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Biblestudy: Philippians (Part Two)
Philippians 1:6-26
#BS-PH02
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 25-Jul-89; 84 minutes
summary: In his letter to the Philippians, Paul both appealed for unity and offered encouragement, reminding them that their relationship with one another was through Christ. Unity could only be maintained if they prayed for one another, exercising reasoning, discerning, and discriminating agape love. Paul encourages the Philippians, assuring them that his own incarceration (apparently engineered by God) had turned out for the best, enabling him, exuding his cheerful personality, to provide one-on-one testimony to a succession of guards, enabling God's witness to get to the upper echelons of the Praetorian guard, greatly extending or amplifying the witness. Regardless of the precariousness of his ostensibly grave circumstances, Paul, with deep conviction, expected spiritual deliverance.
transcript:
We are going to be going right back into the book of Philippians again. We only got six verses deep into it the last time. I think that we will get a little bit further than that this evening. Mainly what we covered the last time involved the background of Philippi itself and Paul's coming into the city and beginning to preach there. You might recall that I gave to you a good deal of information regarding Philippi's strategic location in the Roman Empire, even though it was not a large city as compared to Corinth or Athens or even Thessalonica. It was something that those cities were not, however, and that is that it was a Roman colony, and this gave it a distinctive advantage over many other cities of much larger size and really made it one of the key cities in Greece, at least in that part of the Roman Empire. Now what made it that status, of course, was its location. It was located on the main trade route, the Villa Ignatia, between Rome and the nations to the east and it came right through Philippi. Philippi was located about 10 miles north of the northern extremities of the Aegean Sea. And so in that location, if somebody wanted to ship out across the Mediterranean or by way of the Aegean Sea, they could do that from Philippi or if they wanted to continue on the road and go on eastward into Asia Minor and of course into the area of Syria and Palestine and on into Babylon, why they could do that as well. So it was important because it was a colony, it was important because there was so much commercial traffic going back and forth through the area. Its political status and military status was what made it be appointed as a colony. So when God directed the apostle Paul to go there, it was a site that was chosen, I am sure, with a great deal of consideration as to the type of people who would be there and, let us say, the numbers of different kinds of people that could be witness of the gospel as a result of its location. And we found that, indeed, among the first ones converted, we had Lydia, we had the Philippian jailer, and we also had apparently, we are not real sure of this, the slave girl as well. So we had Lydia who was probably from the upper social strata, and then on the other extreme was the slave girl. And in the middle was the stalwart Roman middle class made up of veterans of the Roman army who had served out their time and had been given the opportunity to own some land and represent Rome in that area. I brought something else out that is important to the book of Philippians, and that is this thing about it being a Roman colony. The significant factor here was that these people represented Rome in a way that other Romans did not. Remember I mentioned how that according to the records that are available, usually this consisted of about 300 veterans (and their wives and their children) who were retired from the army. They had served out their time. They were sent there and they were expected to do everything Roman. Now Paul is going to play on this theme in several places in the book of Philippians. He is going to use that as a parallel to the way a Christian ought to conduct his life. That he is the citizen of a kingdom and that kingdom's capital city is in heaven, and they are a colony representing that kingdom. And even as the Roman colonists were to do everything Roman and they were not to deviate from anything Roman, so a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, the church member, is to conduct his life as a representative of that kingdom, and he is to do what that kingdom would have him do. We are going to see that a great deal as we go through the book of Philippians here. I gave you four reasons as to why the letter was written. It was, first of all, a letter of thanks for the many times that those people had helped him in his ministry through persecution, and they did this in spite of their own poorness as well as the persecution that they were undergoing. The second reason was because of Epaphroditus, who had apparently been the man who carried the latest gift from the people of Philippi. And he was apparently also sent to be a personal servant of Paul's. But he became sick, there is no doubt about that. In fact, it says a little bit later that he was sick near unto death and apparently was going to be unable to continue, and Paul might think that the people would think that Epaphroditus had failed in some way to carry out his commission, and Paul wanted to let them know that that certainly was not so at all, that everything was all right with Epaphroditus, but he simply was not going to be strong enough to be able to bear under the responsibility there. The third reason was to encourage them, to support them through their persecution and trials, and I mentioned to you that the word joy and its derivatives appears more in the book of Philippians than it does all of the other writings of Paul combined. And so he was trying to encourage them to see the good in what they were going through. And then fourthly, and perhaps overall this is the most important one, and that is that it is an appeal for unity. We are going to begin to see this as we go through the Bible study this evening that there was a problem there and it is the only real problem that is addressed in the entirety of the book. And we are going to see that division had already occurred due to some party spirit that had been motivated by two ladies in the congregation. Nobody knows why, what the point of contention was between them, but sides had taken up and some of these very encouraging and inspiring things that the apostle Paul wrote are written with