Philippians 1:9 - Love hotspots

"And this I am praying, in order that your love may be abounding still more and more in full knowledge and all perception..."

-Abundantly abounding love.  Knowledgeable discerning love.  What are we talking about here?  Love for God?  One another?  Our neighbors? Love for stuff?  

-Having been made in the image of the One Who IS Love, like Him, we all love.  We are created with the capacity to give our heart away for the sake of something or someone else, to give away our time and our service and to devote ourselves to that.  Thing.  The problem is, our love-meter is broken.  We are broken.  We tend to love primary things less than we should (or not at all) and tertiary (even evil) things more than we should.  What Paul is diligently asking God to do here is to cause these believers' love to become more like His, such that as their capacity to love grows and their love in general becomes more knowledgeable and discerning that they are loving more of what God wants them to love and loving less the things He does not.  This is no doubt the essence of the good work He has begun in their lives and in the those of all who trust in Christ and follow Him.  God is relentlessly re-producing His agape love in the lives of every one of His people.  We are little love hotspots, and collectively we are meant to be a mighty network of God’s amazing blessing love unleashed on a world that is desperately looking for love in all the wrong places.  Which is precisely why our own love must first be transformed.

Philippians 1:8 - The longing

"For my witness [is] God, how I am longing for all of you in [the] bowels of Christ Jesus." 

-Because these Philippians are in Paul’s heart, he describes himself as actually longing (to yearn upon) for them.  Paul was similarly longing to see the believers in Rome (Romans 1.11) and Thessalonica (1Thessalonians 3.6), as well as Timothy (2Timothy 1.4).  Believers have a similar longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling (2Corinthians 5.2) as well as for the pure milk of God’s Word (1Peter 2.2) - or at least we should.  Naturally we do long for the people and things which gain a foothold in our hearts.  Paul had never even been to Rome, yet he had a longing to see those believers.  But these ones in Philippi had a big place in Paul’s heart because they had shared much together with him, and as such they were a great source of joy and gratitude for him.  This depth of joy and love and devotion and oneness and koinonia in relationships between Christ-followers is in fact produced by the indwelling Spirit of Christ (Philippians 2.1; cf Acts 2.42-46, Acts 4.32, John 17.23, Colossians 3.14 - remember that the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy - Galatians 5.22).  The Spirit produces this oneness and affection naturally as believers do life and minister and worship together - such that it needs to be guarded (1Corinthians 1.9-10, Ephesians 4.3) perhaps even more than it needs to be fostered.

-Paul colors in his longing by describing it as ‘the bowels of Christ Jesus’.  The word is splagchnon.  It is used literally in Acts 1.18, and is variously translated metaphorically as affection or heart, but it is not the heart exactly, which is kardia.  But this refers to the seat of our emotions and desires, our inmost part, and it is with all the feeling that Christ has for His people that Paul longs for these believers in Philippi.  He so wants to be with them.  A scarce reality, this.  I get so focused and busy with taking care of my own stuff, my family, my yard, my career, my vacations and pastimes - there is scarcely any time left outside of a quick dip on Sunday morning to even spend time with other believers, much less begin to do the kind of life with them that would begin to entrench them in my inmost part.  Would that we might experience such a depth of sharing with a community of God's people that we would get a taste of what these believers enjoyed.  And believe me, once you get a good draught of sharing in community, nothing less will satisfy, and you will know the longing...

Philippians 1:7 - Not only for little kids...

"...in as much as it is right to me to be thinking this on behalf of all of you because I to be having you in my heart, in both my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all being sharers with me of the grace." 

-Paul is filled with gratitude and joy towards these Philippian believers - he has them in his heart, even though they are separated by some amount of distance as well as time.  How did this happen?  

