Is this a well-wish, or a goodbye?

Paul is facing death. He has probably months, if maybe 2 years before he is killed by Nero. He writes to his dear friends, to call them to faith, to encouragement them to measure everything by Jesus Christ, and to remember what they learned about living for God from him when he was with them.

Paul often called his followers to live as he lived. Every pastor should live this well, and be so bold.

The church was being assaulted by bad teaching. There was a lot of confusion in the air. There were people being torn apart by the internal debates about the Law and what to follow in the Law and what is now “fulfilled” by the death of Christ.

Paul writes from prison, his eyes are on his people. He is not calling for attention or sympathy, he is calling his people to rejoice!

Philippians 3

3:1 “Rejoice” is a word of encouragement. Or it can be a greeting. It can mean, “Rejoice,” “Celebrate.” Or as greeting, or salutation, it can mean, “Farewell”, Goodbye.” In this context, it could turn in either direction. The call to rejoice fits. Telling them “Goodbye,” in the light of the closeness of his death, also fits.

He could be covering both wings with one word. Paul is saying “good bye” and he is also sharing his unflappable joy with those he ministers. The typical Greek greeting in “caire” “xaire” (here the 2^nd person singular, vocative, “Hi” in English) is the same word translated “rejoice” in Philippians 3:1.  Something to ponder: Was he saying “good bye” or simply “rejoice”? Or both?

The reader who is paying attention would ask, “Why Paul would say to his friends that  “calling them to rejoice” “is no trouble to me”?  How could calling them to rejoice ever be “trouble” for someone? Unless they were severely handicapped incapable of writing or in great pain.

Why would it be trouble to Paul or safety to the people to whom he is writing? The word “trouble” in this phrase, means “irksome” or “tedious.” But why would it be trouble, or irksome, or tedious to call people to rejoice? If there were a hint of “farewell” in his first phrase, it could be that though he is facing an imminent death, the over-powering  love he has for his people is so strong that it is no disruption of his few remaining days, of his weeks before his execution, to be reminded of his dear friends, and to have the honor of calling  them to rejoice. It was neither  too much for him to take the time, it  was a worthy  interruption to his difficult days and he desired to send them his final greetings to them in spite of  his circumstances. He cherished them more than his comfort and more than thinking about his coming sufferings.

We see that these letters were not written in a protected cloister, but in the reality of prison and trials an impending torture and death. So the context here, as always, is everything. Lightfoot says that the words seem aimed as some actual or threatened evil (Lightfoot, Philippians, ad loc). Paul appears to hear the call to “rejoice” as being in some manner out of kilter with the current situation of the Philippian church. He writes to their situation, not his own.

Walking through the verses in Philippians 3.

3:1  “Finally.” Paul is pulling together the last section of this letter. Here he says, “Rejoice.”  This comes up in 2:18 (“rejoice”) and 4:4 “rejoice, rejoice” 2x.

Rejoicing is a theme.

Rejoice appears across the book of Philippians (all ESV):

• Philippians 1:18

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Yes, and I will rejoice,

• Philippians 2:17

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

• Philippians 2:18

Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

• Philippians 2:28

I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious.

• Philippians 3;1

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

• Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

• Philippians 4:10

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.

The language of family. 

“Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.”

He speaks of Epaphroditus as “my brother” in 2:25.

But he speaks of Timothy in 2:22 as “my son.”

“Children of God” are mentioned in 2:15.

“My beloved” in 2:12.

When Paul begins the letter in 1:12, he says, “I want you do know, brothers.”

He calls the Christians “saints in Christ Jesus” in 1:1. If he calls “God our Father” in 1:2, then we all are brothers and sisters.

The warnings.

There is a pattern in Paul’s letters of “warning against prevailing danger” at the end of his letters (Lightfoot, Philippians, ad loc.)

• 1 Corinthians 16:22 there is a reminder of the Lord’s coming and the ethical requirements for us who will stand before him.
• Galatians 6:15 Paul summarizes his argument in the midst of the circumcision controversy, “circumcision is nothing; uncircumcision is nothing –“
• 1 Thessalonians 5:14 – he confronts what was a “spirit  of restlessness” (Lightfoot), “the idle, the fainthearted, the weak.” And adds a command, “Be patient with them all.”

