Saturday, February 22, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Philippians 2-3
Key Verse
Philippians 2:26 — “For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.”
Devotional Thought
Paul writes to the church at Philippi from a Roman prison, and yet the word that beats through these chapters like a pulse is joy. He has just told the Philippians that his chains have advanced the gospel, and now he presses further: if there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, then make my joy complete by being of one mind, having the same love, esteeming others better than yourselves. He is not asking for their sympathy; he is asking for their unity. And then, as if to show them what that unity looks like, he lifts their eyes to Jesus, who did not cling to His equality with God but emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That is the mind Paul wants in them—the mind that stoops. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.
It is late February, the tail end of winter, when the days are lengthening but the cold still lingers. This is a good season to consider what we are reaching toward. Paul uses the language of an athlete: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He had plenty to forget. Circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, blameless under the law—and he counted it all as dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. There is something bracing about that word “dung.” He does not soften it. Whatever he once boasted in, he now regards as refuse, because it kept him from winning Christ.
Notice, too, the ordinary people moving through these chapters. Timothy, who “will naturally care for your state,” unlike the many who seek their own things. Epaphroditus, Paul’s brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, who was sick nigh unto death for the work of Christ and did not regard his life. These are not abstract virtues; they are flesh-and-blood saints who worked out their salvation with fear and trembling while God worked in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And Paul holds them up as examples, saying, “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.” The Christian life is learned by watching people who live it.
Here in the middle of Philippians 3, Paul admits he has not arrived: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after.” If the apostle could say that, we need not be discouraged by our slow progress. Our conversation, our citizenship, is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, who shall change our vile body and fashion it like unto His glorious body. Between now and then, we press on—not in our own strength, but in the strength of the One who subdues all things unto Himself.
Reflection
- Paul says, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Where in your life this week has that mind of Christ been conspicuously absent—at home, at work, in your church?
- Paul counted his impressive religious credentials as dung for the sake of knowing Christ. What “gain” are you still clinging to, and what would it look like to count it loss for Him?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, who being in the form of God didst humble Thyself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: work in us that same lowliness of mind. Forgive us for the strife and vainglory that so easily creep into our homes and churches. Teach us to esteem others better than ourselves and to look not only on our own things but also on the things of others. Strip away every confidence in the flesh, that we may be found in Thee, not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith. Help us to forget the things behind and press toward the mark, until the day when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Thou art Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.