Week Three

Philippians 1:27—2:4

 27 Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that, whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;  28 and in nothing frightened by the adversaries, which is for them a proof of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that from God.  29 Because it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf,  30 having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear is in me.

2

1 If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,  2 make my joy full, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;  3 doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;  4 each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

Commentary:

I've made this reading cross the chapter divide because it seems to me to be all one thought in Paul’s mind. As you probably know, chapters and verses were not included in any of the original Old or New Testament documents. They were a much later addition in the Middle Ages, just to make the Bible more readable and searchable. 

All New Testament documents were written in the style of the day: Greek capital letters only, with no space between the different words, no full stops or other punctuation, and no divisions of any kind. Reading was a lot harder then. 

That last sentence would have looked like this: READINGWASALOTHARDERTHEN, except it would have used Greek letters of course. 

I’ve copied some images below just to give you a small inkling of what it is like to read ancient documents.  The first image is of a page of text copied from Luke 12:54—13:4, sometime in the 5th century. You’ll see from this filename that it is from the Codex Alexandrinus. A codex is a book, i.e.  single pages stitched together in the book-format we are familiar with. They replaced scrolls because they were better suited for much longer texts.

The second image, that appears much more ragged and worn, is a third century copy (probably around 250AD) of the third chapter of Philippians, just to give you a sense of real history for the book we’re studying. It was found in the desert sands near Cairo, Egypt. Imagine! Some Christians in the second century read this very page and studied Philippians just as you and I are today! Let’s be grateful for our neatly-printed Bibles.

To complete our Ancient History lesson, the fragment of Philippians above may have originally belonged to a book like this:

This manuscript was found in 1952 at Jabal Abu Mana near Dishna (Egypt). The preservation quality surprised scholars because the first 26 leaves were basically fully intact, and even the stitching of the binding still remained in place.

The Papyrus contains 39 folios – that is 78 leaves, 156 pages – at a size of 14.2 cm x 16.2 cm for each leaf with roughly 15-25 lines per page. This image is the first page, showing John 1:1-13 and the opening words of v.14. 

 It’s worth giving thanks for those who spend their entire lives examining these fragments and documents. I remember listening to some fascinating lectures in Oxford from a scholar who had devoted his entire life to this study. I learnt so much from that gentle and devoted man. Did you know that there are thousands of fragments of the New Testament that have not yet even been examined? A great career for a young person to get stuck into!

So, knowing all this, we can easily miss important patterns of thought if we focus only on whole chapters or verses in our Bible reading. To improve our Bible-reading ability, we can try to get in the habit of looking past chapter and verse divisions to see if there is something we can find by seeing beyond those artificial divisions.

There is a thread running through this section which reflects Paul’s encouragement of the Christians at Philippi to maintain a unity of spirit amongst their local church. Stand firm in one spirit, he says. Be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

While this is important at any time, it is especially important at times of persecution or other difficulty. In wartime, a lot of other issues are put aside, in order to focus on the war effort; when the church is under attack, we had better put aside minor differences and focus on the things that really matter.

We noticed in Australia during the COVID19 crisis, that party politics took a very clear back seat. The opposition parties were careful not to politicise decisions made by the government, and to generally offer thoughtful support. Perhaps not all countries managed this, but in Australia our politicians certainly did to a surprising decree.

Paul encourages us to live with other Christians in fellowship and cooperation, especially since the world is largely opposed to us.

In v29, Paul introduces a surprising concept: it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf.

Suffering is a deep mystery – but despite its deep and painful effects, it is not without its spiritual gains. One of my dearest friends wrote to me recently: All suffering holds inestimable value in Jesus who knows and experienced/experiences our pain. We are to fuse our own pains and those of all who suffer into the precious Heart of Jesus. (Read Col. 1:24; Hebrews 2:10 and 10:32–34.)

We live in the time-in-between-times, the now-but-not-yet, the period when faith, hope and love are our currency. But Hope does not mean anything if it already has what it hopes for. Faith does not mean anything if the Reality is already here, able to be touched. Only Love endures through both times – this time of suffering and the future time of everlasting life with Him.

In this time of suffering, we fill up the cup of Jesus’ suffering by identifying with his suffering as we endure our own (read Col. 1:24). Our best way of dealing with suffering is to offer it up to him as our gift to him; as our sacrifice to him.

Please understand: it is not the problem that we offer up – i.e. the sickness, the tragedy, the persecution or the pain – it is the suffering that we endure as we live our lives in the face of that problem that we offer up. 

It is a work mingled with faith that we offer – not in order to be saved – that has already been achieved by grace through faith. It is our dealing with life in all of its failure and sin and sorrow that we offer. It is ‘the going hence’, the journey from here to there, that we offer. It is our gift of service to him. Sometimes, all too briefly, our journey may be marked with flowers and laughter – but all too often it is marked with pain and sorrow. Paul encourages us to deal with both states of being with joy, rejoicing in our suffering.

Difficult? Yes, undoubtedly. And often we will fail. Especially when we are consumed with grief and pain. But He is good. He always cares. He is always with us. And He always hears our prayers and shares our suffering. He is our faithful friend.  

Group or Individual Questions for Reflection

1.    Do you have any really old books at home? I have some dating back to the mid 1800’s. Parents might be able to share stories about old books they had as children.

2.    If there were just one really old book or letter or other document you would like to be able to see in real life, what would it be?

3.    How has seeing these images of ancient Bible texts changed your thinking or affected your ideas of early Christians?

4.    Suggest some areas where the worldwide church could improve the way that we share a common views, in one mind with each other.

5.    Talk about some deep suffering you have had in your life. How could you offer that suffering up to God as part of your life in sharing in the sufferings of Jesus Christ?

Passage for Memory:

Regard others as better than yourself. 2:3

Prayer Time:

1.    Pray for those Christians in the world who are suffering right now because of famine, war, disease, persecution.

2.    Ask God for his help in coping with any particular sufferings that you or your family are going through at this time.

3.    Try to honestly thank God for his allowing you to suffer at some point in your life – either now or in the past or future.  

Colouring for children: