Hey guys and gals. I just wanted to inform you that I have started a new blog called "The Following Leader" at followingleader.blogspot.com. It will not be anything like eatyourbible.com which focused on daily bible devotions. Instead, this blog will be more concerned with leadership principles in the local church, as well as other random thoughts that God lays on my heart. Looking forward to hearing from you at the new location.
Sy Huffer
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Update
For all you eatyourbiblers out there, we are currently figuring out some different administrative issues with the blog. As soon as we know anything, we will let you know. Thank you for all your patience.
Sy
Sy
Friday, May 18, 2012
Philippians 1.27-30
Now we come to the climax of this entire introduction to the book of Philippians. We have seen Paul remind the Philippians how they used to partner with him as kingdom citizens in the past, and we have also seen how we displayed three different scenarios that actually advance the gospel if you look at them from the perspective of kingdom citizens.
And now, Paul ends with a bang. This is what he says:
And now, Paul ends with a bang. This is what he says:
27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hearthat I still have.
Did you catch it at the very beginning of the passage?
He said, "Conduct yourselves".
Does this mean anything to you?
It is going to.
For it is the word, politeuomai, which literally means, "to have one's citizenship".
It is a word that defined the entire conduct of how one lived their lives. If you belonged to this certain city, this polis, you would conduct your life in a manner consistent with the values and foundations of that city, or people group.
For instance, I am an Okie from Muskogee. You may have heard the song, "I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee, by Merle Haggard.
The first verse goes like this:
We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin' right, and bein' free.
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin' right, and bein' free.
Being from Muskogee expects a certain kind of conduct, a certain way to live one's life with an agreed upon set of values that the people from Muskogee adhere to. And the chorus emphasizes this point even more:
I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all
Being a citizen of a certain place expects certain kinds of conduct.
This is what the word, politeuomai, or "conduct yourself" means.
Paul is encouraging the church in Philippi to have their citizenship in heaven, to conduct themselves as citizens of that kingdom.
And look what this will produce:
Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.
All the problems that are going on in the church in Philippi will be solved if they will begin acting like kingdom citizens.
Their disunity will be done away with, for they will not be selfish like the citizens of this world but selfless like citizens of God's kingdom.
They will not be scared by death, like the citizens of the world, for they are promised a future resurrection.
And this kind of life shows the citizens of this world that they will be judged for their conduct.
All of the surface problems in this church are done away with if you just fix the underlying issue, act like citizens of God's kingdom.
So the question that remains is simply this; What do citizens of God's kingdom act like?
And this is what Paul addresses in the rest of his book to the church in Philippi.
But today, think about this...am I different or the similar to those around me who aren't Christians. If you are different, that probably means you are living according to the conduct of God's kingdom. If you are similar, it might mean you aren't.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Philippians 1.18-26
We have looked at two different situations, seeing what it looks like to see things from the perspective of a kingdom citizen. We looked at how being in prison can advance the gospel (1.12-14) and that false motive preaching also advances the Gospel (1.15-18a). Now let's turn to look at whether life or dance advances the Gospel. Let's dig in:
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ,what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.[d] 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ,which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.
In this passage, Paul seems like a bipolar junior high cheerleader. He thinks he might get out, but then he thinks he won't, then back and forth. But the key to the entire book of Philippians comes in verse 21.
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
This is what Paul lives by.
Our lives are lived for Christ and the advancement of his kingdom, and if we die, it doesn't matter, we get to be with Christ forever.
So no matter what, whether we live or die, if our lives are offered up to God, he can use us to advance the Gospel.
There really isn't much else I know to say about this passage.
The question you have to ask yourself is simply this....Am i living my life in such a way that the Kingdom of God is advanced because of me?
Every thing we spend our money on, everything we waste our time on, it all comes back to this...who am I living for?
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Philippians 1.15-17
Yesterday, we saw how having the perspective of kingdom citizens sees situations different than the perspective of this world. I talked about how Paul addresses four different situations that could be seen from different perspectives, and they are as follows:
- Imprisonment (1.12-14)
- False Motive Preaching (1.15-17)
- Life or Death (1.18-26)
- Suffering (1.27-30)
Yesterday, we saw how according to the perspective of kingdom citizens, Paul's imprisonment has actually served to advance the Gospel, to advance God's kingdom to some very important individuals. Now we are going to look at the second situation and see how we can look at it from a kingdom citizen perspective.
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
There are two groups addressed here in this passage. The good motive preachers and the bad motive preachers. Apparently there were a group of people preaching about Jesus for their own selfish gain. Paul says that the reason they were preaching was to stir up trouble for Paul while he was in prison. There are two kinds of affliction that he could be talking about.
The first is psychological affliction. These guys could be trying to get a lot of converts while Paul is in prison, making him jealous that they are advancing the kingdom and he isn't.
The second type of affliction that they could be trying to stir up for Paul is physical affliction. They might think that if they preach about Jesus all over Rome, the Romans will get upset and take out their frustration by beating Paul, the leader of the Christians.
Basically, these guys really might have some very impure motives about preaching the gospel. There is a reason that they should be brought up. They are preaching about Jesus for their own benefit.
They are like those TV Evangelists or preachers who just want to get rich off of Jesus. They should be stopped right?
Look at what Paul says:
But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
What?
That's not how I see it.
Yet, we have to look at things from a different perspective.
The fact of the matter is, if their message is correct, Christ is still being proclaimed.
Let me ask you a question...if someone accepts Jesus after hearing a sermon from someone who had bad motives, are they saved?
The answer is yes.
And that is why Paul can say he rejoices when Christ is preached.
This does not mean for us to allow incorrect doctrine or theology to be preached. Paul has some strong words about that in Galatians 1.8-9. But it does mean that if the message is correct, the Gospel is being advanced.
Yet, this doesn't mean we shouldn't care about our own motives. We see in Philippians 2 that we are told to "Do nothing out of selfish ambition."
But this is looking at things from a different perspective.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Philippians 1.12-14
For the last few days, we have looked at how the Philippians have partnered with Paul in the past, by being slaves who love each other self-sacrificially. This reminder of how they used to partner is a strategy hoping that they will continue on partnering with him by being the kind of kingdom citizens that he needs them to be. The next thing that Paul does is he tries to help the Philippians see things from the perspective of a kingdom citizen. He addresses four different situations that to the world seem to hold back people trying to accomplish something. But Paul's point is that that is seeing things from the wrong perspective. According to God's kingdom, "All things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose", namely, to become like Christ.
These are the four situations that Paul says actually advances the kingdom of God:
These are the four situations that Paul says actually advances the kingdom of God:
- Being imprisoned (1.12-14)
- False Motive Preaching (1.15-17)
- Life or Death (1.18-26)
- Suffering (1.27-30)
Today, we are going to look at the first one, and we are going to try to see things from the perspective of a citizen of God's kingdom rather than a citizen of any worldly kingdom.
