As with other chapters in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the last chapter contains some precious verses with depth to them. But as we worked our way through the chapters verse by verse and attempted to piece together Paul’s thought process, the beginning of Chapter Four presents a challenge to us. How do we account for Paul’s flow of thought with the curious opening to this fourth chapter? It opens with a verse connected to the end of chapter three and then Paul focuses on Euodia and Syntche. Why?
I made the first three verses of chapter four into a Gem series called A Sparkling Little Gem. These three verses appear to be nothing special; a bridge to something else. We might think we could just skip over them; nothing important here. A little like another Gem series I called Paying Attention the Blah. Inconsequential, yet when we dig they prove to be very important for our understanding of the whole and the connection of Paul’s thought process.
A Sparkling Little Gem
Bible Gem 1988 – A Sparkling Little Gem Begging to be Mined (Phil 4:1-3)
Bible Gem 1989 – Our Investigation into This Sparkling Section (Phil 4:1-3)
Bible Gem 1990 – Up Close and Personal with Euodia and Syntyche (Phil 4:2)
Bible Gem 1991 – Who was Paul’s Faithful Partner? (Phil 4:3)
Bible Gem 1992 – What Exactly Was the Faithful Partner Asked to Do? (Phil 4:3)
Bible Gem 1993 – Who Was Clement & What is the ‘Book of Life’? (Phil 4:3)
Hidden in two verses at the beginning of this chapter are some treasures which enhance our understanding of why Paul focused on these seemingly inconsequential people. Hence I created the above Gem Series to draw out the details.
So Rejoice and Be Considerate (Gem 1994) is the bridge to what follows which brings us to the two verses which many of us learned by heart early in our discipleship process.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
I created two Gem series on these two verses in order to deal with the depth contained in these memorable statements of Paul.
Don’t Worry . . . Pray
Bible Gem 1995 – Don’t Worry, Pray (Phil 4:6-7)
Bible Gem 1996 – In Every Kind of Prayer (Phil 4:6)
Bible Gem 1997 – Looking at the Kinds of Prayer in Sequence (Phil 4:6)
Peace That Passes Understanding
Bible Gem 1998 – The Peace that Passes Understanding (Phil 4:6-7)
Bible Gem 1999 – What is Peace from a Biblical Point of View? (Phil 4:7)
Bible Gem 2000 – Knowing Peace in Your Worst Moments – That’s God’s Peace! (Phil 4:7)
It was totally unplanned, yet my 2000th Gem ended up being a treasure in which I shared perhaps my four worst moments when I experienced God’s Peace. Then I added three accounts from Scripture which exemplify God’s peace at times when we would expect the opposite.
Gems 2001 to 2003 are standard Gems which demonstrate how to divide the block texts and determine Paul’s flow of thought. I used the Greek particles and Paul’s references to Dear Friends to mark where I believe Paul himself would divide the text of his letter. Gem 2002 is a help to maintaining your balance between positivity and negativity – Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full? How’s Your Balance? (Phil 4:8)
I then spent a few Gems looking at what some commentators view as Paul appealing to Stoic philosophy. I challenged that view but some of readers found those related Gems to be too theoretical as some told me. So I made sure to spell it out clearly in Gem 2006 where I shared how you can come to experience God’s Peace and Contentment for yourself by sharing my experiences. I made it clear that I was not giving
- Four Steps to Appropriating the Life of the Age to come.
- Six Steps to Gaining God’s Peace in My Life.
- Four Steps to Being Content.
Such an approach leads us to formulaic thinking and theoretical, secondhand, vicarious truth. In Gem 2006 I shared a number of our significant moments from which we learned to trust God and saw His intervention in significant ways.
In Gem 2009 I concentrated on two verses from Philippians Four which are Jewels in the crown of Paul’s conclusion.
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Phil 4:13
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:19
The surrounding Gems I wrote at this stage set these two precious verse in their correct context. I will leave you to seek out the context by reading those other Gems.
Finally I wrote the Gem series The Paul ~ Philippian Partnership to show you how the idea of the Greek word [koinōnia] most often translated “fellowship” draws out the partnership formed between Paul and the saints in Philippi. The partnership between them gives us the reason as to why this letter is the warmest and most personal of all Paul’s letters. I used Tania’s and my own experience of communicating via newsletters as a means of showing why Paul’s relationship with the Philippian Christians was so strong.
Bible Gem 2010 – The Paul ~ Philippian Partnership (Phil 1:5; 4:15)
Bible Gem 2011 – Paul’s Prayer for People and The Depth of His Relationships
Bible Gem 2012 – In Partnership with Paul for the Sake of the Gospel
I then investigated Paul’s closing greetings and the Doxology and found some interesting things which I will leave for you to discover if you wish. I answered questions from two Gem readers regarding what they had read or heard about Nero’s wife being included in Paul’s list of greetings via the reference to those in Caesar’s household (Gem 2014). Finally I highlighted Paul’s rather unique doxology in this letter and referenced Paul’s second secret related to the review process.
That now concludes these series of Gems on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. I am going to give you a week’s break with enough time to complete your review before I begin the Gems on the Letter to the Hebrews. See if you can read the thirteen chapters of Hebrews at least once before I begin gemming Hebrews. You ought to be able to read the whole book in one sitting in less than an hour. Try it. Write down any questions you come up with and share them with me and I will attempt to address them in the Gems on Hebrews.
Some selected pithy quotes from the review of Philippians 4
Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.
Corrie Ten Boom
A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to come unravelled.
Rick Godwin
Pax Romana was a thing to be feared. The Romans call it empire and, it is in murder and rapine and profit; they make a desolation and call it peace.
Tacitus
Peace doesn’t come from finding a lake with no storms. It comes from having Jesus in the boat.
John Ortberg