Paul is writing in his
capacity of being an Apostle, and whilst he is not claiming to be a perfectionist,
he feels confident in telling the Christians to imitate him. Very often people
are made better Christians by the way they have followed the action of another
and respected Christian.
The enemies of the Cross, may refer
to Jews from Judea, or other non-Christian people. There were people whose god
was their stomach and whose fame is based on their shame. Paul tells them in addition to their appetite,
they brag about shameful things, and
they think only about this life on earth.
But we as Christians, are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Christ lives, and we
are eagerly awaiting his return to earth as our Savior. He tells them their
bodies will one day change, to share glory with Jesus Christ.
In the closing verse, Paul calls them to stand firm and true to the
Lord, and states that he loves them and longs to see his friends, who are his
joy and the crown he receives for his work.
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Paul was a man who was
justified to call on Philippian Christians to follow his example, and actually
imitate him. He had followed the example of Christ which meant perfection.
Indeed, Paul was so uniquely called to be an Apostle, it has been said in
Church terms that when Paul spoke, he spoke for God.
There were in Philippi men
whose conduct was a scandal, they were gluttonous and immoral, and were enemies
of the Cross of Christ. It has not been
said where they were from, but may have been Gnostics. This means they were
heretics, who tried to intellectualize Christianity so as to philosophize; they
tried to make it a belief the world was created in two ways, spirit and matter.
They said Spirit was good, and matter was evil.
They argue that if matter was evil, then the body was evil and will remain evil.
Within the Church there were
two sets of people, to whom these applications might apply. There were those who said, that in
Christianity all law was gone, and the Christian had liberty to do what was
liked, and could make their lusts and passions make good play. The Christian doctrine of grace was distorted,
and was wide enough to cover every sin, and God was great enough to forgive any
sin, therefore they could act as they liked and get forgiveness. There are some people who still think that is
acceptable now.
Paul reminds the truth,
Christian citizenship is heaven. Here was a picture the Philippian could
understand. The country was a Roman colony, and they were amazing places. They were not like modern colonies out in the
wilderness, they commanded road centers and routes, by which armies marched. In
such places, the Romans laid colonies, the citizens being mainly soldiers who
had served their time and retired as normal people. Wherever they were, they
remained part of Rome, and Roman dress was worn; Roman magistrates governed
them; the Latin language was spoken; Roman justice was administered; Roman morals
applied; wherever they were they remained Roman.
Paul told the Philippians,
just as the colonies stayed as Roman, your citizenship remains of heaven, and
you must act as a citizen of heaven
Paul finishes with the
Christian hope. We await the coming of
Christ, at whose coming all will change.
Our bodies now change and decay, we have weakness and illness and death;
these are bodies of mortal people; a state of humiliation which can be compared
with the glorious state of the risen Christ. And Paul states, the day will come
when we will lay aside this mortal body which we now possess and we will become
like Jesus Christ Himself. The hope of
the Christian is a day will come when their humanity will be changed into
nothing less than the divinity of Christ, and when necessary lowliness of
mortality will be changed into the essential splendor of eternal life.
We pray that God’s Holy Name
will be Praised and glorified
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