Lesson 4

Classroom Goals of this time together:
* here to see and meet and learn of Jesus
* not to learn about another book in the Bible, but to MEET HIM...here and now; not to finish another epistle, but to grow in each one of our own personal lives/relationships with Jesus
* to grow in our daily day-today JOY IN Him
* to grow in our vision /understanding of Jesus as our SAVIOR everyday in the midst of our lives in a pagan world

ROE: 
* all questions are encouraged all the time
* we are not obligated to agree with me or each other

Obligations:
* ONLY ONE - TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER THROUGHOUT OUR TIME TOGETHER, WHETHER WE AGREE OR NOT WE MUST LOVE EACH OTHER

SUMMARY:
1:1-11  Greetings and Gratitude
JOY/REJOICE
FELLOWSHIP
IN CHRIST
V8-11  Pauls Prayer: Gods Love in Paul compelling him to pray for that SAME love to abound and grow in THEM; HOW?? by their learning of JESUS and LIVING OUT that knowledge in a way that SEES what is really important to JESUS; finishing with his triumphant declaration that JESUS is the ultimate SOURCE of it all; 

1:12-30  Paul's Personal Circumstances: Paul now begins to relate NOT JUST the facts of his recent trials and and experiences, but MORE importantly, their meaning and HIS RESPONSE to them. 

1:12  {prokope} the Gospel "rather" (KJV) than obstructed it; This Greek word carries with it a sort of metaphor picturing pioneers cutting {kopto} a way before (or in front of) {pro} an army, and so furthering its march; 
What a perfect word for them to hear, as he is the pioneer for his precious army of beloved Phillipians to follow behind as they march onward to spread the Gospel; He MUST have wanted them to see themselves as such; 
And we ourselves AS WELL; and who is it that we are? BOTH the cutters AND the followers: we are able to prepare the way for SO MANY of our precious brothers and sisters, our children and theirs, as well; By lifting up each other in prayer we can cut a way through the harsh and hard burdens we each face every day and every week in the world; HOW CRUCIAL THAT WE PARY FOR EACH OTHER THIS WAY, PRAYING THE LORD TO CLEAR OUT A WAY FOR EACH OTHER; 
But HOW can we pray IF WE DON'T ASK OF EACH OTHER WHAT OUR NEEDS AND BURDENS ARE??? 
We MUST pray for our Pastor, that HIS way will be cleared even as he labors to clear and cut a way ahead for all of US; 

1:13  How MUCH we need to change our point of view!! God can avail MUCH, HE is the God who feeds thousands from a few fish and loaves of bread; To us, like the Phillipians, Pauls imprisonment would have had all the earmarks of catastrophy, but he calls out to them: NOT SO!!
NOT ONLY that, these guards would also witness the actions of the other believers towards Paul as they sent their gifts of true Christ-like love; READ John 13:34-35 where the Lord Himself says that its OUR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER that testifies to the lost about HIM; 
Other believers were so encouraged by the witness of what the Lord had done in and through Paul while he was in the midst of what they ALL had feared (arrest, imprisonment, and possibly execution), that THEY were able to finally stand up and speak a bolder and more forthright witness themselves; 
[Mention Biographies again]
"...in the Lord, waxing confident..."  we must never forget that our confidence must rest SOLEY and ONLY IN THE LORD and no where else; not in what some other brother is doing or able to do, but rather IN WHAT THEIR ACTIONS DEMONSTRATE THAT THE LORD IS ABLE AND WILLING TO DO IN ALL OF US!! 
And because our precious Phillipian brother and sisters were able to do this what happened in their lives? They gained more freedom from the Lord to do what?? Direct trans "...the Word of God to speak." The Greek verb trans "to speak" really addresses the actual fact that they did speak rather than the substance of speaking; They had finally broken the silence of their lives that they had built about the Lord in the midst of the world they lived in; 

OK, so that's great!! Paul can now ride triumphantly into the sunset, with everything ALL settled...NO!!!
That good news was NOT the only response his life provoked; 

Read 1:15-17
Lets FIRST talk of the "others" in v15b-16:
1:15b-16  others who speak from "goodwill" (v15b); out of love (v16a) {agape}: WHAT love?? the same Paul prays for them in vs9; love for WHO?? For Jesus, for His body, and specifically for Paul who could not help but rejoice at their new found boldness "to speak"; 
WHY?? THEY "knowing" (KJV, NIV), also trans "recognize" (NASB, AMP) "...I am set" or "...appointed" {keimai}: a military term implying being posted on or assigned to duty, only HIS appointment is from the Lord; 

