Epistles of Paul 100

Well, good evening, brethren. In Acts 16, verses 14 through 34, we see a section of Paul's second journey. And we see there, starting in verse 14, that there's a story about Lydia in Philippi. And it says, she was a seller of purple from the city of Tyatira who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.

And when she and her household were baptized, she begged the saying, if you judge me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us.

And so we see there the beginnings of, very probably through Lydia and her family, but we see the beginnings of the church in Philippi. And that was during Paul's second journey.

I have a picture of Paul's second journey that I want to share with you.

We have covered this before, but in Paul's second journey, he went through southern Turkey and then he was guided or inspired to go onto Europe, into Macedonia. And there he went into Philippi. So that is basically the beginning of the Philippian church. This church is a church that helped Paul a lot. Many times he was helped and he in a way is writing this epistle from jail to acknowledge their help as well as to help them. And so in this epistle, Paul is very personable, very personal and practical in the town and teaching. And he focuses in our need to rejoice in Christ. We see the word joy or rejoice or glad appear a number of times. For instance, joy we can see in 1 verse 4. He says, for you all with joy. We see also in chapter 1 verse 25, he says, remain confident with you of your progress and joy of faith. Then we see in 2 chapter 2, fulfill my joy. In 4 chapter 1, 4 chapter 1, he says, therefore my beloved and long for brethren my joy and crown. And so he sees them as a source of joy for him. Also, we see the word rejoice used a number of times. I'm not going to go through them, but I'll just mention them to you in chapter 1 verse 18. In chapter 2 verse 17 through 18. In chapter 3 verse 1. Again, in chapter 4 verse 4 and verses 10. And likewise, the word glad, it appears also a number of times like in chapter 2, 17 and 18 and chapter 2 verse 28. And so we see Philippians focusing on the need to rejoice in Christ. And it covers quite a bit about the mind of a child of God. In other words, our life depends on what is our mind, and we need to have the mind of Christ. Now, the theme of this book of Philippians, I could put it in these words, living the Christian life.

So the theme is about living the way, God's way. And it's only through Christ is it possible, and that is to have unity and joy. And so there's an exhortation in this book to live a Christian life, to do. It's not a heavy doctrinal letter, but it's a stirring, encouraging, in a sense, thank you letter. Paul wrote the Sipasil from Rome, and there's some internal evidence in the book that he was in Rome. In chapter 1 verse 6, it says in verse 6, and being confident of this very thing, that he was began a good work and you complete it until the day of Christ. And there he says that he was in chains. It's not actually in verse 6, but it says, oh, in verse 7, it says, in as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel with your partakers of me. So there's internal evidence that he was in Rome, and also that same evidence is also shown in verse 13, in verse 13, because there we read. So it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and so for it to be a palace guard. So he had guards that would come to him. We know he was in what we call house arrest, but even then, it's not like today if you are in house arrest that people can walk around and go shopping or whatever it is, and they've got a, maybe got a something around their leg or their foot that then they've got to stay within a certain area. But there, he had a guard and he had chains, and so he basically had to be in his house.

It appears that maybe they had an option to be in the palace, in jail, or in this situation, he had an option to be at home, but then it would be at his own expense, but he still had a guard and chains. And so yeah, we see in verse 13, it's become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. So he had various guards that would come and became evident to them that he was in chains because of the gospel, as he explained, and the Jews then put him into this situation, which then he was freed from at this time. He had also a high concern of facing possible death. We can see in Philippians chapter 1 from verses 20 through verse 26, that he says he talks about whether he lives or to live or to die. I live in a flesh, so he can see he was concerned about a possible death. So there is internal evidence that the cepusil was written while he was in prison in Rome, and it was written somewhere between the year 60 to 61, or even early 62 AD. Now there's a little bit of historical background, which is of interest as well.

When Philippian believers heard upon or about Paul's imprisonment in Rome, those are the brethren in Philippi. They sent Epithroditus, possibly the pastor, to personally go to Rome and comfort Paul.

