W01D5 Abounding Love

Text: “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9 – 11, NASB).

Truth: The fruit of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ.

Commentary: Paul writes down a prayer he prays for these at Philippi; a prayer that each of us could pray for others or for ourselves. He prays that their love be knowledgeable and discerning, not just sentimental and that it would be full, complete and perfected; a love that has moved down into the heart and is willing to pay the cost of sacrifice for the benefit of others. It is to be a love like Jesus Christ had when he who had committed no sin was willing to go to the cross and die for us sinners. He who knew no sin was willing to become sin and experience death for us who were dead in our sin that we might have eternal life. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church in an understanding way (1 Peter 3:7), which requires knowledge and discernment about their wives. Likewise, our love of God is to include knowledge and understanding of him (Jeremiah 9:23 – 24).

Paul desires their love to grow for the benefit that it will bring to them as individuals. When we love as God loves then our relationship and fellowship with him and others will be right. When it is then our soul will be filled with light and we will be able to clearly see those things that are excellent and as we embrace them we will have a witness before others that will be sincere and blameless.

God is love (1 John 4:8, 16) and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5) and as this love and light of his glory settles down deep into our soul it will begin to radiate out from our lives as the fruit of righteousness and as others see us they will come to experience a little bit of what God is like. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). As believers, if we are living as Jesus lived then as others see us they should experience seeing a glimpse of the Father.

As we pray this prayer of Paul for others and ourselves, we encourage one another in our walk with the Lord and our lives bear the fruit of righteousness, drawing others to the Father and together we bring glory and praise to him. It is a simple prayer, but when it is prayed in sincerity and faith it will have a profound effect in advancing the kingdom of God.

Application: Take time to personalize prayers like this and commit them to memory and then mediate on them to drive them down deep into your heart so that your life will reflect their power at work so that others come to experience the living God and return glory and praise to him.

·         Why is it important that knowledge and discernment be an aspect of our love for others? How does it enhance our love?

·         How does having knowledge and discernment as an aspect of your love increase the quantity of fruit of righteousness in your life?

Prayer: Father, I pray that as I spend time with you and your word, my love for you and for others may continue to grow more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that I may embrace those things that are excellent, in order to be found sincere and blameless until I come to be with you. Thank you for filling me with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ and may it result is glory and praise to you.

W01D4 Partakers of Grace

Text: “For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me; for God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:7 – 8, NASB).

Truth: Paul had a close affectionate relationship with the believers at Philippi.

Commentary: In verse three Paul said, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.” Here in verse seven he said that he has them in his heart. A person can come to the Bible and read and study it and gain knowledge. That is a good starting point, but we need to go further and through meditation and prayer we need to drive what we have read down into our heart where it becomes part of our life. The same is true with people. We can have knowledge of them in our minds, but not love them from the heart.

As I work with students in China, my relationship with them begins in the mind as I gather information about them, but as I spend more time with them the relationships deepens and the information in my mind is multiplied with a growing love for them in my heart. As Paul and these believers at Philippi worked together sharing the gospel, Paul’s relationship with them deepened to where he loved them from his heart.

Before Paul’s imprisonment they worked with him in the “defense and confirmation of the gospel” and in this way were partakers of grace with him. After Paul’s imprisonment they did not abandoned him. It did not matter to these Philippians whether Paul was free or confined, they continued their relationship with him and that was special to Paul.

What Paul felt in his heart was not simply human interest or attraction but a love that I believe goes back to his encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. He was so overwhelmed by Christ’s love that his affection was now Paul’s and out of this affection he loved and praises those believers at Philippi.

As I think about what Paul said in verse eight, “how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus” as he was separated from them by imprisonment, it reminds me of how I feel when I leave those Chinese students that I have come to love and return to the states. It is with the affection of Christ Jesus that I long to be back with them, conducting English conversations with them about life.

Application: Are we spending enough time with our neighbor to drive the relationship with them from our mind down into our heart where we can love them with the affection of Jesus Christ?

·         What evidence do you have that your relationship with Jesus Christ is from the heart and not your mind?

