Milo

GOD’S FAITHFUL LOVE
Psalms 85–89

“Great is Your love toward me; You have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave” (Ps. 86:13).

Confidence that God loves us undergirds our faith. We trust Him, not only because He is able to help, but because He truly cares.

Overview
We experience God’s love through a forgiveness (Ps. 85) that awakens commitment to Him (Ps. 86). God loves Zion (Ps. 87). And though we may experience despair (Ps. 88), we remain objects of His love and faithfulness forever (Ps. 89).

Understanding the Text
Psalm 85: You Forgave. In forgiveness God’s love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace all meet.

“You forgave the iniquity of Your people” Ps. 85:1–3. “Iniquity” is willful, rebellious sin. Even this God forgave, and covered His people’s sins.

“Restore us” Ps. 85:4–7. As a forgiven people, God’s own can expect renewed blessing as the Lord shows His unfailing love. God’s promise of peace to the forgiven is contingent. Peace comes only to those who fear God and turn from “folly” (moral evil).

“Love and faithfulness meet” Ps. 85:10–13. How can we understand forgiveness? By seeing it as a place where God’s love, faithfulness, and righteousness unite to bring peace. Because God loves us, He forgives. Because He is faithful to His covenant promises, He forgives. Because God is righteous, He pays the price in Christ that forgiveness requires. Where these three qualities unite in forgiveness, man is restored to that state of peace (well-being) which Adam and Eve first knew.
Viewing forgiveness as an expression of God’s character and attitude toward man, we can be sure that “the LORD will indeed give what is good.”

Psalm 86: The Undivided Heart. The forgiven man responds to God with gratitude, commitment, and trust.

“I am poor and needy” Ps. 86:1–4. The forgiven man acknowledges his need for mercy, and looks only to God for salvation and for joy.

“You are kind and forgiving” Ps. 86:5–10. The forgiven man recognizes the source of his blessing in God’s character. Having experienced God’s love, he prays freely to the One who alone can do marvelous deeds.

“Teach me Your way, O LORD” Ps. 86:11–13. The forgiven man focuses completely on God. With an undivided heart he seeks to learn and to walk in God’s way. The forgiven man responds to God’s great love with a wholehearted effort to glorify the Lord.

“You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God” Ps. 86:14–17. Under attack by the arrogant, the forgiven man appeals to God for mercy, and confidently expects the Lord to provide signs of His goodness.
When you and I realize that we truly are forgiven, we too respond to the Lord with an undivided heart.

Psalm 87: Zion. The city of God reflects His glory.

“Zion” Ps. 87:1–7. The Zion of the Bible is first Jerusalem, the city God chose as the focal point of Old Testament worship; the location of His ultimate revelation of love in Christ Jesus. God chose Zion simply because of His love for this place from which His grace shines out on all men.
This psalm emphasizes the fact that Zion is not only a place, but also a people. To be born in Zion is to be one with the people of God, who gather round His revelation and rejoice in the Lord. The stunning emphasis of this psalm is that those who have been Israel’s historic enemies, Rahab (Egypt), Babylon, and Philistia too, will one day know the Lord. It will be said of them as well as of Israel, “This one was born in Zion.”
What an amazing reminder of God’s grace, nestled here among psalms that celebrate forgiveness. And how we need to remember that those who seem God’s most implacable enemies remain the objects of His forgiving love.

Psalm 88: In Distress. Those who know God well may still experience unremitting pain and grief.

“Day and night I cry out” Ps. 88:1–18. Most psalms which express despair or distress lead us from the depths to the heights. We share the psalmist’s pain. But then our hearts are lifted as the psalmist turns his thoughts to the Lord. In affirming God’s greatness or love the psalmist shows us where we can find peace.
This psalm is different. It speaks of an unrelenting darkness. Heman, its author, found himself “in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.” Though he called out to God “every day,” there was no answer, and the psalmist felt rejected by the God on whom he depended. And this had been his lot “from my youth”! He had been afflicted, in terrors and despair, as long as he could remember.
What is the value of a psalm like this one? It reminds us that faith promises no 30-minute resolution of our problems, nor 30-second spiritual highs! There well may be days, weeks, or even years when all seems dark, and God remains silent. While faith frequently offers us inner peace in outward turmoil, some men and women with a true faith will find themselves living in unexpected, and unexplained, dark.
When that happens, we need not blame ourselves, as if the darkness were evidence of some personal spiritual lack. Psalm 88 reminds us that for some, who honestly trust and cry out to God, the answer is withheld and the darkness remains. When this happens, and we cannot say why, then we must believe that even the darkness is a gift, intended by God to be our “closest friend.”

