Philippians

Malachi Taylor

Philippians 1

In this epistle there is an expression of the walk of the child of God in this world, yet as not of it; the opposing circumstances all recognized and left as they are, left rather as a means by which the true life may be manifested in its fullness and sweetness and heavenly character than as a hindrance or occasion of stumbling. It is a life sprung from the wonderful facts of God in our calling and standing and hope, sensitive to all that is evil here, but having one Object in the heavenly glory, the risen Man, Christ Jesus, and moving onward to Him, directly to be with Him, and like Him in spirit and mind and body; and so yielding all things for that; and overrunning with joy all the time. There is no specific doctrine taught, although the resurrection, standing and heavenly calling of the believer, the present truth, underlies all. This is Paul's gospel.

It comes from Paul, the prisoner in bonds in Rome, with the possibility of death by violence before him, upon the occasion of the assembly at Philippi, having renewed their tokens of fellowship by the hands of Epaphroditus, ministering to the bodily necessities of the suffering apostle. They themselves were sharers by community of feeling, if not actually, in his trials, and likely to be called upon to endure persecution at any time. Its aim is to have them grasp by the mind the wonderful things of God given to them, richly and forever theirs. It is a plea in itself for a deep spiritual intelligence of all that God has done for them, and a triumphant marching along unmoved by aught else, the Lord in the glory commanding all the soul. It is also marked by the recognition of the absence of the apostle. True, he was not at other places to which he wrote, but in those cases he lays no stress upon the fact, makes no mention, indeed, of it, for he hoped in most cases to see them. But now the possibility of his being put to death gives occasion to the Holy Spirit to make mention of the absence of the apostle, and to give instructions with reference to that, which applies to us as well.

It is thus casting all upon God directly, and showing the paramount authority of the Word of God. Throughout it all the rich affections of the heart are rehearsed, the sweet unity of the body having been practically shown by the care and gifts of those beloved members of Christ to him who was a gift of great blessing always.

Philippians 1:1-5. "Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are in Philippi, with the overseers and deacons. Grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." This is sweet and touching, associating Timothy, his dear son in the gospel of the glory, with himself, as a bondsman of Christ Jesus, and, while addressing all as saints, especially naming the bishops and deacons—these voluntary servants to their brethren for the Lord's sake. Paul and Timothy were bondservants, slaves bought by the Lord Jesus, and without a will of their own, sent at His bidding alone, and their service was constant and partook of the character of the Lord. The bishops or overseers were the same as the elders, the former name suggesting the functions of their office, the latter their age and dignity, personally. They were not elected or chosen by the assemblies, a plurality being in each assembly. In the absence of the apostle, his teaching would come in to show how to recognize them, as is seen in 1 Thessalonians 5:12, where they are told to know or recognize such; that is, spiritually discern and yield to them; they, acting by the Spirit of God, moving them to the work. So in 1 Corinthians 16:15, the household of Stephanas addicted themselves to the ministry and were to be recognized. The deacons, or servants, were voluntary also and associated with the local assemblies, probably caring for the local needs and taking charge of moneys or whatever was committed to their trust. The prominence given to these offices of precious and loving service seems to indicate and accord with the nature and teaching of the whole letter, serving one another in love. They had thus acted toward him, and possibly through the overseers and deacons as their representatives in this ministration. The spiritual marks by which such may be discerned now or at any time are given in 1 Timothy 3. "Saints" is the title God gives his own in Christ, as holy and separated ones, cut off from the world and joined to Him, and it belongs to all without reference to attainment or walk or knowledge of the truth. All the saved are saints as belonging to the Lord. It is therefore dishonoring to the Lord to refuse it or apply it to a few only, and especially according to human decisions.

“In Christ Jesus." The title, Christ, or anointed, the Messiah, was made good in resurrection, as Peter says, "God has made Him both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2). "Christ Jesus" is most frequently used by Paul. It sets before us the Man in heaven, who was down here on the cross, beginning thus with Him up there, while "Jesus Christ" would begin with Him down here and then see Him exalted, “Christ" having to do with resurrection. So the apostle is a servant of Christ Jesus, and the brethren are saints in Christ Jesus.

Thus we see the local assembly in the beginning, having its officers and servants, recognized by the Holy Spirit acting by the presence of God among and in them without the apostle's presence, but fully competent to worship and enjoy fellowship with the Lord and His dear servants; and so a cause of deep and constant thankfulness to him who was bound in Rome, yet heard of their walk and service and partook of the profits of their remembrance of him.

Philippians 1:6,7. "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform (finish) it until the day of Christ. Even as it is right in me to think this of you all, because you have me in your heart, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel; all of you being partakers of my grace." (It is not "I have you in my heart," but as above.)

Salvation is looked upon in the Scriptures in three aspects: as a past thing, the result of faith in Christ, and from the moment of believing; as present, to be maintained by the power of God, in which we are to grow as to its expression in life; and as future, the body and soul both saved in the glory at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter speaks of receiving now the end of our faith, the salvation of the soul, and of a salvation ready to be revealed at the appearing of Christ. This epistle having to do with simple Christian living, speaks of salvation as a matter yet to be brought out, lived out, and thus it is that the word is given that He who began the work by saving the soul will complete it to the day of Christ. The life, in accordance with the work wrought in the believer, will be accomplished. And this was assured because they had him (Paul) in their hearts. It was not simply him as a sufferer or as a believer, a brother beloved, but as the apostle and minister of the peculiar truth. Paul became a test of the spiritual condition of the disciples of that day, and of this also. As they received and valued him, so they did his truth. And this is in accordance with the word in Colossians 1:23, and the opposite of it is found in 2 Timothy 1:15, and its prevention in 2 Timothy 1:13. They only who are holding Paul dear, thus, are holding God's ground.

The Philippians valued him greatly, holding him in their hearts, manifesting it in ministering to his wants more than once while a prisoner, and in their fellowship in defense of the truth and its maintenance, so being partakers of his favor, linked with him in the heavenly things of God. How easy then to write to such, where holding fast the heavenly calling and hope, and having Christ in the glory before them, no rebuke for worldliness or evil doctrine was needed. It is this, doubtless, that gives occasion to the Holy Spirit to mention the bishops and deacons. When all was according to God's mind, built on Paul's doctrine of the assembly, these officers were found in their places. When the ground is lost to the faith and the person of Christ—what He is to the heart—the conscience, dulled yet troubled, attempts an imitation of these servants, and so come the election and appointment by man of such officers, and oftentimes the selfish methods of political life in securing such. The secret of right walk as to the assembly is the holding tenaciously, and without mixture, Paul's teaching.

Philippians 1:8-11. "For God is my witness how greatly I long after you all in the tender affections of Christ Jesus. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all judgment, that ye may test things that differ, that ye may be sincere (incorrupt) and without offense till (or for) the day of Christ, being filled with the fruit of righteousness which is through Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God." He who asks his readers to pray for him tells the special petitions offered for them. With a deep longing for these dear saints, his petitions take the current of their love, that it may abound more and more.

Love is the principal thing; for where it is, all other things flow out in their place. Love, by the Holy Spirit pouring forth in our hearts God's love, corrects the judgment as in Romans 5:5,6, where this love is followed by the more blessed reasoning from the love of God. In 1 Corinthians 13 it is placed above gifts and as the true exercise of gifts and the result imparted by all gifts. It is of God (1 John 4); the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8). It is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5), the first named, and by it the heart is opened to take in all truth and to act in wisdom. Here the prayer is that it may abound in knowledge and judgment, teaching the mind to discern things that differ. True love can detect untruth, for untruth is destructive and selfish in its end. The liar and the murderer are the same, the evil one. So our Head and Lord is full of grace and truth. Love that allows evil is false. A heart surcharged with God's love is fitted to go through this wretchedly false scene, filled with the lying snares of the adversary, while simple knowledge would blunder and stumble and be misled continually. It is sot the keenest intellect nor the most wide-awake ways that will detect evil, but the heart fixed on Christ and receiving His grace continually, as the child, walking in the sunshine, happy in being in company with its parent, is safest.

The second thing desired, as following from this abounding love, is that they might be incorrupt and without offense till the day of Christ. And surely love works no ill to any, but benefits and builds up and helps, in wholesome ways, everybody, everywhere. They who love most are most spiritual, not they who know the most by the mere accumulations of the mind. Love abnegates self, the cause of all offenses, and lets out God to act upon all, shedding a glow and warmth and sunshine always, just as God makes His sun shine upon the evil and the good. This must of course spring from within and not depend for its action upon the character of its object. The entire time here is to be thus filled up till the Lord shall come.

The third desire is for the fruits of righteousness through Christ Jesus, unto the praise and glory of God; that is to bring out the excellence of God, to manifest what He is. Here there is simple Christian life superabounding in love, resulting in knowledge and judgment, discerning the right way, incorrupt and righteous and praising God. What honor does God put upon love, which is of Himself, which is His own nature. This is the secret of life to His glory, not a set effort to do something, but keeping the heart simple and open as a channel for His own love. God is more honored by that which is like Himself, the simple letting Him be all, than by any exploits or efforts of our own. This is the true achievement. He has lived most who has sown most of God broadcast, and to the best purpose; who shows the tender, unselfish love of Christ, the surrendering of all things to God and to men; whose heart, happy in the Lord Jesus, abounds in intelligent worship, so making known the wonders of God's grace and the excellencies of Christ.

God's great complaint against man is that he would not be happy with and in Him, infinitely worthy of all homage and delight. And this has been His great purpose from the beginning. The light given in creation was to lead men to worship, but he turned and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. Then, in Israel, with vastly more of God revealed in ways of kindness as well as power, the same thing was sought with the same abject result. They turned to idols before His face, and while receiving His benefactions. And now the final, complete revelation of all that is in His heart has been made, that man might have fellowship with Him and exult in His presence.

