Colossians 1:1 - On divine delegates and spiritual siblings

"Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus through the theléma of God, and Timothy the brother..." 

-This New Testament letter we know as Colossians is from Paul, who here identifies himself as an apostle.  This appears to be his preferred title when writing letters to other Christ-followers (1&2Thessalonians have no title, Philemon has desmios/prisoner, Philippians has doulos, Romans and Titus have both doulos and apostolos, 1&2Corinthians, Galatians/Ephesians/Colossians/1&2Timothy have only apostolos, so 9 out of 13).  It means a delegate, messenger, one sent out with orders, i.e with the authority of the one who sent them.  This title had special weight in the 1st century church, as it specifically referred to the twelve men who had been with the Lord Jesus Himself and who had been specially selected by Him to go out as His delegates to preach the message of the Kingdom of God and of Jesus as the resurrected Messiah (cf Matthew 10.1-4, Luke 6.13, Acts 1.26, Revelation 21.14).  Apostolic authority was not only conferred by Jesus but was also confirmed by God, specifically through fruitful ministry (cf 2Corinthians 3.1-3, 1Corinthians 9.1-2) and through supernatural deeds (cf 2Corinthians 12.12), and since he was not one of the original ‘twelve’, we find Paul repeatedly restating (defending?) his claim that he received special inclusion into this select group by Jesus as well (Acts 26.15-17, Galatians 1.11-16, 1Timothy 2.7, 2Timothy 1.11).  Apparently he was not the only one to do so (others made patently false claims of apostleship, cf 2Corinthians 11.13, Revelation 2.2), and the term itself actually does get a little bit fuzzy in places, because we see it applied to others who also were not part of that initial band of twelve (1Corinthians 15.5-8, Acts 14.14, Galatians 1.19, Romans 16.7).

-Nevertheless, the title of apostle is (at least in part) intended to help Paul’s audience pay particular attention to his words and to attach perhaps even more weight to them than they would to just any teacher or pastor.

-Paul does emphasize the authenticity and import of his office by adding that he is an apostle because God wanted him to be one (the greek word theléma means want or desire).  God Himself chose Paul - it was not Paul’s choice, he had not been tagging along with Jesus (clearly, as Paul was literally headed in the opposite direction when Jesus appeared to him).  He was in fact doing all he could to destroy the body of Christ at the time, but God wanted him instead do all he could to build up the body of Christ (1Corinthians 15.8-10).

-Timothy is included in the writing of this letter.  He is not an apostle - he never saw Jesus nor did he get specific marching orders directly from the Lord.  But here he is the adelphos - he is Paul’s brother, and he is these people’s brother, and he is our brother, looking down today from heaven and cheering each of us on as we follow in the steps of Christ and run the race He has set before us (Hebrews 12.1).  And let’s not lose the weight of that word ‘brother’.  There are significant spiritual bonds between those who follow Christ which are like family, forged by the Holy Spirit Himself (cf Ephesians 4.3-6 - remember that all Christ-followers have the same heavenly Father), ties which can be even stronger than those of blood relatives (cf Matthew 12.46-50).  That in no way diminishes the importance of earthly family, and a family that follows Christ together is blessed indeed, but unfortunately there is ample evidence in Scripture and in our world that one’s blood relations can become primary obstacles to following Christ and living into what He wants in this life (Matthew 10.37, Matthew 19.28-29, Luke 9.59-62, Luke 14.26, Luke 18.29-30, Luke 21.16).  God actually gives us spiritual siblings to help us better follow Jesus (Ephesians 4.16, 1Corinthians 12.14-19, Hebrews 10.24-25, Hebrews 12.1), and really we cannot fully follow Jesus without them.  We actually read nothing of Paul’s earthly family in any of his writings, yet we read quite a bit about his spiritual brothers and sisters and sons, and we observe that much of the time he appeared to be surrounded by members of this family he had in Christ (and no doubt he was quite deliberate in seeking this himself).

-One school insists this letter (along with the companion letter to Philemon) was written from prison in Rome around 60AD.  Another view has Paul writing from prison in Caesarea in around 59AD (cf Acts 23.33, Acts 24.27).  The prison origin is seen from Colossians 4.10.  Caesarea was much closer to Colossae, and as far as we know Paul had been hoping to go from Rome to Spain, not back to Asia Minor where Colossae was located (compare Romans 15.28 with Philemon 22).  This would support the latter view.

Philippians 1:20 - Leaving the land of Maybe

"According to my anxious longing and hope, that in nothing will i be put to shame but rather in all boldness as always even now Christ will be enlarged in my body, either through life or through death."

