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Scripture Reading: Phil. 2:13; 1:19-21a; 2:15-16a; 3:10-14; 4:8, 12-13
In this chapter we want to see the revelation concerning our living with the Divine Trinity in the book of Philippians.
Philippians 2:13 says, “It is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” Everything that is covered in the book of Philippians is under God’s operating move. God has a move on this earth, and He moves by His operating.
In order to see God’s operating in us, it would be helpful for us to have a brief review of the book of Philippians. Philippians is a book concerning our experience of Christ. Chapter 1 shows us that we need to live and magnify Christ for Him to be our living and expression. Chapter 2 shows that we need to take Christ as our pattern and hold Him forth. In chapter 3 we see that we need to pursue and gain Christ as our goal. Chapter 4 shows us that we need to have Christ as our secret of sufficiency. In verse 12 of chapter 4 Paul declares that he has learned the secret. He uses a metaphor concerning a person being initiated into a secret society with instruction in its rudimentary principles. Actually, this “secret society” in chapter 4 is the Body of Christ. In conclusion, we can say that in chapter 1 of Philippians Christ is our living and expression; in chapter 2 He is our pattern; in chapter 3 He is our goal; and in chapter 4 He is our secret. All four chapters reveal a certain aspect of Christ for us to experience.
Chapter 2 gives us the overall thought, the all-embracing thought, the all-inclusive thought, of the book of Philippians. This thought is that the moving God is operating in us. Whatever Christ is to us is for the operating of God. We should care for God’s operating in us. Our God is living, moving, and operating in you and me continuously. God’s operating in us can be compared to our blood circulation or to the circulation of electricity. If the flow of blood within us stops, our life will stop. The circulation of blood is life operating in us. The flow of electricity is the operating of the electricity. If the flow of electricity stops in a building, there will be no light there.
Many Christians do not think about God’s move in this way. Some in the Pentecostal movement like to shout, cry out, and even jump. They like a big, outward display, but God’s inward operating in us does not necessarily have such an outward display. The current of electricity in a building is a very good illustration of God’s operating. When we enter into the building, it may seem that nothing is working there because everything is quiet. However, there is an operating going on, and this quiet operating is vigorous. The operating of the electricity in the building enables all the appliances, machines, and devices in the building to move and function. If this electricity is switched off, everything in the building is shut down. The more I have experienced God throughout the years, the more I realize that God’s move within us is a very quiet, fine operation. He operates in us quietly and finely.
Although we are Christians, it may seem that we have nothing within us. We may wonder at times what the difference is between us and the unbelievers. The truth concerning regeneration and transformation is very high and great. Even though we have been regenerated and are being transformed, we may feel like common persons. Actually, however, God is operating in us. Although a big building is under the operation of electricity, this operation is quiet and calm. We need to see that God’s operating in us is a miraculous normality. It is altogether normal yet altogether miraculous.
D. L. Moody said that the greatest miracle in the universe is regeneration. I agree with this. No miracle is greater than regeneration. Regeneration means that we have the divine life in addition to our human life. We have the divine life, but we may not feel that we can see much of the manifestation of this life within us. We may feel that others who are not regenerated are actually better than we are. Even though we are regenerated, we may lose our temper again and again. However, our being better or worse than others is an outward matter. If we are regenerated, we have the inner realization that something is within us. This “something” is the living and moving God who is now operating in us. Whether a person is outwardly bad or good may be according to his natural birth. What matters is not whether we are good or bad according to our natural constitution but the fact that we have received the operating God. God is now operating in us.
Paul uses great words in the book of Philippians to speak of the experience of Christ. Paul says that he magnified Christ. To magnify is to show or declare great (without limitation), to exalt, and to extol. Paul speaks of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and he says that for him to live is Christ. At the end of Philippians Paul says, “All the saints greet you, and especially those of Caesar’s household” (4:22). Caesar’s household comprised all who were attached to the palace of Nero. Some of these were converted through contact with Paul and became believers in Christ in Rome. No doubt, some in Caesar’s household became Christians because they saw Christ in Paul. The majority, however, did not see Christ in Paul. Surely, Christ was with Paul all the time, but many did not see. Seeing Christ in such a way depends upon the Lord’s mercy. It depends upon whether God has chosen and predestinated someone. Paul magnified Christ before everyone, but not everyone saw this magnification. This was because they did not receive the Lord’s mercy. They were not chosen and predestinated. God’s operating in us is not outwardly spectacular, but in a spiritual sense it is a great matter. If we have the spiritual discernment, the spiritual realizing power, we can see that all the things in the book of Philippians related to God’s operating in us are great.