They brought him some financial assistance. We can see that in Philippians 4 verse 18. Philippians 4 verse 18, that he says, So they brought him some financial assistance, and indeed Philippi had given him assistance previously twice while he was in Thessalonica. We can see that also in verses 15 to 16 of Philippians 4 he says, Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. So only you shared with me. And it says, and even in Thessalonica, you said, it was, and again, for my necessities. So he helped.

He was helped by the brethren in Philippi when he was in Thessalonica, and also when he was in Corinth.

Second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 9, it gives us that implication there as well, because it says, and when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to no one. For what I lacked, the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied, and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you. And so I will keep myself. So those are the brethren from Macedonia, in other words, from Philippi. And so basically, this was a very grateful letter to the Philippians, a very encouraging letter. And as a matter of interest, we see also in Philippians chapter 2 verse 27, we see that when Epithroditus was in Rome, he got very ill and he nearly died. Philippians chapter 2 verse 27 and see, for in need he was sick. We can see in verse 25, it is talking about Epithroditus. For indeed he was sick almost unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. And so God was merciful to me as well, because yeah, I'm sorrow, yeah, I'm in jail, but I would have even more sorrow because you sent him to encourage me and now he was very ill and then died. So he didn't, of course, and therefore he was very grateful to God. But he is mentioning that he did recover and therefore he, Epithroditus, took the Cepicil, Paul's letter, to the Philippian Church. Now Philippi was a Roman colony, so a little bit additional on the history of Philippi. It was a Roman colony. Basically after the battle of Philippi in the year 42 BC, that's before Christ, some Roman soldiers were ordered by Anthony to live there. So it became a place of residence for some Roman soldiers. Then, some 12 years later in 30 BC, Octavian forced some people in Italy to give up their homes and settle in Philippi. And so these people that were Roman and they were settled in Philippi, they were given special privileges in Philippi, including the so-called Italian Rite. There was these colonialists, where in turn, therefore, by having the so-called Italian Rite, they were treated as citizens of Rome, their mother city, which was Rome.

And therefore, they had all the rights as Roman citizens, even though they were living in Philippi. Some of the rights of Roman citizens was that they were exempt of paying tax. And so we read in Philippians 1 verse 27, when Paul talks about, in this says, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come or not, I may hear your affairs, I may stand, and then he's talking here in this section, that he's talking about conduct yourself as citizens, your conduct to be worthy, because he's comparing it as citizens. And therefore, that adds meaning to them. And also in Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, where he talks about, for our citizenship, for our citizenship is in heaven, it also had specific significance to them, because we had, they could very well understand these Roman citizens that were in Philippi, and they had special privileges. And therefore, that was meaningful to them. Now, the purpose, the decisional purpose, as I mentioned, a little while ago, of this letter, as I mentioned, in first place, it was a thank you letter, and that's partially for their support in times. But they also, so it was a very positive letter, but there were also some problems there. It was basically a congregation that did not have a lot of problems, but there were some. There were two people that were a little bit less a bit of a rivalry between them. We can see that in Philippians chapter 4 verse 2. Then it says, I implore Eodia and I implore Sunfai to be of the same mind in the Lord. And so that's why then he's talking about in chapter 2 verse 3 and 4, you know, let you all be in the mind or the mind of Christ. So he's again, he's saying, hey, there were a few problems there. Also, there were Judaizers, people from that were Jews, that were trying to tell the brethren in Philippi about the need to circumcise and to keep the ceremonial law. He basically hints at them in chapter 3 verses 1 through 3. He says, finally my brethren, rejoicing the Lord for me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of mutilation. What is mutilation? Circumcision, mutilation. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoicing Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. In worship, for instance, physical circumcision.

Then there was also the beginnings of the antinomian tendency that was creeping in.

