PHILIPPIANS 2; 12-16a; 3:10-19.
PHILIPPIANS 2: 12-16a; 3: 10-11, 12-14, 15-16, 17-19.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO PHILIPPIANS 2.
We began this series of “God’s Great Salvation” by asking, “What does the Bible teach about being Born Again?” We found that the Bible teaches that each member of the Trinity is involved in the new birth but that we each must choose to receive salvation from God to be born again.
Regeneration is the work of God in which He changes the condition of a person from spiritual defeat and death to a new life of holiness.
We asked last Sunday how people---all of whom are guilty before God----can be acquitted in His sight? The Bible in Romans asserts that all people are guilty before God but when they exercise faith in Christ, God declares them righteous. But conversion is not the end of the Christian life but the beginning.
When a child is born we expect that child to grow. Now following the new birth the child of God asks, “How can I grow spiritually?” Paul in Philippians 2 and 3 is careful to tell us how we may grow. He stresses the doctrine of sanctification.
Dr. Lynn Pryor who wrote our “Advanced Bible Study” commentary for this quarter says, “It is not enough just to be saved. I want more.” Salvation is like marriage. Marriage is far more than a wedding---the initial commitment. It is a lifetime of growing closer together and deeper in love. This study will help us see that principle in our spiritual lives. We will discover the joy of being able to grow in our walk with Christ as we move through today’s study.
To grow, a believer in Christ must practice Christian disciplines such as Scripture reading, prayer, giving, witnessing, and being involved in a community of faith.
If we do not grow in our relationship with the Lord, we do not please the Lord. Spiritual maturity doesn’t come instantly, or easily. Paul, in today’s lesson explains what sanctification is and how we can grow spiritually.
PLEASE READ PHILIPPIANS 1: 12-13.
Paul is always intensely practical. He always relates doctrine and duty, creed and character, faith and life. As is always the case with Paul, the words are carefully and meticulously chosen.
“Work out your own salvation,” says Paul. This has the idea of bringing to conclusion, to a full and complete and perfect accomplishment and conclusion.
It is as if Paul said, “Don’t stop halfway; don’t be satisfied with a partial salvation. Go on until the work of salvation is fully and finally wrought out in you.
The Book of Philippians paints a wonderful picture of Paul’s attitude in ministry, and it can be summed up in one word: joy. Paul wrote this letter while imprisoned and facing hardship, but Paul’s writing is infused with joy. He also called the Philippians to express the same joy; he summed up this letter in Phil. 4: 4 with the command to rejoice.
I can say with confidence that the avenue for experiencing joy comes when we follow Paul’s injunction in Phil. 1: 27 to live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Paul’s hope was eventually to see the Christians in Philippi face to face, but whether or not that happened, he called them to live in a way that honored Christ and was worthy of the gospel and salvation they had received.
How is that expressed in the church as a whole? Collectively we honor Christ when we stand “firm in one spirit, with one mind, working side by side for the faith of the gospel.”
Paul pointed us to the best example of that ---Jesus Christ--- and in Phil. 2:5-11 called us to have the same attitude.
In 2: 12-13 Paul then returned to his original topic: a practical exhortation on how the Philippians were to live—whether in his presence or in his absence. Therefore connects these verses which immediately precedes them. Christ obeyed the Father and carried out His plan even to the death on the cross. Paul’s exhortation was direct and pointed but tempered with love, for he called the believers “my dear friends.”
This tender expression doubtless reminded them of the experiences they dared with the Apostle and Silas when they first came to Christ and established their church back in Acts 16: 19-40. When Paul was with them, they followed his instructions willingly and quickly. He reminded them of this before he asked them to do the same at the present time, even though he was far from them. He had earlier spoken of his absence back in Phil. 1: 27.
The special request he had for them, in view of their needs and in view of the example of Christ, is said forcefully---“continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
They were told to “work out,” to put into practice in their daily living, what God had worked in them by His Spirit. They were not told to work for their salvation but to work out the salvation God had already given them.
In view of the apparent problems of disunity and pride among those believers this interpretation seems correct. Some were not doing their work selflessly and with the interests of others ahead of their own.
Remember to whom Paul was writing---the church. The people in the church at Philippi were already Christians. There was no need to work for something they already had obtained by faith. Also, the work of salvation is always pictured in Scripture as a work God has done for us, never as something that we do for God.