-apokaradokia.  Literally, ‘away the head to stretch.’  A watching with the head outstretched.  Looking and waiting for something greatly desired or anticipated.  Also used in Romans 8.20.  This was what Paul desired with every fiber of his being.  It permeated his every thought and motive and word and deed.  What was it?

-That Christ will be enlarged in my body, whether by life or by death.  No matter what happens.  Regardless of what circumstances in which I may find myself.  In my body - in my life, in everything about me, in all that I do and say, my words and actions and thoughts, my non-verbals - all things all the time making Christ bigger.  He can’t personally get any greater or better, but He can be increasingly recognized as such.  With that in mind we are to be declaring and showing off His magnificent greatness in such a way that others will apprehend it (cf John 3.30).

-In all boldness always.  Am I bold for Christ?  Always?  All boldness?  To not be bold for Christ to Paul means shame.  It would either look like being ashamed of the Gospel in this life (cf Romans 1.16), and/or it means shame in the presence of Christ on the day of His return for having not been bold for the Lord (cf Luke 9.26, 1John 2.28).  But boldness is for speaking.  It doesn't take boldness to serve someone, to give them a drink of water in Jesus' Name.  But it takes boldness to tell them why you are doing it.  It is finding that Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered middle ground between being timid and pushy.  It is breaking the ice and not backing down, but neither is it beating people over the head.  And boldness lives in the same neighborhood as courage, because when you speak up about Jesus, it is liable to cost you.  It might not.  But you maybe will be rejected.  You maybe will be mistreated and maligned and persecuted.  Just like Paul.  But Paul didn't want to live in the land of maybe.  The theme of boldly and unashamedly and joyfully proclaiming Christ as well as accepting suffering for the sake of Jesus runs through the entire NT (1Peter 4.16, 2Timothy 1.12, 2Timothy 1.8, Acts 5.41), with Jesus of course being our Supreme Example (Hebrews 12.2).  May God give us the grace to leave the land of maybe and speak out boldly for Jesus.

Philippians 1:19 - Salvation on display

"For I am having known that this to me will turn unto salvation through your prayer and [the] bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ..." 

-This.  Some of this 'this’ will be instrumental towards securing some form of salvation/deliverance for Paul.  ‘This’ looks to be Paul’s rejoicing, his total focus on Jesus, on the truth about Jesus being proclaimed and people hearing about Jesus, and finding his satisfaction and joy in this above all else.  With that in mind Paul says that his ability to endure and pursue and love Christ and the spread of the Gospel above all else definitely requires the prayers of God’s people and the enabling provision of God’s Spirit.  There is nothing that will truly be accomplished for the Lord apart from Him.  God's people advance in knowing Christ and in making Him known on their knees and only in the means and power which He superabundantly supplies through His Spirit.

-But this also suggests that when Paul talks about salvation here he indeed is not thinking about deliverance in a temporal sense, about any kind of an automatic get out of jail free card.  Yes, the word is sotéria, which is almost always translated ‘salvation’ but can indeed refer to something other than that which we associate with entrance into heaven.  In Acts 27.34, it is used to describe deliverance from physical death, for example.  But what Paul is saying is that his continued and ongoing joy at the proclamation of the Good News even and especially in the midst of difficult circumstances is a sure sign that he has in fact been eternally saved (cf Romans 8.17, 2Timothy 2.12 - he is not earning salvation, but rather his joy and endurance evidence the reality of his having been saved).  He continues to unpack this perspective in the verses that follow...

Philippians 1:15-18 - On good, bad and incomparable motives

’Certain ones on the one hand even through envy and strife, certain ones on the other hand even through good pleasure, are preaching Christ.  The [ones] on the one hand out of love, having known that unto defense of the Good News I am laid down.  The [ones] on the other hand out of strife are proclaiming Christ, not purely, supposing to be raising tribulation with my bonds.  For what?  Only that by every way, whether by pretext or by truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in this I am rejoicing.  But rather also I will be joyful.'

-There are always differing motivations for talking to others about Jesus.  In Paul’s situation, there were folks who had good motives for telling others about Jesus, doing so was a source of pleasure for them in fact, and there were others who were talking about Christ because they were envious of Paul, they were jealous of him in some way.  They had bad motives.  (There is a third group not mentioned here, ones who are more un-motivated or de-motivated when it comes to talking about Jesus, including people who know Jesus who are NOT telling others about Him, but apparently they did not factor into Paul's circumstances.)  Paul proceeds to unpack the first two groups in the subsequent verses...