God’s operating in us is with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (1:19). In Philippians 1:19 Paul says, “I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” In Philippians 2:12 Paul charges us to work out our own salvation. On the one hand, the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ will turn out to be our salvation, and on the other hand, we have to work out our salvation. Philippians 1 and 2 refer to the same salvation. This salvation is the working out, the issue, of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and this salvation is something that we work out in our living.
Martin Luther said that salvation is not by works but by faith. But Paul told us to work out our own salvation. We need to see that the very salvation revealed in the entire New Testament is an all-inclusive salvation. The salvation that Martin Luther referred to is justification. To be justified by God is to be forgiven of our sins so that we can be delivered from God’s condemnation out of the lake of fire. This is God’s salvation in justification. In Philippians Paul was speaking of a salvation that is continuing in our daily walk to save us from things such as selfish ambition (1:17), vainglory (2:3), murmurings, and reasonings (v. 14).
Murmurings come mostly from the sisters, and reasonings come mostly from the brothers. Have you been saved from murmurings and reasonings? We are saved to some extent but not fully. We need to be continuously saved until we enter into the New Jerusalem. In our marriage life we need to be saved from murmurings and reasonings. The husbands may reason, and the wives may murmur. Murmurings and reasonings are very small, but they are very troublesome. Both frustrate us from carrying out our salvation to the fullest extent, from experiencing and enjoying Christ to the uttermost.
If we look at salvation from this angle, we realize that we need to be saved continuously. Many years ago when people asked me if I had been saved, I would boldly tell them that I was saved. But today if you ask me the same question, I will ask you what you mean by my being saved. Have I been saved from the lake of fire? Surely, I have been saved from that, but there are still a number of things from which I need to be saved. In order to magnify Christ and live Christ, we need to be saved from murmurings and reasonings. To be saved from our murmurings and reasonings, we need the operating God. It is God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
We need God’s operating and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is “the bountiful groceries,” and God’s operating is “God’s cooking.” We need the groceries and the cooking of the groceries. Today God is operating within us miraculously yet normally. We should learn to cooperate with Him. Our cooperation is our obedience. This is why Paul says in Philippians 2:12, “Even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” We should obey by cooperating with God’s operating. As God operates, we need to obey.
The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is for us to live Christ for His magnification (1:20-21a). We need to magnify Christ under any kind of circumstance. Philippians 1:20 says, “According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.” Paul says that he was magnifying Christ, as always, through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This is altogether under God’s operating.
We live Christ for His magnification by holding forth the word of life (2:15-16a). To hold forth is “to apply,” “to present,” or “to offer.” To hold forth the word of life is to present the word of life to people as an offering, a contribution. Our Christian life is a life of holding forth the word of life to present it to others as an offering, a contribution. We hold forth the word of life as luminaries shining in this age (v. 15). As to our location, we are in the world; as to our condition, we are in this age. This age is corrupt, dark, evil, and perverted. But we are on this earth shining in this age as luminaries to reflect the divine light of Christ. A luminary does not have light in itself, but it reflects the light of the sun. We are luminaries who have no light in ourselves. We reflect the light of the sun, Christ. This is what it means to live Christ for His magnification. We hold forth the word of life as luminaries shining in this age.
Our holding forth the word of life is to work out our salvation, to carry out our salvation (v. 12). Paul tells us to work out our own salvation, and then he mentions that we need to do all things without murmurings and reasonings (v. 14). As we have pointed out, both murmurings and reasonings frustrate us from carrying out our salvation to the fullest extent. We need to carry out our salvation, to bring it to its ultimate conclusion, by our constant and absolute obedience with fear and trembling. We have received this salvation by faith, but now we must carry it out by obedience. To receive it by faith is once for all, whereas to carry it out is lifelong.
In Philippians 2 God’s operating is for us to work out our own salvation without murmurings and reasonings. For this we need to take Christ as our model, our pattern. In chapter 3 we see that we need to be those gaining Christ and being found in Christ (vv. 8-9). The real gain is Christ. Anything other than Christ is a loss. In Philippians 3:7-8 Paul says, “What things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ. But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.”
To gain Christ may be compared to gaining the victory in a war. To gain the victory in a war, everything has to be sacrificed. When the United States declared war in World War II, the entire country with all its citizens sacrificed everything to gain the victory in the war. Without that kind of sacrifice the United States could not have helped to win World War II. Today we also need to sacrifice everything to gain Christ. We need to tell Satan that we are going to fight to win the victory to gain Christ.
