Opening Prayer Study Guide

Summer 2020 COB Study Letter to the Philippians

Following Jesus’ Example Philippians 1:27-2:18 Week 3

OPENING PRAYER

Gracious Lord, your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We need that light, not just in our time together today, but in our daily living and in the life of our hurting world. May your Holy Spirit soften our hearts that we might be open to the new things you have to say to us and the hard things you may want to reveal to us. Help us to be gracious with ourselves and one another, leaning on Jesus, who emptied himself and took the form of a servant to save us that we might grow into more faithful followers of you in Christ we pray. Amen.

Check-in question

Today, we’ll be looking at one of the most famous hymns in Scripture, the Christ Hymn (Philippians 2:6-11). What is one of your favorite hymns and why? How has that hymn shaped the way you see God?

STUDY GUIDE

After almost a full chapter of thanking and comforting the Philippian church, Paul turns in Philippians 1:27 to some direct exhortations or commands. In Philippians 2, Paul’s exhortations continue, as does the major theme of unity in the church—now with a heightened appeal, with more specificity, and with motivation added to the general commands of Philippians 1:27. Paul will return to the theme of unity again in Philippians 4. Unity is clearly a major theme of this letter, but Philippians 2:1–11 is the linchpin holding it all together.

Read Philippians 1:27-2:18

*This is a translation by N.T. Wright from his book, “Philippians for Everyone”

The one thing I would stress is this: your public behavior must match up to the gospel of the King. That way, whether I do come and see you or whether I remain elsewhere, the news that I get about you will indicate that you are standing firm with a single spirit, struggling side by side with one united intent for the faith of the gospel, and not letting your opponents intimidate you in any way. This is assigned to them of their destruction, but of your salvation -- a sign that comes from God.

Yes: God has granted you that on behalf of the King, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. You are engaged in the same struggle which you once watched me go through; and, as you now hear, I'm still going through it. 2 So if our shared life in the King brings you any comfort; if love still has the power to make you cheerful; if we really do have a partnership in the spirit; if your hearts are at all moved with affection and sympathy -- then make my joy complete! Bring your thinking into line with one another.

Here's how to do it. Hold on to the same love; bring your innermost lives into harmony; fix your minds on the same object. Never act out of selfish ambition or vanity; instead, regard everybody else as your superior . Look after each other's best interests, not your own

This is how you should think among yourselves – with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah, Jesus:

Who, though in God’s form, did not

Regard his equality with God

As something he ought to exploit.

Instead, he emptied himself,

And received the form of a slave,

Being born in the likeness of humans.

And then, having human appearance,

He humbled himself, and became

Obedient even to death,

Yes, even the death of the cross.

And so God has greatfly exalted him,

And to him in his favour has given

The name which is over all names:

That now at the name of Jesus

Every knee under heaven shall bow—

On earth, too, and under the earth; 3

And every tongue shall confess

That Jesus, Messiah, is Lord,

To the glory of God, the father.

So, my dear people: you always did what I said, so please now carry on in the same way, not just as though I was here with you, but much more because I'm not exclamation points your task now is to work at bringing about your own salvation; and naturally you'll be taking this with utter seriousness. After all, God himself is the one who is at work among you, he provides both the will and the energy to enable you to do what pleases him.

There must be no grumbling and disputing in anything you do. That way, nobody will be able to fault you, and you'll be pure and spotless children of God in the middle of a twisted and depraved generation. You are to shine among them like lights in the world, clinging on to the word of life. That's what I will be proud of on the day of the Messiah. It will prove that I didn't run a useless race, will work to no purpose.

Yes: even if I am to be poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I shall celebrate, and celebrate jointly with you all. In the same way, you should celebrate, yes, and celebrate with me.

CLOSER READING: In 2:1, the “if” construction is apparently a rhetorical convention in Greek. It doesn’t suggest that there isn’t or might not be encouragement, consolation, sharing in the Spirit, etc., but rather that there definitely is. One commentator suggests that we read this statement something like “if I’ve ever done anything for you, if you’re a member of this family, … ” – that is, as what follows being made the proof or test of what goes before.

The word translated encouragement is the Greek word paraklēsis, which sounds a lot like the paraclete people might remember from John 16:7, who seems to do the action implied in paraklēsis. It literally means something like coming up and walking alongside someone. The “sharing” in the Spirit is literally something like “fellowship” or “community” – another pregnant word people sometimes know from Bible study, koinonia. The verb to think alike, to have the same opinions shows up twice in verse 2, generally translated into English as something like “same mind” or “one mind.” It will repeat in verse 5, where the Philippians are urged to think along the same lines as Jesus thought.

A different word for thinking, translated as regard, also echoes from the early verses to the hymn, from verse 3 to verse 6; this regard is not, strictly speaking, a verb of sight, but a verb of thought or considering – the “regard” is about looking at something in the sense of seeing it in a particular way in one’s mind. 4 So a strong set of verbal parallels has been established between the opening verses of the section and the Christic hymn. With that structure, Paul is saying something like “think about it like this – which you’ll see is how Christ thinks.”

