many local churches are governed by majority vote. Would it not be better to seek the Lord and let him be the majority vote?

Then Paul asks someone whom he calls “true yokefellow” to help these women. A lot of paper and ink has been sold to students of the Scriptures to debate a question that can probably never be answered. Who was “true yokefellow”? Some think he was a man named “Suzogos,” the Greek word. Others think he was an unnamed man who was a true yokefellow of Paul’s in the good news. Others try to find out who he was, maybe  Epaphroditus. Why bother? We don’t know and probably never will this side of Heaven and it doesn’t matter anyway. Paul asks him to help these women come to God’s thought.

Then he says of them, “who strove with me in the good news.” The word “who” is feminine plural, so we know Paul has the women in mind. These were Christians who had striven with Paul in the work of the good news. Now they need help to come together as one in the Lord. Then Paul adds, “with also Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” Clement was a man. What a comforting statement that their names, as ours are if we are the Lord’s, are written in the book of life, which means we will never die. Perhaps our bodies will, but we will not.

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. ⁵Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near. ⁶Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, ⁷and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

Now Paul gives directions in walking as the Lord’s people. We are to rejoice, and he emphasizes this by repeating it. We rejoice not because everything is going to our liking, but because we are the Lord’s. Our names are in the book of life. He walks with us, really in us, every step of the way. He uses even our hardships for our good, to mature us and conform us to the image of Christ. We do not rejoice because of circumstances, but because of spiritual reality. Paul writes in 1 Thess. 5.18, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

We are to forbear. That is we are to control ourselves when we think someone has wronged us, and has just acted in a way we do not approve of, even if it is not against us. We are to exercise patience and restraint and tolerance. It is so easy flare up and come back at someone with harsh words, or to try to get even. Proverbs says that a soft answer turns away wrath. We are to forbear. And we all would have to admit that we sometimes need for someone to exercise forbearance toward us.

Paul reminds us that the Lord is near. He is always present and knows everything we do, even before we do it. But Paul is probably saying that the coming of the Lord is near, whether it be by our death or his return. We need to be ready to go at every moment.

Then we have one of the most comforting statements in the Bible: “⁶Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, ⁷and the peace of God, that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” If we are anxious, and I do not mean the ordinary anxiety we all have when something trying comes up, but the giving in to anxiety, worrying ourselves sick. Is God not present and able to take care of every situation? Of course he is. Is he not using the difficulty for his glory and our good? Of course he is. It is so important that we learn that nothing comes into our lives that God has not cause or allowed, and he has purpose, a good purpose, in everything.

I know that we as weak humans cannot help a bit of fear and worry and anxiety at times, but our response is not be fall apart, but to let our requests be known to God by prayer and supplication, a more intense form of prayer, with thanksgiving. With thanksgiving. We just quoted ““In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” However anxious we may feel, let us to give thanks by faith to God that he loves us and has control of the situation. God is never out of control, and that includes our circumstances.

He promises that if we will turn to him in faith in this way, “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” He will give us peace, but it requires real faith, really trusting in him and not in our abilities and resources. Trust him. He is able. He will guard our hearts, our deepest essence and a seat of the emotions, and our thoughts, not just what we feel deeply, but what we think. He will enable us to think rationally and spiritually.

There are two words that basically sum up everything that we are supposed to do: trust and obey. Trust him. Obey him. That is all he requires of us.

⁸For the rest, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things venerable, whatever things right, whatever things pure, whatever things lovely, whatever things well spoken of, if there be any excellence and if any praise, take these things into account,

In continuing his directions Paul writes about the things that we are to take into account in our thinking and decision making. He says to take into account things that are true, venerable, right pure, lovely, well spoken of, excellent, praiseworthy. The word I have translated “take into account” for think or ponder, though they are parts of the equation. The word is based on logos, the Greek word we know so well as “word” (“In the beginning was the word.”) The word logos is also used in accounting, keeping business accounts and so forth. Verses that use the word logos in this connection are Mt. 12.36, Heb. 13.17, and 1 Pt. 4.5: We will account to God for our lives. That is the basis of this word here in Phil. 4.8. A similar use is taking into account the various matters in making a decision, and that is what we have here in Philippians.