-Sharing.  Even toddlers learn about how important it is.  We are all are taught from an early age that we need to share (because of course our native impulse is towards self).  And then we grow up and - at least in the civilized west - we get all our own stuff, so much of it, and we live out our lives in way too much independence and individualism and isolation.  Someone has said, ‘civilization is the progress of society towards isolation.’  Many of us barely even know the names of our neighbors, much less those who belong to the church family as us.  We’re glad to be around those on a Sunday morning, but do we even know them, or their story, or what needs they have?  Do we allow our needs and lives to intersect on any kind of a meaningful level?  The early church truly lived into this idea of community - they enjoyed a (un)common unity.  For them, sharing was the norm (Acts 2.42).  They shared everything (Acts 2.44-45).  They needed and depended on each other (cf Galatians 6.2).  And they couldn’t wait to be together (Acts 2.46).  The inexpressible joy and sacrificial love and constant gratitude they displayed with one another was rooted in this concept of sharing.  And they shared far more with one another than just a common set of beliefs and a meeting once a week.  They shared everything.  They shared their stuff.  They shared meals together.  They shared life together, they shared in ministry together, and they shared hard times together.  Truth is, sharing can be hard.  And it can be messy.  It means you don’t get to have it all to yourself, everything just the way you want it, all your ducks in a row.  You’re gonna get dirty.  Moving towards the needs of others and meeting those needs, the mere fact of spending mass quantities of time with broken people - you’re gonna get covered with their dirt.  And that’s the root idea - something that is dirty because it is common, it is shared.  But all this sharing not only meant that there was not one single needy person among them (Acts 4.34), it forged a depth of relationship, a oneness and caring and commitment that was comparable to what you might expect in a marriage or in a family (Acts 4.30).  And the truth is, they were family.  They were brothers and sisters in the Lord, and they lived like it.  They lived into that reality.  They lived like they really did love one another, all the time, with all that they had.  May we find the grace and courage to make the space in our lives to enter into that same reality.

Philippians 1:6 - Business as usual?

"...having been persuaded of this same thing, that the [One] having begun in you a good work will complete [it] until [the] day of Christ Jesus." 

-Marvelous news, this.  But it is not news at all - God is up to something good.  Which is what He always does, and has done since the dawn of time.  It's what He do.  Our breathtakingly good God - Who made all things very good and Who works all things for good - is doing something good in and through the lives of these believers.  Of this Paul is supremely confident.  When you and I are not fully persuaded that God is up to something good, it undercuts our joy and arrests our progress in the faith.  Lean into and onto His great surpassing goodness today and every day.  Remind yourself that He is up to something good.  Apply liberally to the affected area of your life.

-This good work is - and is shown by - their involvement with, their sharing into, the Gospel.  Gospel-involvement that fizzles before the finish was faulty from the first.  But for these believers, they responded, they believed, they have not only followed and trusted and obeyed Christ and borne the fruit of changed lives but they have also been actively reproducing and spreading the Good News into the lives of others, both in their demonstrated love for fellow believers as well as in their witness to unbelievers.  And this work is guaranteed, certain to be completed by the One Who began it.  Once God starts something, once He begins His good work in your life, He will most definitely complete it.  This is what some refer to as the perseverance of the saints.  A true journey of faith, once begun, will finish the race, come what may.

-Note Who is doing the work.  God began it, and He is continuing it.  All things are from Him, and through Him.  And remember why He is doing this work - for the showing off and celebration of His breathtaking goodness (cf Philippians 2.13).  And again, we know God is at work in these lives because they are sharing into the Gospel.  If there was no sharing into the Gospel it would be realistic to question whether or not the good work had actually begun in the first place. 

-Another thing to observe here is the first mention in this letter of the day of Christ Jesus.  Paul talks about this day a lot (as do Jesus and the other NT authors).  Elsewhere Paul calls it the day of the Lord (1Thessalonians 5.2), the day of redemption (Ephesians 4.30), the day of wrath (Romans 2.5) and judgment (Romans 2.16).  It is that great day when Christ returns to separate His sheep from the goats, to pronounce sentence on those who have not trusted in Him (Matthew 25.31-41), to be glorified and marveled at by all those who have trusted in Him for eternal life (2Thessalonians 1.10), including testing the work which they have done for Him (1Corinthians 3.13).  All of history has been marching towards this one great final day.  Glorious day, this...

Philippians 1:5 - Three all-important days. And a fourth...

"...upon your sharing unto the Good News from the first day until the now..." 

-Paul gives as the reason that he is so joyful and grateful for these Philippian believers is the fact that they had been sharing in the Gospel.  From the first day on to the present.  The word is koinonia - so they were SO involved together with Paul in the proclamation and advance of the Gospel that they were getting dirty (at least metaphorically speaking).  And they were sharing unto or into the Gospel, not just with or in the Gospel.  The picture is something more directional, more intentional, more involved.  They were all in.  And Paul says that they were all in from the first day, which, since he planted this church and had been used to lead with many of them to Christ in the first place, in his mind has to mean from the very day of their conversion as well as the inception of this assembly.  Since the very first day they believed, these Philippian believers were all in for the Gospel, for living it out and for sharing it with the world. 

