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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brody-thibodeau/philippians-1-roman-colony-imagery-for-the-gospel/
We're going to read in the book of Philippians now together, beginning in Philippians chapter one, Philippians chapter one, in verse number 27. Philippians one, verse 27. Apostle Paul writing now, the Bible says, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God were onto you, it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict, which he saw in me and now here to be in me.
Now chapter three, please. Verse number eight, verse seven says, but what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless. And I count all things, but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them, but dung that I may win or gain.
You have to see that there. The idea is to gain, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable onto his death.
If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead, not as the way had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Verse number 17, brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk. So as he have us for an example for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, who glory in their shame, who mind earthly things for our conversation is in heaven.
From whence also we look for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like onto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things onto himself.
Now chapter four and verse four, please rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice, let your moderation be known onto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known onto God and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report.
If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things, those things which you have learned or both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you.
Now I'm looking out at a good number of people and some of the people in this crowd today were in Cedar Falls on Thursday evening and heard me begin to give some of my meditations on the book of Philippians.
I make no apology for repeating myself because I'm not too proud to think that you remember everything that I said. What I'm going to do for the next two messages, at least at this conference, is I'm going to continue with my meditations on the book of Philippians.
What I want us to get is a good overview of the context of the book of Philippians and to get the thought pattern throughout the epistle. There are different things you can look for in Bible study and you should look for when you're studying the scriptures.
If you're really keen at it, you'll pick these things up quickly and if you're like me, it will take you 22 years to even find out they exist. Number one, you're going to see throughout an epistle like this that there is a pattern to the epistle.
You can find it if you read it over and over or if you get some helps to help you with the language. There is also a structure to the writing, but I think above the pattern and structure, we need to be aware of the thought flow throughout an epistle so that we never lose sight of the context in which each individual phrase is found, in which each individual verse is found, in which each word is found.
The reason I think that is important is because oftentimes I conduct what we would call a word study and I begin to take the words individually and extract them from the text, manipulate them, find out what they mean, twist them into my own message, and then put them back in.
And sometimes while I am doing that, I am negating the clear teaching of that particular passage because I'm neglecting the thought flow. Now that's my lesson on how to read the Bible. Take it for what it's worth.
But we do see that the epistle to the Philippians is very direct in its theme. I believe that if you read it over and over and over again, you will soon find that Paul had a specific burden for these people.
You find that in the thought flow. His burden was this, that their gospel testimony would remain strong, that their testimony in the spread of the gospel and their testimony in the preaching of the gospel would remain strong, that it would remain strong through a partnership that is strengthened, a partnership between themselves and a partnership between them and the gospel workers who are taking the gospel out.
The gospel testimony is the main concern of Paul in the book of Philippians, and their partnership was being threatened because of interpersonal conflict. Don't lose sight of that. I'm going to get into some different overview aspects and perhaps bring it bring it down to a couple of very practical points before I'm done.
But don't lose sight of this. Paul is concerned with the spread and the integrity of the gospel and the spread and the integrity of the gospel was being affected by the behavior of these people and their behavior was being affected by interpersonal conflict.
I think the epistle to the Philippians is part of two different groups of epistles that that you could divide it up in. Number one, of course, we know that this is one of Paul's prison epistles. That is, Paul wrote the Philippian epistle while he was in captivity.
I would say we would group this with Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. So Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon are all prison epistles. I would take it that these epistles were written at the same time that he was in his own hired house.
He was captive in Rome, but he had the ability to receive visitors and to allow visitors to go from him. He heard about how the churches were doing, and in hearing about how they were doing, he was able to help them by sending them letters.
So Philippians is one of those prison epistles. You may understand, of course, that 2nd Timothy was also written from captivity, but it wasn't written from the same captivity. It was written from Paul's final captivity, that final captivity where he knew that he was ready to be offered, where he knew that the time of his departure was at hand.
The tone of 2nd Timothy is different. The captivity of 2nd Timothy is different, and it is not included—there's the first voice crack of the day—it's not included in the prison epistles. So, very simply, the prison epistles, Philippians, fits right in.
If you like putting things in little boxes so that you can move on, there's your box. But I also believe it is a part of a triplet of epistles that have very specific designs in the New Testament, and that's this.
Letters that were written to assemblies to address function within the local church, even to address dangers that were arising in the local church, the local assembly. We know that 1 Corinthians is one of those letters written to the assembly in Corinth to address the party spirit that was affecting their testimony, to address the immorality that hadn't been dealt with that was affecting their testimony, to address their disorder at the Lord's Supper and at the assembly meetings, to address their lack of love one to another.
