Paul's Love Letter from Prison
A Study of Philippians - 8
We are going to look this time at Paul's letter to the Philippians chapter 3 and v. 1 to 11. He starts this section by encouraging his Philippian friends to "rejoice in the Lord". An Old Testament writer says: "You shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God gives you." Christians have a God and Father who has provided a wonderful salvation and who keeps us day-by-day, and sustains us with His grace. It is in Him that we find our joy. Someone has said, "Christian joy is rooted in the Lord, it will endure while God endures." Let's remember also that joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit as we discover in Galatians chapter 5.
In verse 2 of Philippians chapter 3, Paul tells his readers to watch out for those he describes as "dogs, those men who do evil and who are mutilators of the flesh." This is strong language, but these expressions are used to describe those who were bringing false teaching into the church. Here was a very real danger, and Christians in every age must be on their guard for those who would in any way destroy the truth of God or seek to add to it their own ideas.
In verse 3, Paul describes true believers who live by the truth of God's Word. He says, first: They worship God in the Spirit, or by the Spirit. In the fourth chapter of John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus said, "God is seeking worshippers who must worship in spirit and in truth." To worship God in this way is to pour out to Him, our heavenly Father, our love, praise, adoration and honour.
Second, he describes true believers as those "who glory in Christ Jesus." Christ is the one whom Christians seek to exalt and glorify as their Lord and Saviour.
And, third, the true believer puts "no confidence in the flesh." In other words they place no reliance on themselves or on their own attainments. Their whole dependence for salvation and for living as Christians is in Christ. Someone has said that "Flesh includes everything that is apart from Christ; without Him we are empty and nothing."
We come now to verses 4 to 6 as we discover together Philippians chapter 3. In these verses Paul gives us a self-portrait of his position before he became a Christian. He says that if anyone had reason to put confidence in themselves, he certainly had. He had the privilege of his birthright as a Jew, born of the tribe of Benjamin. He describes himself as "A Hebrew of the Hebrews" and one who, religiously speaking, was a strict adherent to Jewish Law, and in this regard faultless. He was a zealous defender of his religion in his persecution of the church. We also know that Paul had an education that was second to none. Intellectually he was outstanding.
When we come to verses 7 and 8, however, we find just what Paul now thought about all this: "Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things." You know, listening friend, I consider this statement of Paul to be one of the great personal testimonies of the Bible. The Lord Jesus Himself said, "What shall it profit a man if the gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Paul accepted the reality of that, and as a result gained everything by putting his trust in Christ as his Saviour and Lord. He expressed this in chapter one of this letter when he said: "For to me to live IS Christ." He counted all his past gains as rubbish so that he might win Christ - the greatest prize of all!
In this letter Paul is completely taken up with thoughts about his Lord. Christ is the centre and circumference of his thinking. We can discover seven aspects of Paul's wishes concerning the Lord Jesus. You might like to note these down and make them a study of your own.
- To KNOW Christ - chapter 3 v. 10
- To GAIN Christ - chapter 3 v. 8
- To MAGNIFY Christ - chapter 1 v. 20
- To be FOUND IN Christ - chapter 3 v. 9
- To be CONFORMED TO Christ - chapter 3 v. 10
- To be WITH Christ - chapter 1 v. 23
- To REJOICE IN Christ - chapter 2 v. 16
Now let's look at verse 9 of Philippians chapter 3. Paul says:
"I want to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own - that comes from the law - but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."
I believe that here Paul is looking back to the moment in his own life when he personally decided that his own efforts to earn salvation were totally insufficient. He, like you and I, just could not reach God's standard of righteousness. Paul realised that he needed to place his entire trust in the Lord Jesus Christ - the only One who is completely righteous. The prophet Isaiah says in chapter 64 v. 6: "All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags". And in chapter 45 v. 24, "In the Lord alone is righteousness." This is why Paul says, here in verse 9 of our chapter: "I am now found in Christ and I have a righteousness that I never had as a sinner by trying to keep God's commandments - His law. Now, says Paul, my righteousness comes by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. One great Christian hymn-writer put it like this:
"Jesus the Lord our righteousness! Our beauty Thou, our glorious dress. In Thee I boast, in Thee alone; Jesus the Lord our righteousness."
I wonder, have you put off the filthy clothes of sin, and by faith put on the robe of righteousness that Jesus offers to all who will receive it, by faith in Him and His death on the cross to atone for your sins?
Finally, we come to verse 10 of Philippians chapter 3. Here Paul says:
"I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death."
What Paul means here is that he wants to live as Christ lived. In order to do this he desires two things:
First, To know Christ. This is not just head knowledge, but rather it is to experience in everyday life the power of the Holy Spirit that flows from being united with the risen Lord Jesus
Second, he wanted to become like Christ in Christ's death. Paul loved his Lord so much that he was willing to pour out his life if this was the will of God for him. To Paul, this was the true meaning of taking up his cross and following Christ his beloved Master, daily.
What an example he set for his Philippian readers and for us today. May the Lord speak to you today through Paul's love letter to Philippi. And may we be among those who put the Lord Jesus Christ first and foremost in our lives day by day.