Each of the sons in Luke 15 showed this disposition in wanting to be away from the father, the younger getting far away, the elder complaining that he could never make merry with his own friends. But the son brought back by love, and embraced and clothed, showed most of the glory of the father and his house by wearing the robe and shoes and ring he gave him, and sitting at the feast and becoming the occasion of the music and dancing and joy.

Philippians 1:12. "But I would you should understand, brethren, that the things that happened to me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." Here, then, was the enemy defeated vastly more than when Paul, taking counsel of his own will, went up to Jerusalem, and then stumbled along, attempting to extricate himself from the hands of the Jews; though there the Lord Jesus was confessed. But now in God's hands, the object of His tender care, though in bonds, he was His ambassador, and all things were made to turn to testimony, and God was honoring the gospel of His infinite grace.

Philippians 1:13. "So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the Pretorium and to all the rest." This was the imperial guard to which Paul was delivered, and by whom he was kept and watched during his imprisonment of two years. Some of them attended him all the time, hearing all that he spoke to others, both to Jew and to Gentile and to the brethren; and thus the gospel was made known with his bonds.

Philippians 1:14. "And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." It would seem likely that at the first of his imprisonment fear kept the brethren with him quiet, but, by his continued imprisonment rather than being put to death, they became more confident. There was at first little opposition to the followers of the Lord Jesus, the real persecution beginning later; and as there was nothing further done to Paul, brethren in the truth went forth to speak as he had taught them; while others, from his being in bonds on account of the hatred of the Jews, may have taken occasion to speak boldly for the law and circumcision, though speaking the name of Christ.

And thus it was that (Philippians 1:15), "some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will.”

Philippians 1:16. " The one out of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel, but the other of contention (or factiousness), are preaching the Christ not sincerely (in simplicity), thinking to add afflictions to my bonds.”

Philippians 1:18. "What then? Notwithstanding in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed; and in this I rejoice; yea, and I will rejoice." He whose heart is fastened on the Lord cannot be moved by circumstances; he cannot be elated or depressed by what men do. All things are seen in the light of His countenance. This makes life very simple, having one will to please and obey. Our Lord Himself in the Psalm said "I foresaw Jehovah always before me; because He is on my right hand I shall not be moved." Here is power, only to have Him before us. Then all responsibility as to the thing we are doing is thrown back on Him, ours being only to do as He tells us.

But what can the world or the devil do with such a man? Whatever comes, is only another means of glorifying the Lord Jesus. This is not alone for an apostle divinely set for the defense of the gospel, nor for the servant of the Lord in active service, but for the most obscure child of God. Let the Lord Jesus be the great circumstance, casting out all others, and it will be found that He will demonstrate that He is greater that is for us than all that can be against us.

It may take the simple heart and simple faith to snatch victory from apparent defeat, to rise above everything, and rejoice that the name of Christ is declared; but what is faith for but just such cases? Here, then, at the center of authority of the world, on the Palatine Hill in Rome, sat a conqueror, the conqueror of the world; but it was not Caesar, arrayed in state and the insignia of royalty, but one of the most closely bound of his prisoners, the leader of a sect everywhere spoken against.

But the blessed thing was that he could say these confident things, though he himself had made mistakes, and probably by his own willfulness had come to this end. Here is the real victory, -to assert the power of God when we are proved to have been in the wrong, for Satan would bring shame to keep us from boasting on such occasions. The heart that was thus strong could give force to the testimony; and they that attended the prisoner heard no uncertain sound there, from beneath the walls of Nero's palace. Power, which was Rome's boasted characteristic, had at last come to the imperial city, the power of God unto salvation, made known by one whose bodily presence was contemptible and whose speech was weak.

Power belongs unto God alone, and when he takes up an instrument by His grace made for His hand, He can show His might so that all that man and Satan can do is nothing against it. Rome had been the scene of many triumphs, but here was one being enacted by one who was more than conqueror through Him that loved him, which excelled all.

But even this should turn out to salvation! God would make use of that one precious name to spread the knowledge of His Son and the result of His death and resurrection. Their prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the former uniting with His and taking in the circumstances and bearing all before God; and the latter using all as methods of blessing, overriding the design of the enemy and using the gospel, itself the power of God unto salvation, would result in that for which the word was sent forth. Moreover, this salvation would exhibit itself in his own testimony in all boldness at the hour of trial, so that, as he fully expected and hoped, he should come behind in nothing, and nowise be put to shame, and thus Christ would be magnified whether by his death or life. This is sharing in the triumph of Christ and being filled with His peace. This is a model for the redeemed of the Lord amidst all circumstances. What victors are they meant to be, and amply supplied, whether by opposition or reception, whether by good report or evil, to be always more than conquerors! Christ magnified, is the true end of salvation; better than delivering the body out of danger or prison or death; it is the true victory, lifting the faith, the life, into the scene of Christ's living.

These things but brought out the true fellowship of these saints with him and their prayers for him, and also the sufficiency of the Spirit to supply all his need; and thus, as he had told them that He who had begun the good work in them would complete it to the day of Christ, so would it be with himself; Christ should be exalted, let it be as it would be with him.

Philippians 1:20. For to him life was Christ, and living was but to manifest Christ; dying, gain, for he would be with Him. Here then is a sweet illustration, in the person of the apostle, of the essential principle of this epistle, salvation lived out; not simply a sense or condition of security, present or future, but a mode of living. Can anything be finer than that? What a depth it gives to the epistle, what a wealth to that which God has wrought in us! Saved, to have a life which is Christ.

It may have been that the word of Job (Job 13:16) was present to the mind of the apostle, as he seems to quote, "He shall be my salvation," declared by the patriarch in answer to the charge of hypocrisy and the threat of the hypocrite's doom by Zophar the Naamathite. But how are they enriched by the confidence of life in Christ now risen, which Job could not know.

Philippians 1:22. "But if I live, this is the fruit of my labor." It would be but to live Christ, enjoy Christ, talk of Christ, and this would make labor so sweet that he knew not which to choose. It would be Christ all the time, at any rate, either here or with Him waiting for the glory. To die was gain, to be with Christ far better as to the circumstances, so that Nero or the envious Jews, his accusers, would at the worst of their doing but send him the sooner to the One who was his life. This is reality and eternal life begun here, so that even to go to the Lord Himself is not preferred, but left to the Lord's own choice. Here, it was Christ's own needing him a little longer, and yonder, it was Christ Himself. No wonder, as to personal choice, he was in a strait betwixt two. It was not to go to sleep in unconsciousness, but to go directly to the Lord. So it was not being clothed upon with the risen body, but it was to be with the Lord, apart from all weaknesses and sinning here; out of all persecution and the sight of evil; entering into fellowship with the Lord in the article of death itself, testing him in the moment of supreme weakness of, and separation from, the body. It was to have the quiet living apart with Him, the Spirit gathering up the wondrous elements of bliss and salvation without the limitation that this body of death gives. It was gain; it was better, far better. For this, one is willing to be absent from the body, though the end of our hope is the reigning with Him in the new body, the manifestation for His own sake, when He shall be admired in all those that believe, and glorified in all His saints, whether earthly or heavenly.

Philippians 1:24. But he who belonged to Him, who emptied himself, could not think of self even in view of all this rest and joy. "To abide in the flesh is more needful for you." That settled the strait.

Philippians 1:25. "Having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your advancement in faith and joy.”

Philippians 1:26. "That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Christ Jesus for me by my coming to you again." There is no recognition of the Roman authorities and what Nero might determine in regard to his life. All is judged in the light of God's will only. There is need for him to live, and these beloved saints shall see him again with joy. This is as it should be.-

What have the children of God to do with looking lower than God and His will? A servant is at his Lord's bidding, and is not subject to any intermediate person or thing. It is the simplicity of the divine life of faith, having the heart on the Lord Jesus alone. Departing to be with Christ. If He tarry, it is for us to await His summons only, and make no calculations founded on the objects of sense. And yet for himself he longed to go; only, as the Lord gave up His will, so His servant can wait to go home till the need of his stay is past. Among the saints there is to be joy, and his denying himself the repose of heaven contributed to it. This is the high order of simple Christian walk and fellowship.

The exhortations that follow may well come from the heart of such an one as this. They are from one well learned in the things he asks of them, and form the substance of chapter 2 (Philippians 2).

Philippians 1:27. "Only in a manner worthy of the glad tidings of Christ, order your life (use your citizenship) that whether I come to see you or else be absent, I may hear concerning you that you are standing fast in one spirit, with one soul contending for the faith of the glad tidings." Simply that, living as heavenly citizens, happy in the wondrous grace received, united, and steadfastly holding the ground of the truth.

It is the fight of Ephesians 6, for the gospel they had received placed them in Christ in heaven, and citizenship is there. The message from that land must needs take us out of this. There is no other testimony, no other call to-day than to the scene out of all this.

God gives but one style of testimony, one character of blessing at a time. In the day when He called Israel to go out of Egypt into Canaan, there may have been others besides them that knew the true God and were retaining the testimony given to and from Noah. But such, as the father-in-law of Moses, himself not of Israel, were invited to join them, for Jehovah had given them an especial gospel, the good news of the land. Moses in his invitation said, "Jehovah hath spoken good concerning us." The land was the object for that day, and all faith would hold to it, and the walk must correspond to that news. So we are to order the whole life as those of the heavens, as risen men who have died to the flesh; the world, sin and the law; whose home, just before them, is the glory with Christ. Our Father has spoken good concerning us, giving us title to all that is Christ's.

