Philippians 4:10-23 - Pursuing Jesus Through Unreserved Living
Main Idea: You must choose to live your life without reservation, realizing that God will supply whatever you truly need.
Be unreserved in your contentment (vs. 10-13)
Contentment isn’t reliant on circumstances.
Contentment doesn’t naturally occur.
Contentment is believing in Christ’s ability to provide for you.
Be unreserved in your generosity (vs. 14-20)
Generous people seek out opportunities to give.
Generous people are investing in Heaven’s work.
Generous people will discover God’s glorious riches.
Be unreserved in your affection (vs. 21-23)
We love others because Jesus love others.
You’ll be called to love more people as the Gospel continues its work.
Your love can only be sustained through God’s grace.
Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
Today, we complete the Book of Philippians. We've been in the book since the very beginning of the year, and we've been looking at this overall theme of one pursuit, of looking at pursuing Jesus in every aspect of our life.
We've seen it, as Paul highlights, throughout the book in several ways, in our love and service and humility towards others, in how we view our place in the world, that we are not reliant on other people's opinions, or if they benefit us, but instead
focusing on Christ alone, and seeing His goals, His kingdom, His purpose as our mission. And as we have looked through the book, we have mentioned again and again kind of the purpose of the book.
This is the world's longest thank you card, and this comes from the Apostle Paul back by the hand of Epaphroditus, the Philippian church.
They had sent a gift with Epaphroditus, one of their pastors, sent it to Rome where Paul was under kind of a house arrest, and Paul had received the gift. Epaphroditus had gotten very sick.
The Philippians got nervous because they heard that Epaphroditus was sick. Paul and Epaphroditus got nervous about the Philippians being nervous that Epaphroditus was sick.
Once Epaphroditus got better, Paul sent him back with this letter to thank them for the gift that they had given and to give them some spiritual encouragement.
Paul was the founding pastor, one of them, of the church at Philippi, and so he gives them some insights both from his time with them as well as what he had heard from Epaphroditus about the kinds of teachings and interpersonal struggles and
doctrinal questions and things that were coming up in the church. And so he goes, hey, I'm going to do kind of a catch-all with this letter.
I'm not going to send you one letter that deals the doctrine and another kind of shorter one that's just a thank-you card. Letters were very expensive to create and to write and compile and send in the ancient world.
So he says, you guys are getting just a big old thank-you card. This would be today one of the ones that maybe you open it up and glitter sprays out and maybe there's music.
And this is all sorts of spiritual goodies coming out of thank you for your support. And today, as we close out the book, this is now looking at the reason why Paul wrote it to begin with.
And in it, Paul highlights a couple of things that we need to realize with some context.
So how the Apostle Paul went about his ministry was when he came to a specific place, very often, he would not ask for monetary funds from the people that he was giving the gospel to.
There were some occasions in which he did so, but for the most part, he abstained from that.
During that time period, there weren't podcasts, there weren't movies, there were some plays, but for the most part, the form of entertainment for everyday people, you couldn't watch Cheers, you couldn't watch Little House on the Prairie, you went
maybe to the local marketplace, and you saw some of the Stoics, you saw some of the Sophists, the ones that their job was public speaking, and they would get funds, and if you could speak eloquently, those were some great people. Just like today, we
have actors or maybe those people that can very passionately stir up people with a speech, they would be well thought of, and much more so here in this Roman and Greek world that was taking place. So those speakers would get money.
Paul wanted to distance himself from, I'm not like those people, I'm not trying to sell you the gospel. He says, I want you to accept the gospel.
Once you accept the gospel, there's a whole new way of life with Jesus that works for you, but I don't want to be confused for selling this doctrine or this teaching.
So what would often happen is he would start a church, he would begin it, he would teach them some financial principles, like we would read about in 1 Corinthians 9 or 1 Timothy 5, where he says, take care of those that are spiritually feeding you,
make sure that they can live, that they don't have to go somewhere else or spend all their time doing something else rather than teaching you the word of God. But for himself, he would wait until after he was gone from a place, and then some of the
churches would send him financial support. And the Philippians were one of these, that though they didn't necessarily pay for his gospel preaching while he was in Philippi, as we'll read about, they sent to him when he got even just a few miles down
the road in Thessalonica, they sent multiple times, if you will, care packages or financial packages so that he could live and continue to preach the gospel there in Thessalonica and then here in Rome. So with that background, we're going to dive
into our passage for today with kind of this main thought that I can see Paul talking about as he says, thank you. He challenges the Philippian believers with this.
