Philippians 4.1-9 (NRSV)
1Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy
and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
Exhortations
2 I urge Euodia
and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.3Yes, and I ask
you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have
struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the
rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5Let your
gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6Do not
worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, beloved, whatever
is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever
is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there
is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and
received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
I refer to A M Hunter’s short
commentary to begin our reflections on this lovely epistle.
My text is written in Philippians 4:7:
… the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus.
Paul exhorts us to stand firm, for the crown or garland of
victory will someday be ours. At this point, Paul remembers something that had
happened to specific people and where there had been disagreement – more than
this we know nothing about them – other than that they had quarrelled. What a
terrible thought, to be remembered for this alone! Paul encourages them to
‘agree in the Lord.’ When we realise our common bond in Christ, reconciliation
will not be far away, but sometimes we need the intervention of a third party
to help us along the way. Who this was remains an unsolved mystery. There is
nothing sadder than when Christians fall out with each other; sadder still when
people have died and there has not been peace with others.
From verse 4, Paul returns to one of
his favourite themes: ‘Rejoice in the Lord ...’ He repeats himself in order to
convince his readers, ‘... and again I say ...’ that joy can accompany afflictions. A M Hunter suggests that the Greek in
verse 5 can be translated using Matthew Arnold’s famous ‘sweet reasonableness’
referring to what the Greeks saw as justice and something better – what the
NRSV translates as gentleness. Hunter explains: ‘... It describes the person
who knows when to relax justice and let mercy come breaking in ...’ and we do
this because ‘... the Lord is near ...’ echoing the words of the Psalmist
(145.18) ‘... the Lord is near to all who call upon him ...’
Do not worry about anything. Wow, if
only I could learn this lesson for it has consumed so much of my life! Jesus
made the same exhortation (Matthew 6.25; Luke 12.22). Paul continues to explain
suggesting that true prayer and anxiety cannot (or should not) coexist ‘... the
way to be anxious about nothing is to pray about everything ...’(Hunter) The
word ‘supplication’ refers to the cry of personal need. When we pray and make
our requests known to God we should always add thanksgiving. If we do this,
Paul promises us in verse 7 that we will know God’s true and rich peace.
Paul promises the ‘peace of God’ which
passes all understanding’ – something that is beyond human comprehension will
keep, literally garrison their hearts
and their minds. Hunter explains: ‘The paragraph began with joy; it ends with
peace. Is Paul saying that if we have not God’s peace in our hearts we cannot
have his song on our lips?’
Verses 8-9 are apparently unique to
Paul because they contain words that are not found anywhere else in his letters
– or even anywhere else in the New Testament – but also because they commend
virtues that are more akin to those found in Greek philosophy, especially the
stress on ‘truth’, ‘justice’, ‘excellence’ and what is ‘worthy of praise’. Why
did Paul emphasise and want his readers to reflect on these ethical virtues?
It is not impossible that the church
in Philippi were not willing to acknowledge anything good in the values of
those outside the church, so what Paul is commending here is that we should
acknowledge and even commend all those things that are ‘good’ no matter where
we might find them and to ‘take them into account’ when deciding what to do.
Paul then ends with a return to what
he had taught them as well ‘...learned and received and heard and seen in me
...’ i.e. what he had taught and what he had revealed to them by his personal
example. Hunter concludes: ‘If the Philippians do this, “the God of peace”, the
God who is the Author and Source of peace ... will be with them ...’
I echo these thoughts in my own
experience. For nearly 20 years I have been teaching in the United Kingdom,
many things including history and the philosophy of history, Renaissance and
Reformation Theology, New Testament, Philosophy of Mind, Religion and most
recently Ethics and now religious authority: in the process I have needed to
explore things both inside and outside the Christian faith. Until recently I
have also been teaching Buddhism as well. All these things have enriched me and
I am grateful for the privilege of sharing these things with pre University
young people who have kept me on my toes. While I always return to the
fundamentals of the faith in Scripture, I know that I need to take all these
things ‘... into account ...’ and am blessed with peace in the process; if for
no other reason that the glimpses of truth that these other ways have always
seem to me to refresh my understanding in the ultimate and compete truth that
is only available in our Lord, Jesus Christ.
A few thoughts from J H Holden’s
commentary on the Prison Letters.
This passage of Paul’s writing is a
detailed commendation of virtue as a Greek would have seen it. Holden suggests
that Paul, ‘... unselfconsciously acts upon that positive evaluation of pagan
ethics which he gives in Romans 2.14: ‘When Gentiles, who do not possess the
Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, these, though not having the Law,
are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on
their hearts, to which their own conscience bears witness ...’
The non-believer is perfectly capable
of knowing the main ethical principles by which humans are meant to live, and
when people behave in this way, they enter the presence of God as Paul explains
in verse 9.
‘Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and
heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.’
St Francis of Assisi is reputed to
have said: “Preach the Gospel everywhere and only when necessary, use words.”
Nothing can be more attractive than a
holy and pure life, not a ‘holier than thou life’. We have all met judgemental
people who think they have all the answers and who are always critical of
others. Nothing can be more off-putting. But we have also all had the privilege
of meeting people whose lives are filled with the joy of the Lord, those who
rejoice. What is a characteristic of the life of love is gentleness, prayerful
living and peace, even in the midst of terrible things. Paul exhorts us today
to live in this way and then we will know God’s peace and fulfilment and we
will attract others to become disciples of Jesus. And he also gives us a very
practical way of doing this, and that is to prayerfully fill our minds with
whatever is:
·
True
·
Honourable
·
Just
·
Pure
·
Pleasing
·
Commendable
·
Excellence
·
Worthy of praise
Is this characteristic of what we watch on television, film,
what we look at on the internet, the books we read, the music we listen to, and
what we study?
If we seek to live in this way and with God’s grace and with
the aid of the Holy Spirit, for none of this can we ever achieve in our own
strength, we all can know what Paul speaks of in verse 7 in our own lives:
… the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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