The apostle had, in the days of his freedom, gone everywhere, establishing the assemblies in this truth, and his presence was needful, as he was the administrator of the truth for the assembly. His presence bore authority in assembly matters, and in a true sense he represented the assembly.

But now he is absent in body, so that his truth must be committed to writing, and then, instead of being the pattern for the assembly in his life, they could not see it. This is one peculiarity of this epistle, and prominence is given to this fact, and teaching is given in accordance with it. The exhortation begun here reaches through verse 18 of chapter 2 (Philippians 2:18). It is committing them to the place in which we are who follow, that of having his teaching and the Holy Spirit to open and enforce it and God to work in us.

Here was the transition from having Paul's presence to relying on God alone. Thus it is he would have them act in the truth in his absence as in his presence, that he might while he still remained in the body hear of their fidelity to it, not saying that he would die, but the possibility of dying being before him, while apprehending their need of him, and assured that he would still tarry.

Philippians 1:28. But in nothing were they to be terrified by their adversaries. This is in keeping with the position and the truth given, for God who had done all, is so near and so strong and so absolutely the One who does all, that the eye on Him sees the enemy already conquered and all that comes of trial and persecution but by His own love.

The true triumph of living in Christ is that none of these things move us. What could they do to one who has nothing here to lose or gain, whose interests are all above, who is only longing to depart and be with Christ? This very calmness amidst all threatenings and persecutions tells of a power beyond one's own will, the power of God, the presence of the Spirit of God; that power which shall directly come out in judgment upon the enemy. Thus it becomes a token of doom, of perdition, to the enemy, while it is the token of salvation to the believer exercised therein. It is because he is saved that God thus takes care of His own, giving quiet amidst all convulsion and opposition.

Philippians 1:29-30. "For unto you was it given (as a favor), in behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which ye saw in me and now hear to be in me." It cost much to be a believer in the risen Christ, but it gave ample returns; it separated, but it united also; it took out of the world, but it brought into the circle of God's highest blessings, His richest thoughts; it brought contumely here among men, but glory and honor in the heavens. They were the outcasts of the earth, but the elect and the elite of God.

So great, so lavish was the wealth into which they had come that it transformed everything into good, illuminated every dark place; glorified every scar and wound received for Christ's sake; translated and transfigured stripes into a gift from God akin to the salvation wrought by Him, bringing into company with Him who endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself.

And such is the way for us; for he through whom the truth was given had to endure hardness as a soldier, labor as an husbandman, and encounter persecutions as an evildoer; and the same conflict is still going on for those who live godly in Christ Jesus. But the glory in the presence of the Lord Jesus is worth it all, and it shall blot out all remembrance of these trials, as it soothes and strengthens to endure them with joyfulness now. But what an elevation and Christian living!

Philippians 2

Philippians 2:1. "If there be, therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any deep affections and mercies..." They had shown all these toward the apostle in ministrations to him in the hour of his distress and trials, and these were sweet to him but he would have them act in these things toward each other without exception. This would be his joy.

There was some difficulty between two women among them, not that which cased divisions, as in Corinth, but personal feeling that might grow, and which showed a need of the exhortation of the second verse (Philippians 2:2). "Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, of one accord, of one mired." They had united in sending him tokens of love, let them unite, then, for his joy and forget self; for all differences that are personal come from the putting forward and maintaining of self. So the apostle would make their love, so sweetly demonstrated toward himself, to be exercised among themselves.

Philippians 2:3-4. "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than himself. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Most precious and simple rule, impossible to the natural man, yet the very order of being to the new man. Every phase of this may be deeply considered, and written deep in the heart and mind. Nothing through strife or vainglory; esteem others above one's self; think of others in everything—their feelings, their good, their rights, their motives, their circumstances, themselves.

Every child of God is exceedingly valuable. For him the Lord Jesus left the glory and came to the cross; and with him the Lord Jesus is bearing and laboring, meaning to have him in His glory with Himself. How many may be his temptations, how difficult his circumstances, and how right his purpose! At the worst, whatever was wrong may have been but the temporary yielding to sudden temptation, and the real motive of his life was obscured only to assert itself directly.

The things of others, their need, their habits, their joy, are to be our care; and above all things not ourselves, for the grand business of life is practically to account ourselves to have died. What are we, then, and what our errand here, but to shed light, love, and joy everywhere, to illustrate the infinite grace of God that has dealt with us in such unremitting tenderness. The only way to maintain this love was, and is, by setting self altogether aside, and the incentive and power must be to look at Christ. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Here, then, He is held before us in vivid contrast with the first man, who would make himself God by robbing, by seizing that which was not given him by God.

Thus he sought to exalt himself and was debased, listening to the voice of a beast below him as to what would come by eating the forbidden fruit. "Ye shall be as gods." It was not robbery for Christ, for He was in the form of God, and He would not even held on to the form of God, but emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a bondservant, the lowest social condition of man. What a contrast! Man would become God. God stoops to the lowest place among men, and He could do this because He is God. Man could not leave his first estate without willfulness and disobedience, as all things are made to stand fast by God. Nor could man aspire to a position higher than his own without rebellion and sin, and charging God with folly. He was made lower than angels and this was his place. Having sunk to the lowest place and become the servant of sin, he is, through the infinite grace of Him who came down to his low place, raised up vastly above angels, to the position of a son of God.

But all efforts to elevate man as he is are but infidelity and unrighteousness, the working of pride which ends in destruction.

We are not told that this self-emptying and humiliation wore for us and for the work of atonement, though they were; but they are told here as the simple fact in regard to our Lord, the fact of humiliation, and as an example for us. It was not enough that He should take the form of man, but as such He humbled Himself. No emptying out here, but simply taking the worst thing that was owing to man – death, the death of the cross, a death of direct and distinct judgment upon evil doing. It was a wonderful descent to the cross, the place of a condemned criminal, from the condition even of a man among men, though that is what belongs to every man, unrecognized by him though it may be. But, from the throne of God to the cross! From the form of God to the criminal's doom! Could any one measure this but He? Can anything be named, so far, so low, so thorough?

Here, then, is our model. Let this mind be in you, for it was His mind; He "thought;" He "humbled;" it was simply voluntary. What love, what perfection of everything noble and worthy and great!

This is still the path of honor, for God on this account has highly exalted Him, and given Him who gave up His name and said, "I am a worm and no man," a name which is above every name. And well has He done so, for He is worthy of all glory, all names of honor. No act equals this that signalized the highest, richest thoughts of God, and which renders illustrious the earth on which it occurred, and gives a reason sufficient for its existence and for the allowance of sin upon it!

A Man, the Man of God's designs and delights, a Man exalted to the throne of God! For this is all spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ as man, not God. He became man, and as man went to ignominy and a violent death, and then, as man was raised and exalted to the glory, above the lustrous names that throng the heavens, or all the records of the universe.

And this is righteous in God, who is swift to recognize all that is worthy and to reward according to the full measure. Our Lord emptied and then humbled Himself, the former as God, the latter as man; and God saw it all and delighted in it and celebrated it. And God will do still more, for He has determined that at the name of Jesus, that is the name of the humbled Man, every knee shall bow, of beings in heaven and earth and under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

That which God has sworn for Himself (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11) concerning every knee, He now gives to the Man who debased Himself, to be exalted in due time. This is in accord with Christ's own word in John 5, that all judgment is given unto Him also, because He is the Son of man; and also with Psalm 8, that all things are put under His feet. He has won all by taking the place of the servant, and dying to bring back to God the lost earth and lost man.

Still, it is not this last thought that is prominent here, but His voluntary emptying and humbling Himself. He gave up everything. He could, without robbery, without exalting Himself, be equal with God. He was God, and as such, man having departed from Him, He could, as far as power is concerned, have stood apart and waited for man to come to Him, as the injured One maintaining His dignity. But who would ever have come? He did nothing of the kind, but, man being lost, He must go out after Him, thinking only of His need, and of God's heart, too. It was thinking of the things of others, and giving up everything of His own at the present. The astounding character of this can never be told or measured.

And God who delights in this shall bring forth His glory to the light. All shall confess Him Lord, to the glory of God the Father. In Psalm 16:2, He had emptied Himself, calling Jehovah His Lord, and saying to Him, "My goodness is not to Thee, but to the excellent, the saints of the earth; my delight is in them;"—thus leaving the one for the other, to take His place in lowliness. But God has made this same Jesus, once rejected and crucified, both Lord and Christ, the One in whom are all His springs, His King, whom He will set on His holy hill, the One now at His right hand, waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

It brings our hearts to meditate upon the grandest designs of God, to enforce the simple, sweet lesson of preferring others' good to our own and giving up self for others. And since God has brought forth Christ, He has no lower argument, no minor examples, and we are to have no other one to fill the eye; Christ is all.

Now we look forward with joyful expectation and deepening interest to His exaltation as King of kings and Lord of lords, as the One who shall be so acknowledged by all, because He is such, acknowledged, whether by those that are His, with intense delight, or by enemies upon whose necks His feet shall be placed, putting down all that exalted itself and opposed.

As this fills the range of our anticipations, let us remember that all this shall come to Him who voluntarily gave up all of self and so take pattern. Let this mind be in us. This is the substance of the whole chapter; the subject mind, the humble mind, having Christ as our pattern, as the first chapter gave the mind according to the gospel; having Christ as the life, the believing mind. For this epistle is all about the mind, the state of the soul, and does not teach about our standing; the actual manifestation of a salvation which we have as believers, and not the opening out of truth as to what we are made in believing, and sin is not even mentioned. We are written to as saints in Christ Jesus, as saved and in the world, but made able to walk through it by having one Object only, Christ Jesus, the Man before us, in the glory of God. It is not many details of instruction, but One Person, filling the heart with joy more and more, engrossing and forming the mind, and so, the continual walk.

