Life Goals
I remember the first time I heard the phrase “life verse”. I was in middle school and the youth pastor at my church introduced us, his students, to the concept of claiming a verse in the Bible to follow as our goal. At first the idea sounded pompous to me, but the more I thought about it the more interested I became in the idea. I eventually landed on Ephesians 4.1, “As a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you received.” Not a bad choice, but there is a better one in today’s passage.
Rejoice
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.
Citizenship
Paul steers the topic toward his imprisonment, something from which he is certain he will be “delivered”. Unlike most inmates, Paul didn’t view jail as representing a conflict between himself and the Roman government, or of a fight with the law. Rather, Paul understood it to be a spiritual battle. He was sidelined by Satan because his missionary journeys had been too successful. But this was a battle the devil could not win, for God was fighting for Paul. As evidence of this, Paul’s mission carried on even when he couldn’t go anywhere! The gospel was reaching out to the Praetorian guard, and to everyone else who was part of “the system”.
T-B.C's Anniversary and Intro to Philippians
Today is special in two ways. First, it marks the fourth anniversary of Think-Biblically.com. That’s right, we’ve been helping people build connections with God and teaching people to think God’s thoughts for four years. This is truly a labor of love, and we prove that every day by being free of advertising and memberships. This is not a financial venture, it’s a spiritual one. While our reader base isn’t as grand as some sites, we’re proud to have helped others increase their faith and improve their relationship with our creator. So please celebrate with us today the work we do for you and for our Lord.
Safeguard
The first verse of chapter three both ends Paul’s previous discussion and introduces his next topic. Interwoven in his instruction regarding growing nearer to God and being a light in the community and encouragement to being humble is the constant cheer, “rejoice!” As a Christian community, when we rejoice in the success of others we find that others rejoice in ours, God is glorified, and an infectious faith begins to spread. It seems straightforward enough, a little challenging but worth the effort and certainly doable. So why does Paul bring the warmth of his instruction to a halt by inserting that last phrase?
Paul's Poem
Let’s get one thing out of the way at the start, this passage is not a first century hymn that Paul is quoting. Lots of credible Bible scholars in the past have taught this as a likely source for these verses, but alas it is not to be. Some who know more about music than they perhaps do the Bible have looked at the original Greek and, to a musician, they don’t see the right set of rhythm or form for this to be a hymn of the first, or any, century. Though that didn’t stop one man from making it just that.
Advancing the Gospel
I remember well at the tender age of 15 sitting on a bench with a friend while waiting for the number 100 bus. We were both Christians and we both desperately wanted to be obedient to God and to win the world for Christ. Looking across the street we saw another guy waiting for his bus and it struck us both that we should make an effort to tell him the gospel. We had probably 20 “Knowing God Personally” tracts in our backpacks. We sat there and looked at each other. Finally I stood up and said, “that guy needs Jesus” and started walking across the street.
Living Water and Sukkot
Yesterday we examined the concept of “living water” in John 4 and John 7, connecting the idea to Genesis 26 and the well of Abraham. We learned that Jacob’s well was the inspiration for Jesus to refer to “living water” in John 4, but what inspired him to make his second reference to this illustration later in John 7? The answers are there in the text, if we are familiar with Jewish feasts -- something I believe is vitally important the more I read the New Testament. All believers ought to be familiar with the seven feasts God instituted early on.
Humility
At first glance it appears that these 12 verses at the end of chapter two are out of place. Why does Paul break the action by making these personal notes about his friends, Timothy and Epaphroditus? It seems this discussion of travel plans and other details belong at the end of the letter in keeping with Paul’s usual style and in keeping with Greek structure. But thrown in somewhere in the middle? What was Paul thinking, and what does any of this have to do with Christian living? Understanding Paul’s point requires we go back to the beginning.
Hope and Love
In chapter two, we move from hope to something deeper and more substantial. In the first four verses leading up to Paul’s attempt at poetry, we come across some pretty amazing imperatives. They are heart-warming and yet each one of them hinges on a single phrase that, at least for mature believers, is easy to miss: “in Christ”. All the encouragement of faith, all the comfort of love, all fellowship affection and mercy are found only in our savior. Many people search their entire lives for the one person they cannot live without, but Christians have already found him.
Philippians Part One
Paul begins his letter in the typical Roman fashion, with a couple caveats. The Roman template included an introduction that identified the recipients, a statement of thanksgiving, and an introduction. Paul usually lengthened the thanksgiving section by including prayers for the people. We see this exemplified here as he introduces himself and timothy as slaves of Christ, then the letters recipients, and providing a long thanksgiving section (verses three through 11). The word translated as “slaves” is better understood as a bondservant, someone who sells himself into the service of another. This was not unethical or done unwillingly, and in Jewish culture denoted honor.
Living Water
Last week we took a fresh look at Jesus’ meeting a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and while some of what we looked at may have been surprising we didn’t look at the central message of Jesus. Jesus said he could give her living water, and that whoever drank of it would never thirst again. This is the first time Jesus uses this metaphor (John 4), and from the second use (John 7) we know that the living water he is referring to is the Holy Spirit. Where did this idea of “living water” come from? Would you believe the well?