Category Archives: Bible Study

PAUL’S HAPPY LETTER…FAITH – 13c

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In this post, I want to correct something that Paul said…but is mistranslated and misunderstood…because most people believe what he did not say. Let me explain…

“…I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The words “I want to know Christ”  are not in the text. They are translated to express a desire in verse 10 which the text does not mean… whereas the Greek word “hina”, which follows “faith” at the end of verse 8, and includes verse 10, meaning ”in order that I may know Christ”, expresses the purpose of faith rather than the desire to know Christ.  Again, let me explain. 

“The word hina (ἵνα) does not actually appear in Philippians 3:10; instead, it is found right before it in Philippians 3:8, where it means “so that” or “in order that” to express purpose. 

(Note: If you are looking at verse 10 itself, the Greek text uses a different grammatical form—an articular infinitive, tou gnonai (τοῦ γνῶναι), which also continues that same statement of purpose: “to know him”.) (Google AI)

Paul was not expressing a desire to know Christ. He was stating the purpose of his faith, ie, to know Christ, which followed the righteousness that came by faith. 

Do you get the point? Paul was not saying that he longed to know Jesus…ie., something he was not sure about. He was declaring a fact…that the righteousness he had received by faith had led to his knowing Jesus and participating in His suffering and death as a way to arrive at resurrection from the dead. 

Eugene Peterson, in his rendering of this passage in “The Message” paraphrase, captured this thought in a roundabout way…

“I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Now, let’s gather our thoughts from Paul’s testimony. 

Paul had learned, through his dramatic encounter with Jesus, that all his credentials, including his birth, his lineage, his training, and his zeal for keeping the law of Moses, amounted to exactly nothing in God’s sight. He had to abandon everything he had counted on for acceptance with God, and receive the gift of Christ’s righteousness by faith. 

The outcome was a new life…lived in union with and by faith in Jesus. This life was going somewhere…towards the resurrection of his body if he stayed on course. His union with Jesus by faith would include suffering with Jesus, relying on His power to overcome sin, right through to the day when his body would rise again, exactly like the body of Jesus. 

This corrected understanding of what Paul meant gives us hope that, if we focus on what Paul had in mind, and kept in view, we can also anticipate the completion of our salvation…the resurrection of our bodies…just as Paul did. 

To be continued

PAUL’S HAPPY LETTER…CONFIDENCE – 13b

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“I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬-‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Something happened to Paul that made him do an about-turn. He was forced to retrace his steps…to make a 180 degree turn in his thinking, believing, and doing. What happened?

In his mad march to Damascus…to do another clean-up job of rounding up the “traitors”…these Jesus freaks…and take them back to Jerusalem for processing, Paul met someone who shocked him right off his horse…onto the ground…with his face in the dirt. That “someone” knew his name…knew where he was going…and knew what he was planning to do. That would be enough to shock anyone!

“As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭9‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The voice from the light did one simple thing…He took control…and gave one simple instruction…”Do why I tell you!” That was all! But, in those few seconds it took to speak to Paul, Paul’s life changed forever. 

All the hard work Paul has done, from when he could first remember, to score points with God, was gone. It had all collapsed into nothing. It had evaporated like the hot air inside him. He was empty, deflated, and ready for a new assignment. He asked one simple question…

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.”

…and got one simple answer, but with a voice full of knowledge and authority…

“And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭9‬:‭5‬ ‭NLT

…and that was all Paul needed to set him on a new course. 

“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Now let’s go back to our text. 

Paul’s encounter with Jesus transformed his perspective. 

From thinking that acceptance with God was all up to him, to letting go of every last privilege,  advantage, and effort…and, most of all, killing the pride that drove his self-righteousness…Paul was undone. He lay before Jesus Christ…the one he had scorned as a fake and an imposter…face down…in the dirt…before Him. 

Then Paul stood up, blind, but changed. Not only did he open his hands and let go of everything he had trusted in, he also dumped his own righteousness into the trash can as worthless and an insult to God. 

“I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Everything he had counted on as his passport to the Father lay in tatters. He could use nothing he had achieved in his entire life to impress God. 

The one who demanded spotless and flawless perfection as the way to reconciliation, now offered him what He demanded…as a gift. 

What Jesus required of…then Saul, now Paul…, perfect righteousness… He  had earned Himself by His perfect life…as a man… and then freely gave it away. All Paul needed to stand before God, whole and perfectly holy, was to believe in the one who offered him the gift…to receive the gift of righteousness, and to relinquish all rights to himself. 

