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Philippians
“THREE COMMANDS IN CHRIST”
Philippians 4.1-4
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Introduction
Moving into Philippians 4, I want you to
look at the first four vv. where we have
three commands in Christ. Paul has
interspersed through this book warnings
against false teachers, warnings against the
Judaizers whom he calls in the 3rd
ch. “dogs,” “evil workers,”
and mutilators of the Gospel of Grace (v.
2), warnings against those who are
“enemies of the Cross”— sometimes
unbelievers who oppose or distort the
Gospel, sometimes believers who oppose and
distort the Gospel and who are distracted
from the Spiritual Life. From these
warnings he now turns to the Philippians
themselves, and he has a few practical areas
of command.
He say’s, “Therefore, my beloved brethren
whom I long {to see}, my joy and crown, in
this way stand firm in the Lord, my
beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche
to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed,
true companion, I ask you also to help these
women who have shared my struggle in {the
cause of} the gospel, together with Clement
also, and the rest of my fellow workers
whose names are in the Book of Life.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will
say, rejoice!,” Philippians 4:1-4. V. 4
is, of course, the basic theme of this
entire epistle— the power of spiritual joy.
This is a joy which flows from
Christ, a joy which is focused on
Christ, and a joy which is built on
the Work of Christ, on what He accomplished
at the Cross. Jesus said to His disciples
in John 15:11, “These things I have
spoken to you so that My joy may be
in you, and your joy may be made
full.”
In the last section of ch. 3, vv. 17-19, we
studied the walk of unbelief. The spiritual
counteraction to that walk of unbelief is
the walk of faith, which is commanded of
every believer whether he realizes it or
not. The walk of faith leads us into
intimate fellowship with the Lord. And
apart from that intimate fellowship it’s
impossible for us to even hope to fulfill
the commands we have in this section. These
are commands which cannot be applied en
masse. They cannot be applied to other
people; they can only be applied to us. You
can apply these to your own personal life
and experience; you cannot apply these to
someone else.
Body
I. The Maturity of
Spiritual Love— v. 1.
A. “Therefore” is a consecutive
particle, used in this case to introduce an
independent clause. It’s a term, much like
the inferential oun, which looks back
on past teaching in order to give us present
direction. V. 1 actually belongs at the end
of ch. 3, and when you read it in light of
that context it suddenly comes to life.
1) “For our citizenship, with all its
status, rights and privileges, is in Heaven,
from which we eagerly wait with tremendous
anticipation for a Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ;
who will transform the body of our humble, sin-prone, deathly state into
conformity with the body of His brilliant
glory, by the power which enables Him to
bring everything under His control and
authority,”
expanded translation of 3:20-21. In view of
the things he’s had to say about focusing on
Christ and having the proper attitude— the
attitude of spiritual maturity which he
mentions in v. 15; the Christian walk which
results from living as a citizen of Heaven;
our awareness of the fact that as Royal
Family members we are Royal Citizens
awaiting the appearance of our omnipotent
Sovereign, vv. 20-21. In light of these
things he say’s, “Therefore, my beloved
brethren whom I long {to see}, …my beloved,”
4:1. This is the second time in the same v.
that Paul uses agapetos, this term of
such Christ-like affection for other members
of the Royal Family. What he’s saying is,
“to those whom I love with the love of
Christ.”
2) Here we have
expressions of Paul’s spiritual maturity.
Keep in mind that the single greatest
evidence of spiritual maturity is not in how
much you know, but in how much you
apply. The application of divine viewpoint,
and that subsequent growth in the grace and
knowledge of God, is going to come forth in
this type of attitude toward other
believers. So, Paul expresses his spiritual
maturity as he demonstrates the love of
Christ for these believers.
3) He say’s that he
has a great desire; this is found in the
phrase those “whom I long to see.”
Here we actually have an adjective, and it
means the Philippians are ‘longed for ones,
greatly desired ones.’ Earlier in 1:8 he
said, “For God is my witness, how I
long for you all with the affection of
Christ Jesus.”
Sometimes as we focus on the importance of
Biblical clarity, the importance of
doctrinal accuracy, we become so focused on
the academic and so focused on the
intellectual that we actually exclude
the idea of any emotional response at all.
That’s an unfortunate thing because until
the Word of God has gripped your emotions
you’re never going to be completely
involved in anything you do. And you’re
never going to possess that ‘spiritual
emotion’— that spiritual motivation— the
Bible calls “zeal”! We’ve talked a lot
about Paul’s zeal for the plan of God for
his life, about Paul’s zeal for the mission
of his ministry. When we lose that zeal
for the Word of God and that zeal for
the will of God, we’ve lost something
precious in our lives.
B. In v. 1 we see the care and devotion of
a shepherd for his sheep, of a father for
his children. Notice his concern for the
spiritual lives of every last one of
the sheep he had brought into the fold of
Christ. Paul, once again, shows what
tremendous love and affection he had for the
Philippian Church. He calls the Philippians
his “joy and” his “crown.”
Right there we can see two things.
1) The blessing of
joy and fellowship in time. 1
Thessalonians 2:17 say’s, “But we,
brethren, having been bereft of you for a
short while— in person, not in spirit— were
all the more eager with great desire to see
your face.” Why? Because there was
genuine spiritual focus in Paul’s life, in
the Thessalonians lives, and in the
Philippians lives. There was an active
participation in the plan and purpose of
God, and a camaraderie which can only come
when people share the same outlook, the same
viewpoint, the same perspective in life.
2) The wealth of
reward in eternity. Paul said this same
thing about the Thessalonian believers. In
1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 Paul asked, “For
who is our hope or joy or crown of
exultation?
Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For
you are our glory and”
our “joy.”
There is a parallel between these two
groups: Philippi and Thessalonica. They
were both small churches, both extremely
poor as far as worldly goods and material
things, and yet they both possessed the key—
a tremendous love for the Word of God and a
tremendous dedication to the Son of God.
It’s interesting because in 2 Corinthians 8
Paul defines the “churches of Macedonia”—
of which these two were part— by three
things: an “abundance of joy,”
overflowing even; a “deep poverty,” a
destitute condition; and in spite of that, a
“wealth of liberality,” a generosity
which is free from pretension. Those things
do not characterize churches where
the love of believers is not on the Living
Word and the written Word! Those are
evidences that they had the hunger and the
desire which is so essential to
sustaining spiritual momentum.
C. Under the ‘Doctrine of Blessing and
Reward’ we studied the crown, or wreath, of
joy. This is the wreath which is given for
faithfulness in witnessing, for faithfulness
in the execution of your ambassadorship.
Understand this principle: Success in
evangelism is based on your willingness to
make Christ the issue. When Paul say’s
that the Philippians are his “joy and
crown” the word he uses there is ste/fanoj
(stephanos). A stephanos is a
wreath, a garland of ivy or oak leaves given
to the victorious athlete in the ancient
games, or to the triumphant warrior in the
defense of his city-state or nation. It all
depended on what games you were competing in
as to what the wreath was actually made of;
sometimes it was made of wild olive
interwoven with parsley and bay leaves.
1) You remember that
the Greek word stephanos represents
phenomenal wealth in eternity. When an
athlete in the ancient games achieved his
victory in a particular event, and brought
the prestige of that victory home to his
city, a multitude of honors awaited him.
E.g.:
a. A special entrance
was cut into the wall of his hometown which
he passed through upon his return. The wall
was then rebuilt and sealed up with an
inscription of his name.
b. He rode in a
victory parade through the streets of the
city in its finest chariot.
c. He received a
lifetime pass to all future games.
d. He was given a
cash award of somewhere between
$10,000-$50,000.
e. An ode was written
to him by a poet in order to commemorate his
feats.
f. A sculptor was
commissioned by the city to erect a statue
of him competing in his event, to capture
his strength and grace in the glory of
youth— a statue which was to be put up in
the public square.
g. His children were
fed and educated at public expense.
h. And, saving the
best for last, he was exempt from all income
taxes for life!
