Phil. 3:13-14–"Pressing On"

Philippians 3:13-14–"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Straining forward in repentance, that is what this verse is about.  In reality, this is so much the essence of the Christian life.  It is not that we have already become that we God is making us.  In one sense, however, we have been made saints by the atoning blood of Christ.  But in another sense, we are still living in our bodies, which are ever drawn to sin, disobedience, and rebellion.

To be quite clear, the inherent difficulty to this resides in the singular fact that we are confined to these weak bodies as long as we are breathing.  It is thus of great importance that we would grow in perseverance and in discipline, always straining forward to what lies ahead in Christ.

Philippians 2:3–"Count Other More Significant than Yourself"

Philippians 2:3–"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves."

It is a profound conviction to ask one's self how significant they think others may be in comparison to themselves.  I am certain that our modus operandi is to naturally consider ourselves as, obviously, the best or brightest. This pride is but a facade, a veil that each of us creates and puts on as a shade to cover the reality of our inadequacy.  But it is in the recognition of true genius that we see our own imbecility, just as it is in hearing a metronome that we can realize how off-beat we are.

The point in this discussion, the intent of Paul's inclusion of this statement is about focus, questioning our heart: who are we looking at as the standard for life, reality, truth?

If we are thinking of ourselves as the standard by which God's children should be weighed or measured than we are missing the point altogether, forgetting that we, ultimately, take our cues from Christ and Christ alone.  We will always think ourselves as less than others in beauty in light of the beauty of Christ.  We will always think ourselves weaker than others in comparison to the strength of Christ.

The point, if I may say it as emphatically as this, is that if we keep our gaze fixed on Christ then we will naturally humble ourselves before others.

This is the goal and our aim.

To God be the Glory!

Philippians 4:8–Contemplate the Right Things

Philippians 4:8–"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

My personality is such that I am prone to obsessiveness.  This means that at all hours of the night I may be found lying awake in bed thinking intensely about life.  Admittedly, this is both a gift and a curse for sometimes it is beneficial to have the ability to earnestly consider life while at other times it would be nice to just go to sleep.

All this being said, though I do not in any way promote others to try to think like me, I would say that Paul is asking the Christian man and woman to take seriously the call to think.  But this is not merely a call to think like you would normally think, rather, this sort of thinking is one of focused intensity aimed at those things that are true, right, and beautiful.

In other words, Paul isn't asking us merely to think as we would already think about those common things that we already think about.  No, Paul is imploring us to think about God and the stuff of God: beauty, justice, excellence, holiness, honor, et al.

The point, ultimately, would be that we would take our faith as seriously as we take every other thing in our lives.  After all, how many of us have expired our intellects on our schedules, our families, our homes, our jobs, our relationships, etc.?  Humans seem prone to intense and arduous thought about any number of different things or people; Paul is asking that we would focus that ability at the right things: God.

My earnest prayer, then, is that we would make it an active part of our lives to think heavily about God and godliness.  In the end, wouldn't we do the same for anyone we claim to love–why should God be any different?

Philippians 2:14–Don't Grumble or Dispute with One Another in Christ

Philippians 2:14–"Do all things without grumbling or disputing..."

At the onset, this verse is speaking specifically to Christian engaged in the fellowship of a local congregation.  And even though I've only taken aside the very first portion of this passage, it is indeed profound and convicting.  In a sense, this is precisely its intention, though.  Paul, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, is exhorting believers to live a certain way, a holy way.  This element, of doing things without grumbling or dispute, is one of the essential components to the new community that Christians are to exhibit on earth.  No longer are we to fall back on fleshly passions or whim, but we are called to live life differently.  Let us never forget that!

Philippians 1:9-11–Praying that Love Would Abound With More

Philippians 1:9-11–"And it is my prayer that your love would abound more and more, with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."

There is so much to this verse, a level of theological depth that is simply remarkable.  Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is exhorting the believers in Philippi that love, while being central to the Christian experience, is not the end point but the starting point which all Christianity is based upon.  It is as if love is meant to be supplemented with knowledge and discernment in order that love would become pure and blameless, and so bear the fruit of Christ.  And this is all for the glory and praise to God.

Thus we should not assume that love is enough on its own, for if love is not bringing glory to the One who is love, then we are not truly loving as God has intended.  Let us then pray as Paul prayed, that we our love would abound more and more tot he glory and praise of God!

Philippians 2:3–A Statement on Humility

Philippians 2:3–"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves."

Humility can seem humiliating if it is divorced from love.  In the end, though, humility is not merely an intentional downplaying of self.  Instead, inherent to the humility that matters is that we would lift up others through our humility, not merely and underhandedly undercut ourselves for the covert purposes of being lifted up, e.g. "Well I'm not good enough for that..."

In truth, however, true humility is meant to arise out of a desire to love another by lifted them up. Ultimately, it is love that compels the humility that affects relationships and transforms the lives of the people around us.  This needs to be the source and intent of our humility.  Let us then love in this profound and sacrificial way!