DEVOTIONAL
Falling Out of Love
(Ps. 89)
We read about it all the time. Sometimes we even experience it. “I’ve just fallen out of love with my husband,” the young wife writes to Ann Landers or complains to a counselor of “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” in the Ladies Home Journal. Or, perhaps the glow fades in our own marriage, and your spouse says, “I just don’t love you anymore.”
I suspect that many married couples in this land of ours, where divorce seems destined to strike 51 percent of those who marry for the first time, live with a conscious uncertainty about love. They aren’t sure whether they are loved. Or even whether they really love their partner!
What reassurance we find in Psalm 89 that our relationship with God is different. There is no uncertainty here. God does love us. In fact, His love “stands firm forever.” He is by nature a faithful Person: He will not take His love from us, and promises, “Nor will I ever betray My faithfulness.” We can be comfortable in our relationship with God because He loves us with an unconditional, unchangeable love.
Psalm 89 is a long psalm. But it celebrates something basic in the nature of God, and vital to our relationship with Him. Because God’s love stands firm forever, because faithfulness surrounds Him, we who walk in His presence are assured of blessing, of strength, and of a ready answer to our prayers.

In the Old Testament the throne is a symbol of not only human but divine rule. In the psalmist’s exalted vision of God, His throne and the throne of the coming Messiah, “will endure before Me like the sun; and it will be established forever” (Ps. 89:36–37).

Personal Application
Read the psalm thoughtfully. What evidence does it give that God is faithful forever? What does the fact of God’s faithfulness mean to you?

Quotable
There is no place where earth’s sorrows
Are more felt than up in heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings
Have such kindly judgment given.

For the love of God is broader
Than the measures of man’s mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind. . . .

Pining souls! come nearer Jesus,
And O come, not doubting thus,
And with faith that trusts more bravely
His huge tenderness for us.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would all be sunshine,
In the sweetness of our Lord.-F.W. Faber

CONTENT WITH CHRIST
Philippians 4

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Phil. 4:11).

When you have it all, more means little.

Overview
Paul exhorted his friends (4:1–9), put their gift to him in unique perspective (vv. 10–20), and added final greetings (vv. 21–23).

Understanding the Text
“Therefore . . . stand firm in the Lord” Phil. 4:1. Most connect this exhortation with the teaching in chapter 3. The reason is the “therefore.” As the old preacher observed, “Whenever you see a ‘therefore,’ you gotta look back to see what it’s there for.”
What is this “therefore” there for? Paul had just explained the futility of trying to relate to God through works, and reminded the Philippians of the resurrection power available to those who rely completely on Christ, and who “press on toward the goal” Christ sets for His own. In view of the supernatural character of the Christian life, believers are to “stand firm in the Lord,” and resist every effort to shift the focus of their faith from Jesus Himself.
The verse contains another of those 14 occurrences of “joy” or “rejoice” found in Philippians. Here Paul called the Philippians “my joy and crown.” In this he reflected a theme found in 3 John 4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
When you and I stand firm in the Lord we do give our leaders joy. More important, we give God Himself joy, for we fulfill His purposes for us.

“I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche” Phil. 4:2–3. Paul knew the hurt caused by misunderstandings and sharp disagreement. His own stubbornness had caused a break with his dear friend Barnabas (Acts 15:36–41). Paul didn’t condemn these women who for some reason found themselves at odds. He instead pleaded, “Help these women.”
There’s a vital lesson here. In Philippians 2 Paul described the attitude of humility which alone is capable of melding believers together (2:1–4). Paul might very well have bluntly accused each of these women of abandoning this attitude, and bluntly demanded they get right with God and then get right with each other.
But Paul did not! Instead he was sensitive, caring, and—please note, respectful! He pleaded, not ordered. He asked others in Philippi to help, not demand or discipline. And he showed respect for these two women by praising them for contending “at my side” for the Gospel. He carefully numbered them along with the “rest of my fellow workers.”
We make a great mistake if in trying to cure we condemn, or in trying to help we disparage. Belittle a person whom you hope to help respond positively, and you’re almost sure to harden him or her in his position. But appeal with respect, as Paul did, to the better self others have displayed, and you free others to make right choices.
Really, having faith in God’s people to do the right thing is having faith in God. As Paul has said, “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (v. 13).

“Rejoice in the Lord always” Phil. 4:4. It is significant that Paul burst out with another expression of joy just after mentioning the conflict between two good women in Philippi.
Charles L. Allen tells about the manager who took a pen and put a black dot in the center of a large sheet of white cardboard. “Your trouble is,” the manager told his employees, “that the moment one black spot appears you fix your attention on that, and fail to see all the clean white space.” We Christians are like that too. When a black spot, or a dozen black spots, appear, we spend all our energy thinking about them rather than on the vast white space that represents what we have in Christ.
Paul wasn’t going to let conflict between Euodia and Syntyche pull his eyes away from Christ! And so he tells us, when the black spots appear in our lives, as they surely will, to “rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice.”