You must choose to live your life without reservation, realizing that God will supply whatever you truly need. You must choose to live your life without reservation, realizing that God will supply whatever you truly need.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we'll see the three ways in which Paul encourages us to be unreserved. Dear Lord, thank you for today.
God, thank you for the fact that we can trust in you, that you are dependable, that you are holy, that you make all things new, that we can rely on you in times of personal struggle and heartache and difficulty and financial problems and health
problems. God, we can rely on you, knowing that you will provide for us whatever we need. God, we pray today as we close out this study that you would help the truths to speak, Lord, first to my heart and then to the heart of our church.
Lord, that we would grow closer into the image of Christ. We'd be conformed to his nature and likeness as a result of what we learned from your word today. We love you, God, and we pray all of this in your name, amen.
The first way in which Paul calls the Philippians to live without reservation is he says, be unreserved in your contentment. And we can see this starting in verse number 10.
It says, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly because once again, you renewed your care for me. You were in fact concerned about me, but lacked the opportunity to show it.
I don't say this out of need for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. So he starts off with this. Contentment isn't reliant on circumstances.
That's not how we tend to think about contentment. If I ask you, what would it take for you to be content? You might say, if I had $100,000 in the bank, I'd feel pretty content.
If my kids were quiet for an afternoon, I might be content. Maybe if I had maybe an extra weekend out on the boat, then I'd be content. But that's not how Paul writing from under house arrest talks about contentment.
Instead, he says, it doesn't matter what the circumstances, I can be content. That word content is to be self-sufficient, to be independent. It is contrary to maybe how this world would think about contentment in the realm of self-sufficiency.
It is, I know that God is caring for me, and so I don't have to stress. I don't have to desire what I do not have. Here, the statement that his circumstances don't really phase his contentment is an incredible statement.
I know I, for one, could not say that about myself. What would cause Paul to say that he is self-sufficient, calm, satisfied, independent of need in every situation? Well, it's the Lord.
It's what he says at the beginning of verse 10. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly.
On the heels of everything we learned last week that in countless difficulties in life, we can turn to God for hope, direction, counsel, mental stability, and so much more, this is why Paul can say that he has learned to be content.
If God is in his corner, if at every difficulty he can turn to God, then all of life can come and go. And it didn't phase Paul, not anymore. What circumstances tend to rob you of your contentment today?
Is it financial loss, interpersonal conflict, aimlessness, or purposelessness?
I invite you to learn with myself and with Paul that God has a plan for our satisfaction and soul rest that is not reliant on how bad everything else in life is, but on how good God is.
That's the next thing Paul elaborates on, actually, is that he wasn't naturally or always like this. He wasn't just always a super contented person. We see that contentment doesn't naturally occur.
You can see this in verse number 12. I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being content, whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.
When we think about contentment, we love half of Paul's list. We love knowing how to make do with a lot, and we love being content when well fed and in abundance.
But Paul here talks about having to learn the secret of contentment when being humiliated, abased, only having a little, when hungry and in need of food, and when in financial straits.
The phrase learn the secret, I have learned the secret of being content. It was used of a person's initiation into a mystery religion.
He says here, I got into the secret club, the one where they teach you how to have a steady unreserved life regardless of whether or not you have food to eat, a place to stay, or any money to pay the bills.
When you look at your life, is content a word that you'd use to describe yourself? As you look at the lives of those you know, who is the most content or steady person that you know? How do you think that they got that way?
For Paul, it was not through a life of ease. It was through shipwrecks. It was through beatings.
It was through being stoned and thrown out of town. It was through being rejected by countrymen and friends, betrayed by others.
The learning of contentment, the learning of how to have that steadiness, that satisfaction in what God has given you, doesn't come through sunshine and roses, but through, well, could be a bed of roses, but all the thorns that come with the roses.
I think all of us have a gut reaction that says, nah, content's not really a good word to describe me.
