Philippians 1:6 Confidence in Logistical Grace

Philippians Chapter 1:6

An Exegetical Teaching Manuscript

PowerPoint Presentation 

Chapter Outline

Verse 1-2:        The Salutation

Verse 3-           Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

ü    Verses 1-2  Paul and Timothy, slaves belonging to Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, to those residing in Philippi, together with pastor-teachers and deacons. Grace to you and so prosperity from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

ü    Verses 3-5  Every time I remember you, I thank God for all of you.  [Always in my every prayer, for of all of you.] because of your contribution for the purpose of spreading the Gospel from that first day until now.

Verse 6     Confidence in Logistical Grace

Pertinent Verses

“My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

“Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.  This I recall to mind; therefore I have hope.  The Lord's gracious functions never cease; His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  ‘The Lord is my portion,' says my soul; ‘therefore, I have faith under pressure.’  The Lord is good to those who trust in Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” Lamentations 3:20-25 RBT

Verse Outline

                             I.            Introduction

                           II.            Paul’s Confidence

                         III.            The Object of Paul’s Confidence

                         IV.            The Goal of Logistical Grace

                          V.            The Limits of Logistical Grace

                  For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 NASB

                       I.        Introduction

As believers in Jesus Christ, we often make our best friends at the local church where we attend.  Of those people, there are those you know who will continue to grow up spiritually and those who don’t.  We all have setbacks of carnality or short stints of carnality.  Yet, despite those setbacks of carnality or short stints of reversionism; certain people will continue to advance in the spiritual life. God has most graciously designed the spiritual life in such a way that you can recover from setbacks of carnality.  What puts you into that status quo of carnality?  You are out of fellowship when you have sinned by the use of your volition: a choice you always make. Take responsibility for that sin by admitting your sin to God the Father then keep learning doctrine, keep on applying doctrine.

God has designed the Church Age spiritual life so that it is fairly easy to recover from mistakes you make.  But to recover from bad decisions you’ve made in the secular life? It is not often that easy or that simple.  Often, when the believer is carnal he leaves the wreckage of damaged relationships and lost opportunity in his wake.  But God has made it possible to recover from these blunders in the spiritual life.

In this verse, Paul expresses his confidence in the future greatness of this Philippian congregation, despite setbacks they may have.  His confidence is not necessarily because of the certain people involved, but because of the Biblical principle involved.  In other words, these Philippian believers are like those you meet every day; they were not perfect.  They failed just as you and I do but God gave them the opportunity to recover just as He does us.  They recovered and kept growing spiritually despite setbacks.

If people stay with the Bible doctrine, learning it and applying it, they will advance in the spiritual life, despite setbacks. You see, Paul has confidence in the doctrinal principle which says this, not necessarily the people involved.  Why not the people?  Inevitably, some fail and some succeed spiritually.  This issue is never the people involved but what the Bible teaches.

                   II.        Paul’s Confidence

For I am confident of this very thing…

Let’s get to our verse now.  We’re going to call this short paragraph, “Paul’s Confidence.” The verse in the NASB starts with: “For I am confident of this very thing…”  The Greek sounds like this: “PEPOITHOS AUTOS TOUTO…” πεποιθὼς αὐτὸ τοῦτο.    

This verse begins PEPOITHOS πεποιθὼς, a participle acting as a verb.  It is the perfect active participle from the verb PEITHW πείθω which means “to obey,” “to believe,” “to convince,” or “to be sure.”  In the perfect tense, it means, “to have confidence.”  In terms of the syntax, this is the perfect of existing state.  Using this perfect tense, Paul emphasizes his present state of confidence, which has resulted from a past action. He has total and complete confidence in his own and the Philippians present state of advancement in the spiritual life.  The past action is their spiritual growth which God has honored.  It began at salvation and continues to the time of writing.  So, he is confident in the fact that they are utilizing God’s provision and continuing to grow up spiritually.  The dramatic perfect emphasizes this existing state of spiritual maturity.  This participle is in the active voice; a simple active voice.  Paul produces the action of the verb, confidence, as a result of his spiritual life, which came from combining the grace of God with his own positive volition. 

We can glean at principle from this.  Your positive volition combines with God’s grace to cause your spiritual growth.  Paul had every intention of continuing his spiritual growth, of which confidence is a natural result. Because of his continued spiritual growth, Paul would glorify God.  It is a causal participle, adding the concept of “cause,” so it is best translated “because I have confidence.”