Philippians 2:12-13. "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of His own good pleasure," The special exhortation is that they shall do as well as when he was with them, or even better, for they were then consciously cast upon God, which they might not have felt in the presence of the apostle.

It shows the sufficiency of the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. And they were to bring out to practical result this salvation which they had received, which was certainly the crucifixion of self and the expression of the life of Christ, the life they had received as saints, God's holy ones.

The "fear" is fear of failure; the "trembling," the trembling anxiety to do according to the character received. The peculiar character of this work is more fully detailed in the succeeding verses, as well as in the exhortation to self-abnegation and the same mind as was in Christ Jesus. The blessed thing was that they could be called upon to do as He had done. It is because they were His and like Him in nature. They were saved and the salvation was to be lived out, God working in them to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Here is no working in uncertainty for salvation. It is God's own child placed here to show out what His Son did while here. Of Him it was said, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." And of us it is said, "No man hath seen God at any time; if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us" (1 John 4:12). So that now, as then in Christ's day upon the earth, He is yet manifested in His own. Wonderful place! Wonderful dignity!

During Paul's residence with these saints, he had shown them how thus to act, and how nothing need be lost to them, nor in their testimony, by his absence. Even much more in his absence should they exhibit this lowliness, these blessed characteristics of sons of God. It is our condition, for we have Paul's exhortation and not his personal presence, and we have God.

Having the mind which was in Christ, how natural and simple the next exhortation (Philippians 2:14), "Do all things without murmurings and disputings;" things which so largely characterized ancient Israel, murmuring against God, against Moses and Aaron, and against the bread God provided them in the wilderness; murmuring openly and in their tents. But they were a gainsaying people, of whom Jehovah was ashamed before the nations, making His name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. God says of them (Deuteronomy 32:5), "Their spot is not the spot of His children: they are a perverse and crooked generation." This spirit of humility and simplicity, without self-assertion and ready for anything, is to be the characteristic of His children. "That ye may be the children of God without rebuke, blameless and harmless, amidst a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life." This is a beautiful and lifelike portrait of Christ, doing what He did without murmurings, disputings, etc. His soul was like the weaned child. And God would have the contrast as vivid now as in His day. He permits us to take the position of Christ here; giving us not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His name, and by no means to ask anything of the world, not even good treatment nor a requital of kindness for love, nor good government.

What are all the activities of Christian people to this sublime and simple unworldliness that negatives self on all occasions, taking whatever comes with the cheerfulness that comes from the heart joyful in God and occupied wholly with Christ? And yet, these activities in their expression so often violate this whole principle and go along with self-seeking and jealousies. But this is all contrary to the spirit of the world, where all seek to be greatest, and they that seek authority over others are called benefactors or well doers. To get the chief places, to gratify self, to patronize others, are the ways of man.

Philippians 2:15. We are to shine as lights in the world while we are in it waiting for the Lord, although to the remnant of Israel succeeding us is given the word, "Ye are the light of the world; a city set upon a hill cannot be hidden." They must remain therefore as long as the world endures. Our place is in heaven, and our public manifestation awaits the epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we are told that we are now to shine individually as lights, for we are light in the Lord by the fact of walking as Christ walked—in all self-emptiness and grace, as a light reproving the selfish ways of the world, and showing what is God's mind in regard to life. The absent apostle desired to have fruit of his own specific gospel, the unselfish gospel of the glory. To be exhibiting these characteristics of Christ Himself and doing all things without murmurings and disputings, would be shedding a light and giving proof of having received His truth, and then he could rejoice and boast in the day of Christ that he had not taught in vain; as he says, labored or run in vain,—running referring to his work of teaching.

While, as believers in Christ and children of God, we look for the coming of the Lord Jesus to take us to Himself in pure grace, as the sequel to the salvation of the soul, and while each saved one alike shall share in the rapture, the servant always refers his work to the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ with His saints as the time when all shall be manifested of what sort it is. And it will be a great revelation !

Many a thing that has commanded the applause of the world, will then appear of little value; while the most obscure labor, by the despised laborer with his eyes on Christ, and his effort more and more to go exactly according to the Word, will have a grand and sweet reward in meeting the mind of the Lord.

Well would it be if the appearing of the Lord Jesus, and not present praise or reward, were more continually before His dear servants. So far is Paul's truth of the Man in heaven left out and forgotten, as to the testimony most given in this day, that any that may be found living according to it now would be esteemed enthusiasts and fanatics. It is most unworldly, most joyful, most self-denying, most tender and gracious, most exacting upon self and liberal towards others, and most simple, living Christ, drawing all supplies from Him. Christ is all. There is no other model, no other style, no way to walk and please God than as He walked. And then they that gave this truth can render account of their work with joy, for it must abide.

It is peculiar that these verses (Philippians 2:14-16) exactly describe Christ while down here. And we are to be sons of God also, without rebuke! Oh what a marvel, to have the work, the walk, the life down here, un-rebuked at the appearing of Christ, by being judged and corrected by His word now! And having given Christ as the infinite model of self-emptiness, other lower illustrations are given, of various grades, in their order.

The apostle himself was ready for death, ready to be poured out as a libation, a drink offering, upon the sacrifice and service of their faith.

Philippians 2:17. Their devotion to the Lord's servant was an offering to God, and his life might be poured out in the same service. But what a low place relatively to theirs, he is taking, quite in accord with the spirit of the teaching, his but the accompanying drink offering, as though theirs were the greater. In the drink offering, the cup was drained of its last drop; so he would be poured out.

This is lovely, and is a sweet example for the laborer and the child of God. So also he counts that they would rejoice to do the same, relatively, to Him and His service. What a dignity it gives to emptiness, to nothingness. Simple Christian living, without effort and without thought of self or of setting examples; becoming the mode of the manifestation of Christ in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. How does having the mind of Christ make His own-one!

Philippians 2:19. But another illustration is given in Timothy, whom the apostle hoped to send shortly, that he might know their state. Timothy was like-minded with Paul, the only one who would naturally and genuinely care for them. It was the same spirit of giving up of self and of devotion to others, a care that sprung naturally from the heart of a self-emptied one. It was a sad thing to record that all others cared for themselves, sought their own things and not those of others. But Timothy was a son to Paul, entering fully into the needs of the assembly, caring for the saints as belonging to Christ with a shepherd's heart. He seems to have received the truth from Paul very richly, and to have been of the same intelligence as the Philippians, who had Paul in their hearts. Then, as now, Paul's truth and apostleship were the touchstone of the spiritual condition.

In the midst of failure considerably developed everywhere, there was one among the laborers who was entirely in fellowship with the devoted prisoner of the Lord. The Lord was pleased to give his servant occasion for the exercise of his faith, held a prisoner thus, with the care of all the assemblies upon him, and he unable to reach them, and difficulties and decline manifest among them, and even the brethren around him seeking their own ease,—ready to preach while he was in bonds, but not ready to go where he had labored, jealous of his labors and not willing to be poured out upon the sacrifice of his devotion and faith. It was a time of weakness, and he had need to stay his heart upon God and find all things in Him. But Timothy was one after his own heart, as all seemed to grow cold. This is of great value in such a day as this.

The man according to God is he who grasps this same truth which Paul gave, and which kept Timothy with him and made him naturally care for the assembly of God. It is the heart of David in contrast with Saul as king, of Christ in contrast with all that went before Him, who climbed up some other way rather than go in through God's door into the sheepfold. So to-day the laborer who does not hold out and act in the present truth, the heavenly Christ in the glory and the assembly, His body, called out to Him for the glory, is in a way to be of those who seek their own things. The heart of Christ is met by caring for the assembly as His, and not for any sect, Such as Timothy could Paul send. And he also hoped to see them himself.

Philippians 2:25. The Philippians had sent Epaphroditus with their expression of love and fellowship, to minister in their united name to the apostle; one who, in a lower position of service than an apostle or an evangelist—as Timothy, still was kindred in the motive and character of his service and life. His care for the saints was manifested in his anxiety for them, as having heard of his sickness, which had been especially severe, that they might not be overborne with grief thereat.

How sweet and simple this! If one cannot be as Paul or Timothy, yet the most obscure believer can show the same spirit, even in his anxieties and longings, thinking of others rather than himself. And he counts on the love and grief of his brethren. This is exquisitely fine, coming in this roll and array of true Christian unselfishness; and may we not say that these three, Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus, follow Christ in exemplifying the generous and heavenly principle of the exhortation in the beginning of this wonderful chapter.

Epaphroditus had been a companion and fellow-laborer with Paul while ministering to him; and now the apostle, remembering his usefulness and the desire of the Philippians to see him, gives him up in his need and has him return to them. His own sorrow will be the less by their joy. Here then is the rich fruit of the Spirit; and what a reality fellowship in Christ is! How really we are one! The tokens of it in practical life are scattered profusely in these verses.

There is much food for thought in this beautiful unfolding of Christian affection, the sweet yielding of self on the part of all, the exquisitely tender thoughtfulness for others, finding outlet by the most natural incidents of life, the manner of its action, the perfect confidence in each other, and the knowledge of mutual love, the care for bodily as well as spiritual state, the bereavement in others' losses, the joy in their joy, and the simple, open, candid, and unsuspicious utterances that may contribute more fully to it. These are God's own compassions, the deep affections of Christ, the comfort of love, the fellowship of the Spirit. What an enforcement of the exhortation of the chapter! The truth seemed already to be slipping away as to doctrine, but this was left with some. It was not the clan feeling of a sect, the upholding of those who are partisans, right or wrong, or anything like the mere social courtesy of civil life that lets each one alone to care for himself, but the heart of Christ unfolded through and by His own. And the truest feeling is thus open, even telling of sorrows, as Paul mentions his, knowing their interest in all things pertaining to him. It would have been sorrow upon sorrow had Epaphroditus not recovered; but the Lord was gracious to him.

