“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
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,
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.
This
website’s front page is:
www.
“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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