Expound: Identity
4:6–7. 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).
Paul exhorted the Philippians to prayer instead of anxiety. Praying with thanksgiving involves trusting God. Four words are used here to describe a believer’s communion with God. Prayer (proseuchē) describes a believer’s approach to God. Petition (deēsei) emphasizes requesting an answer to a specific need. Thanksgiving (eucharistias) is an attitude of heart which should always accompany one’s prayers. Requests (aitēmata) speak of definite and specific things asked for.
When the exhortations of verses 4–6 are heeded, the peace of God (v. 7) will flood one’s troubled soul. The Lord Jesus Christ is a believer’s peace (Eph. 2:14), and every child of God has peace with God through justification by faith (Rom. 5:1). But the peace of (or from) God relates to the inner tranquility of a believer’s close walk with God.
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.
4:17–20. Others were always uppermost in Paul’s mind. He was not looking for a gift simply to satisfy his own needs. He wanted credit to come to the account of the Philippians.
Since these people had already helped him so much, Paul did not want them to think he was still looking for more from them. He had received from the Philippians full payment, all the money they had sent, so he was then abounding and was amply supplied. 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.
To our God—his heavenly Father and theirs—the apostle gave thanks and praise.
3:20–21. The people of Philippi were living there as colonists while their citizenship was in Rome. Similarly Christians, while living on earth, have their citizenship elsewhere—in heaven. This contrasts with those in verse 19 whose minds are exclusively on earthly things.
The believer looks with keen anticipation for his Savior’s return from heaven. Eagerly await translates a word (apekdechometha) that suggests a tiptoe anticipation and longing. This word is also used in Romans 8:19, 23, 25; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Galatians 5:5; Hebrews 9:28.
At the Rapture of the church, Christ will transform (metaschēmatisei, “change the outward form of”) our lowly bodies so that they will be like (symmorphon, “identical in essential character”; cf. the participle symmorphizomenos in Phil. 3:10) His glorious body. Then every child of God will be made like the Son of God (1 John 3:2), that is, all Christians will receive glorified bodies like His. No more will they have the limitations they now experience in their “lowly” bodies, which are humbled by disease and sin. Their resurrected bodies will be like Christ’s, and their sanctification will be completed.
2:10. Not only is all the “fullness” (plērōma) of God in Christ (v. 9), but also believers have been given fullness in Christ. Their fullness of life comes from Christ’s fullness. They partake of the divine nature through Christ (2 Peter 1:4), for “from the fullness of his grace we have all received” (John 1:16). This, of course, does not mean believers become God but simply share in Him. They have or share in the goodness of the nature which He is. They share in the body of Him who is the Head (cf. Col. 1:18) over every power (archēs, “ruler”) and authority (exousias, “ruling power”) (cf. 1:16; 2:15), including those who would talk the Colossians into living according to the world instead of according to Christ.
3:1. Since believers have not only died with Christ but have also been raised with Christ (cf. Rom. 6:8–10; Col. 2:12–13), they should set their hearts on things above. That is, believers’ lives should be dominated by the pattern of heaven, bringing heavenly direction to their earthly duties. “Set” (zēteite) means “to seek or strive for earnestly” (cf. Rev. 9:6; 1 Cor. 7:27). Fixing their attention decisively toward “things above” involves centering their lives on the ascended (Eph. 4:10), glorified (John 17:5; Phil. 2:9) Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God (Ps. 110:1; Luke 22:69; Acts 2:33; 5:31; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22). This is His seat of divine authority because He has defeated the forces of evil and death (Heb. 2:14–15).
3:3–4. At the moment of his salvation, a Christian died to the evil of the “flesh,” the sin nature (Rom. 6:3–8; Col. 2:11), and his life is now hidden with Christ in God. “Hidden” implies both concealment and safety; both invisibility and security. He is not yet glorified, but he is secure and safe in Christ. In fact, Christ is his very life. Christ said He was going where “the world will not see Me anymore” (John 14:19).
But when He will appear at the Rapture (1 Thes. 4:16–18), believers will appear with Him and will be glorified. As John put it, “We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (i.e., believers will be glorified as He is glorified; 1 John 3:2; cf. 1 Cor. 13:12; Col. 1:27). So Paul added a new direction to the believers’ focus of attention: they should look upward to Christ’s reign over them in heaven and also forward to His return for them in the clouds.
3:12. Again Paul called on believers to take a decisive action: Clothe yourselves (endysasthe). Because they have “put on (endysamenoi) the new self” (v. 10), they should live accordingly, with appropriate attributes and attitudes. In verses 8–9 Paul listed six vices (anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, and lying). Now in contrast to them, Christians—as God’s chosen people (cf. Rom. 8:33; Titus 1:1), holy (“separated to God”; cf. Col. 1:2) and dearly loved (cf. Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9–11, 19)—are to have several virtues. These include compassion (splanchna oiktirmou, lit., “tender sympathy of heartfelt compassion”—an unusually touching expression; in Phil. 2:1 Paul joined these two nouns with “and”), kindness (benevolence in action; cf. 2 Cor. 6:6), humility (a lowly attitude toward God; cf. Phil. 2:3; 1 Peter 5:5), gentleness (prautēta), meekness, a lowly attitude toward others, and patience (makrothymian, self-restraint, a steady response in the face of provocation; cf. Col. 1:11). The last three of these are mentioned in the Greek in the same order in Ephesians 4:2; and Galatians 5:22–23 in the Greek includes three of them: patience and gentleness, as well as kindness.
3:13. Furthermore, believers are to bear with