And perhaps you could just write over the epistle to the Corinthians, the first epistle to the Corinthians, that Paul knew that failing to address the issues of morality and function at Corinth would tear the assembly apart.
You see that, don't you? I would say, brethren, that we are quite good at 1 Corinthians in general of taking it, teaching it, and applying it. Now, I know there are times where we have a difference of opinion on what passage X means and how to apply passage Y.
But what I'm saying is you see the importance of 1 Corinthians for assembly testimony and the preservation of the local assembly. Another one of those epistles is 1 Timothy, because 1 Timothy is written to Timothy to help with issues in the assembly in Ephesus.
Right. So if 1 Corinthians was written to address the moral behavior and the functioning in the local assembly at Corinth, 1 Timothy is written to address the dangers of allowing false doctrine to permeate the local church.
And as he writes that epistle, the idea of doctrine is found on every page, isn't it? Doctrine, sound doctrine, false doctrine, doctrines of demons. And he talks about it because it needs to be addressed.
And he says, Timothy, the way to battle this false doctrine is to give attention or attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine, that you, Timothy, would make an effort to read the scriptures publicly, to exhort the believers from the scriptures publicly, and to teach the doctrine in the scriptures publicly.
That's the only way to preserve the assembly from false teaching, is to give sound teaching. And we're getting better at that. Nobody's perfect. Sometimes, now this is all for you to take, as the Hebrew writer said, suffer the exhortation.
Sometimes we take part in the assembly meetings and we're doing neither reading, exhorting, or teaching. Now, analyze your own messages based on that criteria. And yes, I am here all weekend if you have a problem with that statement.
The reason I know is because I analyze my own messages. Sometimes I'm wasting time. Sometimes I'm building into the assembly wood, hay, and stubble, things that will never stand the test of the bema. But we do see in 1 Corinthians the importance of sound doctrine if the assembly is going to be preserved from danger.
We see the importance of moral teaching and the importance of function to preserve the assembly. We see the importance of sound doctrine to preserve the assembly. But the epistle to the Philippians is one of these letters that Paul writes to address assembly behavior so that the believers will see, just like immorality and disorder and false doctrine can tear apart an assembly, so can how the believers get along or don't get along, tear apart an assembly.
And this is one we have a little more difficulty with at times, isn't it? Because it involves actually talking to people. It involves taking the risk of a personal one-on-one conversation to address the misbehavior of an individual.
Sometimes it runs the risk of offending said sister or brother, right? And we'd rather stand back. And here's a good one. You might have heard this one before. Oh, yes, there goes so-and-so again. But that's just him.
He's been like that ever since we've known him. Yeah. The reason, probably part of the reason that brother has been such a problem ever since you've known him is because nobody talks to him about it. They say, oh, he's just got those scruples.
He just has that temper. He just has that way about him. That way about him could be driving people away from the assembly. Nobody wants to talk to him. I know you're looking at me funny now because nobody talks about this stuff.
That way about her, where you know and I know that if we mention anything to her, from the changing of the salt shakers in the kitchen. To her showing up on time for meeting, we know that she already has her excuse made and she already has her finger pointed at us and everything we do wrong in our life.
So we leave it alone. Paul knows. If the assembly is allowed to continue with all of this friction, it's going to affect the gospel. That's why he wrote it. If you were to take a look at it, you will see that that Paul had received a gift from these people.
The paphroditus had left them with a gift for Paul and he brought it to Paul. So he uses this occasion to write them a thank you letter. Now, very little portion of this letter is taking up with the thank you and much of it is taken up with the opportunity he now has to encourage them to good behavior.
There's very little corrective language that is used in the epistle to the Philippians. Much of it is exhortative language. Much of it is language that is exhorting them and encouraging them and comforting them and pushing them to strive toward being better and to overcome those personal issues.
Now, you will find different things throughout the epistle that lend itself to this theme, the idea of joy and rejoicing in the Lord. That's not corrective language, brethren, that is giving them something to strive toward, like our brother was bringing for us today.
It is giving them something to strive toward. I know that my life is not full of this joy and rejoicing. I'm having an issue with one of my brethren. I need to go to that brother. I need to go to that sister, and I need to work it out so that I could have this joy and rejoicing as well.
He uses the idea of humility as a major theme in the epistle so that this humility is a means of achieving, voice crack number two, this humility is the means of achieving and maintaining this peace and harmony among the brethren and sisters, taking the low place and allowing her to take the high road, not the high road, the high place, suffering loss for the sake of the testimony in the gospel.
He hits all of those points, but remember, he's not bringing down the rod of correction. He's using the exhortation and he's using the language of encouragement to produce this behavior. But there's one thing now, there's no clock up here that I'm looking at.
