Philippians
Background on Philippians: Sent from Paul in prison in Rome to Philippi in northern Greece around 62 AD - the most stable of all of Paul’s Churches.
READ Philippians 2:2-4
How
are we to regard each other?
With love – seek to be one.
As better than we are.
We are to rejoice in each other’s talents
and victories in mortality.
As divine beings worthy of curiosity
towards.
As “people” not objects.
How
are we to regard ourselves?
With lowliness of mind = divine
discontent.
With a humble and realistic view of our
own weakness(es).
But also as divine beings who are
co-existent with God but presently having a telestial experience.
READ Philippians 2:5-11
Why
should we be humble and meek?
Because Christ was; He was the most
humble and meek – and is our example.
What
is the condescension of God/Christ?
He was in the form of God (a soul).
He was “equal” with God – He had
progressed from grace to grace to the point of Godhood.
But He laid aside that glory and put it
ALL at risk to take upon Himself a mortal body in a fallen world.
And not only that, He was born and
remained an ordinary person without wealth or credential.
He was completely obedient to all of
God’s commandments.
Then He descended below all things by
suffering the atonement and submitting to an unjust death on the cross.
What
glory did Christ earn, having successfully accomplished His mission to earth?
Exaltation – He attained to the
resurrection.
A name above every other name – He
becomes “God the Father” (see TPJS 392:1).
All things bow and every tongue confesses
His Lordship – to the glory of God the Father.
READ Philippians 2:12-15, Mormon 9:27 and
TPJS 392:1
How
did Christ work out His kingdom and salvation with fear and trembling?
He suffered the will of the Father in all
things.
He condescended, as we’ve discussed.
He suffered the atonement – which caused
Him to “tremble because of pain” (see D&C 19:15-19).
How
must we work out our salvation with fear and trembling before Him?
We must suffer the will of the Father
(and Christ) in all things.
While we have not condescended nearly as
far as He has, we are also spiritual beings having a mortal experience.
We are also in jeopardy every hour we are
in this mortal probation of losing the light and glory we have obtained to this
point – like Christ was, just we have less to lose, but still it’s hugely
significant to us (see 1 Cor 15:30).
We must offer the required sacrifice: our
whole soul, a broken heart and contrite spirit – we must “bury our swords” (the
things that entice us to sin) because it is “all we can do to repent” (see Alma
24:10-15).
Ultimately, if
we are to be “precisely” as He is – the prototype of the saved man – we may
also have to work out a Kingdom in a far distant eternity, not just our
salvation, with fear and trembling before our Father (Christ?), as we watched
Him do it for us here on earth in this eternity.
READ Philippians 3:3-9
What
is Paul saying about his righteousness in terms of living the Law?
No one can touch him.
He was a “Pharisee’s Pharisee”.
He can “out-righteous” any of the Jews,
and probably any of us with his adherence to the very tactical points of the
Law of Moses.
READ LoF 6:2 and 6:7
What
was Paul willing to give up to know Christ and be in covenant with Him?
All things – and he did give them up – he
sacrificed his career, his reputation, his family, his inheritance, and
eventually his life.
But the knowledge of Christ is enough to
recompense for the loss of all the rest – it’s enough and to spare.
READ Philippians 3:10-14
What
does being found in (covenant) with Christ lead to?
Knowing Him of a surety – like in 3 Nephi
11:15.
Knowing the power of His resurrection –
having hope in the promise that it will occur because the Lord wrought it for
us.
Having fellowship of His sufferings:
seeing and understanding cogitatively (which is different than experientially)
what Christ suffered in the Atonement (see Isaiah 53:10 – perhaps He saw His
seed in vision watching Him enact the Atonement, which is what inspires Him to
prolong His days or endure the suffering until it was finished).
Why
is Paul worried about attaining to the resurrection of the just?
Because,
unlike having faith in the “power of His (Christ’s) resurrection” through
knowing Christ personally and having faith in Him, Paul’s attaining to the
resurrection of the dead himself has clearly not been accomplished.