-Paul actually talks about three days in this section, arguably three (or even four) of the most days in a person’s life.  The one in this verse is the first day (1) a person shares into the Gospel, the day they trust in what Jesus Christ did for them on the day (2) He died for them.  The following verse talks about the day (3) when Jesus Christ returns and all of God’s promises contained in the Gospel are fully consummated.  The fourth day (4) of course would be today - now.  What difference do these other three days make in my life on this day?  Am I all in for the Gospel, for Christ Who died for me, today?  What does/should "all in" look like, and if I am not yet so, what is holding me back?

Philippians 1:3-4 - The most underused word in Christendom?

"I am giving thanks to my God upon every remembrance of you, always, in every prayer of mine on behalf of you all, making the prayer with joy..."

-Every time I think of you, Paul says, I thank the Lord.  Would that God would so use me in people’s lives that they couldn’t help but give thanks to God every time they thought about me.  What is remarkable is that in this situation Paul was the one who had been aiming to bless the Philippians.  He was the one who was evangelizing and planting the church there and was discipling the young believers in how to follow Christ and live for Him.  And we know that many people in Philippi had Paul to thank for helping them to find forgiveness and hope of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.  Yet he was constantly grateful for them.

-Paul is praying for these folks, and the word for prayer here has the idea of asking for something, but he is not anxious or worried or burdened for them per se.  He is full of joy.  These are indeed prayers of thanksgiving and celebration.  Every time he thinks about them, he offers up a prayer of joy and thanksgiving.  And now he is telling them (and probably not for the first time).  Surely there is a person or persons who God has used in your life to encourage you, teach you, help you find and follow Jesus.  Take stock of those who have been a particular blessing to you and take a moment - many moments - to celebrate and thank God for them.   Let them know - again - that God has used them.  This is more than simply saying thank you, it is, "I thank God for you!"  But thanks has got to be the most under-utilized word in the Body of Christ.  Apparently we cannot overuse it since Paul says he was always using it!  Surely we are way too quick and ready to take for granted and forget.  We strain out a gnat and criticize and judge and complain and tear down someone for whom Christ died.  Where are the words of life to build up and bless those God has used in our lives?  Many of our leaders - many of us - live much of our lives never knowing when (or even if) God has ever really used us in the life of another.  Let the Lord use you to bless someone else by letting them know that God has used them in your life.  

-And thus we get our first glimpse of Paul’s absence of self.  As we will see, it was not necessarily what they specifically did for him that stood out to him, it was what they did for Jesus that mattered most.  

Philippians 1:2 - (re)Building relationships...

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ."

-Paul combines two traditional and customary greetings, grace being a Greek form and peace (or shalom) being a Jewish/Middle Eastern form (cf 1Samuel 25.5-6).  He begins every one of his letters with this exact greeting (slightly modified in Titus, and he adds mercy in 1&2Timothy).  Both concepts are found in the mosaic benediction in Numbers 6.25-26.  

-As we will see, grace is included not only in all of Paul’s greetings, but also in all of his leave-takings, albeit in a slightly different form.  Instead of ‘grace TO you’ he always says some form of, ‘THE grace of the Lord Jesus Christ BE WITH you’, as we will see at the close of this letter (Philippians 4.23).  Suffice it to say, we all could use and give a lot more grace.  Undeserved favor.  Blessing and mercy we and others have not earned.  In fact we and they may even deserve some form of punitive justice.  But folks need grace (Ephesians 2.8, 2Corinthians 9.8, 2Timothy 2.1), they need to experience grace (2Corinthians 12.9, 1Corinthians 15.10).  We need to be people who extend the grace that is found in Jesus to others (Ephesians 4.29, Colossians 4.6).