The third person personal pronoun AUTO αὐτὸ follows. Grammatically, it is in the accusative neuter singular of αὐτός. Syntactically, it is the intensive or reflexive use  serving to emphasize what Paul’s great confidence is based upon. So, it isn’t translated as “it” or a “thing” as it could be, but emphatically as “itself” or as the NASB translators do, “very thing.”  We’ll use the term “itself” and place it correctly in the sentence structure later.  We will expand the translation in a minute to include just what “it” is.

We can make an application of the fact that Paul has great confidence. There is no place in the spiritual life for doubt.  Confidence is a spiritual asset, as long as it is based upon the ultimate standard, the Word and perfect character of God. 

Next in Greek word order is the nominative masculine singular of the immediate demonstrative pronoun TOUTO τοῦτο.  It is translated “this” referring to and emphasizing a principle from something in the immediate context.  So Paul’s confidence is placed on a factor in the immediate context of this verse: a principle he teaches in the next phrase.

Right now, we will translate that phrase as: “because I have confidence in this itself.”  “This” again, refers to a principle.  We will derive the source of that principle and be specific about it in a minute or two.  We will see from the next phrase that Paul has confidence in their advance as a principle of doctrine not in the individuals necessarily.  His confidence is in the Lord’s work on their behalf, making their spiritual growth possible.

Some believers have more spiritual setbacks than others.  It may be a matter of environment, bad upbringing or really, just bad decisions!  We all fail!! This is a principle that every believer should receive a bit of relief from.  If you fail from time to time…or are in the middle of failure right now, you are not alone!  God has provided for that failure. If and when you do fail, do you have the tendency to beat yourself about the head and shoulders, kicking yourself in the rear end for that failure?  Remember that God has graciously given each one of us, yes, you too, the perfect provision for recovery.  He has given us a simple mechanic to apply which wipes our slates clean from sin.  Name your sin or sins to God the Father and then move on with your spiritual growth!  Don’t punish yourself, leave that to God!  If He punishes you, it will be from His love for you (I suspect that you don’t punish yourself from love!)  I want to emphasize here, the word: Grace Provision!

You can be sure that as long as you remain positive to the Word of God, as long as you faithfully listen to the teaching of the Word under the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit, despite setbacks, you will advance in the spiritual life. God has provided perfectly for your advance!

…that He who began a good work in you…

Let’s continue with the object of Paul’s confidence.  Just what exactly does Paul have confidence in?  Continuing this verse is HOTI ὅτι, a conjunction translated, “that.”  ENARZAMENOS ἐναρξάμενος follows. This verb is an aorist middle participle, nominative masculine singular from the compound verb, ENERCHOMAI ἐνάρχομαι.  The noun, in its grammatical form means, “to begin.”  It is articular, hence the preceding definite article, HO ὁ.  The articular construction indicates that this is the substantival use of the participle, meaning that it acts as a noun instead of a verb here.  You remember that the last participle we dealt with in the last phrase was verbal. So we will translate it as. “He who began.”  It refers to God the Father who is the subject of this clause.  Syntactically, this is an ingressive aorist tense. It views the Philippians spiritual progress from its beginning at the moment of salvation to the point of their current status, early spiritual adulthood, in its entirety but with the emphasis upon the beginning of their spiritual growth.  

The indirect middle voice emphasizes an agent as producing the action of the verb.  God the Father acts indirectly, through the provision of logistical grace. What is in view here is the provision of God the Father through logistical grace making the Philippians’ spiritual progress possible.  The issue of this middle voice is this; God the Father as the agent of this action  provides what believers need indirectly.  He provides everything to all believers through a doctrinal principle called logistical grace.  It comes to us from the source of His integrity which is His love.  It is dependent upon who and what He is, never upon us. We do not earn it from our good works.   We do nothing to earn it at all nor do we deserve it.  We can take no credit for any aspect of logistical grace with the Father provides.

EN HUMIN ἐν ὑμῖν are the last two words in this phrase. The first word is EN ἐν, a preposition.  It precedes the locative plural from the personal pronoun SU. This can be translated Southern style: “in ya’ll.” SU is in the plural because more than one Philippian believer is mature.  So this phrase is translated: “that He who began in ya’ll…”

We can derive some principles from this phrase: “that He who has begun in ya’ll”  Let’s make this a bit more personal and just say: “…that He who began in you…”

a.       God the Father, who supported the Philippian believers, supports us as well. He begins this support at the point of salvation.

b.      If you are still alive, God has a plan for your life. 

c.       He makes absolutely sure that you will stay alive.  His faithfulness is the issue here. 

d.      We receive everything God provides for us on a totally non-meritorious basis. 

e.       We do not earn or deserve anything we have in this life.

f.       The integrity of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is the issue here. We have everything we have because of who and what God is.

g.      Our response to God’s loving support must be twofold:

                                                              i.      First we should be grateful and have an attitude of thanksgiving for everything He has given us.  We must parlay that gratitude into a love response.

