Bible Reading Challenge Blog

I found a great article on the background of Philippians here at this website.  It is really helpful if you want some of the backstory to the letter that Paul wrote to his first church that he founded, the church in Philippi in Greece.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/philippians/0

Philippians is considered the Epistle, or the letter, of joy.  The reason why it is called that is almost immediately clear.  Look at vs.4 where Paul states that he is constantly praying with joy for the community.  Once again, like the church in Ephesus that we just read about, Paul loves this congregation.  I would argue that it is probably his favorite.  His tone is consistently one of celebration and an attitude of YOU ARE AWESOME!  

Vs.6 is a great verse as Paul states that he is confident that the Lord will complete in each person in that church, and really the church as a whole as well, the good work that He has started in them.  Think of that addressed to you.  I am confident that the good work that God has started in you, he will bring to completion before you leave the face of this earth.  It is another way of saying that God is not done with you yet.  This was important for the Philippian to hear, because they were right in the midst of some serious persecution.  They needed to hear that this life is worth it, that even in the mess in which we find ourselves, God is still going to finish the plan that he started with you.  Did you hear that?

When you start at vs.21 you also see some really, really encouraging Scripture.  Paul gives us a reason to live.  He says, to die would be absolutely amazing.  As I used to say in high school, I’ve somewhat matured since then, somewhat, “Life is awesome and then you go to heaven”.  That is Paul’s motto.  The advantage of living now on this earth is that, and these are Paul’s words, I get to work with amazing people like you.  The advantage of being no longer alive, is that I will be with Christ.  It is a toss up.  But for now, again Paul’s words, I’m glad that I am here with you.  

He talks about joy again in vs.25.  At the end of this chapter he speaks about persecutions and they can be assured that he understands what they are going through since he already went through it.  It sounds real similar to James 1:2 when the author states: “consider it joy whenever you face trials of any kind.”  That’s hard to do, but I think as we make our way through this chapter it might become easier.

We’ve had some interesting growth in youth group over this past month.  Last night at youth group, and for a few weeks in church at worship and Saturday at Great Adventure, we had 3 “biker boys”, who are now no longer “biker boys” but, “our boys”.  We had 5 kids at youth group who were there because they have been using our church to play Pokemon Go.  There were another 7 youth in church who didn’t come to youth group but were playing Pokemon Go, we hope they will come next week to youth group.  It is an interesting season in our youth group as we start a transition team and take on a whole bunch of new advisors.  It is a very exciting season as we see growth in areas that we did not expect.

So when Paul starts off this passage with the statement: “children obey your parents”, you know that this letter written to the church in Ephesus would have been read aloud and that the children in the audience would have blushed and the parents would have nodded approvingly.  But it goes so much further than that today.  Back in Paul’s day if a child disobeyed they could be taken out to the center square and stoned for disrespect.  They certainly were not the good old days.  On the other hand the advice Paul has for parents is that they should not lead their children to anger.  Give them a long leash, allow them to make their own mistakes, don’t be a helicopter mom or dad who never allows their child to live and so they have all this pent up anger and rage because of it.  Very practical verses here, but totally unexpected.

Also unexpected is advice for slaves and slave owners.  Yes, in the first century the Romans and even Jews had slaves.  Some poor uninformed people have tried to use these verses historically as proof that slavery is blessed by God.  It would be the same argument if we cut off the hands and tore out the eyes of those who stole and those who lusted.  It simply is not part of God’s plan.  The advice is very much for that time and that place.  It does not make Scripture any less authoritative, but it does make it a document that was written in a certain time and place and certainly in a specific context.  But the truths of Scripture are applicable to all time.

The armor or God from vs.10-20 is a classic Scripture that I have used more times than I can remember in Sunday School assembly and in other contexts where you can play dress up and teach a lesson.  The entire armor of God is to be worn, keep in mind, not just bits and pieces which suit us best.  We are to put on the entire armor.  Read it again and see which pieces of that armor are we less comfortable wearing.  

Paul ends this letter to a church that he loves.  It is a great letter and one that can be read repeatedly.  Now on to Philippians, the Epistle of Joy!

In some Christian traditions there is a hierarchy within the family structure.  The man is responsible for the decisions, with the wife’s input of course, and is the spiritual head of the household, and for all intents and purposes more than just the breadwinner.  Hierarchically he would be at the apex and the woman would be below…somewhere.  This chapter is often used as ammunition to enforce this approach to the family structure.  Let’s look at these verses and try to see what exactly Paul is saying.

Let’s start at vs.21, yes, we can’t skip that verse, but most commentators who carry a hierarchical view prefer to skip vs.21.  While those of us who embrace a mutuality view, where husband and wife work at that whole family thing together, we love this verse.  It tells us to be subject to one another.  Husband be subject to your wife, wife be subject to your husband.  Don’t allow pride to enter the picture which demands that our view be followed and that of our spouse is expendable.  When we are subject to one another then no one can lord anything over anyone else.  What a great verse to focus on, we don’t need any of the others.  Okay, there are other verses, and let’s look at them, but we can’t forget that Paul says that we should be subject to one another.

Paul goes on to give some details of what that family structure can look like.  He falls very quickly into the first century mentality that women do not have the same rights as men do, and so, as a result, men are “head” of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church.  It is hard to get around that, but we do understand that a family structure in the 1st century was not one based upon being subject to one another.  Paul already broke that glass ceiling.

Paul does speak about the husband’s responsibility to love his wife.  Does that mean that the wife does not need to love the husband?  Of course not!  But for some reason when we read that the husband is head of the wife we don’t want to say that under Paul’s approach of mutuality that the wife is the head of the husband.  Yes, she is!  This is part of being subject to one another.  We can’t understand this chapter nor Christian family dynamics without this basic principle to guide our thoughts.  

Unity is always a good thing when we are talking about churches, right?  Yes, that is right.  In fact, these verses underscore the importance of unity within a church and among churches.  Look at vs.4-5 and we find that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism.  Wait, did that just say one baptism?  Yes.  That means that if you were dunked or sprinkled, it is all the same?  Yes.  That means that if you were baptized as an infant or as an adult it is still baptism and both “count”?  Yes.  Don’t ever let a Christian tell you that your baptism doesn’t count if it wasn’t done when you were an adult.  Point to this verse and say, well if it is good enough for Paul, it is good enough for me.  There ought to be unity among the churches but unfortunately some churches feel as if their way is the only way that is right.  I praise God that the Presbyterian Church has a very broad tent which gathers many people from all sorts of walks of life and embraces them in the unity of the Gospel.

If you know the Apostles’ Creed you will find a part of it in vs.9-10.  You know that part where we say “..and he descended into hell.”  In these verses it states that if he ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God then it must mean that he also descended in order to fill all things.  What that means is that Jesus went into hell to introduce himself to those who were not saved so that they could experience him and have a relationship with him.  You see the same message in I Peter 3:19-20.  What a comfort to see God fulfilling the words of Psalm 139:8 where the writer states: if I make my bed in Sheol (hell), you are there.  The pursuit of God, or rather God’s pursuit of us always leaves me breathless and with a smile on my face.

Vs.26 also gives us the words to which pretty much every couple ought to subscribe: do not let the sun go down on your anger.  He says this within the context of some very basic rules for a new life, which includes, thieves, don’t steal.  That’s good to know.  

Paul begins this chapter by explaining the reason why he was in jail was because he preached a Gospel which included the gentiles in God’s plans.  Remember, the Ephesian church was a church composed of gentiles.  So basically Paul says the reason why I am in prison, and I don’t mind being in prison, is for people like you.  I am in jail so that people like you can hear about the good news of the gospel and respond to it.

It is so refreshing to hear Paul speak as if he is so glad for the people to whom he is writing.  You can just tell that he loves the people of Ephesus.  He calls himself a servant of the gospel and so he loves this message with which he has been entrusted.  Just read again vs. 14-21 as if Paul was addressing you directly.  He asks that God would (continue to) dwell in their hearts through faith.  His prayer is that we would all come to understand the completeness of Christ.  He calls it the breadth and width of all that God is.  It reminds me of Colossians 1:28, which we will get to soon, where God’s marks out our purpose as presenting everyone mature in Christ.

