Source: http://rondunn.com/philippiansexegesis/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 07:23:10+00:00

Document:
– His apostleship is not mentioned here. The absence of this reference of his apostleship shows his confidence in the people.
– “bondservant” – a title of humility; his recognition of the lordship of Jesus Christ. OT prophets were spoken of as servants of the Lord.
– “saint” – the idea of holiness comes in as to the fact of the one to whom we are consecrated: God. At Philippi a saint is a Christian.
1) His memory of Philippians (vv. 3, 4) – He prays for them with joy.
– “Abound” – present tense, overflow. They may continue to overflow and abound. It is to be a discerning and discriminating love (knowledge). In divine relations you must love God to know Him.
1. v. 13 – bonds manifest as being in Christ. I am a prisoner because I am a Christian. Not a common criminal. It has created a stir about Christ.
3. His bonds caused other brethren to preach more boldly. Bold preaching is NT preaching. Two classes: some speak boldly with goodwill, some speak boldly because of envy and strife. Some do it for love of Paul, the other do it out of party spirit with impure motives thinking they can add to Paul’s afflictions. Who were these? The fault was not the substance of their preaching, but with their motives.
1. “Salvation” means safety – general physical well-being, spiritual well-being. Paul uses it in a sense of spiritual well-being. Some think that Paul means he will be delivered from prison. This is not very likely (v. 20).
– According to my earnest expectation and hope (v. 20) – “hope” – nothing shall put him to shame (boldness of speech), Christ shall be magnified in his body in everything. How can we magnify Christ? We help others to see Jesus as He is – a telescope. Verse 21 confirms this hope of magnifying Christ. It is not idle boasting. To live is Christ – death is gain. Living is summed up in Christ. Death is more of Christ. Christ: aim of life, inspiration of life, end of life, goal of life. “Gain” means interest on capital.
1. Reason for dilemma (v. 22) – Life means fruit of work. Death is gain, but life is fruit from Christ’s service.
2. Statement of dilemma (vv. 23, 24) – His desire lies in one direction (depart) but his conviction of duty lies in another direction (your good).
1. Being worthy (key) – not deserving the favors of God. There is an obligation to live a life commensurate with the principles of the gospel we profess to believe and love.
The church is a choir and must be kept in time with God.
a) Fact of His preexistence – See one who was born at Bethlehem preexisted in a glorious nature and took upon himself our nature by act of incarnation (John 1:1-18).
– Form of God – key word in passage (Greek “morphe”); His essential deity, nature of God (Robertson). “Inmost reality of God” (Vincent) H. Gifford – nature or essence – This nature of God is something that could not be changed or given up; it can’t be divested of His person.
– Equality with God – mode of his existence, state and circumstances of his existence (Gifford). “He was sharing in the glories and prerogatives of God – now this is changeable of God – could be laid aside.
– Being made in likeness of man (v. 7) – He was real man. Manhood did not fully express all that he was – He was God-man.
– “Being found in fashion as a man” – His guise was that of a man. He appeared as a man.
There is a pause between chapters 2 and 3 – Paul receives disturbing news.
Using personal testimony as illustration that true circumcision has no confidence in the flesh.
Gnosticism said everything material is evil. Judaizers destroy Christian liberty; Gnosticism perverts Christian liberty.
V. 7 “And” – indicates a close relationship; prayer and peace are in profound connection. Peace transcends human understanding. Guard your hearts.
s hand being on his life that he considered every experience a gift from God to strengthen and enlighten him. How many of us can feel this? Even the heard times a t Philippi turned into a trumpet blast to the glory of God. The thorns became bouquets thrown at the Savior’s feet. The cross became a crown. The jail became a holy place filled with God’s presence. The jailer became a solider of the cross, a trophy of God’s grace. How many other times Paul had been in distress and on the verge of despair when the projector of his memory flashed the memory of Philippi on the screen. “Perhaps, God will again use my sufferings as an instrument of redemption.” The remembrance of God’s deliverance in the past is a promise of God’s faithfulness in the future. Like rowing a boat, moving forward while looking backward.