                                                            ii.      Secondly, we must translate these logistical grace blessings to blessings of spiritual maturity. 

h.      When we mature, that is when we arrive at the point of being oriented to His grace, we must understand that we haven’t earned or deserved those blessings of maturity anymore than we do the blessings of logistical grace.  Nor do we deserve the wonderful blessings we have when we go through dying grace.  It is all a matter of God’s grace on our behalf.

i.        In our 9^th point let’s look at the stages of spiritual growth that every believer goes through and relate them to how God supports us in each stage.

Let’s first look at the period between the instant we were saved to the moment we enter into the first stage of spiritual adulthood.  This period is characterized by spiritual childhood.  We began to learn and to apply the beginning problem-solving devices.  We will be studying these problem solving devices in later studies.  But, as an aside here; there is one which you should already have mastered: that involves taking responsibility for your failures as a believer.  By now, you should be routinely naming your sin or sins to the Father and resuming your spiritual growth after a failure.  During this period of spiritual childhood, you are supported by logistical grace support. 

When you grow spiritually beyond childhood, you enter into the first stage of spiritual adulthood.  You will find that God’s support changes at this point to include more blessing.  This support will sustain you until you reach the next stage of spiritual growth. This second stage of spiritual adulthood’s spiritual growth is characterized by a period of rest and relaxation, a sort of breather before God starts to test your spiritual growth. Here you will develop love for God the Father based upon your newly gained knowledge of Him, not based upon empty, foundationless emotion.  This is not to say, you will not respond with emotion when you appreciate Him, but that emotion will be a response to your knowledge of Him.  Simultaneously developed with your new gained love for Him is virtue love for those in the human race.  We will devote an entire lesson to the concept of virtue love down the road.  Let me give you just a brief explanation of each of these now.

You will learn to love God the Father personally, based upon you knowledge of Him, as you grow spiritually, coming to appreciate Him for who and what He is.  You love Him personally because He fulfills the norms and standards that you have developed from doctrine.  You will come to have virtue love for every member of the human race, emulating Christ’s love for the human race when He sacrificed Himself for it, paying the price for every sin ever committed in human history.  No one in the human race fulfilled our Lord’s norm for objects of love. He loved the human race because of his own virtue.  You will develop a similar virtue from your spiritual growth, loving people because you have virtue and integrity, not because they fit your norms as being those you love personally. 

In this first stage of spiritual adulthood, you will also experience first system of testing.  RB Thieme appropriately called this providential preventative suffering.  God allows you to recieve a dose of undeserved suffering, undeserved to prevent you from getting arrogant from your promotion into spiritual adulthood.  This will keep you from thinking: I’ve arrived…aren’t I great! You may remember Paul’s thorn in the flesh.  That was providential preventative suffering.

Now that you are in the first stage of spiritual adulthood, God supports you with a measure of prosperity blessings as well as your previous logistics. Now, in your next stage of spiritual growth, God gives you more blessings and logistics to carry you through to the next stage of spiritual growth. 

To shorten the duration of our lesson, we’ll jump to the last stage of spiritual adulthood during which you finally reach occupation with Christ.  When you reach occupation with Christ, you will have arrived!  This stage of spiritual adulthood is characterized by an extreme system of testing called evidence Testing.  Here your faith is tested to the maximum.  God supports you with grace blessings which are designed to carry you through this extreme testing.  You may even experience privation as a part of your testing, but you will be supported through it because God will always keep you alive to fulfill his plan for your life.

Finally, you pull through evidence testing and you emerge, totally occupied with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  You have an unshakable reliance upon God.  You are now in the highest status of spiritual growth, the sunum bonum of the Christian way of life.  In this stage, God supports you with a distribution of blessings reserved for the fully mature believer.  You will be prospered fully in the area God intends to prosper you in.  This is where you want to be spiritually!

      Some more principles:

1.      By giving to us the blessings in the Devil’s world, God is glorified.

2.      When God blesses believers with whom you have little rapport or don’t particularly like, God is glorified by the imputation of those blessings to those believers.

