(1) Key Information About Philippians

Praying for Those Under Persecution

Pre-study Reflections. How do you pray for a church member(or ourselves) who is under persecution for proclaiming and living out the gospel?

(1) Key Information about Philippians

1. Paul was imprisoned for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ (Php 1:13) in Rome.

1. The church in Philippi, which Paul planted (Acts 16:12ff), had recently sent a messenger to encourage him(Php 2:25).

1. Paul found out that the church in Philippi was also facingsimilar persecution(Php 1:29-30) for proclaiming the gospel.

1. Paul writes to encourage the Philippians.

(2) Read Philippians 1:3-11(ESV)

(3) Study of Philippians 1:3-11

Question 1 (Php 1:3-5)

How does Paul relate emotionally to the suffering Philippians?

Main point: With joy (“making my prayer with joy”, v.4).

Why?

Main point: Paul is joyful that the Philippians partner with him in the gospel (“because of your partnership in the gospel”, v.5).

Additional Teaching Notes: It is essential that you help to draw out what this partnership means and not allow your CG members to assume what it means. This partnership refers to the common commitment to proclaim the gospel. How do we know this? The nearest evidence in Php 1:7 – the Philippians “partake … in the defense and confirmation of the gospel”. See also Php 1:27, when Paul tells them to work together for the “faith of the gospel” and also Php 1:30 when he says that the Philippians “are going through the same struggle” that Paul has.

Some of your CG members may suggest that it means the monetary gift from the Philippians. Note that while this partnership may include the gift, it cannot be restricted to it, since the partnership is “from the first day until now”. This implies that the partnership has not stopped, but Paul himself says that their monetary gift has only recently resumed after a substantial break (4:10).

How can we apply this to encourage others (or ourselves) when they are being persecuted for proclaiming the faith?

Main point: The goal of this question is to help CG members think about how they can encourage others who are persecuted by helping them know that we are all together in proclaiming the gospel. You should seek to draw out examples from your CG members on how they could do so in practical ways.

Additional Teaching Notes:Below are some practical examples, but don’t use them to dole out answers to your CG members. Seek to get your members to think. (If they don’t/can’t do the hard work of thinking in a CG, will they do it when they pray by themselves?)

Examples:

1. We should ourselves really take gospel proclaimation seriously. We can’t encourage others by telling them that we are “in it together” when we are not!
2. We can share with them testiomonies of the gospel’s progress in our own lives.
3. We can visit them in their workplaces or their mission grounds to share in their work of gospel proclamation. e.g. helping a church member set up a bible study in his work place during lunch.
4. We can pray with them for the gospel’s progress. For missionaries, we can use technology (e.g. Facetime, Skype).
5. We can give generously and cheerfully to their work (but we must be careful never to limit our involvement to just monetary giving – it breeds the wrong mentality).

Question 2 (Php 1:6-8)

1. v.6. What is Paul confident about?

Main point (initial): He is confident that God (“he who began”) who started a good work in the Philippians will complete it when Jesus returns.

Additional Teaching Notes:The tricky thing in this question is to clarify what it means by “good work”. The first thing to observe is that it is a “good work” done by God in the Philippians. Second, we turn to the immediate context. We have already seen that Paul is joyful over the Philippians common commitment to proclaiming the gospel. So it is very likely that this good work includes proclaiming the gospel. In other words, Paul is certain that God will help the Philippians to keep on proclaiming the gospel until Jesus comes again. (Paul himself says something similar of himself in Php 1:19.)

But this good work doesn’t just mean that. Later in the letter, we see that Paul tells the Philippians to “work out your own salvation … for it is God who works in you” (Php 2:12-13). In other words, since the Philippians are destined for salvation when Jesus returns, it is crucial that they live out their salvation in transformed lives. God’s “good work” in them is both their salvation and the living out of that salvation. Sadly, a common misconception in Christian circles is to disconnect our salvation from the way we live it out. But Paul does not allow this – elsewhere, he reminds us that we are “saved for good works” (Eph. 2:10).

Main Point (clarified): To put it simply, God’s “good work” in us is “God saving us for the doing of good works, especially proclaiming the gospel”.

1. vv. 7-8. Why is Paul right to feel confident?

Main point (initial): He is right to feel confident because the Philippians partake of God’s grace in suffering together with Paul. This suffering includes being imprisoned for the gospel, and actively defending the gospel.

Additional Teaching Notes:v.7 is tricky. You need to unpack it slowly. Let’s do so.

The first thing that Paul says is that he can feel confident because he holds them in his heart, i.e. he feels a deep love for them (this is corroborated in v.8). But why is it that Paul feels confident that God will complete his work in them just because Paul loves them? We need to drill deeper for the reason why Paul loves them.

It is because they are partakers of grace with Paul. So, Paul’s love for them arises from a common experience of grace. This is similar to how it is often easier to like someone with whom we share a common experience with. But what is this “grace”? Notice how there is a “the” appended to “grace”? This indicates to us that this grace is not any kind of grace, but God’s grace. But what kind of grace of God is this? Grace in Philippians is not saving grace. Grace in Philippians is the privilege that God grants his people to suffer for His name.

Consider the following two passages:

1. For it has been granted[more literally: “graced”] to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. (Phi 1:29-30 ESV)
2. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish,in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Php 3:8-11 ESV)

To Paul, persecution is a essential part of the Christian life. It allows us to experience Christ fully (“in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him”). Persecution allows to mirror the suffering of Christ, and thus also provide assurance that as we suffer like Christ, we will also be risen from the dead like Christ.

Pastoral Note: Friends – this is hard teaching! Pray that your CG members can accept this! Pray that they will not reply as Peter did in Mark 8:31-35: “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.”

How can we help those who being persecuted for proclaiming the gospel to experience this mindset shift?

Main point: As we just saw, to Paul, persecution is a “grace” that God’s to believers, that allows them to walk in Jesus’ footstep. It reminds us that just as we suffer like Jesus, we will be exalted like Jesus. Thus, the goal of this question is to help CG members think about how they can encourage others who are persecuted by helping them adopt this shift in perspective regarding suffering. You should seek to draw out examples from your CG members on how they could do so in practical ways.

Additional Teaching Notes:Below are some practical examples. Like the previous question, don’t use them to dole out answers to your CG members. Seek to get your members to think and commit to acting in these ways.

Examples:

1. We ourselves must learn to live through our persecution differently. How do we respond when we suffer for proclaiming the gospel (e.g. when church members disagree with us; when our colleagues are unhappy for us doing Bible studies in our lunch time)? Do we ourselves respond in grumbling and unhappiness? Or can we see it as a “grace”?
2. Prayer for others – this is the real practical step, for only God changes hearts.
3. Walk through persecution with others. If suffering is a privilege, then we must not be afraid to enter into situations of suffering with others and journey together with them.
4. Counsel them using words and testimonies.

(Note the ordering of the examples: when people are suffering, actions speak louder than words!)

Question 3 (Php 1:9-11)

1. When we pray for those persecuted for proclaiming the gospel, what should we pray for:
2. vv.9-10a. Regarding their way of life?

Main point: They are to grow in love. And their love should be informed.

Additional Teaching Notes:Note that to grow in love means to act in love more and more. It does not mean to feel more and more love.

Note that the target of the love is not specified. Thus, it likely could mean (a) love for one another, (b) love for God, or (c) both. However, since the bulk of Paul’s letter is about the Philippians loving one another (rather than about loving God), it is likely that Paul is thinking more about the Philippians growing in love for one another.

This love is to be shaped by “knowledge” and “discernment”. We grow in love through understanding what is means to love and how to love.

Note that Paul wants the Philippians to “approve” what is excellent. In Jewish thought, to approve of something is not just a tacit acknowledge that something is good, but rather to act upon that good thing. For example, the exact same phrase occurs in Rom. 2:17-23,

17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law … 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.

Main Point (clarified):In summary, Paul wants them to increasingly act in more loving ways to each other that are biblically informed.

1. vv.10b-11. Regarding their motivation?

Main point: They should seek to love one another more and more because they want to please Jesus when he returns (v.10) for God’s glory (v.11).

Additional Teaching Notes:Notice first that v.10 is the second iteration of “day of Christ” in our passage of today (see also v.6). Keeping the last things first is how we endure suffering for proclaiming the gospel.

Second, please note that your CG members may be confused by the phrase “fruit of righteousness”. In English, this may mean “the fruit which is righteousness” or “the fruit which comes from righteousness”. The right interpretation is the “fruit which comes from righteousness”. “Fruit” in the Pauline corpus always refers to good works (cf. Php. 1:22; 4:17), and particularly, from Romans 6:21-22 refers to the good works (“sanctification”) which comes from righteousness. In other words, our righteousness (=our salvation) must lead to good works. This is what we saw earlier when we interpreted v.6.

Third, your CG members may ask: “What comes through Jesus Christ – the fruit or righteousness”?The answer is the “fruit”. It is not 100% clear in English, but in Greek it is 100% clear. (Sorry for not explaining more – we don’t want to enter into technicalities of Greek grammar.)

1. Think of one person whom you know is suffering for proclaiming the gospel. Apply what you have learned today by praying for them together with your CG.

Main point: The purpose of this question is to apply what we have learned today immediately to pray for our church members.

I would strongly encourage you all to do so in groups, of at least 3, so that people can learn from one another how to apply today’s learning points in prayer.

Make sure you strongly emphasise to your CG members that they are to attempt to apply today’s learning points in their prayers – don’t just revert to praying in their established ways. We must allow Scripture to change us!

You may wish to fill in the blanks of the summary below before going through this question.

(4) Summary

(Note: Please avoid looking at this before the study is complete!)

When we suffer for proclaiming the gospel, we can:

1. Be ______that we ______ together to proclaim the gospel of Jesus (vv.3-5).
2. Eagerly ______ Jesus’ Second Coming by:
3. Being ______that God will complete His work of salvation & gospel proclamation in us when Jesus comes again, since our present suffering proves that Jesus is in us. (vv.6-8)
4. Praying for one another that we will allow Jesus to help us ______one another, so that we will please Jesus when He comes again. (vv.9-11)

[1] This article (“the”) is in the original Greek but is usually omitted in English translations as it is clunky to speak of “the grace” in English. But how does this “the” contribute to Paul’s thought? What grace is he referring to? Don’t assume it is the one wetoday usually talk about.