E-Book, Englisch, 432 Seiten
Reihe: Preaching the Word
Hughes Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon (2 volumes in 1 / ESV Edition)
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4335-3633-5
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
The Fellowship of the Gospel and The Supremacy of Christ
E-Book, Englisch, 432 Seiten
Reihe: Preaching the Word
ISBN: 978-1-4335-3633-5
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
R. Kent Hughes (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is senior pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, and former professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hughes is also a founder of the Charles Simeon Trust, which conducts expository preaching conferences throughout North America and worldwide. He serves as the series editor for the Preaching the Word commentary series and is the author or coauthor of many books. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Spokane, Washington, and have four children and an ever-increasing number of grandchildren.
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PHILIPPIANS 1:3–6
WHEN THEOLOGIAN BROUGHTON KNOX was serving as a young chaplain in the British navy on a ship preparing for D-day and the invasion of Normandy, he noted that the minds of all hands on board, regardless of rank, were focused on the invasion’s success. No one thought of his own interests, but only on how he could help his shipmates in their commonly shared task. He says, “I remember noting in my mind how I had never been happier.”1
After the invasion and return to England, everyone noticed a difference in the atmosphere on ship. It was still friendly because it was a well-run ship. But several of the sailors, sensing the difference, asked the young chaplain why things had changed. Knox reflects, “The answer was quite simple. During those months that preceded and followed D-day, our thoughts had a minimum of self-centeredness in them. We gave ourselves to our shared activity and objective. . . . Once the undertaking was over we reverted to our own purposes, as we do normally.”2 Broughton Knox was, of course, reflecting on his ship’s experience of the fellowship that people experience in pursuing a common goal. Human friendship is a wonderful thing, but fellowship goes beyond friendship. Fellowship occurs among friends committed to a common cause or goal and flourishes through their common pursuit of it.
J. R. R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring rides upon this reality. The fellowship of the Ring is made up of individuals of disparate origin and ridiculous diversity that exceed any of our ethnic or social differences: four hobbits, tiny beings with large, hairy, shoeless feet—Frodo Baggins and his friends Merry, Sam, and Pippin; two men, warriors of the first rank always dressed for battle—Boromir of Gondor and Aragorn, son of Arathorn II, King of Gondor; one wizard, Gandalf, the ancient nemesis of evil and a repository of wisdom and supernatural power; an elf, Legolas, from a fair race of archers of the forest with pointed ears; and a dwarf, Gimli, a stout, hairy, axe-wielding creature from the dark chambers under the mountains.
The nine members of the fellowship bore few affinities. The elves and the dwarves were like the English and the French because both had an unspoken agreement to feel superior to the other. However, the nine very different individuals, bound together by their great mission to defeat the forces of darkness and save Middle-Earth, became inseparable and their covenant indissoluble. The man Boromir, despite his lapses, gave his life for the hobbits. And the elf and the dwarf came to form a great friendship, so great that Gimli was inducted into an honored order reserved only for elves.
Such can be earthly human fellowship when the conditions are right. But here in Philippians our text has at its heart a depth of fellowship that exceeds any earthly fellowship—“your partnership [fellowship] in the gospel” (v. 5)—which is rooted in God and is a quest that can only be described as eternal.
The theme of verses 3–6 is that of joyous apostolic thanksgiving ringing from Paul’s prison cell in Rome—a thanksgiving grounded in three things: (1) Paul’s remembrance of the Philippians, (2) the Philippians’ participation (fellowship) in the gospel, and (3) Paul’s confidence in their future.