12 Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard[b] and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
So what has happened to Paul that everyone is so up in arms about?
Paul, at this point, is in house arrest in Rome, awaiting to be tried before the Emperor Nero. And each and every day, Nero's personal body guards, kind of like the secret service today, guard Paul until he testifies before the emperor.
Now to most people, being in prison serves as an obstacle to what they were trying to accomplish.
Think about it. You get married start a family, and the next thing you know, your spouse is arrested and is put in prison for twenty years. Do you think that this advances their goals in life, or puts them on hold?
Yet for Paul, he says this imprisonment has served to ADVANCE the gospel. This word, "advance", carries with it the idea of a person going in front of the group, chopping and hacking away with a machete at all the obstacles and impediments to the journey.
He is pioneering, clearing, advancing the purpose of the journey.
And Paul says this is what his imprisonment is doing.
That does not make sense from a worldly perspective, but from a kingdom perspective, this makes perfect sense.
Verse 13, Paul says that it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard that he is in chains for Christ. The palace guard is the Emperor's personal army. A number of times throughout the history of Rome, these men decide who the next emperor is simply by choosing who they are going to protect. They have a lot of influence. And every single day, Paul is witnessing to them about christ.
Coincidence? I think not.
And not only has the message been spread throughout the palace guard, but all of the other brothers have been encouraged to speak more courageously and fearlessly.
Sometimes as leaders we tend to try to do everything ourselves. We think everything would fall apart unless we take care of everything.
Yet look at what always happens when we are removed from those areas of concern. God fills the spot.
Yes, we are all needed to advance God's kingdom, but none of us are indispensable. There is always a better teacher, a better preacher, a better servant, a more equipped person out there to do the service you are doing.
God will still carry out his mission, yet we are invited to take part in it.
And that is what is happening with Paul. He is removed from teaching and preaching the word of God, and because of this, others have stepped up to fill the vacancy.
No matter the circumstance, including imprisonment, God is going to advance his kingdom.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Philippians 1.3-11
After Friday's LONG post, let me try to bring some pieces together for you guys.
There is tension in the church in Philippi. Division is occurring, as well as false teaching. Yet Paul needs this church to partner with him to advance his missionary work.
The key for this church to partner with him is to get them to act as true kingdom citizens, to develop the humility that Jesus demonstrated, the humility of a slave.
The outline of the book is as follows:
The first thing that Paul does is reminds the church how the people in the church in Philippi used to partner with Him by being Kingdom citizens.
Look at what he says in his Greeting:
What Paul emphasizes in thie passage is unity through self sacrifice. Count how many times that he uses the word, "all". It is used five times from verse 3-8. Paul wants them to understand that partnering for the mission of God requires unity in the church. We see Jesus emphasize this in his last prayer to God before he is arrested. Look at what he says:
John 17.20-21 "My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that they world may believe that you have sent me."
Jesus believed that the unity of the church would validify whether or not the world would believe that the Father sent Jesus. This is HUGE!!! And Paul believes that this is a requirement for the Philippians partnering with him in ministry.
Yet how do they do this? The answer is found in Paul's prayer in verses 9-11.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
The answer...LOVE!!! And not just feeling, but the word for loving someone in spite of what they have done to you. It is self-sacrificial love. This is the answer to unity of the church, for partnering as kingdom citizens. It is to love people the way Jesus did. Namely, by sacrificing himself for the good of others. This is the mark of what it looks like to be a part of God's kingdom. And this is the key for us in carrying out God's ministry here on earth. We are called to partner with all those before us and with us by loving self-sacrificially.
So my prayer for you today is the same as Paul's... that your love may abound more and more.
- The Past Partnership of Kingdom Citizens: 1.1-11
- The Slavery of Kingdom Citizens: Philippians Introduction-1.2
- The Philippians as Kingdom Citizens: Philippians 1.3-11
- The Perspective of Kingdom Citizens: Philippians 1.12-30
- In chains advances? 1.12-14
- False motive preaching advances? 1.15-17
- Life or Death Advances? 1.18-26
- Suffering Advances? 1.27-30
- The Examples of Kingdom Citizens: 2.1-30
- Jesus as Kingdom Citizen: Philippians 2.1-11
- Paul as Kingdom Citizen: Philippians 2.12-18
- Timothy and Epaphroditus as Kingdom Citizens: Philippians 2.19-30
- The Characteristics of Kingdom Citizens
- The Definition of Kingdom Citizens: Philippians 3.1-11
- The Resolution of Kingdom Citizens: Philippians 3.12-4.1
- Paul’s Resolution-3.12-14
- A Call to Maturity of Resolution-3.15-16
- Positive and Negative Examples of Resolution-3.17-19
- The Kingdom Citizenship mindset required for Resolution-3.20-21
- The “Peace” of Kingdom Citizens: Philippians 4.2-9
- Peace with Unity-4.2-3
- Peace of Heart--4.4-7
- Peace of Mind--4.8-9
- The Future Partnership of Kingdom Citizens: Philippians 4.10-23
The first thing that Paul does is reminds the church how the people in the church in Philippi used to partner with Him by being Kingdom citizens.
Look at what he says in his Greeting:
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
What Paul emphasizes in thie passage is unity through self sacrifice. Count how many times that he uses the word, "all". It is used five times from verse 3-8. Paul wants them to understand that partnering for the mission of God requires unity in the church. We see Jesus emphasize this in his last prayer to God before he is arrested. Look at what he says:
John 17.20-21 "My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that they world may believe that you have sent me."
Jesus believed that the unity of the church would validify whether or not the world would believe that the Father sent Jesus. This is HUGE!!! And Paul believes that this is a requirement for the Philippians partnering with him in ministry.
Yet how do they do this? The answer is found in Paul's prayer in verses 9-11.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
The answer...LOVE!!! And not just feeling, but the word for loving someone in spite of what they have done to you. It is self-sacrificial love. This is the answer to unity of the church, for partnering as kingdom citizens. It is to love people the way Jesus did. Namely, by sacrificing himself for the good of others. This is the mark of what it looks like to be a part of God's kingdom. And this is the key for us in carrying out God's ministry here on earth. We are called to partner with all those before us and with us by loving self-sacrificially.
So my prayer for you today is the same as Paul's... that your love may abound more and more.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Philippians 1.1-2 Intro
Today, we are starting a new study on the Book of Philippians. We will spend the next month or so digging into this book, seeing how we are to "Partner as Kingdom Citizens" for the advancement of the Gospel. Let's dig in!!!
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wow!!! Incredible right???
Actually, you probably thought that was pretty boring. But there is a truth that you need to learn about interpreting the Bible. In the introduction to each of Paul's letters, Paul always hides his main point of the rest of the book in the introduction. This will be fully seen with the first eleven verses, but today, we will just get a background lesson on this book so that it has some context with which he can understand it fully. So here we go.
