A study of Philippians

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Philippians

Introduction by Chuck Smith

Paul the apostle was arrested in Jerusalem and held in prison at Caesarea for two years until Caesar heard his appeal. While Paul was in Rome awaiting his appearance before Caesar, he was under house arrest. He was able to rent his own cell but was chained to a Roman guard twenty-four hours a day. There were in Rome some ten thousand elite soldiers whose chief duty was to protect the emperor. These men were chained to Paul on shifts, twenty-four hours a day, for two years. Paul saw that as a tremendous opportunity to witness, because they could not get away, and many of Caesar’s household came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. There was quite a revival there in Rome, while Paul waited for his appearance before Caesar.

The church in Philippi took up an offering and sent him a generous amount of money, taken to Paul by Epaphroditus, who became extremely ill and almost died on the way. However, he got to Rome, and this letter is basically a thank-you letter to the people at Philippi.  It is written not as from an apostle to the church, like most of Paul’s epistles, but as a friend to a friend. There is a warm, friendly feeling through the whole epistle; and its tone is one of joy and rejoicing, even though all this time, Paul was chained to a Roman guard in a Roman prison. It was like a cellar. Light came in from a window high up, but Paul always had the light within him, and he declares, “I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content. I know how to abound. I know how to be abased. I am content because my contentment does not lie in my circumstances. My contentment lies in my relationship with Jesus Christ, and that cannot change. My circumstances may change, I may be in tough physical circumstances, but my contentment is not in that. My contentment comes from knowing Jesus Christ.”

So, Paul opens this epistle, and along with the little letter to Philemon and 1 Thessalonians, it is the only epistle where he does not begin by the affirmation of his apostleship. Usually, it is, “Paul an apostle by the will of God.” But he is writing now as a friend to a friend.

 

Philippians, Chapter 1:1-11

From Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God’s people in Philippi, including the church leaders and helpers. May God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. I thank God for you every time I think of you, and every time I pray for you all. I pray with joy, remembering how you helped me in the work of the gospel from the very first day until now.

I am sure; Paul continues speaking from the depths of his spiritual experience, that God, who began this good work in you, will continue until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus. I will always have you in my heart. You have all shared with me the gospel of Jesus Christ that God has given me, both now that I am in prison and while I was free, to defend the gospel and establish it firmly. God is my witness, and I tell the truth when I say that my deep feelings for you all come from the heart of Christ Jesus himself. I pray your love will continue to grow more and more, together with true knowledge and perfect judgement, so that you can choose what is best. Then you will be free from all impurity and blame on the Day of Christ. Your lives will be filled with the perfect qualities that only Jesus Christ can produce, for the glory and praise of God.

Comment

The good work began in Paul by the grace of God, about which he says (1Cor 15:10), ‘By the grace of God, I am what I am.’ It is his sense of God’s work that makes him confident about the Philippians. He believes God will not allow even a small quantity of seed to be without fruit. But the apostle will not forget, nor have his readers forgotten, that though Paul may plant and Apollos may water, it is God who gives the increase. We read in Acts that “The Lord opened the heart of Lydia, who attended to those things spoken of by Paul.”

To be continued:

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Phillipians 1:12-21.

I want you to know, my friends, those things that have happened to me have truly helped the advancement of the gospel. As a result, the whole palace guard and all the others here know that I am in prison because I am a servant of Christ. My being in prison has given most believers more confidence in the Lord, so they grow bolder all the time to preach the message fearlessly. Some preachers are jealous and quarrelsome, but others do so out of genuine goodwill and love because they know that God has given to me the work of defending the gospel. The others do not proclaim Christ sincerely, but from a spirit of selfish ambition; they think they will make more trouble for me while I am in prison. It does not matter! I am happy about it, because Christ is preached in every way possible, whether from wrong or right motives. And I will continue to be happy, because I know that with your prayers and the help of Jesus Christ, I shall be set free. My deepest wish is that I will never fail in my duty. I want, especially now, to be full of courage. So that with my whole being, I shall bring honour and glory to Christ. Whether I live or die, for what is life? To me, it is Christ. Death will bring more.

Comment
It is clear from this paragraph that death is not an unconscious sleep. It is a gain. It is a release so that the soul can go forth on the broad ocean of God’s love. It does not interrupt our conscious fellowship with the Lord. The moment of absence here is the moment of presence there. To die is, therefore, to gain. (F. B. Meyer)

The end of chapter 1. 

Chapter 2 next. Blessings.

