Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 37.
immersed in Philippians.
The believers in Philippi in the province of Macedonia, like the believers in
Colossi, learned that Paul was in prison, so they also sent a messenger.
A man named I Paphitis to bring a generous gift and to care for Paul.
The Philippians later heard that e parodi had become gravely ill, perhaps
as a result of travel and caregiving, and no doubt, a great deal of stress.
They sent word to find out how he was doing and must have
waited anxiously for news.
Paul responded by sending them a messenger, I Parodi himself.
Paul explained in his letter that God had mercy on a paphitis and healed him.
Paul was now sending back his true brother coworker and fellow
soldier, so the Philippians wouldn't be concerned about him.
If a Paphitis needed further recovery, he could do so among friends now that he had
completed his mission in his letter to the Philippian church, Paul also thanks
the Philippians for their gift shares.
His latest news draws some spiritual lessons from his experiences and
addresses some key issues in the church that Epaphroditus had reported.
In the midst of all this, Paul weaves in the theme of being in Christ and the
need to press on in joy and endurance until the day of Christ's return.
Paul was especially close to the church in Philippi, and they had been steady
in their friendship and support of Paul.
So Paul's letter is warm, yet he acknowledges the hard realities
and pressures that both he and the church in Philippi are facing.
While Paul is in prison in Rome, the Philippians are following Christ in
a challenging environment, a city inhabited by veteran Roman soldiers.
Nonetheless, Paul's letter is filled with words of confidence and hope
reminding the church that this very pressure leads to the spread of
God's message in Philippians, as in all of his letters except Galatians.
Paul begins with a section of Thanksgiving and prayer.
Within this section, he introduces some of the key points of the letter,
including his strong partnership with the Philippians and his
desire that they continue to grow in knowledge and understanding.
He expresses gratitude for their contribution to the spread of the gospel,
probably reflecting their generous financial support, which is explicitly
mentioned at the end of the letter.
As Paul begins the main section of the letter, he explains how the good
news is spreading in spite of his imprisonment, even among the palace
guard that is the emperor's personal bodyguard, he expresses contentment
in the midst of his circumstances, desiring that his life would bring honor
to Christ, whether he lives or dies.
In other words, whether he has declared innocent and set free
or found guilty and executed.
Paul reminds the Philippians that their true and primary citizenship is
not with Rome, but with their king in heaven, while they await the return
of their king, when all things will be brought under his control, and
believers will be raised from the dead.
They are too live as God's new people in the world.
They can do so by following the example of Christ who did not take advantage of
his high position, but humbled himself completely out of obedience to God.
Jesus is the king because he was first the slave.
Paul also counters those who like the troublemakers in Galatia and those
pressuring the Colossians were telling Gentile believers in Philippi that
they had to observe the Jewish law.
Paul argues that such human efforts were unnecessary, showing that
while his own Jewish credentials are considerable superior, in fact, to
those of his adversaries, All such credentials fail to compare with the
infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus.
Throughout the letter, Paul relays a strong note of joyfulness, both
his own joy and his encouragement of joy in the Philippians.
Even in the face of fearful situations, God's message about the world's
true Lord is going forward even into very heart of Caesar's Empire.
The letter to the Philippians.
This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.
I'm writing to all of God's holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus,
including the church leaders and deacons.
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace
Every time I think of you.
I give thanks to my God.
Whenever I pray, I make my request for all of you with joy.
For you have been my partners in spreading the good news about Christ
from the time you first heard it until now, and I am certain that God who began
the good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished
on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you
have a special place in my heart.
You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment
and in defending and confirming the truth of the good news.
God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender
compassion of Christ Jesus.
I pray that your love will overflow more and more and that you will keep on
growing in knowledge and understanding.
For I want you to understand what really matters.
So that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ return.
May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation, the
righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ, for this will
bring much glory and praise to God.
And
I want you to know my dear brothers and sisters, that everything
that has happened to me here has helped to spread the good news.
For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that
I am in chains because of Christ and because of my imprisonment.
Most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly
speak God's message without fear.
It's true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry, but others
preach about Christ with pure motives.
They preach because they love me, for they know I have been
appointed to defend the good news.
Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ.
They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely intending to make
my chains more painful to me, but that doesn't matter whether their
motives are false or genuine.
The message about Christ is being preached either way.
So I rejoice and I will continue to rejoice.
For, I know that as you pray for me and the spirit of Jesus Christ helps me.
This will lead to my deliverance.
For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I
will continue to be bold for Christ as I have been in the past, as I
trust that my life will bring honor to Christ whether I live or die.
For, to me, living means living for Christ and dying is even better.
But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ.
So I really don't know which is better.
I'm torn between two desires.
I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me.
But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live knowing this.
I'm convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow
and experience the joy of your faith.
And when I come to you again, you'll have even more reason to
take pride in Christ Jesus because of what he is doing through me.
Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven conducting yourselves in a manner
worthy of the good news about Christ.
Then whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know
that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose fighting together
for the faith, which is the good news.
Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies.
This will be assigned to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you
are going to be saved even by God himself.
For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but
also the privilege of suffering for him.
We are in this struggle together.
You have seen my struggle in the past and you know that I
am still in the midst of it.
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ?
Any comfort from his love, any fellowship together in the spirit, are
your hearts tender and compassionate?
Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other,
loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
Don't be selfish.
Don't try to impress others.
Be humble thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Don't look out only for your own interests, but take
an interest in others too.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had, though he was God.
He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges.
He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal's death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave
him the name above all other names.
The at the name of Jesus.
Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth and every
tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord.
To the glory of God the father.
Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now
that I'm away, it is even more important.
Work hard to show the results of your salvation.
Obeying God with deep reverence and fear for God is working in
you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
Do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you.
Live clean, innocent lives as children of God shining like bright lights.
In a world full of crooked and perverse people hold firmly to the word of life.
Then on the day of Christ return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in
vain and that my work was not useless.
But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out
like a liquid offering to God.
Just like your faithful service is an offering to God, and I want
all of you to share that joy.
Yes, you should rejoice and I will share your joy.
If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit.
Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along.
I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare.
All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ.
But you know how Timothy has proved himself like a son with his father.
He has served with me in preaching the good news.
I hope to send him to you just as soon as I find out what is going to happen to me
here and I have confidence from the Lord that I myself will come to see you soon.
Meanwhile, I thought I should send a parodi back to you.
He is a true brother, coworker and fellow soldier, and he was your
messenger to help me in my need.
I'm sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was
very distressed that you heard he was ill and he certainly was ill.
In fact, he almost died, but God had mercy on him.
And also on me so that I would not have one sorrow after another.
So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you for I
know you'll be glad to see him.
And then I will not be so worried about you.
Welcome him in the Lord's love and with great joy, and give him the honor
that people like him deserve for.
He risked his life for the work of Christ and he was at the point
of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from far away.
Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters rejoice in the Lord.
I never get tired of telling you these things and I do
it to safeguard your faith.
Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say,
you must be circumcised to be saved.
For we who worship by the spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised.
We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us.
We put no confidence in human effort.
Though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could indeed, if
others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more.
I was circumcised when I was eight days old.
I am a pure blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin,
a real Hebrew, if there ever was one.
I was a member of the Pharisees.
Who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.
I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church, and as for righteousness,
I obeyed the law without fault.
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them
worthless because of what Christ has done.
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value
of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage so that I
could gain Christ and become one with him.
I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law.
Rather I become righteous through faith in Christ for God's way
of making us right with himself.
Depends on faith.
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power
that raised him from the dead.
I want to suffer with him sharing in his death so that one way or another I will
experience the resurrection from the dead.
I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have
already reached perfection, but I press on to possess that perfection for
which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
No dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it.
What I focus on this one thing, forgetting the past and looking
forward to what lies ahead.
I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which
God through Christ Jesus is calling us.
Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things.
If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain
to you, but we must hold onto the progress we have already made.
Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and learn from
those who follow our example for I have told you often before, and I say it
again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are
really enemies of the cross of Christ.
They're headed for destruction.
Their God is their appetite.
They brag about shameful things and they think only about this life here on earth,
but we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives and we are eagerly
waiting for him to return as our savior.
He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into
glorious bodies like his own.
Using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord.
I love you and long to see you dear friends, for you are my joy and
the crown I receive from my work.
Now I appeal to yo Dia and syn please, because you belong to the Lord.
Settle your disagreement, and I ask you my true partner to help these
two women for they worked hard with me in telling others the good news.
They worked along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names
are written in the book of life.
Always be full of joy in the Lord.
I say it again, rejoice.
Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.
Remember the Lord is coming soon.
Don't worry about anything.
Instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.
Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.
His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.
Fix your thoughts on what is true.
And honorable and right, and pure, and lovely and admirable.
Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me.
Everything you heard from me and saw me doing, then that
God of peace will be with you.
How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again.
I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to
help me, not that I was ever in need for.
I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.
I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything I have learned the secret
of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty with
plenty or little for, I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.
Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.
As you know, you, Philippians, were the only ones who gave me financial help.
When I first brought you the good news and then traveled on from
Macedonia, no other church did this.
Even when I was in Thessalonica.
You sent help more than once.
I don't say this because I want a gift from you.
Rather.
I want you to receive a reward for your kindness.
At the moment, I have all I need and more.
I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with a parodi.
They are a sweet smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God.
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from
his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Now, all glory to God, our father, forever and ever.
Amen.
Give my greetings to each of God's holy people, all who belong to Christ Jesus.
The brothers who are with me send you their greetings, and all the rest of
God's people send you greetings too.
Especially those in Caesar's household.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.