Today, I am reading and commenting on  Philippians 1-4.

Yesterday, my congregation celebrated the third Sunday of Advent (since we will be doing a Christmas service on the 22nd).  The theme for the third Advent Sunday is joy.  As a result, Paul’s repeated references to joy and to rejoicing jumped out at me today.  It begins with Paul saying that he always prays with joy when he prays for the Philippian believers, because of the way they partnered with him in the gospel from when they first heard it.  Then Paul writes that he rejoices because his imprisonment and suffering has served to advance the gospel.  Further, Paul rejoices in his suffering because he will either die in service of Christ, and thus be united with Christ in the resurrection, or he will live to further serve Christ.  The former would be the greater joy, but being able to continue to serve God was also a cause to rejoice.  The key to sharing in the joy which Paul experienced is to value others above ourselves, looking out for their interests before we look out for our own interests.

As I am writing this I realize that in this letter Paul touches on all four Advent themes.  In chapter three Paul writes of counting everything he had which the world might see as his gain as loss, so that he might gain Christ.  He wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, and of His suffering.  He has not yet obtained that, so his desire comes from his hope.  Yet, despite the fact that he has not yet obtained that for which he hopes, Paul has peace through his faith in Christ.  That peace causes him to rejoice and to call on us to rejoice.  When we suffer or face hardship we should rejoice because it means that God has counted us worthy to join in Christ’s suffering.  Rather than worry, let us present our requests to God with thanksgiving for what He has done for us, even if all we can think of is that He has considered us worthy to suffer.  As we do this, we will experience God’s peace.

I want to conclude with what Paul wrote in chapter four verse eight of today’s passage:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Philippians 1-4.

Paul’s letter to the Philippians contains some important ideas about how we should live our lives and what our attitudes should be.  He begins by telling us not to be concerned about why someone preaches the Gospel.  We should put our faith in the power of God.  We should rejoice when people preach about Christ, whether they do so with noble intentions or out of selfish ambition.  The Holy Spirit can and will use the words which they speak to reach those whom God has chosen.  The Spirit will even use those who misrepresent the Gospel.  So, while elsewhere Paul condemns those who lead people astray, here he reminds us that the Holy Spirit can use even the little bit of Truth that those who preach with false motives convey to bring people to know the Lord.

Having established that no matter what the motives of the speaker or the listener the Holy Spirit will use whatever bit of God’s Truth is conveyed to enter into people’s lives, he goes on talk about how we ought to approach such things.  He writes that those who serve God should be torn between continuing in this life and the death of our mortal bodies.  As long as we live, God has tasks for us to accomplish, but a much better life waits for us when we leave these mortal bodies.  The result of this means that we should neither fear death, nor should we seek it out.  The next point I want to make shows us what our attitude towards death should be.  We should humbly value others above ourselves.  So, while dying would be better for us, as long as we live we can serve others in some way.  No matter how we may suffer in this life, as long as we have life God has a purpose for us.  Let us seek to carry it out  by putting the interests of others ahead of our own without grumbling or arguing.

There is so much more in this passage, but I will stop here.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Philippians 1-4.

Everything Paul writes in his letter to the Church in Philippi can be summed up by three things: be humble, don’t worry, and rejoice.  Paul starts out by rejoicing that he is imprisoned, because his imprisonment has inspired others to proclaim the Gospel without fear.  Some of them did so out of envy of, and rivalry with, Paul, but for Paul that doesn’t matter.  All that matters to Paul, and all that should matter to us, is that Christ is preached.  Further, Paul was under significant threat of being executed at that time (and we know that he was executed not long after this letter was written).  Yet even that was cause for him to rejoice.  On the one hand, he might be delivered to go on living and doing the work which God gave him.  On the other hand, he might die, in which case he would be with Christ, which would be even better.  Both possible outcomes were sources of joy for Paul.

Paul then turns his attention to his readers and writes that they (and we) should value others above ourselves and look out for the interests of others against their own (our own).  We should not grumble or complain about what we do, nor do anything for our own glory or honor.  Whatever we have attained in this world, let us release so that we can fully embrace Christ.  Paul writes that we should not be anxious about anything, rather we should present everything to God in prayer.  He even gives us a hint about how we can pray so as not be anxious.  If we give thanks to God about what He has already done for us while we are praying about our currently perceived problems, we will be less likely to worry about the troubles we currently face.  In addition, Paul writes that if we focus on the positive things around us, we will find ourselves too busy rejoicing to worry.

whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

I love that list of things we should be thinking about.  If we fill our minds with such things, we will not have time to think about that which might lead us to worry, and we will find ourselves rejoicing.  Let us learn, as Paul did, to be content with what we have, whether little or much.  When times are bad, let us rejoice because God has seen fit to allow us to suffer a little bit like Christ did.  And when times are good, let us rejoice because God has given us that which we can share with others.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Philippians 1-4

I was trying to figure out where to put my focus on the things Paul writes in this passage when I came to chapter 3, verse 17.  There Paul writes that we should pattern our lives after his and learn from those who follow his example.  Reading that should challenge each and every one of us.  I know it challenged me.  Have we lived our lives in such a manner that we can tell others to pattern their lives after ours?  Can we confidently state, as Paul does, that it will be better for others for us to go on living?  While at the same time living our lives with the knowledge that things will be better for us when we die?  Do we live clean, innocent lives, seeking the well-being of others more than our own? I challenge you to live your life as an example of how those who seek to follow Christ can follow.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Philippians 1-4

Paul writes here a passage which applies to more than just the context in which Paul writes it.  He writes about those who were inspired to preach the Gospel because of his imprisonment and those who preached the Gospel to make him jealous.  Paul did not care why they preached the Gospel, he only cared that they did so.  However, there is a more general application of this.  It does not matter why people do the right thing, God will use it to change the world.  But not only will God use it to change the world, the longer someone does the right thing for the wrong reasons the more God will change their hearts.  Understand that we will get more out of doing the right thing for the right reason than we will by doing the right thing for the wrong reason. 

I would like to write a lot on this passage, but I am working to limit how long I spend writing and keep this short.  So, I will touch on one more point.  Paul writes that he is torn between living and dying.  On the one hand, if he dies he will go to be with Christ and he deeply desired that.  On the other hand, he was convinced that as long as he lived he would be serving God, which he desired to do for as long as God chose to have him do so.  This brings to mind the last year of my Mom’s life.  She had spent her life serving others in any way she could, finding new ways to do so as she got older and unable to do things she had done when she was younger.  However, towards the end she suffered from dementia and had to move into skilled nursing care.  She was no longer able to do for others and this ate at her.  Every time I visited her, I prayed to God, asking why He did not take her home because I could not see how she could serve Him in her current state (although I knew she was in whatever ways that she could).  Then came the day she went into her final decline and it was obvious she would leave us in a few days.  I was at her bedside during shift change.  When the aid checked in at the start of the shift, I saw how heartbroken she was to witness that my Mom would die soon.  It was at that moment that I realized that my Mom had been serving God, even in her dementia when she had to be cared for, by showing God’s love to those who cared for her.