00:00:00:52 – 00:00:25:48
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us. It has been nice to have a little bit of break, and it’s good to get back into the routine of being with you and looking into Scripture together, trying to not only understand, but listen to it and be guided by it. And today we start a new project, the book of Philippians.

00:00:25:53 – 00:01:02:21
Clint Loveall
If if you know, if you if you’re comfortable navigating the Bible, you’ll know that Philippians is one of the letters attributed to Paul. It comes not quite last. Pretty close to about halfway through there. 13 of Paul’s letters. There, basically listed from longest to shortest. Philippians is somewhere kind of in the middle. Following Ephesians and, I know Michael, this is, I know this is a book that you are a fan of.

00:01:02:25 – 00:01:17:51
Clint Loveall
It’s it’s a great book. It’s a it’s a short book. It’s is it fair to call it unique? It has some features in it that I do think are unique. And it certainly historically has been a stand out for a few reasons.

00:01:17:56 – 00:01:46:42
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. So one of the interesting things about Philippians is it stands in a group of letters in the New Testament where Paul’s authorship is not disputed. This is a pretty confidently stated by biblical scholars, even those who can sometimes be more critical of authorship, that this book gets that that generally critical sort of meant that, yes, this is Paul.

00:01:46:42 – 00:02:21:19
Michael Gewecke
And I think one of the interesting things about that is there are other Pauline letters that have similar confidence, where the tone is very different, the tone written to the Romans, though I wouldn’t say that that book is critical or negative necessarily. There’s a very different style of writing in tone than Philippians does. And then you look to a letter to a congregation where there’s a little bit more of the dealing with ministry kind of stuff happening in Philippians, to like the church in Corinth and there the tone is very different than Philippians.

00:02:21:19 – 00:02:48:45
Michael Gewecke
I think Philippians is an amazing gift in the New Testament, because it’s an example that Paul wasn’t always hard edged and he wasn’t always trying to drill into the substance, bedrock of the gospel, that he was also personable. He was also encouraging that. It’s not to say that these other letters portray a different man. I just think it’s a different aspect of the man, and I think that it’s a beautiful contribution to the larger witness.

00:02:48:45 – 00:02:49:04
Michael Gewecke
Yeah.

00:02:49:04 – 00:03:11:12
Clint Loveall
Let’s, let’s jump into some of the basics. Then we can get back to some of those, reasons we think some of the things you’ve been been mentioning, Michael. So again, as Michael mentioned, the one of the things Bible scholars do is have some discussion about how, how certain are we that the person we know, as Paul wrote the letter that gets attributed to him?

00:03:11:16 – 00:03:38:43
Clint Loveall
High degree of certainty here. There are not not too many that would dispute that. The other thing that we have a given what we normally know, we have a surprising amount of information related to Philippians. We have the story in acts of Paul founding this church. Philippi is an important city in Macedonia. He’s there on his second ministry journey.

00:03:38:43 – 00:04:00:39
Clint Loveall
His second missionary journey. We get told some of the details of of his founding that church. He seems to have had a great relationship with them. To your point, Michael, there’s not criticism in this letter. Most of the letters of Paul, he says some nice things and talks to people, and then he kind of let them have it where he thinks they need to hear it, right.

00:04:00:54 – 00:04:31:19
Clint Loveall
He in Galatians, for instance, very contentious about some of the things that are happening there in critical of some of the things that are being done and said in that context. Philippians doesn’t have that. There’s a little bit of a range of dates, somewhere between 50 early 50s and early 60s. The general consensus is probably it makes sense that Paul writes this letter in about 60, 61 A.D..

00:04:31:24 – 00:04:55:26
Clint Loveall
Paul in the letter himself says he’s writing from prison. And if we date the letter in that early 60s, that would be his house arrest in Rome, not in a prison cell, not under guard, but being kept and and waiting for something. So a time that Paul has a little bit of freedom, but also certainly under supervision.