Verse 6 uses a word that literally means something like robbery or booty to describe what Christ Jesus didn’t regard equality with God as. (The equality, by the way, is the same kind we have in “isobars” and is literally Christ Jesus’ isomorphism with God. So, if Jesus and God were triangles, they would be identical, except for being in two different places on the geometry homework. This can lead to some knotty theological discussions that I hope everyone else will not mind skipping for now.)

The word translated as “emptied himself” in v7 is a form of the Greek verb keno, related to the Greek word kenos, meaning empty or of no effect. This is what leads everyone to talk about what is going on here as kenosis, “self-emptying.” We might have in mind the image of pouring oneself out like water, if that were possible – Paul uses that language a bit later on, in Philippians 2:17, so perhaps that makes it easy to think of this image. It’s the image I, myself, always have, but perhaps someone taught me to think of it this way; I don’t remember.

Chiasm found in Philippians 2 – the Christ Hymn A chiasm is a common literary device in biblical poetry that uses repetition to highlight the writer’s main idea, make comparisons, and connect the main idea to other subtopics. Chiasms have a symmetrical structure that can look like this:

 A

 B

. C

. D: The center of the chiasm is often a really important idea

. C2

 B2

 A2

The Chiasm in Philippians 2:6-11 5 tells the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in a poetic format. Check out how this “Jesus poem” maps onto the structure of a chiasm. A) Jesus' Glory as God. “Though he was in the form of God, he didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped.” (2:6)

B) Jesus’ Service to Others. “But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” (2:7)

C) Jesus’ Humility. “Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself” (2:7)

D) Jesus’ Death. ”…by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (2:8) This is the key idea!

C2) Jesus’ Exaltation. “Therefore God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (2:9)

B2) All Humanity Bows to Jesus. “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth” (2:10)

A2) Jesus Gives Glory to God. “and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (2:11)

What Does the Chiasm Show Us? At the crux of the chiasm (point “D”), Paul draws the other ideas together around Jesus’ crucifixion. It is the turning point which shows how far Jesus was willing to go to serve his people. Jesus’ life plotted the path for the return journey that all his followers get to take: give yourself away to be found in God, humble yourself and God will exalt you, die to yourself in order to find true life. Discussion Questions

1. As he moves from Philippians 2:2 to Philippians 2:3–4, Paul clearly sees personal humility as a necessary ingredient in the church’s unity. Such humility is exemplified in a number of different ways. What are they and why are they integral to unity?

2. According to this passage, what are some ways unity plays a role in the spread of the gospel? How have you seen disunity hinder the spread of the gospel?

3. N.T. Wright writes, “Unity by itself, however, cannot be the final aim. After all, unity is possible among thieves, adulterers and many other types. Those who comm it genocide need to do so with huge corporate single-mindedness, as the Nazis showed when killing millions.” Christians are to be unified by what they are focused on – the divine drama of Jesus Christ coming into 6 the world, rising from the dead and inviting each of us to be a part of the story – in short, the gospel. a. The Church as a whole often gets this wrong. We find ourselves uniting around a particular social class, style of worship, political party etc. rather than the gospel. How might we move beyond frustration and feeling sad about this reality into changing it?

4. Think about what it is like to suffer. How might hard times promote disunity among a community? Why might a person be more tempted to selfishness in the midst of personal difficulty? Have you experienced anything like this? How has the suffering of the past few months in our nation and world unified us or divided us?

5. Who are the people in your life that God is calling you to have one mind with? How are you cultivating this? What are some things that make this difficult?

6. Scholars have thought about the Christ hymn a lot, in a lot of specific ways – is the emptying referring to Christ’s divinity, to Christ’s humanity, what exactly is being emptied here, and what does that emptying specifically imply for Trinitarian theology, for two-natures or one-nature Christology, for … you get the picture. What immediately stands out to you in this description of Christ’s servanthood? a. Rather than explicit questions, think of a few “wondering questions” you might have of this text. If you could talk to Paul today, what would you ask him about this hymn and how might that affect the way you live and follow Christ?

7. Verse 12 is often misunderstood to mean that Christians are responsible for earning their own salvation, on the principle of “the Lord helps those who help themselves” (a text that is found nowhere in Scripture). No, salvation is God’s work from beginning to end, but he wants the church to work out what that means in practice, in their context, in his absence. a. How have you heard this verse used before in teaching? What does it make you think about grace and salvation and the role of our works and actions?

8. What is it about grumbling and questioning, that makes it impossible for a person to be “blameless and innocent”, even when they are doing “all things” they have been asked to do? Why is it so important to Paul that our attitudes match our actions?