We see that in Philippians chapter 3 verse 18. Now antinomian is this influence that was coming in on the opposite side of the Judaizers, on the upper side of the scale. There were people that were anti-law. There's a tendency to do away with God's law. And we can see that in verses 18 and 19 of Philippians 3 where he mentions about it in a very subtle way because it says, for many walk of whom I have told you often and I'll tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ because they say you don't have to obey God's laws. You have to, you know, you're forgiven and therefore and then he says whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. In other words, they don't have to obey God's law. They set their mind on the things of the flesh.

All right, so this as a basic background to the book of Philippians. Let's now start in chapter 1 verse 1. And this is Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, who are in, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons. And so in first place, we see Paul and Timothy. Timothy was mentioned because he was with Paul when the church was raised up and he was probably with Paul now in Rome. A big part. Then he says to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. So bishops are overseers in other words, like elders, and the word is plural, and deacons. So we can see there was a fairly good organizational or church structure there in Philippi. So there was a well-established church. And then in verse 2, he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his normal greeting. But we see that the Holy Spirit again is not mentioned. So that again proves that the Holy Spirit is not a person, but rather that the Holy Spirit is God's power. Otherwise, it would be offensive to that person being omitted. All right, so let's move on to verse 3 and verse 4. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy. And so Yahweh can see his mindset of gratitude and remembrance of them. He says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Every time he thinks about them, about the brethren in Philippi, he's grateful because it's such a joy for him to be reminded of people that are committed to God's work. And therefore, they don't give him a burden or a sadness. They give him joy because they're supporting the work, they're behind the work, and he's very joyous of that. And so he is very grateful to God for the remembrance. Then he is Gari'ah. He says, always in every prayer. Now, the prayer, the Greek word is diocese, which is a supplication, a prayer of request. And he says, is it always in every prayer of mine, you know, every supplication of his which had gratefulness, thankfulness, and with joy.

And also, it says here, in every prayer, making requests for you all, for you all. We see that expression or that approach of Paul of referring to them all, which shows a principle of unity, of unity. It's not just for some of the brethren, but for you all. So there was a sense of unity in that congregation. And then he goes on, yeah, and he says, with joy. Now, as we remember in the epistle to the Ephesians, one of the focuses is love. For instance, we quite often talk about Ephesians 4 verse 15, which is speaking the truth or following the truth or being truthful in love. And so, whatever we say, whatever we do, we're going to do it in a way that does not hurt. And we all got to be striving to do that. I'm not saying that we all are there, but I'm saying that is our aim, that's our struggle, that's what we're doing, striving. So in the book of or in the epistle to the Ephesians, there was a focus in love.

In this epistle, the focus is on joy. And it's interesting that love, joy, and peace are three of the beginning characteristics of describing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, and then goes on with peace and long suffering, etc. So, joy basically emphasizes, in this case, that he had, and because he's joyous when he's praying about them, he has a special value or emotion about them when he's praying about them that gives him joy, which means he had a high opinion of them, you know, with all the Philippians in his prayers. And so there was something in the Philippian brethren that gave Paul joy and little or no pain, but it was more related to joy. He was very grateful for the Philippian brethren. Let's go on reading now verse 5, for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now. And in other words, he was one of the things that gave him joy was, and that he was therefore happy and thankful for, was their fellowship in the Gospel. So, they were committed to the Gospel, but even more, they understood the Gospel. And because of that, they had a mutual fellowship, Paul, and then, because they understood the Gospel. When you are with people, for instance, I've experienced that often, when I'm with people, particularly when I travel and I visit other groups of people that don't understand the Gospel yet, and they are very focused in, quote-unquote, accepting Christ. There is, let's put it this way, there is no fellowship of the Gospel. They don't understand the Gospel. I don't mean it negatively against them, because it's something that I prayed that God would open their mind and make them understand. But, yeah, we have Paul talking about the Philippian brethren that they had a fellowship in the Gospel. It's like when we come to church, and we all are of the same mind and understanding, and have this fellowship of understanding the Gospel from the very beginning until now. This is lovely, and this is what Paul was very grateful for. Very grateful, and it's a blessing when we go to church and the brethren are all in sync on the Gospel. On the other side, it's saddening if it happens when there is one or another person that kind of pushing a slightly different idea, and it kind of, it just doesn't gel properly there. So it is something that we really need to have is that fellowship in the Gospel, and that's a blessing. Now, obviously, you could also say that that includes the fellowship with the Father, and if we read in 1 John chapter 1 verse 3, because when we have fellowship in the Gospel, we have a full understanding of who God is, and who Christ is, and what God's Holy Spirit is. And so in 1 John chapter 1 verse 3, we read, that which we have seen and heard and declared to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And so if we have fellowship in the Gospel, we're in the same mind. We're in the same mind as the Father and the Son. We have fellowship both with the Father and the Son. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9, we also see about fellowship with the Son. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9, God is faithful to whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. And so when we understand the nature of God and we understand the Gospel, there's a special bond of joy, which is this fellowship of understanding the Gospel and who God is. That is a very special, let's call it, a bond, very special fellowship capability. But there's also in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14, we talk about, we read the conclusion of the chapter. It says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion.