“Do not be anxious about anything” Phil. 4:6–7. Psychologists have defined anxiety as a feeling of apprehension, cued by a threat to something we hold essential. Some, however, are chronically anxious: fearful and nervous even when there is no apparent threat. Whatever the source of anxious feelings, they’re no fun to have.
I suspect that the real cause of anxiety is a sense of powerlessness. We feel threatened, but don’t know what to do about the threat. Paul reminds us that we can not only do something—we can do the most effective thing! We can place the problem squarely in the hands of the one Person in the universe who can deal with every threat.
So Paul said, “In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” The thanksgiving is important. It is our affirmation of faith that God will surely deal with the situation we have just handed over to Him.

“The peace of God, which transcends all understanding” Phil. 4:7. Why does the peace of God “transcend understanding”? Simply because, on the surface, our circumstances will not have changed. Something we hold dear will still be threatened. We’ll still be out of work. Or our child will still be bullied on the school bus. Or our spouse will still face a battle with cancer. We could explain the peace we feel to others if we could announce, “I have a new job!” Or if the bully was kicked off the bus, or the doctor announced the cancer cured.
The thing that’s special about the peace God gives, and the thing we can never explain to those who have never had the experience, is that we experience peace before the situation changes in any way. God’s Spirit calms us, and whispers in our hearts, “It’s all right now. God will provide.”

“Think about such things” Phil. 4:8–9. The word translated “think” here (logizesthai) means to “continually focus your mind.” But more is implied than considering. We are to concentrate on expressing these qualities in our lives, so that as we dwell on them, they in turn dwell in us.
Paul’s list includes:

• the true—meaning the truthful in thought as well as every aspect of life.
• the noble—meaning that which wins respect; the honest, honorable, worthy.
• the right—meaning that which fulfills all our obligation to God and to other men.
• the pure—meaning that which fits us for fellowship with and service to God, including but more than freedom from bodily sins.
• the lovely—meaning that which is attractive and winsome.
• the admirable—meaning that which is kind and likely to win others.
  These were considered excellent and praiseworthy qualities in Greek culture as well as among Christians. The Christian is not to be the “odd” man in society, but the ideal man (see DEVOTIONAL).

“I have learned to be content” Phil. 4:10–20. Paul had received a money gift from the Philippians, which he appreciated. It revealed their continuing love for him, and this was important to Paul. And as an expression of love for God, the gifts are “a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice.” Paul also shared his own unique perspective on money. During his 25 years of ministry Paul had known times when money was plentiful, and times he was “in need.” And Paul had learned that neither condition made any real difference: “whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” Paul had learned to be content.
His independence from circumstances grew out of the conviction that his God meets all our needs “according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (v. 19), and the conviction that “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (v. 13).
This is one of the greatest gifts that is ours through our relationship with Jesus. We have a God whose endless resources will be used to meet our needs. And a God who will give us strength to meet every challenge. If we constantly remember who our God is, we too will grasp the secret of being content, whatever our circumstances.

DEVOTIONAL
Hear, See, Do
(Phil. 4:6)
My wife is one of those naturally good cooks. I say naturally, but I don’t really know whether it’s a gift, or the result of practice. On the other hand, I have a hard time trying to cook, largely because I don’t have the patience to follow a recipe’s instructions. I look at a list of ingredients, throw them all together, and somehow don’t notice that the shortening wasn’t supposed to be melted before being mixed in. Or if I’m making the gravy, I plop the flour and milk I’ve mixed so carefully into the broth in one great glop, creating some of those wonderful lumps that my mom’s gravy—or Sue’s—never has.
Sometimes we Christians make a similar mistake with the Bible. We read it and get all the ingredients straight. But then we don’t notice just how they are supposed to be blended together. And what we sometimes get is a disaster instead of a tasty dessert.
Philippians 4 is like this. Paul gives us ingredients for a vital and joy-filled Christian life. He writes about bringing our anxieties to God (vv. 6–7). He reminds us of the qualities we’re to nurture (vv. 8–9). He even tells of the contentment that comes as we rely on God rather than our current bank balance (vv. 10–20). And there, right in the middle, he tells us how these ingredients are to be combined!
Paul said, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put into practice” (v. 9).
It’s dangerous to leave out any of these steps. If you’re a parent or a teacher or preacher, it’s not enough to speak the truth. To translate what is heard, most people need to see it put into practice by others. So those of us who teach in any setting need to open our lives to others, so they can see how the truths we share find living expression in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions. Preachers can’t just proclaim the truth and expect their people to go out and practice it. God’s recipe calls for a vital intermediate step.
If you and I are learners, there’s a reminder for us here too. We can’t just “learn and receive and hear” the truth from our teachers, or just see it in other’s lives. We have to go on to personally “put it into practice.” Truth we don’t practice is about as useful as a tire without air. We won’t get very far on either!
So let’s remember as we try to put together the ingredients God gives us for a truly Christian life that we have to follow His recipe carefully. We have to hear, see, and then do.
Then, and only then, will we experience what Paul knew so well: the joy of knowing that “the God of peace” is with us.

