The Saints in Christ Jesus
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We are entering a most remarkable Book written by the Holy Ghost through Paul. It is a Book that discloses many of those tender and gentle characteristics which mark the spiritually minded in Christ Jesus. By way of introduction we will seek to disclose some of those inner touches which abound in the opening verses.
1. The joy of comradeship in Christ Jesus. "Paul and Timotheus": that is the way the chapter opens. The conjunction "and" seems to us to reveal the union between the two lives. It is not Paul alone, nor is it Timotheus alone nay, it is "Paul and Timotheus."
And who was Paul? He was one of the greatest preachers of any age, or of all ages, a veritable pillar of strength, a tower among molehills.
And who was Timothy? A youth, immatured thus far, and for the most part unknown in the Early Church. To be sure a youth tried and true, and a youth who from a child had known the Scriptures yet only a youth.
How beautiful it is "Paul and Timotheus." Here is an inside view of Paul's humility of spirit on the one hand, and his spirit of self negation, on the other. The elder had comradeship with the younger, the seer with student; the beginner with the well-seasoned Calvary warrior. Even so it ought to be.
2. The rightful naming of all leaders. "The servants of Jesus Christ." Here it is again. They were comrades in servitude. Paul had never outgrown his sense of slave-hood. He had never sought to put on certain marks which might designate his higher place of authority in Christ. He wore no "'stripes" on his shoulder as epaulets of honor; he did bear marks on his body.
Paul never, never lifted himself above the place of a bondslave. Even his last Letters kept the mark of his lowly place a servant. He was one with Timothy, for both were alike servants.
3. The unity of saints. The Epistle is not addressed to any certain and specified group of Christians at Philippi. The address reads: "To all the saints." That is the way it should read. Among the saints at Philippi there were the rich and the poor, the high and the lowly, the leaders and the led, the nobility and the plebian; however, Paul said, "To all the saints."
4. The secret of oneness "in Christ Jesus." When it comes to rewards there is a necessary difference; when it comes to reigning with Christ there is a distinction. Never, however, is there a difference in the realms of grace. In Christ Jesus it is "all saints." In the Kingdom reign it is "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne."
Grace never makes distinctions between saints, for grace is alike to all.
5. The Father is not left out in Paul's salutation. Philippians 1:2 says, "Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."
If it is Paul and Timotheus, in Philippians 1:1, it is the Father and the Son in Philippians 1:2. Some would like it to have read "Paul and Christ." They would let Timotheus drop out, and they would forget that the Father comes in.
Beloved young people, let us not forget that it is God, the Father, who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Let us not forget that it is God who commendeth His love toward us, in that Christ died for sinners.
I. THE SPIRIT OF GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION (Philippians 1:3-5)
1. Remembering one another. Paul said, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." His remembering was spontaneous. He did not need to be reminded he often thought of them, remembering the dear faces, and the beloved people he knew and loved at Philippi. He remembered them and thanked God for them. If they had mistreated him in aught, or had neglected him now and then, he forgot it; if they had now and then done him an injury, he passed it by. All that he remembered was their love and kindnesses, and he thanked God for it all.
2. Praying for one another. It reads so delightfully, "Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy." Here are words built up like a great edifice. He could have written, simply, "I pray for you." But he said, "I always pray for you." He could have stopped at that, but he said, "I always pray in every prayer." That, however, did not satisfy the heart of Paul. For he went on and said, that he always prayed with joy.
Here is a great climactic note. We may pray for one another now and again, but we do not in every prayer do so. We may pray for one another, and yet know no real thrill of joy in so praying.
God give us more of the spirit of love and joy in our prayers.
3. The great theme of Paul's prayer. Philippians 1:5 gives this to us. "For your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now."
Here is something very vital to Christian life the comradeship of saints. To be sure, our chief fellowship is with the Father and with His Son our Lord Jesus Christ; and yet, in Him, we have fellowship one with another.