a desire in mind of getting these people to be reconciled to one another and showing them the path that they were going to have to go on in order for this to be accomplished. Finally, (this is not a fifth point) but all in all, it is a very encouraging personal letter from a friend to his friends. Philippians 1:3-4 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy. This is the beginning of Paul's expressions of his warm feeling of closeness that he had with those people, that even despite the problems that were taking place in the congregation he still thanked God upon every request. And he says (verse 4), "always in every prayer of mine making requests for you with joy." So even the problem that was being addressed here was not of such a serious note that he was disheartened by it. Apparently, the congregation was not driven apart in any way, but rather some cliques had formed and it was not something that was irreparable in any way. So he was still happy about the congregation, had a good feeling about them. One of the things that I wanted to pick up here was that his happy memories were reflected in prayers. Now, we are going to see this brought out again just a little bit later, this thing about prayer and his remembrance of these people. Now it is something that I think that each one of us has to learn, and that is that we can never forget that there is divine assistance, divine help, spiritual help from God that is needful for us to have the kind of fellowship that God wants us to have. Otherwise, without that divine assistance, that is, the contact with one another through God, through Jesus Christ, we are not going to be able to have the level of closeness, the family relationship that God wants us to have. So our relationship with one another is through Christ and it is that that makes this level, this closeness of fellowship possible. We have to recognize that and be constantly praying for one another. As we pray for one another, it is going to make that closeness, that fellowship possible. Now we can have friendship without the divine help, but it is never going to have the closeness in it that that God wants in His Family. And then he says the basis is (verse 5), "for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." So fellowship indicates, does it not, a two-sided relationship. There is then a sharing in common of a work or a labor or a responsibility that we have. This is, in a sense, different from the fellowship that we have with one another. It is an adjunct to it. So we are not only related in terms of being family, we are also co-workers together, participating in a labor or in a work. All these things are tied together with his prayer, his thankfulness. It is all tied together in this fellowship context. Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. I went into a good deal of detail on this verse (which I am not going to go into here now), but I want to remind you that it is virtually a parallel of Romans 12:1-2. The only difference is one of emphasis. In Romans 12:1-2, the emphasis is on what we have to do, that is, that we have to give ourselves as a sacrifice to God. That our part in Romans 12:1-2 is emphasized as being giving of ourselves as a living sacrifice. Here, the emphasis is on what God does. And again, the metaphor is drawn from the area of sacrifice. Only here the emphasis is on the priest or in this case, God, carrying through a sacrifice from beginning to end, that is, going through the whole procedure, the whole ritual. And just as surely as the priest began, he completed the offering. And so Paul draws upon that and says just as surely will God complete the offering of us, that He who has started this good work is going to complete it. He will carry it through. So the emphasis here is on God doing His part as well. So that is encouraging. It ought to give you a feeling or an understanding, a confirmation that God is with you, that He does not abandon us and just kind of leave us dangling at the end of a rope there trying to do the best that we possibly can without any help at all from Him. But He is with us. He is guiding and directing us, and He will complete the work that He began. We are going to see more of this as we go through here. Now verse 7, it is still the same sentence, one that began all the way back there in verse 3. Philippians 1:7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers with me of grace. Now here "we are partakers with." Same basic word as the word fellowship back in verse 5. Only in verse 5, the context was partakers with or communion with or fellowship in the gospel. Here it is fellowship with Him of the grace of God, or partaking. Just put a little bit different emphasis, change the word to the English partaking. So this is why he feels so close to them, because they made Paul's persecutions their persecutions. They were not detached from what he was doing, but as much as they were able, they were sharing in what he was doing or partaking with what he was doing. We are going to see that this partaking of what he was doing included being persecuted in much the same way that he had been persecuted back there in the city of Philippi. And when he left the city, remember how he had to get out of town after the earthquake, and then the jailer summoned the city fathers and they found out that he was a Roman citizen. Remember he demanded that the city fathers be brought there, and then they found out he was a Roman citizen, and they were all uptight about that and so he left the city and then he went to Berea and from Berea he went to Thessalonica. But in each place, you see, he underwent persecution and had to kind of go from one place to another. Finally, he got to Thessalonica and he was able to stay there for a little while. So these people were not detached from what he had gone through because the persecution continued after Paul left. And so they understood, they related very closely to what he had gone through not only there but in other places. And that was a major motivation for them to be praying about him and about his circumstance all the time. But not only praying about him, but also helping him with gifts of money to help him along the way. I do not think that he was asking for these gifts because he says in another place that he did not. But he was receiving gifts from these people of their own free will. You can see the effect that it had on Paul. He knew that they felt very close to him and he in turn felt very close to them. So even though it might have been very dangerous for them to identify with the apostle Paul, they did