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Ode to Joy

A Study in the Epistle to the

Philippians

1:7-11

By Samuel E. Ward

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Introduction

I. This Letter Is an Expression of Joy A. Paul’s Joy Is the By-product of Thanksgiving

for the Philippians, Phil 1:3.

(Phil 1:3 NIV) I thank my God every time I remember you.

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B. Paul’s Thanksgiving Brings Joy from Two Precious Realizations, Phil 1:4-6.

1. The Philippians have been his partners in the

gospel since “day one,” Phil 1:4-5. (Phil 1:4-5 NIV) In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy {5} because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,

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Ponder the level of appreciation expressed in in these words!

a. “I always pray with joy for you.” What a compliment!

b. “You have been my partners in sharing the gospel from the first day.” What a commitment!

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2. God will complete His ongoing work in them until Jesus Christ comes back, Phil 1:6.

(Phil 1:6 NIV) [I am] confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

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Ponder the depth of confidence in the outcome of God’s work in the Philippians.

a. This is confidence that is beyond the “shadow of doubt” that has been fostered by the Philippians’ own proven confidence in God. Their faith has been back up by their works.

b. This is confidence in God’s ability to finish what He starts in those who cooperate with Him.

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b. This is confidence in God’s ability to finish what He starts in those who cooperate with Him.

c. This is confidence in God’s continuance until the all the work is done and Christ returns.

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C. Paul’s Prayers for Them Springs from the Joy of Because of the Bond of God’s Grace Between Them, Phil 1:7-11.

1. They were supportive of Paul’s ministry of God’s grace whether he was a prisoner or free. This fact could have repercussions from the government if Paul lost his case before Caesar, Phil 1:7.

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(Phil 1:7 NIV) It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me.

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Later in this letter, Paul speaks in more detail concerning the support he had received from the Philippians.

(Phil 4:14-16 NIV) It was good of you to share in my troubles. {15} Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; {16} for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.

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2. They were the objects of Paul’s deepest affections and longing for fellowship with them in Christ, Phil 1:8.

(Phil 1:8 NIV) God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

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Paul was not emotionally detached from the churches he had labored so arduously to establish in the faith. We observe this in what he wrote to the Corinthians.

(2 Cor 11:28-29 NIV) Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. {29} Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

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3. They were the subject of Paul’s prayers for their full experience of Christ.

a. He desired that their love would overflow as their knowledge of God and insights from His truth increased, Phil 1:9.

(Phil 1:9 NIV) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.

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1) The knowledge of God should certainly lead to the practice of love according to the biblical standard, 1 Cor 13:4-7

(1 Cor 13:4-7 NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. {5} It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. {6} Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. {7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

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2) The practice of love is proof that we belong to the truth, 1 John 3:18-19.

(1 John 3:18-19 NIV) Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. {19} This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence

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3) The model for love is God’s own love for us, 1 John 4:9-11.

(1 John 4:9-11 NIV) This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. {10} This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. {11} Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

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b. He desired that their knowledge and insight would enable them to always choose what is best and pure so that they would be without blame when Christ returned, Phil 1:10.

(Phil 1:10 NIV) so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,

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Peter understood the importance of living with righteous discernment and made his point quite persuasively when he wrote:

(1 Pet 4:1-5 NIV) Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.

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{2} As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. {3} For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. {4} They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. {5} But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

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What should Christians take away from this passage?

1) Christians should be done with sin especially in view of what it cost Christ of redeem us from it.

2) Christians, from the day of their salvation, should give themselves completely to the will of God rather than to evil human desires.

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3) Christians should be ready to accept the ostracism and abuse from those who do not understand their commitment to purity for Christ’s sake.

4) Christians should understand that those who once sought to lure you into their ungodly behavior will not escape having to give and account of themselves to God both in this life and in the hereafter.

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c. The desired that their lives result in all that come from living righteously in Christ for the purpose of bringing glory and praise to God, Phil 1:11.

(Phil 1:11 NIV) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.

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The following is God’s word to ancient Babylon but communicates well the attitude of any people or person who has deceived themselves into thinking no One watching or caring in the heavens about how they live on earth.

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(Isa 47:10-11 NIV) You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me.' {11} Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.

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After humans have sufficiently shown themselves incapable of defining, producing, then practicing a universal moral consensus to do what is right for their brothers and sisters on the planet, God, Himself, will come forward to judge the world. Then He will establish His kingdom on earth, filling it with all those who have repented from their own sin, have accepted Christ as the one who paid the price of their sins by His own death on the cross, and have become His servants of righteousness.

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Here’s something to look forward to.

(Rev 21:10-11 NIV) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. {11} It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

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(Rev 21:22-27 NIV) I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. {23} The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. {24} The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

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{25} On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. {26} The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. {27} Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

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(Rev 22:17 NIV) The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

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Are you thirsty? Have you drank from the Source of Living Water that gives eternal life?

Are you tired of running from God?

If you are, then come to Him. Find peace, find hope, find love, find Jesus.