I’m going to get to this in Colossians but just put a sticker on this verse and recognize that this should be the purpose of all of us: present everyone mature in Christ.

This chapter should go up there as one of the most important chapters in all of Scripture.  I hope you were able to follow what Paul was saying.  Remember, he is writing to a church  that is composed of primarily gentiles who came to know Jesus.  So they did not come to Jesus through Judaism, but rather from Paul’s preaching they gave their lives to Christ.  So Paul is writing to people he knows and loves and who have a completely different background from him.  But he obviously embraces them.  

He begins this chapter by laying out the facts that all of us began this life as sinful.  We were all disobedient and lived out our lives according to the passions of the flesh.  But God chose to choose us even while we were yet dead in our sins, to make us alive in Jesus Christ.  And in case you have forgotten, look at vs.5, we have been saved by grace.  Remember it is not the following of the law, or a set of rules, or any of our actions that save us, not even living a “good” life, it is the grace of God that saves us.  Follow along from vss.8-10 which are so fundamental to our beliefs and to whom we are as Protestant Christians.  We have been saved by grace through faith.  This faith, this grace is a gift of God.  We do not deserve it.  It is not by our own doing, it is not because we have lived right that we are saved.  Because if it was a result of any of our actions, we could boast.  But no one can boast.  But it gets better.  Look at vs.10.  The reason why we are saved is not simply so we can have eternal life.  Oh, that would be nice and a simple goal.  No, the reason that we are saved, according to Paul, is because eternal life starts here and now in this life.  We were created, we were saved by Jesus, for good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

So let’s be clear.  Good works have nothing to do with our salvation, but have everything to do with our vocation.  We are made to do good works.  That is to be our joyful response to salvation.  He then goes on to explain that those who were not originally part of God’s plan, you know, the chosen people through Abraham who became the nation of Israel, if we are not in that number, do not worry.  Look at vs.13, it is such an important verse for goyim like you and me.  “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”  It is by the blood of Jesus that we were brought near.  

Because of Jesus there is no longer male or female, there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer rich or poor, there is no longer black or white, there is no longer good and bad, there is no longer, well, you  can fill in the blank.  Jesus has broken down whatever privilege, whatever dividing wall that society and culture has set up.  In fact, and I love this part, Jesus has created a single humanity, and this single humanity, according to Paul, should create peace.

But boy do we like our differences and boy do we harp on that which is different as opposed to how we are similar.  Jesus proclaimed peace to those who were far off, that would be us who do not have Jewish descent, and those who were near, that would be those who came from Jewish descent.  Look at vs. 17 for these verses.  We now have a new citizenship.  We are no longer Americans. Can I say this in the middle of the Olympics when we are absolutely dominating?  We are no longer Americans…we are Christians.  We have a new citizenship according to vs.19.  This was a big deal for Paul who finds himself in the middle of the Roman Empire.  But when Jesus is our cornerstone, as we find in vs.20, then we can be a unified people.

I can’t help but think of this song when I read vs.18.  We begin Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.  It is thought to have been written in 62 while Paul was in prison in Rome.  This is another church that Paul founded.  If you go back to Acts 18:19-21 you see that Paul briefly visited Ephesus  and this work was carried on by Apollo and Aquila and Priscilla.  He then later spent three years in Ephesus.  Needless to say it is a church that he knows well and that he loves.  Unlike the churches in Galatia, this church is not leaving the faith.  It is one in which Paul can rely.  

If you look at vs.15 and 16 you will see the love that Paul has for this church is revealed in these words: “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love^[e] toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.”

So what exactly does it mean when Paul says in vs.7 that God is not mocked?  Paul goes on to explain it in that verse and the following verses.  It comes down to the fact that you sow what you reap.  Now that is an interesting statement in light of Matthew 5:45 where Jesus states that the rain falls on the just and the unjust.  I just started over these past few months something that I have never done before.  I have started to measure how much rain has fallen in my yard with a rain gauge.  Every time it rains there are three of us that text each other to say how much we have received in rain.  One person lives 2 miles away and another lives about 4.  I am amazed at the disparity of rainfall in these three places.  One time I received about a quarter of an inch and another person in the group received an inch and a half.