not dodge the issue. And they suffered for it, but they identified with him and did not hide their witness in that way. Paul mentions here another reason why His feeling for them was the way it was and it is contained within this phrase, "inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers with me of grace." Now what were they partakers with? In the context of just this one verse: his chains, the defense and the confirmation of the gospel. Now the way Paul viewed his circumstance there in Rome was that all Christianity was on trial with him. And the outcome of his trial could very well affect the way Christianity was going to be viewed in the Roman Empire, and how it was going to affect those who are already converted, and how it was going to affect the further preaching of the gospel. Now these people apparently understood that as well. They were relating to that. And he viewed, then, his situation as not being a minor affair at all, and the way that it came out was going to have quite an impact on the way Christianity was going to go, because after all, he was one of the leading lights of the Christian church. And so a decision was going to have to be made by the emperor and that was right at the top there. So here was one of the outstanding representatives of the Kingdom of God, and he was confronted by the outstanding representative of the Roman Empire. Philippians 1:8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. He is saying there that only God could vouch for his feelings because they were so deep. And that he felt that his union with Christ, see, this affection of Jesus Christ, that is, union with Christ, gave him the depth of feeling that he had for them. Philippians 1:9-11 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and in all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Overall there, what he said he prayed for was their continued spiritual progress, their growth would continue on. Now he expresses his concern for them by praying for them. You see, here is another aspect of what I mentioned before about this thing about fellowship and prayer. We always have to recognize the divine assistance that we need in our relationships with one another, and Paul is giving example or testimony of this and how he did it. That he would continue to pray for them. If he was praying for their growth and God granted that, what was that going to mean about their relationship? Well, it is going to get even better, even closer. They would be more tightly united. What he is leading up to to here is this is the way you have unity. Because that is going to become the major theme here in just a bit. But he is laying the groundwork on how this problem of disunity that had developed within that congregation is to be resolved. You resolve it by, first of all, recognizing that you are participating in something with these people. You are part of a family with these people. There is absolutely needed the divine assistance in this kind of a relationship, and without that divine assistance, it is not going to work because all of these things are through Christ. That is where our fellowship is. So you begin then by praying for one another. Now he is going to tell you what to pray about. See, in an overall sense that you pray for their continued spiritual progress. What he highlights, then, is that they might grow in love. "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more." He defines this a little bit further by mentioning knowledge and all discernment. Now he has tied that together with love, that "their love may abound in knowledge and in all discernment." By so doing, what he just did there, he shows very clearly that this love is not merely affection. This love is not just a sentimental feeling or a warm feeling of regard or a warm feeling of closeness that we may have for one another. Because you know very well, we can have warm feelings for people who are not converted. And they are genuine feelings and sincere as anything, and not to be in any way denied or thought little of. But what this love is involves knowledge and discernment. So, what he is praying for is that their love will be intelligent and discriminating. That is, discriminating in terms of right and wrong. Now why does that have to be that way? Because warm feelings of affection can be totally wrong too. I mean, a person can commit fornication with a warm feeling of affection. So it has to be discriminating. It has to be discriminating because love is something that is done. Agape love is something that is reasoned. It is an intelligent choice for doing right. Now, if we take it all the way to an extreme, an extreme circumstance, this is what makes it possible for a person to love his enemy. Because normally the feeling against an enemy would not be good. It would be a negative feeling. Anger, maybe even envy, jealousy, or hatred. Now those are not good feelings and there would be passion or heat there. They might even be sincerely held. You see, love, the biblical love, has a moral quality to it, and that is why a person has to be discriminating. He has to be able to discern between right and wrong and then choose the right so that love in its basic definition is something that is done, and at an extreme, you see, it may have no feeling to it at all. Our feelings are educated and our feelings can be wrong. And so you can do an act of love for an enemy even though your feeling is not all that good for that person, to that person. But you discriminate, you discern between what is right and what is wrong, and you choose to do the right thing. That is love. And that is how it is possible to fulfill that command of Christ to love your enemy. If love was only a feeling I am pretty sure there would be very little love for an enemy. So he had to pray, then, that the love would continue to grow, but in knowledge and in all discernment. Another thing that might be added here that I think might be interesting to digress on a little bit. And that is that if you love something, are you not going to try to find out more about it? Well, sure you are. You see, if we love Christ, are we not going to want to spend more time with Him and get to know Him better? Sure we will. But if we love Him, we are also going to not want to do anything that would hurt Him. So it means, then, that we are going to be sensitive to His likes and dislikes. Now back to Paul's request in prayer that it grows or abounds in knowledge and all discernment. You see, somebody who loves is going to be sensitive to other people. They are going to be discerning that person's needs. So, if