Such pictures are much needed when, in recovering the truth of the power of the cross and the crucifixion of the old man, we are apt not to distinguish what is the true fruit of the Spirit in the love in which we hold each other, and may even think it wrong to have natural affection. It is self that is to be ignored and forgotten, and not others.

Philippians 2:29 "Receive him, therefore, in the Lord, and hold such men in honor, for he hazarded his life that he might supply all which you could not do in ministering to me." Thus it would seem that his illness was caused by some casualty on the road or by over-fatigue, he taking the service of the Philippians which, as a whole, they could not do. Paul is not here finding fault or meaning purposed or careless lack of service, but service which they were unable to render by the impossibility of all traveling. This thought saves from the interpretation which our old version gave, which would seem to mar and cloud the beauty and sweetness of the chapter.

Philippians 3

Philippians 3:1. "For the rest, rejoice, my brethren, in the Lord!" This is the great thing. Many things were already beginning to show themselves, to draw away the heart from Him who is always the object of God's delight. But the great design of God in regard to us is to have us delight in the Lord Jesus, too. Hence Satan would dim and diminish that, and lessen our joy by having us be self-occupied as to our piety or attainments as well as to our own things, as in chapter 2 (Philippians 2). Here it is religion; there it was our pleasure or convenience, that is, selfishness. There Christ was held out as an example; here as the sole absorbing object for the heart. Rejoice in Him! And this would defeat the enemy as to religious occupation, taking us outside of self wholly. It is not rejoicing in mercies, gifts, blessings, or salvation; not simply in His work, blessed and satisfying to God and the heart as that is; nor in His coming, though that would consummate all our hopes; but in Himself. All other objects, even though true and blessed, treated as the one occupation of mind and heart, as specialties, would constitute heresies, would tend to lead away from the truth, true as they may be, and away from Christ though about Him, and away from one another, for what we are is as being in Him. As God presents Christ as the answer to all our questions, the solution of every difficulty, so does He bring Him before the heart as the preventive against every evil, doctrinally and practically. It is the Lord, as seated on the throne of God in heaven, above all things and all beings. And He is a worthy Object, indeed the One in whom all fullness dwells, in whom is vested every promise and prophecy, everything that God proposes for the earth and the heavens; whose excellence spans the entire range of God's actions and the whole history of creation, being sufficient cause for all that was projected, and sufficient answer to all the patience and pains; the One who shall gather up all God's designs and fill them with glory; the sum and substance of all the revelations of God, all the types and shadows and sacrifices; the unifier of history from the beginning; the Man of the future; the Son of God; the beginning of the creation of God; the end of all the thoughts of God. Such an One is presented as the center for our joys and delights. This is fellowship with God, a partnership in Him whose name is as ointment poured forth, our Lover, the Beloved of God. Here is a life-companion. This is beginning on the employment of heaven.

It was not burdensome to the apostle to tell these things, and bring Him so before them as to prevent the aberration of the mind from the truth. And for them it was safe though he might write the same things. He was thus putting them on their guard against that which had threatened the foundation truth of God. It was the introduction of Judaism concerning the crucified and risen Christ. It bore the same relation to the truth as a mere mutilation or hacking for mere religiousness and without meaning, did to circumcision. It would bring in a false and discordant element of man's doings and man's religion, and displace thereby Christ; for there is no amalgamation allowed by God, no mixture of woolen and linen, no ass and ox plowing together, no unclean and clean in things of God. They were the dogs who did this, betraying their uncleanness, and thus were mischievous workers. And the short, curt word is, Beware of them, beware of the dogs; without are dogs. Beware of the concision. It is like men, it falls short of God's thought, and substitutes something like what God demands. It is concision, not circumcision. It works havoc and disaster in the name of service to God, while really serving self and feeding pride. There is the broad difference between hacking and hallowing, between a total separation by death from evil and from the former man, and a poor imitation, which is but reprieving the old man and then adorning him and urging him still to live and go on. Beware of all religion of the flesh, all sanctification of man's nature, all garnishing the old man.

Philippians 3:3. "For we are the circumcision." There is a real one separated unto God, separated from man, from self, from improved self, separated by the circumcision of Christ, the cross. This separates us by the same, infinitely, radically, finally; and this is our circumcision, too. As circumcision marked Israel for God and the land in the midst of the heathen and idolatrous world, so the cross and the resurrection place us apart as the people of God. Whoever, at any time, in any dispensation, are separated unto God according to His mind, are the circumcision. They are characterized practically in this dispensation, as those who worship God in spirit, in opposition to the letter of ordinances and ceremonies, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. This is perfection, the full age to which God has looked from before the foundation of the world.

He has always sought worshipers; has always had to seek them, for none seek after God. Now, placing man in Christ Jesus, making him a new creation through faith in Christ, and imparting the Holy Spirit, who was in Christ, to dwell him to the end, He has made the believer of this time a perfect, purged worshiper, and his worship is in spirit and in truth, for the oldness of the letter and physical form have passed away. We worship God in the Spirit, brought into His presence to abide, brought into the relationship of sons. Worship is first mentioned because it is the first thing. We must be worshipers first, and all service must proceed from our position and spirit as worshipers. Service is temporary and according as we may be sent, but service to God in His presence; that is, worship is the perpetual thing and that for which we are sought. It is disorder to place labor before worship, and is associated with a legal state, which would soon reduce worship to mere bodily exercises or forms, in which the Spirit has no place. Worship is the most thorough reality, and they that worship must worship in spirit and in truth, for God seeks such to worship Him. Everything that has been done for us calls for it, and our joyful adoration rises to the face of God for what He is in Himself, for we know Him and are before Him, and for what He has done, for we are His redeemed ones.

“And rejoice in Christ Jesus." He has utterly displaced man and his doings and ability, in the heart and mind, and then, as the New Man in heaven, becomes the Object of delight and joy. In contrast with the boasting in the law of the Jew, the concision, the entire and constant boast is in Christ Jesus. Everything turns to Him as everything flows from Him. It is life and occupation altogether apart from the man of the world. It is coupled with having no confidence in the religious flesh, for the thing cast aside in Philippians is not sin but religion. Romans and Colossians 3 dealt with sins and sins in the flesh, but this letter deals with the ceremonial or legal observances and efforts of the flesh, or the claim of birth or blood. But the cross has finished forever all these, the bad or good of the flesh is set aside as utterly corrupt and vile, and a religion that comes from it and attempts to force itself into the presence of God is wholly abominable. In the flesh is no good thing, and the unclean could not be offered to God. His soul hates it. Hence the true circumcision takes this ground with God, worshiping apart from forms or ceremonies, objects for the sense, rejoicing only in the Risen One, who was slain, and by His death condemned forever the flesh. This is liberty, entire freedom from all that springs from man. What has not death done for us?

In Genesis 17, we have a beautiful type of all this when God revealed Himself to Abram as the Almighty God, God in resurrection. We see him first on his face as a worshiper, and then listening to the wonderful announcement of the birth of Isaac, then in figure rejoicing in Christ Jesus; and so letting go Ishmael, the child of the flesh, thus having no confidence in the flesh.

This, then, is perfection as referred to in Philippians 3:15, "as many as are perfect," and between this verse and verse 20 (Philippians 3:15-20) seems to be a parenthesis, illustrating what confidence in the flesh is, and what having no confidence in the flesh means. It is not precisely a parenthesis, because it is needed to enforce what comes after, but it can be taken by itself as explanatory of the religious flesh and its entire rejection. Surely if any man had room for confidence in the flesh, the apostle had, above all. Every element of boasting in the flesh was his. Clear as to lineage, of a tribe well preserved, whose parents had been exact in their observances, not neglecting his circumcision on the eighth day of his life; in his own choice and profession a Pharisee, the most orthodox of those who devoted themselves to piety as a profession; thoroughly zealous according to the letter, putting down all that was not Jewish as idolatry, in persecuting the assembly; and then above all in his conduct, exemplary according to the law. Many would make the possession of one of those seven things to offset the lack of others. But he had them all. Many would insist, in doctrine and efforts in this day, that these things are of avail and constitute life according to God, leaving out the literal stock of Israel and substituting an orthodox birth and training. Truly, among men they were gain. And one may be glad to throw away his sins, cast aside his vices; but here are things that had a value in the Old Testament times, and God has sanctioned them. But they had never brought one near to God; they had never given peace; they had availed nothing for the salvation of the soul, to say nothing of sonship and fellowship with God. Like the sacrifices under the law, which had the shadow of good things to come, that could never make the corners thereunto perfect, these utterly failed, and were rather hindrances as giving occasion to the flesh to live and boast. "But what things were gain for me those have I counted loss for Christ." When Christ was once seen in the glory of God, all other things were nothing. His cross, which He had left for the throne and the new creation, was the end of all these things.

Paul had been found with all these religious possessions, fighting against the Man of God's anointing, the One in whom His soul delighted. It was an awful moment when this revelation was made to him, and he was, with them all, the chief of sinners. Then their value in that light was determined; they were loss; a dead weight, an encumbrance, a hideous incentive to blasphemy and reviling and injury to Christ the Lord through His saints. Even so is all religiousness to-day, worse than nothing, more offensive than the immorality over which it boasts, or the standing of the publican and sinner from which it holds aloof.

