00:00:00:41 – 00:00:18:34
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for hanging in there with us. Thanks for being with us as we, kind of finish the book of Philippians as we’ve made our way through the text. Thanks for being a part of that journey. We hope there was something in it that was helpful, something in it that maybe was new or helped you think about the thing in a new way.

00:00:18:39 – 00:00:42:00
Clint Loveall
Today we’re just kind of covering what is the place of this book, the legacy of this book. We mentioned early on in this study that Philippians is one of the books that, are is attributed to Paul. In other words, there’s really no disagreement or discussion about whether Paul wrote this book. It’s kind of taken for granted that he did.

00:00:42:00 – 00:01:21:47
Clint Loveall
And I suppose that’s one thing that we could say. The other thing I think is, is more substantial, Michael, is that Philippians is sometimes called the letter of joy. And I think if we talk about what this book contributes to the Christian canon in the Christian faith, obviously that concept of joy has to be important. We have to talk about chapter two and that the Christ hymn or the, the, the celebration of the work of Christ and his humility that stands out, that that’s a compelling passage.

00:01:21:52 – 00:01:52:52
Clint Loveall
It’s an informative passage. That’s a passage that has shaped thinking about Jesus in the life of the church. Certainly. I think that’s important, you know, and maybe even to some extent, as we get to the back of the book, this moment where Paul encourages these two women to try and work things out between them, a kind of recognition of the strain of relationship sometimes in churches and church families and an appeal to unity in that case.

00:01:52:57 – 00:02:13:10
Clint Loveall
It’s one thing to say that generally the fact that we have a letter passed down to us from the first century that has names in it, that we literally know their names, I think that’s interesting and maybe has a bearing on, on some of what we understand church to be as well.

00:02:13:15 – 00:02:49:53
Michael Gewecke
As we look at this study from a larger view, I just want to suggest, I think there is a warning in this story of Philippians. And, you know, Clint, we didn’t really talk about this when we were reaching back in the Philippians chapter two. But this word that emptied into Christ him has had tomes written about there’s and I’m not going to spend a lot of time breaking it out, but but scholarship, that particular word.

00:02:49:53 – 00:03:23:33
Michael Gewecke
There’s a lot of research being done. What does that word mean. And theologically, what does it say about incarnation? Was it say I just I couldn’t possibly communicate to you the extent of writing that has been done about that specific word inside that specific hymn, inside this larger letter. And the point I want to make is, I think that this letter is a cautionary tale of when you’re reading the Scripture and you find something that grabs you and there’s real merit in it, that’s a really interesting thing.

00:03:23:33 – 00:03:42:25
Michael Gewecke
It’s a very deep, deep well, but you follow that well all the way to the bottom. And what I want to submit to you is if you’ve been with us through this whole study, how rich of a letter this is as a whole, it holds together beautifully. There are moments that break into praise that are beautiful. I would even argue poetic.

00:03:42:39 – 00:04:13:28
Michael Gewecke
There are real human stuff embedded. You name the names. This letter is not so theological that it doesn’t touch our hearts, but it’s also not so practical that it can’t be studied. This letter is doing a really spectacular thing in the scriptural canon, and there has been generations of Christian scholars who’ve gotten stuck on one word couple verses I now, there’s also been a lot who have done really fruitful work through the whole box.

00:04:13:28 – 00:04:27:00
Michael Gewecke
I don’t want to overstate the case, but I just think that this is a beautiful example of a letter that has a lot to offer, and I think it’s a cautionary tale of when we sort of fit that into a small, little confined space.

00:04:27:05 – 00:05:06:19
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think along with that, Michael, I would say that we mentioned again early on in the study, this is not a letter that has a lot of rebuking in it. There’s not a lot of criticism. You read some of the letters of Paul, first Corinthians or Galatians, for instance, where there’s some there’s some definite tension between Paul and his readers, and there are places where Paul kind of has to go in hard on some of the things that have been happening, that that isn’t the case in this letter, and it gives this letter a softer feel, more of a a friendship kind of, vibe.

00:05:06:19 – 00:05:13:04
Clint Loveall
And I think, you know, there’s something in that that we, we don’t get.

00:05:13:09 – 00:05:46:21
Clint Loveall
Who we we know Paul through his writings and much of those writings are thoughtful and pastoral. But in in this we get to see perhaps a little more relational than we do in other places. You know, you could argue some Timothy is in there, but the fact that we get to eavesdrop or listen in on this letter between essentially a pastor and a congregation who love one another, there’s not been a blow up.