You can remind me if I go over time. I've got 16 more minutes and I want to talk about this. Paul uses what they are absolutely familiar with as a springboard and imagery to teach them what he wants to teach them.
Our brother talked about context and knowing who the words were written to so we can understand why the words were written the way they were. Very simply, Paul knows that these people are living in the city of Philippi.
To us today, that means nothing. To them, it meant everything. The city of Philippi was a colony of Rome, a Roman colony, and to us today, that means very little. But to them, it meant everything. And Paul is now going to frame all of his remarks within that context.
I am speaking to people who are citizens of Rome, people who are living in a colony with all of its privileges and all of its responsibilities and all of its pride connected with the mother city, connected with Rome.
Now, it would take me a while to study the intricacies and the nuances of what it meant to be a Roman colony in the days of Philippi, but I'll give it to you in this summary sentence. The colony was just like a little Rome in a foreign country.
Remember that. The colony itself was just like a little Rome away from Rome. Not home away from home, but Rome away from Rome. They functioned based on the same principles. They had the same form of government and they were self-governing.
They had the same kind of officers in place to enforce the laws, et cetera. And those who were Roman citizens living there had all of the rights that those had in Rome. And this is how Paul begins now to build on that imagery.
He talks about their citizenship. He talks about their place of politics. He does it twice. In chapter one, in verse number 27, he says, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel. In chapter three, in verse number 20, he says, for our conversation is in heaven.
I'm not going to talk about the political nuances of that word, but I'm going to tell you this. When Paul said it, they knew what he meant. He meant just like you are living in Philippi and Philippi is really representing Rome.
You in Philippi are a representative of Rome and you in Philippi need to behave consistent with your citizenship. That's all he's saying. And he talks about the gospel and the gospel testimony. And as time is going by, I may bring that up more this afternoon, but as he is talking about their partnership for the sake of the gospel, their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now in chapter one, he's also talking about the defense and confirmation of the gospel in chapter one.
Again, he says the confirmation of the gospel and the furtherance of the gospel until he gets to this verse number 27. He says only this. I could tell you a lot. I could write on and on and on and on and on, but this is the most important thing.
Let your behavior be consistent with the gospel that you represent. Herein lies the challenge. Now, I could apply this broadly to all of us who are here. And I could look out at a room full of young brethren and sisters and say, remember, if you want the gospel in your locality to be effective in testimony, you make sure your behavior is consistent with what they are preaching in the gospel.
You make sure that your attitudes toward the young ladies are pure. You young ladies make sure that your tongue is always consistent with the message of the gospel. You men who are in business, you make sure that in the community you have a reputation as being honest in your business.
Now, I must say, brethren, the temptation is always there to cut the proverbial corners, right? But remember this, you cut enough corners, you're really drawing a crooked line, and crooked is not consistent with the gospel.
But what he's saying here is not just a broad stroke. What he's getting to is this, you need to get along with one another in harmony, because that's behavior consistent with the gospel. So that when, now I'm not talking about a brother who stands up and teaches false doctrine, and I'm not talking about a sister who is obviously walking in sin.
I'm talking about the little things that pop up that cause us to have friction, right? So your kid is better at something than my kid, and I start to get jealous, and the next thing you know, my behavior toward you, you don't think that happens.
It happens all the time. And the things that you do to annoy me, you say, you're not allowed to say that the Christians are annoying. Well, I said it, and let's deal with the problems now. Sometimes we are annoying.
Some of you are actually very difficult for a guy like me to spend a lot of time with. I should probably check and see if I'm a good guy to spend a lot of time with. That's all personalities, brethren and sisters.
That's all personality. Some of you are very forward, very forward, to the point where you forget to stop and ask other people's opinions. That's difficult to deal with. And some of us are very shy and timid, like me and Brandon, and we shrink away from any kind of a leadership role in conflict, and you ask us what we want for dinner, and we'll never tell you, right?
And that can be difficult too. You know, we just all need to be a little more self-aware that some of the rough edges and some of the sharp burrs that are on our personality become, can I say it, worked on.
Just think about yourself and your behavior, because that can affect the gospel. It can. And then he says this. Again, I would say, influenced by the fact that these people knew what it was to be Roman soldiers.
Many of the people who lived in a Roman colony had been given that position and a piece of land there because of fighting in the Roman army. They knew what battle was. And he says, not only do you need to have behavior consistent with your citizenship, consistent with the gospel, but you need to strive together for the faith of the gospel.