ποιούμενος – pres part – “continually making supplication for your sake.” Here is Paul’s testimony to intercessory prayer. “God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you. One of the greatest failures of modern Christians is their neglect of this grace – intercessory prayer.
This intercession on behalf of the Philippians was a continual one.
Ποιούμενος – “continually making” – the present participle refers to a habit of life – a continual practice.
See also the comprehensive nature of intercessory prayer – “for you all.” Paul’s prayer embraces the entire congregation of believers. We are often thankful just for the faithful workers and pray only for them. But Paul had the gift of seeing all men equally and praying for all with the same love and intensity.
Paul’s prayer life was a life surrounded with joy.
“with joy” – How many of us pray with joy? Do we love the secret place? Are we eager to get alone with God? Do we lose all sense of time while in His presence? Do we pray with joy?
The word “fellowship” has come into misuse in our day. The word is often restricted in its meaning to the idea of companionship or social activities. But Paul is not thankful for the good times they had together because they were Christians. “Fellowship” is a participation, a sharing of two or more individuals in a common purpose or activity. Its meaning is that Christians share with one another in a common possession. This fellowship is used various ways: of sharing a common life with Christ and the father; with other Christians (1 John 1:3).
Fellowship is the spirit of generous sharing as contrasted with the spirit of selfish getting. It is used of a business partnership; a marriage where two live together a life in which everything is shared. It carries the idea in certain places of generosity, a generosity which shows itself in the tangible and realistic expression of giving, and so the word comes to mean a financial contribution.
Because a Christian shares with Christ in His life – Christ shared His life while we were dead in sins – no Christian can fear to have too much while others have too little. So Paul is thankful to God for the participation of the Philippians in the Gospel. They were partners, co-laborers. The preposition είς is one of motion, “unto” – they participated in the progress of the Gospel. The Philippians indicated the reality of their partnership in the Gospel not by a quiet enjoyment of it, but by taking an active part. It is just the lack of this sense of fellowship and support and responsibility that makes so many Christians ineffective and useless in the work of Christ.
We are partners, coworkers in the progress of the Gospel. We share in the support of the Gospel, in the spread of the Gospel, and in the fruit of the Gospel.
Notice, too, that Paul feels obligated to God for what the Philippians had done. God supports the work through His people. The gift of the Philippians was the result of God’s working in their hearts.
Observe also, their consistency in this work – “from the first day until now” – τού νυν, the article points to this very moment, i.e., the gift sent by Ephaphroditus.
Their receiving the Gospel message and their obedience to it are show to be genuinely the outworking of the truth in their lives. The sign of our professed love for the Gospel is the measure of sacrifice we are prepared to make in order to help its progress. We know Christ. What are we doing to make Him known to others?
πεποιθώς – being convinced, certain – “Having this firm persuasion.” The word has a slight causative force. Paul had come to a settled persuasion.
Paul is thankful for the work of grace in the Philippian believers. This reveals several things concerning salvation.
1) It is a good work – the best thing that can happen to a man. It is the work of works.
2) The sovereign initiative of God in salvation – this makes it a work of grace.
3) The sovereign faithfulness of God is keeping us – He finishes what He begins. If a man doesn’t finish, he doesn’t begin. Because God completes what He begins, man’s possibilities are always greater than his abilities.
4) The sovereign operation of God is perfecting us – no man can complete himself. We were never designed to be self-sufficient. Everyone takes for granted that when he plants a seed, growing power will be supplied; sailor with a stranded boat, waits for the tide – we depend on nature’s powers in physical life, we must depend on God’s powers in spiritual life.
5) The sovereign completion is only at the Day of Christ. God’s redeeming work will reach its crown and climax when Jesus returns. Salvation has only begun; been initiated. Just beginning – yield yourself to the perfecting hand of God.
6) There is visible evidence of this work of grace – Paul is confident that they have experienced it. They had shown the grace of continuance, they were not quitters. This is like God, whose work is thorough. They supported the Gospel.
Both Paul and the Philippians share together not only in suffering and conflict but also in the grace of God. The church shares in the apostleship of Paul.