We also need to be found in Christ. Everyone should be able to see that we are persons in Christ. When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he was absolutely in the law. When people found him, saw him, he was a person in the law. But in Philippians 3 Paul declares that he wanted only to be found in Christ; he was only for Christ, and he wanted to be found by everyone in Christ. Paul was a man in Christ (2 Cor. 12:2a).
We gain Christ and are found in Christ by knowing Christ as our all and by knowing the power of His resurrection to be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10). Paul indicates in Philippians 3 that he was a person pursuing Christ (vv. 12, 14). The Greek word for pursue is the same word for persecute. Paul did two kinds of persecuting. The first kind of persecuting was a negative kind of persecuting. Paul persecuted Christ in this way when he was Saul of Tarsus. But after he was saved, he began to persecute Christ in a positive sense. To persecute Christ in a positive way is to press toward Christ, to follow after Christ. Paul realized that in order to pursue Christ, to persecute Christ, he needed the power of Christ’s resurrection, a power that can overcome death, subdue death, defeat death, and bring us out of death’s usurpation.
Paul aspired to know Christ and the power of His resurrection so that he could be conformed to Christ’s death. A. B. Simpson says, “’Tis not hard to die with Christ / When His risen life we know” (Hymns, #481). When we have resurrection as our enjoyment, this enjoyment enables us to be conformed to the death of Christ. Christ’s death is a model, a mold, and we are like pieces of dough that are put into this mold so that we can be conformed to the image of this mold. The mold that we are being conformed to is the death of Christ.
Each one of us has a certain amount of problems and sufferings. We may have sufferings related to our health, our finances, or our children. Who has no suffering? No one is in a situation in which everything is complete, perfect, satisfactory, fine, and in the third heaven. Who has a perfect, complete, satisfactory, and heavenly marriage? There is not such a marriage on this earth. Even marriage can be a real suffering. No one can escape suffering. These sufferings should be a mold. After we have been saved, God’s sovereignty puts us into this mold. This is the mold of the death of Christ. We need the power of resurrection to be conformed to the death of Christ. We need to be in the image of Christ and also in the image of His death. For this we need the power of His resurrection, not our natural power.
We want to be those who know Christ and the power of His resurrection to be conformed to His death so that we can obtain the out-resurrection from the dead as our reward (vv. 11-14). In Greek the word for resurrection in Philippians 3:11 has the prefix ex before it. Ex means “extra.” This resurrection is the outstanding resurrection, the extra-resurrection, which will be a prize to the overcoming saints. This particular resurrection will be a great reward to us. We cannot reach or obtain this out-resurrection without the power of Christ’s resurrection to conform us to the mold of His death.
When we live with the Divine Trinity according to what is revealed of God operating in us in Philippians, we manifest forbearance and express the virtue and praise of God in whatever is true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of (4:5, 8). In Philippians 4:5 Paul says, “Let your forbearance be known to all men.” This is to manifest forbearance. We saw in chapter 11 that the significance of the word forbearance is to be humble, to give in, to fit in any kind of situation, and to be able to be with any kind of person under any kind of circumstance. Forbearance implies humility, meekness, endurance, and patience. We need to let this virtue of forbearance be known to others, and this is to manifest the forbearance of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 10:1 Paul entreats the saints through the meekness and gentleness, or forbearance, of Christ. This is the forbearance of Christ that Paul lived and mentions in Philippians 4. We also need to express the virtue and praise of God in whatever is true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of. These virtues are the expression of a person who is living Christ for Christ’s magnification. When Christ is magnified, these virtues will be expressed. Then there will be praise to God.
We manifest forbearance and express the virtue and praise of God by the secret in taking Christ as our satisfaction (v. 12). We mentioned that “the secret” indicates being ushered into a secret society. Paul uses this to illustrate that we Christians are ushered into a particular society, and this particular society is the church, the Body of Christ. In this secret society Christ is the secret whom we need to learn for our initiation. We must take Christ as our secret so that we can enjoy Him all the time as our satisfaction.
Eventually, we will be strengthened in Christ, in the One who empowers us to do all things (v. 13). Christ empowers us, makes us dynamic from within, not from without. By such an inward empowering, Paul could do all things in Christ. Thank the Lord for the revelation of living with the Divine Trinity in the book of Philippians!
