Philippians 1:7- 8, The Workmanship of God

Philippians 1:7

Even as it is meet<8> for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds<7>, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

(Philippians 1:7 ISV) For it is only right for me to think this way about all of you, because I have you in my heart. Both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, all of you are partners with me in grace.

<7> desmos {pronounced Des-MOs’}, means chains, or restraint. One of the signs of active and real salvation among a people is empathy one with another. Paul was imprisoned, suffering, so the Philippians on hearing this sent an envoy (Epaphroditus) to him to show the love of Christ in action. As we share the good things, the first fruits with those we love, we should also share the trials as well. Paul himself, though he was in terrible suffering, thought of the Philippians often, and considered this concern that he had for them to be righteous {<8>dikaios{pronounced dik’-ah-yos}}. A church that has no demonstrated love inside its assembly is a sick church indeed.

1 Corinthians 12:24-27 "For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked: [25] That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. [26]  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. [27] Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."

Godly love and care for one another is the bond that holds a church together. Each member of the church must have both a horizontal love, that is, love towards one's neighbor, as well as a vertical love, that is, love toward God. The horizontal love toward our fellow believers must not become greater than our love toward God our Creator. Let's put this another way. Jesus said:

Mark 12:30-31 (KJV) "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. {31} And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."

The first commandment, the premier commandment is that we must love God with total abandon. What God asks, we must do without question. He is our greatest Love, the Love for Whom we would die, the Love for Whom we would sacrifice all that we have and all that we will ever become. This is the greatest love, the overwhelming love. The secondary commandment, the one commandment that naturally follows this first commandment, is that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Why? Because man was made in God's image (Genesis 1:27; 9:6). If we love God, we must love man also. But we must be careful here. In our day there are many who love man more than they love God. There are those who have disregarded sections of God's Word, prohibitions against certain sexual activities, prohibitions against fornication and homosexuality, feeling that, "If I love my brother, I will accept him with all his limitations". It is true that I will accept my brother if he has certain limitations, but I must be careful never to condone sin nor sinful behavior. Jesus Christ is our pattern for Christian living - the wonderful but simple statement "What Would Jesus Do?", if honestly asked, would relieve us of much confusion in this Church Age. We must remember that sin is an activity that is offensive to God, as all sin ultimately is against God:

Psalms 41:4 (KJV) "I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee."

When we make a decision to overlook the sin of a member in the church, then we are not loving God as the premier commandment states. We must love our neighbor while we love our God. This is the key, so let me say it again. We must love our neighbor WHILE we are loving God. We must not love our neighbor more than we love our God. We also must not become confused, and compromise Scripture in order to love our neighbor. There are going to be times when the world will attack us, will hate us, will revile us because we love our God and serve Jesus. Jesus said:

John 15:17-20 (KJV) "These things I command you, that ye love one another. {18} If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. {19} If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. {20} Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."

The Christian is going to be misunderstood and despised by the world. The Christian, on the other hand, should never be misunderstood nor despised by his local church. The church is where we as believers band together to love God and love one another. The church is where we gather to share our love and our gifts with one another. The church is where Christians work together to do good for Jesus Christ on this earth. The church is not a clubhouse, but it is a place where we all go to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church is not a place where we go to fight, nor is it a place where we go for mere self gratification. It is a place of unity where God's children gather to study the Word and grow together as disciples of the Most High.

Philippians 1:8

For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels<1> of Jesus Christ.

  Philippians 1:9 - 11, The Love of God

Philippians 1:9

And this I pray, that your love may abound<2> yet more and more in knowledge<3> and in all judgment;<4>

<1> (splagchnon {pronounced splangkh’-non}, = Inward parts, affections, emotional feelings). Paul loved the Philippians, so he prayed for the Philippians. Concern for others should first express itself in prayer for others. Paul recognized that any lasting spiritual growth only comes from Divine intervention. God must empower a church to love, as love is a fruit of the Spirit. Paul prayed that the Philippian's love would <2> {perisseuo {pronounced per-is-syoo’-o}, Present Active Subjunctive} overflow or come forth immensely. It is interesting that love overflows, but not wildly nor in a helter skelter manner. Godly love can only overflow when the vessel where that love is pouring out of has knowledge and judgment. "Knowledge"<3> {epignosis {pronounced ep-ig’-no-sis}} refers to precise and correct knowledge, applied doctrinal truth. The doctrines of scripture are only effective when the believer takes these truths and applies them to his life. For twenty seven years I have seen many Christians sit in church half asleep during the preacher's message or the teacher's lesson because they felt obligated to attend. They came to church wide eyed and confused, and left church the same way. These believers rarely heed the message, and never take notes nor focus on the applied truths they are hearing. As a result some Christians are stuck in neutral, in a constant state of babyhood. Some may not even be Christian at all but, as the Apostle has said:

2 Timothy 3:5-8 (KJV) "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. {6} For of this sort are they which creep into houses {refers to early churches}, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, {7} Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. {8} Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."

"Judgment"<4> {aisthesis {pronounced ah’-ee-sthay-sis}} means "to render proper discernment". Love cannot abound without the proper application of Scriptural truth to it. In our day there are many who say, "I love Jesus", and I am certain that they are sincere in this love. But sincerity does not make one right. Hitler was certainly sincere when he consigned millions of Jews to Nazi death camps, just as there are sincere professing Christians today who have no use for people of color. Unless love is tempered with knowledge, scriptural knowledge, it has no lasting value in either the church or in society at large.

True, Biblical love is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5.22) that insures all other Christian virtues operate properly (1 Cor 13.1-3). Without a proper operation of AGAPE, God's love in our lives toward others, we are incomplete:

Colossians 3:12-14 "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; [13] Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. [14]  And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."