In other words, the fellowship, the fellowship of the Spirit. Now understand these of the Spirit, not with the Spirit. You see, it's of the Spirit. So as we have this communion of the Spirit, because we have the same mind. And furthermore, as we read in Philippians chapter 4 verse 10, Philippians chapter 4 verse 10, it says, but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you care for me as flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. So it's showing that they cared for him. And that is a care or a concern for one another. And that builds up into this fellowship. Look a little bit further also in verse 15. Now you Philippians know also that in beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning. And so they had a care. So there's a fellowship of loving care for one another.

And so therefore, that's why Paul is here describing in verse 5 that his prayers for them are a joy for Paul. And because of this fellowship of the Gospel, of the understanding of who God is, understanding what is God's purposes for us to be his children, and just because we care for one another. There's that caring concern for one another. And this fellowship gave him great joy. Now let's go on to verse 6. Being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Wow! This, brethren, it's one of the most encouraging scriptures. It's one of the most encouraging scriptures.

And Paul and we can look forwards to a joyful expectation in the future.

If God has given you and I his spirit for us to be renewed in our mind, for us to be washed with this pure water of God's Holy Spirit, for us to become like he is. He says he will complete it.

God doesn't lie. Wow! This is an amazing pledge of completion from God for you and I. It reminds me of a few scriptures in Isaiah. Let's just stay around Isaiah 26.

And so we can see how God is committed to do what he promised he will do. And look at Isaiah 26 verse 12. Isaiah 26 verse 12. It says, Lord, you will establish peace for us, for you have also done all your works in us. It's done. God has accomplished it in us. And so he will do it. He'll complete it, provided you and I don't walk away from it. And then while we're in this section, there are a few little verses that are very interesting that I would just like to share with you while we are. If I may, look at verse 20. Come, my people, enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation is passed. Wow! What a profound meaning when we understand there'll be a time of protection for those that God is working with and that they are responding to that calling. That is an amazing and very encouraging verse here. Look at verse 21. For, Behold, the Lord comes out of his place. So Christ is now in heaven and he's going to come out of, you know, and he's going to come to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. There's going to be Christ's wrath and then he's going to establish, he's going to rule on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. Those nations that fight against him will be, those armies will be raised and he will rebuke many a people as we read in Isaiah 11. So he says he'll punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will also disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain. So there will be no more hiding of all the wickedness that's happening on the earth. It will all become open and there'll be justice. There'll be justice. And while we're reading verse 20 and 21, let's read verse 19.

Also of Isaiah 26, your dead shall live. That's the resurrection. That's the resurrection.