3.      God’s faithfulness in providing for us, always depends upon His character, not upon us. 

4.      So the key to life as well as the key to this passage is the faithfulness of God!

               An expanded translation of this verse thus far reads as this:

“I have confidence in this doctrine itself that He who has begun (on the day you were saved) in you…” Philippians 1:6a

 Doctrine of Logistical Grace

…will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Our phrase in this verse reads in the NASB as “…will perfect it…” The Greek reads as this: ERGON AGATHOS EPITELESEI ἒργον ἀγαθός ἐπιτελέω. 

Following the Greek word order, the word “work” or ERGON comes next.  This is the anartharous accusative form of ERGON, translated “deed,” “action” or work.  In this context ERGON ἒργον can be considered as that which is brought into being by God the Father through logistical grace.  The anartharous construction, that is, lack of the definite article, denotes the incredible quality of logistical grace.  This particular category of grace begins at the moment of salvation.  This continues until you break the maturity barrier at which time these blessings are parlayed into grace blessings to carry you through to the next stage of spiritual adulthood.  As you grow spiritually, God parlays the previous blessings into the blessings for the next stage of spiritual growth. During these times of testing, God will allow you to face intense testing which will require that you apply every bit of doctrine you know.  All of these blessings also form a down payment of the blessings the mature believer will receive in the eternal state. 

The accusative singular direct object of AGATHOS ἀγαθός continues the verse.  AGATHOS ἀγαθός is translated “good,” but it refers to good of intrinsic value.  God is absolutely perfect perfection so anything that comes from God has to be absolutely intrinsically perfect.  It cannot be less than perfect.  God cannot provide less than that which is perfect.  The word 'intrinsic' means that wherever something of quality is found, it still retains its original value.  For instance, gold, ounce for ounce holds the same value whether it’s found in a gold filling, or on your finger as a ring or as bullion.  Gold always holds its value. 

The verse continues with the third person future active indicative of the verb EPITELEW ἐπιτελέω, generally translated “to perform,” “to accept” or “to fully complete.”  The best translation here is “will complete it.”  This gnomic future tense indicates what always happens for the believer who is between the two stages of spiritual adulthood and your spiritual goal, occupation with Christ.  The active voice indicates that the subject of the verb, God the Father produces the action of the verb by supporting the believer logistically.  He did this for the Philippian believers and He does it for all believers who are pressing toward the high ground of occupation with Christ.  The declarative indicative mood indicates that this is a point of absolute truth, a point that can be accepted dogmatically.  God always provides logistical grace!

So far, the translation reads this way:

 “I have confidence in this doctrine itself that He who has begun (on the day you were saved) in you a good work will complete it…” Philippians 1:6

           The final phrase in this verse is: “until the Day of Christ.”  The Greek reads this way: ARCHI HEMERA XRISTOS IESOU ἄχρι ἡμέρα Χριστός Ἰησοῦς.

The improper preposition ARCHI ἄχρι, “until,” with the descriptive genitive of three words complete this verse.  The three words are HEMERA ἡμέρα XRISTOS Χριστός IESOU Ἰησοῦς, “the Day of Christ.”  This is a reference to what theologians call the Rapture of the Church.  This is the time the Church is to be resurrected and transported from the earth to heaven.  Every believer on earth at that time will be resurrected then join our Lord in the air as per 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17.  Believers who have already died will join them there for a time of great worship before being transported to heaven.  Jesus Christ is the central Person involved with the resurrection of the Church.  The point of these words is this: God keeps every believer alive, providing the necessary logistics for spiritual growth, until it is time for that believer to be removed from this life.  This grace will continue to be given to every believer until every Church Age believer is caught up in the sky, at which time, logistics will no longer be necessary. 

The complete verse is translated as

Because I have confidence in this doctrine (logistical grace) itself that He who began a good work in you (grace support from the moment of salvation) will complete or accomplish it until the Day of Christ. Philippians 1:6

Principles:

God has a plan for every Church Age believer.  It has a defined objective; spiritual maturity. 

The believer generally progresses through three distinct stages of spiritual growth in spiritual adulthood.  The divine objective is never stated in terms of production but of capacity and concentration upon our Lord.  Works and production are always the result of spiritual growth, never the means.  To make works and production the means of growth is tantamount to legalism. 

Saying that God doesn’t have the ability to bring you to these objectives but that you have to help Him by your works, and prayer is blasphemy.  God does not need our help.

 This plan and objective from grace demands logistical grace provision from the Planner.  It will continue until the resurrection or the rapture.  Logistical support will not be needed after the rapture.