History of Philippi
There was a King by the name of Philip that ruled in Macedon in the middle of the fourth century BC. Two events surrounding this King occurred that changed the face of the world at that time. The first event that occurred was that he found gold in a small village named Krenides. He then took over the village, made it a into a major city, and named it after himself, Philippi. After finding this gold mine, literally, he began to purchase armies and mercenaries all over the known world.
The second key event occurred when his son took over the armies that his father had bought, and began conquering the entire known world. His name was Alexander the Great. Because his father found the gold in this small village and began to buy armies, Alexander had the military strength to conquer the world all the way to India. And it all started because of this city named Philippi. This little village was thrust from obscurity to the heights of importance, and then after aligning itself on the wrong side three consecutive times, it falls from the heights of ruling the world, to being ruled as a Roman colony. After Alexander died in 330 BC, this gave way for Rome to then take over the known world. And Philippi aligned itself three consecutive times with the wrong side of some big political battles.
The first wrong alignment occurred when Hannibal marched all the way across Spain and the northern part of Italy, down through the Appian Mountains to attack Rome from Behind. He was from Carthage in North Africa and attacking Rome from the sea was just suicide, yet marching an entire army through the Appian mountains was crazy as well, yet Hannibal did it with war elephants, and he almost succeeds. Philippi, seeing what is going on, decides that it must align itself with Hannibal, yet they were wrong. Rome defeats Hannibal and his army, sends them packing, and Philippi is reprimanded by Rome taking away their land from the locals and giving it various generals and war heroes.
The second bad alignment was the battle between Octavian and Mark Antony versus Brutus and Cassius. This final battle was actually fought on the side of the mountain at Philippi. Brutus and Cassius had the military advantage with the upper ground so they were the obvious choice to align with. Yet, Mark Antony and Octavian won the battle, with Philippi having more land taken from them and given to generals and war heroes.
The last and final wrong alignment was with Mark Antony. He was ruling in the east while Octavian was ruling in the west, and because of a series of unfortunate events, the two went to battle against each other. Antony’s girlfriend was Cleopatra, the Pharaoh of Egypt. So Antony was the safe bet, yet at the sea battle of Actium, Octavian destroyed the forces of Antony, and Philippi again found themselves on the losing side of the battle for the rule of Rome. So more land was taken from them, and more generals, retired veterans and war heroes were given their land. Philippi was a city that rose from obscurity to the utmost importance and then fell back down to being a city that was ruled by war veterans of their oppressor, Rome. Now Philippi is a roman colony, and only those that are citizens of Rome receive tax breaks and perks from the Roman Empire, while the locals of Philippi are feeling the pressure of the burden of being an oppressed people of the Roman Empire. Citizenship was a very big deal to the people of Philippi, and this will come up a couple of times throughout the letter from the Apostle Paul.
Paul and Philippi
We first run into Philippi in Acts 16, at the beginning of Paul’s second missionary journey. As the book of Acts records, Paul was trying to preach the Gospel in the province of Asia and even up north into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to (Acts 16.7). So they went to the seaport of Troas, and in a dream, Paul saw a Macedonian man asking him to “come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16.9). Then Paul sailed for Macedonia and entered into the city of Philippi for the base of his evangelical work in Macedonia.
Philippi was a strategic city located along the Ignatian way, which was a critical artery of commerce linking the city of Rome with its provinces in the east. The road passed directly through the center of the town of Philippi. Luke even says in the book of Acts that it was one of the “leading cities” of that district of Macedonia (Acts 16.10). It was a Roman colony with a very small demographic of Jews. Usually Paul always traveled to the synagogue of every city he came to (Acts 13.5, 14; 14.1; 17.1, 10, 17; 18.4, 19). Yet at Philippi, they did not go to the synagogue, but down to the river, with the hopes of finding a place of prayer (Acts 16.13). They met a woman named Lydia who was described as a “worshiper of God” (Acts 16.14). The reason that Paul did not go to the synagogue as he did in all the other cities he entered is probably because there was not one there. To have a synagogue required that there be ten Jewish men in the city. This is probably why the Jews, the worshipers of God, who did live in Philippi met down at the river. Another reason to believe that there was not a synagogue was because Philippi was at this point a Roman colony with the majority of its inhabitants being descendants of generals and soldiers of the Roman army. After Paul met this woman, Lydia, she become a believer, along with her whole household, and he baptized her, and they stayed at her house. As Paul was living in Philippi, a slave girl, who was demon possessed, kept following him around saying, “These men are servants of the most high God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” (Acts 16.17). After this was occurring for a number of days, Paul got tired of this and say to the spirit possessing her, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her” (Acts 16.18). And the spirit left. The problem with this was that the slave girl’s owner was using her as a fortune teller, making a lot of money by having her tell other people their fortune. Since Paul cast out the demon from her, she could no longer earn her master money by fortune-telling, so he got upset, dragged Paul and Silas to the marketplace where they were stripped, beaten with rods, flogged and thrown into the inner jail, fastening their feet in stocks (Acts 16.19-24).
In the middle of night Paul and Silas were singing hymns to God, and suddenly a violent earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, and all the doors of the prisoners flew open. The guard woke up and saw that all the doors were open, so he thought all his prisoners he was supposed to be guarding had escaped. He drew his sword to kill himself, because he knew that that was the punishment for letting a prisoner escape, then Paul stopped him. The man then became a Christian, and Paul baptized him and his entire family. The magistrate then ordered for the jailer to release the men, then Paul brought up the fact that they had beaten him and flogged him publicly without a trial and he was a Roman citizen. This was a HUGE offense, and the magistrate knew it. Paul asked them to escort him and Silas out of the city, almost as a way to shame them for what they had done (Acts 16.29-40). Paul’s time in Philippi was eventful to say the least. But there developed between him and this church a relationship that probably made Philippi to become his favorite church. This church was the biggest supporter of Paul’s missionary efforts. We see this in Philippians 4.15, Paul says, “Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you.” He goes on in verse 16 to describe how, when he was in Thessalonica, they gave him aid again and again when he was in need. When Paul was in Corinth, this church joined the other Macedonian churches in supporting his mission to Corinth (2 Cor. 11.8-9), and they gave so generously that he used them as an example of generosity to the church in Corinth (2 Cor. 8.1-7).
But what made Paul probably so endeared towards this church in Philippi was the fact that all this generosity came out of poverty, not abundance (2 Cor. 8.1-2). Letter to Philippi Philippi was a leading city in Macedonia that contained a number of retired soldiers and war heroes of the Roman army, and it contained a church that was very close to the heart of Paul. So why is Paul writing this letter to the church in Philippi? What is the occasion and purpose of the writing of this letter? When he wrote this letter, we can see from what he says in the letter that he was in prison, most likely in Rome, awaiting a trial whose outcome could result in his execution (Philippians 1.7, 12-14, 17, 20, 30; 2.17). And he is writing this letter from prison for three reasons. The first reason was to deflect theological error (Phil. 3.1-21). This theological error was not necessarily occurring in Philippi, but in the other churches that Paul had planted.
