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Friday, July 3, 2015

Pastoral Pings (Plus) ~ The Attachment to Christ that Focuses Everything


          This morning, God’s word took me back through a variety of themes in the way a crescendo at the end of a symphony ties together every thread of music already expressed.
          It began with, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.”[1] First I saw that Paul was taking great care to assure the Philippians that his joyful response to their financial gift was not joy in the material gift, but joy “in the Lord” because of the gift. In other words, he did not want to leave them thinking that his happiness was dependent on their gift, and neither did he want them to think he was ungrateful for their help in his ministry. Their consideration of him brought him joy, but because Paul looked at financial things “in the Lord.”
          This took me back to the previous couple of paragraphs where Paul had introduced some instruction about prayer, what we think about, and what we put into practice, with the all-encompassing exhortation of, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”[2]When he now addresses his contentment in relation to any description of financial conditions, he shows how rejoicing in the Lord always means rejoicing in the Lord for financial provisions rather than rejoicing in financial provisions themselves.
          However, to understand what it meant to Paul to rejoice in the Lord always, we need to go back to his testimony of how he had once thought he had attained everything of personal achievement anyone could ever desire, until he met Jesus Christ. Suddenly he considered “everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”[3]
          Remember that “everything as loss” included whatever financial standing he had attained with his exemplary good works, and “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” covered everything in life. Therefore, when it came to a financial gift, Paul’s rejoicing was “in the Lord” who was his greatest treasure, not in anything he would gladly consider loss if ever there was a conflict between finances and faith.[4]
          As we take this another big step back in Paul’s symphonic letter, we remind ourselves that Paul’s over-riding example of what it means to relate to one another in the church was that of Jesus Christ. Jesus gave up all the glory of his Father’s heavenly presence in order to come into our sin-cursed world, to give up his life for us in death, even the most shameful death of crucifixion, so that he could satisfy our deepest need and interest of all, which was to come out from under the wrath of God against our sin, and enter into the fullness of fellowship with his Father.[5]
          When Paul deals with finances at the end of his letter, he wants the church to see in him his willingness to bear all things (including poverty) because of his love for them,[6] and that he wants them to know the freedom of having “this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”[7]In other words, he wants them to know how joyful their gift made him feel in the Lord, even though he knows contentment in everything, and he wants them to continue with their generous consideration of other people’s needs because “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”[8]
          As we go back further to the earliest strains of Paul’s symphony, we realize that Paul’s joy in the financial gift, and his greater joy in the Lord, were already expressed in his declaration, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”[9]With Christ as his greatest treasure, to live his earthly life for Christ was his highest earthly goal, and death would be gain since it would lead him “to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”[10]With such a joy in Jesus Christ, living or dying, or “facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need,”[11]all helped Paul live rejoicing in the Lord.
          Finally, for brevity’s sake, we skip back over Paul’s expression of joy that the gospel of his blessed Savior was proclaimed no matter how good or bad the motives of the preachers,[12] and his beautiful declaration of affection for his family in Christ,[13] to his introductory expression of: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”[14]
          By the time Paul gets to the concluding crescendo of his symphony, we know that the thing that connects him and the believers together is their partnership in the gospel because it is the gospel that brings them all to Christ who is the greatest treasure of all because he brings them all to life in the Father. Paul’s thankfulness and his joy revolved around their fellowship in Christ through the glorious gospel, the good news of salvation.
          All of this shows why Paul dealt with finances at the end of his letter rather than somewhere sooner. On one side, he wanted there to be no doubt what caused him to have joy, which was Jesus Christ and anyone who was with him in Christ. On the other side, he wanted them to see how their partnership in the gospel made him rejoice in the Lord over their partnership in finances.[15]
          There is a sense in which I wish we could sit and listen to Paul’s Philippian Philharmonic together and hear the themes that play throughout the music from the first strain of, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,”[16]to the final line of, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”[17]From one end of the symphony to the other, Paul shows us how to rejoice in the Lord always, even in the secret of contentment that remains the same no matter how much or little financial help is in sight.[18]
          I hope that this little review of Paul’s glorious and gracious letter to the churches will encourage you to enter into the treasure of God’s word to know this constant rejoicing in Jesus for yourself.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)





[1] Philippians 4:10
[2] Philippians 4:4
[3] Philippians 3:8
[4] This is a HUGE examples to pastors, churches, and ministries, that seem all too willing to sacrifice issues of faith for pseudo-security in finances.
[5] Philippians 2:5-11
[6] I Corinthians 13:7
[7] Philippians 2:5
[8] Philippians 4:19
[9] Philippians 2:21
[10] Philippians 1:24
[11] Philippians 4:12
[12] Philippians 1:12-18 shows how Paul rejoiced in Christ so much that even though some of his brothers were preaching about Jesus out of bad motives, seeking his harm, he still could rejoice because Jesus was being preached. Paul being in prison was not stopping God from making Jesus known, even through mean-hearted brothers.
[13] Philippians 1:7-11
[14] Philippians 1:3-5
[15] Let me make very clear that there is no comparison between Paul’s view of finances and the stereotypical money-grubbing TV evangelists that are the scourge of the church in modern times.
[16] Philippians 1:2
[17] Philippians 4:23
[18] Philippians 4:10-20

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