έπιποθώ – with intensive prep – intense longing for, straining for, greatly desiring. Here is a miracle of grace. Paul, the one-time proud Pharisee longing, yearning for these former pagan Greeks. But this is in the tender mercies of Jesus Christ. Only when Christ, in His love, dwells in our hearts will the barriers (iron curtains) of race, color, culture, and creed be torn down. No heart in which Christ dwells can look scornfully upon any people.
The noun, φρονηα, denotes what one has in the mind, the thought.
4) The position of the pronoun “this” is emphatic and shows that the exhortation reaches back basically to 2:24, while the pronoun “who” in 2:6 connects the exhortation with the illustration in 2:5-8.
Denotes the special or characteristic form or feature of a person or thing – used in the NT only of Christ (Mark 16:12). Gifford: “morphe” is properly the nature or essence, not in the abstract, but as actually subsisting in the individual, and retained as long as the individual exists. Thus “form of God” is the Divine nature actually and inseparably subsisting in the Person of Christ.
2) What things – The Greek might almost be paraphrased, “the kind or class of things which,” including anything and everything as ground of reliance, other than Christ.
Gain – gains – The plural suggests the proud and jealous care with which the religionist would count over the items of his merit and hope. One by one he had found them, or had won them; each with its separate value in the eyes of the old self.
Those – There is emphasis and deliberation in the pronoun.
I counted – lit. and better, I have counted. The perfect tense indicated not only the decisive conviction but its lifelong permanence.
Loss – a singular noun. The separate and carefully counted gains are heaped now into one ruthless estimate of loss. From the new point of view, they all sink together.
Every day of reliance on them had been a day of delay and deprivation in regard of supreme blessing.
6) The introductory BUT must be given its full force. The time has come, in Paul’s telling of his past life, for him to state clearly the reassessment – “The transvaluation of all values” – which followed directly upon his conversion. He opens this section with a strong asseveration: BUT – He does not simply take up a neutral or negative attitude to them; he rejects them with disgust (Barth), and treats them as a liability and something to be abhorred (v. 8 refuse or dirt).
8) The conjunction introduces a striking and earnest contrast.
“Whatever things” and its accompanying demonstrative, “these things,” occupy the emphatic first position in their respective clauses, while the contrasting “gain” and “loss” occupy the emphatic final position.
What is being renounced in particular, as v. 9 makes clear, is his “blameless as to the righteousness in the law.” Still in view is the warning against succumbing to Jewish identity symbols, which are now shown by way of personal example to be quite unrelated to righteousness.
The renunciation is expressed in the language of the marketplace, “gains” – profit – and “loss”. As v. 8c indicates, the word “gains” harks back to 1:21, where “to die is gain” refers to gaining Christ through death. The present usage is a clear play on the metaphor. Paul’s former “profits” are now a collective “loss” because of his ultimate “gain,” Christ himself. While he cannot renounce – nor does he wish to – what was given him by birth (circumcision, being a member of Israel’s race, of the tribe of Benjamin, born of true Hebrew stock), he does renounce them as grounds of boasting, along with his achievements that expressed his zeal for the Law.
13) It should not be surprising to discover in these verses a radical and rapid shift in Paul’s tone from that of joy and affection for the Philippian Christians to that of violent hostility against those who would undermine the spiritual vitality of his friends.
These opponents of the gospel of grace that Paul preached appear to be visitors from abroad who were threatening to undo the work of the apostle at Philippi. Apparently they required that men be circumcised before they could acceptably worship God. According to Paul their religion was a ritual of externals that fostered pride in their own achievements instead of boasting in Christ Jesus, and that encourage a confidence in themselves instead of a reliance on the Spirit.
Whether or not the conjunction belongs to the original text there is, nevertheless, a marked transition at this point.
3. Paul admits that there were certain things in his past that were in fact gains for him, or things that he did in fact consider as gains. They were not merely potential or supposed gains – the verb is indicative, and (“for me”) in dative of advantage, pedigree, covenant-connections, zeal, and the like, Paul actually valued. They did contribute to his well-being on the human plane (Rom. 9”1-5; 11:1-2).
