Phil. 1:12-14 - Progress of the Gospel

12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel,
13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else,
14 and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.

My Imprisonment is Well Known

Vs. 12 - “Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel,”

“my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel” - The church in Philippi knew Paul was in prison in Rome. This letter was written from jail in Rome over two years after Paul invoked his Roman citizenship, which was because of the way he was treated in jail for two years in Jerusalem. The news of Paul’s incarceration would be spread by word-of-mouth throughout the churches. His fame, or infamy, would have been a source of water cooler discussion through the realm.

I am sure there was concern, “If this can happen to Paul, it could happen to me.” It was a reason for celebration for Christ’s enemies. “At last we got him. Now he will shut up, and this cult will dissolve.” Paul was letting the Philippians know their worries were unfounded.

Vs. 13 - so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else,

“cause of Christ has become well known” - The enemies of the church thought Paul would be silenced. Ha! In your face! Paul was not silenced.
He spread the gospel into the heart of the Roman Empire. Paul preached Jesus Christ in the Near East, in Galatia (aka: Turkey), in Greece and in Rome.
Jesus commanded, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15). He instructed before Pentecost, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth." (Acts 1:8) Bringing the Gospel to Greece and Rome accelerated the spread throughout the world.

“Praetorian guard” - The ‘praetoria” are the elected civil magistrates responsible for running the Roman Empire - the Senators and Consuls of the Roman government. The guard was an elite unit of the Roman Army, formed about 60 BC by Augustus to be a personal security force, and served the Roman Empire until around 312 AD. This elite group guarded the emperor and the Roman Senate members. This would be similar to the US Secret Service, or the Pontifical Swiss Guards of the Vatican, or the Royal Guards (‘Beefeaters’) serving the Queen of England.

“And to everyone else,” - The gospel was shared with the elite guard and it is highly likely these men shared what they heard and learned with others.
Paul may have been a ‘celebrity prisoner’, in that he was there because he petitioned the emperor of Rome, not because he was criminal. Paul appears to have been under house arrest, rather than in a dungeon, and so would have been allowed visitors. Everyone and anyone who wished to meet this amazing man could do so.

Vs. 14 - “and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.”

“have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” - Paul was free to share the gospel. His boldness gave those around him courage to speak out.
Look back to the apostles before Pentecost. What were they doing? Hiding in fear. (John 20:19). They were bolder after Pentecost, but were harassed and persecuted by the Jewish authorities (Paul being one of the persecutors until his conversion). Seeing Paul preach and share while in prison was a huge blessing for other Christians to be encouraged to live and share their faith.

The persecution has not stopped from 40 AD to the present. There are countries where true courage is needed to share the Gospel. We have a pastor in our church who goes to these countries. He cannot email information back to the US about his ministry while in these foreign countries. The authorities could read the emails and imprison the believers identified. Being a Christian in those countries takes courage!

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Phil. 1:9-11 - Love Abounds

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Paul’s Prayer for Them

Verses 9-11 are a prayer for the church in Philippi -
Paul’s Prayer is that:

• Their love would grow because they hear and know the truth,
• They would learn by intellect and by experience how to discern between good and evil,
• They would apply that knowledge to their daily lives,
• They would not fall away from the faith,
• They would manifest the fruit of the Spirit,
• They would know all this is from Christ Himself.

Vs. 9 - And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,

“that your love may abound” - In verse 6, Paul is confident that Jesus will complete His good work in them. Jesus said he came that we might have life, abundantly. (John 10:10) Included in that abundant life is love. (See John 14:21, 23). Paul’s goal is “love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” for his friends and fellow Christians. (1 Tim. 1:5)
Love, not just for itself by itself, is to fill us with His power - we have His love and His power. “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline”. (2 Tim. 1:7) When we surrender to Jesus we can fellowship with Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit.
This is fantastic! But, like the TV commercials, “But Wait! There’s more!”

“real knowledge and all discernment,” - Jesus told us the Holy Spirit would teach us. See: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17) And "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.“ (John 14:26).
The knowledge is not for knowledge itself, although that is important. The Lord intends for us to grow in faith and holiness. We learn and obey and are blessed by the Father. "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." (John 14:21) The ability to recognize sinful behavior before you do it, and so avoid it, is part of discernment. Discernment is not just a NT concept. See Psa.119:11, Job 34:31-33; Pro. 6:20-23.

Vs. 10 - so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;

“approve the things that are excellent” - Moral clarity is one of the goals of growth in discipleship. In Hebrews we read, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Heb. 5:12-14).