·         In what ways does your life demonstrate that your love for others is from the heart and not just your mind?

Prayer: Father, your word tells us that we are to love our neighbor as our self and if our love for you is to develop it will grow out of a love for one another. Lord, in my humility and weakness, perfect your love in me so that I may love others as I should from the heart.

W01D3 His Good Work

Text: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6, NASB).

Truth: Through our life as a believer, God will continue his good work in us.

Commentary: Being confident is a process that begins earlier as a conviction and continues to be held as true. This earlier conviction that Paul is now confident about concerns the good work that God begins in us. What he starts he will continue to work at, perfecting it until the day the Lord comes for us. I believe before we were ever born, God had a perfect design for each believer in Christ. During our lifetime he will work out that design so that we will fit perfectly into the body of believers he is forming.

Numerous times I have thought about this good work that God does in our life and I have come to the conclusion that it parallels the physical birth of a child. In love making there is foreplay that results in stimulation preceding the act of intercourse, which under the right conditions results in conception. The child conceived continues to grow in the womb until a particular time when it is born out into the world.

For the spiritual birth, the foreplay is that time during which the Holy Spirit brings a person to that point of seeing his or her need of salvation. God uses various means to develop the awareness and conviction of one’s need of the redemptive work of Christ in their life and at the right time and under the right conditions the imperishable seed of God (1 Peter 1:23) results in a new creature in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) being conceived within our heart. At this point life comes into our spirit and light fills our soul and the process of spiritual growth begins. As with the child growing in its mother’s womb, the spiritual child continues to grow until the physical death of the body results in the spiritual person being born into the vast realm of eternity we call heaven. At physical death we come forth, clothed with a new resurrected body, completing our salvation.

This entire process of spiritual foreplay, conception, growth, and birth are under the careful guidance of God and will result in a perfect spiritual person that will fit exactly into the body of Christ. The person that God the Father chooses, he will create the foreplay needed to bring that person to the point of asking Jesus Christ into their life. From this point forward to physical death, God is patiently at work conforming us into the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Just as physical birth begins as foreplay and continues to the point of a child entering the world from its mother womb, spiritual birth begins at some form of contact with the light of the gospel and continues until physical death causes its separation from our body into eternal presence with God. This is the process of being born again and is under the careful control of God.

Application: This good work that God does in us can be done with or without our cooperation. How much we cooperate with him in the process will determine, at times, how much pain we experience. Each of us is free to make that choice.

·         How do you encourage and cooperate with God in this good work he is doing in you?

·         Explain what you think he is trying to accomplish in your life at this time.

Prayer: Father, thank you for choosing me and causing me to become a new creature in Christ. Lord, bring me to that point of weakness where I can experience the power of Christ being perfected within me. Perform your good work within me to bring me to the point where I fully understand that life is not about me, but about God.

W01D2 Offering Prayer

Text: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3 – 5, NASB)

Truth: Joy is a characteristic of God’s love and can be experience at all times.

Commentary: To bind ourselves to God does not limit our freedom, but sets us free to receive the kindness of his grace and provides us with eternal peace; and Paul, who at the time was a Roman prisoner, was able to say that each time he thought of them at Philippi he would thank God for them. Paul remembers the people he has met because we find him thanking God for the Romans (Rom. 1:8), the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:4), the Ephesians (Eph. 1:16), the Colossians (Col. 1:3), and the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 1:2; 2 Thess. 1:3) as well as certain individuals.

Because of Paul’s relationship to God, God’s grace filled him and as a prisoner he was not bitter (Heb. 12:15) but filled with joy in his imprisonment as he remembers those he has come to love while serving with them in Philippi. When we experience suffering during times of trial are we filled with a sufficient supply of God’s grace to protect us from a root of bitterness forming in us? Can we with joy, turn our thoughts away from our circumstances and think about our experiences with others and offer up prayers on their behalf, thanking God for them?

