Print

By Tyson Thorne

November 30, 2017
 
 

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world 2:16 by holding on to the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain. 2:17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice together with all of you. 2:18 And in the same way you also should be glad and rejoice together with me.

For several years I taught a college age Bible study, and every week I made a handout to help guide the lesson. It began with a section called “Warm Up” which was a series of questions designed to get the students thinking. At the end was the application section, containing ideas for how to live out the lessons we just learned, that was called “Work Out”. Yesterday we learned that when Paul uses the phrase “working out your faith” that this is what he meant, a faith that was applied and lived. Today we study Paul’s “work out” for the Philippians.

While Paul praises the people for their obedience to God and keeping the faith, the church wasn’t without its problems. In verses three and four of chapter two we see that there were likely issues with selfish ambitions and vanity, and here in verse 14 that their obedience was marked with grumbling and argumentative adherence. As imperfect as they were (and honestly, what church is perfect?), they were still a positive witness for Jesus in their depraved Roman city. In case you think Paul is only being complementary when he calls them a shining light, it is entirely possible for a church to have an impact in a great city. In the mid 1970’s then Mayor Richard Daily stated publicly that, “when the students return to Moody Bible Institute it’s as if someone turned a light on over the city of Chicago.” Perhaps a good “warm up” question would be, what difference is your church making in its city?

He turns from encouraging the people for their past behavior to encouraging them to stand firm in their faith, but introduces an interesting twist. Not only does remaining faithful produce good results for them, but also for Paul. In my estimation, the church doesn’t talk enough about heavenly rewards. Jesus taught we should lay up treasures for ourselves in heaven, and the way we do that is through living faithfully for Jesus (Matthew 6.19-21). The believers were earning rewards through their faithful living and testimony, and Paul was earning his through his careful discipleship of the church. Just as God boasted to Satan of Job’s faith, so Paul looked forward to boasting about the church of Philippi.

Paul concludes this section of the letter by reminding the people of the very real possibility that he may die in prison – a fate he was happy to accept should it be God’s will. Unlike those who fear death, for Paul the shedding of the body led to a uniting with his savior. Whether he was released from prison, or released to heaven, Paul had every reason to rejoice and he asked the church to rejoice with him. We could consider this Paul’s “workout” section, to have joy and rejoice. Rejoicing is a central theme of this letter, with 15 references in four short chapters – and we’ve already seen more than half of those references already! (1.4-5, 1.18-19, 1.25, 2.2, 2.17-18, 2.28-29, 3.1, 4.4 and 4.10). Some of these verses use the Greek word chara, translated as “joy”, and the others use the verb chairo, translated “rejoice” or “make joyful”. We’ll point out the other references as we go along, and formulate a Big Idea of the letter at that time. Until then, take time today and during the upcoming Advent season to rejoice in God’s provision for your life, regardless of your circumstances, just as Paul did.