Philippians 1:3-11 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform* (will finish) it until the day of Jesus Christ: Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and with all sound judgment; That you may approve things that are excellent **(discovered, or distinguished between the things which differ); that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
*the
“will
perform
or finish it” is what is known most commonly as Salvation, as the
end of our healing in perfect unity with our Creator in spirit and
truth. This term also lends itself to the "I AM that I AM" of Exodus 3 which has the meaning of I AM progressive revelation. I told someone just the other day that we are not made perfect the moment that we accept Redemption nor we are made perfect after we have passed through the birth canal, or when we pass through grade school, middle school, high school or even college or university. It is the same way in God's school of spiritual growth (known as Salvation) He is busy perfecting the Character of Christ within our will soul and it is this perfecting that at times causes us to be uncomfortable and even hostile to those around us. Because he told Jeremiah that we would have no need that any one teach us in chapter 31 verse 34.
The phrase “good work in you” eludes to the parable of the
fig-tree and the good and truth that now resides within the Sons of
God who are receptive within His salvation having passed through
Redemptions work. The works of the LORD are in progressive revelation
of Christ restored within our souls. It is these revelations or
mysteries that we as pastors are to be in agreement and work in
cooperation of in the bring all to One Accord In Christ's Family. In
the perfecting of them with the work of the Spirit of Holiness and
Truth, the LORD Christ Jesus as He prepares each of us to bear His
fruitfulness.
**
“that are excellent” means this as seen in Roams 2 verse 18 but
as is my usual practice I will begin with verse 11 and continue
through verse 29, I must repeat that chapter 2 first deals with the
moral man up to verse 16 and then the religious man from God's point
of view, Romans 2:11-16, 17-24, 25-29, this reaches through verse 20
of chapter 3 but I will only take it through verse 29 of chapter 2;
“For there is no respect of persons with God.
For as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law: and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law; (For not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified (it should be noted that the brackets used here indicate the change which took place through Christ Jesus' last supper and execution). For when the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, these, having not the Law, are a law to themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts (Jer. 31:31-34), their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts (imaginations/reasonings) the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the Law, and make your boast of God, as knowing His Will, and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the Law; Are you so confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which have the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law. You therefore which teach another, teach you not thyself? you that preach a man should not steal, dost thou steal? You that say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? you that abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You that make your boast of the Law, through breaking of the Law dishonor you God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
For circumcision verily profits, if you keep the Law: but if you be a breaker of the Law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the Law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the Law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision do transgress the Law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
Paul tells us elsewhere that the letter of the Law kills because it has no redeeming or salvation value or power within it. Its only power is condemnation.
I highlighted the term “the day of Christ” and have elsewhere quoted Peters usage of the day star arising within our heart but in 1Thessalonians 5 verse 5 Paul again uses a phrase which compliments both phrases here expressed. Where it states this in 1Thessalonians 5:5, “You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness (look at Luke 16:8, as this may now shed some light on what the Lord is there saying, and Ephesians 5:8).” (John 12:36, and Acts 26:18 where Paul rehearses receiving his commission) Paul is encouraging the believers who have been under attack for their trust in his teaching of the ever ongoing revelation of Christ, within them. Much as we will also suffer at the hands of those professing a form of faith, love and belief, as well as the worlds unbelieving, both operating in the darkness of high treason. For these people remain under the veil which ancient Judaism cast as a distinction of Jewish darkness to Christ's light and likeness which is to reside within mans soul. For Jesus said in John 12:36 this, “While you have light, believe the light, that you may be the children of light.” Thusly signifying the change that was about to take place through Him. Christ's Salvation is the transformation from darkness (in its many forms) to His light restored within mans soul. This is covered in greater detail in The LORD our Passover series which is posted in “Paul's Mysteries Revealed” at www.thegospelofpaul.blogspot.com/.
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