00:04:55:37 – 00:05:19:19
Clint Loveall
In fact, one of the reasons that we think he writes this letter is because the church in Philippi knows that he’s in prison, and they they are concerned about him. And so he wants to send word that he’s doing okay. The letter also makes it clear that they’ve sent him a gift. He’s thanking them for that gift, and he’s trying to encourage them for that gift.

00:05:19:24 – 00:05:56:47
Clint Loveall
And I, I think I don’t want to oversell it, Michael, but I think one of the differences there is a there is an affectionate ness. Is that a word? There is a level of affection in this letter, and perhaps it’s because it lacks that critical edge that doesn’t always come across in Paul’s other letters, he he seems to have genuinely connected, a church like Galatians where they’ve said, we don’t know if we trust you, and there’s some other people arguing with him, and sort of leading that church astray here.

00:05:56:56 – 00:06:16:36
Clint Loveall
It’s it’s very much more of a positive note, a positive tone. There seems to be a, a high degree of love here that Paul expresses. Not not that Paul doesn’t love all the churches, but I just think it’s a little bit more. This has a little more warmth to it, start to finish.

00:06:16:37 – 00:06:55:34
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. Without a question. I think one of the things worth noting is that whereas other letters, Paul is often trying to accomplish a task or several tasks. I think that you could read nudges in this letter, no doubt. And in fact, I think there’s a real emphasis upon, finding and maintaining the main thing. We can let those themes come out as we read the book, but I do think it’s worth saying that part of the reason I think that maybe Paul had a unique relationship with Philippi was not just because of his history with them, but because of the unique nature of Philippi.

00:06:55:35 – 00:07:25:27
Michael Gewecke
And since this is an introduction, I just think it’s worth knowing that Philippi, the city, was actually a very unique context in the ancient world, because you have to recognize that on the eastern side of the Roman Empire, the further and further east you would go, the closer and closer to the edge, the closer you would get to mixing cultures, sort of the eastern culture, and also to places of varying levels of conflict.

00:07:25:31 – 00:07:47:33
Michael Gewecke
Philippi was a unique city in that it was called a colony, and the people within. Not to get too technical here, but the people within Philippi were given a kind of immune status to much of the colonial ization that Rome did in other places, so they didn’t have to pay taxes. Many of them were Roman citizens, and in fact, many of them were Roman soldiers.

00:07:47:38 – 00:08:26:39
Michael Gewecke
And so Paul’s affection and ability to speak, lots of scholars are going to talk about this letter being written while Paul was in Roman captivity. The fact that Paul can, from Roman captivity in Rome, write a letter that has so much affection and care and relationship with this community, that would have been a very mixed, broad and also very proud Roman community, that all of this has a fascinating way of helping us to understand that Paul was more than just, a very zealous Jew who studied in the best of the synagogues and debated.

00:08:26:43 – 00:08:53:02
Michael Gewecke
He was that but he was more than that. He was capable of swimming and and working and connecting in circles far outside. I think a letter like Philippians, in a way, Clint actually helps us to peel back some of Paul’s three dimensional ness because of what he can say and how he says it to a community very different from some of the other communities.

00:08:53:02 – 00:08:56:57
Michael Gewecke
We know that he came from and was fluent in.

00:08:57:01 – 00:09:39:52
Clint Loveall
I think the way I might the the way I might spin that, Michael, is to say that if you’re familiar with Paul from other letter, you know, the deep, deep theological thinker in Romans, the sort of exasperated pastor trying to solve problems from afar of Corinthians or Galatians, the kind of edge in Ephesians or even then, I mean, maybe this has a little bit of a sense of the Timothy and Titus, the older brother, or the fatherly relationship.

00:09:39:57 – 00:10:09:54
Clint Loveall
But if you’ve if you’ve read Paul and you sometimes think, oh my gosh, all of this stuff do’s and don’ts and the being upset and the all the rules and the I think Philippians is a really nice balance to that. This is about as cordial, I think, as relational and personal. A picture as we get of Paul start to finish again, we see that in other places.

