Philippians

Paul gets back to one of the main reasons for writing the Philippians: Thanking them for their gifts. He has just exhorted his readers to be anxious for nothing (4:1-19). Now he demonstrates exactly what that means by modeling contentment in all circumstances. Paul’s Contentmentread more ➜

As he nears the end of his letter to the Philippians, Paul encourages Christian maturity. Like every pastor whose charge it is to “shepherd the church of God” (Acts 20:28), Paul seeks to foster endurance in the faith by a series of exhortations that areread more ➜

Paul urges us to shun all appearances of human pride that seeks to displace Christ’s righteousness with our own and (3:1-6) to keep looking ahead in our faith (3:7-14) by imitating genuine Christ-like examples (3:15-17) and avoiding those who are counterfeit (3:18-21). Admonishment to Maturityread more ➜

After demonstrating the wickedness of self-righteous pride, Paul now shows that all human accomplishments pale in comparison to the “the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” Paul’s Past Renunciation (3:7-8) Paul’s Past Gain is Really His Loss (v. 7). Whatever was in Paul’sread more ➜

After laying out the way of humility (2:1-11) and the need to imitate those who follow the way of Christ, Paul now warns against the wickedness of pride. “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strengthread more ➜

This section concludes the series of three exhortations intended to correct some misunderstanding on the nature and purpose of suffering (Philippians 1:27-30), encourage unity through humility (Philippians 2:1-11), and motivate godly, Christian living (Philippians 2:12-18) by offering the examples of Timothy and Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:19-30).read more ➜

Paul begins a series of three exhortations (Philippians 1:27-2:18) intended to correct misunderstanding on the nature and purpose of suffering, encourage unity through humility, and motivate godly, Christian living. In Philippians 2:1-11, believers in Philippi are urged to pursue unity as they live lives worthyread more ➜

Paul follows his thanksgiving and prayer (vv. 3-11) with a report on his present situation (v. 12). He assures the Philippian believers, and us, that God’s sovereign purposes are not placed on hold and that there is every reason to rejoice in the face ofread more ➜

As the consummate pastor, Paul begins his letter with warm and sincere thankfulness for his audience and offers a prayer for their continued progress in the faith. He assures the Philippian fellowship that his prayers are grounded in joy as they share in God’s graceread more ➜

This is the first in a series of posts on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Based on a study I did several years ago, every post is significantly informed by several fine commentaries. Where I fail to give explicit notation referencing their work, all creditread more ➜