-Peace on the other hand is a universal ultimate goal of sorts.  Every person who has been set adrift amidst the stormy seas of life in this broken world searches relentlessly to be able to find safe harbor and ‘rest in peace’.  But the Jewish concept of peace is much broader than that even.  The shalom which the Jews so earnestly desire in life and which they extend to others in their greetings and leave-takings encompasses a sum total of life’s blessings, both spiritual and temporal, a state of well-being, completeness, friendship, safety, salvation.  All of these derive from and depend upon the favor of God Himself (cf Genesis 6.8, Genesis 39.21, Exodus 33.12, Psalm 30.5, Psalm 122.6-9, Luke 2.13-14) and are seen as indicative of being in a right relationship with Him.  Shalom-peace is indeed a sign not only of God’s favor but of His favorable presence in someone’s life (Exodus 33.16, Numbers 6.24-26, Psalm 4.8, Psalm 26.3).  Christ Himself is the Prince of Shalom (Isaiah 9.6-7, cf Luke 1.78-79, John 14.27, John 16.33).  It is interesting and important to note that there is no real shalom for the wicked (Isaiah 57.18-21, Isaiah 59.8).  The typical Arabic greeting also conveys this desire for shalom (‘as-salamu alaykum’ - ‘peace to you’, salam being very close to the Hebrew shalom)(cf Daniel 4.1, Daniel 6.25, Luke 10.4-6, Luke 24.36, John 20.26).  I think pretty much every man, woman and child on planet earth are ultimately looking for this shalom/peace - they just don’t all know what to call it, and most of them sadly don’t know where to look for it.  This is the spiritual poverty of the world in which we live - this lack of peace stemming from broken relationships - with God, with self, with others, and even with creation.  Almost everyone is working to try and achieve peace by rebuilding these relationships.  People are longing and working for world peace/absence of war.  Most everyone is trying to work their way towards peace with God by various religions.  And everyone is hunting for that inner peace - not just peace with their Maker but peace within themselves.  Shalom.   They think they can find it in the world, in their stuff or in their relationships or in what they do.  And to a degree those things do connect to an overall sense of completeness and well-being but ultimately shalom derives from God’s divine favor in a person’s life.  It is totally tied to grace, in other words.  And it is God’s people who are uniquely positioned not only to experience His peace (cf Romans 5.1, Philippians 4.6-7, Colossians 3.15) but also to spread His peace to others (Isaiah 52.7, Matthew 5.9, cf Romans 12.18, Romans 14.19, Ephesians 4.3, Hebrews 12.14, James 3.18).

-The question I then ask myself is, how am I doing at finding and resting in God’s grace and shalom?  How am I doing at spreading God’s grace and shalom to those who haven't any?

Philippians 1:1 - God had a plan for Greece...

"Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the holy ones in Christ Jesus, the [ones] being in Philippi, with the overseers and deacons..."

-Paul is definitely writing to the assembly of believers in Philippi, a place where he had visited, preached, been imprisoned, and seen God’s hand at work (Acts 16).  It was the veryfirst European city where Paul had preached.  He returned for a second visit in Act 20.1-6.  Most estimates have Paul writing this letter some time later, from prison in Rome in around 61AD.

-Philippi was a Roman colony but was also Greek.  Those who lived there were no doubt proud of their Roman citizenship but were also proud to be Greek.  The city itself was named after Philip II, king of Macedonia. who founded it in 356 B.C.  Philip II was able to consolidate control of the various city-states of greece under his rule, and bequeathed it to his son, Alexander III.  Alexander came to be called Alexander the Great, as he extended the dominion and influence of Greece throughout much of western Asia.  The Greeks became so proud of their national identity that they came to draw a clear distinction between Greek and non-Greek.  They developed a particular condescension for anything and anyone non-Greek.  The vast majority of slaves in their society were non-Greeks - these were actually regarded as sub-human.  Greeks considered themselves to be masters of the world, and came to denigrate anyone who was not born a Greek as a barbarian (vis a vis ignorant, uncivilized, and certainly inferior)(cf Romans 1.14)(also Acts 28.2 - the word we translate into English as ‘natives’ is literally ‘barbaros’).  To speak any language other than Greek was to speak ‘bar-bar’ (1Corinthians 14.11).  Even in today’s world, Greeks remain quite ethnocentric - they are tremendously proud of their civilization and culture (for many reasons), Greeks marry Greeks, etc.

-Into this extremely ethnocentric mix, God had sent the apostle Paul, an Asian Jew who happened to be a Roman citizen.  This was to be the first assembly of believers outside of Palestine/Asia Minor, the first in Europe.  God had given the Macedonian call to Paul in a dream (cf Acts 16.9-10), which he immediately obeyed (Acts 16.11-12), despite the fact that the ministry was exploding in Asia Minor where he had been serving at that time (which incidentally was also the region where he grew up)(Acts 16.5).  It so happens that just prior to this call, Paul had taken Timothy on as a disciple (Acts 16.1-3).  And it is interesting to note that Timothy was actually Greek (or at least his dad was - his mother was Jewish).  Paul was at that time (and unbeknownst to him) about to be called to launch into planting churches in Macedonia (aka Greece).  No doubt the Lord knew what He was doing and knew that - in human terms - Timothy, being both a Greek and a Jew - would prove to be a tremendous asset to Paul as they began the work in Greece.

-The first thing that Paul says about himself (and Timothy) is that he is a bond-servant.  A slave.  A doulos.  He had willingly surrendered his freedom, his rights, his wants, his life to Jesus.  He had given Jesus ownership of all that he was and had.  Tremendous example, this. 

-One wonders if by specifically mentioning the overseers and deacons Paul might in fact be working to include all the other saints in Philippi.  Perhaps those leaders might have been tempted to keep his letter to themselves.  On the flipside of course we are aware that nobody in this Philippian assembly is excluded from paul’s instruction in this letter. One thing we know for sure - God had a plan for Greece.  From its founding and extension of its influence (and language) throughout the then-known world, to the very deliberate call given to a faithful Roman Christ-follower with a Grecian Jew for a companion, we can step back and marvel at God's hand in history as He very deliberately marches forward in gathering a throng of peoples who will celebrate and spread the knowledge of His breathtaking goodness wherever they go and forever.

Philippians 4:23 - What we really need

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit."  

-Shalom/peace was at that time and continues to this day to be the standard word for Jewish greetings as well as leavetakings - we even see Jesus using this greeting (John 20.19, John 20.21, John 20.26).  Yet even by the time Paul wrote this it had apparently become more desirable for him to simply extend wishes for grace in his leavetakings than wishes for peace.  Paul does tend to include both concepts in his greetings, but here in saying goodbye he wishes the Philippians grace only, a pattern which repeats itself in pretty much all of his letters.  We do not see this in Peter (1Peter 5.14) or John (3John 15).  Which begs the question - why was it that Paul had departed from this long-standing and enduring Jewish linguistic and social custom?  What had persuaded him to abandon customary wishes for peace in his leavetakings in favor of giving wishes for grace to his audience?  To be sure everybody wants peace, the shalom after which the people of Israel have strived for millennia (Jeremiah 29.7, Psalm 122.6) - but everybody desperately needs grace.  Unmerited favor, that which I don’t deserve when in fact I deserve something else.  I need grace for eternity, and I need grace each and every day.  Because once I realize that there is in fact an Intelligent Designer Who made everything including me, and that He is perfect and holy, I realize that I am not only accountable to Him but also that I have absolutely nothing with which to commend myself to Him.  I need Him to accept me in spite of me (which in fact He is actually fully prepared to do, having offered a way thru Jesus).  I then need daily provision of divine favor and strength just to provide for and take care of my family and to navigate the challenges associated with living in a world where stuff breaks down.  Everything breaks down - 2nd law of thermodynamics.  The current system is actually wired against peace.  There will actually be no full realization of peace this side of eternity, until the broken world is set right and the broken people are made right.  But grace.  We all need it.  We would all love to find peace, because that’s what we were designed for (paradise), but right now we desperately need grace.  Grace, the great common pressing need of all humanity, and totally available for everyone right now through Jesus Christ.  This is likely why Paul (for one) had chosen to change what he said in his leavetakings.

Philippians 4:22 - God's got this

"All the saints are greeting you, but especially the ones out of Caesar's household." 

-Two groups of people are sending their greetings to the believers in Philippi: the brethren who are with Paul (in v 21), and all the saints.  These aforementioned brethren are referred to separately from the group that includes members of Caesar’s household, which gives us an indication that perhaps the latter group of saints is the growing group of native Romans who are now following Christ, and the former group of brethren could then be folks who are ministering to Paul or with him there and helping to plant and grow the church in that city.

-It is amazing to see the truth born out that the Word of God is indeed alive and powerful and cannot be contained by chains or other designs of man (cf Acts 5.39, Proverbs 21.30, Isaiah 55.11, Hebrews 4.12, Acts 6.7, Acts 12.24, Acts 19.20).  In spite of the fact that Paul was in chains under house arrest, the Gospel was increasing and bearing fruit and multiplying so much that apparently it had even begun to penetrate the imperial family.  Turns out that the circumstances associated with Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem and subsequent appeal to Caesar had given him an audience with the most influential oikos in the then-known-world, access which he may not have been able to gain otherwise.  But seriously, if you were a 1st century church-planting strategist and you were planning a church-plant in the capital city of the most powerful empire on the planet, you would never concoct a plan that began with having your lead church-planter get arrested and transported to the capital in chains.  By himself.  By boat in winter no less.  Yet who knows that the lives he was able to save during that shipwrecked voyage did not have a hand in opening doors of opportunity for the Gospel there in Rome.  God has a plan.  He knows what He is doing.  He's got this.  Always has, always does, always will. 

Philippians 4:21 - All in (for) the family

"Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.  The brothers with me are greeting you."  

-It is customary in closing a social transaction to extend geetings to known intimates, friends, etc. ‘Say hello to your brother for me...’  Paul here adds the qualifier, ‘in Christ Jesus.’  This is commonly held to describe those being greeted, in keeping with the phrase used in Philippians 1.1.  And to be sure, the definition of a saint, or ‘holy one’, is someone who is in fact in Christ Jesus.  However, it can be objected that there are no saints who are not in Christ Jesus and that it is somewhat redundant for Paul to use that qualifier yet again, esp. in light of the fact that he does not use it to qualify the next two groups he mentions.  Thus it is possible to consider that the phrase ‘in Christ Jesus’ may in fact actually apply to the greeting as opposed to those being greeted, that it describes how greetings are to be conveyed.  Elsewhere we see similar descriptors - Romans 16.16, Romans 16.22, 1Corinthians 16.19, 2Corinthians 13.12, 1Thessalonians 5.26 - these are all closing greetings which clearly speak to HOW other believers were to be greeted.  Which leads us to the question - HOW SHOULD CHRIST-FOLLOWERS GREET ONE ANOTHER?  WHAT SHOULD IT LOOK LIKE?  Yes, it could involve a ‘holy kiss’ - warmth, enthusiasm, encouragement, sincerity, with some form of touch no doubt - like family even more than friends.  If I greet you (or let’s say a group or an assembly) IN Christ Jesus, I am communicating that we are in fact family and that I am committed to building you up and helping you and loving you, giving you grace and truth, that I am here for you.  From afar or in person.  In sickness and in health, for better or worse, richer or poorer...  :)  Yes, sort of like a marriage.  Which works as an analogy, since Scripture describes our relationship with the Lord in these same terms (Ephesians 5.23, Revelation 19.7).  Too much leaving and division in the body of Christ - and it goes back for centuries (google ‘east west schism’).  It’s one of the biggest turnoffs for those who are looking at Christ from the outside.  Not saying that God never moves people around - obviously He does that.  But hey, in our 21st century, there’s maybe too much of that too.  Just saying that if God has you in Philippi for a season, be all there and all in for that assembly of believers for as long as He has you there. ‘Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples...’ (John 13.35)

Philippians 4:20 - The great and powerful Why

"But to our God and Father [be] the glory unto the ages of ages, amen."  

And so we see the full progession of the truth found throughout Scripture and captured in Romans 11.36, that all things are from God (seen in the previous verse, Philippians 4.19), and all things are thru Him (Philippians 4.13), and all things are into, or for, Him.  All things.  All things come to exist (or happen) ultimately to show off or increase the knowledge and celebration of God’s breathtaking goodness, His unbelievable greatness, His incomprehensible power and majesty.  All the things concerning us and all people are to enhance this reputation of His among all peoples, they are for the sake of His Name.  All things.  This includes the hard things and circumstances which we all must sometimes endure and which Paul was facing every day there in Rome.  God Himself gives us the strength and all that we need in order to be able to hold onto and enjoy and confess His great goodness in all things, whatever may come our way.  And to this end - to glorify God in Christ in all things - Paul was singularly and totally committed (Philippians 1.21).  What we have glimpsed in this letter is Paul’s clarion commitment to be all about Christ and all for Christ and all in for Christ each and every day, regardless of his circumstances, know and tasting God's goodness, confident in the truth that God had his back, that our breathtakingly good God was in control and was working all things for good and was fully supplying all of his needs. And to be sure, God was definitely all in for Paul, but He was so ultimately because He was and is always all in for Himself, for His glory.  He alone is worthy.

Philippians 4:19 - Every need. Every single one.

"But my God will fill up every need of you according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."  

-One of the greatest promises in Scripture, this.  Every single one of your needs and my needs will be completely filled up.  It is a future fact, we can bank on it, because God Himself has tied Himself to it.  We’re not talking about merely scraping by either - the measure of the promise is every need completely filled up, and that out of the glorious riches of God Himself, Who owns the cattle on a thousand hills - on every hill in fact - and everything else to boot.  No pauper, this One. He made all things, nothing has come into being that He did not make, it is all His.  He says, ‘it is Mine.’ (Exodus 19.15, Job 41.11, Psalm 50.10-12, Haggai 2.8).  More than that, He says the same of us - ‘you are Mine.’ (Isaiah 43.1, Ezekiel 18.4, Malachi 3.17).  What need will we ever have that the Lord is not only able to meet but also ready and eager to fully supply?  God is not a miser.