you find a person needs something, then you can do something to take care of that need, to fulfill that need. And there love is produced. You see, love is what you do, but it has to be accompanied by knowledge, an increase of knowledge, and discernment, which makes you sensitive to a person's needs. A little bit further (verse 10), "that you may approve the things that are excellent." This word means again, to discern or it can even mean to test. So you can test the things that are excellent. Now, this is another one of those technical terms and it came out of the metalworking industry. And it meant to test a metal by holding it up to the light. I do not know how your eyes are, but my eyes are to the place where if I am in any kind of an area that is a little bit dim, I do not see things too well. In fact, if I have my glasses off and I am trying to read something in an area where the light is not too bright, everything is blurry. But if I step out into the sunlight, it is amazing. Everything becomes much more sharply etched. Even though I still do not have my glasses on, I can see much better. Now that is what they did with metal. They might have been working on it in a shop where things were a little bit dim, but they tested it or they approved it by taking the metal out of the shop and holding it up to the sunlight, and then they could see any of the imperfections that were in the metal, things that they could not see in the dimness of the light inside the shop. Now, why is this kind of a metaphor being used in terms of a Christian? Well, what he is asking God that they grow in is the ability to stand up to the light of any test that they are put under. That no matter how closely they are scrutinized by their neighbors, by those who might be interested in the truth, or by those who are persecutors, that these people are going to stand up under the test and the prosecutor's accusations will all be false. And so he is praying that they continue to grow so that they will be able to stand up to any test that comes upon them, that you may be sincere, and without offense. Now here we are getting a little bit further along on the purpose for his prayer, the purpose for his request that they continue to grow in love, in knowledge, and discernment, and that they may be able to stand up to any test that they are put up onto, and that is, that they may be sincere. That means without flaw, again. And without offense till the day of Christ. Now what he wants them to do is to not be a cause of offense, which would do what? What would be the result of a person causing offense? Well, people would be turned off, driven away, see, anything but unified. And so the purpose for his request is that they would not be offensive, but rather that they would be attractive. Now if they are causing no offense, then the other side has to be the result, that is, that they are causing an attraction. Let us take this a step further. What Paul is thinking about here has only partly to do with having, let us say, pure moral character. That is just a bottom line. That is a requirement for everybody. And if I can relate it to Luke 17, where Jesus said, if you have this, then you are still an unprofitable servant. Because someone with good character can also be cold in personality, austere in personality, so that even though their character is good, they really are not very attractive people and will actually cause people to be deflected away from the truth because of their personality. What Paul is saying here is this, "Look, I want you not only to be of good moral character, that is the bottom line. But I also want you to be a person who is of radiant warmth and bright personality that attracts people." You know, somebody who is not a cold fish. So other good characteristics would be somebody, let us say, who was of good moral character, but also was kind, gentle, courteous, pleasant to be around, smiling, happy, joyous, bright, generally helpful, positive of demeanor. You can have a person who is of good character but boy, they are forbidding and foreboding and they are cold fish, and they never smile. I will not say never. That is probably going too far. Maybe they smile when they get their paycheck or something. The corner of their mouth turns up a little bit. But Christianity is not attractive unless it is accompanied by these other aspects of personality. So you see, his request was much more full-bodied than it appears on the surface. Let us feed this into this subject of unity that we are going to come to. Do you not think that people are going to be unified if the person that they are disunited from is perceived to be somebody who is positive and happy and kind and generous and gentle and good? Well, certainly. See, those are things that heal. What Paul is doing is he just very gently and subtly laying down the groundwork for ways of solving this problem as we go along here, and he is not even into the subject yet. Oh yes, he is in the subject. He was a master psychologist. Just a genius at giving people advice so subtlety you hardly knew it was coming. And here he was encouraging you to get together. "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ." You see, something that is produced as a result of the fellowship with Christ. I want to pursue this fruits of righteousness a bit. Actually, it has its roots back in the Old Testament in the book of Amos, which we just went through a little while ago. Amos 6:12 Do horses run on rocks? [Why, that is stupid, idiotic, ridiculous.] Does one plow there with an oxen? [Of course not.] Yet you have turned justice into gall [See, the ridiculous is happening.], and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. That is one of the roots of what became a New Testament term, the fruits of righteousness. Now, is it fruit that is produced by righteousness? Or is righteousness the fruit? Let us go back to the New Testament. This time we are going to go to Hebrews 12, verse 11, where Paul writes here: Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Interesting to note that righteousness and peace go together. Let us go to the book of James, where James picks up on the term. James 3:17-18 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, than peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Let us go back to Philippians 1 again. Now we are left with one of two alternatives here. What he is talking about here is an imputed righteousness and it may be that because of the way that it is mentioned, "which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." You might remember that Abraham was declared