Summary of Philippians
You’re on house arrest, you are chained to a prison guard 24/7, and are soon going to trial to find out whether you will be put to death or not. You have been beaten and afflicted in many ways, many of your friends and colleagues have deserted you, and people are intending to hurt you by rivalling against you… How do you feel? Are you embittered, angry, deflated? Or do you rejoice?
This was the apostle Paul’s situation when he wrote his letter to the Philippians, yet this letter has been called the epistle of joy? How could anyone who faces such tribulation, exhort others to, “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4). One of the most important words in this sentence is the preposition, “in”. It tells us that when our joy is grounded in the Lord (rejoice in the Lord), then there is always a reason to rejoice. Why is this? Well, it’s because of a combination of three realities;
1. God is sovereign over circumstances, in fact, God is sovereign over and in control of everything, including this moment of madness our world is currently in.
2. God is precious, more precious than cars, or jobs, or houses, or sex, or anything else you can think of. God is infinitely precious.
3. And God has sovereignly given believers the most precious gift He can give… Himself. And so, He says to the believers in Philippians, “rejoice in the Lord always”, for God is sovereign, God is precious and God is gracious.
Here is an important verse in Philippians which sums up these three points,
“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”
When one believes with every fibre of their being that Christ is everything, and knows that Christ loves them and died for them, then that person knows what true contentment is, all of the tragedy of life can be thrown at them, and they will still rejoice in the Lord (Phil 4:11-13).
This joy that goes above and beyond circumstance strengthens and frees us to live bold and fearless lives for the Gospel. Paul says, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). Not even death can faze the believer when Christ is their joy, because when we die, we depart this weary world to be in the presence of Christ (Phil 1:23).
And this freedom to live fearlessly, is shaped ultimately by Christ’s example, which is so eloquently written as a poem in chapter 2. Christ’s example is one of love expressed in great humility. And so, we should humbly love others, by counting them more significant than ourselves and serving them (Phil 2:4).
Loving others humbly leads to unity in the church (Phil 2:2). And this unity in the church, sets us apart from the world (Phil 2:15), and causes the world to see their destruction (Phil 1:28).
By living as a joyful, loving, humble, and unified Church, we will accomplish the end to which God created all things. Here is a quote from John Piper (whom I have heavily relied on for this overview) to express this ultimate aim, “The display of the beauty of the gospel, the supreme worth of Christ and the glory of God.” That’s why we exist, right here, right now - to live to the glory of God, delighting in Him, and expressing that delight through love, that marks the Christian.
This has been very dense, and possibly hard to follow, but it has been an attempt at overviewing the logic of Philippians - probably a very inadequate attempt - but I do hope that it has caused you to be excited at the prospect of studying such a profound book.
I hope you have a blessed day rejoicing in Christ no matter what happens.