Perhaps it is best to see both the outworking of personal salvation rather than looking exclusively on their own needs and the corporate salvation or deliverance of the whole assembly from whatever held them back from experiencing God’s best for them. The outworking was to be done “with fear and trembling, with a complete trust in God and not in themselves.”
In one sense, salvation is a past event. Paul stated in Eph. 2:8 that we “are saved.” Salvation is also a future event. Paul wrote of the future consummation of our salvation in Rom 13: 11, “Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”
Sandwiched between the past fact of salvation and the future, full, and final realization of all that salvation entails is the present element of working out this salvation. Paul stated it succinctly in Phil. 1: 6 God started a good work in us (we were saved). He is carrying on the work (we are being saved), and He will bring His work to completion at the day of Christ Jesus (we will be saved).
The focus in Phil 2: 12 is on “we are being saved.” This is God’s work of sanctification wherein our salvation is worked out. In the purpose driven life, Rick Warren explained this in terms of a physical workout. When a person exercises, he is not trying to get muscles, but he is trying to develop and strengthen the muscles he already has.
When we work out our salvation, we are taking the salvation God has given us and are strengthening it through spiritual growth. As we grow closer to Christ, we carry out the goal: we are maturing and working toward becoming complete in Christ. We are working toward Christ-likeness.
Those who believe that salvation is based on human works; cite these words, “work out.” These include irreligious people who believe they don’t need the new birth to live a decent life, and they also include the vast host of religious people who trust in their own ability to please God.
As we engage ourselves in the process of sanctification, we are to do so with fear and trembling. Part of this fear can be considered as a distrust of self. We are well aware of our own weakness and bent toward sin.
These words, “fear an trembling” do not imply any uncertainty about one’s salvation but they do emphasize the seriousness of the appeal to work out one’s salvation.
We may have a desire to do what is right and to face up to temptation, but we are powerless to do so triumphantly. Such fear and trembling should drive us into the arms of God. Just as we cannot save ourselves, we cannot live Christian lives ourselves. We need God.
This fear and trembling also incorporates an awe and respect for God. There should be a seriousness and reverence that comes from the realization that the all-powerful, sovereign God of the universe is living and working in our lives.
Perhaps it would help to think of this as a fear motivated by love. We never want to hurt someone we love, and we are to work out our salvation with a fear and trembling that we do not want to live or act in any way that would grieve our loving Father.
What Paul has written thus far appears to assume our free agency. It seems to emphasize what we do. The reality, though, is that we cannot work out our salvation without God’s intervention. Paul made no attempt to reconcile the picture here of our free will to work and God’s sovereign role of working in us. Let’s be satisfied that God calls us to the task and then helps us to carry out the task.
There is a human responsibility, but there is also divine empowerment. It is a partnership. We work out our salvation with a serious realization that God is working in us. Perhaps, with a play on words, Paul told us to work out what God works in. This should certainly keep us from ever feeling egotistical or superior because of our spiritual growth. I can boast of nothing in my Christian life, because it is God working in me. What a wonderful picture—not of a judge who holds us accountable but of a loving God who is the unfailing Source of all we need!
The word for God’s working is a word that is always used for the working of God, and it refers to an energizing work that is always effective. When God works, He succeeds! When God works in our lives He enables us both to will and to act. These are not really two separate actions, because the one who wills inevitably does. God places the desire within us to be obedient, and then He leads us to do it.
Why? For His good Purpose! When we are obedient, we are true to God’s purpose. We carry out His will, and the purpose behind His will is to bring glory to Himself.
To the Ephesians in Eph. 1:6 Paul also wrote about God working in us according to His will, “to the praise of His glorious grace.”
God enables us to work out our salvation, and the way we work it out is to bring praise and glory to the One who gave it to us.
PLEASE READ PHILIPPIANS 2: 14-16a.
These verses add further support to the view that Paul’s subject was sanctification. Paul warned of disruptive dissension, moral confusion, and failures about the Word of life. There are hints throughout the letter that Paul was concerned about the unity of the church.
When we are working for God’s purpose and His glory, its difficult to be self centered. Yet it is such self-centeredness---and even pride in our own spiritual progress---that leads us away from unity around God’s purpose for us.
Paul reminded us that this should not be. Not only is out- and-out arguing out of place, but so is grumbling. Grumbling can be so much more subtle, but it can be just as harmful. The Greek word for grumbling is a word that is spelled like the sound it represents. In this case, the word reflects the cooing of doves. This is not loud, outspoken complaining but more like an under-the-breath murmuring.