Philippians 1:21–For Me To Live Is Christ

Philippians 1:21: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

This verse lends itself to easy misinterpretations but it is still one of my favorites.  The basic context of this verse is that Paul is telling the readers that there is nothing, not a single thing that is more powerful or more important than Christ.  In fact, everything is but vainly worthless compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing and loving Christ.  Not even our own life is more valuable than knowing God and being known by Him.

But we sin hinders our ability to see this profoundly affective truth.  It is no wonder that we have a skewed system of evaluation.  We rank and file everything in life but we do so comparing and contrasting rubbish to other rubbish.  It all, then, comes into proper light and perspective when we begin to see the Holy Lord of the universe.  We are privileged to receive a revelation of what life was meant to be: that is, devoted in faith to God for every fiber of our being to be sustained moment-to-moment by His powerful Word.

Recognizing how foundational this assertion becomes is thus necessary for us to say in faith and in truth: "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

The Blessed Promise of a Glorious Body

Philippians 3:20-21: "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to by like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself."

It is often thrown around that Christians are in this world but not of this world.  But this simple assertion, while true, may be an oversimplification of the actuality of the Christian hope, that is, life eternal.  We live our lives in expectant hope for the transformation into eternity with God Himself, finally resurrected in our glorious forms like Christ!  This is beautiful and I will rest my hope on this promise!

Philippians 1:29-30: The Joy of Suffering

Philippians 1:29-30: "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had now and how hear that I still have."

In case you misread, pardon me to paraphrase in context of Paul's theology: not only has God graced you with faith, but even more so He has graced you with the reality of suffering.  Suffering is, in fact, a gift of God on par with the gifts of faith and repentance.  But, you may ask, how is suffering a gift?  Why would God love us so much to have us suffer for His sake?

This is a difficult question and to understand it pushes the bounds of language.  Two analogies will thus be employed to answer this difficult question.  Neither of them is perfect but thought of together they may, hopefully, serve to help us understand how and why Paul could say that God grants us to suffer for the sake of Christ.

The first is a pearl.  A pearl begins as an irritant; a small grain of sand.  In the shell of the oyster, the pearl is formed through the overwhelming pressure applied by the oyster.  Imagine for a second the extreme irritation and conceivable suffering endured by the oyster during that process.  Yet it is because of that suffering, as a result of that pain that a pearl is formed.

The second analogy is that of weight lifting.  Imagine you went to the gym and saw a man standing before the mirror with doing basic bicep curls.  In one arm he was lifting a 40 lbs. weight while in the other he was lifting a 5 lbs. weight.  Now which arm would you assume to be the stronger?  We understand that it is the muscle that is forced to lift the heavier weight that becomes stronger by virtue of  of the suffering endured during exercise.  In fact, it is the weight itself that causes the muscular growth.

Taken together perhaps we can begin to see the reason Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, can say that God has granted us the gift of suffering for the sake of Christ.  The pearl of character, the muscles of virtue are formed using the resources of suffering for the sake of Christ.  Let us then find great joy that God has blessed us in this most wonderful way: that He would build character in us through the suffering akin to His Son!

Phil. 4:11-13: Contentment found in Christ

One of my favorite verses penned by the apostle Paul reads: "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Phil 4:11-13).

Life full of undulations, waves both of plenty and of little, of happiness and of sadness, and of health and of sickness.  Solomon writes that there is a time for everything in the introduction to Ecclesiastes. This reality can lead to a sense of vertigo, to be sure, but God has provided us the ultimate source of stability regardless of circumstance: Himself.

Believers have been given the ultimate gift of grace that is access to the presence of God through faith in Christ.  His presence is an ever-present comfort, a constant stabilizing companionship, and the only source of true contentment under any condition.  This is more than a nice sentiment; it is a reality that should compel how we live and handle the tempests and deserts of the human life.  Let us always take joy and comfort from this reality and let it seep into the depth of our hearts!

Philippians and Pressing On to the Prize

Philippians 3:13-14: "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it known.  But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

By the time Paul had wrote this, he had been stoned, beaten, imprisoned, slandered, shipwrecked, and been hurt by countless other ailments and infirmities.  But even through all of this, Paul was committed to staying the path that he had been called to and commissioned for.  That is to say that no matter the circumstance, Paul would not let himself be derailed from his purpose.

Today, as in the day before, I woke up to a full-bodied ache paired with a lovely fever.  Having had to call into work for the second day in a row, I crawled back to my bed and tried my best to fall asleep  past the cold sweats and hacking coughs.  The day was spent basically in and out of sleep and coughing fits.  And though my thoughts were, admittedly, quite hazy, I did manage to utter some simple praises and prayers for the gifts that He has and continually bestows.

To be certain, I do not mean to compare my flu-like health situation with Paul's struggles.  But I am trying to show how the principle applies to me personally in practical ways.  My earnest prayer is to always take time to praise the Lord no matter the circumstance.