Treasures from Paul Philippians

Paul had an obvious love for the church at Philippi (1:8; 4:1). Alone among the churches to whom he wrote, he had no criticism of that church for false doctrine, or for divisions, ungodly deeds, and the like. True, there were some individuals whom he felt obliged to rebuke (1:15; 3:2, 18; 4:2), but he had no criticism to offer, only affection, which he expressed to the church as a whole. His letter was written in part to assure them of his love and his care for them, and also to deal with a handful of other matters of interest, without any special overriding theme, except perhaps gratitude. Paul was grateful for a generous gift that he had received from them, and for which he thanked them heartily. The gift was carried to him by Epaphroditus, whom Paul was particularly glad to see again (4:10, 14-18), especially because he (Epaphroditus) had only recently recovered from a serious illness (2:25-27).

While Philippians is more of a friendly letter than a treatise on dogma, it adds at least two elements to our understanding of the gospel, in the form of a passionate emphasis, and an important dogma −

1. The Emphasis − No matter what he is writing about, or to whom, Paul cannot resist drawing continual attention to Christ, and to the need for every believer to live a Christ-centred life. No less than 40 times in this short letter Paul mentions the Lord Jesus Christ, involving Christ in every aspect of Christian life, witness, and service. Indeed, for Paul “to live is Christ” (1:21), and he could not endure the thought of life without Christ.
2. The Dogma − The greatest statement about Christ that Paul makes in this letter relates to a Greek word that he applies to the Lord only here (2:7), and nowhere else in the NT. The passage has given birth to a body of doctrine known as Kenotic Theory – which means only that it deals with the mystery of how Jesus, though “he was truly God, did not try to cling to his equality with God but instead emptied himself (Greek – ekenosen) and took on the form of a slave.” A later chapter of this book will deal with this wonderful and mysterious kenosis of Christ.

And now, two final comments before we begin our search for treasure. The studies that follow make no pretence of providing a full commentary on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. If you want detailed information about background, when and why the letter was written, or verse by verse exposition, then you should turn to the internet, or to any good Bible dictionary, encyclopaedia, or commentary.

What you will find here is a treasure – that is, nuggets dug out of diverse passages from the letter. The meditations draw on other parts of scripture also and are always directed toward successful Christian life, to the enrichment of your mind and spirit, and to the enhancement of your service of Christ and the church.

This subject is available as an E-Book from Smashwords: Treasure from Philippians