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Philippians chapter 2:1-11
Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for each other. I urge you, then, to make me perfectly happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. Do not do anything out of selfish ambition or a cheap desire to boast, instead be humble towards one another, always considering others better than you. Look out for one another’s interests, not just your own. The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will, he gave up all he had and took on the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to his death on the cross. And so, in honour of our saviour, all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees, and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Comment
In all Scripture — and indeed, in all literature — there is no passage that combines such extraordinary extremes as this. The apostle opens the golden compasses of his faith, placing one jewelled point on the throne of divine glory and the other at the edge of the pit, where the cross stood. Then he asks us to measure the vast descent of the Son of God as He came down to help us. Mark the seven steps: He was in the form of God, that is, as much God as He was afterwards a servant; being in the form of God took the form of a servant. He was certainly the latter, and equally so the former. He did not grasp equality with God, for it was already his. He emptied himself of His divine attributes to teach the meaning of absolute dependence on the Father. He obeyed, as a servant, the laws that had their source in Himself. He became a man — a humble man, a dying man, a crucified man. He lay in the grave. But the meaning of His descent was that of His ascent, and to all His illustrious names is now added that of Jesus, the Saviour. This must be our model, as we humble ourselves to be like him. F. B. Meyer.

Philippians chapter 2:12-18
So then, dear friends, Paul wrote, as you always obeyed me when I was with you, it is even more important that you obey me now that I am away from you. Keep on working with fear and trembling to complete your salvation because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may be innocent and pure as God’s perfect children, who live in a world of corrupt and sinful people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky as you offer them the message of life. If you do so, I shall have reason to be proud of you on the Day of Christ, because it will show that all my effort and work have not been wasted. Perhaps my life’s blood is to be poured out like an offering for the sacrifice that your faith offers to God. If that is so, I am glad to share my joy with you all. In the same way, you too must be glad and share your joy with me.

Comment
Paul’s life, in many ways, mirrored the life of Jesus, except for one major exception. Paul was a mere mortal, while Jesus was God with us in the image of man. He took on the form of a loving servant, and likewise, Paul, in his service to mankind, cared for others. Neither did Paul do anything for pride or vain glory and neither did Jesus. Jesus, on the other hand, could have grasped equality with God, for it was already his, but he did not. He emptied himself of His divine attributes, teaching us the meaning of absolute dependence on the Father. Jesus obeyed, as a servant, the laws that had their source in Himself. He descended so that He might ascend, and his humbling countenance led to his glorification, setting us an example so that we might follow in His steps since we have profited from His death. Let us humble ourselves likewise. (Yours truly)

Philippians chapter 2:19-30
Paul continues. If it is the Lord’s will, I hope that I will be able to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be encouraged by news about you. He is the only one who shares my feelings and who really cares about you. Everyone else is concerned only with their own affairs, not with the cause of Jesus Christ. And you yourselves know how he has proved his worth and how he and I, like a son and his father, have worked together for the sake of the gospel. So, I hope to send him to you as soon as I know how things are going to turn out for me. And I trust in the Lord that I myself will be able to come to you soon. I have thought it necessary to send to you our brother Epaphroditus, who has worked and fought by my side and who has served as your messenger in helping me. He is anxious to see you all and is very upset because you heard that he was sick. Indeed, he was sick and almost died. But God had pity on him, and not only on him but on me, too, and spared me an even greater sorrow. I am all the more eager, then, to send him to you, so that you will be glad again when you see him, and my own sorrow will disappear. Receive him, then, with joy, as a believer in the Lord. Show respect to all such people as he, because he risked his life and nearly died for the sake of the work of Christ, in order to give me the help that you yourselves could not give.

Comment
Paul speaks of Timothy as his son, and he describes Epaphroditus as his brother, a fellow worker, and a fellow soldier. God does not add sorrow to sorrow (Phil. 2:27). He tempers his wind with the sheared lamb. He cautions the accuser that he must not take Job’s life. During the trial, he finds a way to escape. He keeps his finger on the wrist while the operation is in progress and stays there as soon as the pulse flutters. Not sorrow upon sorrow!

Note also that “hazarding” of life, Php_2:30, R. V., was a common experience in those great days of Christ’s suffering Church, Act 15:26. How strange it is today to watch the sacrifices that men and women will make in times of war, when men gamble everything for liberty, righteousness, and fatherland. Then compare this extravagant expenditure of blood and treasure with what we have done for Jesus. F. B. Meyer.

Chapter three tomorrow God willing.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Truswell

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PHILIPPIANS CHAPTER 3

verses 1-12

In conclusion, my friends be joyful in your union with the Lord. I do not mind repeating what I have written before, and you will be safer if I do so. Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs, and those who insist on cutting the body. It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our lives in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies. I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way. I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the law, I was without fault. But all those things that I might count as profit, I now reckon as loss, for Christ’s sake. Not only those things; I reckon everything as a complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have thrown everything away; I consider it all mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own making the kind that is gained by obeying the law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God himself. All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life. I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect like the self-righteous Pharisees. I keep striving to win the prize, through Jesus Christ who has already claimed me for himself.

