Welcome to the second series in our studies of the book of Philippians. What a great book it is! I hope that many of you have been with us during the earlier episodes as we have gone through Paul's teaching to the church in Philippi. 

Recap and Background 

Let me remind you of the situation, if you are coming afresh to this in Series 2, or if you are just coming into this particular episode. Paul was in prison in Rome. He was under house arrest at the time that he was writing this letter. The Philippians had been helping him. This church was a long way away in Macedonia in Greece; Paul was in Rome in Italy. It was eight years since he had been to Philippi; there was a long time since he had seen the church. It was 10 years since he founded the church on his first visit, and now they decided to help him. They sent him money and a very reliable man by the name of Epaphroditus who came and was his companion and his helper while he was under house arrest. He was guarded by Roman soldiers and had two main helpers with him - Timothy, his longstanding friend and co-worker, and Epaphroditus,  One of Paul's main problems when he was under house arrest was finding enough money to pay the rent for his property and to pay for his food. 

Paul had a very warm relationship with the church in Philippi. It was a healthy and a strong church, as far as we can tell. There were no real divisions or difficulties in the church. Paul has great affection for the Philippian people. In the last episode, at the end of the first series, I explained how Paul described to them the fact that he was sending both Timothy and Epaphroditus back to Philippi. Epaphroditus had been very sick - so sick he nearly died. He recovered and Paul, as a precaution, wanted to send him back home so that he could make a full recovery. He may have even had a bout of the plague that often came to the city of Rome. That was the situation that Paul had been dealing with. He was encouraging the church, laying foundations of the gospel and of fellowship life, and mission, in chapters 1 and 2, which I described as Series 1 in our Collection on Philippians. 

Now we are in Series 2 and Paul gives great encouragement, but he also gives several very significant warnings. Paul often warned a church of dangers in his writing. He was very clear, very honest when he saw a problem coming, or a problem taking place. He describes it very clearly, very directly, and he gives very clear instructions. That is exactly what he is going to do in this episode, but our starting point is somewhere else. 

 Rejoice in the Lord!

A principal theme of the book of Philippians is joy, rejoicing in the Lord, being thankful to God. It comes up in every single chapter of the book of Philippians.When we get to chapter 4: 4, we have a famous verse, "Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice.” People have written songs around that phrase, and maybe there are some in your culture and in your language too. Rejoicing is a very important theme of Paul. He was constantly emphasising the fact that we need to be thankful for what God has done in our life, thankful that he is in control of our present circumstances and thankful that our future destiny is absolutely assured in eternity. All those three themes are here in Philippians: he talks about our certainty of salvation in Christ; in some places he talks about the present circumstances that he was in - very difficult circumstances in Rome under house arrest. He had been in confinement in prison, or house arrest, or travelling the long voyage across the Mediterranean Sea to get to Rome under guard, for a period of four to five years. He had had some very difficult times, but he was constantly emphasising thanksgiving that God is in control of our present circumstances. God doesn't let anything happen to us that is beyond his control. Paul believed that even though at that time he was old, he might have been suffering from sicknesses, or difficulties, relating to getting older, and also, he was facing a trial which could have led to his execution. All these terrible circumstances did not deter him from focussing on thanksgiving. 

I can imagine the Philippians reading Paul talking about rejoicing might have remembered something that happened when Paul was in Philippi the first time - a story which was so dramatic that they would never have forgotten it. When Paul came to Philippi and he had preached the gospel to a few people, there had been some conversions -particularly a lady called Lydia and her household and some others. Paul was brought before the magistrates because some people accused him of being a troublemaker and stirring up difficulties in the city. He and his colleague at the time, Silas, were beaten. They were taken to prison and put in the most secure cell in the inner parts of the prison, and their feet were put in stocks so that they could not possibly escape or cause any difficulty. Amazingly, despite these terrible circumstances that had happened to them, they sang through the night. That must have really irritated some of the other prisoners. They were singing in the night; they were rejoicing in terrible circumstances. The exact thing that Paul is talking about here is what he did in Philippi, the very place that he was writing to. The story goes on that God intervened in the middle of the night and sent a great earthquake and the prison doors opened. The jailer came and he was converted.Eventually Paul was released, and Paul and Silas could move on to the next city. I tell this story in ‘The Spreading Flame’ Collection where you can study it more closely. That story would have been remembered by every single member of the Philippian church because it was the founding story; they would remember people telling the story of what happened when Paul was in jail in their very city. The jailer was a convert and joined the church. In fact, the Philippian jailer might have read this letter if he was still alive, and he would have thought, 'Yes, Paul rejoiced even when we beat him and put him in the stocks in prison.' So, Paul practised what he preached. He believed that however catastrophic the circumstances may appear that happened to us, God is sovereign over them, and we should thank him for the fact that he is going to work even in those circumstances - even if they are very evil and negative circumstances. 

 Beware of Judaizers! 

Paul now changed his theme. Here comes a big warning! Paul speaks very plainly about a real problem that could happen in Philippi,  
   
This seems a strange thing for Paul to suddenly say in the middle of the letter which has been very positive letter so far. Who is he talking about? 'Dogs, evil doers, mutilators of the flesh.' Paul is talking about some of his greatest opponents.These were Jewish people who totally opposed the preaching of the gospel and followed Paul from place to place, and especially after he had left those places. They would infiltrate into the churches, and tell the people that Paul had made a big mistake because 'To be saved,' they said, 'you need to be like a Jew who practices the Old Testament law, the Law of Moses and you can't become a Christian unless you become a Jew.' These opponents of Paul, we often call ‘the Judaizers’, appear several times in the story of the New Testament as recorded in the book of Acts. They literally followed Paul round and tried to confuse people and to persuade them that the gospel was not free, that Jesus' death, wonderful though it was, was not enough to bring salvation. They had also to obey the Jewish law. 

 There were four things about the Jewish law that the Judaizers demanded people follow: the first one was that their Gentile men needed to be circumcised, like Jewish men and boys were circumcised; the second thing they insisted on was that everybody should obey the Old Testament Jewish food laws, which restricted the food that you were allowed to eat. (Certain foods were considered unclean - notably pork, shellfish, certain fish and insects such as locusts and a number of different birds); thirdly, you had to obey the Jewish Sabbath - you had to worship on a Saturday; and fourthly, that you should follow the Jewish religious festivals - notably Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. In other words, they were trying to get people to become Jews. These are the people that Paul described as 'evil doers'.  He used very strong language. When he said, 'mutilators of the flesh', he was referring to male circumcision, which was no longer required. This became an issue in the Early Church - such a big controversy that the Apostles had to gather for a major discussion and meeting in the city of Jerusalem known as the ‘Council of Jerusalem’,  Acts chapter 15, to make a final - an absolute decision: should the Law of Moses be applied to Gentile Christians or not? Their answer very clearly was 'No.' They decided against the Judaizers. They decided in favour of Paul's preaching of the gospel. Paul's preaching of the gospel made it very clear that anybody who comes to Christ is saved only by the power of the death of Jesus - the substitutionary sacrificial atonement of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. By our repentance - turning away from sin - and our faith, our trust in his power to save, we become righteous. In other words, we contribute nothing to being saved. We can't have a list of legal requirements that are part of the package. The Judaizers said that the death of Jesus was great, but you had also got to be circumcised, obey the food laws, worship on the Sabbath and participate in the Jewish festivals. Those were the four main requirements and a few others as well in some cases. Paul taught that we cannot add in religious laws into the salvation package otherwise, we are preaching a false gospel. He opposed these people, and he was afraid that these Judaizers would go to Philippi. Up to this point, as far as we know, they had not gone to Philippi, but they had been to quite a number of Paul's other churches. As a precaution, he warns them to be careful and not to fall into this trap. 

Christians are not under the Law of Moses. In several Collections, and in different contexts, particularly when I studied the book of Galatians and the book of Romans, I deal with this question in some detail and also in some detail in Series 4 of the 'Life of Jesus', when we looked at the Sermon on the Mount. But let me summarise the position of the Apostles very clearly. The Old Testament laws were designed for the people of Israel for the time before Christ came. When Christ came, that Old Testament law was fulfilled; it became out of date or obsolete and was no longer required of us as Christians. The only laws in the Old Testament that apply to us are the ones that are specifically restated in the New Testament by Jesus or the Apostles. There are very few of them: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. You shall love your neighbours as yourself"; some of the 10 Commandments and a few others. Unless there is a command in the New Testament, the other commands in the Old Testament do notapply to Christians. This is important concerning food laws, circumcision, worshipping on the Sabbath and even the law of tithing, which is never reinstated as such in the New Testament. We must be careful how we deal with the Old Testament laws. Let us be guided by what we are taught to do from the New Testament, from the Apostles and from Jesus himself. 

Paul’s Own Testimony 

Paul went on to describe his own transition from his past life until his new life. 
 
Paul briefly tells us about what kind of person he was before. Before he became a believer in Jesus, he was very much like the Judaizers. He followed all the laws. In fact, we know that Paul travelled from his home city in Tarsus as a young man, a teenager, to Jerusalem and was trained in Judaism. He was trained to become a Pharisee - to become a religious leader and a teacher. Paul retells this story time and time again - something extraordinarily dramatic happened: he encountered Jesus Christ on the Damascus road, and he realised that he had stood against the gospel, against the truth and against Jesus as the Messiah. He had become a persecutor of the Church, and he realised how absolutely mistaken he was. Something fundamental had changed when Jesus came - the Old Testament law was no longer relevant; it had been replaced - it had become out of date, obsolete, and fulfilled. Christ was the fulfilment - the end of the law. Paul suddenly realised all this, and he realised the incredible power of the gospel to change people's lives - the incredible power of God giving to us freedom from sin, forgiving us. He realised the incredible power of God's grace – his unmerited favour towards us. It had a revolutionary effect on Paul; he was so affected by it that he could never go back to his old way of life. He did not want that religious legalism to get a foothold in his churches. He believed that the power that energises the Christian to follow Christ and be godly was not the Old Testament law: it is the Holy Spirit who God has put in the heart of every single Christian. As we allow the Holy Spirit to work, he leads us into do the right thing. 