How about that? To win this wreath and all
it represented was the summit, the
pinnacle of the athlete’s ambition.
2) There’s something
else here. The stephanos was the
wreath with which one crowned his guests at
a banquet, at a time of joy and celebration
and rejoicing. There is a beautiful picture
in this passage. Here is the apostle Paul
in a Roman prison, chained hand and foot to
a Praetorian Guard, his mind
and motivation riveted not on the
temporal, not on his own miserable
circumstances, but on the spiritual.
His care and concern is on the life,
spirituality, and service of these young
churches— some of which he himself had
established and some of which he hadn’t.
What he’s saying is that the Philippians are
the crowning achievement of his labor in the
cause of Christ. At the Banquet Table of
the King they will be his festal wreath, the
demonstration of his joy. If there is one
lesson to learn right here I think it’s
this: The greatest joy you and I will have
in eternity is not in the amount of rewards
we’ve amassed; the greatest joy you and I
will have is in those we’ve led to Christ.
That brings us to this principle: The
greatest joy in life is leading another soul
to Jesus Christ! The apostle Paul
looked at these people knowing that
they were going to Heaven because he gave
them the Gospel, knowing that they had
eternal life because he explained to them
the way of faith; and so he say’s to the
Philippians, “You are my joy and you are my
crown.”
D. Paul uses the phrase “in the Lord”
three times in the first four vv. of this ch.
We know that there are no more important
words for the Church Age believer than
“in the Lord,” “in Christ,”
“in Him,” “in the Beloved.”
Because what they signify is our
inseparable union with the King
of Kings! In Romans 8:35 Paul asks, “Who
will separate us from the love of Christ?”
He goes on to mention every possible
situation of pressure and adversity
imaginable. And then in v. 38 he reaches
this conclusion: “For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other created thing
will be able to separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Not only do these words picture the security
of our salvation, they represent all the
wealth, riches, and resources of God, which
are the birthright of every believer— all
the power and provision made available to
us through Christ! In Ephesians 1:3 Paul
say’s, “Blessed {be} the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly {places} in Christ.” When Paul
uses this phrase here at the beginning of ch.
4, he’s giving us three significant commands
in Christ.
II. Three Commands in Christ— vv. 1-4.
A. The first is a command to be stable,
to exercise stability in our spiritual
warfare. Paul say’s, “Therefore, my
beloved brethren [my siblings and
children in / Royal Family of God]… stand
firm in the Lord….” I want you to see
this right from the outset. It is only by
our occupation with Jesus Christ that we can
stand firm, it is only by our occupation
with Christ that we can resist the
seductions of temptation and the cowardice
of arrogance. When Paul sets forth the
command to “stand firm,” he uses a
form of histemi, the root of the
Roman soldier’s battle cry— Stete!
Stete is the
aor. imper., the military command Paul uses
in Ephesians 6:14 when he say’s, “Stand
firm therefore….”
1) The word Paul uses
here is the pres. act. imper. of sth/kw (steko)- stand firm; persevere in battle;
keep one’s footing. The act. voice
means that the duty of spiritual stability
is laid squarely on our shoulders. The
pres. imper. is a command to ‘keep on
standing firm, to keep on persevering in
conflict with our enemies.’
Paul uses a qualifying word in this v., the
adverb houtos. Houtos means-
‘in this manner,’ which is close to what we
have in our translation. Houtos
implies two things:
a. That this is
something they had been doing. In
1:27 he commends them for “standing firm
in one spirit, with one mind striving
together for the faith of the gospel;”
and in 2:12 he say’s, “so then, my
beloved, just as you have always obeyed….”
“Always obeyed” means that they were
faithful to follow divine instruction, they
were faithful in their application of the
Word, even when the one by whom it came was
not present.
b. That this is an
evidence of their maturity. Not only was
this something they had been doing, it was
the evidence that they were making further
progress in the plan of God. He mentions
this in 3:15-16. “In this manner stand
firm in the Lord”— what manner?
According to the ‘attitude of perfection,’
the attitude of maturity, and this level of
growth “to which we have attained,”
vv. 15-16. ‘Let us keep on holding
ground in the spiritual realm!’ Why?
Because this is an outward demonstration of
our spiritual growth.
2) Steko is a
word which would’ve been used for a soldier
standing fast in the shock of battle with
the enemy surging down upon him, for a
soldier holding his ground despite the fury
and onslaught of an opponent’s charge. Like
those three hundred valiant Spartan warriors
who squared off against a myriad of
Persians, Medes, Scythians, and others at
the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.
3) As anyone who’s
ever been in a fight will tell you, holding
your ground is impossible if you
panic; therefore, our only safeguard against
temptation and arrogance— which is the root
of all sin— is to reckon, to calculate, to
consider in the face of adversity what is
ours in Christ eternally! That means every
ounce of divine power and provision that
belongs to us. This is going to require
focus, it’s going to require concentration;
it’s going to demand a soul that is
saturated with divine viewpoint. Two quick
principles before we move on.
a The local
church will stand firm only so long as
Christ is the focal point of everything it
does. He must be the Alpha and
Omega of its teaching, its
instruction, its evangelism, its outreach,
every area of service, or else it fails,
plain and simple.
b. The individual
believer will stand fast, holding his ground
against the enemy, only when he is occupied
with Jesus Christ. Occupation with
Christ means a zeal, a fire, a passionate
love affair with the Son of God. And our
passion for the Son of God is evidenced by
our hunger and thirst for the Word of God!
4) I think sometimes we get so caught
up in the academic side of Bible study
that we forget about the practical power
for life of being occupied with Christ.
Now, a few points on ‘Occupation with
the Person of Jesus Christ.’
a. As personal love
for God matures, occupation with Christ
becomes a reality. Hebrews 3:1 urges us, to
“…consider Jesus, the Apostle and High
Priest of our confession.” This is a
very intense word for “consider,”
katanoe/w (katanoeo)- observe and
perceive very carefully.
Katanoeo was used in Greek literature
for the immersion of oneself in a subject,
for a total mental absorption in it, and
thus an entire comprehension of it.
b. Occupation with
Christ is the supreme problem-solving
device. What it solves is the ‘priority
problem’ of the Spiritual Life. It prevents
us from getting distracted by
pseudo-priorities, by inconsequential
details, by things which are not only
distracting but ultimately destructive—
destructive to our progress as Royal Priests
in the plan of God, destructive to our
impact as Royal Ambassadors of Christ, and
destructive to our service as Royal
Ministers of grace. Four principles we need
to get under point number two.
i. Preoccupation
with self results from taking your eyes off
Christ. This is self-
centeredness as opposed to
Christ-centeredness.
ii. Preoccupation
with people comes from getting your eyes on
others. This is usually a consequence
of iconoclastic arrogance, of setting
someone up as your idol and then
worshipping this other person. You better
get it down: Everybody in life will let you
down sooner or later, everyone you know will
disappoint you somewhere along the way,
including, yes, even your pastor.
You might as well be realistic and not
naïve.
iii. Preoccupation
with things results from a false perception
of what is the true source of joy and
happiness in life. We have only one
true source of happiness and of hope— of
confident, absolute assurance— and that’s in
orientation to the will, purpose, and plan
of God for our lives.
iv. You can bank on
this: When believers have false
priorities, they inevitably have preventable
problems. Peter told a group of
believers under intense persecution in Asia
Minor how to solve the ‘priority problem.’
He said, “sanctify Christ as Lord in your
hearts,” 1 Peter 3:15. What that means
is to put Jesus Christ in His rightful
place— first place, the place of
preeminence— in every area of your
life.
c. Occupation with
Christ characterizes the mature believer.
Paul summed up his outlook and perspective
on life when in 1:21 he said, “For to me,
to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
We’ve seen in the past that there are no
‘be’ verbs in the Greek of this v. So, what
it’s really saying is, “to live— Christ,
and to die— gain.” For the apostle Paul
life is Christ, and Christ is
life. Now that is a mature believer.
d. While
characterizing spiritual maturity, it is
impossible to attain maturity unless we are
already occupied with Jesus Christ.
e. Christianity is a
relationship, not a religion. Paul in 2
Timothy 1:12 did not say, “I know what
I have believed,” but “I know whom
I have believed and I am convinced that He
is able to guard what I have entrusted to
Him until that day.” The Spiritual Life
is about the intimacy of
relationship, not the intricacies of
religion.
f. The purpose of
all our study is to move from the
written Word to the Living Word, to seek
from the page the Person of Jesus Christ.
Paul understood this probably as well as
anybody in history, which is why in
Philippians 3:10 he wraps the goal of his
entire life up in five words— “that I may
know Him.” Not about Him, not
the facts and details of this event or that
event, but Him personally and intimately,
which translates into experientially.
That’s why in the rest of v. 10 Paul speaks
of the “power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being
conformed to His death.”
5) {Cf. Psalm 63.}
The title of this is ‘A Psalm of David, when
he was in the wilderness of Judah.’ The
background of this Psalm deals with the
‘Absalom rebellion,’ when David was forced
to flee, around 974 BC, across the Jordan
and into the dry and dusty wilderness,
leaving behind his home, his kingdom, and
the power and authority of his throne. He
begins with the declaration, “O God, You
are my God; I shall seek You earnestly
[Heb. verb shachar means- ‘look
diligently for something;’ it implies /
inner motivation of a soul occupied with /
Person of Christ]; My soul thirsts
for You, my flesh yearns for You
[word here means- ‘faint with longing’],
in a dry and weary land [an ‘exhausted
desert’] where there is no water
[this is David’s expression of spiritual
hunger and desire, that necessary thirst for
/ knowledge of God which leads to growth and
progress in / plan and power of grace].
Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, to
see Your power and Your glory.”
In v. 3 you can see David’s thoughts turn to
the overwhelming goodness of God.
“Because Your lovingkindness is better than
life, My lips will praise You [‘lovingkindness’
is from , and chesed is one of
/ Heb. words for grace; underlying
this word are three basic ideas which
constantly interact with one another— {1}
strength, {2} loyalty, and {3} love; in
God’s relationship to us as individual
believers it means- faithfulness,
kindness, grace; all those things
are wrapped up in this one magnificent word].”
David was a man who understood, implicitly,
that ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’
David knew without a shadow of a doubt that
his kingdom, his family, his wealth, his
victories in warfare, and even his own faith
in the Word of God were resources, divine
assets provided by the grace of God. That’s
why in Psalm 13:5-6 he could say with
boldness and assurance, “I have trusted
in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall
rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to
the LORD because He has dealt bountifully
with me;” and in Psalm 21, a song of
thanksgiving from the nation on behalf of
their king, “O LORD, in Your
strength the king will be glad, and in
Your salvation how greatly he will
rejoice! ...For the king trusts in the
LORD, and through the lovingkindness of the
Most High he will not be shaken,’’ vv. 1
and 7.
“So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your
name
[an expression of worship and devotion].
My soul is satisfied as with marrow and
fatness [‘satisfied’ means- ‘be
fulfilled, have one’s desire satiated
completely’],
and [as a
result of this intense spiritual
satisfaction] my mouth offers praises
with joyful lips.” In v. 6 he say’s,
“When I remember You on my bed, I meditate
on You in the night watches [Qal stem of
zakar, translated ‘remember,’
means- call to mind, recall in
the soul; in / Class. Heb. of David’s time
this word was used for / function of /
heart, for thinking about someone, for
meditating on something and paying very
careful attention to it; this is not just a
fleeting thought here and there but it gives
us a picture of David passing through /
night absorbed in reflection on /
faithfulness, / provision, and / protection
of / Lord God of Israel, Jesus Christ],
for You have been my help and in the shadow
of Your wings I sing for joy [I love
this phrase, / ‘shadow of Your wings;’ it’s
an idiom for divine protection; David uses
it in at least four different places in /
Pss.: 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; and here]. My
soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds
me [‘upholds’ means- support,
hold fast, i.e., ‘Your right hand,’
which pictures / strength and power of God,
‘stabilizes me’].” There is a
principle for us here: Despite pressure
and pain, suffering and even scandal, God
will stabilize the believer who keeps his
eyes focused on Christ.
“In vain the surges angry shock,
In vain the drifting sands:
Unharmed upon the Eternal Rock,
The Eternal City stands.”
B. In v. 2 Paul say’s, “I urge Euodia
and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony
in the Lord.” The verb parakale/w (parakaleo),
translated “I urge” here, is a very
strong word in the Greek language. It
means- beg, exhort someone,
implore or entreat this person;
and Paul repeats it for emphasis, to
demonstrate his desire for harmony in the
Body of Christ. Apparently there was a
quarrel or disagreement of some kind.
Remember that the early Church met in homes;
some scholars have suggested that groups of
believers met in each of these ladies’
homes— one Jewish and one Gentile— and that
maybe there was an inordinate competition
between the two. In any case, this is a
personal appeal to each of these women.
1) We have a very interesting construction
in v. 2. Paul uses the pres. act. inf. of
frone/w (phroneo). The infinitive is
normally used to show the purpose or result
of the finite verb, which is how it’s
translated in the NAS: “I implore Euodia and
Syntyche, I entreat them. To what? To live
in harmony.” But what we have here is
called the “imperative infinitive,” a usage
with a very “ancient origin …especially
frequent in Homer.” Dana & Mantey,
Manual Grammar of the Greek NT, p. 216
This is the exact same construction Paul
used in Philippians 3:16 when he said,
“let us keep living by that same {standard}
to which we have attained.” In that
passage he uses to auto stoichein;
here he uses to auto phronein.
a. Phroneo
means- think the same thing, i.e.,
put aside whatever discord and dissension
exists and to be in agreement.
b. The ‘imperfect
inf.’ phronein— in the pres. tense
and act. voice— is Paul’s command to these
Christian women, and to all believers, to
“live in perpetual harmony in the
Lord, to keep on finding that common
ground of agreement in Christ.” How do we
do this? By thinking the same
thing. This goes back to the training
ground of the spiritual life:
study and application of the Word of God,
the preparation and practice
of faith. You can’t take one without the
other; they belong together in the plan of
God.
c. Paul talked about
this earlier in ch. 2. ‘Thinking the same
thing, being of the same mind in the Lord’
means: {1} To see the other person as you
see yourself in the Lord; and {2} to take
that step above and beyond,
and see this other person as more
important than yourself. Listen to the
expanded translation from our study of
Philippians 2:3-4: “Doing nothing under
the compulsion of selfish ambition or empty
pride, but with a humble attitude of soul
each consider the other as your superior.
Do not focus on your own concerns to the
exclusion of a care for the concerns of
other people.” When an attack comes,
there is always a diminishing of the other
person, a cutting down, a marginalizing of
the other party. As long as that is
happening there is no “harmony in the
Lord.”
2) “Euodia” is a fem. name, and it
means- ‘pleasant or prosperous journey.’
There was a tradition among believers in the
early Church of laying aside their
pre-Christian names and taking a new one at
baptism. In that sense, believer’s names
often reveal something about their spiritual
lives or spiritual character. ‘Euodia’ was
a woman who, in her own spiritual
journey, had arrived at a certain
level of growth. There was only one
problem— that problem’s name was ‘Syntyche.’
3) “Syntyche” comes from the verb
suntugchano, meaning- ‘to meet with;’
its cognate noun suntuchia means- an
‘occurrence, a happening, an incident,’ and
by extension ‘good fortune, success.’
“Syntyche” lit. means- ‘with fortune,
with destiny;’ this is someone who obviously
understood her place in the plan of God.
Maybe the effort she’d put forth to open her
heart and her home to the Body of Christ was
a cause of envy for Euodia. I don’t know,
but what I do know is that Paul calls
these women “fellow-laborers” in the
cause of Christ.
One of the things we see not only in the ministry of
Christ but also in the ministry of the
apostle Paul is the prominence of women.
