worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus ( Philippians 3:3 ). The word he uses for reaching out (epekteinomenos, G1901) is very vivid and is used of a racer going hard for the tape. A Hebrew was a Jew who was not only of pure racial descent but who had deliberately, and often laboriously, retained the Hebrew tongue. Brethren, be followers together of me ( Philippians 3:17 ). For whom I have suffered the loss of all things ( Philippians 3:8 ). They shared the conflict of the gospel; they partook of the reproach that covered those who preached it. What is the point of this? It was not merely their calling in Christ, their being Christians, that was before him, but a walk as it became the gospel of Christ. This is the unfailing secret of it all the true source of humility in service. Because of that, righteousness nearly always for Paul has the meaning of a right relationship with God. It is not Paul's aim to know about Christ, but personally to know him. Were on a mission to change that. He would have them realize the solemnity of the strife that is going on. It is his state and experience every day, as to which his hope was that in nothing he should be ashamed; "but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ. This were to spoil all, because it would please the flesh. What seemed to some the death of the gospel was in point of fact distinctly for the furtherance of it. After a dead dog! It is what enabled him to look at the saints, as he called them to look at one another, esteeming others, as he says, better than themselves. I have transcribed this note at length, because it is a fair sample of Dr. What is there that you can rightly plead but Christ's own name? And so, this body will be changed, and I will receive a new body like His, fashioned like His glorious image, according to that power of the Spirit that raised Him from the dead. Beware of doers." In the context he had been speaking of suffering and dying with Him. If I could, I would have done it a long time ago," and looking back I am discouraged of trying to go ahead.Or, on the other hand, a person looks back and glories in their victories of the past, and they are resting on their accolades. They say, that in training for the Olympics, you have got to go till it hurts, and you have to work yourself through the pain. and here I am in my little pompous righteous throne, judging everybody else who isn't living by my standards. Paul says, "You Jews think that you are circumcised; in point of fact, you are only mutilated.". But when I take the righteousness which is by Christ, it is an honest life, I can say, "Hey, I am not perfect, but I believe in Jesus Christ with all my heart. There is a sinful forgetting of past sins and past mercies, which ought to be remembered for the exercise of constant repentance and thankfulness to God. It had always been so, as the apostle gives us to learn. The only boast of the Christian is not in what he has done for himself but in what Christ has done for him. Why should such as they face the unmannerly officials that took advantage of the imperial government to treat with injury those identified with the gospel? He is just about to send Timothy from himself that he might know about them. b. His goodness can even take this up and thus make it fragrant even to Himself. There is really no value to say I counted those things loss for Christ thirty years ago, if in the meantime I have picked them back up and I am encumbered with them again. He is one who has his joy exclusively from and in Christ. WebMatthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Philippians 3:9-14. We are reminded that Paul wrote these words to strengthen and encourage a community he loved and who were already doing well in their life in Christ (see Philippians 1:3-11). 165-77, for refutation of the partial rapture view.] People lived and died without ever having heard of Jesus Christ our Lord. But whatever might be their own proper joy, whatever might be their delight in that which God works in the church, they had full and simple-hearted fellowship with His good news. Abraham and those saints of the Old Testament, the scripture said, confessed that they were just strangers and pilgrims on this earth, that they were looking for the city which hath foundations whose maker and builder is God. Dikaiosune ( G1343) is always difficult to translate in Paul's letters. Timothy was very dear to him, and was then with him; but he is going to part with the one that was so much the more valued by him in his solitariness and sorrow because of his circumstances at Rome. It is a blessed and refreshing picture even in thought. Another view is that Paul was hoping that he would persevere faithfully in his quest to know Christ until he died. Thus the difference between reconciliation and subjection is manifest. But she went down to the dime store and picked out the best that she could afford, bought a simplicity pattern. "I can do all things," as he says elsewhere, "through him that strengtheneth me." Experiences are good. In front of people they can act very holy and sanctified and excited and exhilarated in the things of the Lord, but when they get away from the stage, they can have filthy mouths; they can tell dirty jokes, they are living a two-faced life. Impossible that He could be made Jehovah. because he. Long before them, Mill had given his judgment in favour of the more ancient reading; and Wetstein repeated it apparently with approval. Be of good cheer. Christ shone as the true light in the world the light of life. WebPhilippians 3 He preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon over one hundred years earlier. If Jehovah so served, it was but natural that He should be made Lord of all, and so He is. It does not matter how unlike they may be, or how opposed; it does not matter what vessels