Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 14 – 16

· How can I best reflect Jesus!? By memorizing and quoting reciting…, correcting and reciting and teaching others to do the same! Maybe…but what you do is entirely completely eternally forever less important than how you do it and why you do it!

· I mean, I was thinking about this. Do ALL things without complaining? Ugh, that’s so much! BUT, this does honor the Lord. This does destroy that which is in me that stirs discontent. So how can I do this? And the Lord just said to me, “Do less.” Simplify.

· I gotta go to work. I gotta love my wife. I gotta upkeep the house. I gotta go to church. I gotta go to the store. I gotta call this person. Meet this person. Respond to this email. Finish this project… That’s a lot! Put all of that in the envelope of, “I want to know the Lord more. I want to honor Him.” All that fits in there… Far more simple and far easier to do without complaining… Just a thought, perhaps!

· We read “complaining” but the word in the Greek Paul uses is actually “a secret displeasure not openly avowed.” Also, translatable as “grudging.” Do all things, (this is Christian talk here, what we are commanded to do), do all things without secret displeasure not openly avowed. Do all things without grudging. Does that mean air out all your offenses? Absolutely not. Proverbs 29:11 would call you a fool! That means don’t be a grudgy person. You are most like God when you give…., and when you forgive! Not concerned about being Christ-like? Whoa…, are you a Christian???????

· It’s not be less grudgy, it’s don’t be grudgy at all! Forgive folks and move on and do it without disputing. That word in the Greek means “imagination or thoughts or reasoning towards arguing.” It really means don’t be negative but the Greek word tells us how. Quit imagining how you feel is more real than what actually happened and think differently about them and the whole thing!

· But, but, but, but, but…, yea I know. And where is that going to get you? Hurt, pouting, offended, annoyed, disturbed and irritated. You want that, that’s on you, but that is not Christ-like and therefore it is not right. You are in the wrong, no matter what has happened to you. Take it to the Lord.

· But, but, but, but, but…, too many Christians are a group of “buts!” This is the purpose. Not so that life is fair to you…or to me…but so that we may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life causing people like Paul, other Christians, to rejoice and be encouraged to run their own race!

Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 17 – 18

· The drink offering is something given to us in Numbers 15 and essentially it was an accompanying action of a burnt offering, a vow, a freewill offering or an offering during one of the appointed feasts of the Jews. So as some sort of sacrifice was happening, there would be a measure of wine poured out alongside of it. An offering of sacrifice would be some sort of meal, you’d make a burnt offering and then someone, such as the priests, would eat portions or all of the meat. But a drink offering was different. It would be completely consumed…

· Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” This is the type, we are given here further details of the type of living sacrifice Paul is talking about. Fully consumed, there a moment and then gone, the fire far more powerful than the quart of wine described in Numbers 15. That’s a word for me…, because I take what’s going on with me and compared to the “fire of God” in my heart of hearts, sometimes my circumstance and my feelings are as voluminous as a great lake…, and pouring it out quenches the fire… Paul says, actually reveals to us here, that is a recipe for depression, misery, agitation and being troubled in the spirit.

· What do I mean? Look at what Paul says, “I am glad. I rejoice.” A bit of a secret of creation. A harkening back to how we were originally designed and still today how we optimally operate as an autonomous human system. To be fully consumed in your heart of hearts by God, to be a living sacrifice unto the Lord, we think that lasting happiness comes from circumstance and joy from good situation and experience, but the secret is that those things (lasting happiness and joy and strength of spirit) comes from being fully committed to Jesus. Even in the harshest of situations…, Paul is thinking he may and will be executed, and yet…, joy. How? If he lives, he lives unto Jesus. If he dies, he dies unto Jesus. Where does joy come from? Rejoicing in the spirit and in your heart of hearts? Doing what you were made to do. Trusting and serving and living for the Lord…

Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 19 – 22

· A couple character traits of Paul that are notable here. First, he is a man that trusts in the Lord. Has his own desires, he wants to send Timothy to them, but he trusts God whether it happens or not. And, Paul is a someone who defaults to a positive expectation. He says that when hears of their current condition, he will be encouraged. I admire that…

· It’s saddening, hurtful, difficult to think positively, to hope or expect things to go well, to be encouraged, and yet find discouragement. And if that has happened a lot in your life, as it’s happened a lot in everyone’s life, it takes something admirable to keep going, and to keep doing what is right…, but what might hurt you even yet again. But that was Paul, and that was Timothy…, perhaps two of the best of us. Two of the best men possible as Paul says here, “For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.”

· It’s almost like he scoops himself and even Timothy up in this characterization of all and yet at the same time reveals the battle that they both wage against the darkness that has become this world and the darkness that has become the heart of all men… The battle that he fights even against his own sin and Timothy as well. The best among us are the ones that fight winning battles against their own darkness of heart!

Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 23 – 27

· Interesting to note here that Paul was not able to miraculously heal Epaphroditus. If faith healing were foolproof, these verses shouldn’t exist. The reality is there are unrepentant reprobates that God heals and there are righteous men and women that He does not…, and that is just the reality…

Philippians Chapter 2 Verse 28

· “Less sorrowful.” But verse 3 of Chapter 1, “I thank my God…” He is thankful. But verse 4 of Chapter 1, “always in every prayer.” He is faithful in prayer. Continuing in verse 4 of Chapter 1, “making request for you all with joy.” He is joyful. But verse 6 of Chapter 1, “Being confident of this very thing.” He is confident. But verse 8 of Chapter 1, “How greatly I long for you with the affection of Jesus Christ.” He is expressively affectionate…

· “So that you would be less sorrowful, Paul?” But verse 18 of Chapter 1, “In this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.” But verses 23 and 24 of Chapter 2, “Therefore I hope…, I trust.” Joy is not the absence of sorrow. Joy is resolve of hope, determination of personal goodness and righteousness, no matter the setback or circumstance. Paul was a man of great sorrow and yet also a man of great thankfulness, prayer, joy, confidence, affectionate, rejoicing, hope and trust. And he is in good company. Isaiah 53:3 says of the Savior, “A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…”

Philippians Chapter 2 Verses 29 – 30

· The willingness to put the work of God first and before even personal safety, health and even emotional, physical needs…, this is the condition of the noble in the Kingdom of God. The faithful. The problem that plagued the church in Philippi, and frankly the problem that plagues the church today, is the condition of the opposite. Men and women putting their own interests before the interest of God, a condition that Jesus described in Peter as satanic….

· Until we mature, check this out, we will lack in supplying what is needed towards our fellow man and really what is needed in our own heart of hearts to experience abiding and lasting joy…