Funny how after nearly two thousand years
things haven’t changed so much after all.
They’re always in a subordinate role, always
in a proper place and perspective, and yet,
some of the greatest believers of the 1st
cent. were women.
a. Starting with Mary, the sister of
Martha and Lazarus. The 11th ch.
of the Gospel of John tells of what great
love and affection our Lord had for this
family. And this lady was in tune
with the divine plan; she had a depth of
understanding about the Mission of the
Messiah that the disciples could only dream
of! Remember that it was she who had
“anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped
His feet with her hair” in John 11:2.
b. In Luke 8 it says, that when Christ
began “going around from one city and
village to another proclaiming and preaching
the Kingdom of God, the twelve were with
Him. And {also} some women who had been
healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary
who was called Magdalene [meaning- ‘of
Magdala;’ Magdala was a very small but very
wealthy city on / western shore of / Sea of
Galilee, infamous for its
prostitution], from whom seven demons had
gone out [according to / early Church,
it was this same Mary— a famous courtesan in
/ ancient world— who, in / home of a
self-righteous Pharisee
{is there any other kind?} had washed Jesus’ feet with
her tears, wiped them with her hair, and
then kissed them over and over as she
anointed them with perfume; / Scriptures
classify her as one who had been ‘devoted
to sin,’ and / fact that her hair was
loose and unbound was / sign of her
particular profession; I suppose / reason
those feet were so precious to her is
because they brought forgiveness from / Son
of God, a forgiveness offered in love—
and before her meeting with / Messiah that
was something unimaginable to her, something
inconceivable; yet it was this precisely,
her faith in / Lord Jesus Christ, which had
saved her and brought her into a
relationship of peace with God {Lk.
7:36-50}; if not for / ‘Christ-encounter,’
she would’ve been buried in history as some
unknown hooker; but somewhere along / way,
at some point in her life, / beauty of grace
had overwhelmed her, / grace of / Lord Jesus
Christ had touched her soul and set her
free, in a way that only grace
can], and Joanna the wife of Chuza,
Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many
others who were contributing to their [
/ disciples] support out of their private
means,” vv. 1-3.
c. Mark 15:40 says that at the
Crucifixion, after every one else had fled,
“there were …{some} women looking on from
a distance, among whom {were} Mary
Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the
Less and Joses, and Salome [ / mother
James and John, two of / three ‘inner
circle’ of disciples];” in v. 41 Mark
say’s, “When He was in Galilee, they used
to follow Him and minister to Him; and
{there were} many other women who
came up with Him to Jerusalem.”
d. In Paul’s ministry to the Roman colony
of Philippi, who was his first convert?
Lydia… and a very faithful one at that.
Luke in Acts 16:13-14 say’s, “on the
Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a
riverside, where we were supposing that
there would be a place of prayer [this
was a Jewish custom in cities where no
synagogue existed, to worship by a body of
water]; and we sat down and began
speaking to the women who had
assembled. A woman named Lydia, from the
city of Thyatira, a seller of purple
fabrics, a worshiper of God [phrase
indicates that, more than likely, she was a
‘proselyte’ to Judaism; Lydia], was
listening [there you see / concentration
of positive volition, / hunger of spiritual
desire]; and the Lord opened her heart
[HS’s magnificent ministry of common
grace] to respond to the things spoken by
Paul.”
4) As he goes along in v. 3 he talks about
these women, and others, who were ‘engaged
in the conflict of Christ.’ He say’s, they
“have shared my struggle in the Gospel;”
the NIV translates this as, “have
contended at my side in the cause of the
Gospel.” This phrase comes from the
same word he used in 1:27, sunathleo-
‘strive or struggle alongside someone.’
Sunathleo was used for a team of
athletes striving together towards the same
goal; it is a metaphor from the ancient
arena. Paul said, “They are my
fellow-warriors on the battlefield of
life.” That’s a pretty high mark for
anybody, man or woman, wouldn’t you
say?
Let me ask you this: In the end, when time has passed
us by and no further opportunity remains,
what will the record of our lives be? That
we ‘strove together as a team for Christ,
that we fought side by side in the cause of
the Gospel,’ or that we fell apart into
warring little factions? It happens all
the time, and in more and more churches than
ever before. This division in the
Philippian Church was a matter of immense
concern to the apostle Paul.
5) The KJ has “Euodias,” which is a
man’s name. One of the early fathers
thought that this was the Philippian jailer
and his wife being spoken of, that they held
a prominent place in the church at Philippi,
had had a bit of a ‘falling out’ and had
taken some other believers with them in this
momentary retreat. But the correct form is
“Euodia,” a woman’s name; and these
two women were at odds with one another.
Here are two believers, sisters in the Royal
Family of God, at variance and in
disagreement with each other. You let two
believers in a local church, especially two
that are heavily involved in service, get at
odds with one another, you let two believers
get ‘out of sorts’ with each other and you
have the makings of a split right
there, a division right down the middle.
What’s the solution? It’s found in our second command
in Christ, which is a command to ‘live
in spiritual harmony.’ How can you
possibly “live in harmony” unless
you have stability? How can we have
spiritual harmony without spiritual
stability? It’s impossible. In this next
part of our study I’m going to use two terms
synonymously— spiritual stability and
personal stability. That’s what stability
“in the Lord” is: personal and
spiritual. Let’s get a few points on
the idea of ‘harmony in the Lord.’
a. Spiritual harmony is a result of
personal stability. Personal
stability leads to group harmony. It
takes individual stability to have
functional harmony within a group; it’s not
something you can impose en masse. A
cohesive harmony among the various members
of a local body can exist only as a result
of their personal stability.
b. Harmony and unity, though often used as
synonyms, are not necessarily the same.
E.g., in an orchestra or symphony you have
many, many instruments. Those instruments
are all playing different parts, different
notes, emitting their own distinct sounds,
and yet with all the variation the final
product is a majestic harmony. Now, can you
imagine the various musicians telling each
other, “I don’t need you. Your instrument,
your style of playing, your skill is
unnecessary. We’d be better off without
you.”? Rather ridiculous, isn’t it?
The instruments and musicians themselves don’t look
the same, don’t sound the same, don’t
produce the same notes. What’s the
application? {Cf. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27}
According to Paul’s description of the Body
of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12 no believer
has a right to tell another member of the
Royal Family that they’re unneeded, they’re
unnecessary, there’s no place for them.
That attitude Paul speaks of in 1
Corinthians 12:21, of “the eye”
saying “to the hand, ‘I have no need of
you;’ or …the head” saying “to the
feet, ‘I have no need of you,’” is the
seedbed of division.
c. Churches, and individuals, often
promote the idea of ‘unity’ when what they
really mean is ‘conformity.’ This is
legalistic conformity to a set of human
viewpoint norms and standards, to rules and
regulations imposed by religious leaders,
religious boards, and religious
organizations, i.e., by man, not by
God! It was not Paul’s desire to establish
an organization, or the mechanics of human
machinery; it was Paul’s desire to lay on
each and every believer the burden and
responsibility of knowing the Lord Jesus
Christ in an intimate way.
It’s an unfortunate thing in the time in which we live
that organizations have been substituted for
the living organism of the Body of Christ.
What we see all around us is organizations
taking the place of the HS, organizations
taking the place of the Word of God,
organizations taking the place of the
leading and guiding of the Spirit of God.
This is one of the problems with
denominations; this, in my professional
opinion, is one of the major problems with
Christian organizations. Believers become
so involved with the organization, with
its aims and its goals and its
methods, that they leave no room for the
latitude and leadership of the Spirit.