Listen to this, my Beloved! We do not forgive or put up with one another's faults because we love them; we both forgive and put up with one another's faults because Christ expects it of us. We are ordered to do this. But Paul says, "above all these things", that is, after you have forgiven and put up with other believer's shortcomings, you are still ordered to love them. Christian love goes beyond toleration of another believer. Christian love is sacrificial, forgiving, bonding. Christian love is the cement that holds the church together. When local churches fragment or dissolve this is always the result of lovelessness in some form running rampant throughout the assembly.

Listen up, my Beloved. None of us are perfect, none of us are sinless. Only Christ is sinless, only Jesus our Savior. Sinless as He is, He forgave us our sins, taking them upon Himself on the cruel tree. Our Savior is our example who, when He hung dying for us, cried out "Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). He forgave us, even though we did not deserve that forgiveness. The least that we can do is to forgive others in the church who may have, whether wittingly or not, offended us. This is the will of God that we love one another.

Philippians 1:10

That ye may approve things that are excellent;<10> that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ;

<10> diaphero {pronounced dee-af-er’-o}, means "that which is acceptable to God". We know what things are acceptable to God only after we test those things using God's established procedures. . The lines of right and wrong are not always clearly drawn for the Christian. Paul tells the Philippians that the best way to determine what is excellent, or acceptable for them, is to give it the acid test of Love. AGAPE is not needless sentimentality, but a love that seeks to do the highest good for it's object. We weed a lot of foolishness out of the Church by applying Love to it. Questions to ask are:

• Will it hurt my brother or sister?
• Is it helpful to our goals?
• Am I doing it for myself, or for others?

There are certain things that I may need to avoid if I truly want to be a disciple of Christ. The Apostle said:

1 Corinthians 8:13 (KJV) "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend."

What did he mean by that? Quite simply, as Christians we have freedom in our relationship with God - quite a bit of freedom. Our sins have been forgiven, we are redeemed, and are now in an intimate relationship with God by means of Jesus Christ our Lord. There are certain things we know to be wrong. For instance, though I am a Christian, it is still wrong for me to murder, lie, or steal from someone else. Yet there are other considerations that Christian love mandates. In Asian countries it is considered an offense to show the bottom of your feet to another person. Though the Scripture makes no mention of such a thing being taboo, love demands that when I am in the presence of believers where this is an offense, that I will not show the bottom of my feet. The Scripture makes no mention of the use of tobacco (before the irate religious write me, read 1 Corinthians 6:18-19 and pray about it), either for or against the substance. Quite frankly, I smoked for years, gave it up, and praise God that I am free from that foul habit. Though the Scripture makes no judgment on tobacco, if its use offends a brother or a sister, then the believer must be willing to put that habit away. There are some who consider chewing gum a sin. Though I see nothing wrong in that myself, if chewing gum offends a brother or a sister, love mandates that I put it away from myself. Mind you, we are only discussing areas of practice that are not clearly outlined in Scripture as wrong. Certain things, such as homosexual or sexual misbehavior, theft, murder, telling untruths, pride, covetousness, and so on, these things are clearly outlined in Scripture as things that the believer must avoid. But if a practice or a behavior is not Scripturally defined as sinful and that practice offends my brother, then I must be willing, as a Christian, to put that practice away from my life. The Apostle's practice, "I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend", should be our practice.

Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, <11> which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

<11>dikaiosune {pronounced dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay}, righteousness, a condition acceptable to God. Transformed lives are the proof that God has been present in a believer's life. As we have said before:

Faith alone saves, but faith that is alone cannot save.

Though salvation is by faith in Christ alone, if your salvation shows no evidence of itself, you are not saved. We who are saved are new creatures in Christ, are reborn, are renewed, are the workmanship of God. Once a believer accepts Christ as Savior that person's life radically changes. No, the person will not become perfect or sinless overnight, but the saved believer will begin to walk "righteousness road" with Jesus. Our Lord Jesus said:

Matthew 7:17-20 (KJV) "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. {18} A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. {19} Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. {20} Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

You can tell if the professing Christian is actually a possessing Christian by their works. If a person says that he is saved by faith in Christ then you should be able to see some evidence of salvation in that person's life. I have known many people who claimed to know Christ as Savior but who, after their professed salvation, drifted back into the world and into worldly living. Is such a person saved? What saith the Scripture?

1 John 2:19 (KJV) "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."

If these professing Christians were actually possessing Christians, that is, if they were born again and indwelt by the Spirit of God, then you would see some evidence of this in their lives. But to revert back to their old, whiny, miserable godless estates - by their fruits you know them. I have met many like this over the years. In fact, every sermon I ever preach, I always end the sermon by discussing the Cross of Christ. I am convinced that many of our local churches are flooded with unbelievers, wolves in sheep's clothing. I do not think that a true believer can willingly hate his brother. I do not think that a true believer can be prejudiced against a person of color. I do not believe that a true believer can hold up the Bible and say, "I don't care what this book says! This is what we're going to do!" Yet I have seen hatred, backstabbing, disrespect for the Word and the Will of God, many terrible things revealed in meetings of the church. My beloved, it is not enough to just say that you believe in Jesus Christ. Judas Iscariot willingly followed Jesus during His earthly ministry, but Judas was a devil (John 6:70), an opportunist who followed Jesus while it was convenient to do so. You distinguish between the devils and the saints in the church by examining the evidence of a person's salvation. If a person is saved, that person will have a working, operational faith that glorifies Christ in some way. As the Apostle stated:

James 2:18  "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."

If you are not a "new creature in Christ" following salvation, if you are not inclined toward righteousness over unrighteousness, if your behavior is exactly the same as it was before salvation, then look to your salvation - you may not be saved!

The Doctrine of Love