Philippians 1:1-11

Here are a few first thoughts about Philippians 1 before we talk about it tonight. If you read this before we meet, hopefully you can begin to raise your own questions and discover your own insights into Paul's letter that you can then share with us.

First off, a link to the text.

Philippians begins, as do most of Paul's letters, with his offering "grace and peace...from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" to his intended readers. Let's remember that Paul was in prison as he wrote this, yet he offers grace and peace from God. Paul is not the giver of grace and peace, but rather a fellow recipient, and that impresses me. When my outward circumstances are less than favorable I am not filled with "grace and peace", but Paul is even while in prison. Is peace really on offer to us full time, no matter what is going on in our lives?

Paul goes on to express his love and care for the Philippians and to pray for them, that their "love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that [they] may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."
What a wonderful idea--that love may abound in knowledge and depth of insight. Wendy and I have been watching a lot of House lately. House is a wonderful show, but one of its primary tenants is that people lie pretty much all the time for their own self-serving ends. House is profoundly aware of this, much moreso than anyone else on the hospital's staff, and as a result, it seems, he is miserable and drives anyone who would seek to care for him away.
Cameron, on the other hand, tends to believe the best of people, and time and time again she is disappointed and House proved correct in his fundamental assumptions about human nature. Cameron is likable, but naive, while House is wise but tortured. Furthermore, this concept is borne out by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:18: "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."
Paul's take, however, runs contrary to this. He asserts that love may abound in knowledge and depth of insight. Who's wrong?
I'm going to start from them premise that House can't possibly be wrong if something is in the Bible then it's true, and that if two Biblical statements seem contradictory, they only appear so, and both, in reality, express the truth. In the beginning of Ecclesiastes, the author writes, "I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven." I think the key is in this phrase: "under heaven". As long as Solomon studies man and man's behavior, the more he learns, the more he suffers. House is the great student of man. Of course, saying that, another fictional student of man comes to mind--Sherlock Holmes. Holmes, though, was addicted to opium, whereas House is addicted to Vicodin, which is a derivative of opium. Hmmm. Could it be that studying man will drive one to despair?

It doesn't seem that Paul, then, is encouraging the Philippians to study or grow wise in the ways of man, but rather to study and grow wise in the ways of God. What does that kind of wisdom offer? The ability "to discern what is best and...be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ." That's pretty huge, eh? I wonder if my life would be any better if I had the ability to consistently discern what was best? (Yeah, that's rhetorical.) How about the fruit of righteousness? I suspect that's something that would be good to have in my life as well. But if it would be good for me, think how it would be for you, for my coworkers and students, for my wife! If my life was filled with the fruit of righteousness, would that not do more to bring glory and praise to God and draw others to him than anything else I could possibly do? Can my cleverest argument compete with fruit of righteousness and abounding love? I don't think so.

May our prayer for ourselves and one another be the same as Paul's for the Philippians.