Article - Notes on Philippians

INTRODUCTION TO PAUL’S LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS

FREE TO BE!

I always do a preliminary sort through my morning mail before my secretary gets to it. I want to pull out any letters that don’t look ‘official’. These hopefully represent pleasure and not more work! I suppose that most of us love receiving personal letters full of news from distant friends; full of shared memories; reminders of joys and sorrows we have perhaps been through together. Paul writes this ‘Epistle of Joy’ from prison in Rome probably near the end of his life around 63AD. He is keeping in touch with his good friends at Philippi, whom he has visited on three occasions.

The first occasion was pretty spectacular. It had started with the vision of the ‘Man from Macedonia’ who urged him to ‘come over and help us’. So he arrived at the port of Philippi (Neapolis) around 52AD on his rather disheartening second missionary journey. Acts 16 will tell you all about the conversion of Lydia and the jailer and his family and the founding of the first European church.

Now as a general rule, Paul wouldn’t accept money from the churches he founded, but Philippi was an exception. He had often received gifts from them over the last ten years, and they had just recently sent him more money with one of the congregation, Epaphroditus. He was also to serve Paul as an assistant. Imagine this poor man’s embarrassment when he became seriously ill with the Roman Fever and was then worried and homesick - no one likes being ill when they are away from home. So Paul decided to send him back to Philippi with a letter of explanation, just in case they thought Epaphroditus had chickened out of staying with a condemned man in big bad Rome. And the letter this man carried back, full of encouragement to stick together and enjoy the freedom that Christ gives us in his service, is the letter we will be opening over the next few days.

CHAINS THAT FREE
DAY 1

Sometimes I think there are two kinds of people: the moaners and the make-the-most-of-its. Are they born that way or is it something that is cultivated over the years? In Britain, grumbling is almost a national pastime, a part of our cultural heritage. So how do we take steps to counter this tendency? As a pastor, I would sometimes give a ‘prescription’ to moaners in my church: “To be taken three times a day after meals - think of 5 things for which you are grateful to God!” Paul was certainly not a moaner. Could you have written such a cheery, encouraging greeting from a first century prison?

Philippians 1:1-11

And not only does Paul pray for his friends ‘with joy’ (4) but he sees his present unpleasant circumstances as an opportunity to preach the Gospel. He was under house arrest in his own private lodgings where he received a constant flow of visitors. But night and day he was chained to a succession of Roman soldiers - his guards. (Acts 28:20) Many of them became Christians and then enjoyed one-to-one discipleship classes on the end of a short chain to the great apostle of Christ.

Philippians 1:12-26

Why not write a letter to some Christian friends this week telling them what you are praying for them (9)? It will help you to focus your prayers rather than just praying ‘God will bless them…’ You might also tell them how you are making the most of the difficult things happening in your life at present.

FREEDOM FROM SELF
DAY 2

I, me, mine, myself… We have become the self-centred generation. Subtly, Socrates' dictum, "Know Yourself" has become "Be Yourself" and even Christians seem bent on pursuing self-fulfilment at any price. "This church doesn't worship the way I want… this fellowship doesn't use my gifts… this house group doesn't meet my needs… I've got this 'thorn in the flesh' and you owe it to me to deal with it NOW, Lord…" Christ warned his disciples that if they tried to save their own lives, they would lose them. (Matt 16:25)

Paul also knew that self-fulfilment, and that Christian robustness of character which is able to stand up to anything, can only be found in Christ and by following Christ’s example.

Philippians 1:27-2:4

United we stand (1:27; 2:2), divided we fall. And we don't 'fall' just as church fellowships through our divisions. Individually our lives are diminished and disintegrate when we live selfishly, looking constantly to our own interests.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that before ever there was a universe, or people, or a Bible, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were in an eternal loving, self-giving relationship with one another.

Fix this thought in your mind over the next few days: "Look not only to your own interests". Tie a knot in your hanky, move a ring to a different finger, write it on a little card - but see how it transforms your attitudes to other people, and so to Christ.

THEOLOGY THAT FREES
DAY 3

"I want to play the piano really well, but I don't want to learn music or practise or be taught by other pianists. I just want to be free to do my own thing on the piano." It's nonsense isn't it? We know from so many areas of life, whether music, or driving, or sports, that the better we have mastered the techniques, the freer we are to express ourselves. Paul was never interested in theology just as an intellectual exercise. He knew that "You are not what you think you are; but what you think - you are!" Do you have trouble living a Christlike life? Then get a better understanding of Christ and all he did in your brain. This is why all of Paul’s letters, full of practical instructions, always start with a great wad of theology!

Philippians 2:5-11

"In many ways this passage is one of the greatest reaches of theological thought in the New Testament, but its aim was to persuade the Philippians to live a life in which disunity, discord and personal ambition had no place."
William Barclay (DSB Philippians p.38)

Read through the passage again asking yourself in what ways Christ humbled himself and gave up his own desires. When you begin to grasp this 'Love so amazing, so divine' displayed in God made Man, your thinking will change, and so your actions will change. You will begin to have the mind of Christ and so live the selfless life of Christ. Stop and pray about things at home or work where you are tempted to try and get your own way, at any price. How do you think Jesus might have handled this situation?

FREE TO BE ME
DAY 4

I’m always telling my students in preaching classes to use more illustrations from everyday life and ordinary Christians. A human story often helps us to work out what it is that God is saying to us. Paul is anxious that his friends in Philippi will be able to work out what their responsibility is at the same time as they realise that it is God at work in them: act as if everything depended on you; pray as if everything depended on God! But he doesn’t just tell them this, he gives them three examples.