That’s it? That’s it! Not working? Yes! Not working…just resting in the one who did all the work. There would still be work to do…not to impress God…but to work with Him. What would that work look like? It would be real work to stay dead to the self that keeps demanding its own way…and to humbly submit to his new owner…the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Paul discovered…and so must we…. That God’s work is to recreate us into His image…the image He gave Adam before Adam sinned. We inherited from Adam his spoiled image which is rebellion and enmity against God. Our “work” is to believe in Him and to work with Him to restore His image by resting in what He has done for us. 

To be continued

PAUL’S HAPPY LETTER…NO CONFIDENCE – 13a

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“…I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

What a self-righteous bigot Paul was… in his own estimation! Yes, from all his external qualifications, he has every right to be confident about his standing before God. After all, didn’t he fulfil every requirement laid down in the Old Covenant?

He was a true Hebrew. According to him, he was not aware of any intrusion into his bloodline. He was of the tribe of Benjamin…Jacob’s second favourite son. He was born right inside the Mosaic covenant, circumcised in strict obedience to the law, and, what’s more, he was a Pharisee by training and persuasion. He could not have been closer to what he considered to be “righteousness” according to his own standard…the one he used to measure himself. 

The cherry on the top, for Paul, was that he did everything “religious”, including persecuting the people who were following this new “way” because they had forsaken Moses for some Galilean peasant. They were sell-outs, traitors, as far as he was concerned…and they had to be stamped out to keep Judaism pure. 

Until that shocking moment outside Damascus, when he saw a light so bright…and heard a voice so terrifying that he fell off his horse…Paul believed that he was “in” and safe inside his religion. 

He was in favour with God, so he thought, but…there was one person he resisted…Jesus…the very Son of God…and that was his greatest downfall. What had he missed? All Paul’s efforts were focused and concentrated on his beliefs and behaviour, but…his heart was full of the one thing that disqualified him…”hot air”, pride…that which God hated and resisted…

The first requirement to enter  God’s kingdom, said Jesus, was to be empty of pride. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Poor” means “paupers”…those who have nothing inside. “Spirit” means air, breath, wind, or spirit…so, Jesus was saying, “Blessed are those people who are not windy, full of air…ie., full of nothing.”

When we truly have nothing inside, no hot air to inflate us, we have space for the Spirit of God to enter and reclaim what belongs to God. 

“As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

‭‭James‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul refused to bow to the one person who said…

“Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭29‬ ‭NLT‬‬

…and…

“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Yes, Paul had put a great deal of effort into trying to be accepted by God and trying to be vindicated by his own behaviour, his own “goodness” according to the law but…there was one thing he missed and one thing he could not do. He could not make his heart clean. 

This is what religion does. Religion cannot produce the life that comes from being reconciled to, and reunited with the only one who is the source of life. Sin, the expression of that disconnect, is an impenetrable barrier between the soul and God. There is only one who can remove that sin barrier…and He did it by sacrificing Himself as a sin offering on the cross. 

What Paul considered to be his greatest asset was actually his greatest liability…his religion! Only when we come clean with God can He make us clean by the blood of the atoning sacrifice. We must relinquish everything we consider an asset before He can do the one thing we can never do…a heart transplant that replaces our defiled heart with a new heart. 

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭36‬:‭26‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…and that promise was fulfilled by the cross of Jesus. 

For Paul. It would take a drastic encounter with the one who saw and knew him perfectly on the inside…to transform him from a hate to a lover of Jesus. 

To be continued

PAUL’S HAPPY LETTER…WATCH OUT – 12

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“Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Rejoice! A safeguard! Watch out! A warning!

Despite the fact that he had no reason to rebuke or correct this little congregation at Philippi,  Paul knew that they were always in the path of spiritual danger. What was their protection?

As always, Paul reminded them…and he saw no boring repetition in doing so…that their protection lay in what they kept in mind. What did they think about…in their everyday activities…in their interaction with unbelievers in the world…in the tests and trials that lay in their path? 

First…rejoice in the Lord! Keep the Lord Jesus in the front of your minds…not your struggles…not your circumstances…not the suspicion or the hostility of your neighbour…

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Paul knew that it was not easy to be “heavenly-minded” when life was rough and tough, but he also knew that their life in Jesus was real…and that it was the guarantee that there was nothing powerful or dangerous that could harm them…that could get between them and God’s love for them, demonstrated in the cross. To rejoice and remain in the love of Jesus was their safeguard against buckling under the weight of their struggles. 