The threats were fierce and those who opposed them were without moral constraint. In Deuteronomy 23:19 people were called “dogs” who engage in godless worship practices, some of which were most detestable. Paul here refers to the Judaisers as “dogs.” Those who required obedience to the Mosaic law as a pre-condition of coming to faith in Jesus Christ were seen as just as evil, just as confused and misled, as those who worshiped false gods. It is a searing denunciation. The dangers were strong and those who opposed him were fierce enemies, like dogs would be.

The Gospel compared to anyone and everything.

Paul remembers his heritage, his training, and his practice. He was without peer in his seriousness and commitment to the faith of Judaism. And he was dead wrong. He presents his turn-about as “whatever he considered gain, he now counts as loss.”  This is a reflection of Jeremiah 9:23-24, where the same idea is presented in a much different  context.

This conflict is laid out so that Paul can bring his own experience in coming out of Phariseeism and being a persecutor of the church (even imprisoning several and perhaps killing some Christians before his conversion).What a statement to be made by a man who once resisted and terrorized Christians!

The case is made, Philippians 3:3, “We are the circumcision.” We are the true people of God, not they. We are the people of promise, not they. We are those who obey the Law and fulfill it, not they. We are those who received the Lord’s Christ, certainly not they. We are the ones who worship God in the Spirit, not they. We are the true people of God, not they. This is a bold statement of the singular place of Christians in the Kingdom of God. Only by Christ alone. Only by Faith alone. Only by Grace alone. Only by Scripture alone. Only to God be the glory, and to him alone.

Christians have faith in Christ.  “We put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3b). These principles apply in one overarching theme:  The Gospel is our greatest value. We treasure what God has done for us in Christ more than anything that we could ever do in our service to God or in our sacrifice, or in our family heritage, or in our zeal for God. All of that means nothing compared to the grace of God and the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3:4-6 – Paul’s Curriculum Vitae.

He was circumcised on the 8th Day, as required by the Law of Moses.

He was born of the tribe of Benjamin. This was one of the few tribes that survived the Exile and was one of only two surviving tribes (with Judah, not considering Levi that didn’t have an allotment of land, but dwelt with the other tribes).

He was an extremist in the keeping of the Law. He was a Pharisee.

He was zealous, even a persecutor of the Church.

With regard to his righteousness under the Law of Moses, he was blameless; there was no one who could accuse him of failing to keep the Law.

Renunciation.

Philippians 3:7, “Whatever gain Ihad, I count as loss for the sake of Christ.”

Philippians 3:8, “I count everything as loss …”

The renunciation of all achievement, all status, all earned righteousness, all rights are all counted loss. The renunciation of our achievements, our status, our importance, our religion, come into our lives because Christ becomes more and more dominate, supreme, beautiful, and glorious to us throughout our lives, the more we walk with him and love him more and more.

His renunciation.

Follow the perspective of Paul as he describes his faith through the verbs from 3:8-3:11

I count everything as loss. I have suffered the loss of all things.   That I may gain Christ. That I may know him. That I may become like him. That I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

There is a complete shift in Paul’s understanding, his view of himself. There is a new values-system, which Christ as the focus and sole end point.

Keep the goal in mind through all of life.

The goal is clearly set out in the personal call to this followers in the verbs that he chooses in 3:12-21.

I press on (3:12), “Forgetting what lies behind and straining to what lies ahead.”

“Let us hold true to what we have attained” (3:16). The holding true to the principles of faith and obedience, following Christ, laying everything aside, all is assured by the call to “hold true.”

“Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (3:17). The practical example of the devoted life impacted many believers in the early church. They showed them how to live.

The last, “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (3:20). The physical return of Jesus Christ or the ascension of the believer be with him as our death is comfort and encouragement to live for Christ and to serve him, “whether we live or whether we die.”  That is an unfamiliar call in today’s church.

The same power that transforms our lives is the same power that will transform all things and bring them all under his dominion and Kingship forever. What happens in us is connected to what Christ does to the whole of the Universe.