There were two specific teachings that Paul was fighting against: 1. the circumcision group, who said you had to be circumcised to be a Christians, and 2. a pre-gnostic belief, teaching that Jesus was not really human.
The second reason he wrote this letter was to thank the Philippians for their partnership in the gospel and to commend their messenger Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus’ mission was twofold, 1. to carry monetary gifts to Paul (Phil. 2.25; 4.14-18) and 2. to help the apostle in his imprisonment (2.30). But because of an illness, Epaphroditus was going to have to go back to Philippi early, and so Paul wanted to thank the church for their partnership, but also to commend to them Epaphroditus, that he did what he was supposed to do. The last and final reason that Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi was to unify the church. There was a division in the church between two ladies named Euodia and Syntyche (Phil. 4.2). This division had caused a lot of arguing and complaining that had tarnished the witness of the church to the community (Phil. 2.14-16), and Paul knew that if they were not unified, they would have a very difficult time withstanding the trials of persecution that they continued to experience (Phil. 1.27). With all this in mind, Paul sets out to write a letter to a church that is divided, is impoverished in a city that is ruled by the military victors of the biggest empire in the world, and he is trying to make sure that they make it through these tough times. His message is mixed with instruction, a lot of encouragement, and a lot of examples of how to live a unified life that will withstand the trials of today.
Philippians 1.1-11
The purpose of this section of Philippians 1, is to introduce the main themes that are going to occur in the rest of the book. Paul introduces these main themes of humility, joyfulness, partnership and spiritual growth with three paragraphs adapted from the common form of ancient letters of his day. The form of ancient letters was the name of the sender, the name of the recipient, a brief salutation and a thanks to the gods and continual prayers for the well being of the recipient. Paul uses this same structure but makes slight adaptations to get across his main themes for the rest of his letter. The three paragraphs are a greeting (1.1-2), a prayer of thanks (1.3-8), and a prayer of intercession (1.9-11). Philippians 1.1-2-
The Greeting
This first paragraph, the initial greeting of the letter, contains the name of the sender, the name of the recipient and a brief salutation. But as I have stated above, what is interesting is not how similar this greeting is to the ancient letters of his time, this was expected. What is interesting is the slight changes that Paul makes and how these changes are foreshadowing what the letter is going to address in more detail ahead. He makes three specific changes to the senders, the recipients and the salutation that will reveal to us some of the main themes of the rest of the book.
Change in the Senders
In Philippians 1.1, Paul begins his letter by saying, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus...” Instead of just naming the names of the people who were sending the letter, “Paul and Timothy”, Paul expands this part of the greeting to describe their identity, “servants of Christ Jesus.” Paul is making a slight change in order to emphasize the humility that is needed in the church to end the divisions that were occurring. This is one of the reasons that Paul was writing this letter, to unify the church, and he begins by saying, “Paul and Timothy, slaves...” There are two different words in the Greek for slave and servant. One refers to a servant minister, and other refers to someone who is bought. This word is the latter. It is a slave, someone’s property. In this Greco-Roman context, Paul’s readers would have understood this word to have undertones of humility and submission. Paul is hinting from the very start that this kind of humility is needed to overcome the divisions that were occurring in the church. Not only were they slaves, but they were slaves to “Christ Jesus”. The word “Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah”, meaning the “anointed one”. Three kinds of people were anointed in the Old Testament, Priests, Prophets and Kings. So they were slaves to some kind of anointed one, some authoritative figure, and then he gives the name Jesus, which literally means in the Hebrew, YHWH saves. This is to whom Paul and Timothy were slaves. So in the very first phrase, Paul makes a slight change to the standard form of the ancient letter, emphasizing the humility and submission to the anointed savior of all, Jesus.
Change in Recipients
The second slight variation that Paul makes to the greeting of this book is an expansion of the description of the recipients. Paul’s description of the recipients is as follows: “To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi together with the overseers and deacons.” He does this to make two points that he believes will help this church become more unified. First, he is trying to address everybody on the same level, showing that we are all slaves as Paul and Timothy are. This is why he refers to everyone as “To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi...” This word “saints” means those that have been set apart by God from everyone else with the ethic responsibility of the new covenant. This is true of all Christians, we are all saints and slaves of Christ Jesus. Yet he does not want to start a mutiny to where the people of the church in Philippi overthrow their spiritual leadership of the church in Philippi. So the second point Paul is trying to make is 1. that we are all saints of Jesus, slaves in submission to him and 2. that there are still leaders among you that are guiding you shepherding you through life. This is why he tags on, “together with the overseers and deacons.” These two words are pretty much interchangeable. The Greek word for “overseers”, is used interchangeably with two other words in the New Testament. One of these words is translated as “elders”, and the other is the word for “pastor”, which comes from the same family of the word for shepherd. These three words are used interchangeably, and this overseer guy is an elder, shepherd, overseer kind of person. The second word that Paul uses to describe the leaders of the church in Philippi is “deacons”. Above, I mentioned that there are two greek words for servant, one refers to a servant minister, and the other to someone who is bought. This word here is the former. Paul refers to himself and Timothy as slaves of Christ Jesus, and here he refers to the leadership of the church in Philippi as servants, ministers, table-waiters. The purpose for all of this is to show the unity of the body of Christ. First, Paul was presenting the humility and submission that are required to submit to the authority of Jesus, and now he is emphasizing that the purpose of this humility and submission is to maintain the unity of the church. This one of the reasons that Paul is writing this letter, and this is a theme that will appear throughout the rest of this book. There is one more change that Paul makes to this form of greeting that needs to be examined.
Change in Salutation
The third change, expansion, that Paul makes on the ancient form of greetings in letters was the expansion of the salutation. Normally the salutation would read very simply, “Greetings”, but here Paul has expanded it to say, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He expands the greeting so that it just does not serve as a salutation to a very powerful greeting, but that it carries theological ramifications. He uses two terms that are loaded with theological meaning. The first is “grace”. This word means “gift”, and usually is defined by theologians as “unmerited favor”. But sometimes grace is earned. We see this in the story of Noah, which says that “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6.8). But this is not true in our case, for as Paul says elsewhere, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous, not even one...” (Rom. 3.23ff). Grace is unmerited favor, a gift that is given to us, and we did not do anything to deserve. What is interesting is that this word, grace, is very close in the Greek to the word that the Gentiles would use to greet each other. Paul makes a slight change to “grace” instead of “greetings” to have in this salutation the source of our salvation. Summing up this first word there are three theological points that need to be remembered: 1. it means “unmerited favor”; 2. It is the source of our salvation; 3. It is from the same word group that the gentiles would use to greet each other. The second word that Paul uses in this salutation is the word “Peace”. There is a lot of contemporary scholarship today that is referred to as Empire Studies. The whole purpose of this is to see how the Roman Empire and its propaganda and myth interact with the writings of the New Testament. It was common knowledge to all of the Romans and their subjects that they promised “peace”, that they were the bringers of “peace”. Their slogan was literally, “peace and security”. Now whether or not Paul was using this term as an anti-imperialist statement is very difficult to determine. There might be some imperial implications to this term, especially because Philippi was so dominated by Rome and its soldiers and veterans. But what we do know is that this word is used in every letter of Paul’s to refer to the result of our salvation. We are no longer at odds with God, but that relationship has been made whole, we are at peace with him. This word in the LXX is used to translate the Hebrew word, shalom, which was the way the Jews would greet each other as well.