II. THE GREAT ASSURANCE (Philippians 1:6)
1. Paul expressed no confidence in the ability of the saints at Philippi to save themselves. Paul loved those in Philippi who knew the Lord, and he said many good things about them; however, he knew that the certainty of their final salvation, just the same as the beginning of their faith, did not depend on themselves. Christ is the Saviour. He is also the Keeper. Christ is the Beginner, and He is also the Finisher of redemption.
It was the Apostle who cried out concerning himself, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."
Our flesh is not our Saviour. Our good deeds are not our Saviour. Neither do we trust in ourselves, but in the Lord.
2. Paul had all confidence in Christ.
(1) He knew that Christ began the good work in the saints. It was He who had died, and finished the redemptive work of Calvary. It was the Spirit who convicted them of sin, and who, upon their faith, quickened them into new life.
(2) He knew that Christ was the Finisher of our faith. In Hebrews 12:1-29 we read of "Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith." This is the message to the Philippians: "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."
(3) He knew that great climax of redemption was "the day of Jesus Christ." That is the day of the redemption of our bodies. That is the day when we shall be gathered unto Him in the skies, to be forever with the Lord.
III. THE PLACE OF AFFECTION (Philippians 1:7)
1. Paul said "I think of you all." There is that in the Christian life which knits life to life. There is a consideration and a thoughtful concern the one for the other in Christ, that surpasses all bounds.
2. Paul said, "I have you in my heart." Even so. Is the heart not the seat of our affection? Is the heart not the proper place to hide away our truest friends? Christian love is a holy love. It is the most beautiful of all things in earth. "Now abideth faith, hope, charity (love), these three"; but the greatest of these is love.
When we have the love of God in our hearts, we have also love one to another. In fact, if a man say, "I love God," and he loveth not his brother, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
3. Paul said, "Ye all are partakers of my grace." The Apostle was evidently looking back to those days when he made his missionary journeys. It was the saints at Philippi who oft refreshed him. It was they who helped him forward in his task of preaching the Gospel to all saints, and to all men.
The Apostle also referred to their fellowship with him in his sufferings in the Roman jail. He called it, "my bonds." Whether in the hour of his travels and freedom, or in the hour of his incarceration, the Philippians were the same always true in their devoted assistance to the Apostle.
Best of all is this: Paul called both his missionary journeys and his imprisonment, "My grace." He seemed to count it all joy to suffer, and also a grace from God to be imprisoned.
IV. THE YEARNINGS OF A TRUE HEART (Philippians 1:8-9)
1. The depth of Paul's inner heart throbs. Paul said: "God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." One would now think of Paul as a devoted lover, absent from the one he loved, but ever longing for her. Indeed, he was a lover. First of all, he loved God; and then he loved all saints. However, Paul had a very special love to the saints at Philippi. He called God to record as to the greatness of his love, and of his longings after the welfare of those whom he had led to Christ.
It is not enough to have a true service in behalf of others. We must have a service which pulls at the heartstrings.
Our Lord Jesus had compassion upon many. He loved the common people. The word "compassion" has a splendid definition in Philippians 1:8, when Paul said: "I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." He seemed to say, My longings for you are of a similar fibre with those of Christ Jesus. In fact, he said, they are in Jesus Christ.
2. The yearning prayer. Philippians 1:9 gives us these words: "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment." That they loved God there was no doubt; but Paul prayed for them, that they might abound in love. He did not suggest that in one moment they could be made perfect in love, for he said, "Yet more and more."
V. THE THINGS WHICH ARE EXCELLENT (Philippians 1:10)
There are two outstanding things in Philippians 1:10 :
1. "That ye may approve things that are excellent." We wonder if it would be difficult for the young people to make a list of those things which they highly prize, of those things which are excellent in their conceptions.
Would their "Excellent things" be the same as the things which Paul had in mind as, in the Holy Ghost he wrote to the Phillippians?
God has His good things, and His better things; He also has His best. There are things which are even superlative in the sight of God. They are the excellent things. They are excellent because they excel. They are excellent because they are uncontaminated by carnality. They are excellent because they are brilliants as they shine in the realm of Christian graces.
We have no doubt that love love to God and love to all saints, as well as love to a lost world, would head the list. When Paul wrote of love, he called it the more excellent way. It is the more excellent, because love excels in all things.