Philippians 3:8-9. "But truly I count all things but loss, because of the supereminence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is by the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." This is the marvelous estimate of one who had all advantages in the world; and then had known all sufferings from it in behalf of Christ, looking upon the former as worse than nothing, as a detriment, something to be rid of and escape from eagerly; and the latter to be nothing, because the knowledge he had already gained of Christ outweighed all. It was not the enthusiastic expression of a novice and idealist, borne along by the excitement of new discoveries and thoughts, or by the desire to be something different from others, even to the verge of martyrdom. It was the quiet, cool decision of an expert in all of which he spoke. The loss of all things had been already suffered with no regret, -things needful in the way of life, incurring hunger, nakedness, stripes, prisons, social neglect and aversion. That was nothing. The cross is the end of sin and guilt, of lusts and their gains, but here it is the end of all that gave importance and reputation and dignity to man, of all advantages. These were the refuse, thrust aside, shaken off, as one shakes off a vile thing. Nothing was anything since he had seen Christ. And as we apprehend the truth concerning. Him, the glorified Man at God's right hand, we too will understand how everything here that occupies man and exalts him is loathsome, compared with that One up there. But the knowledge of Him begets the desire to know Him still more, to win, to gain Him, to be thoroughly absorbed in Him and to be with Him, to know practically the power of what He passed through, death and resurrection; if need be, to go to death, to pass through sufferings, as Paul was doing already, with the prospect of death by violence before him. But whether this or not, why should we not see everything crucified, ourselves included, in His cross, and everything passed on to the other side of death in resurrection; the new displacing thoroughly the old man, life, world, creation? Taking up the cross is a practical negativing of all things here by an ignominious death, a death deserved as a judgment upon sin and man. It is no holiday act of enlisting under a banner and carrying a badge which may adorn; it is a shame, a reproach, a repudiation as filthy. Christ was never seen by the world after they had crucified Him. Should we be? Their first knowledge of Him as risen will be when He appears in the glory which His Father shall give Him. Should it not be so with us? Does not this tear away as tinsel all insignia of ecclesiastical or political or social honors, and put on the dunghill all pride in natural or acquired excellence? Are they not clogs, weights, hindrances, dead useless burdens, unnatural to the new man, and therefore to be repudiated with haste and forever? The life and living of the new man are as real as that of the old man, and entirely antagonistic; old things have passed away, and all things have become new, and all are of God. Grand deliverance, indeed, was it from the condemnation, the place of the sinner! Let it be so from the wealth of righteous man, the boast of the flesh, the struggle of the man of the world. In Christ Jesus is not only a standing but a place to be found. It is easier to look to Christ to get rid of our sins than of our righteousness often, unless we have learned the practical value of the cross and the resurrection. And this epistle takes the heavenly, rich, precious truth of Paul as to our standing, and says to us, "Now live it. You are seated, established in heavenly places in Christ. Get there in your mind; grasp the place at any cost, -the loss of all that belonged to you of worth and import in the scenes of your former living." "Buy the truth," for it costs; "and sell it not.”

When Job saw Jehovah and heard Him speak, his mouth was in the dust with the confession, "I am vile," although he had, when talking with his friends, maintained his righteousness. It is much to know that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags of the most offensive kind, such as are cast away with disgust. A sight of God's righteousness, of His righteous One, of the pure glory of the scene where all is of God, settles this forever.

In Philippians 3:9, the phrase, "the faith of Christ," refers to the principle, the ground of our standing, faith only as connected with Christ, while the way by which we come into this is by faith in Christ. The former is the objective, faith as a principle, as the matter talked of; the latter subjective, the exercise of our own heart, our faith. Both are mentioned in Philippians 3:9

Philippians 3:10-11. "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from the dead." The death of Christ was not that we might be reprieved, and allowed to go on in life; but that we might have part in it, be partakers, partners in the death. This is fellowship in His sufferings, suffering death with Him. He for our sins as the one offering, but we identified with that death henceforth, and no more living as we were. This, then, is the one aim of life, to enter upon this in everything. This is what is meant by having no confidence in the flesh. How can we have confidence in a condemned and executed criminal?

Ah, there is One to rejoice in, who has risen out of death to the glory, Christ Jesus. In such an One we may glory. The resurrection out from among the dead will bring us into the glory, but we anticipate its power now, advancing ("attaining") to it now. It is peculiar that rejoicing in Christ Jesus now, here, is not as our Savior, who has delivered us from our sins, but as the One who has displaced and discrowned, all our goodness; who, making himself of no reputation, has blotted out ours; who, emptying Himself and humbling Himself, has thoroughly humbled and emptied us of aught that we call our own. This is wonderful truth for us, and we may say, "if by any means we may attain." And yet it all belongs to us; we are risen in and with Christ. We are to take it in its potency now, and so go on rejoicing in our Conqueror.

Philippians 3:12. "Not that I have already won, or already have reached perfection; but I am pressing on, if I may also lay hold upon that for which Christ laid hold upon me." Standing is perfect, for this is by the work of Christ; but there is always something before us, practically, as long as we are not with Christ in the glory. That is the perfection to which we are to press onward, even now taking it in by faith; knowing that we were taken up by Christ for that, and for that fittingly and becomingly.

Philippians 3:13. "Brethren, I count not myself to have laid hold; but one thing: forgetting that which is behind, and reaching forth to that which is before, I press onwards towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Such should have been the spirit of an earnest Israelite in the wilderness, with reference to the land, or when in the land, with reference to its quiet settlement and possession, the enemy completely driven out. Such was Caleb's heart, forgetting and leaving the thing behind, and still pressing forward and onward to the complete conquest and occupation of that to which they were called out and redeemed. We are not yet in heaven actually, though that is our calling, that for which we have been laid hold of by Christ. There must be no lingering, no dalliance with the things here, even the results of grace or the present conquests. We are to assert and act upon our heavenly standing, with all that it involves of overcoming principalities and powers, the wicked spirits who would have us of the world. We are to enter upon the glory as perfected, perpetual worshipers, reaching out of the world in all thoughts, all purposes, all principles of life and action; reaching into the glory actively, positively, into association with all its heights, triumphs, joys. In other days eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor had the heart of man conceived; but now the door is open into all these; and we enter and see it closed on all that was behind, out of which we have passed. God has called out a people to enjoy with Him the glory and Christ. Just now all is delivered to us by the Holy Spirit. He has come out from that land of glory, since Christ went into it, to show us Him as He is there, all the depth and meaning of His infinite work, the inimitable grandeur of His Person, the complete satisfaction of God in Him and His work. He has come to bring heaven now as a reality. But we are here; we walk here with everything inimical to that and to us if we care for that; everything pleading for a staying out of that, or entering the struggle for it.

This man, Paul, to whom the revelation was made, had all the advantages of a religious life, such as Satan would have been satisfied with and would have encouraged. But having seen the Lord in the glory, and himself not actually there with Him, all estimates of things here, things done, progress made, labor, struggles, victories, delights, are formed according to that. To be there actually being the object and end, to be wholly there in the spirit of his mind, untrammeled by any personal thing, unhindered by any solicitation now, is the purpose. The thing that could be solicited, must be cut off and ended; the weight that would clog, cast away. It might once have been an ornament, an attraction, a gain; but it is all, now, the corrupt body in the grave, abandoned forever as loathsome. The cross is not an embellishment, but a knife, that cuts off; not something that takes up and uses all that man has accomplished and attained to morally, and adds to it; but something that negatives and ends all that was best as well as worst. They are left behind, then, while pressing toward the mark for the calling on high. The opening of heaven was no mere exhibition to cheer or astonish, but an invitation to it and an assurance of our eternal interest in it. It is ours. And our going toward it is to be eager and rapid, taken up wholly with it; for the figure is of a runner actually in a fast race, whose body is bent forwards in the direction toward which he runs. Faith has wondrous activities; hope absorbing reaches; for the glory of Christ and of God is before it. Living is thus an infinite exploit, intensely energetic and unsleeping! It is not to get saved as to soul, but to obtain the salvation in its meaning and scope. Conscience is at perfect peace and the heart at rest in Christ, and therefore the mind presses on and on, grasping more and more, and utilizing everything gained for more acquirement, using more of the revelation of Christ, and eagerly entering into fellowship with Him and with God in His purposes, and delighting in a fresher, richer Christ each step we take, as the view broadens and the light brightens. The steps taken are never to be taken again, all is to be going toward the mark for the prize, Christ in the glory. Oh, to live that!

Philippians 3:15. "As many therefore as are of full growth be ye thus minded," or, have this resolve. What is a natural life here worth without aspirations? What is the spiritual? And here is the ambition worthy of all enthusiasm. To share with Christ in the full apprehension of its splendors, the glory of God. This shall be forever the object, ever growing, ever fruitful in returns. The fact that to this end were we born anew, to be the companions in everything, should stir our minds to take hold more firmly now of the hope, to live in it, be under its power continually, go forward in the attractiveness of it, let go all things for it; and thus make all the time here a period of conquests, wherein all thinks are brought into subjection to the one purpose, assimilating the life of that One who ever glows before us ever becomes grander and dearer. Let go all dishonoring doubts, all efforts to build up a righteousness of our own, all tendencies to listen to the voices of philosophy or wisdom or religiousness and perfection of the flesh, as well as of the world and lust. As Paul speaks of himself thus, it would seem that this is the wondrous purpose and end of his truth, and thus giving the instruction, he shows the result of that teaching, to make a truly heavenly man even down here in the world. If, however, any were of a different mind by not so apprehending the character of the truth, God would add even this, for it is His will that there be unity of result, and that we all come to the perfect man, the full stature of Christ. But whatever be the attainment in knowledge, the rule of living should be the same; forgetting those things which are behind, casting off all that is of the flesh that would be otherwise gain, and having but the one object before the heart, one purpose in the mind, to go on with Christ, the Living One of God's delight, and to prove more and more continually the glory and excellence of that into which we are called through grace.