Personal Application
What you don’t know, you can’t do. But what you don’t do, you cannot truly know.

Quotable
“There is only one golden rule for spiritual discernment, and that is obedience. We learn more by five minutes’ obedience than by ten years’ study.”—Oswald Chambers

TO KNOW CHRIST
Philippians 3

“I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).

Power for living as well as salvation is to be found in Christ alone.

Overview
Paul had abandoned confidence in his own works (3:1–6) to trust Christ completely (vv. 7–9) and spiritual enablement (vv. 10–11). All mature believers will follow Paul’s example and press toward this goal (vv. 12–17), eagerly awaiting Christ’s return and our transformation (vv. 18–21).

Understanding the Text
“Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord!” Phil. 3:1 This is not the last thought Paul intended to share. It is instead the ultimate thought.
Paul had already noted many sources of joy for the Christian life. We find joy in fellowship with others whom we love (1:4). We find joy in sharing the Gospel (v. 18). We find joy in our unity with other believers (2:2). Yet the final, the ultimate joy, which Paul expressed in Philippians 3, is found in Christ Himself.
It is this joy, which is available to you and me always, that Paul explored in this very personal chapter of Philippians.

“Put no confidence in the flesh” Phil. 3:2–4. Paul began by warning against the Judaizers. These men of Jewish extraction and pharisaical tendency visited all the churches Paul founded, and tried to convince the believers that they must become Jews to be Christians. They must accept circumcision, and keep the many regulations of the Old Testament, as interpreted by tradition.
Paul angrily called these men evil, mere “mutilators of the flesh.” In focusing the attention of believers on works, they drew attention away from Christ.
This is the first clue to finding the Christian’s ultimate source of joy. Don’t count on what you have done, are doing, or will do. Count only on what Christ did.
Watchman Nee, the great Chinese evangelist and writer on the spiritual life, has rightly said, “Christianity is a queer business. If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing; if we seek to attain something, we miss everything. For Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE.”
Only by continuing to rely on Christ and what He has done, only by abandoning all reliance on our own works, can we go on in the Christian life or experience joy. (See DEVOTIONAL.)

“Somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead” Phil. 3:10–11. Verse 11 has confused some, who assume Paul was speaking about the future resurrection of his own body. But verse 10 makes it clear Paul was speaking about knowing Christ now, and experiencing now the power of His resurrection.
Paul spoke in the same vein in Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” Thus Romans identifies the source of power for Christian living. Philippians 3:10–11 now goes on to tell us how to tap this source of power. Paul’s explanation? Become “like Christ in His death.”
The prescription is explained in the verses above. We abandon any confidence we had in the flesh. We confess our lifeless state, and the utter impossibility of any spiritual achievement. As the dead body of Christ was buried, so we bury the rubbish we once considered our righteousness.
Then, standing by the grave of self, we hear Christ’s invitation to share His sufferings and experience the power of His resurrection.

“I press on toward the goal” Phil. 3:12–14. Don’t get the idea that the Christian life is passive. We do stop trying. But we do not stop pressing on.
This may be a paradox, but it is not a contradiction. What we put behind us is self-effort, and the notion that anything we can do in ourselves can possibly please or be of service to the Lord. What we hold out before us is the fact that, here on earth, we are Christ’s hands and feet. We are His body now, the presence He still maintains in the world of men. It is that “for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” It is that that you and I prize most as we journey heavenward.
It’s not that we will ever perfectly express Christ to others. But as we rely completely on Him to work through us, and as we commit ourselves to do God’s will, we will experience something of resurrection power and joy today.

“Our citizenship is in heaven” Phil. 3:17–20a. A citizen owes allegiance to the laws and rulers of his nation. Paul closed this section of Philippians by calling on us to remember what it means to be united to Jesus in His death and resurrection. We owe no allegiance to our old way of life. Those who even try to be good and so merit God’s favor are enemies of the Cross, which stands stark and bare as a symbol of man’s utter sinfulness.
We who have heard the message of the Cross, are to keep on hearing it in each of our todays. It tells us that what man cannot do, God has done. And God will continue to do, in you and in me.

