PHILIPPIANS 2
Paul had very few criticisms, if any at all, for his Philippian readers. But he did issue several warnings and encouragements to Christ-like behaviour:
2:2-5 “…then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus…”.
Humility and looking to the interests of other believers, are modelled by Jesus in the following verses 6-11, in which is Paul probably quotes from an early Christian hymn. It talks about Jesus choosing to give up all the comforts and powers that were rightfully His as God in heaven. Choosing to become a man – and a servant man at that – he then stooped even lower, becoming sin, and bearing sin’s full punishment. He did that all for us. As reward, the Father lifted him to the highest place possible to be honoured by all.
That is ‘humility’ – knowing your true worth and abilities, and yet not taking full personal advantage of them. In verses 2-5, Paul asks us to show loving concern towards one another, and to work for a common unity of purpose. Of all Paul’s co-workers, only Timothy showed totally genuine concern for the Philippians’ welfare, rather than looking out for his own interests (vv19-23).
2:12-13 “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose”. I call this concept: ‘God’s Power-Assisted Steering’! As you take your small feeble movements to obey the Lord and to do good, He then moves with you in the same direction with all the power of heaven and massively reinforces your puny efforts. But if you decide not to move at all, nothing happens!
2:14-15 “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky…”. We need to watch our attitudes and expressions of discontent! No church is perfect yet, and that certainly goes for its leadership too. God knows the secrets of our minds and the motives of our hearts; let us not emulate the critical spirit of many people in secular society and the harshness of their criticism. We are meant to be different and for the world to see that.
2:26-27 “[Epaphroditus] longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow”. We receive a timely reminded of the sovereignty of God in all things, including physical healing. The great apostle Paul, who had raised people from the dead and had healed so many, was not able to instantly heal his friend and companion. There is no magic formula to healing, no absolute guarantee that it must happen ‘on demand’; we cannot generate the genuine faith necessary for miraculous healing. What determines these outcomes depends on the mind of God. But let’s also remember that if you pray for no-one, then no-one gets healed; if you pray for some, then at least some will get healed!
JEREMIAH 3 and 4
The Lord describes how he has divorced faithless Israel and faithless Judah on the basis of their ‘adulteries’ with the Canaanite gods and idols. There is also implicit teaching that ‘divorce’ is permitted in the case of adultery, followed by remarriage; this is backed up with the words of Jesus in the New Testament – in Matthew 6 and Matthew 19. Furthermore, according to God’s treatment of Judah and Israel, it would seem to be forbidden for a man to divorce his wife, marry another, and then attempt to divorce her and return to the first wife. (Vice versa with husbands, of course.)
Israel and Judah (at different times) have finally ‘blown it and God is essentially promising to begin again with a remnant out of the nation who will be faithful to him, and around whom he will build a new nation. This is a Messianic passage of prophecy and is more likely to be referring to the new Bride – the church.
“Break up your unploughed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem…” (Jeremiah 4:3-4). Where have you heard this before? Well, you might remember it as a similar quote from Hosea 10:12: “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unploughed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you”.
Ground that has been lying fallow – unploughed – may be ‘resting’ in some sense, but it is not productive and cannot be planted in preparation for a harvest. The imagery is referring to repentance, to breaking up the hard surface of the ground ready to receive the ‘seed’ of God’s word for us. Jesus used unploughed ground in his Parable of the Sower and showed how unsuccessful it is. Without hearts ploughed in repentance – eager to obey whatever God tells them to do – there is no point even hearing what he says to us. In verse 4, “Circumcise your hearts” is the parallel thought, which signifies the consecration of ourselves to the purposes of God.
The Big Picture 