00:10:09:59 – 00:10:33:22
Clint Loveall
Paul is often very upfront about his affection for a church and his desire to see people do well, but he knows these people are worried about him. He’s going to write about himself and his condition. He’s going to encourage them. There are some things happening in Philippians that he wants to address, but he does so gently and very encouragingly.

00:10:33:27 – 00:10:51:25
Clint Loveall
I, I just think if you’ve ever had the experience of doing Paul’s kind of a hard case, Philippians, it is the is the balance to that. And there certainly are parts of Paul’s writings that are edgy. This, I think, is softer.

00:10:51:30 – 00:11:14:58
Michael Gewecke
I think that I would call this letter pastoral, not in a corrective way, but more of an encouraging way. And I think two things would point to this. The first is, as with all things scholarship, you know, where Paul’s in prison is going to be debated, but the fact that he is in prison really isn’t. And so here you have a man whose freedom has been taken from him.

00:11:15:10 – 00:11:51:34
Michael Gewecke
His agency has been stripped, and he’s writing to a church encouraging them in so many different ways. Throughout this letter, he says, the work of the gospel still happening. Oh, and by the way, and now this is Michael’s paraphrase, but by the way, it’s going to go on without me. Right. So Paul is offering this kind of overarching context for the gospels, not always going to be advanced when everything is good and and simple and free and the way you want it, sometimes the gospel will advance and you will find yourself in chains.

00:11:51:39 – 00:12:16:00
Michael Gewecke
And I think our corollary part to that is person writing to a church that they love doing so with some sense that the end might be coming. This letter is full of requests, even in some cases begging in some cases encouragement. Be of one mind. Be the kind of people who pull together. Make the main thing the main thing.

00:12:16:01 – 00:12:40:10
Michael Gewecke
I think that’s what makes Philippians so compelling to me personally. Yes, it’s nice to have an encouraging tone, the letter, but the thing that Paul’s encouraging them to is so compelling. It is such a beautiful image of what God has called the church to be a group of people who are different fundamentally and in the case of Philippi, different citizenships.

00:12:40:10 – 00:13:05:29
Michael Gewecke
Some are Roman, some are not. Some are wealthy, some are poor, some have status, some don’t. And yet be of one mind. Be the kind of people for whom Christ and Christ death, resurrection and ascension that that is the center of your community. I think this letter contributes something to what it means to be Christian community, that we would be sorely lacking in the church without.

00:13:05:29 – 00:13:07:51
Michael Gewecke
It’s one of the reasons I love it so much.

00:13:07:55 – 00:13:35:55
Clint Loveall
But I think it’s also a testament to Paul himself, who in the midst of being imprisoned and facing a very uncertain future, says to people who care about him, look, if I get out of prison, I’m going to go back to doing the work of Christ. And if I don’t, then I’m going to go be with Christ. And Christ will be glorified in both of those things.

00:13:36:00 – 00:13:58:01
Clint Loveall
And whatever we face, we face through the knowledge and the commitment that that we are people who belong to Jesus Christ and for him to say that you and I can get up and say that in the pulpit, it’s a very different thing when you’re saying that from a prison wondering if you’re going to get out or whether you’re going to be executed.

00:13:58:01 – 00:14:34:48
Clint Loveall
And, that that gives this letter, a credibility also remarkable for a person in very difficult circumstances. The themes of this letter are joy, humility, and perseverance. To some extent, perhaps Paul writing to himself as much as to the church that will read his letter. It’s just, there’s a lot of great stuff in this letter.

00:14:34:48 – 00:15:09:39
Clint Loveall
And I, there is theology, particularly in the second chapter. There’s there’s a section which I think is considered kind of a theological treasure, on the nature of Christ. But so much of this is, is relational is is just an encouragement, a call to joy, a call to humility, a call to faith. I hope you all will enjoy this letter.