00:05:46:21 – 00:06:06:45
Clint Loveall
There’s not bad things happening that he has to criticize them for or take them to task over it. It gives this a very deep relational sense. And, you know, as those who serve churches, I think that’s a compelling that’s a compelling aspect as well.

00:06:06:55 – 00:06:39:11
Michael Gewecke
Well, and on that line, I think a compelling aspect of that from the pastor and church perspective, Clint, is that this letter is not so embroiled in all of the nitty gritty details of stuff happening in worship services and behaviors that need directly announced. There’s a sense in which this rejoicing theme, which is embedded inside the moment in which Paul is unable to come to Philippi, a moment when Paul’s actually going through some struggle.

00:06:39:16 – 00:07:03:41
Michael Gewecke
A letter where Paul talks about that struggle and says, you know, even Jesus Christ can work through that. I do think there’s a very pastoral heart to this letter for people who are going through some of life’s heavier and more difficult moments, and that’s not an occasional activity when you’re church. When you’re church, there’s always someone in the community rejoicing.

00:07:03:46 – 00:07:20:28
Michael Gewecke
Thanks be to God. But there’s also always someone who’s bearing up. There’s always someone who’s going through a real dark valley. And this letter, in a way, speaks to both simultaneously. And that, I think, makes it a treasure.

00:07:20:33 – 00:08:01:28
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think that one of the takeaways, as we’ve gone through this book, as I go through this book on this reading, is I find myself as we sit here and reflect on the last several weeks of trying to sit under the book and listen to it, learn from it, I find myself thinking about that theme of rejoicing, literally to have joy again, rejoice, joy again, and the the character of that and the fact that Paul is calling Christians to rejoice himself from a prison cell.

00:08:01:40 – 00:08:33:57
Clint Loveall
Yeah. With an uncertain future. And I think that we can be guilty of hearing a word like rejoice or joy and sort of thinking that that means in essence, be happy. Well, can’t you just be in a better mood? Can’t you just not be cranky? Can’t you just not be afraid? Couldn’t you just be happy? And and I think if you read this letter carefully, what you learn is that the path to rejoicing is not a simple path, nor an easy path.

00:08:33:57 – 00:08:56:43
Clint Loveall
And if you follow where the book takes you in terms of the markers of it, you have Paul talking about his contentment. Well, whether I have much or little, I can be content. You have Paul calling Christians to humility like we see in Jesus Christ. You have that wonderful language near the end of the book about pressing on and and persevering.

00:08:56:43 – 00:09:33:05
Clint Loveall
And then ultimately, though, it’s short and he doesn’t expound on it too much, you do have that call of reconciliation and peace and unity, and we wouldn’t always attribute those things with joy. But but joy allows us to pursue all of those things and in turn, all of those things contentment, humility, perseverance and reconciliation all bring us again and again and again back to joy, rejoicing literally finding joy again.

00:09:33:05 – 00:09:54:33
Clint Loveall
And so, I it it is, I think, for good reason that this is called the Epistle of Joy. But I think that’s deeper than we might think of it on the surface. I think you have to dig under the text and really let it say some things to you before you would maybe put that all together.

00:09:54:37 – 00:10:33:23
Michael Gewecke
It’s interesting. You might really hadn’t thought of it until you said that, but it is interesting. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. There are in this book some text that people are going to know really well. There’s some sections that jump out and are going to really be be quite accessible for people. And what’s interesting is that’s maybe the opposite side of the really obscure theological scholarship kind of take where we once again box in the letter, because I think you look at something like chapter three, you know, when Paul talks about how can we have confidence, right?

00:10:33:23 – 00:11:04:06
Michael Gewecke
And, and Paul says, I can have confidence in the flesh. I have reason for that, but I don’t. Right? Because fundamentally, I want you to know that all of that is rubbish. All that needs laid aside when it comes to the value of knowing Christ. The fact that Paul wants to provide a model for this church, Paul wants to say even in prison, I can point to the ways in which God can be seen in me.

00:11:04:06 – 00:11:37:31
Michael Gewecke
And and note that that being seen isn’t in the bonafides, it’s in the weakness, it’s in the humanity. It’s in the spaces that we’re often most ashamed of, that Paul wants to turn and say, no, look, this is where we find Christ. This is where grace meets us. I think that in a letter that has these high, lofty moments, you got to come back down to earth a little bit and you got to see that there’s some really deep what do I do today kind of theology embedded in this?