-For the second group, the ones who are speaking out about Jesus out of good pleasure, Paul says that the reason they were doing so was out of agapé, out of sacrificial others-first love.  We might wonder if their love and good pleasure was directed more at Paul or at Jesus, but it would not be unrealistic to maintain that both were true (and in fact the deepest motivation for telling others about Jesus is neither our love for people nor our love for Jesus - both of which can waver - but rather His great unwavering unchanging love for us, cf 2Corinthians 5.14-15).  The context would seem to suggest that Paul is thinking more about their love for him.  They are telling others about Jesus because that is precisely what Paul had been appointed to do.  Paul had been the flag bearer, so to speak, and since he had been taken out of the battle to some extent, these others who love him and care about him wanted to step up and carry the flag in his stead. 

-For the first group, inasmuch as Paul was in chains because he had been proclaiming Christ, these ones are doing the same in order to try and cause more trouble for Paul.  Which of course seems a bit odd, since they were probably going to bring trouble on themselves as well.  But it is not unheard of for people to publicly identify themselves with Jesus and with the Gospel out of all sorts of bad or impure motives.  They might think to make some kind of profit or gather a following or perhaps curry some favor with those in authority.  Paul's response to these might be surprising to some...

-What matters most to Paul (and therefore what should matter most to us) is that people are proclaiming Christ, no matter their motives, whether they know Him or not supposedly.  Now it is probably safe to assume that both groups - the ones with pure motives and the ones with bad motives - were speaking accurately about Christ.  Paul is not endorsing anyone saying things about Jesus which aren’t true.  But even with impure motives, Paul says it is good to tell others the truth, the Good News about Jesus.  But here's the question - how much and does it even matter to us?

-Yes, there is a that third group, the ones not telling others about Jesus.  Either He does not matter to them at all, or apparently not enough.  It is not uncommon for professing Christ-followers to try and excuse themselves from proclaiming Christ because, as they may suggest, their motives are not right.  Any proclaiming they might do would be done out of compulsion as opposed to doing so eagerly.  But you know what?  Paul says that this is not ever an excuse.  In fact, doing something good or right simply because that is what you are supposed to do, whether out of compulsion or even if you are not eager to do it, is always good and right, no matter what it is.  The notion that I am somehow to be excused from talking about Jesus because I might somehow being doing so under a less than pure pretext is a mind trick of the great deceiver himself.  I just don’t want to - let’s be honest.  I don’t want to be uncomfortable or rejected or make the other person uncomfortable.  But this is a terrible mirage, because in the day of Christ there will be both great shame for me at having shrunk back in timidity from declaring the truth (Acts 20.27), and great weeping and gnashing of teeth for the one who has not trusted in Christ (Matthew 13.49) and who must now pay the penalty of destruction for their sins away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (2Thessalonians 1.9).  I tell you what, it sure will be more uncomfortable for someone to have to face their Maker in the next life and have Him tell them, ‘depart from Me,’ and have to pay the penalty for their many sins than for them to have an honest discussion about it on even terms with a caring friend (or stranger even) in this life.

-Paul adds that people talking about Jesus is tremendous source of joy for him, regardless of the circumstances.  This is because, as we will continue to observe, Jesus was a tremendous source of joy for Paul.  In fact, Jesus was the ultimate source of joy for Paul.  To this point, Paul has already mentioned Jesus 11 times in this letter.  He can’t stop talking about Jesus.  He can’t stop thinking about Him.  The real Jesus was a real person to Paul - he can't NOT talk about Him.  He had had the encounter on the road to Damascus (Acts 9.3-7, Galatians 1.1).  He had had a subsequent revelation (possibly in Arabia? cf Ephesians 3.3, Galatians 1.11-12, Galatians 1.15-17, 2Corinthians 12.1-4, 2Corinthians 12.7).  Jesus was extremely real to Paul.  He was also incomparably better than anything this earth had to offer (Philippians 1.23).  WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT KEEP ME FROM TALKING AND THINKING ABOUT JESUS?  WHAT ARE SOME REASONS THAT HE IS NOT INCOMPARABLY BETTER FOR ME?

Philippians 1:14 - BASE-jumping for Jesus!

"...and the many of the brothers, trusting in [the] Lord by my bonds, even more so to be daring fearlessly the word to be speaking."

-The words here describe the actual action of telling people about Jesus, of speaking the Truth of the Good News, ostensibly even to people who don’t want to hear it.  Hence the word for courage here - tolmao.  It means courage in action.  It is not just the feeling of bravery, it is the actions of bravery.  Which is the whole point, isn’t it?  Bravery is not a feeling, it is an action.  But Paul says the brothers were also fearless.  Speaking out about Jesus in this time and place was not only uncomfortable but also risky business.  Paul says that many - albeit not all - of his fellow Christ-followers in Rome were inspired and emboldened enough by his example to take the risk to tell others what they knew about Jesus.  Fear and faith are incompatible.  If I am afraid, I am focusing on the wrong thing.  Focus on Jesus (Hebrews 12.2).  Focus on the Jesus we see in the life of someone like Paul.

-Trust.  Daring.  Fearless.  That is the order.  The person who jumps out of a plane or off a cliff show us the way.  They have complete trust - in their training, in their equipment, in their preparation.  They’re not shrinking back out of fear over what might happen.  Fear shuts down feats of daring.  Trust enables them.  That’s the whole point of Hebrews 11, the ‘Faith Hall of Fame’ (cf Hebrews 11.32-38).  Those heroes of faith found courage and performed daring feats of power and suffering because they had trust - but their trust(=faith) was in the God Who is completely trust-worthy.  It was not in themselves or their experience or their education or their ability.  God is able, and with Him all things are possible, even and including that which is seemingly impossible.  Trust in Him and do great exploits!  Conquer kingdoms.  Put armies to flight.  Heal the sick.  Raise the dead.  Love the unloveable.  Forgive the unforgiveable.  Find strength in weakness and temptation and in prison and in sickness and in death.  But above all else speak the Word.  That’s what the believers in rome were doing.  They were inspired by Paul’s example - his trust, his boldness, as well as by the results they saw with so many people hearing and responding to the Gospel through Paul’s fearless witness.  He was daring to speak the Word amidst extremely trying and risky circumstances, and as a result many others were being emboldened to do the same.  And to that point, courage is contagious.  When the stakes are high and folks are milling around tempted to circle the wagons, somebody needs to be the first to jump off the cliff...

Philippians 1:13 - An all-encompassing prepositional proposition

"...so that my bonds in Christ came to be manifest in the whole praetorium and all the rest..." 

-First of all, Paul affirms as must we that it is all about Christ.  He has talked about being slaves of Christ, us being holy ones in Christ, the day of Christ (twice!), the affection of Christ, bearing fruit through Christ, and now his bonds IN Christ. Everything is all about Christ.  Everything is IN Christ.  For those who follow Christ, who are IN Him, everything can and should receive that all-encompassing prepositional phrase.  IN Christ.  My marriage in Christ.  My job/career in Christ.  My hobbies in Christ.  My spending in Christ.  My freetime in Christ.  My driving in Christ.  If I am in Christ, if I am really crucified with Christ, if it really is no longer I who live but Christ Who lives in me (Gal 2.20), everything about me is in Christ, always.  The only question is whether or not I live all in to that reality.

-Furthermore, Paul understands that his bonds, his chains, the reason he was in prison was not just because of Christ, because he happened to be a Christ-follower or even a leader within the Way, but he was in bonds FOR Christ.  The God in Whom he lived and moved and had his being had his back and his front and his future in His hands and was ultimately orchestrating his circumstances in order to give more people the chance to learn about Jesus.  In this case, Paul was being guarded by the elite Praetorium, the imperial palace guards of Caesar himself.  These were hand-picked, select men who received double pay and special privileges, and they had become the most powerful body in the state.  Paul was chained to different ones of these guards as they took turns relieving each other, but more accurately they were chained to him.  Being chained to Paul meant that they were going to learn about Jesus.  And eventually, according to Paul here, not only the entire Praetorium but everybody else in the palace had heard about Christ.

-Note to self: my circumstances (IN Christ!) are never an excuse for self-pity, nor for timidity.  They are a divine opportunity to help people learn about Jesus.  Always.

Philippians 1:12 - Good news about the Good News

"But I am wanting you to be knowing, brothers, that the (things) according to me has come more unto progress of the Good News..." 

-The word for ‘progress’ is prokopé, which means to cut before.  It is a picture of pioneers or an army or a boat moving forward and advancing, ostensibly against some kind of resistance, along the lines of ‘to make headway’ or ‘to forge ahead’.  In this case, progress for the Good News involves people first hearing and then responding to the truth of the Message, turning to God from self, trusting in Christ’s death on the cross for the forgiveness of their many sins, and coming to love the Lord more and more with all their heart while also helping others to do the same, for the rest of their lives and forever.  People hear who haven’t heard, and people trust who haven’t trusted.  And we know that hearing the Message is the first and perhaps most important part of the process (Rom 1.16, Rom 10.17).  A person must be exposed to the Message in order for the inherent power of the Message to be cranked up in their hearts.

