Philippians 4:9To: Philippians Main MenuTo: Grace Notes Home Page Philippians 4:9The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.The Philippians learned much from the apostle Paul. They authenticated the Christian life from both from his lips and his life. The words "learned" and "heard" form a pair. Both terms relate to what Paul taught the Philippians. The words "received" and "saw" form a pair. Both of these terms link to application of truth. There are two principle plus application statements in this verse. First we learn (principle) then we receive (application). Next we hear (principle) then we see (application). PRINCIPLE: Both principle and application form proper balance in the execution of the Christian life. APPLICATION: Are you one of those people who say "I don't need all that doctrine. All I need is the practical. Just show me how and I will get on with my Christian life." The problem with that is we cannot "get on" with our Christian life if we do not learn God's way of thinking. The Christian life is a system of values that emerge from God's Word. Is there no place for truth in your life? Are you willing to dedicate yourself to discover God's mind? This comes only by a serious study of Scripture. Other people have the impression that if they mount up enough information they will please God. Information minus application distorts the Christian life. This kind of Christian living ends in sterility. People who ever learn but never practice eventually instill disillusion into their souls. They eventually come to believe that the Bible does not work. If you are in this category, are you willing to learn a principle every day and apply it every day? Are you ready to translate truth into experience? Whenever we see a "grocery list" of verbs like this there is a temptation to slide over them as so much verbiage. However, God does not waste words when he writes Scripture. "Learned" and "received" form a pair. This is instruction in doctrine and practice. The words "heard" and "saw" also form a pair. These are the things they learned by observing his example. THE THINGS WHICH YOU LEARNED AND RECEIVED The Philippians received a body of truth from the apostle while he was in Philippi. That truth was received in two ways. First, it was "learned." "Learned" is Paul's personal instruction. The word "learned" means to receive from a person. This is instruction of formal content. This word implies that a person with authority is the teacher. The authority is in what they know. These are the things that the Philippians learned from the lips of Paul. Teaching is foundational to Christian living. We cannot experience the Christian life properly without structure or belief. We cannot apply what we do not know. In this word Paul gathers up everything he taught them while in Philippi. God expects us to sit under the formal teaching of God's Word. It is not enough to study the Bible for ourselves. If everything we learn from our pastor goes in one ear and out the other, we cannot practice God's Word. At the point we need to apply it, it is not in our mind. How can we apply what we do not know? If we try to experience Christianity without the structure of God's Word in our minds we will blow with every wind of doctrine. Instability, insecurity, fear, doubt will result. The mind must expose itself to the exposition of the Word of God. PRINCIPLE: Christian living begins with knowledge of the principles of God's Word. APPLICATION: We cannot form principles of God's Word without knowledge of the Bible. God's design for forming these principles is by the pastor-teacher formally teaching God's Word in the local assembly. Will you commit to learning the Word of God in church? The pastor has the time and giftedness to study the Bible. Most lay people do not have time to study the Bible the way the pastor can. Accepting the pastor's authority does not infer he can make no mistake. It does assume that he is a serious Bible student. Do you come to church with the attitude of accepting the authority of the pastor-teacher? The word "learned" and "received" are a pair. "Learned" refers to the principles of the Christian life we form from sitting under the teaching of God's Word. "Received" is the response to sitting under God's Word. AND RECEIVED "Received" takes up the reception of instruction. The word means to receive by being beside someone. The Philippians received instruction as a matter of personal experience. They listened to Paul's teaching because they "received" from Paul's person. When we appropriate truth we learn it builds an edification complex in our soul. We become stronger as we appropriate what we know. The word "received" also means to give assent. The word contains the idea of receive with a welcoming attitude. The Philippians recognize Paul's teaching as the truth of God. They acknowledge that it is the Word of God. They respond with positive volition. They understand their responsibility to the truth. "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (I Pet. 2:2). PRINCIPLE: Application of truth to experience is an important link in building an edification complex in the soul. APPLICATION: As we sit under a pastor and learn the truth, we assume responsibility for the truth. If we receive the truth and do not accept responsibility for what we know, we violate an essential principle of Christianity -- the principle of application. Biblical truth is never static; it is always dynamic. If we neglect God's truth we disrespect its dynamic. In context Euodia and Syntyche knew the truth (4:2,3) of unity among Christians but they did not apply it. By neglecting the appropriation of truth they cast aspersions on both God and his Word. Now we come to the second pair of verbs: "heard" and "saw." The first pair "learned" and "received" dealt with teaching. "Heard" and "saw" deal with another category. AND HEARD "Hear" and "saw" have to do with example. Paul is an example both in word ("heard") and conduct ("saw"). The Philippians saw a concrete example in Paul of his teaching. They heard Paul teach the Word of God personally. This term does not refer to a formal learning process. In this case they learn from Paul's person rather than his role as a teacher. Relationship is crucial for the learning process in Christianity. AND SAW IN ME The Philippians saw Paul translate what he taught into action with their own eyes. His life matched his lips. They "got the point" of what Christianity was all about when they watched his life. The eyes of their soul saw the life of Paul. The soul has perception. The words "in me" mean the four categories of their exposure to the apostle. Paul's life was an open book. Everything they experienced from him, whether by teaching or by example, they are to implement into their lives. "Receive" and "saw" concern the outcome of exposure to truth. It is one thing to sit under formal teaching but it is another thing to receive or appropriate that teaching into one's life. It is one thing to observe an example but it is another thing to adopt the example into our lives. If we listen to the content of truth but do not apply it to what we currently face in our lives, receiving does not occur. If we observe an example of dynamic spiritual living, but do not "get the point," we waste the example. We can learn or hear