Philippians Week 4

Philippians 1:27-2:11

Read Passage and make observational notes

Share one observations

Recap

We have the letter set up and then we see Paul encourage the discouraged Philippians, that all is not lost, but the Gospel is going forth and despite the whole situation, he is unshaken!

Then we saw the motivation for why Paul responded this way; the why he’s thinking about his imprisonment this way.

Verse by Verse Exposition

“manner of life” is really speaking in terms of citizenship. We can think “only live as citizens worthy of the Gospel of Christ…” However, the idea is a commonwealth, which seems semi-foreign to us, but we can think of this as saying “you’re a colony of citizens waiting for the land to be ruled by your motherland.”

Mark Keown puts it this way, “The Christian Church is then like a colony of heavenly citizens modeling the kingdom, engaging the world, and inviting people to see what God’s new creation looks like.”

This would be monumental, as Paul is telling them, in a Roman world, their allegiance is to Christ.

“whether I come and see you or am absent” does not hurt Paul’s confidence in v22-26. Meaning, it is giving two potential situations, saying he might not come.

Verse 27 also shows us the unity that they are to have and embrace, literally this is, “stand firm in one spirit, while struggling with one soul in faith of the Gospel.” If we think of the word “struggle” in verse 27, then the logical flow into v28-30 is smoother.

Verse 28 harkens back to the whole premise of verses 12-26. That is, don’t be discouraged or fearful by what’s happening to me, but stand firm and be encouraged in every moment!

Verse 28 is also difficult to interpret, but should be taken in light of verse 29-30, so we may think of it like this, “Your fearlessness (literally not being intimidated) of them (and their afflicting of you), is a sign of destruction to them (their destruction), and your salvation, this is from God.” Who the adversaries are is not clear, it is not the same “opponents” as mentioned in v15-18, it is likely those in 3:2.

There was no Jewish population in Philippi, so Christianity was not recognized as a legal religion, so the persecution would have been severe (Acts 16:21).

This verse is meant to be an encouragement, affirming from a different angle the truth of 1:6.

When Christ is the whole occupation of your life (1:21), there is no fear in life or death. Along with this, this is a picture of God’s glory in salvation through judgment.

The word “granted” in verse 29 is really interesting. It does mean grant/give but it means graciously grant or kindly give.

Perhaps verse 29-30 seem perplexing, but what is stated is the very essence of the cross. Those who are saved, are saved through judgment (Christ taking our judgment). This reflects what we see in Mark 8:34-45 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.” Our old selves die by dying on the cross with Christ and are made alive in His resurrection. So what we are seeing in v29-30 is the cruciform life, reflecting this reality of this life is Christ who suffered, and because of that so will we, as we are living demonstrations of the cross (judgment for salvation). Living out incarnationally, a continuation of Christ’s suffering for His Church. All this to say, our suffering confirms our eschatological salvation.

2:1-11

Philippians 2:1-4

This microsection is connected to 1:27-30 and its implications come from the imperative of verse 27.

“complete my joy” means, when you are spiritually thriving, it is my joy. “Complete” is also an imperative.

In this section we also see something Paul was trying to do, encourage the Philippians. In doing this, telling us a purpose of the first chapter, to work against their discouragement. However, in this section, we see Paul encourage them to aim their encouragement in the right direction, toward unity.

So when we see “count others more significant than yourselves,” we see that this is humility, and a humility working for unity. In other words, humility works for unity, pride works for disunity.

Philippians 2:5-11

For this section, I think it helpful to have these systematic theology categories in our back pocket, Immanent trinity and economic trinity. Immanent trinity is the eternal and ontological (meaning, existence) aspects of the trinity. While economic trinity is about action in redemptive history. I will be using these terms christologically.

This section is called the Christ Hymn (not a hymn in the way we might think, but more of a creed). It could have been a creed that was commonly known that Paul uses with rhetorical prowess or it could be from his own pen. Either view is viable. Along with this, the genre of this Hymn is difficult to nail down. However, we can see that there is practically two sections of this Hymn, Christ’s humiliation (v6-8), and Christ’s exaltation (v9-11).

Verse 5 connects directly back to what we have just seen in verses 1-4, which we see in the phrase “Have this mind among yourselves.”

This verse is a summarizing thought of verses 1-4 but also a segway into the Christ Hymn proper (v6-11).

Verse 6 is elusive in many ways, and the data seems to be rather ambiguous. Nonetheless we can understand it.

The second footnote in this verse in the NET translation is very helpful in understanding what “form” means, “The Greek term translated form indicates a correspondence with reality. Thus the meaning of this phrase is that Christ was truly God.”

Another helpful thought comes from Hawthorne and Martin who say, “morphe, always signifies a form which truly and fully expresses the being which underlies it.”

This is where we come to our systematic theology categories. Verse 6 expresses an immanent Christology, meaning that Christ has always been God and before He was incarnate, He was God.

As we read on in verse 6 and see, “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” we can recognize that though Jesus is truly divine and pre-existent, He does not exploit this for His own advantage, but in His incarnation, becomes like you and I. Divinity, however is still Christ’s essential identity and ontology though He did not take advantage of it, He chooses the path of self-emptying, service, and human existence.

Perhaps the idea, “He did not regard it a prize to be seized to be equal with God” will help us understand this phrase.

“emptied himself” has no modifier. Meaning, it is not an emptying of something, but saying He poured Himself out for us. Though it doesn’t say what He is emptying Himself of (and this is Paul’s intention, so that the Church doesn’t fall into heresy), the participles tell us what “emptied Himself” means. That is, for God to become man is to empty Himself. The paradox of emptying Himself is that He is adding to Himself by taking on humanity.

In short, Christ did not empty Himself “of” something; He emptied Himself “by” doing something.

The same word “form” is used in verse 7. Here Christ takes on this form, the form of a slave, for His Church.

Notice how Christ’s suffering here is entirely coherent with 1:27-30 and actually emphasizes it. See my comments of verses 29-30.

After the section of Christ’s state of humiliation (coming as a man) we see Christ in His exalted and ascended state, this is verses 9-11. Notice the “Therefore” inferentially leading us to see that in redemptive history (economic) Christ’s lowliness, death, and resurrection led to exaltation that is the state Christ is in now.

I’m convinced that there are echoes of Isaiah in the second half of the Hymn. However, I realize that they are subtle. What is less subtle is verse 10, this is certainly referencing Isaiah 45:23.

At the very end of the Christ Hymn we read “to the glory of the Father” this is a concluding statement of sorts. As all that is economically happening of Christ is also for the glory of the Father.

In this challenging piece of Scripture, we must follow the cues that Paul is sending us. Meaning, “so that” in verse 10 and “and” are helpful markers that signal a development of information.

Lastly, this Hymn reflects what is often called “Already not yet,” “partially-realized eschatology” or “inaugurated eschatology.” This is a helpful thing to keep in mind.

Overview