Organizations have a tendency of
establishing their goals, setting up the way
they’re going to get there, and then they
just simply start rolling. What happens is
that spirituality falls by the wayside, what
happens— and this is another great danger—
is that people become loyal to
organizations. They become enamored with
it and not with Christ. One of the
things that has been a plague and a curse to
Christianity from the time of Pentecost down
to the present has been the infighting and
backstabbing in the Family of God because of
the loyalty of Christians, not to
Christ, not to the Word of God, but
to organizations. Principle: Devotion to
a denomination, no matter how wonderful or
right you think it is, is not our objective.
d. Harmony is not total conformity, nor
loss of identity or individuality. No one
should ever be forced into a mold in
which they don’t belong. Let me give you a
principle: Conformity makes the
religious soul comfortable. The
religious believer wants everyone to
dress a certain way, to act a
certain way, to utter all the proper pious
phrases in just the right way. You
know what I love more than anything?
Believers who are not afraid to be
themselves; believers who refuse to
‘fit the mold.’ I guarantee you when it
comes to P-Ts, they have no mold for
me …and they never will! Why? Because I’ve
played that ludicrous game; and I recognize
the principle that: Legalistic conformity
is not the same as spirituality, nor does it
lead to spiritual harmony. It is simply
a human attempt to mimic the reality of a
Christ-centered life.
Unity which is based on producing a whole slew of
people cut out of the same mold all walking,
talking, and acting the same is communism,
not Christianity! Harmony is not
conformity, and it is not the loss of
identity or individuality. In fact, the
more mature the members of a congregation,
the more distinctiveness and individuality
exists. And I’ll tell you why. Because
once you get the essentials of life lined up
and you learn what is truly
important, with that comes a magnificent
sense of obligation and freedom.
You’re not afraid to stand on your own,
you’re not afraid to ‘run outside the herd,’
you’re not afraid to be yourself because
maturity has tempered and even eradicated
some of the baser aspects of your old
self. Therefore, you can live without
fear in the realm of faith.
Let me tell you something: God doesn’t want you to be
anybody but who you are.
Faithfulness and consistency, not
‘conformity of personality,’ are the keys!
Whoever came up with the ideas that we had
to wear certain clothes or act certain
ways? “Well, this is the right way.” Being
someone who has spent a considerable amount
of time on the foreign mission field, I can
tell you that depends on where you
are. The norms and standards of culture—
which is really what we’re talking
about here— differ from country to country,
from state to state in the US, from region
to region, sometimes from city to city!
Who’s to say this is right for
everybody?!
Who’s willing to stand in the place of God and make
that judgment? Why don’t you ask Job how
well that works?
Maybe what the Church needs in the 21st
cent. is more spiritual non-conformists—
believers who, while being spiritual, are
not afraid to be themselves. Americans as a
people, and Christians in America, have lost
their sense of individuality. We say,
“Whereas there used to be plenty, there are
no frontiers left.” But there is
one: the frontier of the soul and spirit
which feed on the Word of God— the
possibilities and potential for growth in
that life are unlimited. There is
another: the frontier of foreign
missions. There are “fields, …white unto
harvest” covering this entire globe—
John 4:35-36. What is your personal
involvement, what is my personal
involvement, in harvesting those fields?
e. Unstable believers who cannot
have harmony, instead push for a unity which
is really conformity. What are we saying
here? Unstable people who don’t have the
ability to stand on their own two feet and
who can’t stand anyone rattling their
rusty cage, want everybody to be exactly
alike. Unfortunately, for some reason, an
extraordinary number of them believe they’ve
been ‘called to preach,’ and so they wind up
in pulpits all across this great land of
ours. They can’t stand to have anybody make
them uncomfortable, so they begin to try to
control people by imposing all these
legalistic standards which have nothing
to do with harmony and everything to
do with conformity.
f. Personal stability minimizes friction
and the arrogance that leads to division.
How? By minimizing dependence on other
people. When you are spiritually
autonomous, you don’t have to rely on the
praise and approbation of other believers;
and you don’t have to be bowed to or
scraped before. What happens is that as you
mature you can allow people to differ, and
to be individuals, even if you don’t
like who they are as an individual, and yet
there is no disruption of harmony.
Personal stability does something else: it
minimizes unrealistic expectations.
People who get disillusioned and who turn
their backs on the plan of grace are people
who are spiritually unstable. They have no
foundation of their own, and therefore, they
have to use someone else as a
crutch. Their whole spiritual existence is
leaning on someone else. Instead of
looking to Christ, they’re looking to people
or to things or to a change of some kind in
life. This, of course, is a very dangerous
position. You know what God said to
Jeremiah about this? “Cursed is the man
who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his
strength and whose heart turns away from the
LORD. For he will be like a bush in the
desert and will not see when prosperity
comes, but will live in stony wastes in the
wilderness, a land of salt without
inhabitant,” Jeremiah 17:5-6. You see,
that one thing they desperately seek— that
spiritual stability— will constantly
elude them until they occupy themselves with
Christ and Christ alone.
g. Harmony recognizes individuality
and personal preference, then makes the most
of the strong points of other believers. We
are not the same, so, why should we
have to pretend like we are? We don’t
all like the same things, do we?
So, why should we have to pretend we do?
This is where ‘grace orientation to life’
comes in. An orientation to grace allows me
to be me, and you to be you— in all the
latitude of our own personalities—
and yet, at the same time, both of us to be
spiritual. Did you ever think that maybe
God brings some believers in to the Royal
Family just to shake the religious crowd
up? That He gives them a sort of ‘gift of
adversity,’ if you will? When we can look
at other believers, regardless of the
differences that exist between us, and
recognize that they have something to offer
in the plan of God— a ministry, and a
mission behind that ministry, a
reason why they’re here— that shows
great stability and great maturity.
h. Where spiritual stability exists,
even out of dislike can come harmony.
This is the attitude that says to other
believers, “Hey. You’re part of the
team, you’re part of the plan.” This is the
attitude that every local body ought
to have. Instead of exclusion there
ought to be an attitude of inclusion.
i. There can be no harmony between
believers unless it is “in the Lord.”
Think about all the powerful armies that
have marched in human history. Whatever
your favorite sport happens to be, think
about all the great teams and athletes
you’ve watched in the past. Think about the
incredible achievements of so many great
Americans in so many different areas of
life. What is it that ties all these
things together? Leadership …the leadership
of great men.
An army, a team, a company, a unit will never achieve
greatness without first having great
leaders. Hebrews 12:2 calls Jesus Christ,
“the Author and Perfecter of faith.”
The word “author” means- a leader,
a ruler, an originator; one
who begins something as the first in a
series and thus supplies the driving force
and purpose behind it. It also say’s that
we are to “fix our eyes on” Him, to focus
our undivided attention and concentration on
the One, “who for the joy set before Him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and
has sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God.” Out of this, I have six points
of application.
i. Enormous diversity is often held
together by allegiance to an excellent
leader. Out of the shadows of history come
men like King David, Cyrus of Persia, the
Spartan king Leonidas, Alexander the Great,
Hannibal, Augustus, Napoleon, and on and
on. That loyalty to each other, and toward
the mutual objective, depends
entirely upon their loyalty to him.
ii. Take the leader away and the group
disintegrates into isolated units,
oftentimes at war with one another.
iii. Believers are not commanded to show
loyalty to human organizations but to be
loyal to the Person of Christ. Paul in
Colossians 3:4 speaks of “Christ, who is
our life…;” in vv. 1-3 he said,
“Therefore if you have been raised up
with Christ [‘and you have,
through union with Him at / moment of
salvation’], keep seeking the things
above, where Christ is seated at the
right hand of God. Set your mind on the
things above [this is phroneo-
‘keep thinking, constantly and continually,
about things of eternal value’], not on
the things that are on earth [i.e.,
don’t get bound in / details and
distractions of / CS;
Paul’s saying that we must maintain an eternal
perspective at all times, an eternal
outlook on life, especially when
things are at their worst; pr: To look at
/ ‘big picture,’ to look at
life from / divine viewpoint, is / only way
to survive in / Conflict and
succeed in /Cause.]. For
you have died,” Paul say’s, “and your
life is hidden with Christ in God [that
is a picture of our identification with His
death, burial, resurrection and ascension].”
iv. Misplaced loyalty leads to misplaced
priorities. When your loyalty lies with an
organization, a party or a person, and not
with the Person of Christ, your scale of
‘spiritual values’ is completely out
of kilter. Which, in effect, means no
execution of the will of God. Most of
Christianity either doesn’t comprehend or
just doesn’t care, and therefore,
ignores the fact that our lives must line up
with His will or else they are wasted
in the divine economy. And it’s our
attitude, it’s our thinking, it’s
our action with His will, not the
other way around! {Cf. Habitation of
Dragons, ‘Renewal in the Church, but who
cares enough,’ p. 179}
v. Believers will never have
harmony with one another until they have
intimacy with Christ. As Paul told the
Galatians, “I have been crucified with
Christ; and it is no longer I who
live but Christ lives in me…,”
2:20.