When we are making decisions about our lives and behavior, we should take into account this list that Paul gives. Will what we do be true and an expression of truth, or do we try to shade things a bit in our favor? Will it be venerable, worthy of respect, by attainment or sometimes by age, having met the test of time? Will it be right or just, or does it cut corners or is it just plain wrong? Is it pure, undefiled by sin, either in thought or in carrying out the decision? Is it lovely? This word is based on one of the Greek words for love or affection, phileo. We saw that the words “Philip” and “Philippi mean “horse lover.” This word is a bit difficult to put into English. It can mean pleasing or agreeable. I have used “lovely” because it is based to the word that means ”to love.” Is it pleasing, agreeable, lovely? Is it well spoken of? Is it of good repute, or is it something people do not think well of? Is it excellent, the result of our best efforts to make the right decision? Is it praiseworthy, something that people can praise as a good thing? Paul says to take all these aspects of a decision into account rather than just dashing something off. Our decisions reflect on us, and ultimately on the Lord.

⁹and what things you learned and received and heard and saw in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you

In addition to these factors, practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in Paul. Have we not all learned greatly from Paul in his thirteen epistles? God has so greatly enriched the Scriptures through his servant Paul. We can rely on his words, for they are actually the words of God. “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3.16). The result? Peace. We saw the peace of God in v 7 of this chapter and Paul underlines it here. The peace of God is not peace that we can try to work up, but God himself dwelling in us and imparting his peace.

¹⁰But I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that now at length you revived thinking about me, about which you were thinking, but you were lacking opportunity.

We saw something if this same issue in 2.30. Paul expresses gratitude for the Philippians’ help to him. He says this revival of helping him was at length – it had been awhile. But as we saw in 2.30, he was not complaining that they did not do enough for him, but recognizing their lack of opportunity. He is very grateful for their help. This reminds us of the many missionaries and other servants of the Lord who rely on donations. Let us keep this in mind and seek the Lord about what we should do.

¹¹Not that I speak with regard to need, for I learned to be content in the circumstances I am in. ¹²I know also how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to do without. ¹³I have strength for all things in the one empowering me. ¹⁴Nevertheless you did well sharing in my affliction.

We are all very aware of our own needs and sometimes worry about getting them met. Paul had learned a great secret. His life was abandoned to the Lord and he was not concerned about his own needs, but about the will of God for him. He knew that wherever he was was where God wanted him, unless he were being disobedient to the Lord. He knew that his circumstances were of God’s appointing. God has purpose in everything he causes or allows into our lives and it all has purpose. If he has us in a hard place it is because he is trying to accomplish something in our lives through that circumstance. Instead of complaining and begging him to get us out of it, let us ask him to gain his full objective in allowing this thing into our lives. Let us even thank him for it, for it is for our good. I know that is hard, and I am the worst offender, but that is the Lord’s way (1 Thess. 5.18 again). I think that for most of us, even as Christians, our life is all about ourselves to a large degree. I know we love the Lord and our families and are concerned for the lost and needy, but it is only human nature for my life to be about me, me, me. God help us to abandon our lives wholly to him.

Paul says that he has learned to be content in any circumstances, being brought low and abounding, both being full and being hungry, abounding and doing without. How can he live like that? “I have strength for all things in the one empowering me.” He knows that his circumstances are not an accident, but the will of God for him, and that God will get him through it and use it for his good, and if God does not get him through it, he has purpose in that. When it came time for Paul’s execution, if that is indeed what took place, God did not get him through that to man’s way of thinking, but he actually did. That was God’s way of getting him to Heaven. What more could a person want!

When we think of our circumstances we usually have in mind our material and physical and emotional circumstances. But being content in our spiritual circumstances is also important, actually more important. This does not mean that we should be content if we are at odds with God, but we all experience what we might call dry times when God seems to be anywhere but near. Unless that is because of sin, that dry time is also from God. He is trying to teach us to trust him at all times and in every circumstance. Faith is such a key. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5.7). We must trust God implicitly no matter what. When you have that dry spell, thank God that he is teaching you or changing your heart without your even knowing it.