So, summing up the second word, there are four theological points that need to be remembered: 1. This might contain some imperial undertones; 2. The meaning of the word is having a whole relationship with someone; 3. It is the result of our salvation; and 4. it is the word that translated the Hebrew greeting, shalom. And what is interesting is that Paul seems to be the person that is always trying, in all of his writings, to bring Jews and Gentiles both together under the umbrella of Christian.
Summary
Philippi was a city with a very rich history. It sprang from obscurity, was thrust to the forefront of the political scene, and three bad alignments later, found itself subjected to the war heroes and veterans of the Roman Empire. Paul entered Philippi because of a Revelation, was beaten thrown in prison and then escorted out with honor. This poor little church supported him for the rest of his life monetarily as well as by sending their own to keep him company and help take care of him while he was in prison. So Paul wrote this letter to deflect theological error (Phil. 3.1-21), to to thank the Philippians for their partnership in the gospel and to commend their messenger Epaphroditus (Phil. 2.25, 30; 4.14-18), and to unify the church (Phil. 4.2). By changing the standard form of ancient greetings, Paul emphasized three main themes of the rest of the book of Philippians, being: 1. the essence of the gospel that they are partnering with him; 2. the unity of the saints to withstand the tough times ahead; and 3. the unselfish model that will preserve the unity of the body of Christ.
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wow!!! Incredible right???
Actually, you probably thought that was pretty boring. But there is a truth that you need to learn about interpreting the Bible. In the introduction to each of Paul's letters, Paul always hides his main point of the rest of the book in the introduction. This will be fully seen with the first eleven verses, but today, we will just get a background lesson on this book so that it has some context with which he can understand it fully. So here we go.
History of Philippi
There was a King by the name of Philip that ruled in Macedon in the middle of the fourth century BC. Two events surrounding this King occurred that changed the face of the world at that time. The first event that occurred was that he found gold in a small village named Krenides. He then took over the village, made it a into a major city, and named it after himself, Philippi. After finding this gold mine, literally, he began to purchase armies and mercenaries all over the known world.
The second key event occurred when his son took over the armies that his father had bought, and began conquering the entire known world. His name was Alexander the Great. Because his father found the gold in this small village and began to buy armies, Alexander had the military strength to conquer the world all the way to India. And it all started because of this city named Philippi. This little village was thrust from obscurity to the heights of importance, and then after aligning itself on the wrong side three consecutive times, it falls from the heights of ruling the world, to being ruled as a Roman colony. After Alexander died in 330 BC, this gave way for Rome to then take over the known world. And Philippi aligned itself three consecutive times with the wrong side of some big political battles.
The first wrong alignment occurred when Hannibal marched all the way across Spain and the northern part of Italy, down through the Appian Mountains to attack Rome from Behind. He was from Carthage in North Africa and attacking Rome from the sea was just suicide, yet marching an entire army through the Appian mountains was crazy as well, yet Hannibal did it with war elephants, and he almost succeeds. Philippi, seeing what is going on, decides that it must align itself with Hannibal, yet they were wrong. Rome defeats Hannibal and his army, sends them packing, and Philippi is reprimanded by Rome taking away their land from the locals and giving it various generals and war heroes.
The second bad alignment was the battle between Octavian and Mark Antony versus Brutus and Cassius. This final battle was actually fought on the side of the mountain at Philippi. Brutus and Cassius had the military advantage with the upper ground so they were the obvious choice to align with. Yet, Mark Antony and Octavian won the battle, with Philippi having more land taken from them and given to generals and war heroes.
The last and final wrong alignment was with Mark Antony. He was ruling in the east while Octavian was ruling in the west, and because of a series of unfortunate events, the two went to battle against each other. Antony’s girlfriend was Cleopatra, the Pharaoh of Egypt. So Antony was the safe bet, yet at the sea battle of Actium, Octavian destroyed the forces of Antony, and Philippi again found themselves on the losing side of the battle for the rule of Rome. So more land was taken from them, and more generals, retired veterans and war heroes were given their land. Philippi was a city that rose from obscurity to the utmost importance and then fell back down to being a city that was ruled by war veterans of their oppressor, Rome. Now Philippi is a roman colony, and only those that are citizens of Rome receive tax breaks and perks from the Roman Empire, while the locals of Philippi are feeling the pressure of the burden of being an oppressed people of the Roman Empire. Citizenship was a very big deal to the people of Philippi, and this will come up a couple of times throughout the letter from the Apostle Paul.
Paul and Philippi
We first run into Philippi in Acts 16, at the beginning of Paul’s second missionary journey. As the book of Acts records, Paul was trying to preach the Gospel in the province of Asia and even up north into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to (Acts 16.7). So they went to the seaport of Troas, and in a dream, Paul saw a Macedonian man asking him to “come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16.9). Then Paul sailed for Macedonia and entered into the city of Philippi for the base of his evangelical work in Macedonia.
Philippi was a strategic city located along the Ignatian way, which was a critical artery of commerce linking the city of Rome with its provinces in the east. The road passed directly through the center of the town of Philippi. Luke even says in the book of Acts that it was one of the “leading cities” of that district of Macedonia (Acts 16.10). It was a Roman colony with a very small demographic of Jews. Usually Paul always traveled to the synagogue of every city he came to (Acts 13.5, 14; 14.1; 17.1, 10, 17; 18.4, 19). Yet at Philippi, they did not go to the synagogue, but down to the river, with the hopes of finding a place of prayer (Acts 16.13). They met a woman named Lydia who was described as a “worshiper of God” (Acts 16.14). The reason that Paul did not go to the synagogue as he did in all the other cities he entered is probably because there was not one there. To have a synagogue required that there be ten Jewish men in the city. This is probably why the Jews, the worshipers of God, who did live in Philippi met down at the river. Another reason to believe that there was not a synagogue was because Philippi was at this point a Roman colony with the majority of its inhabitants being descendants of generals and soldiers of the Roman army. After Paul met this woman, Lydia, she become a believer, along with her whole household, and he baptized her, and they stayed at her house. As Paul was living in Philippi, a slave girl, who was demon possessed, kept following him around saying, “These men are servants of the most high God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” (Acts 16.17). After this was occurring for a number of days, Paul got tired of this and say to the spirit possessing her, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her” (Acts 16.18). And the spirit left. The problem with this was that the slave girl’s owner was using her as a fortune teller, making a lot of money by having her tell other people their fortune. Since Paul cast out the demon from her, she could no longer earn her master money by fortune-telling, so he got upset, dragged Paul and Silas to the marketplace where they were stripped, beaten with rods, flogged and thrown into the inner jail, fastening their feet in stocks (Acts 16.19-24).