When we come to “know” Christ experientially,
as Paul had in Philippians 3:10-11, we find
that spiritual harmony, even with those in
our assembly who differ from us
tremendously, is really not that difficult
after all. Because, you see, our focus is
not on them, and it’s not selfishly
on us, it’s on the glorification of Christ.
In the end, that’s the only thing that
matters for eternity.
vi. Last, but certainly not least: Our
love for other believers will never be
experiential until our love, our
passion, our devotion to Christ is real. In
Ephesians 3:17-19 Paul’s prayer, not just
for the Ephesians but for all believers, is
that we “…being rooted and grounded
[‘stabilized and secured;’ where?] in
love, may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and
length and height and depth, and to know the
love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that” we “may be filled up to all the
fullness of God.”
C. Moving on, who is the “true
companion” in v. 3? “Indeed, true
companion, I ask you also to help
these women.” Why would he make a
request like this? Because Paul realized
that somebody was going to have to act as a
mediator. Two people involved in a serious
dispute rarely solve it themselves. In our
lawsuit-obsessed country, it normally takes
a judge and a jury of their peers to solve
something.
1) The word “help” is the pres.
mid. imp. of sullamba/nw (sullambano),
another plea on behalf of Euodia and
Syntyche. Lambano means- ‘take hold
of;’ sun means- ‘with;’ so lit.-
take hold of together, and then, in the
mid. voice- come to the aid of
someone, help or assist
somebody. To the “true comrade” Paul
said, “I want you to take hold of
this problem, this conflict, this
disagreement, together with these two
women, and let’s find a solution.” That is
precisely what a ‘mediator’ does;
he intercedes, he mediates between two parties in
order to find a solution. Isn’t that what
Christ did for us? Act as a Mediator to
secure the ‘salvation solution.’
2) Suzugos means- ‘yoked together,’
a comrade, a colleague, in the same sense
that the Latin commilito speaks of
fellow-gladiators in the arena. Each
gladiator was his opponent’s suzugos.
3) I believe that the “true comrade”
was Luke. Luke is an interesting character,
a Gentile in what was in the very early
Church a world of Jewish believers. He is
the only Gentile author in the entire NT. A
little background:
a. Luke traveled with Paul all over the
ancient world, and he was always
there for him— steady and faithful— always
alongside the apostle Paul in labors and
hardships. In fact in 2 Timothy 4:11, in
the last letter Paul wrote before his
execution at the hands of the Roman Empire,
he said, “only Luke is with me….”
b. In Acts 16:10 there is a change from
the 3rd p. to the 1st,
from “they” to “we.” This is
where Luke joined up with Paul, at
“Troas,” the site of ancient Troy.
“Concluding that God had called” them
“to preach the gospel” in Europe, where
do they go? “To Philippi, …a leading
city of the district of Macedonia, a {Roman}
colony.” The person of the narrative
changes again in this ch. and when Paul and
Silas depart Philippi for Thessalonica—
16:40-17:1— Luke stays behind. Could be
that Luke was a native of Philippi, but even
more probable is that Paul left him there to
care for this fledgling church. This was,
after all, the first place the Gospel was
ever preached by Paul in Europe.
c. Luke, more than likely, is the
‘renowned brother’ mentioned in 2
Corinthians 8:18. When Paul sent Titus—
another Gentile, who was believed to be
Luke’s brother— to collect the funds for the
Jerusalem Church, he said, “We have sent
along with him the brother whose fame in
{the things of} the Gospel {has spread}
through all the churches.” This
‘famous’ believer, this one “whose fame”
had spread “through all the churches,”
was usually identified in the early Church
with Luke. Even so, even with this
tremendous recognition, he always chose to
stay in the background. In fact, there are
only three times that he is mentioned
by name in the NT.
d. In one of these, Colossians 4:14, Paul
refers to him as “the beloved physician”—
a doctor of the soul. His skills could help
cure the body but it was his message that
healed the soul.
4) Many scholars believe that Luke,
“true companion” that he was, wrote the
Book of Acts as a defense of Paul’s ministry
after his first imprisonment. Because Paul
had come under terrible attack, not from the
CS but from the rank and file of the Royal
Army, some of them his very own disciples.
If you remove 1 Timothy and Titus— both
‘pastoral epistles’ dealing with shepherds
and the care of their flocks— written around
65 AD, these are ‘silent years’ between
Paul’s ‘prison epistles’ in AD 60-61 and his
final imprisonment and martyrdom in late 67
or early 68 AD.
Some believe that these were the greatest years of his
ministry, and that he reached a more vast
area in those few years of silence than in
all the years of his ministry up to that
point.
History records that he reached Spain during this
time, possibly Gaul, and others believe he
went as far as Britain and ministered among
the Celtic tribes. Yet from Paul himself we
have no word during this time,
nothing, at least none that has survived.
I’ll tell you what I think happened: I think
maybe he got tired of defending
himself, defending his ministry,
defending his methods; that maybe he
said, “You know what, it doesn’t matter— all
the slander, all the maligning, all the
jealousy and envy, all this criticism from
other believers. There’s no one left but
Christ, and He’s the only One that counts!
And so I’ll just leave it in His hands, and
allow the Master to use me any way He
will!”
5) What Paul wants his ‘esteemed
colleague’ to do is work “together with
Clement also and the rest of” his
“fellow workers.” I.e., two things are
going to happen here: [1] they’re going to
gather together as a team, as a harmonious
unit, and from the Word deal with the
problem; and [2] he’s going to lead the way
in resolving it. I think there is a
significant point here, and it relates to
the spiritual harmony we studied in this
section: When there was a conflict at
Philippi, a quarrel which— at least for
these two ladies— seemed irresolvable, Paul
mobilized the entire body to resolve it.
That’s not going to be necessary every time
you have a disagreement in a local church,
but it does show that he was not afraid of
utilizing his resources; it shows that Paul
thought no effort too extensive to maintain
the peace and equilibrium of this local
body. Here is the principle which comes out
of this: No one can be at harmony with
God— in fellowship with Christ— and at war
with other believers!
D. In the third command, found in v. 4,
Paul twice challenges the Philippians
to “rejoice in the Lord always; again I
will say, rejoice!” Here he used
chairete, the pres. act. imper. of xai/rw
(chairo)- be filled with joy, rejoice
exceedingly. The 2nd pl.
embraces every member of the Royal Family.
1) The word for
“always” means- ‘at all times,’
and only serves to heighten the sense of the
command. This would be in the pres. act.
imper.: ‘keep on, every moment of your
lives, rejoicing exceedingly, keep on
constantly being filled with joy.’ Why
…because of circumstance? No,
because of who Christ is, and what you have
in Him!
2) Notice out of the
command to “stand firm” in v. 1 comes
the command to “live in harmony;” out
of the command to “live in harmony”
comes the command to “rejoice in the
Lord.” Not just when things are
going your way but “always!” This
means when things are bad, when
things are hopeless, when things are
painful— through the tears, through the
pain, through the suffering— “rejoice in
the Lord always,” and “again I …say,
rejoice!” He emphasizes it twice here
because he wants to express the importance
of joy as a PSD.
In Conclusion
Basically, what we have in these first 4 vv. is a very simple
format of magnificent spirituality in
action!
1. Stability in the Lord, which is a result of
stability in the Word.
2. Harmony with one another. It takes spiritual
stability to have spiritual harmony.
