Philippians

# Philippians: 60-62

* Paul writing from prison
* Philippi: Roman Colony
* Occasion: The Phillipians have sent Epaphroditus to help Paul. But Epaphroditus got sick and is returning. So Paul is now writing back to the Phillipians telling them that Epaphroditus did a good job
* Purpose:
o Commend Epaphroditus
o thank the phillipians who have been extremely generous with their material possessions
o Also, deal with disunity in the church (in Ch. 2)
o Reassure the Philippians that even though he is in prison, he is not worried about dying. He is not despondent

# Of all Paul’s letters, this is the most personal, even more personal than the actual letters to individuals

* You see the theme over and over again of joy
* Four chapters, and 16 times in there he talks about Joy or rejoicing. He averages 4 times a chapter

# There is a digression, interruption

* Beginning ch. 3: Paul says “Finally” but he goes on for a long time after that.
* 3:1: rejoice in the Lord! It sound like he is going to end the letter. But he takes time out to ONCE AGAIN condemn the Judaizers, who are putting so much emphasis on the “mutilation of the flesh” of circumcision
* Paul brags about all the works he did before he became a Christian.
o But it was all dung compared to the righteousness he now has in Jesus Christ
o Unlike Luther, Paul thought he was doing fine living by works
* THE MOST IMPORTANT: Philippians 2:5-11!!!
o In the first four verses he addresses the problem of division, then in 5-11 he makes the comparison to Christ, who is the supreme example of putting others before himself
o Possibly this was part of a hymn.
o Paul might be doing what we sometimes do, which is refer to hymns. We don’t know and it isn’t important. He describes a divine drama. How did Jesus get from the Father, to now being the name at which every knee shall bow?
+ He took the way of a servant, which is something we must emulate
* Paul has pretty clearly in the back of his mind the comparison between the first adam and the second adam. Does it say that explicitly? No. But it is very clear that in this and in other passages, such as the temptation of Jesus, Jesus undoes what Adam did.
o What Jesus did was, though he was fully God, he took on manhood and instead of doing what Adam did, which was trying to become like God or equal to God, Jesus didn’t hold on to his position. He became a servant, even serving unto death and now he is God and Savior
o The first adam failed by grasping at what was not his by nature, whereas the second adam succeeded not by holding on to what was his by nature (godhood) but by selflessly becoming a servant and a sacrifice
* Is there anything which might indicate that Paul had this comparison in mind? Paul mentions obedience of Christ in Philippians 2:8. The only other time that he mentions this is Romans 5:18-19, where he is explicitly comparing Adam with Jesus

# Paul’s attitude toward preaching the gospel out of selfish ambition: these people were trying to minimize Paul’s position. But Paul does not argue with them. Rather he says that the important thing is that people are saved. His reputation is not what counts. He cares about whether the Gospel is being preached.
# 1:21-26 to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul understands the fact that if he were to die tomorrow, he would have no more pain, etc. He would be in the Presence of Christ

* Paul doesn’t care whether he lives or dies, he just wants to serve the Lord.

# Revelation 12 says that we can defeat Satan by not loving our lives unto death. We can take away a major weapon of his.