4. Nevertheless Paul now bundles up these many gains and treats them all as a single loss.
In Paul’s thinking, the decision he made was not the decision to go from good to better, nor was it the surrender of a valued possession. It was an abandoning. In the process of reevaluation, he perceived with horror that the things he had hitherto viewed as benefiting him had in reality been working to destroy him because they were blinding him to his need for real righteousness which God required that he in no way could achieve by his own efforts, however earnest they may be.
2) He adds a twofold new weight to the assertion, “I count” (not only “I have counted”) emphasizing the presentness of the estimate; and “all things” not only specific grounds of reliance.
“of Christ Jesus my Lord” – not the solemnity and fullness of the designation. Observe too the characteristic “my Lord.” There is a divine individualism in the Gospel, in deep harmony at its truths of community and communism, but not to be merged in them.
The previous statement of v. 7 is emphatically reinforced, and there is a noticeable and significant progression in thought; first, instead of the previous perfect tense which brings out the present significance of Paul’s decision…the present is used (twice) with continuous force. His earlier decision was no impulsive act of breaking with the past; rather, it was a deep-seated resolution, and he continues, up to the time of writing, to regard everything as loss for the sake of Christ.
Secondly, a further advance is signaled by (all things). Paul not only regards his personal heritage and achievements as loss for the sake of Christ. Now he considers “everything” on which he might place his fleshly confidence to be positively harmful.
There is a progression of thought as he enlarges on the meaning of (v. 7), the present participle neuter of (rise above, surpass, excel), is used as a substantive for the “surpassing greatness.” (of knowledge), is a genitive of opposition, signifying the matchless worth is the knowledge of Christ, while indicating that Jesus is the One known.
He proceeds to spell out the purpose for which he treats everything as loss – “that I may gain Christ,” an expression that is parallel to v. 9 and v. 10.
The more you know (explanations) the less you have to trust.
To gain Christ and to know Him are then two ways of expressing the same ambition. He desires to know Christ more, for he wants his personal relationship to deepen.
2) He has become more consecrated to Him. The more we know of Christ, the more we gladly give all to Him and for Him.
1) So “to gain Christ” is to be found (by God, a divine passive: cf 1:29) in him, enjoying the new status of a man cleared of guilt and accepted in God’s presence. The judicial favor of “being found” in Christ at the last day of divine judgment, now brought into the present as a transformed eschatological act of acquittal, is clear from what follows. To be found in him and to be justified are the same thing. Justification here carries the eschatological meaning of vindication at the divine court by the possessing of an acceptable righteousness, right relationship with God, granted by God Himself.
1. Such a gift of righteousness stands in diametrical contrast to a righteousness of my own.
2. Such righteousness coming to a trusting person is God’s gift. It is righteousness from God. Justification comes because of Christ’s faith, i.e., His faithful obedience to the Father.
3. The medium through which the divine righteousness of God’s saving power, exercised in liberating His people and setting them in good relation with himself reaches men is faith.
Here the apostle’s mind seems to focus on the coming day of judgment when he must stand before God who is the judge of all the earth. Thus Paul is led back to a favorite topic of his, “righteousness.” Often, both in Hebrew and Greek, the words “righteous” and “righteousness” and the related verb “to justify” were used as legal terms. In a court to flaw the judge, who had to decide between two parties, was forced “to justify” the one and “condemn” the other. He had to decide in favor of one and against the other. Thus, “to justify” often meant “to give a person his rights,” “to vindicate or exonerate” him, or, “to declare him in the right.” What is important to observe is that this decision did not necessarily depend on the moral character of the person involved.
Faith in its strictest sense is not intellectual assent to a series of propositions about Christ, but the act of personal trust in and self-surrender to Christ. It is the movement of one’s whole soul in confidence out toward Christ. It is the “yes” of the whole personality to the fact of Christ.
1. All human beings are alienated from God.
2. No one can possibly reestablish the necessary right relationship with God by his own efforts.
3. God must take the initiative to restore this right relationship. The source of true righteousness is the redemptive act of God Himself.
4. God has indeed taken this initiative in Christ, his life, death and resurrection.
5. God’s initiative must be met with human response. Right relationship with God is established by one’s faith in Christ, that is to say, by one’s continual confession of total dependence upon Christ for the necessary true righteousness, by one’s personal trust in Christ and surrender to Christ.