3. Joy and
rejoicing. Maybe you’ve noticed on
occasion but people don’t tend to rejoice—
even though they could— where there
is no harmony. And believers who have no
stability in their lives have no foundation
for joy in their souls!
The amazing thing is that we create
disharmony, and then are unhappy or
disappointed or disillusioned because
disharmony exists, when we’re the only ones
who can solve it. The solution to
disharmony goes back to our stability in
Christ. We have to be willing to plant our
feet on the Rock of the Word and to say, of
ourselves and others, “I am a member of the
Royal Family of God. I have a divine
anointing in the Spirit of God; I have a
spiritual gift given by that same HS and a
mission associated with my ministry.
I am a priest, an ambassador, and a minister
of grace. I am available to be used in the
plan of God, and therefore, I can leave it
all in His hands. It’s not up to me
to fulfill anything in my strength; it’s not
up to me to accomplish anything by my
energy. It’s all Christ, or it’s
nothing at all!”
I want to close with a couple of vv. from
Psalm 119. The writer, a young captive on
the slave-march to Babylon, prays these
words in vv. 116-117. “Sustain me
according to Your Word, that I may live
[this is his prayer for divine strength];
and do not let me be ashamed of my hope
[‘my confidence in / Lord God of Israel and
my assurance in His plan’].
Uphold me that I may be safe [you see
his desire for spiritual stability], that
I may have regard for your statutes
continually [this is / only place where
stability exists, when / Word of God is
being applied constantly and ‘continually’].”
Psalm 119 is written as an acrostic poem,
with each line of each section beginning
with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. These
two vv. come from the Samekh ( )
section. “The samekh pictures a
fulcrum, the prop or support on which a
lever rests. It represents the enabling
power of the Word of God. The Word is the
rock; our faith is the lever. When we rest
our faith on the Word, we have the power to
move any obstacle because God ‘is able to
do far more abundantly beyond all that we
ask or think, according to the power that
works within us,’” Ephesians 3:20.
Cunningham, Psalm 119, The Diary of a
Captive, p. 94
“A BALANCED
SPIRITUALITY”
Philippians
4:4-5
(click here to view in
Word format)
Introduction
When
you look at the course of history since the
Day of Pentecost 30 AD, you see that some of
the greatest blows the enemy has dealt the
Church have come from within— within the
bounds of ‘Christendom {meaning all those—
believers and unbelievers— who name the name
of Christ};’ and even today from within
Christianity itself. When Christianity
becomes slanted and distorted, when
Christians lose their balance and their
sense of priority and perspective, then we
end up with something which is no longer
genuine. The Life in the truest
sense of the term— the joy, the power, the
vitality— has drained out of it. My prayer
is that in this study we will recognize the
qualities that make for a ‘balanced
spirituality,’ and therefore, a balanced
maturity. It is imperative in the time in
which we live when there is so much
imbalance, when there is so much loss of
focus and perspective, when there is so much
preoccupation with the wrong things and
apathy toward the right things, that we as
believers not only have a clear
understanding of what the Word teaches, but
also the ability to apply it in a balanced
manner… that we have this ‘spiritual
equilibrium’ in our lives.
The plan of God
is to stabilize life, and we studied this in
detail. The Word of God gives stability;
the Word of God is the only solid foundation
in this universe! That stability enables us
to move from the Cross to the Crown (
illustrate ): always keeping our eyes
focused on Christ, our mind riveted on
eternity, and always knowing where we’re
going and why we’re here.
We dealt briefly
with v. 4 in our last passage in
Philippians, vv. 1-4, but I want to bring it
into this section as well, because when
taken together with v. 5 of Philippians 4 we
have a concept. It’s one which Paul is
going to carry forward in both principle and
practice down through v. 9— the concept of a
‘balanced spirituality.’ Paul say’s,
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will
say, rejoice! Let your forbearing [or in
some translations, ‘your gentle’] {spirit}
be known to all men. [then he adds, for]
The Lord is near,” Philippians 4:4-5. Let
me read the rest of the section for you as
well, to give you an idea of the full
context. {Read vv. 6-9}
Body
1. Remember from our previous study that
this is a command in v. 4, a command to
“rejoice in the Lord” at all times and in
all things. It is repeated twice to
emphasize the importance of spiritual joy as
a PSD. Paul uses the term “joy” seven
times, and the terms “rejoice” or “rejoiced”
{past tense} nine times in the book of
Philippians. That’s sixteen times in what,
at four chs., is a relatively short letter.
A. “Joy” is
from the noun chara; “rejoice” is from the
verb chairo. Chairo was sometimes used in
the ancient world for the celebration of a
victory on the battlefield. In application
it means- ‘celebrate the victory of grace.’
At the Cross
Jesus Christ won the ultimate victory, the
eternal victory; we call it the ‘Strategic
Victory of the Angelic Conflict.’ He broke
Satan’s back at the Cross, and He broke open
the gates of Satan’s POW camp— the Cosmic
System. If you have believed in Him then
you have relationship with Christ forever,
and if you have relationship with the Son
then you have relationship with the Father.
And in that relationship you have power,
privilege and opportunity greater than
anything you can even imagine.
1) How often do we give thanks for the
Strategic Victory of Jesus Christ? How much
time during the course of a day do we give
to thought and reflection on the victory of
Christ? How many times— while the battle is
raging everywhere around us— in our own
souls, do we stop and take the time to
celebrate the victory of Christ and the
victory of grace? Paul did; and the reason
he could endure, the reason he could press
on and on and on in his own spiritual
advance and in his service for the cause of
Christ, was because he focused, not on
circumstances around him, not on the
pressure and adversity he faced each and
every day, not on the problems themselves,
but on the solution— the Person of Jesus
Christ.
Maybe if we
spent more time getting to know our Lord and
Savior intimately and personally, maybe if
we focused just a little bit of our daily
energy and effort on the celebration of His
Victory and the unavoidable destiny we have
in Him, life might not look so bleak, boring
and hopeless after all. The adventure might
just begin anew with the right spiritual
perspective, with a depth of understanding
and appreciation for grace. Do not ever
allow yourself to forget that as “sons of
God,” as “Abraham’s offspring” and “heirs
according to promise,” we are moving like a
juggernaut towards an inevitable destiny in
Christ. Now, if that’s not cause for
celebration, if that’s not cause for
throwing a victory party in your own soul,
then nothing is!
2) I want to give you a principle here:
There is nothing in life which Christ has
not overcome. Nothing. The basic function
of joy is spoken of in John 16:33 when our
Lord said, “In the world you have
tribulation [you have testing, you have
crisis, you have disaster]; but take
courage, I have overcome the world.” Here’s
the issue: If your focus is in the world,
the best that you can hope and strive and
struggle for is happiness. But happiness,
by nature, is always going to be fleeting;
happiness will always be transient and
temporary. You can mark that down as fact!
But if your focus is “in the Lord”— in His
will and His purpose and His plan— then you
can have joy. Over here what happens to you
is everything; over here what happens to you
is nothing. We all have trials, we all have
tribulation, these things are a part of the
“world;” but Christ has “overcome the
world,” and everything it contains!
B. If there is
one thing we ought to take away from a study
of this book, one lesson that must be
learned for the future, it’s that joy has
nothing to do with material prosperity or
with the outward circumstances of life! It
is an undisputed fact of human existence
that people can live in the ‘lap of luxury’
and be wretchedly miserable, and others can
live in the ‘pit of poverty’ and their lives
overflow with joy. The difference is in the
soul. One man knows because of his faith in
the Word and in the Lord that his life, at
best, is a transient existence, a momentary
blip on the radar screen of history. The
other is pouring everything he has into
temporal existence. One lives and breathes
in the light of eternity; the other is
consumed by the darkness of the Kosmos! You
better hear this next principle, because it
corresponds not only to this generation but
to our country as a whole: The more selfish
and self-centered we are, the more miserable
and unhappy we’re going to be.
