The words that Paul used seem to indicate that he was thinking of a resurrection from among those who were dead. Breaking Down the Key Parts of Philippians 3:14. Remembering that, we try to paraphrase this passage and to set down, not so much what Paul says, as what was in his mind. How the text got gradually changed from the most correct form (not correction) in the early Uncials has been explained. We are undone without a righteousness wherein to appear before God, for we are guilty. You can also change some of your preferences. Self-judgment, where grace is known, is a most wholesome exercise of soul; and we shall have it in perfection even in heaven itself before the judgment-seat of Christ. Who have had more palpable witness that service may become the object rather than Christ? The doctrine of the resurrection was, in his view, that which distinguished the true religion, and which made it of such inestimable value Acts 26:6-7; Acts 23:6; 1 Corinthians 15:0; and he sought to participate in the full honor and glory of such a resurrection. There were those who distorted the principle of Christian liberty. "Yea," said he, "and I count all things but loss." Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. "Being made conformable to his death:" this too is clearly in the world now. II. The lad was condemned to death for his misdeeds; and the father's letter goes on: "His peace increased daily, till on Saturday, the day he was to die, he came out of the condemned-room, clothed in his shroud, and went into the cart. What a God is ours, so to treat that which, connected with the world, Christ Himself calls "unrighteous mammon!" 1. Yet the truth as to this abides, not only at the starting-point, but all the way through. When he received Jesus Christ, as far as they were concerned, he was dead. Their mind isn't after the Spirit and after the things of the Spirit, they are more concerned and interested in the types of cars they drive and the things of the flesh and the earthly things, than they are the things of the Spirit. And any moment I could lose it. In the days of the early Church it is quite often used to describe martyrs. "Your joy," said Jesus, "no one will take from you" ( John 16:22). But the practical ways and spirit of the Philippians were the living evidence not only of life, but, so to speak, of vigorous health in Christ. Now the saint that has Christ Himself before him looks abroad with desires according to the activity of divine love. You see, there would be no security in that kind of righteousness at all. Nothing but the righteousness that was of God as its source satisfied him. And so the rule of the Christian life is: forgetting those things which are behind, and pressing for those things which are before, or reaching for those things which are before, pressing towards the mark. The Lord may inspire you to some good work that He wants you to do. "Reaching forth to those things which are before, I press," and the word in the Greek is agonizo. For it is not meant looking to Him now, or having Him as one's life: to win Christ means having Him at the other side. In the Bible the dog always stands for that than which nothing can be lower. Hence he desired that their conversation should be as became such zeal; "that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; and in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.". This was precisely what he desired when a Jew. Paul sets out three. (ii) He was of the race of Israel. "My desire is to know Him, and to be found in Him." In front of people they can act very holy and sanctified and excited and exhilarated in the things of the Lord, but when they get away from the stage, they can have filthy mouths; they can tell dirty jokes, they are living a two-faced life. That is a wonderful thought. He says that they had happened rather for the furtherance of the gospel, "so that my bonds in Christ are manifest;" for this is the way in which he looks at it "my bonds in Christ." That there was all this abundantly in these saints he did not doubt; they had just shown him the fruit of love personally. It was this which Paul sought - this for which he strove - this that was so bright an object in his eye that it was to be secured at any sacrifice. [Note: See John F. Walvoord, Philippians, pp. Should any at present think differently, they will soon come to agree, if they allow God to teach them. "* Clearly we here look out of the world and into a state to come, when we have the consummation of our hopes and the end of the journey. It is because the world was created out of this flawed matter that sin and evil are in it. body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself." Observe, The apostle was as ambitious of being sanctified as he was of being justified. But his spirit was as bright as ever, his joy perfectly fresh, deep, and flowing. There was another way which would best prove it to his heart; it was not something future secured to Paul in his need, which would be the way of nature, not of love or faith. Returning, however, to the women Evodia and Syntyche, they had devoted themselves to an exceedingly happy and prized service. It is what enabled him to look at the saints, as he called them to look at one another, esteeming others, as he says, better than themselves. To that thought he now returns and defines more closely what he means. When Saul is seeking to take his life, David's demand is: "After whom do you pursue? "But my God shall supply all your need." They are out there, there are many of them. They stubbornly refused to be assimilated to the nations amongst whom they lived; they retained faithfully their own religion and their own customs and their own laws. He like other Christians lives in the overlap of the ages; he, too, stands between the "already" and the "not yet", and consummated salvation is not yet his. He was in prison, long shut out from that which had been his joyful service, though in constant toil and suffering for so many years. The keynote of the epistle is rejoice, and he said. all the dead, as a class. Let me think of myself as one that is serving Him (oh, how feebly and failingly!) "Well, I didn't finish it, but I ran in it." What then are the signs of that real circumcision? He had been born in the Gentile city of Tarsus, but he had come to Jerusalem to be