April 2022 | Philippians pt. 2

Philippians 1 | “for the sake of Christ”

Philippians 1, John 17

Start this study by reading through Philippians chapter 1 — but before you do, take a few moments to slow down and connect with yourself and God’s Spirit. I encourage you to close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, feeling with your body as you breathe. As you breathe in and out, note that Spirit is present, is with you, and is experiencing God’s Word with you.

As a senior in college, I was a part of a Bible study with some of my closest friends. As some of my former residents during my RA days, our friendship had become invaluable to me over the year of us all living in the same dorm, and spending time together to read Scripture felt like spending time with family. I had grown up in the church and been a part of so many “studies”, but in college, my faith had become more personal and much more vulnerable - it felt risky. My relationship with Jesus was more than a confession of sin or quick prayers for help; instead, it was now my way of life. I had totally dropped my major and plan for my life to instead follow the mysterious, unclear, and humble way Jesus was calling me to go. It was really, really hard for me. So, as I met with my friends, it was about more than learning information; I needed to experience Jesus with people I trusted and who trusted me. Each week, we’d pile onto my (very midwestern) oversized couch or sit on the carpet of the quite old, quite small house my husband and I rented (well, garage-turned-house), but really, it felt perfect. It was exactly a space I needed with people I needed.

Whether you’ve been a part of a group like this or not, or even a group at all, I imagine many of us can resonate with the experience of our faith being grown in real-time and feeling desperate to experience Jesus. Maybe you can look back and identify those times, or maybe it’s your life right now.

Consider how you would describe your current relationship with God and your faith in him? Take a moment to answer before continuing on —

It’s hard to read the first chapter of Philippians and not consider our faith. We’re reading the words of someone whose love abounds for his brothers and sisters in Philippi, who has joy through imprisonment, and who’s calling strengthens him to endure through trial while still encouraging the people he loves.

This is where we will pick back up at the end of chapter 1. Let’s take a look at the next few verses together –

"27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God."

Paul moves away from updating his friends and encouraging them to focusing on a different but important thought. The word “only” cues us into his new thought movement – “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” 

Until their hopeful reunion, Paul encourages the Philippian church to live with each other in a way that reflects the gospel, the “good news of Christ.” And within the words of Paul, we see what’s most important- it’s not just about “good news”, but about the Savior who brings it. It’s the person of Jesus who gives Paul meaning through his time in prison, and he wants the same for his friends - let your manner. of life be worthy of the gospel by how you “stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel."

As Paul writes “in one spirit, with one mind”, he’s using two intentional words that describe our experience as God’s people. The word he uses for “spirit” is a form of the word pneuma and it can be used as wind, breath, or spirit/Spirit - as in the Holy Spirit. We can’t exist or even “be” without our spirit (or breath, truly); it’s the “vital principle” that gives our physical bodies life and is often used to poetically describe the ways in which we are alive, not just bodies but beings experiencing life. 

The word for “mind”, psuché, is where our English word “psyche” comes from; psuché refers to our individual identities, personalities, or our very souls. It translates directly to the Hebrew word used in Genesis to describe the aftermath of God’s “gift of life” into humanity, making them into “ensouled beings.” It is the “vital breath of life” that encompasses our emotions, will, and desires.

I don’t know how often you think about your spirit or even your soul, but as we do think about these aspects of us, it gets personal really quickly. These parts of us - our very breathe or our emotions, wills, and desires - they are each uniquely ours and uniquely vulnerable. And Paul is saying that it is the most real, most vulnerable parts of us that are meant to be connected with each other as disciples of Jesus.

The entirety of who they were was meant to not just be “there” but be alive in God’s Spirit and with each other as they intentionally follow in the way of Jesus together. The gospel of Jesus ought to change their entire lives so that whether it’s Paul hearing of their way of life or their opponents observing it, the way they are living should be holistically and wholly different from those who don’t follow Jesus.

Although it’s not clear what kind of opposition the Philippian church was facing, we see how Paul is exhorting them from his own experience. Just as Paul, while in prison, can have joy about the advancement of the gospel, even though some preach it out of “envy” or “rivalry”, so too can the Philippian church find joy and further the work of the gospel, through their opposition, while they maintain unity and connection in the gospel. For just as Paul says as he closes this first chapter, “it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear I still have.” 