to be righteous because of his faith. You see, righteousness was imputed to him as a result of his faith. The second alternative is (I mentioned before) that which is produced by righteousness. Now in this case, it would be that which is produced by righteous or, let us say, right doing, which is what the word righteous means. Now it is my feeling that the former is preferable because of the context in which it appears, and that is, fruit is the result of a process. Now you can see that in the natural world. A tree is planted and it grows. And as that tree grows, it pulls a certain amount of strength out of the ground. It is watered from above, and the sap goes up into the tree, and the leaf does its part, and the fruit that is produced as a result of a process. And so is it spiritually as well. Fruit in us is produced as a result of a process, and that process begins with God. There is one more thing that I have to add here. It is not only the process begins with God, but the power begins with God as well. And that process and that power will produce a harvest of good works—righteousness. Now, this would include all kinds of good and noble activities that are kind and gentle and patient and forbearing and faithful and peace producing. Those kinds of things. The reason I think that he is talking about that which is imputed is because he mentions here about God getting the glory. Now if God had not begun the process, if He had not called us, if He had not given us the power, we would not be doing the things that righteousness will produce. So actually what he is adding here is that our righteousness that is a result of the fellowship that we have with God, that that will continue to grow, because if it does, then it is going to produce the right things. Philippians 1:12-13 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ. This phrase at the beginning of verse 12 is something that Paul uses a number of times in his writings, and it usually precedes a declaration or announcement of something that is pretty significant. Usually it will be a significant assertion. Now what he is doing here is that he is encouraging them to let them know that they need not be overly concerned about the circumstance that he is in. We are going to see this continued now through the rest of the chapter and he is going to encourage them by showing them the state of his mind regarding his imprisonment, so that they will not get discouraged and feel that, oh wow, we have lost the apostle Paul for good. Or that they will not get discouraged into thinking that somehow or another this is going to stop the preaching of the gospel. And what Paul is going to show them is that it is very likely that what happened is actually best that it happened that way. That is, that Paul ended up in prison. And he is going to allude pretty strongly that he was not in prison as a result of any accident at all. That he was not in prison as a result of any kind of lack of wisdom or foolishness or stupidity on his part. That it was God's will that God bring the gospel to the attention of the very top of the government through this means. You can see that there was already a church established in Rome. We know that from the book of Romans. Paul had never been there but there was a congregation there. Somebody else had already evangelized the area. But God wanted to witness right at the very top, and He wanted one of his top men to be the one that would deliver that witness, and Paul was the man that He chose since he was the apostle to the Gentiles. So he says, "But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel." So that is a pretty significant assertion that he makes. Now you wonder, why would he make a statement like that? Well, it is because they asked the question. See, that is implied. Now, how did they ask the question? Well, they did it through Epaphroditus. That is why he was sent, to find out what was going on. So Paul is going to assure them that his being in prison, far from creating a barrier actually proved to be a benefit. Then verse 13, "It has become evident that the whole palace guard, and all the rest, . ." We can only guess who that might mean. Now, did it mean everybody in the whole palace area? Well, most likely. Now, what did had become clear? "That my chains are in Christ." How is this accomplished? Well, it was done like this. Here is a little bit of a history of the Praetorian guard, which is what is in question here. They were originally formed as an elite group of about 3,000 or 4,000 men. Highly trained, skilled murderers is what they were, and their area of operation was around the palace. Now, gradually, as conditions in the empire worsened, their numbers were increased. And as their numbers were increased, not only did their military power increase, but also their political power increased. And instead of being 3,000 or 4,000, they grew to 10,000. Then they grew to 16,000. And it was not very long until nobody could become emperor unless the Praetorian Guard approved. And after a while, their candidate always won. Now, it was about the time of the apostle Paul that they were beginning to pick up political strength. I believe that it was about the time of Domitian that they reached their peak, and that was several emperors later. But they were gaining their power at this time. Now the way that they normally did with a prisoner like Paul was that the man that was watching over Paul was actually chained to him so that they were in the same room together. And they were chained wrist to wrist. Now what he means is that what happened was the guards were rotated. I do not know how frequently they were changed. But the consensus seems to be probably about once a week they were changed. So that they were together with the apostle Paul for one whole week, and then somebody else would be chained to him. Well, you go through a couple of years of imprisonment like that and even if it is once a week, you have got 104 men. And those 104 men are undoubtedly going to be talking to one another and telling about that prisoner that they are with. And the whole Praetorian Guard, as Paul was saying here, came to understand that this prisoner that these men were chained to was no ordinary man. There was something different about him, and that is that he was proclaiming news about a coming government whose head was one Christ. That is why his chains are in Christ. Not only that, but people were coming to hear him in his jail cell. And undoubtedly many of the people who came were motivated to come there as a result of the Praetorian guards going out and telling