Chapter 1
v2: When they met one another, the ancient Greeks would greet each other by whishing grace, whereas the Jews would wish one another peace. Paul brings these two together.
v3-5: Christians have fellowship in the Gospel by praying, studying their Bibles, getting together with each other, and by seeking to be obedient and conformed to God's will, ways and law.
v6: Unlike pagan gods, the Lord is not a trickster or capricious. God saved you so a Christian can be sure the Lord will sanctify and glorify them, too.
v7: The Phillipians partnered with and looked upon Paul as their true brother in the faith whether Paul was out there preaching the Gospel or whether he had been thrown in prison, which is where Paul was when he wrote this letter. Unlike other so-called Christians, the believers at Philippi didn't start viewing Paul as a false Christian because he'd been jailed.
v9: Christians need to be loving but that love has to be an intelligent love, knowing the facts of things and making righteous judgments concerning situations.
v10: The above enables us to give approval to that which is deemed excellent in God's eyes.
Christians must be sincere in their faith but they also really need to walk out their faith correctly. Someone can be sincere but be sincerely wrong.
v11: Following the instructions of the previous two verses will result in us being righteous through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
v12-13: The Philippians were concerned that, because Paul was imprisoned, the Gospel, (that is, the good news of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ) had been stopped in its tracks. Paul assures them the Good News is spreading throughout the prison, the palace and the known world. If Christ is put first, His kingdom will advance.
v14: I have to think the reason more brethren became bolder, more confident and less fearful to tell unbelievers about Christ is they recognized that Paul's imprisonment was the fulfillment of what Jesus said about how His people would be persecuted, thus helping to prove Christ Himself and, in turn, His promises as true.
v15-18: This passage doesn't endorse false teachers, but it tells us that Christ's light can still shine through false teaching, or, more specifically, teaching about Christ that comes from wrong motives. You hear about some of the means or materials by which certain people got saved sometimes and it just seems so incongruous.
The false teachers supposed; the true ones knew.
v19-20: It is so important for Christians to pray for each other.
The Holy Spirit supported Paul like a ligament.
God does things differently from the way we would expect or want.
Paul's concern was that God would get the glory.
v21-24: Christians are dead to themselves. If we live, we live for Christ and if we die, we get to be with Christ.
The living is done amidst the tasks and happenings of ordinary, everyday life.
Paul also mentions the tension of verses 22-24 in 2 Corinthians.
v25-26: Yet if Paul lives he is sure the result of that will be to encourage others in the faith which will lead those others to worship and glorify the Lord.
v27-28: Reflect your Saviour with unity in the uncompromised truth, by which I mean not giving in over salvific issues.
Let your life reflect the fact you're a citizen of Heaven with all the priviliges that come with that citizenship.
Standing in unity helps the Christian operate with power, love and a sound mind against Satan, his demons and his children, who will all be destroyed someday.
v29-30: Paul echoes the words of His Saviour by saying the Philippians, as Christians, are going to suffer like Paul.
Chapter 2
v1-2: The word if in the King James is better rendered since in modern English.
Christians are to be united by their love of God. Except for salvific issues, we can disagree about doctrine and still regard each other as true Christians. The church functions together for Christ, consoling, loving, truly fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit present, and showing mercy to each other.
Hook up the part of your mind that loves God with the part of someone else's mind who loves God and walk together in Jesus Christ.
v3-4: Rather than making it about showing up others in order (we asume) to confirm our doctrinal theology is correct, or getting glory for ourselves, let Christians serve each other valuing those others more than themselves. This doesn't mean we care nothing for ourselves and the care of our bodies, minds and souls, but it does mean we live a life where it's not about us.
v5-8: Jesus is our ultimate example of what it really means to humble oneself and serve others.
v9-11: Jesus is the one who deserves exaltation, not us.
One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but then it will be too darn late. Choose Him now. Acts 2 38
v12-13: It's easy to be obedient when someone's watching; be obedient when no one's watching.
The working out of our salvation involves growing and maturing in our faith, taking our responsibility in the relationship we have with God. God works within us to enable this to happen so our holding up our end of things with Him flows out of God holding up His end of things. God does this not for our own self-interest but because He wants us to be more like Him.
Fear and trembling doesn't mean being terrified of the Lord. However, just like with fire, sharp objects, wild animals, etc. we have a healthy fear of what can happen if we treat God and His law, ways and will lightly or irreverently.
v14-16: Jesus Christ is the light of the world and as His children we are to reflect Him to the wrongheaded and reprobate unbelievers.
We don't just complain about these pagans, however. Rather, we bring them the Word of life, this thing we're studying right now.
Like Paul did for the Philippians, we as Christians should want other believers to shine forth this Word of God and, for instance, be grieved that 93 percent of our brothers and sisters never share Jesus.
Complaining and fighting (more specifically about things that don't matter) hinders us getting anything done for Christ.
v17-18: We rejoice by emptying ourselves for God's glory. We have the Gospel preached to us and accept it from someone who did so for the sake of Christ, then we go on and do the same thing in the same spirit.
v19-24: Timothy possessed integrity and loyalty, unlike so many other so-called Christians of the day who only wanted from the Christian faith what would personally benefit themselves. Timothy would have only been in his late teens, or at most his early twenties, at this point.
v25-30: All true Christians are brothers, co-workers and fellow soldiers, as well as we all minister one to another.
Epaphroditus deserved honour because he cared so much about his fellow believers. In fact, Epaphroditus had such a burden for his brothers and sisters he was literally worried sick, almost to the point of death. I'm not saying it's a commandment for us to get this worked up about others in the body of Christ, but this nonetheless demonstrates how we are to truly feel toward other followers of Jesus.
Chapter 3
v1-6: Not everyone who professes Christ is a Christian, or even a good person. In verse 2 Paul calls the Judaizers dogs and evil workers.
Circumcision, in principle, is a good thing but, under the new covenant, it doesn't save us. Rather, the Christian life is about circumcision of the heart, cutting off our old ways.
If anyone could boast in keeping the old covenant system of works, it was Paul. Yet, as the pharisee of pharisees, Paul was committing genocide, moreover punching and kicking Jesus' body.
v7-11: Everything Christians attained before we were saved can be counted as loss. We can't brag about it, what ever we may have gotten, in the sense that, without knowing Christ, everything else is nothing.
I have heard the word translated in the King James dung, in the original Greek, is actually their equivalent of our word shit.
In verses 9-11, Paul basically reiterates what he said in the previous chapter about working out our own salvation.
v12: As Christians, our walk is incomplete but active. We go on toward perfection throughout our lives, obeying Jesus' final words in the Sermon on the Mount.
v13: Christians shouldn't beat themselves up over things they've done in their past since Jesus' blood has taken care of it.
v14-15: God will reveal the areas of our lives we as His people need to work on.
We strain to attain perfection, as incredibly hard as this is to do when the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
v16: Let us continue to walk in what we've already learned and the progress we've already made.
v17: Believers need good examples to follow, other brothers and sisters in Christ.
v18-19: Gut feelings can be accurate, but they can also be very inaccurate. God expects you, as someone with an intellect and a will which He has given you, to check this feeling against that as well as, most importantly, the Scriptures.
Christians need to set their affections on things above and not on things on Earth as Paul says in Colossians.
v20-21: We will only become completely perfect like our Lord when Christ returns and we receive our glorified bodies.
Chapter 4
v1: We need to stand firm in the Lord.
v2-3: One way we do this is by agreeing in the Lord, as discussed and defined above.
How bad was the problem between these two where they had to take it to Paul and couldn't work it out themselves?
v4: See this post.
v5: In light of the fact Jesus is returning soon, our self-control, which is a fruit of the Spirit, should be on display for Christians and non-Christians alike to see.
v6-7: The cure for anxiety right here.
v8: We aren't supposed to take pleasure in think about lies and other sinful things.
Of course, all the adjectives in this list fit with Jesus.
v9: Yes, Christians are actually supposed to do the things they learn, hear, see, and are told and God will give us His peace and enable us to live it out.
v10-12: Our society really needs to take this to heart (first believing in the One who wrote this book of course.) People are never happy these days it seems.
God's provision for us should prompt actionable concern for others.
v13: Being able to do all things through Christ is predicated on a particular thing being within God's will. It doesn't mean God will give you the strength to do whatsoever thing you wish to do as a person.
v14-20: The purpose of Christians providing for each other is ultimately for God's glorification and the furtherance of His kingdom.
When we give, we are being an example of Jesus.
v21-23: This is an example of the attitude Christians are to have toward each other.