In the things more excellent, we must place faith and hope and peace and joy, and all of the fruits of the Spirit.
The fact is that our next verse, Philippians 1:11, calls these things, "the fruits of righteousness."
2. "That ye may be sincere and without offence." We have two things here, in one:
(1) Sincerity means reality. It is something that knows no compromise, and displays no camouflage. It is the gold tried in the fire. It is the genuine, and not the counterfeit. It rings true under every test.
(2) "Without offense" means first of all what Paul said, "I know nothing by (against) myself." It means, "My conscience is void of offense toward God and toward men."
Offense, then, may be toward God, on the one hand, and it may be toward our brethren, on the other. The ideal Christian life is a life that never eats meat, if meat makes a brother to offend. Instead of dragging down, it lifts up.
VI. THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (Philippians 1:11)
1. The call of God is a call to fruit bearing. We will never forget the words of our Lord concerning "fruit, more fruit, and much fruit." In the Old Testament days the Lord planted Him a vine out of Egypt. He caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. His vine sent out its boughs unto the sea, and its branches unto the river.
As we behold that vine today, we find its hedges broken down, and all of those who pass by do pluck her. "The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it."
Why was this vine burned with fire? Why was it trodden down? There is but one answer: The Lord looked for it to bear fruit, even grapes, but it bore wild grapes.
Israel today is smitten before the Almighty because she was a fruitless vine. The Lord also has planted another vine, and He is looking for fruit. It was to this vine that Paul referred when he said "being filled with the fruits of righteousness."
2. The call of God is a call unto the glory and praise of God. We are not to bear fruit that we may glorify ourselves. It is written: "Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit."
Whatsoever we do should be done to the glory of God. Let no man glory in the flesh, and let no man glory in men. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. If we should not glory in the flesh, then we should not live in order to obtain human glory.
We love the Old Testament statement, "That they might be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory."
The New Testament puts it this way: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people." But why are we these four things? The Scripture is, plain: "That ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."
VII. THE FURTHERANCE OF THE GOSPEL (Philippians 1:12-14)
1. A new way of judging the events which befall us. The Apostle Paul said: "The things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel." He wanted the Philippians to understand these things.
The Apostle did not parade his sufferings and his sorrows as though he had been mistreated, misjudged, and even forsaken of God. He rather gathered up everything that could happen unto himself: all of the heartaches, all of the stripes, the fastings, the shipwrecks, the imprisonment in Rome all of these, said he, have had one purpose and one accomplishment: the furtherance of the Gospel.
Would we be willing to labor in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft, if we thought that thereby our ministry might be made more effective for Christ?
2. A new way of preaching Christ. Philippians 1:13 is most marvelous: "So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places."
Think of it: Paul was preaching the Gospel not only with his lips, but also with his bonds. It was not so much what he said that had impressed the king in the palace at Rome, as it was the way he bore his imprisonment. There was something in Paul himself; in his love, and joy, and patience, and faithfulness, which magnified Christ.
3. A new way of encouraging others. The Apostle also said that the brethren in the Lord waxed confident by reason of his bonds, and were made more bold to speak the Word without fear.
AN ILLUSTRATION
We often make a great mistake, thinking that God is not guiding us at all, because we cannot see far ahead. But this is not His method. He only undertakes that the steps of a good man should be ordered by the Lord. Not next year, but tomorrow. Not the next mile, but the next yard. Not the whole pattern, but the next stitch in the canvas. If you expect more than this, you will be disappointed, and get * * into the dark. But this will secure to you leading in the right way, as you will acknowledge when you review it from the hilltops of Glory. We cannot ponder too deeply the lessons of the cloud given in the exquisite picture-lesson on guidance in Numbers 9:15-23. Let us look high enough for guidance. Let us encourage our souls to wait only upon God, till it is given. Let us cultivate that meekness which He will guide in judgment. Let us seek to be of quick understanding, that we may be apt to see the least sign of His will. Let us stand with girded loins and lighted lamps, that we may be prompt to obey. F. B. Meyer.