formally but not translate what we know into experience. PRINCIPLE: Example is a powerful mode of teaching. The soul can see in example what it cannot see in formal teaching. APPLICATION: Are you the type of person who exclusively believes in formal teaching as the mode of reaching people? Do you care how you impact people by how you say things? Euodia and Syntyche did not care (4:2,3). As Christian leaders they set a very powerful negative example. We should present ourselves to others in the context of a positive relationship. THESE DO "These" is anything you heard from the apostle whether in formal or informal teaching. We have to understand truth before we can practice it. Many people try to experience Christianity without either knowing the principles of the Christian life or how to apply truth to experience. The word "do" means to practice. The idea is to habitually carry out an action. Practice as a habit. Verse 8 gave instruction as to our thought life; v9 gives instruction as to conduct. It is not enough to know. We must do (I John 1:6; James 1:22). Truth must first go to the mind then the heart and will and finally into action. God directs truth to the total person. It is not simply designed to aim at the mind; it is designed to appropriate into experience. Truth that does not grip the total person does not fulfill its purpose. James says that these people hear but do not "do" the word. He says that these people are like a person who stands before a mirror that reveals that the face is dirty. Instead of washing his face he walks away. The disclosure of the mirror should have caused him to act. A man who listens to the Word of God and does nothing about it is like the man who sees his dirty face in a mirror and walks away. James goes on to make the point that a person who mechanically listens to the Word without doing anything about it, will never enter God's blessing. God rejects him because he is unclean. His spiritual face is dirty. He has no excuse because the mirror disclosed his condition. Blessing comes as we appropriate truth to experience. The tense means to "keep on practicing habitually." Paul's presentation of Christianity is not pretty mottoes or catch slogans. He wanted aspirations to become actualities and professions to become performances. Sequence: 1. Listen to the formal teaching of God's Word The sequence is important. If we do not know the content of God's Word, we cannot practice it. If we do not apply the principles of God's Word to experience, we cannot practice it. If we do not take opportunities to expose ourselves to informal teaching of God's Word, such as a Bible study, we cannot practice God's Word. If we do not experience personal relationships with mature Christians, we cannot practice it. If we ever get into a pressure situation, the resources for relating Christianity to our emergency will not be there. If we face a temptation and we do not have the Word of God stored in our mind, we will fall. If we have the Word of God in our mind but apply it infrequently, there is a greater likelihood of falling. A picture of this is a student who tries to bluff his way through an exam without preparation. The Christian who tries to bluff his way through the Christian life will become disillusioned. PRINCIPLE: What we believe determines what we think; what we think determines who we are; who we are determines what we do. APPLICATION: Do you fail in the practice of your Christianity because do you not begin at the right place? If people practice truth, assured peace is the result. If we experience the five points of the sequence of verse 9, then we will experience God's personal peace. This is another way for Euodia and Syntyche to resolve their personality conflict. AND THE GOD OF PEACE Paul said in verse 6 we will have the peace of God if we present our anxieties to God in prayer. Now he says we have the God of peace with us if we follow the fivefold sequence of verse 9. God is the God of peace because he is the source of peace. God imparts peace both to the individual life of the believer and to groups. "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thes.5:23). The God of peace will set us apart unto God and preserve us until Christ comes again. "And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly" (Rom. 16:20). The believer will possess God's peace under Satanic attack. "Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." (Heb 13:20). The God of peace who raised Jesus from the dead has the power to enable us to do his will. The Hebrew word for peace, "shalom," means whole. Peace is more than the absence of trouble to the Jew. It is more than a negative thing. Peace is the whole person at rest. It is anything that that makes for the good of the individual. In this context it is peace in the sense of harmony. Euodia and Syntyche were at odds. Their relationship needed to develop into a harmonious whole. It is only from the source of God that we are able to enter into a whole relationship with fellow believers. "Peace" means harmony. Harmony in the Philippian church is the result of focus upon God's Word and its application to our lives. If we live by God's priorities, both internal and external harmony will result. PRINCIPLE: The believer will have harmony both within himself and without with other believers if he focuses his life on the application of God's Word to his life. APPLICATION: Unity comes out of the peace of God. God will give peace you and establish your relationships. God will manifest his presence by giving you peace with others. WILL BE WITH YOU The presence of the God of peace will be with us. God's guarantees the presence of his very peace to those who appropriate God's truth. God is there all of the time. God will make us aware that he is there. As David knew God's presence was with him when he went forth to slay the giant, we can know God is with us as we go into each day of our lives. God's peace will be our companion. The word "with" is a very strong term. It conveys the idea of "together with." Our relationship with God is at its best when we practice the fivefold sequence listed above. God is tapping his foot waiting for us to respond. It must have been great encouragement to Joshua to receive God's promise of his presence when he took the mantle of Moses, "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you" (Joshua 1:5). "For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). God gave him the assurance that no matter where he found himself God's presence was with him. This is God's providential care of believers. PRINCIPLE: Enjoyment of God's peace depends on the application of truth to experience. APPLICATION: God's blessing comes through the fivefold sequence. The target of the fivefold sequence is a sense of God's presence in our lives. ---------- Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved. There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. You can help further this work by your prayer and by sending a contribution to: Grace Notes 1705 Aggie Lane Austin, Texas 78757 wdoud@bga.com Grace Notes Web site: http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/ Anonymous FTP site: ftp://ftp.bga.com/vendors/wdoud/ Grace Notes is a ministry of Village Missions International. |
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