Obviously talking about the first and second, at least, it says, together with my dead body, they shall arise. So when I rise, they'll arise. Awake and sing, you dwell in dust. For your Jew is like the Jew of the herbs and the earth, I beg a pardon, shall cast out the dead. So there will be a resurrection. And I'm seeing that we're talking about the section in our scripture. Look at also verse 14, because, yeah, that resurrection, the people will be alive, there will be a first resurrection, but there will also be an ultimate, a second death. Because in verse 14 says, they are dead and they'll not live. There'll be a second death. They are deceased and they'll not arise. So they will die a second time. There'll be a second death and they will not arise. There'll be, for it says, therefore you have punished and destroyed them and made their memory to perish. That's second death. So, you know, even in the Old Testament, some powerful scriptures about the resurrection and the second death and having eternal life are described right there. The thing about Old Testament is that the time sequence is not clear, but understanding from the New Testament, now we can start positioning that time sequence. And also it reminds us of Romans chapter 11, because it describes how Israel will have a chance that they never had. Look at Romans 11 verse 25, where it says, for I do not desire brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.

But God does not discriminate, so it applies to all nations as well. All nations will have their chance and will be saved. And it says the deliverer will come out of Zion. In other words, Christ will come. And as we go back to verse 6 of Philippians chapter 1, it says, he will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. In other words, Christ's coming, and so we can see when Christ's come, we will see that fulfillment of the first few that will be resurrected, but he's coming. And so Christ is pivotal in all of God's holy days and festivals. And we can see Paul bringing that point there, that God will complete the work that he started in you and I. He will complete it. And so he's confident of that. He's got no doubt, no doubt.

Verse 7, just as it is right for me to think this of you all, again, you all, so it's this concept of unity, therefore I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel with all partakers with me of grace. And so he is emphasizing that in his heart, in the center of his thoughts and his feelings, even though he was in his arrest, but it is right, it is of him, to think of them all this way because he's positive about them and he's sure that and he's happy with them because of the fellowship in the gospel and he's saying that he's confident that the work that God has started you will end. And so he says it's right for me to think this of you because I have you in my heart. So he is very, very confident of this, that you all are partakers with me of grace, of God's grace, of God's final end result.

Verse 8, For God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. Paul had a great deal of concern for the churches, and specifically I was talking about Yah in verse 8, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. Now this word affection is a very strong Greek word. It's Greek 4698, spla gahan. It's a very powerful word, which means from the deep bowels, like from the very intestines, basically inward affection and tender mercy. In other words, the seat of tender affections, such as kindness, benevolence, compassion. Therefore, it is the heart, our heart, where tender mercies and affections, etc. So it's the seat of our emotions. That's why it says, Paul, for God is my witness. I mean, I'm not lying. God is my witness. How I how greatly I long for you with the affection of Jesus Christ. He had a great longing for these brethren in Philippi. And now, because he mentioned in starting in verse 3 and 4, says that thank God, in every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, now in verses 9 through 11, he kindly describes some of the content of his prayer. And this is interesting to just dig a little deeper, dive a little deeper into this, to see what Paul is describing, the basic overview of his prayer for them. And he says, and this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more, so that your love, your your your out-going concern, may abound even more and more in knowledge and all discernment.

So, and knowledge, by the way, the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. We read that in Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7. And indeed, in the book of Proverbs, is a book of wisdom, of knowledge that teaches us discernment. And he says, I pray that your love may abound in knowledge and all discernment. It's not just a love which is blind and not understanding, but it's a love with knowledge and understanding. And he says that you may approve the things that are excellent. Approve all that is excellent. In other words, we have to distinguish in this knowledge and that discernment, we have to distinguish what is right, what is excellent.

We have to discern right from wrong. We got to discern proper priorities and and separate wrong things. Today, there are many weird ideas. We ought to put them to the test. And the test is according to God's Word, the Bible. We got to put them to that test. That you may approve the things that are excellent. That you may be. That you may be. In other words, if you've done that, that you may achieve these end results, these outcomes. What are the outcomes? 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 the glory and praise of God. So, yeah, there are three things. Three outcomes that desires for them in his prayer that their love may abound in discernment, being able to distinguish right from wrong so that the outcome they may be sincere until Christ's return. They may be without offense till Christ's return. And they may be filled with the fruits of righteousness by Christ through Christ, through God's power, which is what Christ has done, bare fruits of righteousness, with the end result, their being to the glory and praise of God. And so, the last end, the very last end, is for God's glory and praise.