Paul warned us not to allow even this subtle dissension in our church ranks. We are to stay centered on Christ’s purpose, not our individual self-centered purposes that clash with one another. Working and praying for the church’s oneness of spirit is part of growing in spiritual maturity.
When we live as Paul described, we are seen as blameless and pure. Our lives are to be pure—unadulterated with the things of the world. Our lives are to be of such purity that no one can blame us or find fault with anything in our lives. We already are children of God, but we are to live like children of God—blameless…pure…. and, faultless.
The faultlessness of believers is contrasted with the world of non-believers, which is characterized by Paul as a crooked and perverted generation. This generation is crooked in that it has turned away from the truth. Perverted is an even stronger word and carries the idea that it has twisted and distorted the truth.
The truth alone is straight, and as believers align themselves with the truth and live faultless lives, they stand in sharp contrast to those around them who have not only rejected the truth, but have allowed the truth to get twisted and distorted. This speaks of the moral distinction between those who follow Christ and those who follow their own designs.
The contrast is so sharp between the two groups that it can be compared to the difference between light and darkness. In the midst of the moral darkness around us, we are to shine like stars in the world.
Jesus is the light of the world, and as His followers we are also light. As Christ lives through us, we shine His light. Even with our imperfections, we still serve as a light to a world in darkness. We shine---we are seen---and we point to Christ. We are stars—luminaries—regardless of what the world thinks of us, or our message.
In vs. 16, because we reflect Christ to the world around us, it is important that we hold firmly to the message of life. It is not just any message, but a message---the message---of life. This message is the gospel of Christ and we are to hold to it firmly in our words and in how we live. But this does not mean keeping it to ourselves. We must offer it to others.
God does not leave us to try and grow spiritually on our own. He gives us both the willingness and the power to grow and fulfill His purpose. As individuals we are to grow spiritually so that the church as a whole is able to shine and show God’s message of life to the world.
PLEASE TURN NOW TO CHAPTER 3.
3. PLEASE READ PHILIPPIANS 3: 10-11.
Paul began chapter 3 in vs. 1-3 with a scathing denunciation of Judaizers. In vs. 4-6 he described a time in his life when he honestly thought that he was as close to being perfect as he could be. The in vs. 7-9 he told how he had counted all things as loss in order to know Christ. It is obvious from vs. 7-9 that Paul had come to know Christ and found “the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
Why then did he write that his goal was to know Him? He already knew Christ in justification by faith, but the more Paul knew Him, the more he wanted to know Him. This is a sure sign that a saved person is growing in grace. Knowing Christ begins with conversion, continues in sanctification, and is perfected in glorification.
Paul did not want just an intellectual knowledge, to know certain facts about Christ. The verb for know in vs. 10 refers to the most intimate knowledge possible. Paul wanted to know Christ personally in t
he deepest way. When you read vs. 7-11, you can’t help but sense Paul’s passion to know Christ.
This experiential knowledge of Christ can only come to us as we become like Christ. Paul expressed this in two areas where he desired intimate knowledge of Christ: His resurrection and His suffering.
Like Paul, we also should seek to know the power of His resurrection. When we join Christ and experience that power---the power that overcomes any resistance---we join Him in victory over death and sin. Acts 2: 36 says that by the resurrection Christ was made both Lord and Messiah. As the resurrected Lord, Christ becomes for us “wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor.1: 30). We partake of these things, as we know Christ in His resurrection.
Paul’s goal was also to know the fellowship of His sufferings. This does not mean that we play a role in Christ’s substitutionary work on the cross, but it means that we endure any hardships and face whatever the world hurls at us because of our righteous stand with Christ. In this we are conformed to His death, dying to our own wants and wishes and seeking only the Father’s will, just as Christ willingly died to carry out the Father’s will.
When we conform, we become like another person: we become on the outside what has become a part of our inner nature. This is sanctification: By the power that raised Jesus from the dead, we are to walk as Jesus walked and die to ourselves in obedience even as Christ obediently died.
The resurrection we experience has two phases. At conversion we are resurrected spiritually to a new life. Our spiritual resurrection culminates in the second phase, a physical resurrection from among the dead.
