Priority Of Worship
Introduction
The Person Worshipping:
The Pattern of Worship:
Supplication
Joy and gentleness (vv. 4–5), accompanied with an awareness of Christ’s imminent return, should dispel anxiety. Paul’s appeal to the Philippians is do not be anxious about anything. But this was not a call to a carefree life. To care and be genuinely concerned is one thing. To worry is another. Paul and Timothy cared for the people they ministered to (2 Cor. 11:28; Phil. 2:20), yet they retained trust in God. Jesus warned against worry which obviously eliminates trust in God (Matt. 6:25–33).
Provision
This peace of God transcends all understanding, that is, it is beyond man’s ability to comprehend. This peace guards the believers. Guard (phrourēsei, also used in 1 Peter 1:5) translates a military term which means “to protect or garrison by guarding.” Like soldiers assigned to watch over a certain area, God’s peace garrisons the hearts and … minds, that is, the emotions and thoughts, of God’s children.
Paul did not beg God’s people to help him in his work. He just placed the need before them and trusted God to meet it. Too, he had learned the lesson of contentment. Changing circumstances did not affect the inner contentment he enjoyed. The word content (autarkēs) means “self-sufficient.” The Stoics used this word (which occurs only here in the NT) to mean human self-reliance and fortitude, a calm acceptance of life’s pressures. But Paul used it to refer to a divinely bestowed sufficiency, whatever the circumstances.
Paul said he could do everything—including handling poverty and living in abundance—through Him who gave him strength. This was not an expression of pride in his own abilities but a declaration of the strength provided by Christ.
What they had sent with Epaphroditus (2:25–30) had an effect on both him and God, for the gifts were a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. The term “fragrant offering” was used in Leviticus (in the LXX) for an offering that pleased God. It also was used in Ephesians 5:2 of Christ’s offering of Himself.
God would reciprocate to the Philippians. They had met Paul’s needs and now God would meet theirs. God would not only bless them out of or from His bounty but also in accordance with (kata) it: according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Awe
The term refers to an emotion combining honor, fear, and respect before someone of superior office or actions (Pss. 4:4; 33:8; 119:161 KJV) (Gen. 28:17; 1 Sam. 12:18; Matt. 9:8; Heb. 12:28 NIV). It most appropriately applies to God. See Fear; Reverence.