Philippians 1:2 I. Think of the beauty of the circumstance that Paul thanked God for the blessing of kind, loving, helpful men. Man serves God by aiding God's servants. II. The more enlarged and susceptible the heart, the more easily can service be rendered to it. III. Learn how good a thing it i... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:3 The text speaks to us of the feeling which ought to exist between a minister and his congregation, more especially how he ought to be able to speak of them and what he ought to make his special prayer for them whenever, in the providence of God, he is for a time separated from them.... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:4 I. Prayer may be varied according to the different spiritual moods of the suppliant. The mood need not impair the sincerity. II. Christianity is the most influential of all heart-uniting forces. Men who are one in Christ are united in the highest ranges of their nature. Paul is in... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:5 I. In the text we see age and youth together. (1) The old will contribute the wisdom of experience; the young will quicken the animation of hope. II. In the text, though age and youth are together, yet age takes precedence of youth. It is Paul and Timotheus, not Timotheus and Paul.... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:6 The Apostle lays down a great principle respecting the Divine method of working, viz., to begin is to finish, and that principle, wide enough to encompass the universe, will also comprehend every detail of Christian service. I. God works by a plan; His plan is to prepare mankind fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:7 A Man in Rome carries the Philippian Church in his heart. I. He who carries the world elsewhere than in his heart will soon wish to cast off his burden. II. He who carries the good in his heart will never be desolate. III. He whose heart is engaged with the tender offices of affe... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:8 The Tender Heart of Jesus Christ. I. What is a tender heart? What is included in it? What is the chief characteristic of such a heart? A tender heart must always be a sensitive heart; where there is life there is sensitiveness; a tender heart is one ready to receive and retain the... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:9 Hindrances to Spiritual Growth. I. The first and greatest hindrance to our abounding more and more is this: inability to see what it is that we ought to improve, where it is that we are defective, and so long as we are content simply to look at ourselves and our doing by the light o... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:9 In one word, the Apostle prayed that the Philippians might grow. I. True love is intelligent. We are to love God with all our mind. II. The Apostle prays for an enlargement and quickening of the discriminating faculty: that the Philippians might distinguish between things that dif... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:12 Circumstances the most untoward may in reality be advancing the Divine kingdom among men. I. God's providence is not to be interpreted in fragments. II. The moral is higher than the personal; Paul is in prison, but the Gospel is free. III. The bonds of one man may give inspirati... [ Continue Reading ]
Philipians Philippians 1:15 I. Diverse developments of human disposition. II. The possibility of doing a good deed through a bad motive. III. The impossibility of entirely concealing motive. IV. The actions of self-seekers turned into the good man's source of joy. V. Man is never so diabolised... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:18 Christ Preached in any Way a Cause of Joy. We see here a great law of Christ's providence over His Church. He furthers His own ends, not by affirmations only, but by negations: by faith and by unbelief; by truth and by heresy; by unity and by schism. It is a transcendent and intric... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:19 I. Mark the confidence of the declaration, "I _know_." Righteousness is a prophetic power. II. Mark the ground of this confidence. The Apostle's joy does not arise from the fact that certain persons preached, but from the higher fact that Christ was preached. III. The extension o... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:20 I. We all see in some points what St. Paul must have meant by this expression. It was a thought frequently present to him. If he lives, if his earthly life is protracted through toils so constant and sufferings so intense, this shows the supporting hand of the risen, the immortal, S... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:20 I. "Expectation" and "hope" these are words which connect the heart with the future. II. No power can so light up the future and throw over it the hues of immortal beauty as childlike trust in God. III. The man who is living without expectation and hope is living only half a life... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:21 I. "To me to live is Christ." The connection in which these words stand seems to give us their primary meaning. The business of my life is Christ; my energy, my activity, my occupation, my interest, is all Christ. St. Paul regarded everything that he had to do, and he regarded every... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:21 The Fruit of Labour. Such words can never lose their power. They come down to us from a purer air; yet the voice is human, and is audible to all who feel. They sum up the constant tenor of a life which, like all great lives, is able at once to shame us and to inspire, and also to... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:21 There is a triple movement of thought and feeling in these words. I. There is the strong absorbing devotion which a man has to Christ. Here we get the grand noble simplicity and unity or continuity of life and death with a devout man thinking about himself. To _me,_he says and the... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:22 I. In the text St. Paul appears to weigh his life against departing and being with Christ. We must not suppose him to be speaking of his own case only, as an exceptional case, one of those grievously afflicted lives which make men desire death merely as a termination of their earthl... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:22 I. The personal weighed with the public, or the difficulties of the veteran philanthropist. II. Man's sublimest reason for not wishing immediate translation to glory is that he may be of spiritual service to the world. III. The next best condition to that of being with Christ in... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:23 The Believer's Better Portion. I. Paganism had cold comfort for its children. It is the religion of the Lord Jesus which can cheer and satisfy the soul. Our Divine Redeemer having "overcome death" and opened unto us the kingdom of heaven, the reign of the terrible destroyer, death... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:23 Consider: I. The two desires. (1) To depart and be with Christ. This desire is composed of two parts: a vestibule, somewhat dark and forbidding, through which the pilgrim must pass, and a temple, unspeakably glorious, to which it leads the pilgrim as his eternal home. (2) To abide... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:27 It is plain that every precept of holy living might be brought under this comprehensive charge. Let us narrow the compass of the exhortation. Let us say, Live inwardly and live outwardly as citizens of that kingdom which the Gospel has revealed. I. How large a part of life is lived... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:27 This is a call I. To holiness. There is but one ideal life in the Church. In all our growing and striving Christ Himself is to us, and His grace is, all-sufficient. II. To unanimity. Monotony is not what is meant by unanimity. We are one in our love and service of Christ. III. T... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 1:29 The Sacrifice of the Redeemed. I. Christ's sacrifice is no far-away fact, to be shown and gazed upon; it draws us also unto itself. For consider what exactly it was. Where does its vicarious efficacy for us lie? Surely in this: that Christ made His offering out of our very flesh. H... [ Continue Reading ]