Paul did not know how it would happen, but he was confidently assuming it would happen because of the power of the resurrection he already had experienced. Paul’s goal---as ours should be---was to know Christ ultimately in that glorified state where there is perfect, unbroken knowledge of Christ.
PLEASE READ PHILIPPIANS 3: 12-14.
Had Paul reached that perfect knowledge yet? No. He had come to experience it to some degree, but he knew he was not yet fully mature. Paul had not reached a state of maturity where his spiritual growth was complete and there was no need for further development. Using Paul’s imagery of an athlete running, we could say that Paul’s conversion was the starting line, not the goal.
Unfortunately, many Christians see conversion as the goal. Conformity to Christ is the goal, which can only begin once conversion has taken place.
Paul believed in instant conversion but not in instant spiritual maturity. Over the centuries some people have claimed sinless perfection. Apparently there were some of these in Philippi, whether Judaizers or early Gnostics. Paul wanted to disclaim any such perfection for himself. He wrote, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.” “Were perfect” can also mean, “were mature.” It is from the word for “end” or “goal.” Thus Paul used it here as achieving God’s purpose in life: “Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature but I make every effort to talk hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.” “I press to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
Christ had laid hold of Paul with a purpose for his life. Paul’s obsession was to fulfill that purpose.
Vs. 13 gives added insight into what Paul meant by pressing on. He used a popular biblical comparison of the Christian life to a race. He mentioned many ways in which his life was like a race. First, he said, “This one thing I do.” His total concentration was on this.
For another thing, he was not looking back over his shoulder at what was behind him. He was forgetting those things, which are behind. Paul did not tell us what these were. He could have included sins and failures. They could have included accomplishments, which can become points of pride.
Third, Paul was reaching forth unto those things, which are before. His eyes were fixed on what lay ahead. He was “straining toward what is ahead.”
The body of the racer is bent forward, his hand is outstretched towards the goal, and his eye is fastened upon it.” The goal of this race is the mark for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.
This upward calling was not unique to Paul, although aspects of his ministry were. Every believer receives an upward calling. At this point the comparison to a race breaks down, for only one person can win. In this race there are many winners---all who faithfully run the race.
Paul would neither glory in his past achievements nor use them as a reason not to move any further spiritually. Instead, Paul said that he would make every effort. The goal before him was worth all expenditure of effort. Jesus had taken hold of him, and Paul found it worth the effort to take hold of the very thing for which Christ had taken hold of him!
Paul’s perspective was all oriented toward the future. Can you picture the runner reaching forward, straining to touch the tape, break it, and finally crossing the finish line? In a spiritual sense, that was what Paul was doing. He worked and lived for the day when he would gain the victory in the race. His one goal was to reach the goal of total conformity to Christ, something he saw as the best of all prizes. Through Christ Jesus, God had called him to Christ likeness, and Paul knew he would never be through until he reached that goal, the very goal for which God had called him. Christ likeness, then, is both the goal and the prize.
PLEASE READ PHILIPPIANS 3: 15-16.
Paul told us that this should not just be his passion but that all of us should be in this pursuit: All who are mature should think this way. How could Paul refer to those who are mature when he had just referred to not being fully mature himself?
In vs. 12 he was referring to the idea of spiritual perfection with no room for improvement. In vs. 15 he was referring to those who are no longer spiritual babies, but they have grown up some in their relation to Christ. These are Christians who no longer need to be spoon fed, but they also know they’re still on the road to maturity.
The whole context leads us to see that apparently there were false teachers in the church who taught or claimed sinless perfection. Coming back to the idea of unity, Paul said that we, if we are spiritually mature, would understand that however mature we may be, we have not fully arrived at the goal of complete Christ likeness. What if we disagree? Paul could do nothing but leave it in God’s hands.
Regarding the right attitude or viewpoint in a matter, “God will reveal this to you also.” What was happening in the Philippians church may have been a minor issue, because Paul chose not to deal with the specifics of the matter. What he did call the church and--- us to do---was to live up to whatever truth we have attained.
There are thing we already know for sure, around which the church body has consensus and we need to ensure that we are living up to those things. The idea of a disciplined walk based on the truth and principles we know, a walk wherein we are all walking in the same direction. We are growing and living in the truth we understand, and we are doing it together. The only thing that matters is running the course that brings us closer to Christ likeness. We are to focus on moving forward in Christ.
PLEASE READ PHILIPPIANS 3: 17-19.