Living in the power of the Holy Spirit not only helps you avoid sin, it frees you from shame and guilt. “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’" (John 8:31-32) Free from living legally, “thou shalt” or “thou shalt not”. This is not saying we will live sinless; we are all far too human to do that. There’s an old joke, “Learning is the ability to recognize a mistake the second time you make it.” That is not the way Jesus wants us to live.
Guiding by the Holy Spirit gives us the opportunity to resist the devil. We are to learn and apply, getting discernment, in order to avoid sin. Paul urges us, in the Colossians letter, to “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,” and “set your mind on things above, not on the things on earth.” (Col. 3:1, 2) These are the excellent things.

“sincere and blameless” - See: Jude 1:24-25. In Christ, and nowhere else, we will be found without sin. When we are in the light of Christ’s glory, because of His glory, we will be blameless and without blemish.
One of the concepts of sincere is to be “found pure when unfolded and examined by the sun's light”. Jesus is the light of the world, and people do not want to be exposed to His light. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3:19-21)

To be blameless is to be “without offense, not troubled by a consciousness of sin”. David similarly said, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!“ (Psa. 32:1-2).

Vs. 11 - having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

“having been filled with the fruit of righteousness” - See: Gal. 5:22-23. Have you wondered why God gave the rules in Leviticus and Deuteronomy? I have heard people say it was for ‘health’ reasons in the form of dietary laws, human relationships, etc. Although there is some truth to those claims, God wanted the Israelites to be DIFFERENT from the tribes and peoples around them. Having One God, and one only to worship was a HUGE change from the pagan nations around them.

The fruit of righteousness shall be in our hearts and in our lives. It shall be obvious to all those who live around us. Christians are to be different. We are to be lights in a dark and sinful world - lighthouses to provide both a warning and to show a path to safety and life.

“which comes through Jesus Christ” - The life we live as Christians shall be different than those who do not believe in Jesus Christ (This statement assumes you are living in the power of the Holy Spirit, and not under your own power). It is Christ who lives in us, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Every thing we have and do is because of and through Christ Jesus, the Lord Almighty.

Here’s a quote from an early church leader (See note 1): “When we consider that Christ is the true light, having nothing in common with deceit, we learn that our own life also must shine with the rays of that true light. Now these rays of the Sun of Justice are the virtues which pour out to enlighten us so that we may put away the works of darkness and walk honorably as in broad daylight. When we reject the deeds of darkness and do everything in the light of day, we become light and, as light should, we give light to others by our actions.
“If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what we do in life.” [Emphasis is mine.]

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Note 1: author unknown to me.
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Philippians 1:6-8 - A Good Work

6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.
8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

He Began A Good Work in You

Vs. 6 - “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

“confident of this very thing” - Paul’s prayers of joy (See vs. 4) were based on his confidence in the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in their lives.

“He who began a good work in you” - Jesus is in you from the moment you accepted Him as Lord and Savior. That is the start of your new life. “Therefore if any man is in Christ he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Cor. 5:17) Now, until the day you die, or if Christ returns before, you get to live out your new life - an abundant life. (See: John 10:10)

“will perfect it” - When you next see Christ face-to-face you will be in your eternal life. “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” (1 John 3:2. Also, see Rev. 22:3-5.)

“until the day of Christ Jesus” - It is not a big stretch to see three phases of sanctification in this verse.

• Initial or instant sanctification - when you accepted Jesus as Savior - “began a good work”.
• Progressive sanctification - as you live your Christian life in faith - “will perfect it”.
• Ultimate sanctification - eternal life with God and Jesus - “the day of Christ.”

Vs. 7 - “For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.”

“it is only right for me to feel this way” - Which way does Paul feel? We will see as we go through the letter he feels love and gratitude for them. There is joy and confidence because they are saved. And in the sentence Paul is grateful for their support during his time in prison.

“About you all” - One of the hints that is a personal letter to close friends is the use of ‘You all’. It is used at least seven times in this letter (note: Paul refers to ‘you all’ about 20 times in his letters). They are all in his prayers and his thoughts. They all contribute to his joy.

“imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel” - Go to Acts 22-28, where the story of Paul’s imprisonment and trip to Rome is told. Basically, Paul goes to Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders (not Christian believers) get so angry they plot to kill Paul. He calls upon a Roman commander to provide protection since Paul is a natural Roman citizen. In the process, Paul appears before several Roman authorities where he appeals to Caesar. This is akin to a direct appeal by you or me to the U.S. Supreme of the United States. There was no higher legal authority.
Why were the Jews so angry? Because Paul preached Christ as the only means of salvation. He preached that Christ is God. He did not back down when they told him to stop.

“You all are partakers...” Another reason for him to be confident - they were saved by God’s grace, as was he.

