The Philippians' Hope and Life

Philippians 3:20-4:9

Set in beautiful contrast to the hope and life of the apostle Paul in section two is the hope and life of the Philippians as presented in this section of the book. The book would not be well balanced if we did not have an account of the hopes of both.

Their hope was the scriptural one. That which in other places is called the blessed hope — the hope of His return. Blessed it is, too, to those who look for Him, but to others — no. Some time ago the writer heard another preacher speaking over the radio belittling the premillenial coming of Jesus. He explained the position of those who hold the blessed hope and then showed hew absurd it was to hold such a view. He inferred that he belonged to scholarship and that scholarship denied the scripturalness of such a doctrine. He defended his position by pointing out that Paul's early epistles were full of the imminent return of Christ but that his later ones scarcely mentioned it. This was to be interpreted that Paul had seen his mistake being over zealous at first and now wrote in a saner vein.

We offer but a simple explanation. Whatever Paul wrote, whether first or last, he wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit knew just as much of Christ's coming first as last. Further, when the apostle was directed to write, he was directed to write upon specific subjects. If those subjects touched the Coming of Christ we have a mention of it. If they do not then we have no mention of it. The lack of the presence of a large amount of material en the subject of eschatology does not indicate any change in doctrine. We mention two of the late epistles, being the prison epistles — Ephesians and Philippians. We believe the subject of these books to be "The Body of Christ and the Conduct of its Members" and "The Fellowship of the Gospel." Neither of these subjects will involve the second coming of Christ very much but as they do it will be presented. Paul devotes two verses of this book to Christ's second coming and what wonderful verses they are. The Philippian's hope was that Christ would come and change their bodies — subdue those bodies unto Himself. The new birth wrought a most wonderful change in the Christian's life in every respect save that of his body. The Christian dwells in an unredeemed body until the resurrection at the time of Christ's coming. And in that body reside the passions of sin.

"For when we were in the flesh, the motions (passions) of sin did work IN OUR MEMBERS to bring forth fruit unto death" (Rom. 7:5).

"For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me: but how to perform that which is good I find not" (Rom. 6:18).

'But I see another law IN MY MEMBERS, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is IN MY MEMBERS" (Rom. 7:23).

"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It (the body) is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor: it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" (I Cor. 15:42-44").

"Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom 8:23).

These passages do not teach that our bodies shall ever be subdued until His coming but other passages in the book of Romans do set forth the fact that the Spirit-led Christian yields his members as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:13, 19). This affords victory for the Christ-like Christian but keeps him very much dependent upon the Holy Spirit lest he walk after the flesh and lose this victory. The Christian though being led of the Spirit and enjoying blessed victory will have to be satisfied to wait until the coming of Christ for the release from sin.

That new body will be worth all the waiting and suffering through which the Christian has passed. It will be a body fashioned like unto His glorious body! John writes "Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2). We shall say with the psalmist "I shall be satisfied when I awake in His likeness."

We must wait but God has not left us comfortless. The portion of verses about the Philippians' life will give us much for the waiting days. Even they may be filled with peace through simple Christian practice. The apostle begins with an exhortation to dwell in unity. He must have been loved deeply by the Philippians to be able to speak so plainly and even enter into personalities. They were all to help Euodias and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Here is a blessed condition indeed when instead of taking sides everyone helped the two parties together. Where such a spirit of unity exists, blessed fellowship must be enjoyed.

Paul continues with the words "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say. Rejoice." To be in the midst of rejoicing Christians is to be in the anti-room of heaven. Some time ago the writer took two laymen and spent an entire day in just such an atmosphere and afterward one of the men said, "I had heard of people like that but that was the first time I was ever with any of them." Both men testified that the day had been one of the highlights of their Christian experience. Why should not every church be like that always? Most surety He is sufficient.

Paul moves on, saying "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." Moderation — the marginal rendering is "gentleness." Way translates it unselfishness. A friend once said, "many Christians do not know what to expect in the victorious life. They just don't know what it is like." If Christians who do know would let their moderation be known unto all men, it would not be long until others would know.

Now comes the Philippians' attitude toward conditions over which they have no control. The word to them was "Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." It was reported in a New York paper that the day after Germany overran the low countries, the number of folk visiting doctors doubled. Their illness was real enough but was brought on by anxiety. The peace of God which passeth understanding is the experience of those who are not anxious but take everything to God in prayer with thanksgiving. God will give them peace if they will but trust Him. This is not a passage which needs explaining nearly as much as it needs believing. We would, however, offer one word. Peace is not a condition which exists when there is no trouble but a condition which exists in spite of it as a result of the keeping power of God. One would find it a profitable experience to search the scriptures and find how often peace is mentioned in the setting of trouble.

During a recess in a law-suit, a lawyer left the court room in the company of the young woman he represented. Sensing the suit was taking a most unfavorable turn, he ask the young woman how it was that she could be so calm when her opponents were succeeding. She replied that her opponents could not enjoy any success that her heavenly Father did not permit and that if she lost the case He was able to provide and care for her.

One other matter of vital concern remains to be touched upon in this study. It is that of the thinking of the Christian — the thoughts he allows to flow through his mind. This is most important for as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. Every thought may be tested by this simple eight-fold test The thought is acceptable if it is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, or praise-worthy. If it does not stand the test it should be rejected, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (II Cor. 10:5). Someone may ask "how may I find such thoughts without great care?" Eight is the number of resurrections in the Bible and if the mind is allowed to dwell upon the Risen Lord, he will experience no difficulty.

This is the life of happy experience to be enjoyed while the Christian is waiting for that glorious moment when Christ shall call His own to Himself and allow them to be "ever with the Lord."