Lesson for January 26, 2020
The Book of Philippians
Chapter 1:21-30
Verses 21-26
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.
Paul was occupied with Christ. Jesus Christ and His Word were number one priority for him. Occupation with the Person of Christ means that Jesus Christ has become your best friend. (Proverbs 18:24) It means that you are fully aware of Christ in every area of your life and that you are staying in fellowship with Him a maximum amount of time. It means that you are thinking divine viewpoint based on your knowledge of His Word and that you have no higher goal in life than to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ in your thoughts, in your attitudes, in your words and in your actions. (II Corinthians 10:5) Our minds are to be saturated with His mind. (I Corinthians 2:16b) The apostle Paul is a great example of a person fully occupied with Christ.
But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. Fruitful means “result, outcome, profit, gain, advantage.” Fruitful labor is the result of spiritual maturity – a grace achievement. Paul was facing death but realized that his life was not over yet. But Paul was torn between life and death knowing that he was ready to meet his Savior, but also wanting to please his Savior while still on earth, which was better for these believers in Philippi to whom he was writing.
But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. The dilemma Paul faced was choosing between going on to ultra-super-grace or going to Heaven. He had already indicated his own preference. As far as he is concerned going to Heaven was much more important than even going to ultra-super-grace, though ultra-super-grace was the ideal situation in life. Living wasn’t the most important thing to Paul. His relationship with and love for Jesus Christ were the most important things to Paul. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ much more than he loved life. Paul wanted to depart from this life. He was very relaxed about this, he was very objective, and therefore he said that he preferred to depart to Heaven to be with his Savoir. He thought that he was going to die in this first Roman imprisonment and was excited about being with Christ.
For that is very much better means Paul considered at this point that dying grace, absent from the body and face to face with the Lord, to be infinitely better than remaining behind for any achievement in life. God was about to vindicate Paul’s ministry as never before. He was truly in love with the Lord as very few people would be.
Yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake is used to state the second choice, which was actually God’s plan for Paul, as well as the means by which the Philippians were going to reach ultra-super-grace. God’s purpose for Paul was to remain a while longer on earth as a benefit for all believers, but especially for these Philippian believers. Paul must remain alive and lead the Philippians to ultra-super-grace.
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. Paul was God’s provision to the Philippian believers for their attainment of ultra-super-grace. It was Paul who would lead the way. Convinced is the Greek word “peitho,” meaning strong faith or total and complete confidence. It is a reference to the fact that Paul had reached spiritual maturity and was glorifying Jesus Christ. God was now preparing Paul for departing from Rome and having a five-year plus successful journey through the ancient world, strengthening churches, leading congregations to ultra-super-grace and evangelizing Spain. His confidence came from Divine Viewpoint Thinking. Paul realized that he was going to stay alive and therefore he was saying so.
The Philippian church was going to be the one reason he would not die at that time because they and others needed to advance to ultra-super-grace, so Paul needed to continue his ministry on earth. Therefore, it would be almost six years before he died and went to Heaven. This meant that Paul was personally going to come back to Philippi and teach them so that they would advance to ultra-super-grace. For your progress and joy in the faith, means that where God finds positive volition in believers and He always provides the doctrine they need for spiritual advance. Remember that all true happiness in life for a believer since the day of his salvation comes by means of Bible doctrine.
So that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. The Greek word for proud is “kauchema” and it means boasting or glorying. This was the glorying of the spiritually mature believers at Philippi. They were advancing spiritually with the apostle Paul. Therefore, they had a confidence which came from Bible doctrine in their souls, as Paul had confidence from Bible doctrine in his soul. The confidence continued as the Philippians looked to Paul to lead them to the final objective – ultra-super-grace. The Philippian confidence in Paul was as a communicator of doctrine. No one ever advances spiritually apart from his own pastor (communicator).
Ultra-super-grace is the most advanced stage of spiritual maturity related to time on earth, history, and the Angelic Conflict. Once the believer breaks the spiritual maturity barrier through the consistent intake and application of Bible doctrine, he moves into a period where he receives the greatest attacks and testing from Satan and his world system. In ultra-super-grace, the believer receives maximum opposition from all the satanic forces of evil. This opposition is the highest honor a believer can receive from God. Passing these tests results in great future rewards in eternity. The principle of ultra-super-grace is deliverance from evil forces and the attainment of eternal glory. (II Timothy 2:10) The spiritually mature believer in ultra-super-grace must get used to the idea that blessing doesn’t always mean lack of pressure. (I Peter 3:13-16, 4:12-14) The principle of ultra-super-grace is found in Matthew 5:10-16. The advance to ultra-super-grace is taught in Philippians 3:12-16. The eternal decorations of the ultra-super-grace believer are the crown of life according to James 1:12 and Revelation 2:10, the crown of righteousness found in II Timothy 4:7-8 and the crown of glory for pastors in I Thessalonians 2:19-20, I Peter 5:4 and Philippians 4:1. Ultra-super-grace is preservation and deliverance from anything that life brings your way. (II Timothy 3:10-15)
May abound in Christ Jesus means that you first discover confidence as a part of the Christian Way of Life when you discover, after salvation, that you have received 40 spiritual assets, one of which is being entered into union with Christ. This is the beginning of developing your confidence.