-We need to take a breath and take this all in, everything that Paul has been saying in this section.  All things.  Every need.  All your requests.  Surely we are living in the neighborhood of hypocrisy when we ask for so little and our lives have so little of a hint of the supernatural about them.  And we're not talking about asking for ourselves, for the stuff of temporal wants - we're talking about living into the greater works, about the forward progress of the Good News and the glory of God into the lives of my neighbors and into every nation on earth.  This is why our God, the God of breathtaking goodness, wants to bless His people.  And He has tied Himself to some magnificent promises in connection with that.  O, may He give us the grace to really believe and to really walk in step with the One Who whose steps led to a hill called Calvary but Who now has overcome the world, has all power in the world, and Who is sending His own into all the world to gather the nations to Himself.

-It is important to note that in connection with this promise we are not provided with some kind of standardized baseline supply list.  Nor are we given any kind of a specified delivery date.  It is safe to say that generally speaking, if at present I do not have something then I apparently don’t need it, at least not for the moment.  If one is inclined to debate the definition of a specific need and its relationship to a promise of divine provision, I would suggest that the matter be taken up directly with the One Who has actually made the promise... (which is probably the end goal of the promise anyway).

Philippians 4:18 - A radical self-ectomy and an amazing sniffer

"But I am having everything in full and I am abounding.  I have been filled, having received from Epaphroditus the [gift] from you, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God." 

-Paul was in chains, but he actually had more than enough thanks to the generosity of the assembly in Philippi.  I have everything, he says.  When was the last time I said that?  Or that you heard anyone say that?  Is not the spirit of our age one of constantly striving for more, constantly looking around the bend for a little bit more, the latest and greatest gadget or update, the next adrenaline rush or gourmet delight or sight to see, a little bit bigger house or car or bed or refrigerator or television, the next piece of cotton candy to try and stuff into the bottomless hole in my heart in a vain attempt to try and find lasting satisfaction in the temporal?  I have everything.  It wasn’t because of what paul had - it was Who he had.

-But despite his adverse circumstances (remember he was in chains), Paul has the selflessness and others-centeredness enough to turn around and affirm and bless his friends here.  You know how when you give a gift to someone, you sort of sit on the edge of your seat while they open it, hoping that they will like it?  No doubt the Philippians had similar aspirations re their gift to Paul.  Well, Paul does that one better.  Not only does he make it clear how much HE appreciates their gift, but he adds that God Himself is in fact quite pleased with their gift.  Their generosity brought much pleasure to God.  The act of giving can provide a great feeling of satisfaction and joy for the giver as well as the receiver, but Paul mentions this additional incentive here.  Yes, the generosity of God’s people gives Him pleasure (cf 2Cor 9.7).

-Pleasing God is a theme that is woven throughout Scripture, but this notion of pleasing God, of making Him happy, is sadly beyond the ambitions of many believers.  We are way more interested in pleasing ourselves and minimizing our discomfort while trying to merely manage our sin and not make God angry.  We are mired in this much more self-centered and childish approach to life and faith.  We are the prodigal or the dutiful first-born (take your pick), both of whom miss out on the joys of their father.  It's all about me.  And to be sure, we are wired as self-centered creatures, half-hearted, many of us never rising very far above this slavish devotion to self.  We live on spiritually like a typical child who is too absorbed with their own interests to be much concerned with what actually gives mom or dad pleasure - not all of us, but many of us.  Yet to ascend to the lofty realms of pursuing the pleasures of God (in which we also find our greatest joy) - this requires the ability to step outside of yourself and your own interests.  What it really requires is a radical self-ectomy... (cf Mt 16.24; as exemplified in the person of Jesus - cf Phil 2.5-7)  A process with which God is more than ready to comply (have you read about Aslan and Eustace the dragon?)