3) The apostle now states his supreme goal in terms of his full participation in Christ and, in effect, explains what he means by gaining Christ. The long sentence of vv 8-11 has thus used parallel and overlapping expressions to refer to Paul’s ultimate aims: he desires to know Christ fully, to gain him completely, and to be found in him perfectly, final goals that are before him day by day.
“Be found in him” – Having stated that his ambition is to gain Christ (v. 8), Paul continues the purpose construction and explains what gaining Christ means. Their meaning is essential the same, so that being found in Christ explains what it signifies to gain him. In what sense could it be said that Paul’s aim was “to be found in him?” As a believer he is already “in Christ” having been united with his Lord in his death and resurrection.
Like the parallel verb, the aorist subjective once again suggests that Paul is looking toward the day of Christ. The apostle’s great ambition is “to be found in him” on that great occasion when every knee shall bow to Jesus as Lord.
Because of the wonder of knowing Christ here and now he gladly jettisons everything else as loss for he knows that his supreme goal can be realized on the occasion of the Great Assize “only fi he is continuously and progressively living in him during this mortal existence.
“To be found in Christ” really means “to be in him” (Phil. 2:7). It is akin to notions of “prove to be, show to be, turn out to be,” though not in the sense of being recognized by others, but by God.
“Not having my own righteousness” – Paul’s statement regarding his great ambition to be united completely with Christ is immediately followed by a long participial construction that contrasts two kinds of righteousness. Two significant themes “being found in Christ,” and “righteousness” are brought together in a close relationship.
The three expressions (vv. 8, 9 , 10) are regarded as parallel and overlapping expressions of Paul’s ultimate aims, that is, he desires to gain Christ completely, to be found in him perfectly, or to know him fully.
The long participial construction contrasts two kinds of righteousness in a sharp antithesis.
V. 9 describes Paul’s own moral achievement, gained by obeying the law and intended to establish a claim upon God, particularly in view of the final judgment.
Righteousness by law is a meritorious achievement which allows one to demand reward from God and is thus a denial of grace.
The expression “my own righteousness by the law” is about “attitudinal self-righteousness.” Although Paul begins his discussion of Phil. 3:2-11 by recounting the privileges of his Jewish inheritance (v. 5), he moves on to describe his personal accomplishments (vv 5, 6), which he had placed his confidence.
“But the righteousness which comes from God, through the faithfulness of Christ, is based on faith.” In sharp and decisive contrast a different kind of righteousness is what Paul will have as one who is perfectly found in Christ when he stands before God’s tribunal. This righteousness is different as to its origin, its basis our ground and the means by which it is received.
The apostle is asserting that the righteousness he possesses is based on Christ’s faithful obedience to the Father – clear proof that Paul’s righteousness with God comes through sheer grace.
4) When does Paul expect this “gaining” and “being found” to take place? The answer lies with Paul’s “already but not yet” eschatological perspective (cf – vv 10, 11 that follow), which determines his existence in Christ an serves as the basic framework for all his theological thinking. On the one hand, the first point of reference is almost certainly future, looking to the “day of Christ” mentioned in 1:6, 10 and 2:16. Such an understanding fits the future orientation both of the immediate context (vv 11-14) and of the letter as a whole (1:6). On the other hand, the modifying participle clause (“having righteousness”) is oriented toward the present, as is the final purpose clause (vv 10, 11), which is grammatically dependent on the present clause.
He expects to “gain Christ” and be found in him on the day of Christ, precisely because this is already his experience of Christ.
In v. 6 “righteousness” denotes “upright behavior,” but in the rest of the present sentence “righteousness” refers to one’s relationship with God.
5) “Found” – compare Galatians 2:17 where the verb involves the idea of surprise.
The possession of this righteousness is the one essential for acquittal at the tribunal of God.
1. That righteousness is in diametrical contrast to “mine own righteousness,” i.e., it cannot be acquired by human effort on the basis of the law.
“Knowing Christ” for Paul involves “participation in his suffering” and is a cause for constant joy, not because suffering is enjoyable but because it is certain evidence of his intimate relationship with his Lord. Now at last the opening imperative “rejoice in the Lord,” which reiterates the same imperative in 2;18 in the context of suffering, begins to fall into place. The grounds for joy in the Lord comes from “knowing Him” as one participates in His suffering, while awaiting our glorious future.