“We eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” Phil. 3:20b-21. Earlier Paul wrote, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect” (v. 12). Those who expect the spiritual life to be one of sudden transformation, or instantaneous perfection, are sure to be disappointed. God still has only our mortal bodies to work with, and all too often lacks even our cooperation! But despite our imperfection, God’s power does flow in us and through us. In our weakness we know something of His strengthening power.
No wonder Paul said we wait eagerly for Jesus to return. Then, what we experience imperfectly now will be fully ours. When Jesus returns, “He will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (v. 21). Then at last we will realize to the full “the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus” our Lord (v. 8).

DEVOTIONAL
A Vote of No Confidence
(Phil. 3:4–11)
She was an older lady, well-dressed, clearly upper class. She’d stopped to watch as I stood on a street evangelist’s stepladder outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to give my “word of testimony.” Perhaps it was the novelty of seeing one of Uncle Sam’s sailors, in uniform, preaching on the street. Perhaps it was just curiosity.
After I got down I talked with her. She thought that Jesus was all right for some people. Certainly the bums on the bowery needed something. But she was not only religious, she was a truly good person. She had never done anything mean or petty, and while others might need Jesus, she most assuredly did not.
Often the hardest people to reach with the Gospel are those who truly have tried to live good lives, and by all appearances have succeeded! Paul was one of those people, and his credentials were far superior to any you or I might muster. Or even that lady I met so briefly on the street over 35 years ago.
But Paul did something with his credentials that you and I must do with ours. We have to recognize them not as advantages, but liabilities! If we for a moment rely on them, or think that they commend us to God, they replace to that extent our confidence in Christ, and thus weaken us spiritually.
It may seem strange, but the truly wicked have a great advantage over the good when they become Christians. John Newton, for instance, had a great advantage over you and me. He went to sea early in life, and quickly became a vile, drunken, blasphemous, and violent man. And a slave trader. Later, when Newton was converted, he never lost his sense of the dark pit from which he had been rescued, or an awareness of his own corrupt nature.
So don’t take comfort in the “good” life you may have lived before your conversion. Or even in your honest efforts to do well since. Like the Apostle Paul, consider such advantages to be liabilities. Let your heart be filled with the “surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus.” Cloak yourself in the righteousness that comes from Him by faith, and rely on His resurrection power to express itself through you and your life.

Personal Application
The Christian life is resurrection life. But before you can rise again, you must die to self.

Quotable
“This Christ life is simply turning the little shop of life, so woefully perplexing, over to another. Christ becomes owner, manager, overseer; His is the responsibility, the upkeep. Your part is to be a faithful clerk, steward of the grace of God. You are to trust the management to Him and obey orders; take off the shelves anything displeasing, add anything He commands. But He is also your elder brother and His love takes out all the worry, fever, and tension. And one day, if you have been faithful over a few things, He will give you a heavenly shop in the city of the King!”—Charles H. Robinson

HUMILITY INCARNATE
Philippians 2

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing” (Phil. 2:5–7).

The way to be exalted is still, be humble.

Overview
A humble concern for others (2:1–4) mimics the humility displayed by Christ (vv. 5–11), which leads to blameless and pure lives (vv. 12–18). Paul commended two men he was about to send to Philippi (2:19–30).

Understanding the Text
“If you have any encouragement” Phil. 2:1. The Greek language has several different words and constructions that we render “if” in English. The “if” in Philippians 2:1 assumes the condition is already fulfilled, and means “since.”
So what Paul was saying is, since you are united with Christ, and since you find comfort in His love, and since you share in God’s Spirit.
How well Paul understood God. Paul was about to appeal to his friends in Philippi to commit to a more humble, caring lifestyle. In the world, people trying to influence others might say, “If you will do this, then I will do something for you.” But not God, and not Paul! Instead Paul reminded his readers of how God had poured out His grace on them, and then said, “Since you have been so blessed, take the step of obedience.”
There’s no hint of threat in our relationship with God. There’s no hint of bribery. God won’t take our blessings away, and there is no need to add to them! Paul simply reminds us of what God has already done for us, and asks us, out of gratitude, to respond appropriately to God.
The next time you face a difficult choice, remember all God has given you so freely. As an expression of thanks, choose just as freely to do what will please Him.

“Like-minded, having the same love” Phil. 2:2–4. Two themes found throughout the New Testament letters are woven together here. One is unity: that common life shared by those who constitute Christ’s church, and who achieve spirituality only when the bond between members is close and warm. The other is humility: that basic attitude toward ourselves and others that is required for unity to exist.
Every once in a while I see a magazine on a newsstand featuring a new self-test: “How well do you understand your spouse?” “What kind of a lover are you?” “Check your parenting skills!” Well, the Apostle Paul has given us a simple self-test here on an even more important question. “How do you rate in your relationship with other Christians?”
Part of the test measures the community of which you’re a part. Are you “like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose”? (v. 2) Part of the test measures your personal attitudes. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. . . . Look not only to your interests, but also to the interests of others” (vv. 3–4).
If the church you belong to fails the first part of the test, don’t be discouraged. If you pass the second part, God can use you to change your church!