Cross of my Lord! O ever stay

Before my eye,

The argument to me, each day,

The reason to all others, why I must away!

Keep fresh Thine awful fact to meet man's lie,

For I am weak, the world is strong,

And still unseen

Is heaven; and the way seems long

And rough; an enemy's within;

And outside throng

The hosts of Satan; easy 'tis to sin.

And I've no power for conflict; nor

Have I returned

From battle scatheless, conqueror;

But thanks to Him, in Him I've learned

How great the store

I have in Him and all that He has earned.

Philippians 3:17. Brethren, be ye imitators of me with one consent, and mark those who walk as ye have us for an example; for many walk of whom I was often telling you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

This seems to link with Philippians 3:3, the intervening verses being in a certain way parenthetical and explanatory, and illustrative of the "having no confidence in the flesh," of Philippians 3:3, and of what rejoicing in Christ Jesus is, in a negativing of self. And now those who walk thus are to be noted and imitated, and the whole principle of the apostle's casting off of all that was gain religiously, in which flesh might glory, is to be closely followed. There seem to have been those who had not yet understood and practically apprehended this mode of life, as what the cross involves negatively, and the resurrection positively. These were to walk by this rule, assured of further light. But those of the other class, who walked according to the flesh, minding earthly things instead of the heavenly, the heavens being the proper and only sphere of life, demonstrated that they knew nothing of the matter as to the heart, and for the truth of resurrection and life in a risen Christ, were walking according to their own religious feelings, making this their god. And surely there is enough of this everywhere, a bringing down revelation of the truth to the standard of human feelings and experiences, making these the umpire instead of God. It is a religious appetite ruling and hungry, and satisfied with its own sensations when filled. Israel was charged to take heed lest when they had eaten and were full, they should forget Jehovah, Deuteronomy 8:14; and the prayer of Agur in Proverbs 30:9 is, "lest I be full and deny Thee." The Grand Object, Christ Himself, is ignored, and religious excitement, like any other intoxication, displaces Him and occupies the soul to its damage and peril. It is the belly, not Christ. It is religious emotions, it is not Christ. It is perfection in and of the flesh; it is not having no confidence in the flesh. The flesh may find its satisfaction and growth as much in religion as in the lower passions and the more secular world. The cross came in to put all this to death. Hence these are enemies to the cross of Christ, even though much mention may be made of the cross, and even continual prostrations before it practiced.

Naught can be allowed but the Person of Christ, the risen and exalted Christ at the right hand of God. All truth is His, all living is by and in and for Him alone. Here, then, was cause for weeping, a profession of the name of Christ taken to glorify the flesh, the natural feelings in man, and to gratify them still more. This was to destroy the doctrine of Christ and reinstate the flesh, the first man, and then foster and glorify him. How totally subversive of all truth, all that God is now doing by Christ Jesus. It is not in the shape of sins, what are usually called lusts, that the flesh appears in this epistle. It may be, therefore, that the very boast of those who mind earthly things, is that they do not sin at all; and to keep themselves from sinning they would occupy themselves with pious emotions and an attendance upon religious meetings and appointments and ordinances, feeding and overfeeding, and adding "drunkenness to thirst." (Deuteronomy 29:19.) Such things are linked with turning away from Jehovah their God, in the admonition to Israel in Deuteronomy 29, and they are in reality but building up of self, improving self, and thus making a god of the feelings. Enemies to the cross, which put aside in ignominious death the flesh, they would adorn and sanctify that which God would crucify.

How ineffably low all this makes Christianity, and it is the Christianity of these times that would use the cross to adorn the natural man, instead of seeing every excellent thing and thing of boasting crucified upon it as loathsome and a hindrance. They that are spoken of were among the saints, though not themselves saints, while they may have boasted of sanctification. Things are now worse, and every evil has become fully grown. Such is the uniform height of all departure from the truth that the unwary and untaught of this day scarcely discern it, themselves brought up among all in this full grown character. But the cross of Christ seen in its true character and results would end all of these, and all earthly things. We see to what ripeness all these have grown in our day. Legality for walk; ceremonial for worship; religiousness in the flesh for peace with God and a purged conscience; occupation with the earth, and adorning the world, and building up reputation, for real separation unto God; making the world better and more desirable, for being dead to it and looking alone to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their glory is their shame.

Philippians 3:20.For our citizenship or enrollment (commonwealth) is in the heavens, out of which we are ardently expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our bodies of humiliation into the likeness of His own body of glory, according to the power whereby He is able to subdue even all things unto Himself. This sets the whole matter before us. We belong up in heaven, and are looking every moment for the Lord Jesus to change this body. All is rejected here, all is condemned. The real home is there. Christ is all; life with Him is involved in our having here life in Him. Now is the judgment of this world, not the encompassing of it in the arms of a profession of Christ's name, and beautifying its things, and covering its inimical ways, and making Christ to go on with all; the thing which He refused when the religious people of the day, when He was upon the earth, would have offered it, meaning to make Him King of all. (John 6) No, the cross is a reality, and the glory with Christ is a reality. It is according to God and such as will suit Him for eternity. Thanks be to God for the cross which means so much; not bringing us back to try again, to seek nourishment for conscience and heart from the things of the flesh which failed us when that was our only resource; but offering real food, real substance, for a real life altogether of another kind, -in Christ up there at the right hand of God.

Having died in Christ in the cross, our life is elsewhere, where He is; our citizenship, our commonwealth, the range of our action, is above, and we are really foreigners here, directly to be called away home. Nay, better than that, we look for Him, according to His promise, to come and take us to Himself. A value has been put upon us and a place assigned and prepared by Himself in the glory with Him, and that is our commonwealth. Little would they do who apprehend this to help the so-named progress of any commonwealth or body politic here. Offices could not be accepted, or sought, under the governments, nor the elective franchise used; for how could one be a citizen of two countries antagonistic of each other? The work of the Holy Spirit is to testify for the heavenly and against the earthly home. The testimony of the Holy Spirit is that the whole system here is under condemnation; and that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, -that we are not of the world. Nothing is clearer than this, and yet nothing is pled for more than citizenship here.

But we look towards the heavens for our Lord Jesus Christ at any moment to take us to Himself, where we belong. In a moment, the twinkling of an eye, it may all take place. What a fitting ending for such a mode of living! How natural such a life in expectation of such an end! The Scripture is exceedingly rich in matter as to this: "We shall be changed;" "this mortal shall clothe itself in immortality;" "we shall see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him;" "caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds;" "in the air, and so shall we be forever with the Lord!" What an expression of grace and power and salvation is begun on the cross and ended in the glory with the Lord! The very power by which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself is for us, and this is its necessary consummation. Blessed be God for such an hope on such an object!

Philippians 4

Philippians 4:1. So then, my brethren, beloved and earnestly longed for, my joy and my crown, thus stand fast in the Lord, beloved. How the thought of the nearness of the hope deepens the affections. Hand reaches forth to hand, and the lips pour forth epithets of love. And so this is increased (then as now) in time of danger. One clings to those who are faithful with unusual earnestness and appreciation, when failure becomes apparent. These were to stand fast if others departed from the truth of Christ in doctrine or practice. A difficult thing it might be, and it probably always is in times of general departure as all things become assimilated to the general current. The tone is lowered all around, until to act fully according to the truth would make one a strange person among his own.

He may have to sit alone and be esteemed an evildoer. But the standard was Christ in the glory, and the cross corresponding on earth to that, casing all the excellence of man aside forever. "So stand fast in the Lord, beloved," thrills the heart as the appeal of the Holy Spirit to respond to all that Christ is and all He has done. It is the one remedy for that time and for this time when all germs have fully grown.

It is probable that this letter was sent through Epaphroditus, on his return to Philippi, and he is therefore besought to assist two of the sisters who had been very useful in ministering for the Lord, but who, having been separated in feelings, are now exhorted to be of one mind. The weakness of self and the power of grace are manifest then as now. The wonderful things of Christ, the glory and the resurrection and His coming, are to fuse all His own, banishing all that is personal and bringing into actual life the oneness that is in Him. Others, fellow laborers, are mentioned also. While doubtless the Philippians were going on well, there are tokens in the tone and spirit of this letter that defection and ruin had already begun. The exquisite tenderness, the appreciation of the things done for Christ, the acknowledgment of all that is good, tell of a consciousness of a slipping away somewhere. Then it was sweet to remember of the Lord's, that "their names were written in the book of life.”

In Philippians 4:4, he returns to the exhortation of the beginning of Philippians 3., "Rejoice in the Lord at all times. Again will I say, rejoice!" This is getting clear above all outward circumstances. It is triumphant as coming from a prisoner in chains, as addressed to those under trial and persecution, called to it, indeed; as in the time of failure and departure from the heavenly ground, as being also in the time of their separation from the apostle and his forced separation from them. Rejoice! rejoice! In the one direction, in the One Person, there is much reason for it and renewed occasion, He is at hand! The nearer He is the more should the head be lifted up with joy. Every truth connected with Him, all that He has done, all that He is, unite in bidding the heart to rejoice. It is the fitting result of all these, the true response to all He has done, rejoice! rejoice! The marvelous thing is that in a world of sin and all its shameful, sad and destructive consequences, there has been a work done so delightful to God that He calls upon us to rejoice, not in our standing or state or feelings or attainments, but in the Lord Himself; the LORD! Well may we let our moderation be known by all, yielding everything on this ground, We can well afford to hold nothing, to give up everything here in view of the speedy coming of the Lord.