other people about this prisoner that they had who was so unique from all of the other prisoners. He was probably down there in a good attitude, laughing, joking, and seriously, at the same time talking about the Kingdom of God. He was not down, he was not depressed, he was not cold, he was not foreboding. He was not somebody who turned people off by a dour and sour personality. But he was somebody who attracted by intelligent wit and wisdom, with a mind that was rapier sharp. And yet was not in any way demeaning or condescending. And he was just an unusually attractive in terms of the message that he had to give out and by the force of his personality, even though he may not physically have been an attractive person. So he had the elite coming to him, the elite around the palace coming to listen to him talk about the Kingdom of God. And so they did not have any ordinary foul spirited, self-centered prisoner. That is the way most prisoners would be. They had somebody on their hands that was just different and attracted people there because of his righteous cause. Philippians 1:14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Now here is the other side. Not only did his being in prison bring the gospel to the attention of the very elite, the very top in the government, but also, when the people in the church in Rome began to see what kind of a personality Paul was in spite of the circumstance that he was in, that they took courage from him, you see, the man who was in prison, and I guess they hit the streets preaching the good news as well. They became encouraged, they became confident by my chains and they "are much more bold to speak the word without fear." So, those people then did not go underground as a result of this very famous prisoner being in the prison there, but actually the force of his own personality and confidence infused them with courage. I think you can see that the apostle Paul was not at all depressed about his circumstance. If he was, he certainly covered it up and became a source of encouragement to others. Philippians 1:15-17 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. Now who were these people? Well, I think that it is very likely some of the same ones who were referred to in verse 14 who became confident as a result of Paul's imprisonment. Now, sometimes when we read this, I know that I have done this in the past, where I have read this and I thought that these people were enemies of the gospel. But I no longer think that. Because Paul in no way says that these people were enemies of the gospel. He does say that they were enemies of his. We will explain that a little bit further. At least they were enemies of his from their point of view, not from Paul's point of view. I used to think that, well, maybe these people were Judaizers. But I do not think they were. Because if they were, I think that Paul would have said something about it, like he did in Galatians. In Galatians 1, he very quickly said, "I'm surprised that you're turned away so soon from the gospel of Jesus Christ by another gospel." These people were listening to another gospel. There is no indication of that here. I get the indication, then, that the people who were preaching were doctrinally sound. They had things down right. They were preaching Christ and Him crucified. They were preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. But the problem is that they preached from envy and strife, and they preached from selfish ambition and not sincerely. Now can we put together a scenario of what might have occurred. These were people who came from the congregation of the church of God in Rome. Remember, Paul did not begin, he did not found, he did not evangelize Rome in the preaching that began the congregation there. Someone else did it. So by the time the apostle Paul arrived in chains, the congregation was well underway and they had their own leaders, their own pastor of the church, and undoubtedly other elders and deacons within the congregation. Because the churches of God, the congregations were all organized. So here comes this latecomer who has this great name, and he is thrown into prison. Then the people in the congregation begin to visit him in prison and he is such a personality that those who have the wrong motivations begin to resent him. Here he is, a Johnny-come-lately, so to speak, as far as this congregation is concerned. And he begins to get all of the praise from many of the people in the congregation. He is the one, let us say, the people of Rome who are hearing Paul speak, who is being spoken of as being the real leader of the church there. And I think that what happened is these people's envy of the apostle Paul got the best of them, that even though they were encouraged to go out and preach, and even though they were doctrinally correct in what they said, they were doing it, Paul says, out of selfish ambition, which means that they were doing it trying to get a following for themselves. Now that is tragic. But I think in many cases we can say that we have witness to this in our own lives in the church. People who were essentially doctrinally correct, I do not mean correct in every way, but nonetheless preaching from envy and strife and selfish ambition, and it seems as though their only purpose in life is to deflect people away from the [now defunct] Worldwide Church of God. I think that that is what was occurring here. So these people were guilty of insincerity in their preaching. Look, he even says that they were "supposing to add affliction to my chains." But of course there were some who were preaching "out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel." Philippians 1:18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached [See, Paul was satisfied that these people were preaching the right things, doctrinally.]; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. Do you think that he would rejoice if these people were out there preaching absolute falsehoods in the name of the church of God? I do not think he would rejoice about that at all. The problem with these people in verses 15 through 17 was that their own personal motivation was wrong. It was selfish, it was to get a following for themselves. I am not even saying here that these people are going to start their own congregations. Again, I think that if Paul detected that, he would have said something. I think that they were out to produce a clique for themselves within the already existing congregation or congregations. Philippians 1:19 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Now, salvation (KJV), what does