00:11:37:31 – 00:11:59:48
Michael Gewecke
What do you do the day you meet, the day with all that you have. And as you show up in it, rejoice because God is with you. Because no matter whether that is in the lowest of the lows or whether that today is at the top of the bonafide, you’ve been exalted. It doesn’t matter. Everywhere in between, there’s a promise that God is present and that God is working.

00:11:59:52 – 00:12:21:39
Michael Gewecke
That gives us a kind of on the ground purpose as Christians in a world that likes to tell us what our purpose is, a letter like Philippians, I think, has a way of helping gently redirect us away from our own self-interests and away from consumerism, away from self advancement, away from the stuff that clamors to get us boxed in.

00:12:21:50 – 00:12:26:03
Michael Gewecke
And it invites us to a bigger world, to God’s world, to the kingdom of God.

00:12:26:07 – 00:13:02:00
Clint Loveall
I’ve never thought about it this way before. Michael, until you said that something in that struck an idea in me. Philippians. In some ways. Might be a great place for people to start, scripture reading. I’m just thinking, check me on this. But I can’t think of a place in Philippians that’s going to throw you off with a circumcision conversation like you’d hit in Galatians.

00:13:02:00 – 00:13:30:32
Clint Loveall
Or women be silent like you’re going to get in Timothy, the sort of cultural stuff and this sort of theological stuff. You you have that deep stuff in Romans, but then you have that very extended conversation on the role of the Jewish people and believers and what’s happening there. Thessalonians. You have the idea of debt. Philippians, in some way might be the easiest of Paul’s letters to read.

00:13:30:32 – 00:13:59:28
Clint Loveall
And by that I mean there’s the least amount in it that would distract you. And I’ve never thought of that as a value of this book. But I think in some ways, if a person were coming into the faith, along with perhaps one of the gospels, this might be one of the great places for them to start. And I’d never I never thought of it in those terms before.

00:13:59:33 – 00:14:23:06
Michael Gewecke
I, I do think that is very, very true. And I also, I would point out if it wasn’t for Philippians, Clint, we would miss a really big part of the picture that we have of who Paul was. Yeah. And it’s chapter four, verse one. I think illustrates this. And so I just want to share it with you as we come towards concluding the series.

00:14:23:11 – 00:14:49:03
Michael Gewecke
Therefore, my brothers and sisters whom I love and long for my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord. In this way, my beloved Paul, is a lot of things. He’s been disliked in every generation. Paul has always rankled. He’s got moments where he’s brash, he’s got these pointed. He he is in many ways willing to get into the throw and to make things happen.

00:14:49:08 – 00:15:29:45
Michael Gewecke
And this letter I submit to you reveals a side of Paul, which is, I think it’s appropriate to say, affectionate, compassionate, loving, relational. But he clearly has a deep human connection with this church. He’s driven by the meaning of that relationship. He wants them to to do well, and the words that he has for them are tender. And I think that’s a really important and helpful contribution to who Paul is, that if you’re a Christian and you read Romans and you read Corinthians and you read Galatians, I, you’re going to see other sections of Paul that are also important.

00:15:29:45 – 00:15:38:24
Michael Gewecke
And I would laud those as well. But this letter, I do think, also contributes something unique to that canon that reveals an important part of who he was.

00:15:38:29 – 00:16:09:13
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I agree, and again, a snapshot of what appears to be a really solid, care filled, loving relationship between a pastor or a church worker and in this case, his congregation or the people he thinks of as one of his churches. So, yeah, lots of good stuff. I hope there’s been something in our overall conversation. I hope there’s been something today that strikes a chord.

00:16:09:18 – 00:16:34:57
Clint Loveall
We’d love to hear what that is. Always feel free to send comments, let us know. We are as we finish this book up, we have a plan for where we’re going next, but we are always interested in that conversation also. So if there are specific questions, thoughts, if there are biblical books that you’d like to see us try to tackle, we’d we’d be happy to have that conversation with you and we’ll go from there.

00:16:35:02 – 00:16:47:27
Michael Gewecke
Sounds, like a great way to summarize. Thanks for being with us here today. Like this video. If, it has been helpful, encouraging, inspiring to you helps others find it there on study subscribe so you don’t miss that stuff that is to come. We’ll see you all tomorrow.