So, rejoicing in Jesus, even in their darkest moments, would keep them facing right way and steady on course when they felt shaky or alone. They needed this constant reminder. Stuff happened, sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly. If their minds were conditioned to rejoice in the Lord, they would be ready to face whatever came their way without flinching. 

Second…a warning… and Paul was blunt in his contempt for the people who tried to derail these people. He called them “dogs”, “evil doers”, “mutilators of the flesh”! This was not polite language! This was what they were…not family pets…or spiritually mature believers…or even faithful Jews who honoured God’s law. 

Paul recognised the danger these Judaisers posed to the followers of Jesus. As innocent as their teaching appeared to be…keep the law of God, get circumcised, because you need to, to be saved, the real issue was…you must add circumcision to what Jesus did on the cross to make His death effective…Jesus plus something you do!

Any simple thing, any effort on our part, to complete Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, makes Him a liar, and cancels everything He did to reconcile us to the Father. He said, “It is finished!” The Judaisers said, ”It isn’t…not without circumcision.” Someone was lying…and it wasn’t Jesus!

This simple prescription, if we really take it to heart and put it into practice, is the godly wisdom that will be the buffer between us and spiritual shipwreck. Rejoice and stay alert. Stick with Jesus through thick and thin…and don’t fall for the nonsense that adds anything to Him. He is absolutely, altogether, and always enough. 

To be continued

PAUL’S HAPPY LETTER…EPAPHRODITIS – 11

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“Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier. And he was your messenger to help me in my need. I am sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. And he certainly was ill; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him—and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you. Welcome him in the Lord’s love and with great joy, and give him the honor that people like him deserve. For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn’t do from far away.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭25‬-‭30‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Epaphroditus…another of Paul’s fellow soldiers! New names keep popping up…real people who littered Paul’s path with companionship, assistance, partnership, labour…and suffering.  Paul called this man “a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier“. What a commendation! A brother…spiritually, of the same family, the same blood! A co-worker…on the same team! A fellow soldier…fighting on the same side! 

With people like Epaphroditus, Paul was never alone. These men and women…a growing number, names mentioned in most of his letters..didn’t start their own missions. They teamed up with Paul, followed his example, submitted to his authority, accompanied him on his journeys, and carried his vision wherever they went. 

Some, like this man, Epaphroditis, put his in life on the line for the gospel, as Paul had done. Somewhere along the way he fell into serious danger.  He became seriously ill. He contracted a deadly medical condition that could have ended his life. 

Life, in Paul’s day, was a daily risk. Medical expertise and facilities were non-existent. Diseases were everywhere, just waiting for someone with a compromised immune system…and Epaphroditus became a victim. 

Paul gives no details…the sickness had no name…but enough to make this man’s dedication clear. Whatever risk he took, whatever interrupted his journey, Epaphroditis had survived…and Paul was grateful. 

It was not medical intervention but God’s mercy that saved Epaphroditus that time…and every time someone got sick and recovered. 

Just reading through Paul’s description of Epaphroditus’ experience makes me realise how interconnected believers were under Paul’s watch. There was continual coming and going between people in the churches…news being exchanged…visitors being welcomed, hosted, refreshed, and sent back to share resources and encourage one another. 

One would think that movement was easy…but it was not! Yet, the people in these small congregations, across many miles, were more connected, then, than the people in small congregations in one town or city today. Why?

Was it because they were people who lived apart from the world, in it but not of it? They were separated by conversion and conviction, and their only safety lay in staying together…doing life together and protecting one another. 

In today’s world, God’s people are distracted by many attractions and not threatened much by their hostile environment. It’s easy to blend in, not to be noticed, to be lost in, and to be part of the crowd. 

From God’s perspective, there is great benefit in being separated and distinct…not only because of His  favour…

“Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name. “They will be my people,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

‭‭Malachi‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.”

‭‭Malachi‬ ‭4‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

…but because it is a matter of life and death…

“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭2‬:‭15‬-‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In today’s world, we have opportunities and privileges far beyond those of Paul’s day… communication and travel being among the most advantageous. Let’s not become lazy or complacent in the administration of our faith. Let’s do the “Paul thing”…use our connectedness to foster fellowship, love, and service…to God’s glory. 

To be continued