“I thank my God every time I remember you. In
all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your
partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of
this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until
the day of Christ Jesus. It
is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart
and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you
share in God’s grace with me. God
can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that
your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that
you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the
day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus
Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
In today’s post we’ll be
focusing our attention on verses 3 through 11.
I’ll be approaching this portion of scripture a little bit differently
today. I want to break this passage down
to small bites and try to squeeze some “nuggets of truth” for you and me to
apply from every phrase or sentence is the passage. I decided to begin this post with the day’s scripture
passage so that we can all start on the “same page”. Remember, before you read another sentence
in this post please pause and ask God to “open the eyes of [your] heart” so
that you will see what He wants you to see, personally, in today’s scripture
reading. Thanks for taking the time from
your busy day to spend a little time here reading today’s lesson. Here we go!
“I thank my God every time I
remember you.” (verse 3)
This
is a great encouragement to all of us. I hope you remember from our first post on
Philippians that Paul was writing this letter from prison. It always amazes me that he wrote such
optimistic and joyful words from that perspective. I think he was concerned that his situation
would overshadow what he was trying to share with the believers he was writing
to. Also, he was living out, by example,
his admonition to be content no matter what the situation because God is still
in your life and in control even when you don’t feel it or see it. This absolutely applies to us today as much
as it did in Paul’s lifetime. We are so
quick to let our present circumstances take control of our attitudes. Paul wrote of his “thankfulness” at the very
remembrance of the believers from Philippi.
He could have felt disappointed, discouraged or even hopeless in this
situation. He didn’t know if he would
ever see these people again and he held them in such high regard. He could easily have let his situation take
control of his attitude, behavior and outlook but, instead, every time the
Philippians and their love and support brought thankfulness to his mind. Paul encourages us in several places to have
an attitude of thankfulness when we think of God’s hand in our lives or when we
reach out to Him whether in praise or in struggle. Paul wants us to do that with an attitude of
thanksgiving. That’s great advice. I hope we can all remember that and not let
the circumstances which we find ourselves in cause us to fall into a “deep,
blue funk” with feelings of despair, discouragement and failure. Paul sure didn’t even though he was in
prison!
“In all my prayers for all of you, I
always pray with joy because of
your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (verses 4 & 5)
With everything going on or going
wrong in Paul’s life he writes of his fond remembrance of the members of his
“family” in the church at Philippi. I
had this thought…do you have fond and joyous thoughts when you remember the
folks in your own church? Ouch! That kind of pricked the heart didn’t
it? It did mine. We are all human and that means that we
experience all kinds of personalities (and that sometimes means all kinds of
“issues”) with those in our local church.
Remember, we are in the same “family”.
Do you pray for those in your church?
I don’t mean just the one who preaches the Word, or leads the choir or
teaches Sunday School. I mean the ones
who clean the sanctuary, greet you at the door, fix the coffee, play the piano
and a hundred other tasks that happen daily inside every church because of
these unsung heroes. There are bound to
be folks about whom you don’t necessarily feel warm and fuzzy in church as well. We are all different and have different
personalities by God’s design. You will
find yourself more comfortable around or drawn to certain types of people, even
within your own church. It’s human nature…birds
of a feather don’t cha know. We all need
to be reminded that they are still part of our “family” and we need to love
them, respect them, connect with them and probably most important we need to
pray for them. I know in my own life
that is usually what changes my heart
and my attitude is to spend time
praying for those very people that I
might not like so much. You know, it’s
funny but when I pray for some of those people it’s my own heart and attitude
that God changes. You’d almost think He’d
arranged it that way on purpose.
Luke 6:27 & 28 speaks to this
when he writes “But to you who
are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for
those who mistreat you.”
Now you may be thinking that people aren’t treating you like that but I
think this still applies to us in similar situations. Often, we respond ‘in kind’ to people who may
be less than kind or amiable toward us.
It’s not always easy but it’s important to show them the love of Christ,
the love he shows us. Later on in the
same chapter Jesus gives us a very familiar bit of advice. It’s found in verse 31. “Do to others as you would
have them do to you.” It’s so simple
but so powerful. Treat others in the
same way you would like to be treated.
Simple, yes, but also profound.
Can you imagine what all of our relationships would look like if we just
applied this one principle to all our relationships? Wow!
“being confident of this, that he
who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of
Christ Jesus.” (verse 6)
This verse contains a promise. In the last paragraph I wrote of one simple
sentence which could be life changing.
Here’s one promise that has the potential to do the same thing in our
lives. It simply states that God isn’t
going to leave you. “he who began a good work in you will carry
it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”. It should be pretty clear. If God has begun working in your life He’s
not leavin’! He’s shared this thought,
this promise, repeatedly. Here are a
couple examples.
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake
you.”
Hebrews 13:5
God ain’t goin’ nowhere
friends. Oh, there will be times in
every life when we feel He’s not there.
I think that’s a fairly universal emotion we all experience at one time
or another but it’s just not true. For
it if is then God’s Word is false and that’s just not true. No matter what is happening in our lives we
can know, we can be confident in the fact that God is there, God cares, God
will help us get through whatever we are dealing with. We might not sense His presence but know that
He’s there. That’s His promise, not
mine. And if we remember it at those
times it can change our entire outlook on our own situation and our future. God is not letting go of you, my friends.
