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...