Vs. 8 - “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

“how I long for you all” - Paul has been in prison for some time - at least two years. He was held by the governors of the region, Felix and Festus. Then he was transferred to Rome. At this point he has no idea if he will be set free. He has the unlimited love of Jesus in his heart, and extends that love to his good friends in Philippi.

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Phil. 1:3-5 - Prayers

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,
5 in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

Vs. 3 - “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,”

“I thank my God” - God, to Paul, was not an amorphous ‘thing’ that existed outside the known realm. God is real. God is present, here. God is personal. We have too easily adopted the Platonic idea (also Eastern religions) that the physical universe is real, and the spiritual universe is unreal. I do not mean ‘untrue’ or ‘false’. Because we cannot feel, touch, taste, or sense it there is an unknowable quality about the spiritual. Just because no one has seen God (1 John 4:12, John 1:18), and God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and truth (See: John 4:23, 24) does not mean He is not real.

“In all my remembrance” - Paul’s ministry was not a ‘traveling salesman’ type, where he swooped into a town, had a tent meeting for a few days and then moved on. He stayed and provided discipleship for the new believers until he was driven out of town by enemies of Christ. Paul’s calling was to Gentiles. He did not ignore the Jews. He almost always started his ministry in a synagogue. The advantage of preaching Christ to Jews is that they understood the concept of God, the Spirit, and the Messiah. The disadvantage of preaching to the Jews was the resistance to ‘leaving’ Judaism for Christianity. They had to be able to know they were not blaspheming in converting.

The disadvantage of preaching Christ to Gentiles was they may not have any experience with a monotheistic faith. The advantage of preaching to the Gentiles was they had no barriers such as blasphemy to hurdle. Gentiles can be saved when we see our need for forgiveness of sin; when we see that we cannot work our way from our sinful nature to a perfect and holy God; when we open our hearts to Jesus.
The mission is much the same in America today as Paul’s to the Gentiles. We are living in a society that is vaguely familiar with God, the Spirit, and the Son. Modern man has many gods in his life, but not God. Some do not see the need for God, or forgiveness from sin. They do not see they could be “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His Son.” (Col. 1:13)

Paul knew his ‘converts’ needed to become disciples - people who could live by faith, just as they believed by faith in Jesus Christ. This concern was always on his mind. Paul felt responsibility for ‘his believers’. Actually they were Jesus Christ’s believers. Paul was intimately involved in their coming to belief. Discipleship is a growing process. Christianity is not a snapshot, where everything is frozen in place for all time.
There is a beginning - believe and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
There is a growing and maturing process - living for Christ daily.
There is an ultimate end - eternal life with Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

Vs. 4 - “always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,”

“Always” - Every time he thought of ‘his believers’ - and they were always on his mind. If you have children, they are always in your thoughts, even when full-grown with children of their own. I do not know if Paul was married with children of his own. I think not. The believers of the churches, Galatia, Ephesus, Colossae, etc., were his ‘children’. He was with them when they were born again. He nurtured them in their spiritual infancy. There were ‘grandchildren’ also.
The idea that these children in the faith were growing in faith brought Paul joy. This is the abundant life Jesus told us about. In some ways, expressing thoughts on joy is difficult - so many of the words also relate to ‘happy’. Joy is not about “happy, happy.” Joy has the aspects of peace, of confidence, of contentment, of assurance of the ultimate end result. Happy is often based on circumstances. I am happy when Oregon State wins a football game. I am happy when OSU wins the college National World Series. I am not so happy when ‘we’ lose to the ducks (the team who’s logo looks like a toilet bowl). The happiness contributes to the joy in my life; it is not the joy itself.

“Prayer with joy” - We often think of “prayer with thanksgiving”, but not usually prayer with joy. Is it because we are usually asking for help from the Lord? We get the idea that Paul was not ‘straight-laced, sober and sad’ when he prayed. His absolute trust in the Lord moved his attitude in prayer away from, “I’m asking, but God probably won’t answer” which is a very ‘Eeyore’ type of attitude.
Our faith is limiting our prayers. Jesus said so. See: Luke 17:5, 6; Matt.17:20; Jam. 1:6, 7.

Vs. 5 - “in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.”

“In view of your participation in the gospel” - Boiled down, the sentence that makes up verses 3-5 is: “I thank God in joyful prayer for your fellowship in the gospel.” Anyone who committed their life into Christ’s care gave Paul joy. Various translation render participation as either fellowship, or partnership. I like either of those better. We don’t get ‘participation trophies’ for showing up. Christianity is not soccer for kids under 6. There are no prizes for just showing up. As we go through this letter we will see how much Paul appreciated the personal involvement of the church in Philippi in his ministry.

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