Philippians 1:3-6 - Partnership

1:3-5

Many of Paul’s letters begin with prayers of thanksgiving,even the first letter to the Corinthians. Galatians is an exception to this, indicating how serious the matters in Galatia were. It is evident from this letter that Paul had a very good relationship with the Philippians. Paul thanked God for them because he saw the fruit of the gospel in them. The purpose of the gospel is to produce new life in people, this is what we should be looking for. And evidence of the new life is a life that is dedicated to Christ and is becoming ever more Christlike.

Joy is the hallmark of this letter, and Paul prayed with joy. He did so because of their partnership, or fellowship, in the gospel, right from the start. How did they have this fellowship? It started by repenting and turning to Christ. People who say they are Christians but do not repent are liars. It is evident from the rest of the letter that they actively supported Paul in his work. Note that Paul had spent a relatively short time in Philippi. It does not necessarily take a long time to establish a deep relationship.

1:6

The focus in the gospel is in what God has done. He has sent His Son into the world to die for our sins and to rise again. He works in our hearts to call us to Himself, and when we believe He gives us the Holy Spirit to continue the work of transformation in our lives. Note that it says “work in you”, the work of the gospel is not just external, ie what Jesus did on the cross, but internal, what the Holy Spirit does within us. So Paul is confident that God will carry this work forward to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. We can face many trials and pressures in life, but we can be confident, for it is God who is at work in us (2:12,13). There is also an end in sight, a day of completion. Jesus will return, and on that day all things will be brought to completion.

Philippians 1:2 - Grace and Peace

1:2

The greeting in Paul’s letters is commonly “grace and peace”, and this comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Note the implication of the deity of Christ. When people are discussing the deity of Christ the debate often focuses on proof texts, and this is fair enough, but equally importantly the whole tenor of the New Testament makes no sense whatsoever if Christ is not God. See that at the outset Paul declares himself and Timothy to be servants of Christ, rather than saying servants of God. If Christ were not God, if He had not risen from the dead, this would make no sense at all. Then in this verse we see that He is given an equal role to God the Father.

We often think of grace purely in passive terms, ie in terms of our receiving forgiveness. This is only part of its meaning. Grace is also enabling and empowering, it involves God enabling us to do His work, to fulfil our mission in this world.

Jesus said He would give us peace, but not as the world gives peace. We live in a hostile world in which there is increasing opposition to the gospel, but in the midst of this conflict Jesus gives us His peace.

Philippians 1:1 - Servants of Christ

1:1

Paul’s letters follow the standard form of those days. The introduction stated who the letter was from and who it was to, and a greeting. The key elements are how Paul identifies himself, and the nature of the greeting. The letter is from Paul and Timothy. This does not imply that Timothy had anything to do with the writing of the letter. Paul was in captivity at the time, but Timothy was free and was continuing the work of the gospel, continuing Paul’s work.

Paul identifies himself as a servant, or slave, of Christ. There are two possible meanings of the word slave here. One is relating to how a slave could gain their freedom, by becoming a “slave” of a “god”. This is why Paul sometimes boasts that he is a slave of Christ. He has become free by becoming a “slave” of Christ. In letters like Galatians this idea is almost certainly relevant, but in Philippians it probably isn’t the thinking behind Paul’s use of the term. Rather he is simply stating that he is glad to be a servant of Christ.

The letter is written to all God’s saints in Philippi. Saints means holy people, and means people set apart for the purposes of God. Being a “saint” is not a special status applied to only a few special individuals, but applies to all God’s people. We need to realise that we are set apart for the purposes of God in the world today. If we look at life and see it purely in a self-centred way then we will never understand what life is really about. If instead we seek out God’s purpose we will make much more sense of life.

The overseers and deacons are those who had leadership roles in the church. Note that they are mentioned last. Leaders are important, but are no more important than anyone else.

Philippians - Introduction

A new book now, and a somewhat shorter one than the last. This isn’t intended as a commentary as such, nor an academic work, but anything useful I may have to say, or insights to give, are built upon the works of others. We should all read widely, and from beyond our own immediate theological stream - as long as it is Bible believing! So if you are from a charismatic background, as I am, read stuff produced by reformed theologians. Conversely, if you are reformed read stuff written by charismatic types. We aren’t all loonies. Eg Wayne Grudem is an excellent theologian. You don’t have to agree with everything someone says to find them helpful. As an example, I don’t fully agree with Tom Wright’s “new perspective”, but he does have a lot of useful things to say and it has given me a better appreciation of Romans and Galatians. In fact, there are some things he says which downright annoy me, but I can still learn from him. My primary reference for Philippians will be Ralph Martin’s Tyndale New Testament Commentary, but what I write will be influenced by many others as well.

Philippi was a Roman colony and was part of Macedonia, but was not the capital.The city was founded by Philip of Macedon around 360 BC. Philip was the father of Alexander the Great. It became part of the Roman Empire in 168 BC. It became a colony of the Roman Empire in 31 BC after Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra. This meant it could function as if it was truly part of Rome, including the use of Roman Law. So it was a favoured and privileged city, and the citizens were considered as Roman citizens. The city would have relatively few Jewish people living there. In fact a feature of the letter is that there are no direct Old Testament quotations.

In Acts 16:6-10 we read of how Paul and his companions came to visit Philippi. The Holy Spirit had kept Paul from preaching the gospel in Asia, and through a vision God called him to Macedonia. In fact the vision was of a man begging him to come to Macedonia. God has sent the gospel out into the world to help people, to set people free.

When Paul got there he went to the river on the Sabbath. There were so few Jews that the city did not have a synagogue, the usual first port of call of Paul. The first convert named is Lydia. It is interesting the leading role that the woman had.

