Paul’s focus was salvation — his and others’. This daily devotional looked at how Paul expected the Philippians to be a part of his salvation.
Nuggets
- Paul was confident in the gospel that lives would be saved, his own included.
- The Holy Spirit is instrumental in our salvation.
- Paul had expectations that he wanted fulfilled.
Devotions in the Joy in the Gospel series
Paul knew the Philippians, so he knew their spiritual condition. He knew what he could expect from them. Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
“What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice” (Phil. 1: 18 CSB)
My bad. I cut the sentence in half.
Paul was talking about his attitude toward his successors. You know how we say things rush to fill the void?
Apparently, there were some trying to fill the void for wrong motives. We don’t really know why.
- They think they can do a better job than someone else.
- They preach out of love — for Jesus and for their audience.
- They think about what they will get out of it.
Two of those three reasons are for the wrong reason. In our book.
And his replacements are substandard. Paul said rejoice in their work. Realize their motive, but rejoice in their work.
Salvation through the Prayers of Others
“because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1: 19 CSB)
Paul was confident in the gospel that lives would be saved, his own included.
Paul was joyful that the gospel was being preached. Parker wrote “His joy does not arise from the fact that certain persons preached, but from the higher fact that Christ was preached; not that bad men were working, but that a good work was being done.”
Resource
To Paul, it wasn’t about him getting the joy. It was about people hearing that they are lost and needing Jesus.
It was about the expansion of God’s kingdom.
Glossary
But look what the verse says. “because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1: 19 CSB emphasis added).
Paul had been saved on the Damascus Road 30+ years before. What did he mean the Philippians’ prayers would save him?
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
I think Paul is looking at salvation as a three-pronged process. It has elements of past, present, and future.
We are saved at conversion because we believe Jesus is our Savior and that God is Sovereign. That starts regeneration. God flips a switch — however He does it — to change us from being spiritual dead to spiritually alive.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t change everything. We are still in these physical bodies that can still sin. That is where sanctification comes in.
The goal is perfection. That will take work and time. That takes sanctification.
- Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- The perfected state indicates the combination of the spiritual graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
Glossary
Sanctification is important because it works on every part of us. It isn’t just our thoughts. It is our feeling, our opinions, our goals — it works on our soul. Our soul is our spiritual part that is immortal.
If working out our salvation is something that takes time, we need the prayers of others to help us navigate the Sanctification Road. Even Paul wasn’t above needing the prayers of others to help him in this.
We are in the process of being changed to be like God. That is only completed in the day of the Lord — when we get our new bodies.
But let’s look at Paul’s needing their prayers another way. Paul was the one hoofing it around to other places and hefting the pen to write instructions that we are reading still today.
I think Paul was encouraging the Philippians to keep praying because, without their prayers, he couldn’t do what he was doing. They were as much a part of his ministry as he was.
Remember what Paul had said back in Philippians 1: 5? “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1: 5 CSB).
The Philippians was Paul’s partner in his ministry. We generally have partners because we think we need them. If we think we can do it solo, we do.
We can be a part of someone else’s ministry because we pray for them. It doesn’t mean we should do ministry ourselves. But we can add our prayers to theirs.
Pope took it an even different way. He saw the prayers of the Philippians as the answer to Paul’s prayers.
Resource
Yes, there are times we pray for others when they don’t pray for us. But isn’t it nice to know when someone is praying for us?
Salvation through the Spirit of Christ
The Holy Spirit is instrumental in our salvation.
We obtain salvation because we believe Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. We get there through the promoting of the Holy Spirit.
We won’t get to salvation without the Holy Spirit. Pope wrote, “The Holy Spirit is the sole agent of the Saviour’s will in the inward work of grace; nor is the indwelling and operation of Christ ever mentioned without the accompaniment of this truth.”
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Expectation and Hope
“My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1: 20 CSB)
Paul had expectations that he wanted fulfilled.
Bamford was right. Paul was more of a leader than a follower.
What Paul wasn’t — as many think — an elitist. Bamford described Paul as “… a warm-hearted man, an intellectual man, a man, moreover, whose natural gifts had not been cramped but had a healthy development, and who had healthy cravings. While he did not think more highly of himself than he ought, neither did he think more meanly.”
Resource
But Paul did have opinions. Well, they really weren’t his. They were God’s laws and commandments.
On those, Paul would not deviate. He wouldn’t compromise in any way, shape, or form.
That created expectations. I loved Hutchinson’s explanation of expectations. He wrote, “It means the waiting with the head raised, and the eye fixed on that point of the horizon from which the expected object is to come.”
Resource
Paul expected Jesus to use him to magnify Himself. Once Paul got off the Damascus Road, he knew he had a new Master — one Who Had given him a mission to perform. Paul wanted all of the glory and honor to go to God and Jesus.
When was Paul expected Jesus to be magnified? All the time, regardless of the circumstances. Even if the circumstances included death.
Most of all, Paul expected all of us to magnify Jesus by accepting the salvation He offers. We magnify Him as we navigate the Sanctification Road and become perfect.
That is the best way to magnify Him.
Burns noted that we also magnify Jesus as we work in our ministry. Even our sufferings magnify Him. “But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear them or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (I Pet. 3: 14-15 CSB).
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As partners (Phil. 1: 5), Paul expected the prayers of the Philippians, so he did not ask, as Spurgeon said, for them. He knew they were praying for him.
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Paul hooked his expectations to hope. Hope is the expectation, also called a living hope, based on the confidence that, because of our relationship with God, our names will be found in the book of life.
Yes, hope is its own form of an expectation. But it is a future expectation. It ties Paul to what he is really working toward — having all of us meet Jesus.
To worldview people, it might seem strange that we magnify Jesus with our deaths. It really isn’t strange.
We magnify Jesus in death when we don’t fear it. We don’t cling inordinately to this life but completely trust that God knows what is best for us — even taking us out of this world.
Disciples know that death can be used by God to teach others. I know I learned a lot when Mom and Dad died six weeks apart.
Making the Connections #1
Paul knew the spiritual condition of the Philippians — as much as we can know that of someone else. He knew where their loyalties were. He knew what he could expect.
Making the Connections #2
I’ve often wondered how God knows that mankind will be able to get through eternity without repeating Adam and Eve’s original sin. I guess God has more faith in us than I do. But why?
Johnstone helped clear that up for me. He wrote, “All who reach heaven will be perfectly happy up to the full measure of their capacities, because being ‘pure in heart,’ they will ‘see God’ as fully as their natures can see Him.”
Resource
I guess I should have known that. We won’t just get new bodies. We will get new hearts, too, so that we are pure in heart. Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
How Do We Apply This?
- Live godly lives.
- Be consistent in our prayer lives.
- Keep working the Sanctification Road.
- Listen to the Holy Spirit.
- Cut out prejudice.
- Open the eyes of our hearts.
- Find a praying church to join.
- Trust God at the end of our lives.
Resource
Paul didn’t expect too much of the Philippians. He expected what God expects of us — joy in our salvation and wanting others to experience the same thing.
Father God. We thank You that You have offered us salvation. Help us to tell the world so that we can magnify Jesus just as Paul did. Amen.
What do you think?
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