When Paul writes that he has “learned the secret,” he uses a word that means to be initiated into the mysteries. There were pagan religions in Paul’s day that were very secretive. A person had to be approved to be told the secrets of the mysteries. They were so secretive that to this day little is known about the mystery religions. But Paul says that he has learned a much greater secret than what a pagan religion has to offer. He has learned how to be content in the Lord no matter what his circumstances. He is not living for good circumstances, but for the Lord. He has learned to know the Lord intimately, the greatest knowledge we can have.

But, Paul says, the Philippians did well sharing in my affliction. We should help those in affliction. Sometimes we try to help someone out of a situation that God has him in for his good, to mature that person or whatever. We need to let that run its course. But there are people in great need in many ways in this world and we should be sensitive to the Lord as to what we should do. And if possible, we should help a person to look to the Lord in his need and to find him as Savior or to grow in him. Ultimately the Lord wants to use every situation that people are in to learn of him. We help the needy, but their ultimate need is the Lord, as is ours.

¹⁵But you also know, Philippians, that in the beginning of the good news, when I went out from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone, ¹⁶for even in Thessalonica both once and twice you sent to my need. ¹⁷Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit increasing to your account.

Paul reminds his readers that when he first went out from Macedonia, the location of Philippi, in the beginning of his apostolic work, ”no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone.” They even sent to his need in Thessalonica, twice. And these were poor people. But then Paul brings out the crux of the matter. God would provide for Paul whether the Philippians helped him or not, but their willingness to give even out of extreme poverty increased their account with God. God does not need our money, but we need to give because it is obedience to God and help to his people or to the lost, and it increases our account with God. We wrote about rewards and I am appending a chapter on rewards. It is not a matter of gaining merit with God – Christ is our only merit – but wouldn’t you rather have a crown to cast at the Lord’s feet in the millennium that to stand by ashamedly and watch others do that while you have nothing for the Lord?

¹⁸But I have all things and abound. I have been filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things from you, a soothing aroma of a sweet fragrance, an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God.

Paul had virtually nothing of this world’s goods, but he could write, “I have all things and abound.” If you have the Lord you have all you need. The cattle on a thousand hills are the Lord’s and he will take care of you. That does not mean we do not need food and clothing and shelter, but God will take care of us. We have to do our part. We cannot just sit in an easy chair and expect God to give us a house and clothes and food, but if we are trusting and obeying him he will provide for us.

Paul is thanking the Philippians for the things they sent by Epaphroditus, and says that they are like an Old Testament sacrifice, a soothing aroma of a sweet fragrance to God. God sees our offerings to help others as a pleasing sacrifice to him (Rom. 12.2).

Then Paul writes a very comforting verse:

¹⁹But my God will fill every need of yours according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

We need not fear not having enough. God will provide for us as we trust and obey. He does not promise to give us everything we want, but everything we need, and he reserves the right to decide what we need. Many years ago I knew a man who wanted a certain job that he was not getting and he was moaning and groaning, “I need food, I need clothing.” I didn’t say anything, but I thought, You don’t need food and clothing. You are dressed. What you need is a deeper walk with God. He was complaining when he should have been trusting. I am not pointing a finger. I am as guilty as he was or anyone else is. But God had him in that situation to teach him that a job does not provide our needs. God does. Yes, it is usually by means of a job, but God is our deepest need without which nothing else matters, and he is our provider (see Gen. 22.14). And God’s provision does not come out of his poverty, but out of “his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Can God not provide for his own?

²⁰Now to our God and Father be glory into the ages of the ages. Amen.

Paul comes to the end of this epistle, the epistle of triumphant joy, joy that triumphs over suffering and sorrow, with his usual blessing toward God: “glory into the ages of the ages. Amen.” Here is a man in prison who has been through probably thirty years of suffering and sorrow saying “Glory to God!” He had learned of a treasure far beyond the things of this world. He knew God, the one who is worth all the world and beyond.