If suffering and the temptation to become religious were causing the dimming of such vision for some in Philippi, in contemporary Western culture the dimming is for different reasons, more often connected with values related to material gain. Paul’s “vision” seems to have the better of it in every imaginable way; and a common return to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord” could go a long way toward renewing the church for its task in the post-modern world.
At first this is discouraging. Paul has learned to be self-sufficient, but that’s Paul; he’s an exceptional person – I’m just ordinary, less than ordinary. But Paul goes on to reveal that it is not due to anything that is in him, but it is through Christ, the same Christ that is available to us all.
2) Paul’s language is not dictated by want.
Paul said, “Not that I speak in respect to want.” With many people, their conversation, language, everything they say, is in reference to want; dominated, influenced by desire, in pursuit of self-satisfaction. They speak from a platform of discontent.
B. Free from ulterior motives. His cause of rejoicing is not selfish (his needs met) but because their care was a sign of spiritual growth. He didn’t see people in terms of what they would do for him.
6) He received the gift as the symbol of spiritual good wrought in Philippi by his preaching.
The mind, as it is thrown upon its own resources, learns its strength.
The apostle was content, and that state of contentment was the result of a long and varied experience, έμαθον. In the use and position of έγώ, he gives prominence to his own individual training and its result.
The repetition of οίδα exhibits the earnest fullness of his heart; and the rhetoric is even a proof of his uniform satisfaction and complacency, for he writes as equably of the one condition as the other.
μεμύημαι – The verb is borrowed from the nomenclature of the Grecian mysteries, and signifies the learning of something with preparatory toil and discipline. It is not simply to have experience, but to have profited, or to have been instructed by that experience.
The apostle’s experience has led him to touch both extremes. Equable, contented, patient and hopeful was he in every condition.
Paul was not only at peace with God but at peace with himself.
1. Paul has learned the secret of contentment – of being self-contained (v. 11).
2. He learned it by being instructed in his experiences, good and bad. This is the school he attended (v. 12).
4) Now follows an eloquent description of the apostle’s detachment, the repetition of “I know” and the sonorous infinitives, “to be abased,” “to abound,” “to be full,” “to be hungry,” “to suffer need,” adding to the impressiveness of the personal testimony.
His abasement, ταπεινούσθαι, reflects that of his Lord (cf Phil 2:8). It carries the thought of a voluntary acceptance of lowly station, even poverty, for Christ’s sake. His disinheritance would follow upon his becoming a Christian, and this is probably in view in 3:7 (cf 1 Corinthians 4:10-13). There was also the mental and emotional side of his refusal to assert his right of maintenance from the churches (cf 2 Corinthians 11:7).
It’s easy to abound, may be more difficult to learn how to abound than to be abased. Learn not to feel secure and safe and satisfied because of an abundance. It’s easier to trust God with a large bank account.
It is not so much that Paul has learned some self-help techniques to overcome bad situations or seven dos and don’ts of depression – what he has learned is that he can do all things in Christ.
How then have these experiences taught him – they have thrown him upon Christ. You never know He is all you need until He is all you’ve got.
There comes a time when suddenly all the pat formulas no longer work. Why? We have come to put our trust in them rather than in the indwelling Christ. And we end up preaching principles instead of a Person. Christ never offered men anything but Himself, never invited them to anything but Himself. John 4: Come to ME and drink.
*The NT is conspicuously void of formulas and steps. Contentment begins with being united to Christ.
The apostle claims a moral omnipotence, and allows no limit to its sweep or energy. His allusion is probably, however, to a certain sphere of operation, such as that presented in outline in the previous verses. Where unassisted humanity should sink and be vanquished, he should prove his wondrous superiority.
5) V. 11 – “I have learned” – I is slightly emphatic. He implies an appeal to them to learn his secret for themselves. “Have learned” – it is possible that he refers to the time of waiting for their aid as the learning time; “I learned” in that interval a lesson of content.

References: v. 

V. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 

V. 
 v. 
 V.