-Paul is wanting these folks in Philippi to know that the Good News was advancing in spite of his circumstances.  He has already told us that he is in prison, and will elaborate on this more in the subsequent verses, but suffice it to say that one might normally expect that chaining up the messenger might somehow chain up the Message.  Clearly this wasn’t the case for Paul.

-This is not incidentally a jump to a new topic.  To tie this back to our previous section, contrary to popular notion, the advance of the Gospel is at its very core about the glory of God.  It is not fundamentally about me.  It is not a bunch of self-centered sinners in different countries getting their fire insurance.  Nor is it about the size of the Church.  These things are ultimately touched by the advance of the Gospel message, but they are not ultimate.  The advance of the Good News is about the God of glory blessing the nations - every nation - with Himself, providing a way for people to actually know Him - so that they might become a part of the assembly of those who love and glory in Him forever and ever.

-Wonderful statement, this.  My circumstances have contributed to the spread of the Gospel.  Particularly under circumstances like these which Paul was facing (prison).  But truth is, any circumstance whether advantageous or adverse is a gift from the Lord, a divine opportunity.  This Message of messages cannot ever be imprisoned or shut down except by the Messengers.  If and when it is shared, it has the power to rescue and bring hope, healing and forgiveness to anyone anywhere anytime.  Whether a prison block or a neighborhood block or some unreached people bloc, all we need to do is communicate it faithfully and clearly and the Lord will take it from there.

Philippians 1:11 - The Ultimate

"...having been filled with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ unto [the] glory and praise of God."

-So, several words combine in this section to describe the life of a Christ follower that surely results in praise and glory to God, that shows off and increases the awareness of how good He is.  Love.  Excellence.  Pure.  Blameless.  Filled with fruit.  Righteous. 

-Filled is pleroō, which means what it says, filled up.  It is used most commonly in the NT to describe when the Word of God is filled up, or fulfilled, esp in the Gospels and in Acts.  But in this case we're talking about people.  A righteous life, one that is right in God’s eyes and filled with spiritual fruit, of course is a life which has been and is being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit (cf Ephesians 5.18, Galatians 5.22-23, John 15.5, Romans 15.3), where a person is constantly yielding to and depending on the Spirit for power and guidance.  The product of this abiding and dependence is fruit - love, joy, goodness, etc - things which do indeed correspond to a life that is right in God’s eyes.

-But be sure to get that right - the fruit comes THROUGH Christ.  HE does the work (cf Philippians 2.13), not me.  It is not my job to produce the fruit.  I trust in Christ and remain in Him, depend on Him, and He bears the fruit.

-But here we get the end, the ultimate overarching goal of all of Paul’s heart and vision for and investment in the lives of these believers: glory and praise unto God.  This is the great why of Scripture, the all-pervasive purpose for the people of God.  This theme resounds through this letter (Philippians 1.20, 2.11, 3.3, 4.20) and through the entirety of Scripture, it is the story of God’s glory, of His breathtaking and exceedingly abundant goodness and greatness, of God creating the universe to show off His glory (Nehemiah 9.5-6, Psalm 19.1) and then creating and gathering and blessing a people who would know and celebrate and show off and spread the knowledge of His glory into eternity (Numbers 14.21, Psalm 46.10, Psalm 66.1-4, Psalm 67.1-7, Psalm 96.3, Psalm 108.1-5, Psalm 145, Psalm 150, Isaiah 42.8, Isaiah 43.6-7, Isaiah 48.11, Isaiah 66.18-19, Jeremiah 13.11, Jeremiah 33.9, Habakuk 2.14, Jphn 17.5, Romans 11.36, 2Corinthians 4.15, Ephesians 1.5-6, Ephesians 1.11-15, 1Timothy 1.17, Hebrews 13.21, 1Peter 1.7, Jude 24-25, Revelation 1.6, Revelation 4.11).  This should be the reason why we do whatever we do (1Corinthians 10.31, 1Peter 4.11).  He is Ultimate, and it - all of it - is all for Him.  I exist for Him, and I need Him - not the other way around.  Understanding this, we also uncover the root of all the problems of a broken world, where this great ultimate purpose was controverted and the people who had been made to celebrate and show off the glory of God chose to celebrate something else (Romans 1.22-24), and instead of entering into and enjoying His presence forever and ever, people freely choose to reject their Maker and wind up being rejected by Him (Romans 1.28-32; cf Matthew 25.41-45).  Oh, may we find the grace to taste and see and show off glimpses of His breathtaking goodness each and every day...