Philippians 2:12-30

Timothy is the patron saint of those who are quite content with second place so long as they can serve! We know he was really close to Paul and that the apostle had great hopes for his ministry. But he never pushed himself forward. In fact, quite the opposite: he was always looking to the interests of others - of Paul and of the Philippians and of Christ. (20,21)

Epaphroditus was a brave man, for the Roman authorities could have turned on him as Paul’s accomplice. He had given up his career in Philippi to go and be a dogsbody in Rome and he had almost died in the process. But you can almost see him there, lying on his bed, coming out of the fever saying, “I’m sorry Paul, to cause you all this trouble. And I came here to look after you!”

Paul was facing the death sentence, but not caring about his own life, he wanted to make things easier for Epaphroditus’s return to Philippi. Think of the most selfless person you know. How can you be more like them, and so like Christ? The more you give yourself to others, the more you become more fully ‘you’.

FREE TO BE ANGRY!
DAY 5

What makes you angry? People who squeeze the toothpaste from the wrong end? People who lie to you? Your own failings? I get angry when I’m sitting in badly run committee meetings. Try to remember the last time you were angry. How did you handle it?

James obviously expects us to get angry but hopes we will be ‘slow’ to do so. (James 1:19f). Paul warns us that our anger may turn to sin, so we should deal with it quickly and not brood for days. (Eph 4:26) And Jesus certainly became angry with the Temple tradespeople. (John 2:12-25) A fiery temperament is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s how we handle our anger when it flares up, and what we get angry about which matters.

Paul became angry whenever he found people perverting the Gospel of Christ. Especially when they tried to change its essence from the ‘outrage of grace’ to the ‘burden of works’; from accepting the free gift of God, to trying to impress God with how good they are; from believing that they are saved through Christ to believing that some ritual (like circumcision) can save them.

Philippians 3:1-11

What are some of the things you think you should get angry about - in the church, in your nation, in your own life?

“There is indeed a holy anger without which joy in the Lord is something short of what he intends it to be.”
Alec Motyer (BST Philippians p.154)

FREE STANDING
DAY 6

One of the things I admire in my Christian teachers is their maturity and reliability. Whatever the latest spiritual fad is, they are not knocked off course or shaken in their faith. They don’t go off like sqibs with a new enthusiasm. They have deep roots (Psalm 1) and have been weathered by the storms and trials of life. They can look back on the past, hold firm for the present, and press on to the future. Paul was like this and longed for his friends at Philippi to know this same stability of Christian character.

Philippians 3:12-4:1

“Stand firm!” commands Paul. But how do we do this? So many of us are custard Christians - we are upset over trifles! Or we are blown about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14). Or we feel intimidated and insecure when other Christians have ‘spiritual experiences’ that they think we should have. Or we get depressed and down and feel useless and failures as disciples of Christ. One of my friends when things got on top of him used to say to me: “Well, I know where I am going to be a hundred years from now!” Paul’s eyes were fixed on Christ; on his ability to work his purposes out through Paul’s life and coming death; on his power enabling Paul and the Philippians not to follow their natural earthly desires but live as citizens of heaven.

Get a heavenly perspective on your own life. Try writing your own obituary! When you are finally home with Christ, what would you like to be remembered for. When you can regularly see things from the standpoint of eternity, you will be well on the way to standing firm, mature in Christ.

FREEDOM FROM FRICTION
DAY 7

Philippians 4:2-9

“You remember George. He was the one who still insisted on coming to church at 11am when we changed the time to 10.30am.” This is the way one of my fellow church members is always remembered. (He is now worshipping God regularly in heaven, but I suspect only at 11am and 6.30pm…) What a pity if you are only remembered for bad things! Two thousand years on, these two women with the unpronounceable names (unkindly etched in my memory as Odious and Touchy) are usually only remembered because they had fallen out with each other over some issue. Although they were good women, who contended at Paul’s side for the cause of the Gospel, they had lost their peace and joy and direction over some petty squabble.

“To dwell above with those we love, oh that will be glory.
But to live below with those we know is quite a different story”

Paul is anxious for the church to be united in its task and united in its witness to the pagan world round about. This was Christ’s test: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) So Paul is pleading with the Philippians again to get their thinking right so that right actions will follow. It’s not that they all had to agree on every matter. It was being able to disagree in love, rubbing the rough edges off one another like pebbles on a beach. (“Grind us together Lord” as I once heard someone misquote the chorus!) Who has irritated you in your fellowship recently? Don’t let malicious thoughts get the better of you and become a “root of bitterness” destroying your peace with God and with one another. (Heb 12:15)

FREE FROM WANT
DAY 8

“Do you want a beautiful body? Do you want a magnificent car? Do you want your children to be happy, your clothes to be clean, bouncy and fresh smelling. Do you want more money to improve your home and business.” And we all know that the answer has to be “YES!” The advertising industry is carefully geared to increase our ‘wants’. It is much less concerned about needs, and even less worried about our contentment. Paul would have been a hopeless target for the advertising industry!

Philippians 4:10-23

Paul could be excused for being anxious and worried about the future, just as John the Baptist had been while awaiting death in prison. (Matt 11:2-6) But he was amazingly contented and at peace and we can see three things behind this: his friends, his own self-discipline and his Lord.

It wasn’t the money or even the sending of Epaphroditus which was a tonic to Paul. It was knowing that there were people who loved him enough to pray and do something practical. Who can you help to be contented in this way?

Paul stressed that he had ‘learned’ to be content (12f) - it didn’t come naturally. All the ‘changing scenes of life’ had been used by Paul to shape his attitude to that of Christ, with no envy or jealousy of what others had.

But most of all, Paul simply trusted Christ. Come plenty, come need; come death, come life; come what may, Paul knew that the glorious riches of Christ were his forever! Whatever you are facing, always trust in Christ. He is utterly trustworthy.