In the middle of night Paul and Silas were singing hymns to God, and suddenly a violent earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, and all the doors of the prisoners flew open. The guard woke up and saw that all the doors were open, so he thought all his prisoners he was supposed to be guarding had escaped. He drew his sword to kill himself, because he knew that that was the punishment for letting a prisoner escape, then Paul stopped him. The man then became a Christian, and Paul baptized him and his entire family. The magistrate then ordered for the jailer to release the men, then Paul brought up the fact that they had beaten him and flogged him publicly without a trial and he was a Roman citizen. This was a HUGE offense, and the magistrate knew it. Paul asked them to escort him and Silas out of the city, almost as a way to shame them for what they had done (Acts 16.29-40). Paul’s time in Philippi was eventful to say the least. But there developed between him and this church a relationship that probably made Philippi to become his favorite church. This church was the biggest supporter of Paul’s missionary efforts. We see this in Philippians 4.15, Paul says, “Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you.” He goes on in verse 16 to describe how, when he was in Thessalonica, they gave him aid again and again when he was in need. When Paul was in Corinth, this church joined the other Macedonian churches in supporting his mission to Corinth (2 Cor. 11.8-9), and they gave so generously that he used them as an example of generosity to the church in Corinth (2 Cor. 8.1-7).
But what made Paul probably so endeared towards this church in Philippi was the fact that all this generosity came out of poverty, not abundance (2 Cor. 8.1-2). Letter to Philippi Philippi was a leading city in Macedonia that contained a number of retired soldiers and war heroes of the Roman army, and it contained a church that was very close to the heart of Paul. So why is Paul writing this letter to the church in Philippi? What is the occasion and purpose of the writing of this letter? When he wrote this letter, we can see from what he says in the letter that he was in prison, most likely in Rome, awaiting a trial whose outcome could result in his execution (Philippians 1.7, 12-14, 17, 20, 30; 2.17). And he is writing this letter from prison for three reasons. The first reason was to deflect theological error (Phil. 3.1-21). This theological error was not necessarily occurring in Philippi, but in the other churches that Paul had planted.
There were two specific teachings that Paul was fighting against: 1. the circumcision group, who said you had to be circumcised to be a Christians, and 2. a pre-gnostic belief, teaching that Jesus was not really human.
The second reason he wrote this letter was to thank the Philippians for their partnership in the gospel and to commend their messenger Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus’ mission was twofold, 1. to carry monetary gifts to Paul (Phil. 2.25; 4.14-18) and 2. to help the apostle in his imprisonment (2.30). But because of an illness, Epaphroditus was going to have to go back to Philippi early, and so Paul wanted to thank the church for their partnership, but also to commend to them Epaphroditus, that he did what he was supposed to do. The last and final reason that Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi was to unify the church. There was a division in the church between two ladies named Euodia and Syntyche (Phil. 4.2). This division had caused a lot of arguing and complaining that had tarnished the witness of the church to the community (Phil. 2.14-16), and Paul knew that if they were not unified, they would have a very difficult time withstanding the trials of persecution that they continued to experience (Phil. 1.27). With all this in mind, Paul sets out to write a letter to a church that is divided, is impoverished in a city that is ruled by the military victors of the biggest empire in the world, and he is trying to make sure that they make it through these tough times. His message is mixed with instruction, a lot of encouragement, and a lot of examples of how to live a unified life that will withstand the trials of today.
Philippians 1.1-11
The purpose of this section of Philippians 1, is to introduce the main themes that are going to occur in the rest of the book. Paul introduces these main themes of humility, joyfulness, partnership and spiritual growth with three paragraphs adapted from the common form of ancient letters of his day. The form of ancient letters was the name of the sender, the name of the recipient, a brief salutation and a thanks to the gods and continual prayers for the well being of the recipient. Paul uses this same structure but makes slight adaptations to get across his main themes for the rest of his letter. The three paragraphs are a greeting (1.1-2), a prayer of thanks (1.3-8), and a prayer of intercession (1.9-11). Philippians 1.1-2-
The Greeting
This first paragraph, the initial greeting of the letter, contains the name of the sender, the name of the recipient and a brief salutation. But as I have stated above, what is interesting is not how similar this greeting is to the ancient letters of his time, this was expected. What is interesting is the slight changes that Paul makes and how these changes are foreshadowing what the letter is going to address in more detail ahead. He makes three specific changes to the senders, the recipients and the salutation that will reveal to us some of the main themes of the rest of the book.
Change in the Senders
In Philippians 1.1, Paul begins his letter by saying, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus...” Instead of just naming the names of the people who were sending the letter, “Paul and Timothy”, Paul expands this part of the greeting to describe their identity, “servants of Christ Jesus.” Paul is making a slight change in order to emphasize the humility that is needed in the church to end the divisions that were occurring. This is one of the reasons that Paul was writing this letter, to unify the church, and he begins by saying, “Paul and Timothy, slaves...” There are two different words in the Greek for slave and servant. One refers to a servant minister, and other refers to someone who is bought. This word is the latter. It is a slave, someone’s property. In this Greco-Roman context, Paul’s readers would have understood this word to have undertones of humility and submission. Paul is hinting from the very start that this kind of humility is needed to overcome the divisions that were occurring in the church. Not only were they slaves, but they were slaves to “Christ Jesus”. The word “Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah”, meaning the “anointed one”. Three kinds of people were anointed in the Old Testament, Priests, Prophets and Kings. So they were slaves to some kind of anointed one, some authoritative figure, and then he gives the name Jesus, which literally means in the Hebrew, YHWH saves. This is to whom Paul and Timothy were slaves. So in the very first phrase, Paul makes a slight change to the standard form of the ancient letter, emphasizing the humility and submission to the anointed savior of all, Jesus.