Philippians 1:10 - In the end, it's all about worship

"...Unto you to be approving the [things] carrying through, in order that you may be pure and blameless unto [the] day of Christ..."

-Approving the things that are excellent, better, carrying through, enduring, eternal even... We are not talking about a passive passing of an opinion on the relative excellence or lack thereof of various things.  This is about proving (and loving) their superiority by testing them personally, about being able to choose to be devoted to and absorbed in the things which are proven to be more excellent than other things.  Naturally the things we love are the things to which we give our time and talent and treasure as well as our heart.  We engage with them, get involved with them, journey with them and include them on our life journey.  It follows that we should want to give our time and devotion to things that are MOST worthy of receiving our devotion, and that we do therefore require (from verse 9) the ability to know and to discern which things are worthy and which are NOT worthy of our love and devotion.  Paul in fact fills this letter with exhortations towards and examples of being devoted to the things which truly excel beyond any other things which we might prioritize in our lives (cf Philippians 1.18, 1.20-21, 1.24, 1.27, 2.2-4, 2.12-16, 2.20-22, 2.30, 3.7-8, 3.10-14, 3.17-20 - really all of chapter 3 - 4.1, 4.2-3, 4.8, 4.17).  

-So, what things are excellent, surpassing, carrying through, enduring?  What do we love?  Simply put, we love and devote ourselves to Christ, to knowing Him and making Him known, and to people, to helping them know and love Christ and make Him known and also love each other.  We give ourselves to and let God pour us out for these things, to the end of our lives, even if it winds up costing us our lives.  Or depriving us of comfort.  And related to this, we have not been given the luxury of being annoyed or repulsed by people.  The stewardship of the souls who have been providentially placed within the proximity of our life’s journey does not allow us the freedom to keep our distance from people.  Whether it is one or many, we MUST include others in our lives, at least within range of our devotion to Christ such that they can get a good whiff of Him on our souls.

-Consider some things which would be noteably further down on the aforementioned list: Golf. Fantasy sports. Fishing.  Hunting. Money. Working out. Travel and sightseeing.  Decorating.  Scrapbooking.  Face booking.  Video games. Movies.  Television.  The list goes on and on.  Oh, the things at whose feet we worship.  No, there is nothing inherently wrong with many of these things.  But they too often wind up competing with and supplanting our full-out devotion to Christ, our whole-hearted love of the Lord.  Our love for and enjoyment of and devotion to these non-surpassing things could probably look like hatred compared to our desire to know and gain Christ and make Him known.  Remember, all the things which were gain to Paul he considered manure (Philippians 3.8).  These other less excellent things can be leveraged on behalf of Christ, and stewarded as opportunities to build relationships of love with others and help them know and gain Christ, but they must be subjegated to Christ and to His cause.  They must not take His place in our hearts.

-It does feel as though in this verse that paul sort of winds up focusing on the avoidance of the negative.  Pure is eilikrinés, (roots are helios, sun - and krino, to judge) which refers to what is found or judged pure when illumined by the sun. so it describes being free from what is false.  Blameless is aproskopto, which is the negative of the verb for stumbling block.  It can mean free from stumbling, or free from causing someone else to stumble.  It would be fair to say that we are talking about avoiding wasting the precious life God has given to us through avoiding stumbling over any kind of false idol, i.e. inordinate devotion to the non-surpassing things.  So in the end what we are talking about here is worship. 

-But note here a second mention of the day of Christ.  We begin to see that Paul has in mind a quality of living for these believers that carries all the way through to the end, to that day when Christ returns and 1) their works are tested (1Corinthians 3.13), and 2) God’s great goodness in rescuing and transforming a throng of worshippers is shown off for all to marvel at (2Thessalonians 1.10).  Finally and forever we will be approving/worshipping the One Who is incomparably Most Excellent.  To this end Paul is intently focused on living in the present in a way that is informed by the reality of Christ’s imminent return (cf Philippians 2.10-11, 2.16, 3.11-13, 3.20-21, 4.5), and in a way that maximizes the showing off of God’s glory on that day.  And clearly the way to do that begins now, today, with what I worship and the choices I make regarding the things/people on which I place my affection.