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” Phil. 2:5. Christ is our Saviour, plus. There are many words we might tack on behind that “plus.” He is our Saviour, plus our Lord. He is our Saviour, plus our High Priest. But here, as in Ephesians 5:1 and other passages, Paul reminds us that Jesus is our Saviour, plus our example. We are to be like Jesus, not just in the way we act, but in our innermost values and attitudes toward life.
This is why Paul stressed humility. It’s not enough to act interested in others. We must be interested in others. It’s not enough to act unselfishly. We must be free of “selfishness and vain conceit.”
This would be an impossible task if it weren’t for one wonderful reality. God has already acted to make possible everything He asks of us! No wonder Paul began by saying, “Since you are united with Christ . . . since you have fellowship with the Spirit.” Christ and His Spirit live within us, and through their presence we can develop “the same” attitude “as that of Christ Jesus.”

“Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place” Phil. 2:9–11. Our Christian faith is filled with paradoxes. This is one of the most powerful. Because Christ humbled Himself, God exalted Him. The way up, is down. The key to mastery is servanthood. The greatest among us are the servants of all.
It is a paradox, but it is also reality. We who choose humility now will be raised higher than the proud. We who give ourselves to others gain. We who lose ourselves find our true and better selves.
There is no other way to succeed in the Christian life than to walk the road Jesus traveled.

“The name that is above every name” Phil. 2:9–11. The name “Lord” has significance in both Testaments. In the Old Testament it is the personal name of God, Yahweh, and means “the One Who Is Always Present.” It was by this name that Israel was to remember God, and to experience Him as reality in every setting of life.
In the New Testament “Lord” is the name of honor. It captures the spirit of the Old Testament name, and fills it with fresh new meaning through Jesus’ suffering and exaltation. The ever-present God came into the world in a human body, and the God-Man Jesus was raised triumphant. One day all mankind will worship Jesus as Lord—the eternal, personal God of history and Scripture.
There is a note of finality here. “Every knee shall bow” is not a Gospel promise. It is a blunt statement that those who are now unwilling to acknowledge Jesus will be forced to do so at history’s end. How glad we can be to acknowledge Him now, freely, and with joy.
Let’s not make our acknowledgment of Christ as Lord mere lip service, though. In view of who Jesus is, and what He suffered for us, let’s pledge ourselves to render Him full obedience, now and evermore.

“Work out your salvation” Phil. 2:12–18. As the old preacher said, “Oh, salvation’s in him. It just hasn’t worked its way out yet!”
But it will. For God is at work in His own, and by His grace we will display the blamelessness and purity of the sons of God.

“Who takes a genuine interest in your welfare” Phil. 2:19–24. Paul commended Timothy for the very quality he had been exhorting: a humility that lets us put others first. How important it is for churches to have leaders who demonstrate the attitudes they exhort.

“Welcome him in the Lord with great joy” Phil. 2:25–30. Some feel Paul went out of his way to commend Epaphroditus and explain his dangerous illness. They suggest that some in Epaphroditus’ home church of Philippi were critical of this messenger of theirs. Paul countered the criticism by reminding the Philippians twice that Epaproditus “almost died for the work of Christ.”
The role of “critic of the brethren” is one we want to avoid at all costs. It expresses the exact opposite of the attitude of humility that is appropriate for you and me.

DEVOTIONAL
Make Yourself Nothing
(Phil. 2:6–11)
The affirmation of Paul, in this hymn to Christ as God incarnate, is thought to be one of the church’s earliest confessional statements, used in first-century worship. It is surely one of Scripture’s most profound statements of Jesus’ full deity. It portrays Christ as “in very nature God,” but emptying Himself to take on human nature and suffer a shameful death. It affirms not only Jesus’ resurrection but His ultimate exaltation over all.
Yet Paul applied this most profound of the mysteries of our faith in such a simple, practical way! We are to look at the attitude of humility Jesus displayed, and adopt it in our relationships with others.
It’s no wonder, with talk like this, that Christianity has been accused of being the religion of wimps. Ted Turner, for one, has publicly described Christians as people who can’t make it in this world, and so turn to the next. Christians are weak, dull, too scrupulous or too cowardly, to make it big in this world.
The stereotype has been around a long time, and the accusation is nothing new. The arrogant of this world understandably look down on people who talk more about love than success, and who seem to prize humility more than headlines.
What the world doesn’t understand is that Christians choose humility not out of weakness, but out of strength. We choose humility, because our vision of Jesus deals a death blow to all man’s pride. Whatever basis we might have for believing ourselves better than others—intelligence, looks, wealth, education, breeding—all pale to utter insignificance when we see Jesus, willing to abandon His rightful claim of full equality with God, to not only become a human being, but even to die on a cross.
Seeing Jesus, we realize that all those claims we might make to superiority must also be nailed to Jesus’ cross. We must give them up; put them to death once and for all. For only when our pride has been put to death will we begin to care for others as Christ has cared for us. And to the true Christian, as to Christ, the interests of others are more important than his own.