“It is right for me to feel this way
about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or
defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.” (verse 7)
There it is again. Paul feels so close to and thankful for his
“family” in Philippi because, in his own words, “I have [you] in my heart”. This
reminds us all to hold each other in our own hearts as dearly loved family
members. Paul says that when he does
this it reminds him that the grace of God which freed him from the penalty of
his sins is the same grace that covers the sins of those he holds “in his
heart”. There is a very familiar phrase,
as a matter of fact our pastor used it just this past Sunday, which is good for
us to remember whenever we are feeling a bit judgmental. It is simply this…There but for the grace of God go I. We’ve got no reason to feel prideful or
superior to another, especially to a member of our own “family”. Whatever we have, whatever we are, whatever
we do for the Lord is because of how He is working within us. It’s all about Him and never about us. At least it shouldn’t be!
Paul also mentions “chains” in this
verse. If you recall, Paul was in chains
when he wrote this and other letters to the various churches. He didn’t let that interfere with his
ministry or testimony. Paul had learned
how to stay positive, joyous and encouraging.
He shared his secret in the fourth chapter of Philippians but we’ll take
a little sneak peek at it right here because it fits so well. In Philippians 4:12,13 Paul said:
“I know what it is to be in need, and I
know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in
any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty
or in want. I can do all this through him
who gives me strength.”
Paul reminds us that we shouldn’t rely on our
situation or conditions to dictate our attitude. If Jesus is in our hearts we have what we
need to help us walk through this life.
Throughout our lives situations will change, sometimes for the better,
sometimes for the worse, sometimes quite gently and sometimes quite severely. When change comes, and it will, we need to
hang on to this thought from Paul’s letter to the Roman church. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for
us, who is against us? He who did not
spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with
Him freely give us all things?…” (Romans 8:31, 32)
“God can testify how I long for all
of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. (verse
8)
There is a
familiar old chorus that says “I’m so
glad I’m a part of the family of God. I’ve
been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His blood. Join heirs with Jesus as we travel this
sod. I’m a part of the family, the
family of God.” The verses speak of
our relationship to each other and that we address each other as “brothers and sisters ‘round here”. This scripture verse continues the previous
train of thought in that we are, indeed, a family. It reminds us that we should treat each other
with the love and respect that should be a part of a family relationship. It’s good to remember that we will spend
eternity together so it’s a good idea to start practicing a loving relationship
right here on earth, don’t you think?
Paul even helps us know how to love one another with such depth. He says he ‘longs’ for his Philippian family “with the affection of Christ Jesus”. In other words, he loves them as Jesus loves
him. That’s a great way for us to think
about our feelings toward each other. We
should love them as Jesus loves us. It’s
pretty obvious that Paul speaking of “longing” for his Philippian family shows
that he deeply wanted to be with them again.
The dictionary
defines “longing” as: yearning, craving or aching. There are other words but I think we all get
the picture. Paul says he desires with
all his heart to be with his church family.
We should strive for that same feeling.
We should look forward to being together with our church family and
enjoy a variety of opportunities for fellowship. This should involve more than just Sunday
morning worship. We should seek other opportunities
to spend time with others from our church in fellowship, social activities,
Bible studies and small groups just to name a few. If you don’t do that then why not invite one
other person or couple to get together for a coffee or even a meal. You gotta start somewhere. I still remember a time when one of our older
church ladies was complaining to my wife that there we so many new faces in
church she hardly knew anyone anymore.
This was obviously an exaggeration but she was making her frustration
known to “the pastor’s wife”. My wife,
bless her heart, immediately said to her “point
out someone you don’t know and I’ll introduce them to you.” She’s like that. She sees a problem or need and she wants to
get started in dealing with it. I love
that gal! By the way, the other woman
didn’t take her up on her offer.
Apparently she was more interested in complaining than she was in
getting to know those “new folks”. Sound
familiar at all?
And this is my prayer: that your love may
abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able
to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the
glory and praise of God.” (verse
9-11)
We will conclude this post with
these three verses. Paul called this his
prayer for the Philippians. Paul prayed
that their love would abound more and more.
This means that he prayed that they would continue to grow more and more
in love with each other and with God through an ever increasing depth of
knowledge of God’s love and depth of insight or wisdom. These blessings would help the Philippian
church to know better how to live a godly (pure and blameless) life as they
awaited Christ’s return. He prayed that
others would be able to see the “fruit of
righteousness” which would set them apart from the world around them but
even more importantly would focus peoples’ attention not on them but on their
Lord. I can’t think of a better prayer
for you and I was well. We should always
strive to learn more and more about who God is and what He wants for us that we
might strive to become more the people He wants us to be. We often use the phrase, “to become more and
more like Jesus” and I can’t think of a better goal, can you? People should be able to see by our lives,
how we act and how we react, that there is something different in us, something
that can’t be explained from a worldly perspective. If God lives in each of us the world should be
able to see that we are different. Be
careful to remember that anything “good” in us is from God and not something we
conjured up. We can’t take credit for
any of it.
“And God is able to
bless you abundantly, so that in all
things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in
every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)
All
these blessings come from God so we can’t take credit for them. We should be a reflection of who He is and
what He has shown us much like the moon is not bright on its own but appears
brilliantly white because it is reflecting the light of the sun. (There’s a whole sermon right there!) I think I’ll close this post with another familiar
scripture verse that sums up this last thought up pretty darn well.
“In the same way,
let your light shine before me, that they may see your good deeds and prase
your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:
16)
God
bless you until we see each other here again soon. Remember, keep on shinin’, or should I say,
reflectin’ !
And may God bless you abundantly too.
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