“Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus:
…. and took upon him the form of a servant …” (Philippians 2:5, 7)
BACKGROUND
One of Paul’s great God given gifts
was to ascertain the spiritual temperature of the various churches. He had his
ear to the ground at all times, and whether physically present with that church
or not, he was receiving reports from all over. And like a good father, he was
able to apply the appropriate written ‘carrot or stick’, knowing where they had
been, where they were now and where they had to get to.
So in this particular case, he’s in
prison for the second time in Rome and he’s writing to the Philippians, his
first church he established in Europe ten years previous, after meeting with
Lydia on the river bank. As such, he always had a soft spot for them and they
for him, as they had sent him money a couple of times before, to help him out.
So he’s sitting in prison wondering if they’d forgotten about him as he hadn’t
heard from them for a few years, when out of the blue Epaphroditus appears with
some money they had sent for him. So he writes them this letter of love and
spiritual counsel.
Now overall, Paul was pretty happy
with them so this epistle has the least rebuke of any to the churches.
They were one of the purest and ‘happiest’ of the New Testament churches.
Although they were a joyful lot, he warns them of overconfidence, in
that they were showing signs of disunion and to be on their guard
against strife and vain-glory, to esteem each other better than
themselves and to cultivate lowliness and unselfishness.
He warns them against murmurings
and disputings and especially mentions two women in this regard. While
not a theological letter as such, it is soaked in solid Christian doctrine of
Christian behaviour and holiness of life. He wants all to be humble, of
the same mind and urges them to their duty of mutual forbearance,
thankfulness, constant prayer, contentment and the proper
thought life.
C2 =
Lowliness of mind
C3 =
Doctrine destroyers
C4 =
Think on these things
Ch 2 = Lowliness of mind
In this chapter, Paul expounds on the divinity
of Christ, his pre-existence, his equality with God, his incarnation,
his perfect humanity, his precious death on the cross and his glorious
exaltation by the Father (v4-11), to reinforce lowliness of mind and
the avoidance of vain-glory. He urges them to work out their salvation
with fear and trembling (v12). That there be no disputings, strife, murmurings
and for them to be blameless in a perverse and crooked world (v14-15). He
commends both Timothy and Epaphroditus for their love and hard work toward the
Philippians (v19-30).
Ch 3 = Robbers of joy
Pauls warns of evil workers he
calls dogs – those of the concision (v2). Concision is a cutting
off. A characteristic of the Philippian church was their joy in spite of persecution.
The dogs were trying to cut/rob the joy off from people. How would they do
this?
Now there were and are today, two
types of concisors – the Jewish and the Christian. The Jewish concisors would
be the equivalent of the Judaizers in Paul’s epistle to the Galatians where
Paul asks them “Are ye so
foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal
3:3). These would drag them back under Moses.
The Christian concisor the reader
asks? Yes, they would, by reason of non-Pauline doctrine, get rid of the dispensations,
the rapture, eternal security, confound remission with
redemption, blur the distinctions between the
kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, introduce Calvinism, get rid of the inerrant,
infallible, perfectly inspired King James Bible, introduce water
baptisms, church memberships, church voting and tithing to
name a few.
They would bewitch you like the
Galatians and bring you under their domination, intimidation, manipulation and
control. What they do is to create two classes of people in their congregations
– those having a tithing, water baptised membership of once married people and
the rest.
They generally camouflage themselves
with the name of a Baptist, Methodist, Uniting, Presbyterian or Lutheran church
or a Grace Church. Like “Honest John’s Used Cars”, John wants to become honest.
He hasn’t got any honesty but he needs to reassure people he is. Grace Churches
are similar in not having much grace. They want to acquire this elusive
quality. Like Honest John they parade the name to reassure people. Mmmm! Dogs,
concisors and evil workers says Paul. Stay clear!
Now Paul says “I was an evil worker of
the concision and here is my resumē as proof” (v4-6), but my past life was
nothing but “animal excrement” (v8) having found the righteousness of God
revealed in Christ (v9)
Paul then likens himself to an athlete
that strains every nerve and muscle to obtain a goal (v14). Now of course
having been to heaven (2Cor
12:1-4) he knows what he is talking about (v20-21).
He uses the phrases of ‘God is their
belly’ as they ‘mind earthly things’ (v19). Indeed in his warning to the
Christians at Rome, they “… serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own
belly (Yes, you have to eat Christ the Wafer); and by good words and
fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” (Rom
16:18)
Ch 4 = Think on these things
Using the two women, Euodias and
Syntyche, as examples, he urges them to be labourers (v3) of the same
mind (v2) and always rejoicing (v4). Furthermore being careful,
not anxious, for nothing (v6-7) with topics upon which they
should dwell their minds upon (v8-9). Once again he can’t help but thank
them for their generosity (v10) and reminds their doing that twice before
(v15-16).
Having supplied my necessity (v16) he
prays the Lord will supply theirs (v17-19).
By Harley Hitchcock.
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“If he
hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that
on mine account;”
(Philemon 1:18)
“I’M OFF TO VALHALLA WHEN I DIE …
I’M A
VIKING!”
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