So as this first chapter comes to a close, we see Paul transitioning away from his experience of suffering to exhorting the Philippian church in their suffering, connecting it to the purpose of their suffering, faith in Jesus. And he does this by emphasizing the impact of their revolutionary, integrated unity - their way of being - that will have a drastic impact on those around them.

Reflection | Take a moment to reflect on these questions before continuing:

• Paul exhorted the Philippian church to live beyond a superficial exterior or way of life. Paul was actually addressing their entire beings, their “embodied souls”, as he exhorted them to live unified. Are you able to be connected with others in this type of way?

• When do you find you are able to feel connected to other people? What makes you feel disconnected, and what’s that experience like for you?

• What’s it like to reflect on these questions? If you’re comfortable, share some of what you answered above with God in prayer.

Unity or “right relationship” with others is pretty central to the teachings of Jesus. For example, it’s all throughout his Sermon on the Mount where he shares ways we can live in “right relationship” with each other through forgiveness and reconciliation, through how we live in our marriages, through our prayer, etc. And as the perfect Teacher, Jesus demonstrates and enacts unity by his death on the cross. So to spend some more time thinking about this, let’s consider the same prayer we read during our last study.

Read this portion of Jesus’ prayer to the Father in John 17:

"20 ‘I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’"

There is something really significant about connecting Jesus' words in this prayer to the implication in Paul's words to the Philippians. In the last session, we meditated on the reality that Jesus fights for our eternal and momentary safety - that the things we experience, moment by moment, matter to Jesus and are places in which he longs to care for us, just as he has promised to be with us for all eternity. As Jesus prays for unity, then, it means our relationships with each other are also places we are invited to find safety. If Jesus' aim is our safety, and he prays for you to be “one” with others, this means there is safety to be felt with each other.

Let’s slow this down and spend time here — just as Paul encourages the Philippians to be authentically connected with each other, Jesus’ prayer shows us that with authentic connection can come real emotional safety. I don’t know how this lands for you, but in my experience, this truth can be hard to accept for some of us. It seems that so many of us have experienced a different reality: that other people aren’t safe, that we are better off alone or even only with Jesus. Feeling unsafe with others, not accepted, loved, or enough, can be some of the most painful experiences we can have. And of course this is the case - as people, relationships are so important to us. When we don’t feel the safety we need, it hurts us. And it should. We weren’t created for loneliness. We were created for relationships.

The letter to the Philippians actually affirms this reality, and it is the same truth Jesus prayed over all his followers during the final hours before his death. But in Jesus’ prayer, we see the eternal significance of living in unity. These types of relationships would proclaim to the world the good news Jesus has been preaching since he started his ministry - that the thing we were created for, connection with God and each other, is valid and restored through himself. 

The words of Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer have an 'eternal’ ring to them - not only for us reading these words now, but of the words spoken at the very beginning of time. At creation, Yahweh created humanity with the standard as himself, making our need for relationships wired into us from the very beginning.

Consider this passage from Genesis 1:

“26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

When God created humanity in his image, he formed into us a relational spirit. In both body and soul, we are created in the image of a God who exists in harmonious yet distinguished relationships.The unity and peace that exists within the God of the Universe was bestowed upon humanity.

Once broken by sin but available once again through Jesus, his prayer for unity as his human life was coming to an end forces us to pause and pay attention. As God’s image-bearers, you and I were created for safe unity with each other, and the sacrifice of Jesus offers us a way to have close relationships, not only with himself but with each other. 

So what does this mean for us?

This means there is hope for your relationship with your family, your community, or your spouse. If you can think of ways you’ve felt unsafe or hurt by others, this hurt can be so painful because we were created to need safety with others. And just as we were made for deep connection, the other people in our lives are as well. 

Naturally, this truth makes me think of ways other people have not been safe - they haven’t provided the relational connection I was created to need and rely on. Maybe some images or people come to your mind right now as well. Connecting with these experiences is really normal, and in fact, it tells us something important. If we were created for safe relationships, the experience of them not being safe creates real hurt. It’s like a house plant while someone is away on an extended vacation. If the plant doesn’t get the water it needs, it will stop growing. And isn’t this how it feels inside when we don’t experience comforting connection with others? It’s like a part of us is wilting inside. When we don’t have this thing we need, even our bodies feel the lack of it.

Jesus shows us that this need for safety, in our relationships and communities, is not a weakness. It is a gift given to us by God, a marker of his image on earth.