 Out of these principles come some conclusions:

1.      As long as you are alive, God has a plan for your life.

2.      You can never divorce that plan from Bible Doctrine resident in your soul.  Orientation to and function in that plan depends upon Bible Doctrine resident in your soul.

3.      All objectives in the spiritual life are accomplished by learning, believing and applying the Word of God. 

4.      All positive logistical grace comes through positive volition to doctrine. 

5.      All negative logistics come through negative volition to or rejection of Bible Doctrine.  This provision comprises the stages of divine discipline.

One final note on this verse:  It has been used to support the contention that no matter what the believer thinks, says or does, God will continue to make sure that he grows, that God alone guarantees this.  Not so!  This passage refers to the provision available to every Church Age believer for spiritual growth resulting in glorification of God.  God provides everything necessary logistically to grow.  But you, the believer must supply positive volition.  You must make yourself available to the teaching of the Word of God on a daily basis. 

Pertinent Doctrines

Logistical Grace

Exit Resurrection.

Philippians 1:5 Thanksgiving for the Support

Philippians Chapter 1:5

An Exegetical Teaching Manuscript

Presented to Teleios Bible Church by Pastor Jim Oliver

Chapter Outline

Verse 1-2:        The Salutation

Verse 3-           Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

ü    Verses 1-2  Paul and Timothy, slaves belonging to Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, to those residing in Philippi, together with pastor-teachers and deacons. Grace to you and so prosperity from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

ü    Verses 3-4  Every time I remember you, I thank God for all of you.  [Always in my every prayer, for of all of you.]

Verse 5     Thanksgiving for Support

Pertinent Verses

ü    “Each person, to the degree he has determined by means of his thinking, so give.  Not from distress of mind or compulsion of emotions; for God loves a grace-oriented giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything; you may have an abundance for every good deed.”           2 Corinthians 9:7-8

ü    “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, He will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.  You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanksgiving to God.” 2 Cor 9:10-12

ü    “But just as you excel in everything in faith-rest and in doctrine and in knowledge and in all diligence of application and in love from you to us, you also excel in this grace giving. 2 Corinthians 8:7

Verse Outline

                                                                   I.                        The Parenthetical Issue

                                                                II.                        Thanksgiving for the Gift

                                                             III.                        Motivation for Giving

                                                             IV.                        Purpose for the Gift

                                                                V.                        The Philippians Faithfulness

                                             I.                The Parenthetical Issue

Now, let’s talk a bit about the parenthetical issue.  Verse 5 continues the thought of verse three after the parenthetical thought presented in verse four.  Verse three reads as this: “I am giving thanks to my God for every memory of you…”  Then verse 4, which should be bracketed in parenthesis: [Verse 4: “Always in my every prayer for all of you, when offering prayer with inner happiness.”]  The thought then continues in this verse with a prepositional phrase: “because of your contribution…”

Although I have chosen to interpret these verses as parenthetical, there are rationales not to see them as such.  In any case, though Paul may not have been thinking of these words as parenthetical, we can gain the doctrinal thoughts expressed by them this way. 

                                           II.                Thanksgiving for the Gift

Let’s start our study of this verse with a reading of the first phrase from the NASB.  It’s a great translation to begin our study with because of its accuracy. Verse 5 begins as: “…in view of your participation…”  (NASB) The Greek reads as:  “…e0pi th|= koinwni/a| u9mw=n...”  “…EPI TE KOINONIA HUMON…”

This prepositional phrase begins with EPI e0pi, a preposition, translated “because of” by virtue of it’s being placed with the instrumental case, in this case, the instrumental of cause.  A preposition can change its meaning or in some cases, its nuance, depending upon what case it precedes.

TE th, which is a definite article in the instrumental feminine singular, follows.  This is the identifying use of the article, which points out and identifies the Philippians generous participation in Paul’s ministry.  It is translated: “because of the…”

KOINONIA koinwni/a follows. Grammatically, it is a noun in the instrumental feminine singular.  Syntactically, it’s an instrumental of cause which is often translated “fellowship,” or “participation,” however there is precedence in two other verses that give credence to the translation “contribution,” referring to monetary giving. KOINONIA is translated in the NASB as “participation.”  In 2 Corinthians 8:4, the NASB translates KOINONIA as, “participation.”  This verse reads as: “…begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.” The context for this “participation” in verse four is the “support of the saints,” a reference to generous monetary giving, a financial contribution, in other words.

