Don’t Trust the Righteousness that Comes From the Law; Trust The Kind Christ Gives
In conclusion1, my friends, be joyful in your union with the Lord. I don’t 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, 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 life 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 in 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 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 as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, 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 and is based on faith. 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. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. 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 toward 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.
Phil 3:1-16
Follow My Example; Be a Citizen of Heaven
Keep on imitating me2, 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 desires. 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.
Phil 3:17-21
Stand Firm, Don’t Worry, Pray About Everything
So then3, 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 toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon. Don’t 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.
Phil 4:1-7
The Secret of Contentment & My Thanks For Your Support
In conclusion4, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and 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. In my life in union with the Lord it is a great joy to me that after so long a time you once more had the chance of showing that you care for me. I don’t mean that 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, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me. But it was very good of you to help me in my troubles. You Philippians know very well 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; rather, 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 which is 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. 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.
Phil 4:8-23
I have kept the divisions the way Paul has made them but you can see at a glance it is hard to give a title to them because each one combines material that while it goes together it is hard to summarise. We like things to be orderly but when writing a letter it doesn’t always come out neat and tidy. As you saw from what I gave you in the previous gem, we have two sections which could begin with “Finally then . . .”. Paul does that at times in his letters. Don’t you too, both when speaking and in letter writing? Well, the truth is in this day and age, letters are almost a thing of the past. Emails and texts are shorter, truncated pieces of writing. But I am sure we all have experience of some kind or another where we have intended to close the conversation with our final point, only to start another idea or to add another point which came to mind. That is exactly what happens in these last two chapter of Philippians. For that reason we have a variation in the titles given to the sections (pericope). Each section contains a variety of topics. You may have noticed that J B Phillips in his version had longer descriptive titles. That was the fashion a couple of centuries ago where titles were descriptive sentences of the main points of what was to follow.
Each of these final “chapters” of Paul open with a discordant element. Remember Paul never intended to write in chapters. Chapter Three begins with the brief reference to circumcision and those people who push circumcision, which opens a section which could be called Forgetting the Past followed by a new section called Running Toward the Goal. Chapter Four begins with a strange verse that seems to hang in midair. But remember Paul didn’t set out to write in chapters nor did he intend to section what he had to say in nice byte sized chunks. It all flowed out of him as he spoke the content out. Most commentators and Bible authorities believed Paul created these letters through an amanuensis, someone who wrote the letters down for him. In Galatians 6:11 and in Colossians 4:18 we can find two curious little comments where Paul refers to the fact that he wrote these pieces himself in large letters. Some have used these two passing comments to infer that Paul’s thorn in his flesh concerned his eyesight.
NOTICE WHAT LARGE LETTERS I USE AS I WRITE THESE CLOSING WORDS IN MY OWN HANDWRITING.
Gal 6:11
HERE IS MY GREETING IN MY OWN HANDWRITING—PAUL. Remember my chains. May God’s grace be with you.
Col 4:18
My point in making these comments is that we have to hold the sections and content of Paul’s letters in tension with the flow-on effect of them. I have made the following comment numerous times over the many Gems I have written to say, we need to ignore the chapter boundaries and read across them to gain the feeling for how the content of Paul’s letters flow as an oral source. This needs to be contrasted with how they are also structured as letters. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is the best example of that where he is responding to a previous letter received from the Corinthians in which they wrote about several issues. Paul then responds with a series of “now concerning” comments. (See Bible Gem 361 among others.) I am guessing some of you will have already picked up on the curious matter of Phil 4:1 left hanging in space in some divisions of the text. We will address that matter when we come to it. My suggestion to you at this point is to read through the whole of Paul’s letter to the Philippians again, just to get a sense of the flow of it. I have a very useful book in my library by Dale F. Leschert called The Flow of the New Testament. See what you can find for yourself just by reading the whole letter again in one sitting if possible. Come on it is doable. It will not take you more than 30 minutes to read all four chapters; in fact it should take considerably less time than that. Just try it! I think you will see the benefits of doing that.
Be prepared to weigh up and evaluate new perspectives on what most consider is a closed case.
I have learned over the years that there is often treasure buried in a Bible verse with which I conclude I am familiar and consider nothing else could be mined from it.
The commentators and experts in the Law often miss little Gems because their minds are set on certain standard interpretations.
When dealing with the Bible, always be prepared to be surprised.
How is it that something written so long ago can have relevance now and even more speak to me in what I am dealing with at the moment? Ponder that one.
Ian Vail