²¹Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers with me greet you. ²²All the saints greet you, but especially those of Caesar’s household. ²³The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Paul concludes with his greetings to all the saints in Philippi and the greetings of the saints with him s well. He emphasizes the saints of Caesar’s household. There were people who were the Lord’s even in the capital of the world of that day, a pagan capital that would ultimately put an end to Paul’s earthly life, if tradition is accurate. There is nowhere that God cannot reach. And, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. He begins with grace in 1.2 and ends with grace here. It is all of grace.

Copyright © 2021 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.

Old Testament quotations are the author’s updates of the American Standard Version.

Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.

Appendix

Mega Grace

7. What About Works and Rewards?

One of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith is that of justification by grace through faith alone, with no reference to works. Christianity would not be Christianity without it, but just another religion telling people to do such and such to be saved. The wonderful truth about our God is that he is the God of all grace who saves us because he loves us if we will receive by faith what he has provided for us. There is absolutely nothing you can do about your salvation except to accept it by faith. We hear of the finished work of Christ. This is what that is referring to. He has done all the work necessary to provide salvation.

But then we read in the Bible of works and rewards. Just what is that all about? One of the most frequently repeated statements in the Bible is this one that says we will be repaid for our works, whether they are good or bad. There are at least six verses in the Old Testament that say this or ask a question about it and at least eleven in the New Testament. We will quote one Old Testament verse and list the others. Then we will turn to the New Testament.

Jer. 17.10 mg. reads,

I, the Lord, search the heart,

I test the mind, 

Even to give to each man according to his ways,

According the fruit of his deeds.

Other verses are 2 Sam. 3.39, Ps. 28.4, 62.12, Prov. 24.12, and Eccl. 12.14.

In Mt. 16.27 the Lord Jesus says, “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will repay each one according to his work.” Taken by itself, this statement sounds as though the Lord means that we will be saved or lost according to our works. This thought continues with Paul in Rom. 2.6 and 2 Tim. 4.14 when he quotes Ps. 62.12 and Prov. 24.12: “[God] will repay each one according to his works.” Then we come to 1 Cor. 3.10-15 and we begin to see what is being taught. Paul says that he has laid a foundation for the church and that foundation is Jesus Christ. Then he says that whatever each Christian builds on that foundation will one day be tried by fire. If our works amount to wood, hay, and straw, they will be burned up, but if they amount to gold silver, and precious stones, they will be proved by the fire. Those whose works are proved will receive a reward. Then v. 15 really answers our question: “If any man’s work be burned, he will suffer loss, but he will be saved, but so as through fire.” So we see that we are dealing with rewards for the Lord’s people according to their works in this life, not with whether or not one is saved or lost. One is saved by grace through faith alone. One is rewarded according to his works.

Paul continues in 2 Cor. 5.10 to tell us that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive back the things done through the body, according to the things he has done, whether good or bad.” He is writing to Christians and is telling them there are rewards in the coming kingdom for the Lord’s people, according to their works. It should be very sobering to us to know that we as Christians will have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, not to be saved or lost, for that is settled, but to give account for what we have done with the mega grace he has given us in this life.

Also very sobering is Peter’s word in 1 Pt. 1.17-19:

And if you call Father the one who judges without partiality according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay [on earth], knowing that you were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your futile conduct handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless – of Christ.

This word does not mean that we are to be afraid of God as though he were an angry God just hoping we will do something wrong so he can punish us. Rather it refers to the fear of God, that awareness of what God can do to wrongdoers, but more especially to the fear of hurting God by sinning against him because we love him, as we would fear to hurt someone in our family whom we love. And it refers to the reverence in which we hold God and the things of God. We have dealt with Heb. 10.29 in a different context, but it applies here also: “How much greater punishment do you think he deserves who has trampled under foot the Son of God and has considered as common the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Peter bases his exhortation on the fact that we have been redeemed with something of the highest level of holiness, the precious blood of Christ, shed because of what we have done. How can we treat such high holiness lightly or even with contempt? Live your life, not afraid of God, but in holy fear that you will trample on something holy. God give us grace indeed.