We naturally grumble, complain, wish for the greener grass on the other side, wish we had that other person's boat, that person's job security or income, or for the younger people in the room, that other person's gaming system.
The Bible word to describe that consistent state of dissatisfaction and discontent is coveting. It's not really a word we tend to use much, coveting or to covet, covetousness.
It is to long for something that someone else possesses that you want for yourself. It can manifest in wanting possessions, like a car, house, pet, or donkey in the ancient world.
And wanting assets like money, where we think of the word greed when we have a coveting for financial gain. Or maybe in wanting someone else's relationship, like God told Moses in Exodus 20 in the Ten Commandments.
Not coveting someone's wife, something the Bible would call lust. I want this or this person or this thing or this amount of money that is not currently mine that God has not given us. Coveting is natural.
It's normal. It's not something that would ever be listed as a crime if you asked any government in the world or any police force. For most people, we assume that our desire for bigger and better and more is healthy and a regular part of life.
But God wants us to learn contentment. Coveting, wanting what God hasn't given us is one of the deep character flaws we all have that the Bible calls sin. That is one of the reasons that Jesus died.
So if we're not supposed to covet, which is natural, and we have to learn how to be content, then how should we think about contentment? What shape does it take? What does it look like to no longer live a life constantly wanting what we don't have?
We can see this in verse 13. Contentment is believing in Christ's ability to provide for you. Verse 13 says this, I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Because this verse is so often used and misused and of used, I'd like to take a moment just to highlight the two kind of main thoughts in here.
When Paul says, I am able, this word is, I have the resources to accomplish, and then Him who strengthens me, to strengthen is to cause Paul to function. He says, I have the resources to accomplish all things through Him who causes me to function.
Here in this book to these believers, this verse says, I can endure starvation and homelessness and imprisonment and poverty because Jesus enables me to function.
This verse does not mean I am able to become an NBA star or whatever I set my mind to because Jesus gives me supernatural powers of learning or athletic ability. Can Christ enable us to do great things? Absolutely.
But that's not what Philippians 4 13 is teaching us. In here, he's saying, thank you all for the gift. I didn't have to have it.
I know what it's like to be in the middle of the ocean overnight, holding on to a piece of driftwood, hoping to make it to the island. He says, I've learned what it's like to go through those scenarios.
He says, so right now I've got a roof over my head. I have people that I'm witnessing to and people that I'm able to fellowship and worship with. He says, I'm good in whatever situation God has me.
So I didn't have to have this thing. But even as Paul tells the Philippians that he didn't necessarily need their gift because of his contentment in Christ, he does tell them that he is grateful for it. And we'll see some of that in just one moment.
In your health struggles today, in your lack of income, your hope is not that Jesus will make you rich or heal you of all earthly illnesses, but that he will provide the help and grace and comfort that you need in the middle of your struggles.
That just as he takes care of the birds and the plants, he will take care of you.
This is primarily a matter of faith, faith that wholeheartedly believes God's word when it says, be content with what you have because he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
It is believing Jesus' words when he said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you. So we can see first we are to be unreserved in our contentment.
We don't just keep it for the sunny days, but we allow that satisfaction, that belief in God's provision for us to permeate every day of our life. Whether we have nothing and we are hungry, or whether we are full and enjoying life to the fullest.
That we would be unreserved in our satisfaction, our appreciation, our gratefulness for what God has given us. We aren't consumed with covetousness, with wanting what God has not given us.
We can see next that Paul encourages the Philippians to be unreserved in their generosity. And we can see this in verses 14 through 20. Here, he doesn't want to give them the wrong idea.
He says, I didn't need this gift, but I'm not telling you that you shouldn't have sent it. And he starts off in verse number 14 with this. Still, you did well by partnering with me in my hardship.
And you Philippians know that in the early days of the gospel, when the gospel came to them, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone.
For even in Thessalonica, you sent gifts for my needs several times. Some translations would have it once and again.
Here, Paul commends them because he realizes if we're going to be unreserved in our generosity, then we need to realize that generous people seek out opportunities to give.
The Philippians didn't wait until Paul sent letters to a bunch of the churches saying, hey, I really need some help. He says, I didn't talk with anyone else about this. You all communicated with me.
