Philippians Study

I’m going to have the privilege over the next eight weeks of teaching from the book of Philippians using advance copies of a new study guide. The study guide was written by Dr. Bruce Epperly, and will be released by my company, Energion Publications, in July. This will be the next release in the Participatory Study Series, from which this blog derives its name. I’m going to blog about it as I work through it with my class and present a few extracts and comments.

For the record, I still have a number of things to write from my ongoing blogging about James (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary) and Chronicles (Cornerstone Biblical Commentary). I have a number of notes, but haven’t had time to write any of them up.

I must confess that Philippians is one of my three favorites from the Pauline corpus, the other two being 1 & 2 Corinthians. Yes, I prefer what I regard as the more practical and less theological letters. It’s really a close call, because I really do appreciate the others as well, but I think I have to give those three the edge, and I think that they are often neglected in favor of Pauline theologies developed largely from Galatians and Romans. But that’s another topic!

The Letter to the Philippians is an example of practical theology, in which the church is called to live the faith it affirms. Paul has a strong sense of divine providence. While God does not control or determine every event, nevertheless, “in all things God is working for good.” (Romans 8:28) God is working in the Philippian church and will, through their fidelity, bring God’s good work to fulfillment, a harvest of righteousness. God rules the world through loving affirmation and humility rather than power and violence. Unlike Caesar, Jesus Christ does not seek to “lord it over” creation, but seeks to heal and save broken humanity. Christ’s path of humble service serves as a model for Christian living. Rather than rugged individualism and self-interest, Christians are called to serve one another, willingly sacrificing so that others might flourish.

I think that’s a good description–“practical theology.” Indeed it is! Now “practical” doesn’t mean “shallow.” Nor do I mean that Galatians, for example, isn’t practical. But Philippians is directed to application.

I’m going to give one more short quote from the first lesson:

In proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord, Paul is implicitly placing Jesus ahead of Caesar. Imperial rulers will come and go, but God’s Living Word endures forever.

Just so!