Change in Recipients
The second slight variation that Paul makes to the greeting of this book is an expansion of the description of the recipients. Paul’s description of the recipients is as follows: “To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi together with the overseers and deacons.” He does this to make two points that he believes will help this church become more unified. First, he is trying to address everybody on the same level, showing that we are all slaves as Paul and Timothy are. This is why he refers to everyone as “To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi...” This word “saints” means those that have been set apart by God from everyone else with the ethic responsibility of the new covenant. This is true of all Christians, we are all saints and slaves of Christ Jesus. Yet he does not want to start a mutiny to where the people of the church in Philippi overthrow their spiritual leadership of the church in Philippi. So the second point Paul is trying to make is 1. that we are all saints of Jesus, slaves in submission to him and 2. that there are still leaders among you that are guiding you shepherding you through life. This is why he tags on, “together with the overseers and deacons.” These two words are pretty much interchangeable. The Greek word for “overseers”, is used interchangeably with two other words in the New Testament. One of these words is translated as “elders”, and the other is the word for “pastor”, which comes from the same family of the word for shepherd. These three words are used interchangeably, and this overseer guy is an elder, shepherd, overseer kind of person. The second word that Paul uses to describe the leaders of the church in Philippi is “deacons”. Above, I mentioned that there are two greek words for servant, one refers to a servant minister, and the other to someone who is bought. This word here is the former. Paul refers to himself and Timothy as slaves of Christ Jesus, and here he refers to the leadership of the church in Philippi as servants, ministers, table-waiters. The purpose for all of this is to show the unity of the body of Christ. First, Paul was presenting the humility and submission that are required to submit to the authority of Jesus, and now he is emphasizing that the purpose of this humility and submission is to maintain the unity of the church. This one of the reasons that Paul is writing this letter, and this is a theme that will appear throughout the rest of this book. There is one more change that Paul makes to this form of greeting that needs to be examined.
Change in Salutation
The third change, expansion, that Paul makes on the ancient form of greetings in letters was the expansion of the salutation. Normally the salutation would read very simply, “Greetings”, but here Paul has expanded it to say, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He expands the greeting so that it just does not serve as a salutation to a very powerful greeting, but that it carries theological ramifications. He uses two terms that are loaded with theological meaning. The first is “grace”. This word means “gift”, and usually is defined by theologians as “unmerited favor”. But sometimes grace is earned. We see this in the story of Noah, which says that “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6.8). But this is not true in our case, for as Paul says elsewhere, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous, not even one...” (Rom. 3.23ff). Grace is unmerited favor, a gift that is given to us, and we did not do anything to deserve. What is interesting is that this word, grace, is very close in the Greek to the word that the Gentiles would use to greet each other. Paul makes a slight change to “grace” instead of “greetings” to have in this salutation the source of our salvation. Summing up this first word there are three theological points that need to be remembered: 1. it means “unmerited favor”; 2. It is the source of our salvation; 3. It is from the same word group that the gentiles would use to greet each other. The second word that Paul uses in this salutation is the word “Peace”. There is a lot of contemporary scholarship today that is referred to as Empire Studies. The whole purpose of this is to see how the Roman Empire and its propaganda and myth interact with the writings of the New Testament. It was common knowledge to all of the Romans and their subjects that they promised “peace”, that they were the bringers of “peace”. Their slogan was literally, “peace and security”. Now whether or not Paul was using this term as an anti-imperialist statement is very difficult to determine. There might be some imperial implications to this term, especially because Philippi was so dominated by Rome and its soldiers and veterans. But what we do know is that this word is used in every letter of Paul’s to refer to the result of our salvation. We are no longer at odds with God, but that relationship has been made whole, we are at peace with him. This word in the LXX is used to translate the Hebrew word, shalom, which was the way the Jews would greet each other as well.
So, summing up the second word, there are four theological points that need to be remembered: 1. This might contain some imperial undertones; 2. The meaning of the word is having a whole relationship with someone; 3. It is the result of our salvation; and 4. it is the word that translated the Hebrew greeting, shalom. And what is interesting is that Paul seems to be the person that is always trying, in all of his writings, to bring Jews and Gentiles both together under the umbrella of Christian.
Summary
Philippi was a city with a very rich history. It sprang from obscurity, was thrust to the forefront of the political scene, and three bad alignments later, found itself subjected to the war heroes and veterans of the Roman Empire. Paul entered Philippi because of a Revelation, was beaten thrown in prison and then escorted out with honor. This poor little church supported him for the rest of his life monetarily as well as by sending their own to keep him company and help take care of him while he was in prison. So Paul wrote this letter to deflect theological error (Phil. 3.1-21), to to thank the Philippians for their partnership in the gospel and to commend their messenger Epaphroditus (Phil. 2.25, 30; 4.14-18), and to unify the church (Phil. 4.2). By changing the standard form of ancient greetings, Paul emphasized three main themes of the rest of the book of Philippians, being: 1. the essence of the gospel that they are partnering with him; 2. the unity of the saints to withstand the tough times ahead; and 3. the unselfish model that will preserve the unity of the body of Christ.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Genesis 25.1-18
The last step in this transition between Abraham and his offspring is the death of Abraham. Let's take a look at it:
Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. 4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5 Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. 6 But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.
7 These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 175 years. 8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.9 Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10 the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife. 11 After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.
12 These are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's servant, bore to Abraham. 13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16 These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments,twelve princes according to their tribes. 17 (These are the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years. He breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.) 18 They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his kinsmen.
There is not much to say about this passage, so I will not waste your time. The life of Abraham encompasses a man being called to live of faith in God so that God can use him to be a blessing to the whole world.
The way this is accomplished is through the use of a covenant.
God calls Abraham to go to a land he will show him, to basically obey in faith. God promises Abraham that if he does this, four things will occur:
- He will be blessed
- He will have children as numerous as the stars in the sky
- He will receive the promised land
- All nations will be blessed through him.
At the end of Abraham's life, he obeyed in faith even when he doubted.
He was blessed immensely with wealth and long life and fortune.
He saw his heir be born and take a wife to start his own family.
He even received pieces of the promised land.
All that is left is that all nations are blessed through him.
Guess what....We are doing that today.
We consider Abraham as our father in the faith. We are descendants of the same faith that Abraham was called to. We are his offspring, and we are called to bless the nations.
We have seen this man embrace God's call on his life and we are the results of that. The whole world is the result of multiple people embracing that call all the way down until Jesus embraced the call to die on the cross and defeat death through his resurrection.
And now we are called to embrace that call on our own lives. The question is....Will we.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Genesis 24.62-67
Now we are going to look at the last scene of the finding of Isaac's wife. We have seen the problem of finding a wife for him, the servant's faithfulness, God's sovereignty in the entire situation, as well as the purpose for God's blessing, so that the nations are blessed. Now we will see the solution to the problem.
62 Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. 63 He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. 64 Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”
“He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.
66 Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. 67 Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
My first inclination is to focus on verse 63, showing that if you want to get a wife, meditate in solitude and she will come.
While that may be true for Isaac, I know it didn't work for me all through High school.
But in all seriousness, there is not a ton in this passage to really dive into. The real climax of the story occurred in the previous passage where Rebekah and Laban agreed to be faithful to God. This is just explaining the result of the whole story.
Man waits for woman, woman comes to man, man marries woman, and they live happily ever after.
But when we look at the entire chapter as a whole, 24.1-66, what we see is God's fingerprints touching every aspect of the story.
God is going to work out his plan, no matter what. God has his fingers on Isaac and the servant and Rebekah and Laban. He directs and prompts and beckons each one to be faithful to him, so that he might bless the nations.