A great praise to God, therefore, should develop out of our lives. When? At the time of Christ's return.

At the day of revealing the sons of God, the enormous glory of Christ's salvation in us, through us, the redeemed out of this world, that would be an amazing praise to God of glory, of what is happening. And so, Paul is praying that in that day and until the day of Christ's return, they may be sincere, without offense, and full of the fruits of righteousness. And so, what do we mean by sincere?

Sincere means one, that we have one single purpose. We have a singleness of heart in striving to achieve that purpose. We are not deviating from Christ's purpose for us. We are sincere. We are honest. We are honestly allowing Christ's light to shine through us and in our life, so that our character, our motives, and the principles that we're living by may be godly and may be indeed a light to the world, sincere. Now and at Christ's return. Secondly, that will be without offense. Now, the character of one that is without offense is that one that strives not to cause anybody to stumble.

He strives to make sure that he or she does not offend with words, does not hurt other people. Now, obviously, there are difficulties in this life. There are obstacles, particularly of the unexpected kind. Things come to us out of the blue, like through a blind, blind spot in our lives, and bang! It's us when we least expect it, but we need to try to say, to speak, to act in a way not to offend.

That's what we need to be doing, and so we must stand for God's principles, and that requires a lot of faith, a lot of trust, and requires us to deal wisely with various influences, maybe other people offend us, maybe other people say things to us that hurt us, and then how do we react? And so we need to deal wisely with these influences and situations, and we're all learning to do that. We're all learning, but we need to strive to be without offense. And then it says, fold.

The third outcome is filled with the fruits of righteousness, and that is a positive result. It's a tree, a tree that bears fruit. It's not a dead tree. It's a live tree. It's a tree that glorifies the care that the gardener that is pruning, that is caring for that fruit tree, for instance, and therefore it bears much fruit. I always think of that when I read in John 15. John 15, after the Passover ceremony, Christ gave a lecture, let's call it that, to the disciples, which is part of a section we read after the Passover ceremony, at the end after the foot washing and the bread and wine.

We read this section, which is in John 15, starting in verse 1. I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes. So we need to be full to a fruit, fruits of righteousness, that it may be a more fruit.

You are already clean because of the words you just spoken to you, abiding me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. So we've got to be in following the way, the way of Christ. We've got to live that way. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. He abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit.

For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me is cast out as a branch and his widowed, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. Basically imply the second death, the end of fire. But oh by this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. We see so we need to be filled with the fruits of righteousness as it reads in Philippians chapter 1 verse 4, which are by Jesus to the glory and praise of God.

So that's what we need to do. So again, we are placed in a world full of obstacles.

We find many people that are not sincere. We find many people that offend. We find many people that don't bear fruit. But this, this environment, believe it or not, is the best road to try and test our hearts. And how do we deal with these situations? So as we read in verse 10, that we may approve the things that are excellent, that we need to choose the good and refuse the evil.

We need to be discerning, separating ourselves from wrong opinions. It's like eating clean foods. You know, you always have to double check. Is this fish clean or unclean?

Whenever you're going by, is this clean or unclean? Look at the labels. Is it clean or unclean? We've got to always be inquiring, discerning. Likewise, with things that are around us, that are related to attitudes or things people do or say, or we could do, or we could say, we've got to say, and look, is this right or wrong? Am I speaking the truth or no? Am I following the spiritual?

Am I inclined or following the spiritual instead of the carnal? And so, you and I, we must prevail time and time again and practice the way, and we're going to cleave to the one and put the other away. And so, what is our Christian life? And this is the theme of the Sipasil to the Philippians.

We need to follow continuously a choice of godly principles, which is basically a choice, I quite often remember, of the days of Mr. Armstrong, of the two trees, the tree of life, or the tree of knowledge of the renewable. We need the wisdom from above that we read in James chapter 3 verse 17. That's what we need to discern that. And so, in next study, we'll continue with that section, this section. And the next study will then continue from verse 12.