11/22/2020 – Day 189 – Philippians 3-4 – “The fundamental truths can neither be spoken nor heard too often for the safety of our souls.” //2 of ?
The title quote comes right from my “Williams Barclay” commentary , three pages of commentary on just verse 3:1 alone: “As for what remains, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble to me to write the same things to you, and for you it is safe.” I am just going to run over these two chapters pulling direct quotations out. If I don’t show a verse or mention another source here, it is out of about 30 pages from these two chapters from Barclay’s “The Letter to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians” revised edition 1975 William Barclay, first published by the Saint Andrews press, Edinburgh, Scotland – 1957.
Check this story out, a story I have heard before outside of this commentary: “In 1756, a letter came to John Wesley from a father who had a prodigal son. When the revival swept England the son was in in York gaol. ‘It pleased God, wrote the father, ‘not to cut him off in his sins. He gave him time to repent; and not only so, but a heart to repent.’ 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. As he went into the cart. As he went on, the cheerfulness and composure of his countenance were amazing to all the spectators.’ The lad had found a joy which not even the scaffold could take away.”
Let me ask y’all a question that I asked the Holy Spirit when I was walking home from work one day: “Pray for – (not remembering who this was as there are too many to remember)” So I ask, “why do you ask me to pray Lord, when it is within your power?” An indolent question on my part, seeing as how I asked Him to not let me forget people on the prayer list or people I greeted in the morning with : “Blessings to your day!” Or I recall jogging years back with a “Pray for Sally -!” (I leave out her last name just in case it would get back to her, lol). That struck me as unusual, seeing as how Sally was one of my earliest crushes in junior high, and I hadn’t even thought about her for probably in three decades at this point in my life.
- It is not about the messenger, but check this out: “Paul was writing letters from A.D. 48 to A.D. 64 A.D.., but we only possess thirteen.” Unless there were long periods when he never put pen to paper there must have been many more letters which are now lost.”
- ok, I have advanced to verse 2 & 3: “Paul calls the Jews “the party of mutiliation”. Peritemnein means to circumcise; katatemnein means to mutilate, as in Leviticus 21:5 , which describes forbidden self-mutilation, such as castration. Paul says, ‘You Jews think that you are circumcised; in point of fact, you are only mutilated.’….. So….., what Paul says is, ‘If you have nothing to show but circumcision of the flesh, you are not really circumcised — you are only mutilated. Real circumcision is devotion of heart and mind, and life to God.”
It is interesting, as Paul tells his fellow “Israelites” in essence, you want impressive credentials, I’ll give you credentials: He goes on: He was a Pharisee: “There were not very many Pharisees, never more than six thousand, but they were the spiritual athletes of Judaism. Their very name means The Separated Ones.” Recall , we studied not long ago, that our call to holiness is in essence to “be separated ones” to God and from the world.
Paul goes on to say that the law is no better than Skubala. The word has two meanings. “In common language it was popularly derived from kusi -ballomena, which means it was thrown to the dogs; and in medical language it means excrement. So then Paul is saying, ‘I found the Law and all its ways of no more use than the refuse thrown on the garbage heap to help me to get into a right relationship with God…. Paul had discovered that a right relationship with God is based on Law but on the faith in Jesus Christ. It is not achieved by any man but given by God; not won by works, but accepted in trust.”
Brothers, this is the uniqueness of the Christian faith! All other major religions are focused on personal achievement, climbing that ladder to reach God. We can’t do it!; it is completely futile. But note, Paul then goes into a section on “pressing on” to the prize. He is in fact using that Pharisee training to tell us: We Christians must be athletes for Christ! In bringing this out, he is flying in the face of antinomians of his day who said sins didn’t matter, because they are all washed away by the blood of Christ. And sadly, they are still around in droves in our day.
- Take note: Verse 3:10 “My object is to know him”: “It is important to note the verb which he uses for to know. It is part of the verb ginoskein which almost always indicated personal knowledge…. The Old Testament uses to know of sexual intercourse, as in ‘Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived and bore Cain.’ (Genesis 4:1. In Hebrew the verb is yada and in Greek it is translated by ginoskein. The verb indicates the most intimate knowledge of another person. It is not Paul’s aim to know about Christ, but personally know Him.
