Philippians 1:12-18 (Prison is Awesome!)

Hey guys! Let's go ahead and start off by reading the entire passage for context.

^"12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, ¹³ so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. ¹⁴ And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

¹⁵  Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. ¹⁶ The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷ The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice," ~ Philippians 1:12-18

Alright so let's go ahead and dive in with verse 12. What does Paul mean by "what has happened to me."? Well, we know from the following verses that he is talking about his imprisonment. So he is saying that his being in prison is a good thing because the gospel in being spread. In verse 13 he says that all the guards and "all the rest" (almost everyone) knew he was imprisoned for Christ. And it is understood that Paul means that all these people are hearing the gospel. Also in verse 14, Paul says that most of the Christians that knew of his imprisonment were being encouraged and spoke even more boldly now! So because of Paul's testimony, the other Christians were becoming that much bolder! That is amazing when you think about it. If one of your friends is talking about Jesus at Starbucks, and he gets kicked out for it, i don't think you're going to immediately start witnessing there. But that's exactly what happened! Paul got thrown in jail for sharing the gospel, and then all the brothers in Christ were encouraged to be even bolder!

Verse 15 says that some were preaching from envy and rivalry. What does that mean? Most people were doing it for the sake of Christ, but others didn't do it to follow Jesus. They were doing it to try to gain more fame than Paul. Verse 16 gives more information on the people doing it for Jesus. It adds that they were also doing it out of love for Paul knowing that they needed to keep strong while Paul was in prison. Verses 17-18 are interesting. We see what I stated above that some people were spreading the gospel out of envy for Paul, but verse 18 is powerful. Paul is saying that it doesn't matter that he's in prison, or that the gospel is being proclaimed out of that envy, he says that as long as Christ is proclaimed, he will rejoice. Wow! We see so many examples from Paul in his letters that are great for us to follow. We should always rejoice no matter what affliction comes our way if Christ is being proclaimed.

So in conclusion, Paul's main point in these verses (paraphrased obviously) is, "Dude I'm in prison, but it's awesome because 1. the gospel is being shared, and 2. most of the brothers are being even more bold than before! Some people share just because they don't like me and they're jealous, but it doesn't matter because Christ is being proclaimed! So while im sitting in this jail cell, I'm just gonna keep rejoicing while the gospel is being preached!" I'm sorry, but i don't believe i could write that from jail. I would be too caught up in the badness of jail instead of the good that comes out of it. But this is just another example of Romans 8:28 :) (If you don't what that verse is, google it ;) Thank you guys for studying with me again, and i can't wait to start on the next section! ~ The Disciple Jesus Loves.

Philippians 1:1-11 (All Scripture Is Profitable)

I find it cool that the passage were studying is 1:1-11 because there are four ones in it! That has no relevance to anything but I just think it's neat. Anyway let's get into this. We'll start by reading the passage as a whole here it is:

     "Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: 2  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3  I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5  because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace,[d] both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."

Okay so this just seems like Paul saying "hey guys I've been praying for you and i hope you can live a good Christian life". But there's more to it than that. First we see that Paul says "servants of Christ Jesus". What does that mean? Well, this is the ESV translation but in others it says "slave". The idea here isn't that of a paid servant, or a bought slave made to do all of the master's bidding It is someone who willingly serves his master and is even happy to do so! Paul, therefore, just by saying servant, was able to let them know that he loved doing what he was doing. Maybe that's completely irrelevant, but I don't believe so. It shows us an example to live by. It's also a great example of how ALL scripture is profitable (2 Timothy 3:16).

Next, we see Paul's standard greeting of "grace to you and peace from our God". This isn't anything spectacular, but in this he was reminding them of the grace and peace they have access to through Christ. In verses 3-5 Paul says he always thanks God when he remembers them. Wow! That's pretty cool don't you think? And then he says that every time he prays, he joyfully prays for them! The text says it is "because of their partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." What does that mean? Simply that they were brothers and sisters in Christ. So, doesn't this infer that we should always be in prayer for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? I believe so. Again, just by Paul greeting them, we can gain spiritual truth.

Verse 6 is a very popular verse that we see quoted on coffee mugs, youth room walls, Facebook walls, and wherever else you can put a bible verse. But what does it really mean? Let's get deep here. Paul starts off with "and i am sure of this". This means that it wasn't just wishful thinking, Paul knew that God will bring His work to completion. The next part says "that He who began a good work in you". What good work? This one is pretty easy, it's our salvation. The process by which God forgives us our sins on the basis of Christ's finished work on the cross, and then makes us more Christ-like every day. The ending of the verse is "will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ". Now most people don't really get the depth of this. If the process is to make us more Christ-like, then that means that we will be like Jesus one day! And this is not the final day of judgement, but the day that our salvation is completed, A.K.A. when we die. So that means our death, is actually us becoming like Christ! New perspective on death huh? Well as we'll see later in Philippians 1:21, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But we'll save that for later.

Verse 7 is interesting. Paul says "it is right for me to feel this way about you all, because i hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel." What does all that mean? It means 1. Paul holds these believers in the center of his thought and feeling. 2. These believers were actively assisting Paul in his ministry. and 3. These believers were seriously defending the truth of the gospel. Verse 8 says Paul yearns for them with the affection of Christ Jesus. That's big! We can see that Paul seemed to have a special place in his heart for the Philippian believers.

Verses 9-11 show what Paul wants these believers to have. Again, we can also take these things to heart and learn from them. The reason i don't wanna get in detail, is that Paul does just that later in the letter and we'll get to it. One thing i do want to touch on is the very end. "To the glory and praise of God". That's it. That's the purpose of everything is God's glory. Never forget that. Also never forget that all scripture is profitable. Even this seemingly irrelevant greeting has some deep spiritual truths in it.

If you're still reading then you must really love God's word, or have just been really bored. I hope it's the first :) Well I hope i was able to clearly depict the truth in this passage. I pray that the Holy Spirit will take these words and use them "to the glory and praise and God". ~ The Disciple Jesus Loves

Background of Philippians

Hey guys I'm planning to start a study of Philippians to put up on this blog! This post will get to the study in a minute but i just wanted to let you know my plans. I feel God has led me to start this online blog study thing for others to read. That way i can share what God has shown me with many others! :) I plan to post at least weekly preferably more, but no promises. But anyway let's get started. I wanna do a little background on the book to make sure we get the context of what's happening here. We can gather from the text itself that this book was written by Paul, with Timothy, to the church in Philippi (obviously), and that he was in jail when he wrote it. That's about it for background from Philippians. But then there are things like MacArthur study bibles (praise God for them amen?) that give us more information. It is generally accepted that Paul wrote this book during his first imprisonment in Rome and around the same time he wrote Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (60-62 A.D.) I'm not sure if that's entirely important, but it's in the MacArthur study notes so i'll include it here :) There's also a lot of information about what was going in Philippi around this time, but I can't fit all that here so we'll skip it. If you really want to know every little detail, just google it and it will show up I'm sure. The reason i shared all this is just so we can look at the whole book in light of this. For instance, Paul was in prison during the writing of Philippians, but the underlying tone of the entire letter is joyful! Just one example of context making a difference. The main theme of the letter is putting on Christ-likeness. Well, i don't think i have much more background information. Next time we'll be diving right into chapter 1. I'm looking forward to it! ~ The Disciple Jesus Loves