Earlier, in Phil. 2: 5 Paul had called them to imitate Christ, and now he called them to imitate him as he sought to imitate Christ and move toward Christ likeness. There was no ego involved, for Paul also exhorted them to observe others who live according to the example you have in us. The humble realization that I need to grow in Christ is a trait I need to look for in others. The members of a church can be an encouragement to each other, as they provide examples and are mentors in spiritual growth.
For one thing, the moral confusion in the Greco-Roman world was great. How were converts from paganism to learn about Christian living? They needed examples, models of what Christians say and do.
The first missionaries in any such environment inevitably became examples to which new converts looked. Paul did not back off from this duty. He tried to set a good example of Christian living.
Second, remember that Paul had just confessed in vs. 12-14 that he wasn’t perfect. Thus he did not set himself up as a perfect example. In fact, his humility was an example of a Christian attitude. Christians know they have not attained, but they are pressing on.
Third, notice that Paul called them to look for examples not only to him but also to other Christians. He used the word us in vs. 17. In Phil 3: 19-30 Paul used Timothy and Epaphroditus (ih-paf-roh-DIGH-tuhs) as examples.
Vs. 18-19 make clear the desperate need for good examples. They had enough bad examples, some who even claimed to be religious people. Paul said that he had warned the Philippian believers often of these people.
Emotion characterizes the text, and Paul confessed his tears as he wrote. It is the only recorded instance that the apostle Paul cried. Paul said that they were guilty of some terrible things. They were enemies of the cross of Christ. Their sins were so bad that their end is destruction. Their god is their belly. They glory in things that should make them feel shame. They give their attention only to earthly things.
What group did Paul warn against in vs. 18-19? Were these the same people he warned against in vs. 1-3 or were they different groups? Some Bible students believe they were the same groups. The first group is fairly easy to identify because Paul once held views like theirs. They were Judaizers who believed in being justified by works of the law. In other words, they were legalists.
Paul’s testimony of his pre-Christian experience in vs. 4-6 confirms this. Legalists could become perfectionists. But could they be described as Paul described the people in vs. 18-19? Vs. 19 seems to describe people who reveled in sensual sins. This was usually not true of the self-righteous legalists. Whoever the people of vs. 19 were, they appear to have been sensual libertines. The most likely group were those who later came to be called Gnostics. Some of them believed sensual sins were not sinful.
Paul often fought a two-front war against legalists and against libertines. Libertines in Corinth took pride in their tolerant attitude toward incest in the church. They also insisted that sexual immorality is only satisfying a physical drive. Therefore whatever name we give the group in Philippians 3: 18-19, they were libertines or antinomians. They believed in getting their satisfactions in this life. Their minds were set only on earthly things. They felt no tension between present experiences and a future hope. Everything focused on the here and now.
Both legalism and libertinism are threats today. Legalism is the more subtle danger. It is most often clothed in religious terminology and advocated by people within the church. However, many decent people outside the church live by a subtle form of legalism. They have reduced the biblical message to commonplace moral expectations. They feel no need for God, Christ, Salvation, or the church.
Libertinism, however, is the more powerful force at work today. Traditional morality has taken a beating. Increasing numbers of people have no absolute moral convictions. Moral absolutes are things of the past; Moral relativism is the in thing. The end result often is a self-indulgence similar to that of these libertines. Paul warned against following either legalists or libertines.
You may have noticed the word sanctification is not in the Focal Verses, but the ideas of moral and spiritual maturity are.
People who have been saved from sins penalty should be working with God on continuing the process. They should have good fellowship with one another, should be lights in a sin-darkened world, and should hold fast and hold forth the Word of life.
The cross and resurrection are what they believe in and experience as they know Christ. Believers are not perfect but they are pressing on in the Christian life. Their goal is to be what God called them to be. Mature believers are their models, and they avoid the snares of legalism and libertinism.
Both the Life Question and the Life Impact focus on growing as a Christian. By biblical standards each saved person is a saint—one set apart by God to grow in moral and spiritual maturity. In today’s society we are expected to act like saints, for the sake of others!
NEXT WEEK’S STUDY WILL PICK UP IN PHILIPPIANS 3: 20-21 TO HELP US BETTER UNDERSTAND THE FOCUS ON SPIRITUAL THINGS IN THE “THE KINGDOM OF GOD.” A.V. DAUGHERTY altav@swbell.net