Philippians 4:6. Next comes a word about the cares of daily life, the anxieties and worries; and here we are exhorted, instead of being anxious, to let our requests be made known unto God, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. It is not a matter of receiving what we ask but of laying all cares upon the heart of Him who gave His Son for us and will, with Him, give us all things; whom we know as our God and Father and ever tender and faithful Lover, God who has all power and is infinitely gracious and who has proved Himself our friend. It is, then, receiving His peace about these things that trouble us. It is not the peace of conscience which came alone through the blood of Jesus Christ; but after this settled peace which the blood established forever, the heart and mind need to be quieted about the thousand cares that come in life, daily. They may be about the children of God, the prevalence of evil, of worldliness among them, the slow progress of the truth, the slipping away from God's ground; or they may be personal, the difficulties in one's own way, the burdens that seem too heavy for daily endurance, the questions too hard of solution, the pressure of poverty, the severity of labor, the weakness of the body or the lack of work. But whatever there may be that would occupy the heart and mind and rob us of peace, is not to be borne by ourselves but by Him who loves us and gave His own Beloved for us. He charges Himself with all that pertains to us, and He would have us free to worship and rejoice, to go on in the rich things of Christ which He delights to unfold. A little child might worry over a watch or other thing that was broken; but at last, utterly discouraged, he takes it to his father, who at the time may be quite busy, and tells him to lay it down upon his desk and that he will attend to it. Now if the child believes his father, he will have peace about it at once, even before the watch has been touched, just because he has confidence in his father. He does not get the watch mended, but he gets peace about it, the same as his father has his peace. In due time the father may get it mended and bring it to the child, but all the while the child has been quieted about it. How greatly this honors the father, rather than the uneasiness that would make the child come to him continually and pull at his sleeve while he was writing, or call upon him again and again and question him about it. He has made his request known and gone away with thanksgiving, confident and with no more worriment.

Thus we are invited to do. All things are too great for our wisdom and strength. And our Father has not put us into the midst of things that are against us to cause us trouble or pain, but to prove whether we will use Him. He is above all, and sees the glorious end, and so has peace unbroken. This He will impart to us, keeping both the heart and the mind securely, as a garrison keeps a city, allowing it to rest in perfect peace; for this is the precise meaning of the word "keep" here given.

Philippians 4:8. "For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are amiable, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, be such the object of your esteem." Here then is the method of keeping the peace of the heart and the mind, to look at the happy things, the work that God has wrought in any, of virtue and purity and good.

While the work of God in us should make us exceedingly sensitive to any sin in ourselves, it should make us keen to observe all that is hopeful and praiseworthy in others. Peace can be easily destroyed by looking for evil, for it is plentifully scattered around. But the heart that is fixed on Christ, and the mind that is formed by Him and quieted by His abundant grace, is so above all that man can do of good or evil, that it can afford to look only at good. In a day of defection, as now, we may still find precious people and precious things, as Paul rejoiced that Christ was preached, even though some may have had sinister motives in preaching. The rejoicing heart is best fitted to be here among all sad and defiling things. It is wonderful again how we are called into company with the Lord Himself in this, as we see in His addresses to the seven assemblies in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, when He always begins by recognizing all that is good among them before calling attention to the failures. A true eye for the good is apt to be more faithful to detect, in the true way, the bad, according to God. We cannot allow a peace which God gives to be at the mercy of every evil thing happening among His own; and circumstances are not to form our minds at all, but only to be the occasions for manifesting what He has wrought in us.

Philippians 4:9. "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, these things do, and the God of peace shall be with you!" The standard of doing, of all service and life, is the truth of Paul, his gospel, the dispensation given to him, the gospel of the glory as given in all his epistles. So his life, molded and formed by the heavenly revelation of Christ which he received, becomes a microcosm, a representation of the assembly both actively and passively. And hence he can say, "Follow me, I follow Christ." His life as well as His words told out of the heavenly truth. It is of peculiar weight that stress is laid on doing, with reference to Paul's doctrine and life. This being the last testimony from God, is the one in which he is engaged exclusively now. The Holy Spirit has come down especially to declare this and this only. He was not here in the time of Israel's testimony and earthly places for an earthly people, but all His work has reference to Paul's gospel of the risen Christ in the glory of God on high.

It is a pregnant and exceedingly important fact, and may well have our most ardent attention. Whatsoever is contrary to this He is not in, legality, ceremonialism, fleshly religiousness, worldly growth and improvement, human systems, or anything that is of man. It is the utter setting aside by ignominious death of the first man, with all his deeds, and the establishment of the New Man to occupy the whole ground, the whole time, and all God's thoughts and delight. The life in accordance with this is the only one that can please God. "Whatsoever ye have seen and known in me, do," do! What a standard, to walk and work as of heaven!

This is the same as is given in Colossians 1:23. "To present you ... . unreprovable if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister." "And the God of peace be with you." He took the name of the God of peace by raising Jesus our Lord from the dead, that Great Shepherd of the sheep who had laid down His life for them and to meet the heart of God. There is a difference between having the peace of God about all trials and circumstances, and having the God of peace go with us. The former is freedom from anxiety; the latter fellowship with God, for He goes with us. How could there be fellowship with Him if we lag so far behind as to be in Judaism, the old creation, when He has gone forward into the new? This is Christian living, to practice Paul's heavenly truth, and go on with God, rejoicing always.

Philippians 4:10 goes back to the sweet fellowship of the saints in the apostle's need, and gives us a delicious lesson in respect to giving and receiving, ministering to the Lord's and as unto Him. Their care of the dear servant of the Lord had found occasion and had put forth new buds, producing the "fruit" which he desired, distance and other circumstances having hindered for a time; and the simplicity of his heart is shown by his ample and natural acknowledgment of their gifts, while as the servant of the Lord he had been dependent on Him alone. "Not that I speak concerning want, for I have learned in whatever circumstances to be content. I know both how to be abased and how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned how both to be full and to suffer privation. I have strength for all things in Him who empowers me. But ye have done well in joint fellowship in my affliction." The Spirit is sensitive to gather up thus the precious fruits of Christ received and lived, the sweet interchange of what each one has, as ministering to others. It is bearing one another's burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ.

It was a time of testing, especially in regard to this dear apostle and the truth which was given to him; and many assemblies seem to have grown cold towards him now that he was a prisoner, as though fearing association with him or the disgrace. They were doubtless leaving his exalted ground of truth.

Thus caring for him at this time of trial would be a token of whether they had declined to Judaistic principles or were holding the truth. And their failure toward the apostle would be less felt on personal grounds than on the Lord's account and as showing their decline from the heavenly truth. As to himself, he was independent of men, being wholly dependent on God. It seems, too, that from the beginning many had failed in this respect.

Philippians 4:16. "In the beginning of the joyful message, when I went forth from Macedonia, not even one assembly had fellowship with me as regards giving and receiving, save you alone. Even in Thessalonica, both once and again ye sent unto my need." The Thessalonians were then for the first time hearing the word, and they were sharers in Paul's persecutions, who was driven out.

Philippians 4:17. "Not that I seek after a gift, but I seek after the fruit that is to abound unto your account.”

Philippians 4:18. "But I have all things unto the full, more than enough. I have been filled up, having welcomed from Epaphroditus the things from you, a fragrance of sweet smell, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing unto God." This adds a new element of sweetness to all these expressions of fellowship, that they are a sweet savor ascending to God, the blessed fruit of His own grace and the acknowledgment of the unity of the members of the body. As yet it seems not to have become general, as even at the first the apostle was forgotten by some. The servants of the Lord are His own care, yet He makes those who afford aid and comfort fellow helpers to the truth.

It is not given to all His own to go actively into the labor of teaching or preaching, and they who do are never to consider as to the means of support, as they are engaged by Him who owns all things; but those who receive the benefit of the teaching may well contribute and they who are in fellowship with the labor elsewhere than to and among themselves should feel the privilege of sending help and giving support, for the Lord uses one hand to supply another, and the various members of the body are for the good of the whole.

But whatever the failure or the forgetfulness of the children of God, He Himself was and is sufficient, and no one need make a bargain or sell his time and the use of his gift for support. Oftentimes, God would make the straits and trials of His dear servants and the timely supply of all, to be especially instructive, and as much so, practically, as their utterances.

It was so with this precious apostle, who could say to them, Philippians 4:19: "My God will supply all your need, according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." This is a thoroughly comforting and assuring assertion, founded on a true reason and according to a true standard, His glory in Christ Jesus. "My God!" Think what Paul had found God to be for himself in every way and place, -One who led him to a prison, who went with him there, who suffered him to hunger, but gave him renewed expressions of favor and recitals of His love and overabundant revelations!

“According to the riches of the glory" may not mean a great deal of earthly riches, for he who has so much of the glory so soon to open before him, may not need much, but it is delightful that what one gets is according to that, if it be the hourly breath and bread. All that He does for us henceforth is according to that, as children of the resurrection prepared for the imminent glory.

“But to our God and Father be glory to the age of ages!” Then, with greetings from and to the Lord's dear saints, this infinitely sweet letter closes. It is a love letter from the Lord Himself; His grace, His full-hearted favor to all. May we enter more and more into its spirit.

Philippians

Table of Contents

Philippians 1

Philippians 2

Philippians 3

Philippians 4