Personal Application
We climb to glory on the down escalator.

Quotable
“Humility is the garment of the Deity. The incarnate Word was clothed in it, and through it, conversed with us in our bodies, covering the radiance of His greatness and His glory by this humility lest the creature be scorched by the sight of Him. The creature could not have looked at Him, had He not taken on some part of it and thus conversed with it. Therefore every man who clothes himself in garments of humility becomes clothed in Christ Himself.”—Isaak of Syria

Philippians

INTRODUCTION
This warm and upbeat letter was written while Paul was imprisoned in Rome around A.D. 61. Despite this circumstance, the key word in Philippians is “joy” or “rejoice,” which occurs 14 times. While the letter is personal, rather than a theological treatise like Romans or Galatians, it contains one of Scriptures’ most powerful affirmations of the Incarnation and exaltation of Christ (2:1–11). The Book of Philippians is also a beautiful expression of the values and motives of Paul himself, and thus an example for Christians of every era.

OUTLINE OF CONTENTS
I.
Introduction
Phil. 1:1–11
II.
Paul’s Imprisonment
Phil. 1:12–30
III.
Imitating Christ’s Humility
Phil. 2:1–18
IV.
News of Epaphroditus
Phil. 2:19–30
V.
Warnings
Phil. 3:1–4:1
VI.
Personal Exhortations
Phil. 4:2–9
VII.
Thanks and Farewell
Phil. 4:10–23

PAUL IN CHAINS
Philippians 1

“What has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel” (Phil. 1:12).

In Christ, even bad news can be good news in disguise.

Background
The church in Philippi. Paul founded the church in the Roman colony city of Philippi aboutA.D 50, some 10 years before this letter was written. He visited there again aboutA.D 55, and kept in contact with the believers through letters and helpers like Timothy. The Philippians were apparently very upset when they heard that Paul had been sent to Rome after his arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21–28). They sent a gift of money with Epaphroditus to help Paul with his expenses. This messenger became extremely ill, but recovered, and Paul sent this letter to the Philippians by him when he recovered. Paul touched on many different topics in Philippians, from his own imprisonment to a feud between two leading women in the church there. Despite his own uncertain circumstances and indications of problems in the Philippian congregation, Paul’s letter is vibrant with a joy that exists independent of circumstances. In Philippians, we find the sources of joy available to Christians who walk through dark places with the Lord.

Overview
Paul thanked God and prayed for his partners in the Gospel (1:1–11). He assured them that his imprisonment had been a good thing (vv. 12–26), and exhorted them to stand firm together (vv. 27–30).

Understanding the Text
“I always pray with joy” Phil. 1:4. Prayer for others isn’t a duty. It is a joy: a special opportunity to caress and be close to people we love.
This fresh approach to intercession marks the opening words of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. No special, desperate need drove Paul to prayer. Instead Paul had cultivated the habit, whenever he thought of his dear friends in Philippi, of expressing the joyful feelings remembrance brings by offering up a prayer for them.
What a simple, yet meaningful way for us to enrich our prayer lives. We can cultivate the habit, whenever we think of others, to give thanks and pray for them “with joy.”

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” Phil. 1:3–6. My first week in college in Ohio I had an appendix attack, and an emergency operation. My mom and dad drove down to see me, and Mother brought me a Bible. Trying to joke, I took it and said, “I’m not that sick!”
Sometimes even we Christians think of prayer or other religious exercises as a last resort kind of thing. We pray when we’re desperate, or when we are fearful for others. But Paul prayed out of joy, and with supreme confidence. There was no clear and present danger to the Philippian church. These believers had worked in partnership with Paul in spreading the Gospel from the first. And Paul had total confidence that the work God began in their lives would be carried on to completion, “until the day of Christ Jesus.”
We can have this same confidence when we pray for one another. God won’t abandon any of His own. Our prayers aren’t a last-ditch effort to keep them from sliding over the edge of some spiritual precipice. We pray for other Christians with joy, and with total confidence that God is at work in their lives.
Why then do we pray? We pray as an expression of love. And we pray because we believe that God in some mysterious way uses our prayers to enrich that good work He is committed to do in His children’s lives.