Paul had an incredible experience, an incredible transition, and transformation. The cost to him was enormous. He lost everything that he had: he lost his job in Jerusalem as a Pharisee; he lost his reputation as a religious and respected leader amongst the Jews; he lost his home, his friends and probably lost connection with members of his family. He was hated by the Jewish people with a tremendous anger which went on all the way through his life. Whenever they had an opportunity, they attacked him. In fact, once when he went back to Jerusalem, he was in the Temple worshipping and performing some religious practices, a riot broke out when they realised who it was and they tried to kill him on the spot. He would have died but for the fact that the Roman soldiers came in very quickly from their nearby barracks and rescued him and took him out of the Temple. The Jews hated Paul and that was why they opposed his message. The way of opposing was not only to try and get him killed or imprisoned but also to undermine his churches.This is what this passage is all about - Paul's fear that the Philippian Church, a wonderful church full of God's grace, would in fact be undermined because these people would come in and start teaching against the gospel and going back into the Old Testament. 

 Paul had lost everything, but he said that it was worth it. This is interesting because what Paul gained in his view was far greater than what he lost. He spent all his life up until the point of his conversion, trying to please God by his own religious efforts and now he had found peace with God. He found that God had taken the initiative towards him and was willing to forgive him and enable him to enter into a new spiritual life. This was absolutely thrilling for Paul. It was so exciting. The huge burden of responsibility and religious legalism fell off his shoulders and he realised he didn't need to do any of those things. All the things that he had as a respectable leader in the Jewish community, which he had lost, he said were not really worth having anyway, because what he did not have then was this incredible relationship with God and the wonderful free conscience, knowing that he had been forgiven, had been put right with God, and was now in his Kingdom and in his family. This for Paul was the most precious and wonderful thing that could ever happen to him, and he wanted to preserve this freedom for his churches.  

Paul's attempts to please God by religious observance is something that should be familiar to many of us because that is how most people in most religious traditions view the seeking after the divine: trying to make peace with God. They view it as a task of religious duties and people generally feel that they are not fulfilling those duties sufficiently. Paul's feeling is the feeling of many people; many people in the great world religions are dominated by rules and regulations. Just a few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend of mine who is an Islamic scholar, discussing a number of Koranic texts, which he studied and quoted it in Arabic. As we had the conversation, he described this rule, and this rule, and this rule. This is what he needed to follow in order that at the day of judgment, he might find that his good works were greater than his bad works, and he would enter into salvation. He was reflecting the way that most Muslims think. The same would be true of the Hindu religion and most forms of Buddhism and Sikhism. When Christianity is corrupted, that is what Christians believe as well. Paul was as opposed to this as we can possibly imagine because he realised that it is impossible, by any religious method, or tradition, or faith, to find God's righteousness, God's peace, God's forgiveness; it is a free gift from God, which we receive by faith. Paul preached that message faithfully from the very beginning until the very end. He wrote these words about 25, or 28, years after the Damascus road experience. He had been travelling the Roman world ever since, preaching the same message. He had found the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 

 Paul’s Four Passions 

Paul wanted to: firstly, know Christ - to have an ongoing relationship with him; secondly, to know the power of his resurrection - that is the Holy Spirit's power working through his ministry so that miraculous things happen; thirdly, the fellowship of suffering and death - sharing in the suffering of Christ. (In other words, if we follow Christ, we will be opposed, we will suffer. There will be difficulties; there will be persecution); and fourthly, he wanted to enter eternal life and the resurrection from the dead. He was confident that he would do that but he did not know exactly how. He said, 'somehow' meaning in some circumstances; he did not know when he was going to die because death could come very quickly after he wrote these words, because he was facing a trial in the imperial court, or he might live for many more years. He did not know, but he knew his end destination was eternal life and physical resurrection. This is a powerful passage. 

 Reflections 

First of all, this passage teaches us about what I call indestructible joy - the joy of obedience and thanksgiving despite, and in face of, sometimes very difficult circumstances. Let's follow Paul's example by thanking God for as many things as we can think to thank him for, on a regular basis and experience that joy. 

Secondly, this passage speaks of the reality of the potential of suffering in the Christian life. This has been a theme of the book of Philippians. In fact, it is a theme of much of Paul's writing. Suffering comes to faithful Christians, who are disciples, frequently. But we need to take encouragement because this suffering is not the end of our story; it is not the end of our journey. There is eternal hope. As Christians are sometimes attacked in different parts of the world, God keeps raising up the next church, the next generation. He keeps spreading his message.  

The final point of reflection here is the danger of religious legalism - the main point of this passage. We need to reflect as to whether we have allowed any rules or regulations to become the centre of our Christian commitment – rules and regulations that cannot be seen in the New Testament; things that have come from the traditions in our culture; or things that we have brought in from the Old Testament that are not part of New Testament discipleship.