OK; NOW lets do the tough part...
1:15  JUST Who ARE these people that Paul was describing, ANYWAY??? Men of "envy and strife", "of contention, not sincerely"; ARE they Christians?? False Christians not really saved?? 
NO, they ARE our brothers and sisters in JESUS; This vs seems to reflect directly back upon the immediately previous vs, to that "most" (NASB, AMP, NIV) or "many" (KJV) referred to as being encouraged to "speak the word of God"; These men are a group within that company of TRUE Christians; They were not pagans using the name of Christ in blasphemy, nor are they heretics trying to teach FALSE doctrine: they are ALL teaching what Paul called "the word of God": ie a TRUE Gospel; If they had NOT been teaching the truth, Paul would SURELY have hammered their blasphemy or heresy as he does later in the letter concerning the Judaizers; 
WHAT WAS FALSE WAS NOT THEIR TEACHING, BUT RATHER THEIR MOTIVES!; ie the reasons behind their teaching of the Gospel; 
"envy": WHY "ENVY"?? they are jealous of Paul's influence, and so see his captivity as an opportunity to further their own personal efforts to become famous "christian speakers", and since being unable to compete with their fellow preachers would have galled them to death, they must be assuming that Paul is feeling as they imagined that they would have felt; they are OPENLY DELIGHTED as his seeming misfortune and are blatantly trying to capitalize on it for themselves, for their own ambitions in the church; it only further shows their own profound immaturity to so badly misjudge the character of Paul; 
"strife" (KJV)  better trans as factious partisanship or a party spirit, like Democrats and Republicans; issues of success in ministry were decided based on Party lines rather than on Christ-like desires inplanted by the Holy Spirit; If they succeeded in winning converts and drawing vast excited crowds who praised their great spiritual insights and gripping speaking ability, then it was truely a "blessing and a success", if Paul had that happen, it was a galling and frustrating teeth-grinding source of bitterness; 
THEY wanted to be the ones to "succeed" rather than seeing it as the LORD succeeding regardless of WHO He chose as His instrument; 
1:17  Their "envy and strife" were directed specifically against Paul personally; (KJV) "to add affliction (to my bonds)" lit trans: to bring affliction to bear; the original meaning and use of the Greek word {thlipsis} is "friction", a vivid image of painful rubbing iron chains on a prisoner's hands and legs

Can such men REALLY be saved, be Christians?? 
YES!! This is just the sad and tragic expression of their sinful and immature character; WE CAN ACT THE SAME WAY IF WE'RE NOT CAREFUL!!! How easy it can be to let mere irritation or personal contention with another brother in Christ cause us to develop such contentitious spirits, lead us to cultivate a bitter heart that secretly or maybe even NOT so secretly DELIGHTS in troubles that person may have;
And what about the brother or sister who truely WRONGED us or someone we love and then goes on to suffer trials and struggles, maybe even caused by their wrongful behavior?? 
WE MUST LOVE THEM EVEN AS OUR LORD JESUS LOVES THEM; WE MUST GRIEVE FOR THEM IN THEIR WRONGFULNESS AND IN THEIR TRIALS; to do less is WRONG, and IT  IS  SIN; 
1:18  Paul clearly did not hate them or even spend any time to escoriate or blast them for their frustratingly tragic immaturity and poor testimony to the world by their hateful glee; 
So why did he even take the time to mention them?? Maybe he wanted to make sure that the "others" who ARE true and sincere did not fret or get into pointless arguments with the "problem children"; Paul was trying to show them that their God was QUITE BIG ENOUGH, thank you very much, to NOT be thwarted or even hasseled by the childish foolishness of His "problem children"; GOD ALWAYS GETS WHAT HE WANTS; HE ALWAYS GETS HIS VICTORY; And BECAUSE of this truth, because of WHO GOD IS, Paul (and hence, also the Phillipians and us) can REJOICE!! (there's that word again!); 

1:19  BUT he doesn't stop there; there are even greater reasons for his confidence; 
What does the word"this" refer to? probably to his "...defense of the gospel..." (v16; or v17 in the KJV)
What is he expecting? "salvation"
Is he worried about his eternal destination? NO; this word does NOT have to ONLY refer to eternal salvation; here the word is better expressed as "deliverence" probably refering to his ultimate vindication in court; Paul could actually be directly quoting from the Greek version of the old Testiment passage Job13:16  the wording is identical between the two passages; perhaps he's trying to show them that whether he is acquitted or not, his stand for Christ will be vindicated, even as Job felt in Job8:18; 
But HOW does he expect his defense to result in vindication/deliverence?
Through TWO reflections of the SAME source: THEIR prayers and HIS Holy Spirit; 
NOT JUST one or the other, but BOTH; 
WHY??
WHY THEIR "PRAYERS"??
Paul so loves his precious converts, he constantly appeals for all his "spiritual" children to pray for him (Rm15:30; 2Co1:11; Col4:3; 1Th5:25); I think he desires deeply for them to participate (ie fellowship) in God's active supernatural work in the world, and so to do that they MUST be praying so that when He answers they CAN WITNESS God's provisions for their prayed needs; Paul knows that THEY NEED to be a praying kind of people; 
WHY THE "SUPPLY" AND SUPPLY OF WHAT??
"supply" {epichoregia} means help which undergirds and strengthens the object being supplied; the word also implies a BOUNTIFUL source; 
The context and words allow us to translate this passage as meaning BOTH the supply furnished BY the HS AND the supply WHICH IS the HS; When the Lord gives TO us, He ALWAYS gives ALSO OF Himself; He doesn't mail it to us, HE IS what He is giving; You can't separate WHAT is given from WHO is giving it: THEY ARE ONE AND THE SAME;