The NASB actually translates KOINONIA as “contribution” in 2 Corinthians 9:13.  The context again, being monetary giving:

“Because of the proof given by this ministry they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the Gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all.” 2 Corinthians 9:13

The last word in this phrase is the personal pronoun HUMN u9mw=n in the genitive plural. Syntactically, it is a genitive of possession, meaning: “of you all” or “your.” This all leads to a corrected translation of this prepositional phrase: “because of your contribution.”

                                           II.                The Philippians’ Motivation for Giving

These believers were Paul’s logistical support.  They were, from their wealth, in some cases, poverty in others, expressing their gratitude toward God for Paul by supporting him.  As a result of their attitude of gratitude they were the only church to support Paul.  They may have heard that Paul was making tents for a living.  Yet he was the foremost Bible teacher at that time because he was the only apostle who thoroughly understood the many facets of the then-new church age.  They knew he had an important mission to accomplish which demanded all of his time and energy.  He did not need the distractions of tent-making.  So, they gathered up and sent him sizable monetary gifts that freed up his time so that he was able to spend his time studying, teaching and evangelizing.  By supporting him, they were participating in his ministry, just as if they were standing behind him as he taught. They had been supporting him with their gifts since he became a mature believer.

God uses advancing believers to support their pastor to liberate his time for study.  By giving to Paul, they transformed their spiritual prosperity into material prosperity for Paul. This concept becomes blessing to both parties.  This is mutual blessing by association.  The point is this: no one ever loses with doctrine.

Doctrine of Giving

                                           I.                        Definition

                                        II.                        The Motivation for Giving

                                     III.                        The Doctrinal Principles of Giving

                                     IV.                        Giving related to Pastor-Teacher and Evangelism

                                        V.                        The Grace Concept of Giving

               VI.                        The True Meaning of Tithing

                                 
         III.                Purpose for the Gift

This verse continues with the purpose of the gifts by which Paul was being supported.  The next phrase in the NASB reads: “in the Gospel.”  The Greek looks like this: EIS TO EUANGELION  ei0j to\ eu0agge/lion. This phrase begins with the preposition EIS ei0j then is followed by a noun in the accusative of purpose.  The grammar and syntax following the preposition determines its meaning and usage. In this case, EIS is translated as “for the purpose of.”   TO to\, which follows is a definite article in the accusative neuter singular. This is the monadic use of the definite article, translated “the” which points out and underscores the uniqueness of the Gospel of Christ.  It is translated as, “for the purpose of the...” Let me emphatically underscore the definite article, “the.”  It really points out, underscores and emphasizes the importance of what follows.

The next word is EUANGGELION eu0agge/lion in the accusative of purpose, neuter singular, translated, “good news.”  This good news is the best ever, referring to our Lord’s Person and work on the Cross.  We will translate it “Gospel.”  So the entire phrase is translated, ‘for the purpose of the Gospel.”

The accusative of purpose asks a question: “To what purpose does the action of the main verb pertain to?” The main verbal idea of this sentence is Paul’s thanksgiving for their support or participation in his ministry.   It reads, “I am giving thanks for your support of participation.” 

Paul’s thanksgiving, then, is related to their support which is for the sole purpose of Gospel communication. So, a corrected translation of this prepositional phrase is: for the purpose of the Gospel...”  We can expand the translation of this phrase to: “..for the purpose of spreading the Gospel.”  This inserts the word “spreading” which takes into consideration Goals of Gospel communication, which is to spread it to as many people as possible. Those who are positive to the Gospel will respond to Jesus Christ. Those who are negative will reject the Gospel.  A person isn’t born being either positive or negative to the Gospel.  This simply reflects the choices a person makes, which makes the prepared to respond to the Spirit’s authority or reject it.  It always boils down the issue of volition.

We all tend to emphasize Paul’s role in doctrinal teaching and communication due to his fantastic writings, but he was also an incredible evangelist.  Our translation of verse 5, as far as we’ve gotten is this:

“…because of your contribution for the purpose of spreading the Gospel…”

This brings up another categorical study: The Doctrine of Witnessing.