Same verse, now a different nuance. He is saying there is a behavior that will bring you together, and in order for us to be effective in the gospel, we need to move in harmony and in unity. And he brings before them the imagery now, not of the Roman legions and how they did battle.
The Roman legions really were a superior battle tactic. The idea was that they broke up into small groups and they were really flexible in the way that they could do battle and they could go around and they could go behind.
But before that, before that, perhaps one of the greatest conquerors to ever live, maybe one of the greatest human leaders to ever live. Alexander the Great conquered so much of the known world with a different form of warfare.
He used what they call the Greek phalanx. And that was a form of warfare that didn't divide into small groups. It came together as one large group. And as it came together as one large group, they had their shields prepared.
The Greeks had round shields and they had their spears ready. They had their armor on, probably about 60 pounds of armor, by the way. It was heavy. And they were under the leadership of their sergeant, of their captain, and eventually, ultimately, under the leadership of Alexander, they knew what their role was.
Come together, stay together. They came together shield to shield, shoulder to shoulder, spear to spear. Their spear would go out in front of them. Their shield would go out in front of them. And as they were moving forward, according to history, there was nothing that could stand in the way of the progress of the Greek phalanx.
As they were shoulder to shoulder, they were protected with men standing behind them, shoulder to shoulder, protected. And they would take a step forward, protected, and they would have their spear forward for progress.
And as they began to move forward, the fear of the Greek phalanx fell on everyone in its way. And they were efficient, and they were effective, and they were powerful, and they took new ground every time, all the time.
But if they split up, they lost. Absolute failure. You see why he says this now, don't you? He says, let's think of the gospel as going forward. Let's think of the gospel as being effective. And if this gospel is going to be effective, you need to come together.
You need to stand shield to shield and shoulder to shoulder with that sister and with that brother. You need to stand with your spear in front with that overseer and with that young man. You need to move in step.
In fact, here's something for you in your personal study. The prison epistles talk about walking quite a bit. They talk about walking the idea of their manner of life. For those of you who study the words, it is a parapetale.
It is walking the manner of life. But in the book of Philippians, there's one word that Paul uses that's different. It's the stoicheal. Now, it's not walking just in general in our manner of life, but it is walking in step with others.
It's the idea of an army walking together. And when you see the army marching, you see that every step is done in unison. And Paul is saying, you come together shield to shield. You move together in unison and harmony under your captain, step by step, taking new ground for the gospel.
Today, today, what matters more to you and what matters more to me? My own comfort, my own rights, my own feelings, or the progress of the gospel in harmony and unity of my brethren. That sounded angry when I said it, didn't it?
You can't see me from the back. I'm smiling. This is the ultimate in assembly experience to be taught by the scriptures to have that teaching affect us so that it changes our lives so that it allows us to come together in a way like unlike any other.
You know, according to the book of Ephesians, God has created a unity. The spirit of God has created a unity, and we are to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is no higher Christian experience than to put others before myself and to come together with that attitude of humility and move forward and take new ground for Christ in the gospel.
I think it would change our assembly lives if I allowed the scriptures to change my personal life. I have two minutes. He continues with the theme, and our brother talked about the peace of God. Romans were very aware of what they call today the Pax Romana.
It's Latin, really, for the peace of Rome. In about BC 27, Octavian, who later became Augustus if I remember correctly, established peace, and for over 200 years that peace remained. It was that peace that provided security for all of the Romans.
It was that peace and no fear of being attacked by the town next to me. It was that peace that provided security and prosperity for those Romans, and Paul is using that figure now, but he's not talking about the peace of Rome.
He's talking about the peace of God, and he's not talking about the Romans and how they established peace. He's telling them here in the book of Philippians in the greater context that you commit yourself to God.
You roll all of your cares upon him, all of your anxious cares. You determine, you have to determine to get along with your brethren, and there's something that will provide for security and prosperity in the gospel that passes all understanding.
I can understand the peace of Rome. With military might, they established it, and with military might, they maintained it, but I can't understand this peace of God. It goes beyond understanding, and that is the peace of God which provides for us a security.
Absolutely, but it provides for us the environment for prosperity. Now, that's not prosperity with your pockets full and your house big. That's prosperity in the gospel, prosperity in spiritual things, and I think that this peace of God is found right in the middle of the context of getting along with one another.
The God of peace is. We'll talk about that a little later. My time is gone. Please suffer the exhortation. Let us be careful that our behavior one to another is consistent with the gospel that we preach.
Let us be careful to come together in absolute harmony and unity like the Greek phalanx to move forward in the progress of the gospel, and let us be careful in our dealings one with another to ensure that we behave in such a way so that the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep us secure in him.