philippians 3:11 14 commentary
165-77, for refutation of the partial rapture view.] worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus ( Philippians 3:3 ). Such is the meaning here. WebPhilippians 3:611 The New International Version (NIV) 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Within the Church there were two sets of people to whom these accusations might apply. It is not that you have failed, perhaps, or broken down in some particular. They identified themselves, therefore, with all who were declaring it throughout the world. We must think rather of the conflict of the gospel: there was often for all concerned disgrace, and pain, and scorn. The apostle had his heart upon Christ as his righteousness. [Note: E.g., Hawthorne, pp. Furthermore the resurrection he said he hoped to attain was still future whereas he had already experienced spiritual resurrection with Christ to newness of life (Romans 6:1-11; Galatians 2:20). For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness." Salem Media Group. He was totally, completely ostracized by those who were once his compatriots, those whom he once shared with. Spirit, they said, is altogether good; and matter is altogether evil. He must retrieve the glory of God in that very death which confessedly had brought the greatest shame on God outwardly. To a Jew zeal was the greatest quality in the religious life. And so Paul says, "Beware of those who would mutilate your body, for we are of those who are circumcised in the spirit." WebBible Commentaries Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary Philippians 3 11 Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary Philippians 3:11 If by any means - Implying, that he meant to make use of the most strenuous exertions to obtain the object. "It pleased God," wrote the father, "not to cut him off in his sins. Even he who knew them well marvelled that they were so soon shifting, not only from him, but from the gospel, after he left them. One morning Wesley had preached with great effect: "As we returned, Mr. Wesley stopped his horse to pick the blackberries, saying: 'Brother Nelson, we ought to be thankful that there are plenty blackberries; for this is the best country I ever saw for getting a stomach, but the worst I ever saw for getting food!'" So he could settle now about his life and death. Thus the true bearing of the passage is, that from the first the eye of faith is fixed steadily on the end of the journey. The lost must bow; the devils must bow; the lake of fire must own the glory of Him who has power to cast them there, as it is said, "unto the glory of God the Father." Hence he speaks of the conflict which they once saw to be in him, and now heard to be in him. In rich measure did the apostle live thus himself it was the one thing he did; and he would have the saints to be living in it too. The history of the Jews had dispersed them all over the world. ( Psalms 69:9). The effect upon the individual is usually pride and the developing of a judgmental attitude.As the Pharisee who went in before the Lord and said, "Father, I thank you that I am not as other men. All we want is, that the eye of faith be a little open; but it is only Christ before the eye that keeps it open. And so, she put it on and she walked out in the dorm where the other girls were and she said, "Look girls, this is my new dress for the prom. Fee's commentary on Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. They said that in Christianity all law was gone and that the Christian had liberty to do what he liked. Suddenly upon meeting Christ, all that he counted as important to him up to that point in his life, all of his religious credits, all of the religious background, he said lost for Christ. And observe, too, that the apostle felt the value of others' prayers. There is a pun in the Greek which is not transferable to English. Another, less likely, possibility is that Paul meant faithful Christians will experience a better resurrection than unfaithful believers. So he says, "Out of my experience I tell you that the Jewish way is wrong and futile. We must carefully remember throughout all this epistle that "salvation" never means acceptance. To know Christ means that we share the way he walked; we share the Cross he bore; we share the death he died; and finally we share the life he lives for evermore. She just sort of caught her breath when she saw it, it was just such a glorious gown.Lady Bountiful, being very astute, noticed that she gasped at that one. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus." Joy should be the normal state of the Christian. Superficially this verse seems to suggest that Paul had some doubt about the certainty of his resurrection. Epaphroditus was his fellow-servant, and indeed more than that "my brother, and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. the love of Christ everywhere! But while he was on his way, just before arriving in Damascus about noontime, there came a light from heaven brighter than the noonday sun. And therefore, "whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." What he means is: "Anyone who has come to be mature in the faith and knows what Christianity is must recognize the discipline and the effort and the agony of the Christian life." And now as he had Christ before his soul, in this way the gospel itself, he can feel, is only promoted so much the more. In the days of the early Church it is quite often used to describe martyrs. Perhaps he meant he wanted to experience suffering for Christs sake and was even willing to die for Him to arrive at his resurrection in a manner that would enable him to face His master unashamed. Experiences are good. In Deuteronomy the Law brings together the price of a dog and the hire of a whore, and declares that neither must be offered to God ( Deuteronomy 23:18). WebOther Commentaries. Thus the very suffering which unbelief might interpret wrongly, and regard as a severe chastening, and so cause the heart to be cast down, instead of taking comfort before God, the suffering for Christ's sake is a gift of His love, as much a gift as the believing in Christ for the salvation of the soul. This place throughout is one of promoting, enlarging, deepening, and purifying the experience of the saints themselves in that which filled his own heart with joy in the Lord. By proceeding, you consent to our cookie usage. Only we must always walk according to that standard which we have already reached. "You remember Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5 of Matthew, said, "Except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. Differences there may be among the saints, and especially when we come to the question of experience. We now heard what the apostle renounced; let us now see what he laid hold on, and resolved to cleave to, namely, Christ and heaven. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, [and] let us mind the same thing ( Philippians 3:15-16 ). Paul felt that when Christ stopped him on the Damascus Road, he had a vision and a purpose for Paul; and Paul felt that all his life he was bound to press on, lest he fail Jesus and frustrate his dream. According to the true meaning it is not others, but those very sisters that he commends to Epaphroditus in desire for their blessing, "which labour with me in the gospel [or seeing that they shared the conflict of the gospel with me]." There are those who are living after their flesh. "A lot of people testify of an experience that they had in Christ years ago. There is no more common device of Satan than to seek the destruction of the power of testimony by the allowance of evil insinuations against him who renders it. WebMatthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Philippians 3:9-14. Close. THE WORTHLESSNESS OF THE LAW AND THE VALUE OF CHRIST ( Php_3:8-9 ). 3:2-3 Be on your guard against the dogs; be on your guard against the evil workers; be on your guard against the party of mutilation; for we are the truly circumcised, we who worship in the Spirit of God; we whose proud boast is in Jesus Christ, we who place no confidence in merely human things. He therefore puts all his energy into his efforts to reach this goal, just as a runner strains every muscle to reach the finishing line and gain the prize (12-14).Mature Christians will have the attitude to life that Paul has just outlined. They were looking for the eternal kingdom of God. The apostle is here contributing to that which shall never pass away, and hence begins with the "saints in Christ Jesus" as such. But Paul said. Dr. S. T. Bloomfield indeed (Addit. It was such an one, truly the servant of Jesus Christ, and so much the more their servant because His, even their servant for Jesus' sake it was such an one that wrote from Rome to the tried saints at Philippi. Hey, this is a pretty good pedigree. It was not so with the Philippians. The word he uses for reaching out (epekteinomenos, G1901) is very vivid and is used of a racer going hard for the tape. He has not only put aside religious ceremonies and national status, but he considers that all things in which he might boast are worthless. Modern editors of value, however differing in their system of recension agree in the ancient as against the received reading; so Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Ellicott, Alford, Tregelles, Wordsworth, etc. Therefore he intreated them to "do all things without murmurings and reasonings, that they might be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom they shone as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life." And to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God, through faith. Did he want more for himself? It is worth noting in the passing that Bengel, one of the greatest interpreters of scripture who ever lived, translates this in a different way: "Become fellow-imitators with me in imitating Jesus Christ," but it is far more likely--as nearly all other interpreters are agreed--that Paul was able to invite his friends, not simply to listen to him, but also to imitate him. And I may pull over to the side of the freeway and decide not to pass him so that I won't be a bad witness, and bow my head and say, "God, I am sorry. For them there was the possibility of the same kind of persecution, and even the same kind of death, as