In summary, here are the key imperatives to know Him:
- to know the power of his Resurrection. // 2. It is the guarantee of the importance of this life and this body in which we live. // 3. It is the guarantee of life to come. // 4. It is the guarantee that in life and in death and beyond death the presence of the Risen Lord is always with us. //5. once again, let’s not miss this one!: It means to know the fellowship of His sufferings. // 6. It means to be so united with Christ that day by day we come more to share in His death, so that finally we share in his Resurrection.
I’m at Chapter 4 now. The crown in verse 1 is stephanos, a word with two backgrounds: “(i) It was the crown of the victorious athlete at the Greek games. . To win that crown was the peak of the athletes ambition. (ii) It was the crown with which guests were crowned when they sat at a banquet, at some time of great joy. It is as if Paul said that the Philippians were the crown of all his toil; it is as if he said that at the final banquet of God they were his festal crown. There is no joy in the world like bringing another soul to Jesus Christ.” The Holy Spirit saves, not Paul, but he gets to wear the crown at the banquet nontheless.
- Philippians 4:4,5 note: “The Christian can never lose his joy, because he can never lose Christ.”
- Verse 6,7: “Peace is the fruit of believing prayer”. M.R. Vincent And a key note in Barclay’s I believe: “Paul lays it down that ‘thanksgiving must be the universal accompaniment of prayer.’ The Christian must feel as it has been put, that all his life he is, ‘as it were, suspended between past and present blessings.’ Every prayer must surely include thanks for the great privilege of prayer itself. Paul insists that we must give thanks in everything, in sorrows and joys alike. That implies two things. It implies gratitude and also perfect submission to the will of God. It is only when we are fully convinced that God is working all things together for good that we can really feel to him the perfect gratitude which believing prayer demands…. The result of believing prayer is that the peace of God will stand like a sentinel on guard upon our hearts. The word that Paul uses (phrourein) is the military word for standing guard. That peace of God, says Paul, as the Revised Standard Version has it, passes all understanding. That does not mean that the peace of God is such a mystery that man’s mind cannot understand it, although that is also true. It means that the peace of God is so precious that man’s mind, with all its skill and all its knowledge, can never produce it. It can never be of man’s contriving, it is only of God’s giving. The way to peace is in prayer to entrust ourselves and all whom we hold ear to the loving hands of God.
Philippians 4: 8, 9: Note Paul says to practice those things you have learned. We are to grab onto things that are pure and winsome, and not let go. “Winsome” is a powerful word in English but Barclay suggests “the Greek “semnos”, which is difficult to translate. He notes that Matthew Arnold suggested the translation nobly serious. But the word really describes that which has the dignity of holiness upon it. There are things in this world which are flippant and cheap and attractive to the light-minded; but it is on the things which are serious and dignified that the Christian will set his mind… The mind of a Christian is set on the lovely things – kindness, sympathy, forbearance — so he is a a winsome person, whom to see is to love.”
Barclay, in my mind, takes a sidebar to the verses by noting: “He is the God of hope (Romans 15:13). But it is a good one so let’s explore it: “The hope of the Christian is indestructible because it is founded on the eternal God. (iii) He is the God of patience, of comfort, and of consolation. (Romans 15:5; 2 Corinthians 1:3) Here we have two great words. Patience is in Greek hypomone, which never means simply the ability to sit down and bear things but the ability to rise up and conquer them. God is He who gives us the power to use any experience to lend greatness and glory to life.
God is He in whom we learn to use joy and sorrow, success and failure, achievement and disappointment alike to enrich and to ennoble life, to make us more useful to others and to bring us nearer to himself. Consolation and comfort are the same Greek word paraklesis. Paraklesis is far more than soothing sympathy; it is encouragement. It is the help which not only puts an arm round a man but sends him out to face the world; it not only wipes away the tears but enables him to face the world with steady eyes. Paraklesis is comfort and strength combined. God is He in whom any situation becomes our glory and in whom a man finds strength to go on gallantly when life has fallen in.
Soli Deo Gloria! Now I have at least a sense how Alistair Begg could have completed around 25 sermons on Philippains chapter 3 & 4 in the pulpit during his pastorship tenure from ordination.