One of the
reasons that Christian joy is lacking in
Christian lives is because intimacy with
Christ is lacking in Christian lives. The
secret of spiritual joy is this: that joy
doesn’t depend on things or places or
people, but on the Person of Jesus Christ.
The Christian is “in Christ,” the one
faithful and immutable Rock in a world of
shifting sand— vacillating and unstable;
hence, the importance of a joy that is built
on spiritual stability, on the rock-solid
foundation we have in Christ. Nothing can
ever separate us from His presence,
therefore, nothing can ever take away our
joy. We may choose, through arrogance and
apathy, to forfeit it, but when we stand by
faith on the Word of God nothing and no one
can take it from us!
2. In vv. 4-5
the apostle Paul sets before the Philippians
the two great qualities that make for a
balanced spiritual life.
A. The first is
what we just finished looking at: our joy in
Christ, and in the riches and resources,
eternal and abundant, that we have in Him.
“Rejoice in the Lord always;” and “again I
…say rejoice!” It’s almost as if Paul,
after laying out the command to celebrate
the victory of grace constantly and
continually, sees a picture of what is to
come flash across his mind. He himself is
in a Roman prison with a sentence of death
hanging over his head. The Philippians to
whom he’s writing are out there on the Way
as he speaks, on the Priority Path, and
there are dark days of danger and
persecution ahead.
1) Cf.
Barclay’s introduction to 1 Peter on
persecution in the Roman Empire. {A vast
persecution was about to break out in Rome
and reach Macedonia shortly thereafter.}
2) Consider
this: Paul is chained wrist to wrist with
revolving members of the Praetorian Guard.
He has joy …an unconquerable joy at that;
the soldiers guarding him do not. Remember
that Philippians, as one of the ‘Prison
Epistles,’ was written in 60-61 AD. The
Philippians are going to face tremendous
persecution in the coming decade, and were
already under intense pressure. Paul spoke
of this in 1:29-30 when he said, “to you it
has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only
to believe in Him but also to suffer for His
sake, experiencing the same conflict which
you saw in me, and now hear {is} in me.”
The Philippians had a phenomenal spiritual
joy, however; those with the power to
persecute them did not.
3) So Paul, in
essence, is saying, “After seeing everything
that can possibly happen— all the pain, all
the pressure, all the suffering and
affliction— I still say, adamantly,
rejoice!” Why this command to ‘rejoice
regardless’ {which would not be a bad
translation} and to keep on celebrating the
victory of Christ? Because:
a. Spiritual
joy is independent of circumstance or
surroundings. It is an inner condition of
the soul.
b. Spiritual
joy is independent of all worldly things
because its source is the personal Presence
of Jesus Christ!
B. The second
quality is found in the command to “Let your
forbearing {spirit} be known to all men.”
Here is where we find the other half of a
‘balanced spirituality.’ The word
translated “forbearance,” or “gentleness,”
is epieikes, an adjective used as a
substantive with the def. art.;
epieikes is
synonymous with the noun
e)piei/keia
(epieikeia), and both refer to a certain
graciousness of character, to the exercise
of mercy in dealing with others.
1) Why this
particular word? Because what we’re dealing
with in this section is a concept, and that
concept is one of balance in the spiritual
life. Principle: Balanced spirituality is
the only thing which can lead to a balanced
spiritual life. Therefore, in v. 5 we have
the command which represents this, the
command to “let” our “forbearing spirit be
known.” Now, to us in English that doesn’t
really mean much, that doesn’t really
communicate. That might mean simply ‘being
nice’ to people; it might mean ‘being
patient’ with people; to some it might mean
treating people as frail and fragile
creatures— kind of like an eggshell.
2) You can see
how difficult this word is in the number of
translations that have been given it by
scholars in the past. Wycliffe {who lived
in the 14th cent. and was the
first man to make a complete translation of
the Bible into English} translated it
‘patience;’ Tyndale was another English
reformer, executed for his faith and labor—
he had ‘softness’ {horrible}; the Geneva
Bible has ‘a patient mind;’ the Rheims
Bible, ‘modesty;’ Moffat translated it
‘forbearance;’ Weymouth, ‘the forbearing
spirit.’ What does it really mean, “let
your forbearing {spirit} be known to all
men?” Before I deal with the word I want to
explain the reason for it.
a. The reason
that Paul makes this command is because we
as human beings have such a tendency to
twist and distort things. Most of you know
this from experience— either with people in
the past or in the present, in certain
Christian settings and certain Christian
groups or denominations— that those who are
the supposedly ‘spiritual’ believers are the
most miserable people to be around. And we
all know by now that misery doesn’t love
company, misery demands company!
Throughout
Church history, the people who have assumed
the mantle of righteousness, the people who
have promoted and presented themselves as
being the ‘spiritual elite,’ have been
unbalanced in some way. This ranges from
the weird and the uptight ‘better than
thou,’ to the downright devious and evil.
On the ascetic extreme, you find the
puritanical legalist who condemns almost
everything: if you smile, you’ve been up to
something; if you laugh, then we know you’ve
been bad; if there is a group laughing over
here in a corner of the room, having a good
time and enjoying themselves, then there is
definitely some ‘unrighteous mischief’
afoot.
b. Where do we
get such warped ideas as those which still
affect millions of believers today? Things
like: women can’t wear makeup; women must
wear dresses, they can’t be allowed to wear
pants or jeans; a man must wear a black
suit, or just a suit, or {in the
Philippines} a barong to church; an
evangelist must use half a can of Aqua Net
on his coif before entering the pulpit. You
get the idea. The reason we know that these
things are unabashed legalisms and not
absolute Truth is because these ridiculous
standards change anytime the appropriate
‘authorities’— whoever that happens to be: a
pastor, group leader, the ladies training
union, the convention— decide it’s time for
them to change.
The reason for
all this is because these are people who are
off-balance; these are examples of
‘unbalanced spirituality.’
And it is the
very opposite of what Jesus and the
disciples were like. You don’t see this in
our Lord. In the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ you see a perfect blend that brought
about balanced spirituality. John 1:14
says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory [you know
what ‘glory’ is?; ‘glory’ is a manifestation
of / character and essence of God], glory as
of the only begotten from the Father, full
of grace and truth.”
And so, what
Paul’s striving for in this passage is a
balance to the spiritual life, a believer
neither underwhelmed nor overwhelmed with
anything except the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because He is to be the consuming passion of
our lives, and nothing else can be allowed
to take His place.
3) The phrase
“let …be known” is the aor. imper. of
gi/nwskw (ginosko), and ginosko means- come to know; understand;
or realize something. In the pass. voice it
means- become known.
a. The aor.
imper. is an authoritative command, a
command of military urgency; i.e., “since
it’s obvious this quality is lacking in some
of your lives, do it now.” It has a
solemnity and seriousness about it. “Begin
making it known,” he say’s. “Let it become
known and realized and understood with
everyone.”
The aor. imper.
tells us that Paul saw in the Philippian
Church not only the flaw of division, of
believers choosing sides and looking out for
their own selfish interests, but a lack of
forbearance, a lack of grace and mercy in
dealing with others. Paul saw the peculiar
flaw, as he would in any number of churches
around the world today, of unbalanced
spirituality. He saw the flaw of a
contemptuous attitude toward believers who
look different, or dress different, or don’t
speak like we speak and don’t like what we
like. That brings us to the principle
that: A sanctimonious, self-righteous
attitude is as far from true spirituality
as you can possibly get. Paul knew that;
and so he sets out to deal with it in our
passage. The application would be
especially personal particularly for Euodia
and Syntyche, the quarreling ladies in v. 2.
b. Here the
aor. imper. is found in the pass. voice,
which is why we have the milder translation
of “let be known.” The very nature of
epieikeia precludes a forcefulness in its
exercise, or any desire to garner
approbation and acclaim. Those are contrary
to what it’s all about. This v. is saying,
“Let your forbearance become known to all
men. Let your forbearing spirit be
understood by all; let it be realized in
your relationships with others.” Then we
have our word: epieikeia.