he mean here? You know, the word just means deliverance. And ordinarily, when the word appears like that, we have to try to determine from the context what he is talking about when we consider that the circumstance that he is in. Now did he mean deliverance from prison? Or did he mean spiritual deliverance into the Kingdom of God by means of a resurrection? Well, that is the one that I think that he is talking about. That he is talking about spiritual salvation, deliverance into the Kingdom of God. Now Paul speaks of deliverance or salvation in the past, in the present, and in the future. If you are sharp, you will catch them as you read through, and you will notice that sometimes it is written in the past tense, sometimes it is written in the present tense, and sometimes it is written in the future tense. Now here he is kind of, I believe, encapsulating them all in one. Let us take a look at these because I think that it is worthwhile. But you want to be careful in reading when you come across this word salvation and understand that all it means is the English word deliverance, then you can start thinking about what is the author talking about? Is he talking about deliverance from a circumstance that exists right then, or is he talking about spiritual deliverance, which would involve, then, a death, a resurrection into the Kingdom of God, you know, a change of composition, all of that. Let us go first back to the book of Ephesians in chapter 2. This is an example of the word deliverance used in the past tense. That is, it is used in the sense of it being something that has already occurred even though Paul was still alive. And he is talking about a spiritual salvation or a spiritual deliverance. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved. We know very clearly that the process is not yet complete and yet the deliverance is so sure. As long as things remain on the present trajectory, it is already accomplished. So there it is written in the past tense, you have been saved. Let us go to Philippians again, this time in chapter 2, verse 12. Another very familiar scripture. This time it is written in the present tense. Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own [deliverance] with fear and trembling. Here the process is in the present tense and it has to be addressed that way because of the context in which it appears. You see, it is a process in progress in this context. But where Paul wrote back in the book of Ephesians, because of the context there, it demanded that he write deliverance in the past tense in order to give the kind of encouragement to show that God is going to complete the process and that we need to look at it as being something that is already assured as long as we continue. Now let us look at it in the future context in Romans 13, verse 11. Romans 13:11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. You see, it is still something that is off in the future, but we are moving toward it. It is nearer than when we first believed. Now one of the reasons I bring this up is because sometimes you might get into a conversation with somebody who is of a, let us say, evangelistic persuasion, Pentecostal, something of that nature, and they always emphasize the past tense, that it is something that is already done. They do this to the exclusion of the other two. It is not that they are wrong, that it is something that is already done, but it has to be understood that it is already done if things continue as they are. That has to be fed into it. And in order to get a balanced approach, you need to see Paul's approach to salvation in several different contexts. And then you begin to see that he does not approach it always in the same way all the time. So do not let them fool you or get you discouraged or think that you do not understand things. Salvation, like judgment, is a process. It has a beginning that is in the past, it has a present which is right now, and it has a future that we are moving toward. Back to Philippians. One thing that I wanted to add here. He says, "For I know that this [meaning his imprisonment. I do not think he meant just the thing about the preaching but his imprisonment] that this [circumstance, this event] will turn out for my salvation through your prayer." See, he knew that even as he was praying for them, they were praying for him. If you love somebody, you are going to want to be close to them. You are going to want that fellowship to be closer than ever, and these Philippian people understood that their fellowship was through Christ. And even as Paul understood that and was praying for them, they were praying for him through Jesus Christ as well. There is no wonder they felt so close to one another. There was a reciprocity there. They had a thing going between them. If you read the books of I and II Corinthians you do not find that kind of approach at all. Those people were not in harmony with Paul the way the Philippian church was. Now, what were they praying for him? Well, it seems evident from the verse that one of their major requests was that God would continue to supply him His Spirit. That is why Paul was so up even though he was in jail and even though he might have been facing death, he was not a man who was depressed or discouraged, and he was thanking them that he was aided by their sensitivity to him and his circumstance. Philippians 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. What he is saying there is that regardless of the outcome of his present circumstance he expected spiritual deliverance to be his, tying verse 19 and 20 together. So, he wanted to be bold so that always, whether he lived or whether he died, Christ was going to be exalted in what Paul did. Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. So Paul was not shaken. Regardless of the outcome of the trial that he was about to undergo, he is stating here very firmly that no adverse decision is going to cloud his future, that he is not at all shaken. And he is again showing that in every aspect of life, he identified himself with Christ and he knew that that he was in the circumstance that he was in because of the action of Christ. And that if Christ got him in that circumstance, because Christ was up there manipulating the things so that the gospel could be witnessed to, then he knew that that circumstance was not going to work out in any way except the way that Christ wanted it to work out. Here is a tremendous example of faith. I know that when I was studying this last week I felt when I was reading through this and just turning it over in my mind, trying to think of the kind of circumstance that Paul found himself in and trying to compare my feelings about things, my reactions to things, to the way Paul is stating that he saw things, felt things, and reacted to things, I will tell you, by the time I was done, I felt depressed, you know, that God is not that real to me, that I would be able to write something like this facing the kind of circumstance that Paul faced. I will tell you, there would have to be for me an awful lot of help from God to be able to state what he just did there. You know, "For me, to live as Christ, and to die is gain." I like to live. I do not like to think about being in prison. I do not like to think about being chained maybe to some foul smelling murderer, or a whole series of them for two years. I do not like to think about being cramped up in a small area. I do not know exactly what his circumstances were, but I think that I mentioned to you before that Roman prisons were not like prisons like we have today where a prisoner goes in there and man, he is taken care of. I mean, they have everything from exercise to balanced diets, and whatever. Television sets that they are able to to watch at our expense. But in Paul's day, you got thrown into prison and if somebody did not bring you food, you starved to death. The state did not take care of you. And yet, here is a man who is so supremely confident that his life is in the hand of God, he is cheering everybody else up and everybody else is picking up courage from him. And by the force of his personality people's lives are turned around even though he is the guy that is in prison. I mean, you talk about somebody who is effective in witnessing for God! That is a tremendous example; where you might almost say a whole city is turned on its ear by a man who is in prison. And undoubtedly these people who did come in to hear him were talking about him in their parties, the events that they were going to. Well, it is my prayer that I could be committed to God's will the way the apostle Paul is committed to God's will. It is awfully hard for us to accept somebody else directing our lives. It is just not something that by nature that we want to do. We do not like other people pulling our strings. And we feel a loss of control when we are not dictating the direction that we are going to go in. Paul seemed to be perfectly content to allow God to put him into prison, to allow him to be beaten to within an inch of his life, to allow him to be shipwrecked, to allow him to be beaten by the Jews five times 39 stripes, to go hungry. He says he faced wild beasts in Ephesus and on and on it goes. He is happy cheering everybody else up. That is par for the course, I guess. We have a hard time, brethren, whenever our life is disrupted, even for a day for something that we did not plan on. Philippians 1:22 But if I live on in this flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. What he is saying there is he is committed, whichever way God wants him to go, that is the way he is going to go. Philippians 1:23 For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. What you are going to see here is that Paul is going to tell us that either alternative was okay with him, it was a good one. If he dies, he was confident that he was going to die in Christ. And if he dies, he was not going to have to face shipwreck again. The Jews were not going to beat him within an inch of his life. He was not going to have to face wild animals. He was not going to have to go hungry. He was not going to have to be concerned about taking care of the churches. He was not going to have to be concerned about his friends that he left in other cities and wondering what kind of persecutions they were going through. It was going to be all over, and the next thought that he had he was going to be in the Kingdom of God. It would all be behind him. So that is why he said that is far better. Philippians 1:24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And so he is saying here that there is an advantage, not for him, but for them, if he remained alive. And so he made up his mind. Philippians 1:25 And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith. So his situation was in God's hands and I am sure that what he was stating there was something that he reasoned and it became his conviction based on what seemed to be the most probable. I do not think that we need to say that it shows an infallible knowledge of what was off in the future, but rather from everything that he could see, it was going to be better for him to remain alive at that point. And indeed that is the way that it worked out. Philippians 1:26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. Now that is the continuation of his reasoning as to why he thought it was going to be that he would remain alive. He recognized that and believed that his situation was in God's hands, but he felt that it was going to be needful for them to experience more of Paul's ministry for them to grow. And so the result of that is kind of an interesting statement, "that your rejoicing in me may be more abundant." Well he is talking about the kind of pride that they felt for him. You know, to them, the apostle Paul was special. I mean, I get the feeling that they considered Paul to be their apostle. There is no record that they gave gifts to other apostles, but they did give gifts to Paul. And he started the congregation in Philippi. And so I think that they kind of felt that he was their apostle and so they had a pride in what he had accomplished. So he kind of comes back to them and says that I think that one of the reasons God is going to let me live is so that your pride in me will grow even more. You know, so that there would be even more to be glorying in. Let me finish this thought, and then we will close this off. It is interesting the way Paul always ties statements like this to Christ. See, that their pride in him "may be more abundant in Christ by my coming to you again." Now the emphasis here is on the cause of their glory. The immediate cause would be the continued work of Paul, something that would be visible. They could see him working in the flesh. But what Paul is saying is that it was really in Christ and it only seemed as though Paul would be the one who would be doing it. He is then saying, then, the thing of which to be proud of is that it will be more abundant in Christ. Certainly they would feel proud of Paul, but it was only because Christ was working in Paul that they would really have the right basis for feeling proud about him.
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