Through my coming to you again. Paul, through his doctrinal teaching, was not only the means of taking the Philippians to spiritual maturity and beyond, but he was the means of countless generations of believers going through the same procedure to reach the same objective. Paul anticipated a personal return to Philippi and having the privilege of leading many of them to ultra-super-grace. It is concluded, therefore, that both Paul and the pastor at Philippi, Epaphroditus, would be involved in leading the Philippians to the objective of ultra-super-grace. Obviously, Paul had to remain on earth to attain ultra-super-grace himself and to lead others in the same direction
No greater privilege and responsibility have ever been entrusted to a member of the royal family of God than the communication of Bible doctrine, so that believers can grow in grace. There is no spiritual progress from doctrine apart from its communication by a pastor-teacher. The spiritual gift carries the greatest responsibility in both preparation and execution. Execution carries the greatest responsibility of faithfulness to God in the function of studying and communicating. Therefore, Paul understood why he must remain on earth. This responsibility required the most in self-discipline, dedication, understanding the job profile of the pastor-teacher as found in the Word of God, which Paul and Epaphroditus had.
Verses 27-30
“Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For 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 to be in me.”
The Greek word for manner is “politeuomai,” which means to have one’s citizenship or to have one’s home in a specific area. It means to live or conduct one’s life in a certain manner, to lead one’s life or to discharge one’s obligations as citizens. There are no political implications of the word; it simply involves the New Testament usage of the verb which means to lead one’s life or to discharge personal responsibility in life. “Only lead your life” is a better translation. The present tense denotes what habitually occurs or may reasonably be expected to occur among those who are advancing to spiritual maturity. Worthy of the gospel of Christ means advancing spiritually by living out or working out the salvation which is in you in a worthy manner.
I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit. Paul emphasized that they should have enough stability from the doctrine he had taught them to continue growing and advancing spiritually whether he was able to return to Philippi or not. Standing firm means to be stabilized. There is no excuse for retreating into reversionism for these believers. The Philippians were spiritually mature believers and Paul was going to lead them to ultra-super-grace if he was able to return to them. In one spirit is a reference to the unity of God the Holy Spirit whose ministry continues throughout the growth process for all believers (which process should never end).
With one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel means the local church at Philippi was to have the same goal of spiritual growth as the result of the filling of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine in the soul. Striving together means these believers were to be fully engaged in the spiritual warfare of the Angelic Conflict. So, it is important to discover who are your enemies. You must have the discernment to know your enemies, and who are not your enemies. All of those around you who are friendly are not always your friends. Friendliness and friendship are two entirely different things. For the faith of the gospel means that the doctrine of the Gospel which includes much, much more than salvation but encompasses the entire doctrine of Christology (the doctrine of Christ) is to be the standard or goal to attain as an advancing believer is to be to emulate the Lord Jesus Christ. The entire local church is to be striving together toward this common goal which will bring honor and glory to our Savior.
In no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. Alarmed is the Greek word “pturo” used for a frightened horse running away. It came to mean to be intimidated, frightened, terrified or panicked. Panic is lack of thought, action without proper thinking and without application of Bible doctrine. The word opponents refers to your spiritual enemies. The question arises: who are your spiritual enemies? First of all, Satan is your enemy. As the ruler of this world system, he is your enemy. Satan commands a great host of demons who are fallen angels. (Hebrews 10:13) Unbelievers can also be our enemies because they are under the influence of a satanic world system and Satanic policies. But the worst enemy and the most obvious visible enemy is the believer in a state of reversionism. (James 4:4) Believers by their own volition become the enemies of God. Since they become the enemy of God, then they are also our enemies. So, this passage is really warning about the reversionistic believer. These are the ones who are the greatest and most subtle enemies, the ones who are constantly ambushing you. But their attack of believers, especially those in super-grace, is a sign of the destruction that has occurred in their spiritual lives. But for the super-grace believer these attacks are a sign of God’s deliverance (salvation) from the effect of their attacks.
For 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 to be in me. Suffering for Christ is undeserved suffering. There is always suffering on the spiritual battlefield. Paul experienced undeserved suffering to a much greater degree than most believers. But all advancing believers will experience undeserved suffering from Satan and his world system because we are truly in a spiritual battle. The conflict within Paul was whether it was better for him to depart his life on earth and be with his Savior or stay and lead these and other believers into ultra-super-grace. (II Corinthians 1123-28)