Completion
Philip. 1:1-11 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
[2] Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[3] I thank my God every time I remember you. [4] In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy [5] because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, [6] being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
[7] It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. [8] God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
[9] And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, [10] so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, [11] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
One thing that the Bible does not hide from us is that there is pain in the world, and that we will often go through it. And though we will often see that pain as a bad thing, because at the time it hurts, we have to learn to see that God is at work in all of these situations. This is what Paul is driving at when he talks about God’s good work in us being completed.
God is interested in our character, how we are right now, and how we can change to become more like Jesus. The truth is that it is easy to be like Jesus when things are going well – it is harder when our backs are against the wall and pressure is mounting up on us. But this is when character is revealed and refined. It is when we are facing struggles that we find out who we really are. It is also when we learn to depend not on ourselves, but on God. It is when we find that we are too weak to overcome a challenging situation that we need our Father to give us grace, for him to lavish the riches of heaven onto us, and for us to see that He overcame the situation and that He deserves the glory. Each time we rediscover this truth we grow. God’s good work in us moves further towards completion.
We find this too – if we allow God to change our character when we struggle with him through our adversities then we build up a knowledge base that we can refer to in the future. Paul prays this for the people at Philippi, that their love would grow in knowledge and insight, so they could see what was pure ang good in each and every situation, so that when the day of Christ came, God’s work in them would be completed. We need to pray the same for ourselves and the people we know: that as we go through pain and struggle we learn to lean on God, to be changed by him, so that he brings his good work to completion.
To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
[2] Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[3] I thank my God every time I remember you. [4] In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy [5] because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, [6] being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
[7] It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. [8] God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
[9] And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, [10] so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, [11] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
One thing that the Bible does not hide from us is that there is pain in the world, and that we will often go through it. And though we will often see that pain as a bad thing, because at the time it hurts, we have to learn to see that God is at work in all of these situations. This is what Paul is driving at when he talks about God’s good work in us being completed.
God is interested in our character, how we are right now, and how we can change to become more like Jesus. The truth is that it is easy to be like Jesus when things are going well – it is harder when our backs are against the wall and pressure is mounting up on us. But this is when character is revealed and refined. It is when we are facing struggles that we find out who we really are. It is also when we learn to depend not on ourselves, but on God. It is when we find that we are too weak to overcome a challenging situation that we need our Father to give us grace, for him to lavish the riches of heaven onto us, and for us to see that He overcame the situation and that He deserves the glory. Each time we rediscover this truth we grow. God’s good work in us moves further towards completion.
We find this too – if we allow God to change our character when we struggle with him through our adversities then we build up a knowledge base that we can refer to in the future. Paul prays this for the people at Philippi, that their love would grow in knowledge and insight, so they could see what was pure ang good in each and every situation, so that when the day of Christ came, God’s work in them would be completed. We need to pray the same for ourselves and the people we know: that as we go through pain and struggle we learn to lean on God, to be changed by him, so that he brings his good work to completion.
posted by Gordon at
7:16 am
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