Comments
The false teachers who dogged Paul’s steps insisted on rigid conformity to Judaism, with its rabbinical accretions, as the condition of being saved by Christ. Paul’s answer was that he had gone through all the requirements of Judaism but had found it absolutely unsatisfactory and inefficient to subdue the sin of his soul. But in Christ, he had found everything he needed. That which he had gained previously now seemed like dross. He had found the pearl of great price and was only too glad to sacrifice all else to purchase and keep it as the talisman of complete victory.

Back to Paul.
Verses 13-21

Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. So, I run straight towards the goal in order to win the prize, which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above. All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude. But if some of you have a different attitude, God will make this clear to you. However, that may be, let us go forward according to the same rules we have followed until now. Keep on imitating me, my friends. Pay attention to those who follow the right example that we have set for you. I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: There are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ’s death on the cross. They are going to end up in hell because their god is their bodily desire. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world. We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule.

Comment on Philippians 3:13–21
May we be always prepared for the coming of our Judge; looking to have our vile bodies changed by his Almighty power and applying to him daily to renew our souls unto holiness; to deliver us from our enemies, and to employ our bodies and souls as instruments of righteousness in his service.  (Matthew Henry)

Edited October 22, 2023 by Truswell

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Philippians chapter 4

Chapter 4:1-9

So then, my friends, how dear you are to me and how I miss you! How happy you make me, and how proud I am of you! This, dear friends, is how you should stand firm in your life in the Lord. Euodia and Syntyche, please, I beg you, try to agree as sisters in the Lord. And you too, my faithful partner, I want you to help these women; for they have worked hard with me to spread the gospel, together with Clement and all my other fellow workers, whose names are in God’s book of the living. May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice! Show a gentle attitude towards everyone. The Lord is coming soon. Do not worry about anything, but in all your prayers, ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with virtuous and holy things that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable. Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you.

 

Comments
What a strong and faithful heart Paul had! Poor and despised though he was, he had both joys and crowns, of which no hostile force could deprive him. He lived in the encompassing atmosphere of eternity, as we may. Clearly, these two Christian women could not have withstood this tender exhortation unless their names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Joy and peace are the subjects of the next paragraph. How wonderful that these struggling little churches were drinking springs of living water about which the princes and citizens of Greece and Rome knew nothing. There are conditions, though. We must be moderate in our ambitions and gentle in our behaviour. We must live as though Jesus is always watching us, because he is. Furthermore, we must leave our troubles in the Father’s infinite care, leave them with Him, and forget them. We must thank Him for the past and count on Him for the future. While we pray, the Angel of Peace will descend to stand as a sentry at our heart’s door. But we must possess the God of peace and the peace of God; the one condition is that we must earnestly pursue all things that are true, just, pure, and lovely.

 

(Philippians 4:10-23)
In my life in union with the Lord, it is a great joy to me that, after so long, you showed again how much you care for me. I do not mean you had stopped caring for me; you just had no chance to show it. And I am not saying this because I feel neglected, for I have learned to be satisfied with what I have. I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere and at all times, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. Furthermore, I have the strength to face all conditions through the power that Christ gives me. But I am delighted that you helped me with my troubles. You Philippians know that when I left Macedonia in the early days of preaching the Good News, you were the only church to help me; you were the only ones who shared my profits and losses. More than once, when I needed help in Thessalonica, you sent it to me. It is not that I just want to receive gifts; I want to see profit added to your account. Here, then, is my receipt for everything you have given me, and it has been more than enough! I have all I need now that Epaphroditus has brought me all your gifts. They are like a sweet-smelling offering to God, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to him. And with all his abundant wealth through Christ Jesus, my God will supply all your needs. To our God and Father, be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

Final Greetings
Greetings to each one of God’s people who belong to Christ Jesus. The believers here with me send you their greetings. All God’s people here send greetings, especially those who belong to the Emperor’s palace. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Comment:
Every saint, every member of the Philippian congregation, is remembered in the final salutation of the apostle. Being believers, they are saints, cleansed and sanctified by the blood of Christ. The brethren in Rome also wanted to be remembered. Although they were not acquainted personally with the Philippian Christians, they felt themselves united with them in the fellowship of a common faith and love. Especially the Christians that belonged to Caesar’s household, with whom Paul undoubtedly was most intimately acquainted and whom he saw oftener individually than many others, sent their greetings. In the very palace of the emperor, who hated the Christians, the news of Christ had spread and made converts. Whether servants only were included or whether some members of the emperor’s family had also been gained for Christ, as tradition has it, cannot be determined from this passage. The apostle closes with the earnest wish that the grace of Jesus Christ the Lord, the supreme gift and blessing of salvation, shall be with the spirit of his readers. See Gal_6:18; Rom_16:24; 2Co_13:13. (Comments from Paul Kretzmann)

If Paul were preaching in a large auditorium today, he might well have a large sign on the wall behind him with the words:

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6

 

Amen

Edited October 23, 2023 by Truswell