educated at the feet of Gamaliel ( Acts 22:3) and was able, for instance, when the time came, to speak to the mob in Jerusalem in their own tongue ( Acts 21:40). So, then, Paul claims that from his birth he was a God-fearing, Law-observing Jew; that his lineage was as pure as Jewish lineage could be; and that he belonged to the most aristocratic tribe of the Jews. Is He really so far from any of those that call upon Him? "Let your requests," whatever they may be, "be made known unto God;" and not only so, but "with thanksgiving." a. 3:12-16 Not that I have already obtained this, or that I am already all complete but I press on to try to grasp that for which I have been grasped by Jesus Christ. Close. He says to them, "In your proud self-righteousness, you call other men dogs; but it is you who are dogs, because you shamelessly pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ." And mark, it is not the anticipation of light with Christ in heaven, but His light now while He is in heaven shining on the heart, and on the circumstances of the pathway here below. WebPhilippians 2:1-5. This is proper to give us measures in all our service, and to quicken us every step we take; and it is of God, from whom we are to expect it. When it is used of offerings, it means without blemish and fit to offer God. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. Yet we may follow, and seek conformity unto His death; but there was that in His death on the cross which could be His alone. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect [would be complete], be thus minded [let this be in your mind] ( Philippians 3:14-15 ): Let this be the same rule for your life. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Paul had discovered that a right relationship with God is based not on Law but on faith in Jesus Christ. Evidently, therefore, two glories of Jesus are referred to here. They were more obedient in his absence than in his presence. I am rejoicing here, in the Lord." There is no looking at Him as Saviour on the cross merely; but when He comes for us, there will be in the filial sense (as ever in our epistle) "salvation." Only we must always walk according to that standard which we have already reached. WebContext Summary Philippians 3:111 warns Christians about the influence of false teachers, particularly those who add legalism on top of the gospel. But the day is coming when every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." Even he who knew them well marvelled that they were so soon shifting, not only from him, but from the gospel, after he left them. On my account, God writes righteous.Now, the problem of being righteous by my efforts, by my works, I may be doing right, I may have lived all of my life up to this point by the rules, having never violated, sailing along in good shape, and there is written across my name, righteous. It was the teaching of these Jews that, if a man wished to be saved, he must earn credit in the sight of God by countless deeds of the law; and, further that salvation belonged to the Jews and to no one else, and that, before God could have any use for him, a man must be circumcised and, as it were, become a Jew. of 1. [Note: Saucy, p. Webpresents an easy reading, practical and friendly commentary. Far from him was the vanity of being the man first to preach Christ in the great metropolis. ", He loves, we see, to couple with the relationship to himself what was related to them. In other words, "Here I am, I am chained in prison, but I don't find it hard to write this to you. And did feel rather sorry for her. Not in a figurative sense, the resurrection from the death of sin to a life of grace, of which Christ is the efficient cause, for this the apostle had attained to; unless the consummation of that spiritual life, in perfect holiness, should be intended, than which nothing was more desirable by him; nor in a representative sense, for this also he enjoyed in Christ his head, being risen with him, and in him, when he rose from the dead; but in a literal sense and designs not the general resurrection of the just and unjust, which he believed; for he knew that everyone must, and will attain to this, even Pharaoh, Judas, and the worst of men; but the special and particular resurrection of the righteous, the better resurrection, which will be first, and upon the personal coming of Christ, and by virtue of union to him, and in a glorious manner, and to everlasting life and happiness: and when the apostle says, "if by any means" he might attain to this, it is not to be understood as if he doubted of it, which would be inconsistent with his firm persuasion, that nothing should separate him from the love of God, and with his full assurance of faith, as to interest in Jesus Christ; but it denotes the difficulty of attaining it, since through various afflictions and great tribulations a believer must pass, before he comes to it; and also the apostle's earnest desire of it, and strenuous endeavour for it; not caring what scenes of trouble, or sea of sorrow what fiery trials, severe sufferings, or cruel death he went through, so be it he obtained as he believed he should, the glorious and better resurrection; he counted not his life dear to himself, he loved it not unto death, having in view the blissful and happy state after it. Many different commentaries state that of all the groups that Paul wrote to, Phillipi was probably the best of them all. So that you could share with Him the eternal glories of His kingdom. 661.] 3:2-3 Be on your guard against the dogs; be on your guard against the evil workers; be on your guard against the party of mutilation; for we are the truly circumcised, we who worship in the Spirit of God; we whose proud boast is in Jesus Christ, we who place no confidence in merely human things. Following the Jewish Law does not make anyone right in Gods eyes; only faith in Christ does that. (iv) As for the righteousness which the Law could produce, he was blameless. And defines more closely what he desired when a Jew more closely he! Here, in the early Church it is used of offerings, it means without and. Of God as its source satisfied Him. Himself what was related to them which before! Experience on our websites and the word in the days of the early Uncials been. 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