Hey, we would like to support you as you are going to other places and sharing the gospel. We want to be participants. We want to share in what you are doing.
And he says, you guys did this several times. It was a heart that didn't just say, okay, I'll wait till someone asks me for money, and then I'll give some money.
It said, if God has provided me with everything I need, if he's provided me with the financial resources that he wants me to have as I steward them, one of my goals with the money that God has given me is to be generous to others.
God modeled this for us himself. We can read about it in John 3.16. For God loved the world in this way.
He gave his one and only son. That God sent Jesus to earth long before you or I ever came here, before we ever asked for a Savior, if we would have asked for one at all. He proactively sent Jesus.
If we're going to be unreserved in our generosity, as this Philippian church was, then it demands that we be proactive in seeking out opportunities to benefit others.
And I would be negligent if I didn't mention this, sometimes God does plop an opportunity to be generous right in our lap. Sometimes it is reactive that God says, hey, here's this need for this person. Here's this need for this charity.
During the month of March, God has given us an opportunity to partner with thousands of church plants across our nation and across Canada to be able to help in the work of the gospel that as they reach others with the love of Jesus, as they declare
the gospel, as they help with disaster relief, as they are helping mend broken lives and families that we get to join in, that Lord willing, I won't be in Sunbury, Ohio at any point in the near future, but I can be a part of what God is doing there
through my generosity, through my personal giving, I can join in with what God is doing. So generous people seek out opportunities to give, but as we can see in verses 17 and 18, generous people are investing in heaven's work. It's not just that they
are throwing money at people and hoping that it does some good, they are actually investing in the bank of heaven. Verse number 17, not that I seek the gift.
He says, I don't like really crave your guys' money or food or whatever items that they had sent to me. He says, I'm not craving that. He says, but I seek, I'm craving the profit that is increasing to your account.
He says, your spiritual bank account is growing ever more full. You are, as Jesus would say in the sermon on the mount, you are laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven where rest does not corrupt and moths don't eat it, all of that.
He says, I seek the profit that is increasing to your account. He says, but I have received everything in full. This is a commerce statement.
He says, received in full. I got everything from you guys. He says, and I have an abundance.
This is the overflow that he mentioned in chapter one in verse nine, and in chapter one in verse 25, and just a few verses before in chapter four in verse 12. He says, that overflowing, that abundance.
He says, I'm overflowing with goodness because of your generosity. He says, I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus, what you provided, a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.
The phrase pleasing to God was the word that was used to commend generous civic donors in the Roman world. So someone, you know, donates 3000 shekels to help fund the Colosseum. They would do a public commendation.
He says, this person is pleasing to the empire or pleasing to the emperor. And here Paul says, Philippians, what you have done is pleasing to God.
I'm going public declaration that has lasted a couple of thousand years that he says, you have well done. He says, you have invested in heaven's work. Proverbs 19 and verse 17 echoes this same thought.
He says, kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and he will give a reward to the lender. When we are generous, we are not just dealing with people.
When we say money is not the most important thing to me, and I will give it to people that can't give it back to me, that's declaring my money is not my God.
Covetousness, wanting to have material financial possessions are not what's most important to me. That is an act of worship to our God that says, your goals, your kingdom, your work is more important than my own.
2 Corinthians 9, Paul commends the church at Corinth for this same type of giving that they were doing for the church at Jerusalem, which was undergoing heavy famine, and there were many needy people there in Jerusalem.
And Paul says this about their gift to them. He says, now the one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
He says, God is being praised because you help people, people thank God for you, and so God is being glorified in all of it.
He says, because of the proof provided by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedient confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone.
And as they pray on your behalf, they will have deep affection for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.
God says, when you are generous to others, when you help out the poor, when you give to church plants, when you give to further God's work, maybe here at Tabernacle, it is an acceptable, well-pleasing sacrifice to God.
It is something that is investing in heaven's work. It declares Him as your Lord that you will do what He has called you to do with the finances that He has given you.
Not only will generous people seek out opportunities to give and invest in heaven's work, but generous people will discover God's glorious riches. Verse 19, My God will supply.