And that is what he does with us.
He guides us, he moves us, he whispers to us, and he beckons us to follow him every day of our lives.
And now we have one thing left to finish up the story of Abraham. Remember how we talked about Abraham's story transitioning from him to his offspring, that three things needed to happen.
First, Sarah needed to die, and we saw that in chapter 23.
Second, a wife needed to be provided for Isaac so that Abraham's offspring would continue past Isaac.
This occurred in chapter 24, the chapter which included four scenes and has taken us four days to finally get through.
Now we will look at one more passage to fully allow the transition to occur from Abraham to his offspring. And we will look at that tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Genesis 24.28-61
Friday, we saw God being faithful even when he wasn't directly involved in the story.
And isn't that how it always tends to be?
We go through life doing stuff, working, resting, playing, raising kids and every once in awhile, we don't realize it but we see how God has been at work the entire time.
And this is what is emphasized in this third scene, the blessing of God. Yet, this blessing isn't what we tend to think when we think of blessing. Let's take a look at the story as a whole and then look at two chunks of the story at a time, to see what God's blessing really consists of:
Yet, the whole point to God blessing, not just Abraham, but anyone, is found in the fourth blessing. The only reason God blesses anyone is so that that person will bless the nations.
And isn't that how it always tends to be?
We go through life doing stuff, working, resting, playing, raising kids and every once in awhile, we don't realize it but we see how God has been at work the entire time.
And this is what is emphasized in this third scene, the blessing of God. Yet, this blessing isn't what we tend to think when we think of blessing. Let's take a look at the story as a whole and then look at two chunks of the story at a time, to see what God's blessing really consists of:
28 The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things. 29 Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he hurried out to the man at the spring. 30 As soon as he had seen the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s arms, and had heard Rebekah tell what the man said to her, he went out to the man and found him standing by the camels near the spring. 31 “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord,” he said. “Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.”
32 So the man went to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and fodder were brought for the camels, and water for him and his men to wash their feet. 33 Then food was set before him, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told you what I have to say.”
“Then tell us,” Laban said.
34 So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. 35 The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys. 36 My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her[a] old age, and he has given him everything he owns. 37 And my master made me swear an oath, and said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live,38 but go to my father’s family and to my own clan, and get a wife for my son.’
39 “Then I asked my master, ‘What if the woman will not come back with me?’
40 “He replied, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your journey a success, so that you can get a wife for my son from my own clan and from my father’s family. 41 Then, when you go to my clan, you will be released from my oath even if they refuse to give her to you—you will be released from my oath.’
42 “When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. 43 See, I am standing beside this spring; if a maiden comes out to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,” 44 and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,” let her be the one the Lord has chosen for my master’s son.’
45 “Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’
46 “She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So I drank, and she watered the camels also.
47 “I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’
“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’
“Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, 48 and I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”
50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. 51 Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed. ”
52 When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord. 53 Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother. 54 Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there.
When they got up the next morning, he said, “Send me on my way to my master.”
55 But her brother and her mother replied, “Let the girl remain with us ten days or so; then you[b] may go.”
56 But he said to them, “Do not detain me, now that the Lord has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master.”
57 Then they said, “Let’s call the girl and ask her about it.” 58 So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”
“I will go,” she said.
59 So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
“Our sister, may you increase
to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
61 Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.
As you might have thought, this is a long passage. The focus of it is the interaction between the unnamed servant and Laban, Rebekah's brother Laban.
The reason it is such a long passage is mostly because of the servant's speech from 24.34-49. This speech takes up fifteen verses, and all it does is summarize what we have already seen in the first 33 verses of the chapter.
The speech may seem boring at first, but part of the key to the entire chapter is seen in the first and last statement of the unnamed servant. Look at what he says when referencing Yahweh, God.
Vs. 35:
35 The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy.
Vs. 48:
I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham
The two bold words, blessed and praised, are both the same word in the original Hebrew text, barach, which means "to bless".
This speech is bounded by blessing. The reason the servant is even looking for a suitable mate for Isaac is because Yahweh (YHWH), God, has blessed Abraham. So what does the servant do in response to this story? He blesses YHWH, God.
And even more, the next step to understanding this blessing of God is to see how Laban describes the situation by two statements that come before and after this speech.
Verse 31
31 “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord,” he said. “Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.”
Same word, barach, "to be blessed". From the start, Laban is recognizing that this servant is blessed by God. And after hearing the story, look at how Laban summarizes it:
Verse 50
50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other.
This is from the Lord. So the statements that define this entire scene are as follows:
v. 31: Laban: Come in, O blessed of the LORD
v. 35 servant: The Lord has greatly blessed my master
v. 48 servant: I bow my head and praise (bless) the Lord
v. 50 Laban: This thing comes from the Lord.
This whole love story between Rebekkah and Isaac is a blessing from God. For we see in verses 52-60, that just as Abraham of the old generation ended richly blessed, so Rebekah, the mother of the new generation, begins in blessing. Look at how this scene ends:
52 When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord. 53 Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother. 54 Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there.
When they got up the next morning, he said, “Send me on my way to my master.”
55 But her brother and her mother replied, “Let the girl remain with us ten days or so; then you[b] may go.”
56 But he said to them, “Do not detain me, now that the Lord has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master.”
57 Then they said, “Let’s call the girl and ask her about it.” 58 So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”
“I will go,” she said.
59 So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
“Our sister, may you increase
to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
61 Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.
The point of this passage is that the blessing that God promised Abraham in Genesis 12 is coming to fruition.
Now at this point, we have to be very careful when we talk about the nature of God's blessing on our lives. Yes, God blesses us. But for what purpose?
In the fourfold blessing that God promised Abraham, look at the progression:
- I will make you into a great nation
- I will bless your name
- I will give you this land to inherit
- All nations on earth will be blessed through you
The first three blessings all focus on benefiting Abraham. Abraham will become a great nation, his name will be blessed, and he will receive the promised land. This looks as if Abraham is going to become very wealthy and prosperous. And isn't that what has happened in this passage?
At this point Abraham has a child, is getting a wife for that child to start producing the great nation. His name has been blessed numerous times, and he is beginning to acquire pieces of property in the promised land.
Yet, the whole point to God blessing, not just Abraham, but anyone, is found in the fourth blessing. The only reason God blesses anyone is so that that person will bless the nations.
The descendants of Abraham, the great nation that is promised, is created to bless the nations. Abraham's name is great in order to bless the nations. The purpose of the promised land is to bless the nations.
And this truth is also true for us. When we lose sight of the fact that any blessing we receive, whether that be material wealth or talents or even gifts that God has given us, is used for our own benefit or self promotion, those blessings become curses.
Only when God's blessings are used in order to bless the nations, to promote his kingdom, will those blessings remain blessings.
So whatever blessings we have, are only blessing when they are used to bless others.
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