There then follows the incident of the fortune-telling woman and Paul casting the demon out of her. This resulted in Paul and Silas being thrown into prison. This happened because the gospel threatened the money making exploits of some. This was then followed by the famous release from prison following Paul and Silas’ singing of hymns, and the prison guard and his family were saved. After this Paul made play of his own Roman citizenship, something that would have particular impact because Philippi operated as a Roman city.

There is no argument from anyone with more than two brain cells that Paul was the actual author of the letter. The most likely date and occasion of writing is 61 AD while in prison in Rome, though there are some who argue it was written in AD 53-55 during an Ephesian imprisonment. However, the Roman imprisonment is the most likely place. At the time he was more under house arrest than imprisonment.

The primary features of the letter are:

1. The importance of joy in all circumstances
2. The great Christological hymn in chapter 2:5-11.
3. Serving Christ victoriously in a hostile environment

John 21:20-25 - What about him?

21:20,21

It is not clear why John makes such a song and dance here about who he was. Following on from my comments on 21:7 he is just stressing how he comes to have such an intimate knowledge of Jesus. Whatever the case, Peter wants to know what is going to happen to John, especially as Peter himself seems to have such a tough end.

21:22,23

In essence, Jesus’ reply is “it is none of your business”. If He wants John to remain alive until He returns, what is that to Peter? Now John makes it clear that this was only a hypothetical statement on Jesus’ part. He was not saying this would happen, He was just using it as a hypothetical example. God has a unique plan for each one of us. We should focus on God’s plan for our life. His plan for someone else’s life will often look better or easier, but that judgement is made with eyes that have very limited vision. We can trust God in all things.

21:24,25

John identifies himself as the writer of this gospel and the witness to all the events contained therein. His testimony is true, it is reliable and we can depend upon it. John never intended to record everything that Jesus did. He was selecting incidents to give a complete picture of Jesus.

John 21:15-19 - Do you love me?

21:15

We now get the famous encounter with Peter. Jesus calls him by his old name, Simon. The word used for love in the first two questions is different from the final question, agape and philo. Sometimes great play is made of this, but in John’s gospel the two words are used almost interchangeably, so it is doubtful if this is a significant point.

“Do you love me more than these?” It is not clear what “these” refers to. The two most likely options are (i) did he love Jesus more than the other disciples did; and (ii) did he love Jesus more than his devotion to fishing. Earlier Peter had made bold claims about his devotion to Jesus, this had then be followed by his denial of Jesus. So Jesus could be bringing this matter to the fore. If it is the latter, then Jesus would be asking him if he was prepared to follow Him completely. The former is probably the more likely.

Peter replies that he does love Jesus, and Jesus instructs him to feed His lambs.

21:16,17

Jesus asks him a second and a third time. Perhaps the threefold asking is meant to parallel the threefold denial that Peter had made earlier. Maybe Jesus is saying that the denial has been dealt with. Peter was hurt and says that Jesus knows all things. All of us can identify with Peter. There is a genuine commitment to Jesus in our hearts, but there is also a genuine double mindedness as well, a failing within us. Jesus does know the truth of what is in our hearts, and He is the One who can deal with deep failings within.

21:18,19

Jesus now tells Peter some things that will happen the future. Early records tell of Peter being martyred, but without giving the details. This verse, as 21:19 makes clear, tell Peter how he will die. In fact he will die a very similar death to that of Jesus. More importantly, his earlier declarations of being willing to die for Jesus will come true. Peter’s death would “glorify God”. Jesus then repeated His command from three years ago when He first called Peter, “Follow me!”. Now Peter knew exactly what he was letting himself in for.

John 21:7-14 - The disciple whom Jesus loved

21:7

John is the “disciple whom Jesus loved”, as we have noted throughout this book. Now when we hear this phrase our immediate reaction is probably to think “who does he think he is?” Why does he say this? Why does he boast like this, for that is what we think he is doing? Well, first of all we have problems with the word “love”. We tend to think of romantic or affectionate love, or sentimental mush. These things are all covered by “love”, but there is much more to it than that. Now consider who else is “loved” by God? Jesus is loved by the Father, and the world is loved by God. Let’s focus on Jesus here. The Father’s love for Jesus is shown by the fact that He sent Him, empowered Him and gave Him authority to do all sorts of things (give life, exercise judgement etc). Now let’s apply this to “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, especially in the context of what comes later in this chapter about John. John had lived much longer than all the other apostles. From the content of the gospel of John it seems that Jesus made him aware of things that the other disciples were not aware of. So being the “disciple whom Jesus loved” meant that John had been kept alive for a long time so that he could write this gospel at the right time, and that Jesus had spoken many things to him. So that just as Jesus spoke only what He heard the Father say, so John is relating only what he heard Jesus say. So John is not boasting, just telling us the truth.

John was much more contemplative than Peter, so it was Peter who jumped into the water the moment he realised it was Jesus.

21:8-14

The other disciples dragged the net into the shore with boat. On the shore a fire was burning and already had fish on it. In a sense this is a surreal scene. Why did Jesus light a fire? Where did the fish come from that were already on the fire? Jesus then invites them to add some of their own fish and to have breakfast with Him. Why is all this happening? He has risen from dead, He has borne all our sins upon Himself. Perhaps it is to stress that ordinary life goes on and Jesus is involved in our everyday lives.

It seems strange for them to think of asking “Who are you?”, especially when it immediately says that they knew it was the Lord. Perhaps it means that they wondered what sort of person He was. Why is the Lord giving them breakfast?