Thankful Remembrance (vv. 3, 4)
Paul’s Gratitude
As Paul mused in his Roman cell, his mind ranged across Italy and the Adriatic to Macedonia and over the Via Egnatia to “little Rome,” the pretentious Roman colony of Philippi—and the beloved faces of Lydia and her clan, the jailer and his family, Euodia and Syntyche and Clement and scores of others who had been added to the church. And Paul smiled as he wrote, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy” (vv. 3, 4). This is so typical of Paul because, in truth, Paul rarely thanked God for things. Paul thanked God for people who, despite whatever trouble they may have been to him, remained a source of joy and thanksgiving.3
The Apostle Paul is frankly astonishing in this respect. On an earlier occasion when he had not yet been to Rome but was writing his conclusion to his famous epistle to the Romans, he listed no less than thirty-three names in his concluding greetings (Romans 16). Most of those people he had met on his journeys through Asia and Asia Minor and had subsequently taken up residence in Rome. The great theologian was a people person first and foremost. Imagine the heart and the energy that went into such ministry. Paul was always inquiring and making note of his people’s whereabouts and condition and was thanking God in all his remembrance of them.
Joyful Prayer
And the outcome was not only thankfulness to God but joyous petition—“always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy” (v. 4). This was an intensely emotional matter for Paul as the inclusive words “always,” “every,” and “all” convey.4 When he thought of their names, he automatically prayed for them—and that included all of them, not just a favored few. But what is most noteworthy is that here in verse 4 Paul begins to sound the note of joy that rings fifteen more times in this letter as it builds to its ringing crescendo in chapter 4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (v. 4).
This early joy note is very significant for two reasons. First, the Macedonian churches, among which the Philippian church was prominent, had been noted for their joy amidst affliction. Paul even challenged the Corinthians with their example:
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. (2 Corinthians 8:1, 2; cf. Acts 16:34)
Perhaps the Philippians, due to the ongoing hostility of their opponents, had begun to lose their abundance of joy. So Paul sounds an early opening note of joy.
Second, Paul himself was in prison, awaiting possible death. This means that joy is not a result of pleasant circumstances or prosperity or success. Joy for Paul (and the Biblical writers) was not an emotion or a mood or a feeling but an attitude. And thus it can be commanded, whereas an emotion cannot.5 So here in Philippians Paul will command, “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord” (3:1), and a few verses later, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (4:4). He even tells them that if he is executed he will rejoice, and so should they (cf. 2:17, 18). He does not urge a feeling but an attitude.
The source of joy is outside itself. It is “in the Lord” (cf. 2:29; 3:1; 4:4, 10). It can be commanded because they are “in the Lord” who gives it.6 What Paul does with this early joy note and its fifteen echoes is to assure his close friends who are so burdened about his imprisonment that being in prison has not robbed him of his joy. Paul consciously models the joy that he will command the Philippians to have.7 What a standard Paul’s remembrance from his jail sets as it evokes thanksgiving and prayer and joy in his soul. What a call to those of us charged with the care of souls to remember all our people always with thanksgiving and joyful prayer.
Thankful for Fellowship (v. 5)
Paul’s thankful, backward look was based on the long-standing reality of the Philippians’ “partnership [fellowship] in the gospel from the first day until now” (v. 5), which is the center of verses 3–6.8 As we have mentioned, the depth of the fellowship that Paul celebrated here exceeds that of any earthly fellowship. The great reason for this is that there was, as Gordon Fee says, a “three-way bond” between Paul, the Philippians, and Christ.9 This provided the spiritual glue of their fellowship. Even more, it infused their fellowship in the gospel with the “other-person-centeredness” that exists between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—the full and perfect fellowship within the Trinity.10 Elsewhere the Apostle John writes, “and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Thus the fact that they were in Christ provided their fellowship with a cohesion and others-directedness that focused them away from self-interest toward the interests of the fellowship (cf. Philippians 2:4).
The intense, pulsating spirituality at the center of the Philippians’ fellowship is obvious in the occurrences of the koinon word group (fellowship, partnership, share) in Philippians. It was a fellowship of grace as Paul indicates in 1:7: “for you are all partakers [fellowshipers] with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.” It was a fellowship in the Holy Spirit, as is seen in 2:1: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation [fellowship] in the Spirit . . .” It was a fellowship in Christ’s sufferings as seen in Paul’s prayer in 3:10: “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings [literally,...