He will fill all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Well, I'd love to tell you that if you give monetarily, God will bless you monetarily. I can't guarantee that from Scripture. I'd love to tell you that if you buy special handkerchiefs from me, you will get ten times your investment, but I can't.
However, what I can guarantee you from Scripture is that God has promised to take care of your needs. Notice here, he doesn't say that God will supply all of your greed. He says He will supply all of your needs.
What do God's riches, what He's promised, what does that look like? Truthfully, it could be a little bit of anything. Relationships.
Think of the verse in Psalms, when a person's ways please Yahweh, he makes even his enemies be at peace with him. His riches could look like possessions, where God says, every animal of the forest is mine, the cattle, on a thousand hills.
It could be experiential knowledge of his presence in Colossians 2. I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, Christ.
Kindness, glory, wisdom, grace. There's no telling what's spiritual, emotional, relational, or yes, financial benefits we might enjoy from our God when we follow his plan of generosity with our money. Not just of our money.
Some of us, God has given us physical ability that we can serve and help. For some of us, it is time that we can spend with other people, time that we can spend in prayer. Will you choose to be unreserved in your generosity?
God has given you something. You exist. You are here on this earth.
So you have something that God has provided for you that you need in order to carry out his mission. Will you be unreserved in being generous with it to others?
Then as Paul closes the letter, he encourages them not to just be unreserved in their contentment and generosity, but to be unreserved in their affection. We see this in verses 21 through 23.
We see first that we love others because Jesus loves others. He says, greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send you greetings.
If you're like me, you read that at first and you go, great, what in the world does that have to do with my life today? Here he tells them to greet one another. This is more than a perfunctory wave of hi.
Great to see you. To greet is to hospitably recognize. It is to acclaim.
It is to warmly welcome. He calls us to love, to openly care for, to bring in as a part of our family those we love. He calls us to do that for other believers.
And he says, as an example, the brothers that are with me, so my ministry companions, they all do that to you guys. Like they love you, they welcome you. Are there people at Tabernacle that you are called to?
Ones you don't really want to say anything more than hi to? Paul here calls us to not just tolerate other Christians, but to love and welcome them into our hearts.
Why would we love people with different personalities, interests, spiritual maturity levels? Because they are saints in Christ Jesus. They are holy ones, made righteous by the same gospel work that Jesus did in you.
And if you claim to be a Christian, a little Christ, then you have a responsibility to act like Christ and love those that he died for. You might say, but you don't know what they're like. You don't know how they've treated me, which is true.
I don't know, but Jesus knows and he loves them. And so should we. We love others because Jesus loves others.
We'll be called to love more people as the gospel continues its work. We can see this in verse number 22. All the saints send you greetings.
They hospitably recognize you, especially those who belong to Caesar's household. This is more than just Caesar's wife and kid. They're saying hi.
Caesar's household would have been kind of the whole mess of things. So the household manager, some of the slaves, maybe some of the guards. He says God's family is increasing and increasing.
At the very beginning of the book, he told them that the whole Praetorian guard knows why I'm in here. Everyone knows Paul is here because of Jesus. And here he says, now some of the saints even include those in Caesar's palace.
For us, as we continue to see God work in the 2020s and into the 2030s and prayerfully beyond that, there will be more and more people that come into this church, new people that you have never met before, that God is going to call you to love and to
deal with and appreciate and warmly welcome. We all have a natural bent towards wanting to go, no, no, no, I like my three people, and we're cool, and all the rest of y'all can stay away.
God says, hey, the family is always growing and there's more and more people that we are to welcome in. So let's prepare our hearts and our minds. Okay, I know if people come, problems come, because all of us are imperfect.
But when they come, I'm going to choose to love. This is the very last thing that Paul says. Your love can only be sustained through God's grace.
Verse number 23, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
For these believers called to joy in suffering, called to love the unlovely, called to be unified with incredibly different people, there was only one possible way it could happen. God's empowering favor in their life, His grace.
For us at Tabernacle, if we're going to show God's love to each other and to our community, then it's going to demand that we consistently go to God again and again and say, I don't want to be around that person anymore.
I don't know that I can take another small group with Jim. I didn't mean it, Jim. He says, but I know that you want me to love them through their flaws.
So God, I'm asking you to empower me to be content and generous and loving. I can't do it, but I know you're powerful enough to bring me through.
You will give me the resources so that I can go through all things through the one who gives me strength. Today, you must choose to live your life without reservation, realizing that God will supply whatever you truly need.
Have you turned in unreserved faith and repentance to the God who has been so good to you and has provided for your every true need? If you are here today, God has given you health. He has given you clothes, as much as I can see.
God has given you, at least as of this moment, a roof over your head, a place to stay. God has given you people to be able to interact with, loved ones, family members or neighbors or church family. God has been good to you.
He has provided for you every step of the way up to where you are right now. Have you responded to Him in faith and repentance for everything that He has done? How can you live out unreserved contentment this week?
I promise there are going to be opportunities for you to learn to be content in bad circumstances this week. How can you anticipate what might go wrong and determine with God beforehand, God, I'm going to be thankful for what you have given me.
I'm not going to wish for all the things that I don't have. How can you show unreserved generosity this week? Don't just wait for someone to ask you for money.
How can you benefit and bless someone else this week? How can you show unreserved affection this week?
Maybe it might look like forgiveness in your heart that the next time you see that person that just really ticks you off, in your heart you go, okay, God loves me. He's put his grace in me so I can forgive. I can love.
I can bear through with this person, and I can love them like Jesus loves them. How can you show unreserved affection this week? As we in the book, we're going to take about five minutes.
We're going to read through this book together. We're going to get the big picture.
Philippians 1, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
I am sure of this that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Indeed, it is right for me to think this way about all of you because I have you in my heart and you are all partners with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
For God is my witness how deeply I miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And I pray this, that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes
through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Now, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually advanced the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else
that my imprisonment is because I am in Christ. Most of the brothers have gained confidence in the Lord from my imprisonment and dare even more to speak the word fearlessly.
To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. These preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
The others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment. What does it matter?
Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will continue to rejoice, because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now, as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Now, if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me, and I don't know which one I should choose. I'm torn between the two.
I long to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.
Since I'm persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that because of my coming to you again, your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound. Just one thing.
As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel.
Not being frightened in any way by your opponents, this is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation. And this is from God. For it has been granted to you on Christ's behalf, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.
Since you are engaged in the same struggle that you saw I had, and now hear that I have.
If then there's any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in Spirit, intent on one purpose.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity, and when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross.
For this reason, God has highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
glory of God the Father. Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you, both to will
and to work according to his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by
holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing. But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
In the same way, you should also be glad and rejoice with me. Now, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you.
For I have no one else like minded who will genuinely care about your interests. All seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know his proven character because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father.
Therefore, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. I am confident in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.
But I considered it necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and minister to my need since he has been longing for all of you and was distressed because you heard that he was sick.
Indeed, he was so sick that he nearly died. However, God had mercy on him and not only on him but also on me so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.
For this reason, I am very eager to send him so that you may rejoice again when you see him and I may be less anxious.
Therefore, welcome him in the Lord with great joy and hold people like him in honor because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.
In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you. Watch out for the dogs.
Watch out for the evil workers. Watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boasting Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh.
Although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more.
Circumcise the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, regarding the law of Pharisee, regarding zeal, persecuting the church, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Because of Him, I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God
based on faith. My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it, because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way.
And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. For I've often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach. Their glory is in their shame.
They are focused on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself.
So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner, stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. I urge Yodia and I urge Syntyche to agree in the Lord.
Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice.
That your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any moral excellence, and if there is anything praise worthy, dwell on these things.
Do what you have learned and received, and heard from me and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. I rejoice in the Lord greatly, because once again, you renewed your care for me.
You were in fact concerned about me, but lacked the opportunity to show it. I don't say this out of need, for I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.
I know both how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being content, whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or need.
I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me. Still, you did well by partnering with me in my hardship.
And you Philippians know that in the early days of the Gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone. For even in Thessalonica, you sent gifts for my needs several times.
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that is increasing to your account. But I have received everything in full. I am thankful, and I have an abundance.
I'm fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you provided, a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
Now to our God and Father, be glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.
The brothers who are with me send you greetings. All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