Further Reading/Resources1

AN EXAMPLE, BUT MORE THAN AN EXAMPLE. Those familiar with Philippians 2 may think of the rich Christology of Philippians 2:6–11 apart from the context and Paul’s aims in the passage. Though these verses are important for our understanding of Christ’s deity, humanity, incarnation, etc., Paul’s primary goal here is to show Jesus as the ultimate example of humility, servanthood, and sacrifice. It is “this mind” that we should have among ourselves (Phil. 2:5). So too, elsewhere in Scripture, Jesus’ life and death are an “example” to his followers (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21). And yet it is crucial that Christians never begin to think of Jesus’ cross as merely an example. For those who have received his free and deep grace, gratitude and awe are never far from their minds. They cannot read words like those in Philippians 2:6–11 without remembering the servanthood and sacrifice of the cross that was on their behalf and in their place.

THE GOSPEL’S HORIZONTAL EFFECTS. The four conditions of Philippians 2:1 are simply the fundamental realities of the gospel; they are inevitable results of being “in Christ.” But Paul sees these as bases for his call to peace and oneness with others (Phil. 2:2). This suggests that the gospel doesn’t merely forgive, or even merely restore us to fellowship with God. It also changes us from the inside out and unites us to others in Christ’s body. Because we have Christ’s encouragement, comfort, and love; because we share the Spirit; because we each have God’s affection and sympathy, we are “one” in Christ. To be sure, our sinful, selfish selves often get in the way of living that out fully. That’s why Paul wrote these words to the Philippians, and why we still need them today. But the basis and power for pursuing further unity with others is in the gospel, with its manifold benefits.

JESUS, THE SUFFERING SERVANT. Paul’s teaching on Christ’s humble, servant-like sacrifice has its roots in the Old Testament theme of “the servant of the Lord” (Isaiah 42; 49; 53). While not quoting directly from key passages like Isaiah 53, Paul clearly alludes to Isaiah’s “suffering servant.” Though he was eternally and fully God—with all divine rights, privileges, and attributes—the second person of the Trinity took on flesh and was born (Phil. 2:6). In doing so, he “emptied himself” and took on the “form of a servant” (Phil. 2:7). The extent of his servanthood was complete—unto death. Further, Paul specifies that his death was “on a cross” (Phil. 2:8)—a form of death that uniquely fits the graphically violent language of Isaiah 53. Paul, then, isn’t just reminding the Philippians what happened or what Jesus did, but is reminding them also who he is: the Promised One, the Messiah, the fulfillment

SALVATION, A FULL PACKAGE. The letter to the Philippians is replete with assurance that when God begins his saving work, he will bring it to completion (Phil. 1:6). There is a genuine, personal responsibility to work out his salvation (i.e., work out the implications more deeply and more broadly in all of life). But even this call is grounded in the reality that God continues to work “in you” (Phil. 2:12–13). Even more encouraging is the fact that he does this “for [or according to] his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13)—not according to our work or good intentions. He is not limited by us; rather, he enables and empowers us. Paul is explicit: God works in our wills and in our works (Phil. 2:13) And, again, why? Because he wants to! It’s his plan and pleasure to do this!

WORKING BECAUSE OF GOD’S WORK. The sovereignty of God’s sanctifying work in the Christian is far from a disincentive to our own personal work. God’s work is the very basis and primary motivation for ours. It is certainly a mystery precisely how the human responsibility of Philippians 2:12 and the divine sovereignty of Philippians 2:13 work together, but both are indeed true; both truths are clearly stated. But the word connecting them, “for” (Phil. 2:13), is telling, since it speaks to the motivation of our work, or the implication of God’s work. God’s ongoing, gracious work must not lead to laziness, indifference, or passivity, but to an awe-filled longing and striving to see salvation worked out more broadly and deeply.

LIGHTS IN THE WORLD. When Paul writes that the Philippians “shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15), he is tapping into rich biblical language. God promised in Isaiah 42:6–7 that he would one day “give a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind.” The New Testament writers clearly saw this promise fulfilled in the coming of Jesus (Matt. 4:16; Luke 2:32). In fact, Jesus himself insisted that he is “the light of the world” (John 8:12); he came into the world “as light, so that whoever believes” in him will “not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). But Jesus also told his disciples that, by extension, they are “the light of the world.” He said, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14–16). Elsewhere in Isaiah, God said he will raise up a people who will be “a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the 8 end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6). Paul and Barnabas quote these very words as the basis for their mission to the Gentiles (Acts 13:47). So too the Philippians are to “shine as lights in the world.” In short, the Philippians are part of this same great thematic development in God’s global saving purposes.

SACRIFICIAL OFFERING. Paul sees his possible martyrdom as a “drink offering” (Phil. 2:17). This is language from the Old Testament Levitical system in which wine was poured onto the ground or an altar as a sacrifice and as a symbol of a life poured out for God. Paul sees his death as worship, as sacrifice, and as a sign of a life fully consecrated to the Lord (see Phil. 1:20). Further, he sees the sacrifice of his life as a drink offering which is “upon the sacrificial offering of [the Philippians’] faith” (Phil. 2:17). Their faith and ministry is its own sacrificial offering. Paul’s “offering” in death, should he soon be martyred, would be a kind of completion of their sacrifice (again, see 3 John 6–8).