In Rev. 2.23 we read Christ’s warning to the church in Thyatira: “… and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts [see Jer. 17.10, quoted above], and I will give to you, each one, according to your works.” You are aware that the seven churches in Asia symbolize the entire church, seven being a number of completeness, and that the Lord Jesus is walking among these churches looking for the testimony of Jesus. He finds no fault with only two churches, and he fully commends only one. All of them that he finds fault with are warned of various judgments if they do not repent and turn away from their evil deeds. This is his word to Thyatira, and thus to all in the church: “… and I will give to you, each one, according to your works.”

In Rev. 20.12-13 we read of the great white throne judgment of God after the millennial reign of Christ and the final rebellion of Satan and his followers:

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one, according to their works.

These people are not Christians, for all Christians will have been either still living at the beginning of or raised from the dead before the millennial reign of Christ. This verse shows us that the lost as well as the saved will be judged, and punished according to their works. The punishment will fit the crime, we might say.

The final reference to this subject in Scripture is found in Rev. 22.12: “Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to repay each one as his work is.” When the Lord Jesus says he is coming quickly, he does not so much mean that he is coming soon, though other passages indicate that, but that when he does come, whenever it may be, it will be lightning fast with no warning. There will be no time to get ready when it happens. You are ready or not and that is it. Be wise – make sure you are ready now, for even if the Lord does not come in our lifetime, we will all die, which amounts to the same thing. We will have to face the Lord as we are at that moment. I do not mean that if we happen to sin just before we die, we will be in trouble, and if not we will not be, but that how we have lived our lives up to that point is what matters. Remember, we are not dealing with salvation, but with reward. Watch and pray. Be ready at every moment.

So we see that Christians are forgiven for their sins and saved by the free grace of God to those who have faith, but then there are rewards for our works in this life. Just what does the reward consist of? We surely do not know entirely, for there are depths in God that we have no idea of, but the Scriptures do tell us something about rewards. We read of the crown of righteousness, laid up for Paul because he had fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith (2 Tim. 4.7-8); the crown of life, waiting for the man who perseveres under trial and loves the Lord (Ja. 1.12), and who is faithful unto death (Rev. 2.10); and the unfading crown of glory, prepared for elders who shepherd the flock as servants and examples (1 Pt. 5.1-4). Wonderful rewards, these, especially if they are to be cast before the throne in worship and thanksgiving. What greater reward than to have something to give to the Lord in gratitude for all he has done for us? Well – there is a greater reward. 

In 2 Cor. 11.2 Paul writes, “I am jealous for you with God’s jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband to present you a pure virgin to Christ.” In New Testament times betrothal was similar to our engagement, but it was more legally binding. If a betrothed couple ended the betrothal, it was considered a divorce even though they had not been married or lived together. We see an example in Joseph when “he decided to divorce [Mary] quietly” when she became pregnant after their betrothal, but before their marriage. Of course, the Lord intervened in this case, telling Joseph in a dream that he should marry Mary because her baby was of the Holy Spirit.

The point is that we have been betrothed to Christ. We are to become his bride and his wife. We should have the same desire as Paul to be presented to Christ a pure virgin. One of the more wonderful passages of Scripture is Rev. 19.6-9:

And I heard something like a voice of a great multitude and something like a voice of many waters and something like a voice of strong thunders saying, “Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him, for the marriage of the little Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she might clothe herself in fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” And he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the little Lamb.’”

This great announcement comes at the end of this age when Christ is about to return. We see that those who have made themselves ready by their righteous deeds in this life are allowed to clothe themselves with the wedding garment for the marriage supper as the corporate wife of the Lamb. Then she will reign with him as the wife of the King for a thousand years, and then into eternity. Can we imagine a more intimate and beautiful picture? Lord, hasten the day!

Mt. 22.1-14 tells the story of a marriage feast given by a king for his son. When the invited guests would not come, the king said they were not worthy and sent his slaves out to bring in anyone they could find, evil or good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in he saw one man not wearing a wedding garment, and he asked him, “Friend, how did you enter here when you did not have a wedding garment?” The man was speechless and the king had him thrown out with harsh words, “When you have bound him foot and hand throw him out into the outer darkness.” I believe Jesus spoke the next words himself, rather than the king in the story: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there, for many are called, but few chosen.”

There is much dispute about the meaning of this story with regard to the man who did not have a wedding garment. Many say that he was not a saved man at all, but was found to be an interloper, as with the weeds and wheat in the parable of the Lord Jesus. If this is true, the outer darkness the man in Mt. 22.1-14 was cast into was hell, but I do not believe that is true. At the end the weeds in the kingdom will be separated from the wheat. This seems to me to confuse two different periods. The separation of saved and lost (wheat and weeds) occurs at the very coming of Christ (Rev. 14.14-20, where the saved are harvested and the lost, the grapes, are picked and thrown into the winepress of the wrath of God). But the wedding feast occurs in the kingdom on earth after Jesus has touched earth and established his millennial rule over the earth. No unsaved person could be there. Those who are alive but lost at the return of Christ are cast into hell at that point (Mt. 25.41, where the lost, the goats, are not nations, but individual Gentiles). The outer darkness the man with no wedding garment was cast into was the darkness outside the wedding hall, not hell.

Some might object that a saved person could not be weeping and gnashing his teeth at the return of Christ. Oh? We looked at 1 Cor. 3.15 earlier in this chapter. Let’s quote it again: “If any man’s work be burned, he will suffer loss, but he will be saved, but so as through fire” (emphasis mine). What does it mean that a Christian, absolutely stated here as saved, will suffer loss? It means he will lose something in the millennial kingdom of God on earth by not having woven his wedding garment. He will lose the opportunity of sharing in the marriage feast of the little Lamb and of reigning with him in the millennium as his wife. He will miss that most wonderful of blessings in that age: the highest intimacy with Christ. I believe there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth at that realization. This is the millennial kingdom. It is in Rev. 21.4, after the millennium, that all tears are wiped away. We are trained now by reigning over our circumstances and by carrying out our assignments from the Lord. Those who do not accept this discipline will suffer loss in the kingdom.

That, I believe, is the primary reward of those who weave their wedding garments in this age by their righteous deeds. And do not forget that regarding the crowns of righteousness, life, and glory mentioned above, the Lord Jesus said, “Hold fast what you have that no one take your crown.” (Rev. 3.11) Those crowns can be lost (compare 2 Sam. 1.10). Watch and pray, that “you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God.” (2 Thess. 1.5; see also Lk. 20.35)

Some of you will be worried at what has just been dealt with. You will think that you could never be good enough to gain such a reward. You are absolutely right. But remember, this work is about mega grace. You cannot live well as a Christian and attain the kingdom and be a part of the wife of the Lamb any more than you could save yourself. It is all by grace. You will not get there on your own. Christ will get you there if that is your genuine desire and you live in obedience to him, knowing that you will have failures along the way, but knowing also that the God of all grace will forgive the failures, even use them for our good, and knowing that you are not trusting in your efforts to get there, but in his grace and almighty power. You have to try. You cannot just sit there and wait for God to pick you up and move you. But you do not trust in your trying, but in his coming into your trying and making up for your weakness. That is mega grace.

In Mt. 20.1-16 the Lord Jesus told a parable that expresses this truth better than anyone else could ever say it. The parable is about the landowner who went out at 6 a.m. to hire laborers and promised those hired a denarius (the usual wage for a day laborer) for their day’s work. Then he went out at 9 a.m., at noon, and at 3 p.m. and hired others, telling them he would pay them what was right. At 5 p.m. he went out again and hired more. At 6 p.m. the laborers were paid, from the last hired to the first. The last, who worked one hour, received a denarius, what the landowner had promised those hired at 6 a.m., so those latter supposed he would give them more. But when they were paid they got the denarius they were promised. Then they complained about their treatment. The landowner said to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. But I wish to give to the last as also to you. Or is it not permitted me to do what I wish with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am good?” Jesus closed the story with the words, “So the last will be first, and the first, last.”

What is the point of the story? It is that yes, we are called on to work for our reward after we have been saved by grace through faith with no works of our own, but when the end of this age comes and the Lord passes out the rewards, we will find that the entirety of our lives has been lived by grace. If you live to be a hundred and work for God fourteen hours every day of that time, when you get to the kingdom you will find that God does not owe you anything. It is all grace. It is all a gift. Why did you work for God in the first place? Grace. Why were you able to persevere to the end faithful to God? Grace. Do you really think you had anything to do with it? Well yes, you did. You had to trust and obey. But, brother, sister, it is not your trust and your obedience that will get you there. It is all grace, the mega grace of God.