When Paul first met the Philippians they joined with him in the things of Christ. It was in Philippi that Paul and Silas were seized and beaten and secured in prison, but it is also the place where God came to visit them in their prison cell and demonstrated his power in such a way that the jailer and his family became believers and were baptized. They treated the wounds of Paul and Silas and fed them. The next day they were released from prison and went to the home of Lydia and encouraged the brethren and then departed from the city (Acts 16).

Those in Philippi shared with Paul in his affliction (Phil. 4:14) and helped him in their financial support (Phil. 4:15 – 16). Like the believers in Philippi are we the kind of Christian that gets behind and supports ministry leadership? Do we provide support and encouragement for those serving on the mission field? Are we seeing the needs of others as more important than our own needs (Phil. 2:3 – 4)? Paul remembers those in Philippi in this respect and he thanks God for them as he continues to pray for them.

Application: As believers, are we willing to take the time and pay the price to support those whom God has called to serve on the front lines of his work? Are we willing to participate in the gospel with them and bear fruit to the glory of God?

·         Indicate how you are taking time and paying the price to support those whom God has called to serve on the front lines of his work and if you are not doing that, why not?

·         How are you participating in the gospel in impacting the lives of others?

Prayer: Father, thank you for those you have brought along side of me to encourage me in times of service and in times of need in life. I think of how you have used people to touch my life at various times and in various ways that has encouraged me in my walk with the Lord. As you bring them to my mind, I thank you for them and their acts of kindness to me.

W01D1 Grace and Peace

Text: “Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:1 – 2, NASB).

Truth: Grace and peace are from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Commentary: As we open this Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, we find Timothy is with Paul and are referred to as “bond-servants of Christ Jesus.” A servant is a person who voluntarily serves another and when that person subjects himself or herself to the authority of another, resulting in restraint, then that person is called a bondservant. Paul is therefore saying that he and Timothy have as servants, subjected themselves to the authority and restraint of Christ Jesus.

The name Christ Jesus makes reference to the eternal Word, God’s Son who came to earth and lived in a body of flesh as Jesus (John 1:1, 14). Christ Jesus was truly God and truly man and is a uniqueness of Christianity. It is a crucial point of belief to confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2 – 3). To say, as Paul did, that you are a bond-servant of Christ is not a way to win favor with men (Gal. 1:10), but lest we forget, life is not about us, it is about God.

After making reference to those Paul is writing to at Philippi, he writes a blessing of grace and peace, which is from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is able to extend mercy to those who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord, savior and redeemer and give to them as an act of his grace the gift of salvation. There must be a personal response to this unmerited divine kindness of grace before one can experience peace with God, others, and self.

We who were far off, without hope and without God, Jesus comes as God in the flesh and displays God’s love by sacrificing himself that we might live. This act of divine grace, reconciles the tension between sinful man and a holy and righteous God, providing peace.

Application: We, who were dead in our transgressions, were made alive together with Christ so that we might experience the surpassing riches of his grace toward us (Eph. 2:4 – 7). Let us not fall short of the grace of God and miss out on the peace he wants us to enjoy.

·         Based upon how you live, would you call yourself a bondservant of Jesus Christ? Why or why not?

·         How does being a bondservant of someone effect your time, energy, abilities, and decisions?

Prayer: Father, thank you for choosing me, a sinner, and causing me to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:1, 3). I surrender myself completely to you, becoming totally dependent upon you for all my needs. In my weakness, strengthen me with your power (2 Cor. 12:9) that I may fulfill your will for my life. Thank you for your grace that is sufficient for all my needs and your peace that provides comfort at all times.

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A Note

Before leaving for two months in China, I edited again the Philippians devotional blog material to produce 65 entries; enough for thirteen weeks. For each week I wrote a set of notes related to the devotionals for that week to be used for class discussion on Sunday in a BFC setting. My plan is to post the devotionals each day and the class discussion notes on Saturday and then lead the discussion on Sunday.

I have made arrangements with the church I am a member of to teach a class on an experimental basis. Since the first class will start on January 9th, posting will begin on January 3rd. If others are interested in using these materials for a BFC feel free to do so. I will post the first week of material, starting Monday, November 1, for you to look at and will repost them again starting on January 3rd.