-What exactly is it that pleases the Lord?  What puts a smile on His face?  What makes Him happy?  Living into the answer to this question should and must become the full time obsession of any believer.  Rom 8.8, 1Cor 7.32, 2Cor 5.9, Gal 1.10, Eph 5.8-10, Col 1.10, Col 3.22-23, 1Th 2.4, 1Th 4.1, 2Tim 2.4, Heb 11.5-6, Heb 13.15-16, Heb 13.20-21, 1Jn 3.22.  We are told that the Lord delights in His people and in blessing them (Jer 32.41, Deut 28.63, Ps 35.27), and He delights when His people obey and do what is right and just (1Sam 15.22, 1Ki 10.9, 1Chr 29.17, Ps 51.19, Mt 23.23), and He takes particular delight when the hearts of His people are completely His (Deut 6.4-5, 2Chr 16.9).  This at least gives us a jumping off point.

-It is important as well not to miss the aromatic component of devotion to which Paul is clearly alluding here.  Burnt offerings historically played a huge role in the devotional life of God’s people.  Over and over we read where the subsequent burning of a sacrified animal is decribed as a ‘soothing aroma’ to the Lord (Gen 8.21, Ex 29.18, Lev 1.9, Num 15.13-14, to list a few).  Additionally, we read of grain offerings - a combination of fine flour and oil (Lev 2.4) along with some salt (Lev 2.13) which was then topped with more oil and frankincense (Lev 2.1) and burned to produce another kind of soothing aroma to the Lord (Lev 2.9, Lev 6.15). (in fact, ‘soothing aroma’ is mentioned 38x in the Pentateuch).  There was perpetual incense burning in the temple as well, and the special oil used for anointing the priests was loaded with spices (Ex 30.34-37, Ex 30.7-8, Ex 30.23-24) - clearly our God has a well developed sense of smell and He finds pleasure in certain smells (Num 29.6).  He has made us the same way - is there not something wonderfully inspiring and almost spiritual about encountering a pleasing aroma?  Recent studies indicate that the average person is able to distinguish between over 1 trillion unique odors.  Smell is described as the most important of the senses.  Most of taste is actually tied to smell.  Smell is the only sense which affects the memory and emotion part of the brain.  In fact, it is unique among the senses in that it is processed in an entirely different part of the brain.  To be sure, God Himself must have an amazing and extremely acute sense of smell.  Surely it is no coincidence that death is accompanied by a most foul stench.  Inversely, prayers (so, words and thoughts?) and deeds which are generous and which give life are described as a sweet-smelling fragrance which brings great pleasure to the Lord (cf Ps 141.2, Rev 5.8, Rev 8.3-4).  Sure, the aroma is spiritual as opposed to purely physical, and yet the Lord’s senses clearly are attuned to the nuances of the words and deeds and even the thoughts of His people (cf Ps 94.11, Ps 139.2-4, Is 66.18, Mt 9.4, Heb 4.13).  He can smell our hearts from way ore than a mile away!  In a similar way, people are even wired with the abillity to get a spiritual whiff of Christ emanating from our lives, even if their senses are not actually tuned to discern what they are smelling (2Cor 2.14-16).  Thus for those who do follow Christ, we find additional incentive to do what we can to keep in step with God’s Spirit today and every day, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord, aware that what we think and say and do is constantly giving off either a pleasing aroma or one which reeks, particularly to the Lord but to those around us as well.

Philippians 4:17 - Three parties

"Not that I am seeking after the gift, but rather I am seeking the fruit increasing unto your word." 

-One might normally assume there is only one truly interested party in a gift transaction - the one receiving (I mean, who doesn't look forward to receiving gifts?!?) - whereas in fact there are three. The one giving the gift also has a vested interest in the transaction, because as it turns out the third party is God Himself, Who Paul here tells us actually keeps track of our giving somehow. When we give there is fruit which increases into our giving account. The more we give, the more fruit we get in our account. Giving is one of the ways we lay up treasure in heaven (cf Matthew 6.20-21), but it involves more than just the transaction of providing something for another at no cost.  We must consider the motives behind the giving - more on that in the next verse.

-As it turns out, Paul's interest in this transaction has nothing to do with receiving.  What amazing selflessness he shows at this point, and how rare indeed. We know that he was in prison and was likely completely dependent on the generosity of others for his daily provision, and yet he flat out states that he is more interested in how this act of giving will benefit the ones giving to him, how it will increase their store of heavenly treasure. How does one get to the point where you are not looking out for your own needs but rather for the needs and interests of others? Oh yeah - we already talked about this in chapter 2.  Look to Jesus and follow His example... let go.  Clearly Paul had let go, and that so completely that he doesn't even seem to care about his needs at this point, certainly not compared to how he was caring about the needs of others.