00:15:09:39 – 00:15:26:30
Clint Loveall
I there are lots, I think, of people who are familiar with Paul that would claim Philippians, maybe as their favorite of Paul’s writings, and for good reason. I think as we go through it, you’ll find lots in the letter that commends itself to that.

00:15:26:34 – 00:15:54:34
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, I was going to conclude with that idea of how this letter is theological. And I think the thing I want to say is too many people are off put by the idea of theology in churches because it’s academic, because it’s heady, because it’s book, because it is go to seminary for three years. And I think this letter is such an important read together, because there is nothing flimsy about this book.

00:15:54:46 – 00:16:25:50
Michael Gewecke
This book is not in any way low theology. And yet this book does not need to throw big words at us. It doesn’t need to spend chapters teasing out long arguments about God’s salvific plan for the world, like happens in Romans. Now, this letter is showing us how deep theology of who and what we mean by that is who Jesus Christ is and what that means for the world and and also for the church, his role and function within the world.

00:16:25:55 – 00:16:57:46
Michael Gewecke
This letter will plumb the depths of that and do so in such an accessible, such an understandable, such an encouraging way. And so if you and I can hear a book like this, and we can allow it to shape our imaginations about what theology actually is, it’s not just writing books and getting degrees, then you and I might feel more empowered to be those kinds of theologians in our lives, with our kids and grandkids, with the people that we’re talking with on the track.

00:16:57:48 – 00:17:23:46
Michael Gewecke
It’s an opportunity, I think, for us to explore. No practicing humility, being of one mind, enduring difficult circumstances, being a person who’s committed to the work that Jesus Christ does, even when that puts us in positions where we don’t exactly know what tomorrow is going to hold. If we can internalize that theologically, we have seen the depths of.

00:17:23:50 – 00:17:39:43
Michael Gewecke
Of course, Paul is a great thinker, but he’s more than that. He’s a faithful, wise man of God. And there’s something for us to learn in hearing his words and his relationship with this church, and to see that that should live in us today.

00:17:39:48 – 00:18:14:33
Clint Loveall
I’m just thinking, Michael, and this is off the top of my head, which I always have to be careful with. I wonder if there’s a sense in we in which we can say that Philippians is Paul’s. I don’t know if I would say least Jewish or most Gentile. In other words, because this community is out on the fringes of the empire, the Paul doesn’t mention any of the tensions.

00:18:14:38 – 00:18:53:28
Clint Loveall
This seems to be an entirely gentile community. And so he doesn’t mention circumcision. He he doesn’t mention any of the sort of Jewish references that say, Galatians has or certainly a Romans where he has to dedicate, yeah, multiple chapters to the questions of what about the Jewish people who are and aren’t coming to the faith in. There is a sense in which I think that for modern readers, that makes less in this book, that kind of hamper us because we’re not naturally familiar with those things.

00:18:53:33 – 00:19:20:35
Clint Loveall
Those become the elements we have to study. Whereas this sounds most of this letter sounds like a pastor could write it today, more or less. I mean, I mean, obviously it would be dated a little bit, but it’s remarkably modern in that he doesn’t specifically have to mention anything that stand out to us as sort of historic or ancient or other.

00:19:20:40 – 00:19:36:00
Clint Loveall
And I, I’ve never thought about that before, so I need to I maybe need to spend a little time with that. But off the top of my head, it seems to me that that might make this letter a little easier to digest for modern readers.

00:19:36:05 – 00:19:53:51
Michael Gewecke
Well, don’t take our word for us. Join us as we go on this study. Starting tomorrow, we’ll dig into the text and start exploring what we might find in it. And, certainly hope that it is a place of connection and meaning for you, as obviously we both have, affection for the letter in our own ways.

00:19:53:56 – 00:19:54:37
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.