of shame and misery they may have been now; "He is able to subdue all things unto himself.". So it is true with us. Philippians 3:4b-14. Now, Paul was a classic example of what Jesus was referring to. but for you it is safe. Then he turns, not to doctrine after this opening, but to circumstances, to circumstances, however, illumined with Christ The most ordinary details are taken out of their own pettiness (though it is really a little mind which counts them petty), and are made simple and genuine, and this through Christ Jesus intermingled with them. The effect of it usually on the individual who has obtained such a thing: I keep the rules; I never do anything wrong; I always do what is good; I am a doo bee; I am just living by these righteous standards. It was the teaching of these Jews that, if a man wished to be saved, he must earn credit in the sight of God by countless deeds of the law; and, further that salvation belonged to the Jews and to no one else, and that, before God could have any use for him, a man must be circumcised and, as it were, become a Jew. They cannot gain righteousness before a holy God. But so it is; and thus the food of faith becomes the poison of unbelief. The point is this. Looking to the Lord, as it is the life-breath of love, so it adds to the value of brotherly kindness in its season. Always, we must be able to translate the past experience into the present relationship if it is to be a valid experience at all. It is the imbuing of the Christian with that which is life everlasting, but the life that he is now living by "the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him." Elsewhere it is God's or divine righteousness. Paul sets down two very important things. Therefore he intreated them to "do all things without murmurings and reasonings, that they might be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom they shone as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life." This is the more remarkable because it is so intensely practical. This has its most weighty place elsewhere; but when it is a question of experience, the end cannot be here. Strange way of God! But it is working through it, but it is agonizing. Codd. And there Paul was converted. His only pride is that he is a man for whom Christ died. It seems strange that if Paul wanted to distinguish between faithful and unfaithful believers here he would use the resurrection to do so. You can also change some of your preferences. However, one is correct in understanding that these words express his humble expectation and hope (1 Corinthians 15:20; 2 Corinthians 5:1). [Note: See Gerald B. Stanton, Kept from the Hour, pp. It can be a very dangerous thing.On the other hand, I can recognize that I have a problem with sin, with myself, with my flesh. WebPhl 3:1-3. The things that happened to him he could therefore judge calmly and clearly. And He said, "I am Jesus. His worship is love of God and service of men. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. It speaks of believers who were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. All believers will be resurrected, but there is a better one for those who endure. Christ held it forth; nay, more, He was it. 26 December 2021 AM Philippians 3:13-14 Scott Childs. Paul claims that not only was he a Jew who had retained his ancestral religion, but he had also devoted his whole life to its most rigorous observance. It was not a reference to a kindly family pet, but it was a reference to those mean wild dogs that roamed Israel. Forgive me, Lord. Thus the degree to which we are faithful to use our talents, treasures, gifts, abilities, resources, and opportunities in life to please Him is the degree to which we will obtain this out-resurrection abundance of life." It was so with the apostle. May it be so with us! " And having determined then what is right and what is wrong, I may then seek to always do that which is right. They are living in the past, the past glories. "Laboured" gives a wrong sense. Thus, some translate the phrase, "in the hope of" (Gpd), or "that is the way I can hope to" (JB), and "thus do I hope that" (NAB). Moreover the term "out-resurrection" seems to stress separation from others at the time of resurrection rather than separation from others following resurrection. Oh, is it not awful to think, that the best proof of the love of Christ and of His glory is the very ground which the base heart of man turns into a reason for denying both His love and His glory? Here the object seems to be to make its difference from legal obedience more felt the contrast with the law more complete. "Well, where did you place?" I tried it for so long. Paul had certain people that seemed to follow him wherever he went, trying to pervert that which he taught of the grace of God, especially the Jewish legalizers who sought to bring the people back to a legal relationship with God, putting them under the law. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it. They had been manifesting their mindful love for the apostle, who on his part was certainly not forgetful of its least token. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect ( Philippians 3:11-12 ): It is sort of sad that so many people seem to feel that they have attained, or they have achieved their spiritual walk, and they sort of sit on little pedestals, little ivory towers. "And not on him only, but on me also," (what a difference is made when love interprets!) The old life, you know, I accounted loss. No saints are outside the danger. as a popular and familiar mode of expression (suitable to the persons addressed), according to which the expressions . For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." Of it humility in service pride is that Paul was a reference to a kindly family pet, but is... 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