“And this is my prayer” Phil. 1:9–11. Romans 8:26 notes that we do not really know what we ought to pray for others. Yet Paul’s prayers for other believers, like the one recorded here, and like prayers in Ephesians 3 and Colossians 1, can guide us. These prayers are well worth committing to memory. Then, when we think of a friend, we can ask “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 until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”

“What has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel” Phil. 1:12–18. The Philippians were deeply upset at Paul’s imprisonment. For one thing, if Paul were convicted, the Christian movement might be threatened. The Roman government had declared certain religions licit, giving them the legal right to be practiced. Other religions had no legal standing. As the Christian movement emerged from Judaism, and Judaism was a legal religion, early Christianity was protected. If Paul were convicted of some religious crime, the movement he represented might be officially proscribed.
Even if this didn’t happen, the great apostle and evangelist seemed “put on the shelf.” He had been under arrest for two years in Caesarea. Now he was under house arrest in Rome. What would happen to the Gospel without Paul?
I read in today’s paper an account of the explosive growth of evangelical Christianity in Guatemala. That land, torn by bloodshed, its economy destroyed and its people destitute, now is about one third evangelical Christian, and the number is growing at approximately 10 percent a year! We must hurt for those experiencing the terrors of poverty and civil strife. Yet we also need to realize that God is using their suffering on earth to open their hearts to the Gospel.
How often we are shaken by circumstances that are admittedly terrible, but in God’s providence “serve to advance the Gospel.” The lesson Paul was trying to teach the Philippians is that God takes apparent tragedies and molds them into triumphs (see DEVOTIONAL).

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” Phil. 1:21. Paul stated the one attitude which enables us to discover good in ills that would otherwise mar our lives. If we look at circumstances merely from a human point of view, and think first of our own comfort or our situation in this life, we might have good reason for despair. But Paul didn’t look at life this way at all. He was concerned only with serving Jesus and glorifying Him.
If this is our primary motivation, our circumstances here will be relatively unimportant. We can live for Jesus in a hovel or a palace. We can share our pennies or our millions. We can give thanks for our rags or for our riches.
Make pleasing Jesus your sole desire, and you declare independence from all the circumstances that can ruin the lives of others who struggle on without Him.

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel” Phil. 1:27–30. This paragraph sums up Paul’s theme in a simple exhortation. “Whatever happens.” Whether you prosper or go bankrupt. Whether you become popular or an object of scorn. Whatever comes, live as a Christian who is worthy of the great gift God has given in the Gospel.
What marks the “worthy” Christian life? Maintaining unity. Contending for the Gospel. Remaining confident rather than fearful.
The exhortation is important for us as well as for the first-century Philippians. In this life we too may be given an unusual gift. The gift, “on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him.”
By using any circumstances He sends as opportunities to serve God, we can make our suffering not only a gift from God, but a gift to Him.

DEVOTIONAL
Circumstantial Evidence
(Phil. 1:12–19)
In our courts of law the best evidence is direct evidence: there are witnesses to an event who can testify to who did what and when. Next best is circumstantial evidence: facts and information that when interpreted make who, what, and when likely. The problem with circumstantial evidence is always in that little phrase, “when interpreted.”
For instance, take a beautiful, vibrant, athletic young woman. She has an accident that permanently paralyzes her from the neck down. “Terrible,” we say. And we’re right. “Her life is ruined,” we think. And we’re wrong! Through that accident Joni Eareckson Tada became a great gift to the church, and found a new and fulfilling life for herself.
This is essentially what Paul was trying to teach the Philippians when he wrote, “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel” (v. 12). Circumstances are deceiving. Yes, Paul, the early church’s premier evangelist and church planter, had been put on the shelf. Yes, he’d spent two years locked up in Caesarea, and now he was under house arrest in Rome. It looked like a terrible setback for the church, and a terrible waste of Paul’s few remaining years. But that is only how it looked. That is not how it was.
Look, Paul said. Everyone in the palace guard knows I’m here because of Jesus. And most of the brothers have been “encouraged to speak the Word of God more courageously.” Like a football team whose star quarterback is out of the game, the rest try harder! Even those who resented Paul were out preaching more vigorously, and though their motives were questionable, Christ was being preached! So Paul didn’t see his imprisonment as a tragedy at all. He looked beyond the circumstances, and interpreted them with a clear understanding of God’s goal of getting out the Gospel. As for Paul himself, well, through the Philippians’ prayers, he would surely be delivered.
Let’s learn to interpret circumstantial evidence as Paul did, taking into account the fact that God works all things together for good for those who love the Lord. What looks like a tragedy may lead to one of history’s greatest spiritual triumphs. What looks like defeat may be turning into victory. What looks like suffering may be the harbinger of joy.

Personal Application
Face the worst, and expect the best.

Quotable
“Suffering, though a burden, is a useful burden, like the splints used in orthopedic treatment.”—Soren Kierkegaard