Let us close with the words of the Lord Jesus in Lk. 12.32: “Don’t be afraid, little flock, for your Father delights to give you the kingdom.” And of the Father through Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you.” Won’t you kneel just now at the throne of grace?

Copyright © 2011 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.

[Old Testament quotations: Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1975, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.]

Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.

Think This Way

Is. 55.8-9, Mk. 8.33, Rom. 12.2

Many have said that Philippians is the epistle of joy, and that is certainly true. However, if one sees only the joy, he has a superficial view of the epistle. The words “joy” and “rejoice” are used 16 times in Philippians. Words that indicate suffering are used some 31 times. The joy of Philippians is not some surface happiness based on circumstances. It goes deep, having triumphed over circumstances and suffering. What is the secret of this triumph that results in joy?

Some 11 times Paul uses words for thinking in Philippians, and they are always verb forms. I believe one of the key messages of Philippians is that how we think is vital, but I do not mean the positive thinking of the motivational movement, though I do believe in positive thinking. That positive thinking is primarily aimed at success in this world. The thinking that Paul deals with goes much deeper. Let’s take a look at what he writes to his beloved brothers and sisters in Philippi. As we go through these passages, take special note of the continual intermingling of joy, suffering, and thinking. And note that what Paul is dealing with is not just individual thoughts, but one’s way of thinking.

1.3-5: Joy because of their fellowship. What is fellowship? Sharing the same life, the life of Christ. In this specific case, it was fellowship in helping Paul with prayer and financial support as he labored and fought for the gospel. Joy came out of the battle with evil because they shared Christ with him in it.

1.7: To think this way. What way? With joy. Why? Because they were in his heart. In his chains they shared with him in the grace of God.

So we already have joy, thinking, and suffering, the chains of imprisonment.

1.12-21: The example of Paul of how to think. How? Paul knows that because he is the Lord’s, everything will turn out for good for him, whether by life or by death. He sees his life as Christ, and his death as more of Christ.

1.29: Another example of how to think. Suffering is a gift. How? It purges and refines. It reveals to us the heart of God, the greatest Sufferer, and draws us into it. Peter wrote, “He who has suffered has ceased from sin.”

2.2-4: Think the same way, the one thing, not according to selfish ambition and self-glory, but according to humility.

2.5-11: The greatest example, that of Christ. “Have this way of thinking in you which also was in Christ Jesus.”

2.17: Another example by Paul.

2.19-21: The example of Timothy.

2.30: The example of Epaphroditus.

3.7-11: Another example by Paul.

3.12-15: Another example by Paul.

3.19-20: Thinking of earthly things or of heavenly.

4.2: Think the same way in the Lord.

4.6: Worry is a way of thinking.

4.8: Think about these things. What occupies your mind? Money, sports, boys, girls?

4.10: Poor people thinking of Paul’s need. Why?

4.11-14: A way of thinking: contentment with any circumstances. He knew he was where God wanted him, and that therefore God would take care of him in that place. He could do all things through the one who strengthened him.

Conclusion: 1.21, 2.5, 3.8-10, 4.13. The bedrock of the way Paul thought was this: Christ. Christ was the reason he lived, the purpose of his life, his earthly provision, his hope of the upward call to the kingdom, his hope for eternity. Indeed, Christ was his life itself. For me to live is Christ. This is the way God would have us to think.

This is a kind of spiritual positive thinking. Because I am under God’s sovereignty, which includes his protection and his working for my purifying and growth in him, I can be in joy no matter what takes place because it is all for my eternal good. Spiritual positive thinking is thinking with joy because we have triumphed over suffering and circumstances in Christ and found him to be our joy.

We started by saying that Philippians is the letter of joy, but deep joy, not just surface happiness. One of the lessons of Philippians is this: to think Christ = joy.

Is. 55.8-9, Mk. 8.33, Rom. 12.2