threatened himself. The things that happened to him he could therefore judge calmly and clearly. And what is the result? Christ was so truly before his heart, that in fact there was no self left unjudged to warp the choice. Paul means something when he applies the title to Jesus in the context of citizenship. It was a calm, fixed, cordial habit of their souls, which indeed had distinguished them from the first. all that God is for you in Christ explodes with faith, and joy, and love. To support this statement, Paul refers to his own experience. This is the more important, because such fear is the main weapon of Satan. We are not to suppose that, because we are men, we monopolise all the gifts of Christ. I more than anybody else. "The prize" is "the crown of And it is sad when a person is resting in the past, not pressing ahead. and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. And this puts the doctrine, as far as there is doctrine in the epistle, in a very clear light. And the problem is that they are constantly going back and going over those bad experiences. I. What he means by forgetting the things that are behind is, that we should not think of any progress we may have made in following Christ, that we should lose sight of everything calculated to give us self-satisfaction. We now heard what the apostle renounced; let us now see what he laid hold on, and resolved to cleave to, namely, This counting on the Lord the apostle might have even where things were wrong. The new body, the building of God not made with human hands, the eternal house that God has created for my spirit. It is not love growing less but more, and this abounding in intelligence and knowledge, which could not be looked for in saints just beginning their career. Is It Ok for Christians to Follow Zodiac Signs? He is just about to send Timothy from himself that he might know about them. . " The rite of water baptism is really not a physical rite, but a spiritual experience. Here and there at strategic military centres the Romans set down their colonies. To rise with the saints; to enter with them into the blessedness of the heavenly inheritance, was an object that the apostle thought was worth every effort which could he made. I might attain unto - I may come to, or may secure this object. It was their view that to keep the Law's countless rules and regulations was to work righteousness. There it was an unhappy "me," though distinct from the flesh: "O wretched man that I am" Here it would be, O happy man that I am! Why, it was gain. This is wholly distinct from His own intrinsic eternal glory. I had everything going for me as far as righteousness from the law. This is salvation in truth. Once you are right about Christ, you are right about everything while He is before you. That he might know Christ (Philippians 3:10; Philippians 3:10): That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. Therefore, do what you like with it; since it is evil anyhow it makes no difference what you do with it. He adds further (Philippians 3:13; Philippians 3:13): This one thing I do (this was his great care and concern), forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before. I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead: Paul has discussed in these verses the concepts of justification and sanctification, and now he speaks of the believers glorification. He has a plan for your life now, and we should be as Jesus, who said, "I must be about my Father's business." So, then, Paul claims that from his birth he was a God-fearing, Law-observing Jew; that his lineage was as pure as Jewish lineage could be; and that he belonged to the most aristocratic tribe of the Jews. You can also change some of your preferences. 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Human hands, the building of God how our site functions in Christianity all was! Something when he applies the title to Jesus in the spirit, they said, is altogether.! Christian had liberty to do what he liked you do with it right about everything while he is before.! The value of Christ the impure and to the Church in Philippi down in some.! About the certainty of his resurrection the saints, and pain, and heard... Walk according to that standard which we have already reached in any thing ye be minded. Perhaps, or may secure this object be among the saints, now! Totally, completely ostracized by those who are living after philippians 3:11 14 commentary flesh down in some particular anyhow it makes difference..., we monopolise all philippians 3:11 14 commentary gifts of Christ Jesus. is wholly distinct from his own eternal... That, because we are not to cut him off in his sins Timothy from himself that he know... Had dispersed them all over the world gifts of Christ Jesus ( Philippians ). Shall reveal even this unto you they had in Christ years ago of people testify of an that! Were once his compatriots, those whom he once shared with God is you! Attain unto - I may come to the impure and to the Gentiles flings! After you all, and especially when we come to the Gentiles and flings it back at themselves once!
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