Author Archive: joe

Getting to the end of the two-week challenge has led to some powerful words! Paul ends Philippians with some sensible and clear directions on living.

Somehow chapters 3 and 4 of Philippians are both a defense and a reason for being a follower of Christ. It is interesting that once again, Paul, like James, John and Peter warn the "church" to watch out for false teachers. It would be easy to ask "where did they come from – they were right there, that close to the historical event." Yet they were there ready to mislead the early church. No wonder the church started out with Councils which have set down again and again over the years what being a follower is all about.

It is not that the Gospel has changed, just that people don't take the time to read and study it themselves, and so begin to believe what someone "says" about it. That's why the leaders of the early church again and again had to remind people of what Jesus said and did.

Paul was in a unique position, having been a man who at first thought that all those believers were wrong, and should be wiped from the face of the earth. His mission before he became a believer was to search out the early church and see that it was stamped out. But, it is his past that allows him to speak in this letter. He says "If you think all those people who want you to follow laws so you can be right, look at me. I followed all the laws! I was mister perfect, but all that was a losing proposition because of what Christ did!" (3:4-11 my condensed version)

He wanted to make it clear that he knew he wasn't perfect, but was going to continue working toward finishing the race. What imagery for us. What an example. Here was a man who had met all the requirements for how to live, but he said "it wasn't enough!" He wanted to get the prize for what God had called him to be and do.

Humility shines out here. There is a little hidden lesson for those of us who think we have been Christians a long time. That lesson is buried in the verses that end with the race analogy. We are not perfect! We should not think of ourselves that way. (3:15)

Chapter four has some great slogan verses. When we look at them, they challenge us to live our lives differently.

• Rejoice always
• Visible gentleness
• No Worry
• Pray!

That's enough work to keep me busy every day of my life. Any one of these by itself is hard enough to do, and then he puts them all together!

For me, one of the keys of Philippians is in Paul's "Whatever" list in verse 8. Just reading the list gives you pictures of your life that have to give us hope. They challenge us to better things – get out minds out of or off our problems.

Makes me question what I spend my time thinking about. Do I spend time on the good or the bad? And then, do I put it into practice?

That's the real question. Now that you read it, are you doing it?

Distractions keep coming up, and there is seemingly no way out. But there is! It is the word "NO" uttered in no uncertain terms. When things come along, all we have to say is "no". Easier said than done. When you get up late for a morning appointment, do you skip the appointment? Then when the appointment is finished, why is it so hard to get back to square one and skip square two (which is already done)?

Honest questions, but some principles that we all need to handle in some fashion.

Finishing the two week challenge brings me to Philippians, which just happens to have only four chapters, so that works with the two-a-day.

In writing this letter to the Philippians, Paul finds himself in prison in Rome. Philippi is one of the places where he got a church started, and the people are concerned about him.[more] They wanted to make sure that he had food and other needs, so they sent stuff (probably money, some food stuff and who knows what else) to him. This letter is both a "Thank You" and some words of encouragement.

But even in the midst of imprisonment, Paul remembers why he is there, and uses that as a springboard in his letter. In effect he says "I am here because of what I was doing to advance the message of the Gospel. So don't stop what you are doing just because I am in prison. What has happened to me helps give courage to our brothers and sisters to speak up more! (1:12-14)

Paul kind of reminds them, that even though there might not be some great preachers like himself, they are still presenting the message about Jesus Christ and getting people to think about what He did and who He is. And then Paul says that even though some of those preacher/teachers might be doing it for the wrong reason and in the wrong way, he Paul rejoices!

Then he starts in with the logic…

The logic was to get the church in Philippi to be of one mind (the word in the Bible is "like-minded"). His logic in chapter 2 is not tied up in any human imaginings, but rather is all about Christ.

IF

• Christ encourages you
• His love gives you comfort
• His Spirit lives in you
• You sense His tenderness and compassion

THEN do the following and make me happy

• Be like-minded
• ;Have the same love (love the same way)
• Have the same spirit
• Have one purpose

Then, he says all this should be without any "get ahead of one another" attitude or "look how great I am", but rather he says "consider others better than yourself."

Now that's a hard pill to swallow!

Go ahead. Dissect it! Get your hands around it! Try as you might to wrap your mind around it, you can't get away from the "tenses" of his directives. There was no "try" or "see if you can" or "give it your best shot". It was clearly like a mandate – something he knew they and we can do. You can argue with it, but…

The decision to do or be is ours and ours alone.

If you are following the day and dates, you may have noticed that there was nothing new yesterday. Today is makeup day!

Wasn't bad enough that the day started of busier than usual, but a glance at chapters five and six showed me that this was not going to be easy. Maybe it would have been better to have chosen a different book. After all, who wants to hear anything else about husbands and wives.

Wait! There is so much more in these two chapters. What has been impressed on me is "don't get bogged down in what you don't understand. Act on what you do understand."

There are several key points that Paul makes:

• Clean, honest living (5:3)
• Don't be tricked by what you read or hear (5:6)
• Take time to understand what the Lord's will is (5:17)

And that was just in chapter 5! Okay, so I skipped over that [more]"submit" stuff, and for good reason. That is a post in itself, and besides it's a real stopper if you do or don't believe what it says. Did you notice that I covered both sides. Some things are like that. They fall into the category of gasoline on a campfire, even if you do want a bigger fire.

The last part of today's two had some good information about labor/management relations. Certainly worth reading and applying. Just don't forget, Paul was writing to believers, or followers of Christ. He was not talking to the whole world – this was not a front page story in the "Ephesus Times". Remember, this letter started out with "To the saints in Ephesus, the faityful in Christ Jesus." So…be careful how you spread these instructions around.

Paul ends thie letter with some ways to prepare yourself as a Christ Follower in how to live. His words again, are filled with images that readers of this letter would immediately grasp.

My translation of verses 10 through 18 would be something like this: Remember that your strength comes from the Lord, so get some. Protect yourself from the devil by covering yourself with God's body armor. Build yourselves up with His exercises so that you are strong. Don't forget, that everything you need to know is in the word of the Lord, so learn it – remember it – do it!. Talk to Him all the time – let Him know what you need. Don't forget to ask Him to help our brothers and sisters.

I do like the way Paul ends. As he asks them to pray for him, it was not so that he would be treated better, or get better food, or be famous. All he asked was that he might not be afraid to clear up any misunderstandings about the Good News.

His word was "fearlessly". Now, the question is "what do I fear?"

Deeper than that is whether or not I remember how to overcome that fear? If I cannot remember, it's "repeat the chapter" time.