So when it states that we sow what we reap, does that take rainfall into account?  I mean what if I sow the same as my friends but they get more rain, they will probably get a better crop, and I did nothing wrong or different.  Paul’s point is a different one.  He is encouraging a community that is walking away from the faith to stay the course.  As he states in vs.9 “do not be weary in doing what is right.”  He goes on and tells us not to give up.  

I love the way that he ends out the chapter and the book of Galatians.  If you look at vs.17 he states: “Let no one make trouble for me.”  For some reason I get the image of Arnold pointing at me as he makes that statement.  

You probably didn’t think that you would hear the words which we find in vs.12.  “I wish those who are bothering you would castrate themselves.”  Paul has been addressing the topic of circumcision and how that act is a sign not of freedom, but rather of slavery.  This chapter is all about the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus.  Vs. 1 sounds like my absolute favorite verse in the Bible which you find in John 8:32.  The freedom that we have in Christ is not tied up in following the law, but rather in knowing Jesus as your Savior.  But it does not end there.

Paul says that the entire law is summed up in the words that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  You can find that in vs.14.  How we love our neighbors is totally up to us, and in what way that manifests itself does not follow a set protocol.  Vs.13 says that we were called to a life of freedom, but not in order to indulge ourselves.  If we are truly disciples of Jesus Christ then our freedom would be  seen in following the desire of Jesus Christ.  

It’s interesting that for someone who says that we are to live our  lives in freedom that he actually gives a list of things we are not supposed to do.  Paul calls this list which starts in vs.19 the works of the flesh.  He then contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruits of the spirit and gives the list of these starting in vs.22.  The separation between the two, according to Paul, is that one will allow its followers to inherit the kingdom of God, and the other will not.  Once again, Paul speaks about an inheritance that is wrapped up in the kingdom of God.

So do you remember what Jesus said while he was in the garden when he was in agony and pain for what he was about to face?  Look at Mark 14:36 and you see Jesus call out to his father and say: Abba, father.  Back in Jesus’ day the people of Palestine spoke a language called Aramaic which is neither Hebrew, the language of the temple and the religious people, nor is it Greek, the language of the land.  It is a language of the people, and it represented a language of intimacy.  Abba in Aramaic means father, but in a much more personal way.  The best definition that we could give it in English is “daddy”.  Just as a matter of fact, the New Testament was written in Greek and Old Testament was written in Hebrew.  They are both considered languages which the people of God used to express the words of God.  Aramaic never had that place in history, even if Jesus’ first language was probably Aramaic.

Vs.6 Paul states that we are adopted children of our Father in heaven.  When you are an adopted child, and I am not saying this from experience but rather from conjecture, then you are, or at least should be, fully included in the family as a blood relative.  Adoption does not in any way make you a second class citizen.  What Paul states in these verses is that we are fully children of God.  There is no distinction.  In fact, he states that we are not only children but heirs.  An heir is one who is getting ready to inherit that which the one who went before left behind.  What Jesus left for us is eternal life.  That is our inheritance, a life that is eternal.  

From verses 8-20 it is as if Paul had forgotten that he was chastising the Galatians for their unfaithfulness, and goes back into it.  But it is also here where we find some evidence for the claim that Paul had an ailment that affected his eyes.  We had mentioned earlier that this could be his “thorn in the flesh”.  I love the line in vs.19 where he states that he is like a woman who is in childbirth until Christ is born again in them.  As if he knows what that is like.  As if I know what that is like.  But it is an incredibly rich image.  A pastor saying to a community that he loves who is wandering away from the faith that he is in the type of pain that can only result in joy because they will once again rediscover Christ.  I love that image.

The next image is not so spectacular.  Paul uses the image of Hagar and Sara as an allegory.  He says as such, so we shouldn’t take it literally.  Meaning, Paul uses the difference between the mothers of two sons and how we fit the model of the children born from those whom God had chosen to carry forward his kingdom.  Sara was chosen by God to carry forward His people and His kingdom.  Hagar, at no fault of her own, became involved in God’s  plan as a result of our human deficiencies.  But it was not her fault that she was included.  I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Hagar and I’ve never been greatly impressed with Sarah.   But again, the focus is on the children as being legitimate heirs to God’s kingdom.  That’s us folks.