The Doctrine of Witnessing

                                           I.                        Introduction

                                        II.                        Definition and Description

                                     III.                        The Role of God the Holy Spirit

                                     IV.                        The Issue: Faith Alone in Christ Alone

                                        V.                        The Weapon of Witnessing

                                     VI.                        Mental Attitude in Witnessing

            VII.                        Principles of Witnessing

             VIII.                        The Analogy to Witnessing

III.      The Philippians’ Faithfulness

Let us continue our exegetical study of verse 5.  The NASB translates the next phrase as:

“from the first day until now...”  The original Greek reads as: APO TES PROTES HEMERAS ARCHI TOU NUN  a0po\ th=j prw/thj a!rxi tou= nun.  This is another prepositional phrase.  It begins with APO a0po\. It is a preposition followed by an article in the ablative of separation meaning, “from.” Next is the definite article, TES th=j used as in this case as a demonstrative pronoun meaning: “that.”  PROTES prw/thj translated, “first” is a sequential adjective is next.  Next is the noun HEMERAS h9me/raj translated “day.”  This entire phrase is translated, “from that first day...”  It refers to the first time the Philippians contributed to Paul while he was in Corinth. 

An attic Greek or classical Greek phrase concludes this verse: the NASB translates as: “until now.” The Greek reads: ARCHI TOU NUN a!rxi tou= nun .  ARCHI is an improper preposition translated, “until.” Next is TOU, the genitive of the definite article.  Then NUN an adverb of time translated “…until now,” referring to the time of writing when Paul had received a generous gift from the Philippian believers.  The final translation of  verse 3 and 5 reads this way:

“I am giving thanks to my God for every memory of you because of your contribution for the purpose of spreading the Gospel from that first day until now.”

Philippians 1:4 Prayer

Verse 4      The Pleasure of Prayer

Pertinent Verses

ü     Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s loving kindnesses never cease, for His compassions never fail.  It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have confidence in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.  Lamentations 3: 20-25

ü     But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.  Matthew 6:5-8 NASB

ü     I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Ephesians 1:18-19

ü     With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints… Ephesians 6:18

Verse Outline

Introduction                                        

Prayer                                                 

Inclusiveness in Prayer                      

Doctrine of Prayer                              

Introduction

As we continue our study of Paul’s prayer, we need to take up two introductory considerations.  The first deals with the structure of the original language of the text.  We can better understand this verse if we understood it as being parenthetical. Some theologians do not consider this to be parenthetical, and for good reasons.  I’m not sure that Paul, when dictating this letter to Timothy, who functioned as his secretary, thought in terms of formal written sentence construction.  What is important are the words he spoke and what they mean.  The meaning of this verse doesn’t change whether you interpret it parenthetically or otherwise.  I interpret this verse parenthetically because reading from verse three to five reads very smoothly.  At this point we will ignore the parenthesis issue, study verse 4 with its accompanying principles and doctrines, then deal with the parenthesis issue later.

The second issue of introduction deals with the subject of this verse, which is prayer.  Generally speaking, most people do not associate prayer with pleasure or even consider it to be fun.  Certainly, it is hard work because it takes concentration, thought and mental organization. However, we will note that Paul takes great pleasure in his prayer life.  Your prayer life should be fulfilling and a great pleasure as well.  But, how often do believers sit down or even lay down with an agenda for prayer from their prayer list and be fast asleep before they even begin to thank God for His graciousness, provision and plan!  Fortunately, God reads our souls! He is omniscient, knowing your every thought long before you were a twinkle in your daddy's eye.  He has read and understood what you would have prayed had you maintained your vigilant wakefulness.  Furthermore, had you named your sins to the Father before you fell asleep then you can be confident that you spent the night being filled with the Spirit, logging time in the Spirit, which is rewarded. Now this is grace!

Getting back to our point here; prayer takes effort, not only because it requires great concentration but also because praying correctly is complex.  As a matter of fact, even the simplest prayer, the cry for help, requires correct procedure.  The bottom line is this: we need to learn how to pray.  We need to learn prayer mechanics if we are going to prayer effectively. There is a right way and a wrong way to pray. No prayer offered apart from Biblical mechanics, presented in the Word, is either effective or heard. For all practical purposes, if you offer any prayer outside of the protocol presented in the Word, that prayer is going to bounce off the ceiling.  Any prayer beyond, “Help me, Father!” or a confession prayer, naming your sins to the Father, requires that you reach a certain point in your spiritual growth.

Both pleasure and effectiveness in prayer require spiritual growth. The greater your spiritual maturity, the more effective, the more dynamic and the greater pleasure your prayer life will be.  Dynamic, effective and pleasurable prayer belongs to believers in the various stages of spiritual maturity.

Prayer

Now, let us begin our exegesis of verse 4.  The first phrase, as the NASB translators have written, reads thusly: “always in my every prayer...”  The Greek looks like this, πάντοτε ἐν πάσῃ δεήσει μου PANTOTE EN PASE DESEI MOU.  This first phrase begins with πάντοτε PANTOTE, an adverb of time, best translated, “always,” or “at all times.”  This is followed by the preposition ἐν EN, followed by a word in the locative, so translated, “in.”  Often the case of the word after a preposition will change or alter the meaning of the preceding preposition. 

Next is the adjective πάς PAS. Here it is in the locative feminine singular form, grammatically: πάσῃ PASE.  Syntactically, it is a locative of sphere.  The locative case generally indicates a particular point, geographically, a point in time, or a point in a succession of events.  But this locative is a figurative expression, indicating a logical sphere, hence the translation, “every.”  Next is the noun δεήσει DESEI, in the same locative feminine singular, also a locative of sphere, referring to prayer.  This noun of course, continues this prepositional phrase.  The final word in this prepositional phrase, the personal pronoun μου MOU is derived from EGO, the pronoun, “I.”  Grammatically, EGO is in the genitive form, first person singular.  Syntactically it is a possessive pronoun translated, “of mine.”  Our translation thus far reads: “always, in my every prayer…”

Now, let's look at some prayer principles as they relate to δεήσει DESEI.

1. This noun is used most often as a noun of petition or of request to God, so it comes to mean prayer.  It may either refer to a prayer of petition, that is, for yourself or a prayer of intercession, praying for others.  Context generally indicates which is in view.

2. Paul is not saying here that he prays all of the time, but when he is praying, whether it is once an hour or once a day, he remembers the Philippian believers in those prayers.

3. Prayer is a personal matter, strictly between each believer and God the Father. It is a privilege, but whether or not you pray is a matter of application of your own priesthood. It should come that as you become more mature, the more you will pray and the more effective your prayers become.

4.  Paul enjoys prayer. Every believer should!

5. By this verse, Paul challenges every believer to have the same attitude in prayer as he does.  For each one of us to pray effectively and to take great pleasure in prayer, we must all achieve spiritual maturity.

Inclusiveness in Prayer

This verse continues with another prepositional phrase, which in the NASB reads, “for you all...” Our principle is this: Paul includes every Philippian believer in his prayer of thanksgiving.  There has been some evidence of a conflict within either the leadership or rank and file of the Philippian Church but Paul is not taking sides.

The Greek reads as ὑπὲρ πάντων ὑμῶν HUPER PANTONE HUMON.  The preposition ὑπὲρ HUPER with which this phrase begins is with the genitive so it is translated, “on behalf of.” Next is the πάντων PANTONE, the genitive plural form of πάς PAS, an adjective is translated, “all.” The genitive plural of the personal pronoun SU, ὑμῶν HUMON completes this phrase.  This pronoun, serving as the direct object of ὑπὲρ HUPER, is translated, “of you.”

Paul is not leaving out anyone in the Philippian church.  He is expressing thanksgiving to God for every believer in Philippi.  Now, some commentators cite evidence of a brewing conflict within the church, and they take it from this prayer that he is not taking sides.  He is not leaving anyone out of his thanksgiving no matter where they stand in the conflict. Every believer is included in Paul's prayer of thanksgiving. If there had been some problems going on in Philippi, wouldn't it follow that one side of the conflict was on the right doctrinally while other wrong, getting into some form of heresy?  If this was so, why wouldn't Paul align himself with the correct side then take the opportunity to offer some corrective advice to those in the wrong?

This is a prayer of thanksgiving. Because Paul was operating under the principle of virtue love, a principle we've discussed before, his great integrity shows here.  He is grateful for their spiritual growth and rapport with God and himself. Paul understood that no one benefits from taking sides in a prayer of this nature.  Syntactically, this is a genitive of advantage that denotes that it is to the Philippian believers’ advantage to be remembered to the Father as the subject of Paul's persistent prayers. Our translation of verse 4, as far as we have gone is this:

ü     Always in my every prayer, on behalf of all of you…  Philippians 1:4

Now, at this point in our study we need to turn to the doctrine of prayer.  If we are going to pray effectively, as we have been mandated to, then we need to master every principle in this study.

Chapter Outline

Verse 1-2:        The Salutation

Verse 3-           Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

ü    1. Paul and Timothy, slaves belonging to Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, to those residing in Philippi, together with pastor-teachers and deacons.

ü    2. Grace to you and so prosperity from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

ü    3. I am giving thanks to my God for every memory on the basis of every memory of you.

ü    4. Always in my every prayer, on behalf of all of you.