But if Paul
has received His calling and election to exaltation, and exaltation is to
become a God, and Gods must attain to the resurrection of the dead – perhaps
the concept of possessing hope in the promise we have been given from God is a
WAY bigger deal than we had thought.
Because it’s not just exercising faith in a perfect God to do His thing
– it’s believing that He can enable ME to become “precisely” as He is, in all
aspects. Me, who can’t seem to go a day
without shambolic sinning. Wow!
Verse
12 is a difficult translation – it could be translated: “I have not yet
attained to the resurrection and to perfection, but I follow after Christ, so
that I myself may lay hold of that which Christ has already laid hold of for
me.” He is referring to the resurrection
of the “just” or perfect.
What
is Paul’s goal?
Exaltation.
He is focused
on what comes next, not what has gone before (either in this life or in
previous eternities) – he is focused on perfection and attain to the
resurrection Himself in a future eternity.
He is focused
on maximizing his time here on this earth to position him as best he can for
what may come next – he now realizes the precious nature of the opportunity
presented to him here – to gain more light and glory – to take the next rung on
Jacob’s Ladder – to ascend higher on the journey toward Godhood – and the vital
nature of Christ in His journey, who has now become his Spiritual Father in
Heaven.
READ Philippians 4:8, 11-13
What
is Paul’s secret to contentment?
To have faith in Christ. He can make us like He is – amazingly.
To “think on” or “seek after” that which
is good.
And to see this life for what it is – a
probationary state where we can gain more light and glory through obedience to
the Lord and walking the path He has set for us – and to enjoy but not to get
too excited about the good and to not panic in the face of the bad – take it
all in stride as part of the “refining” we need to become like our Lord.
Colossians
Background on Colossians: Sent from Paul
in prison in Rome to the church in Colossae in central Turkey around 61 AD. A large and prosperous city on the East/West
trade route, 100 miles east of Ephesus - a place resembling the arid country of
the American West.
READ Colossians 1:9-10
Why
is obtaining the will of the Lord so important?
His will is wisdom and spiritual
understanding – we are guessing but He knows all things.
If we receive His will and do it, by
definition we are “walking worthy in the Lord” or as the Lectures on Faith
would say, we have received “actual knowledge that the course of life which (we
are) pursuing is according to the will of God”, which will enable us to have
“confidence in God” and “obtain eternal life” (see LoF 6:2).
The “good works” that we do will flow
from us naturally – they will be His will and done in His way.
And as we continue to do “good works” and
be obedient to His word to us, we will attract more light and truth and become
more sanctified or like Him.
READ Colossians 1:23 and Colossians
2:6-10
Before
we can be truly “grounded and settled”, “rooted and built up” and “established
in the faith”, what must we do?
We must receive Christ and “walk” in Him
– we must enter and abide in the Gospel Covenant with Christ.
In other words, we must enter in at the
Gate and be born of the Spirit – experience the baptism of fire and be changed
in the inner man (see 2 Nephi 31, Mosiah
5:2).
If
we have not been born of the Spirit, what may happen to us?
We may “move away from the hope of the
gospel” because we never really received “the hope” to begin with (not even the
birth of the spirit – much less calling and election).
We may be swayed by the sophisticated
arguments and learning of man – through philosophy or science or cultural
expectations – particularly if it is “mingled” with scripture.
We may be flattered away into thinking
that “all is well in Zion” and with us (i.e. vain deceit).
We may be deceived and brought into
captivity by evil spirits with more knowledge than we have – i.e.
“principalities and powers” (see TPJS 246:1).
We may become disillusioned with the
“prophets” who have pretended to prophesy truth from the presence of God but
never knew Him, such that when we discover this truth, we equate all of the
truth of the gospel with the lies told (“for our good…”) by these church
leaders and end up losing our faith in the Lord and perhaps even our belief in
God at all – because all of our “spiritual experiences” were through men and
not actually with God.
READ Colossians 3:12-14
How
do those who “walk in Christ” (have received the baptism of fire) act; how can
you spot them?
They love with charity – the pure love of
Christ.
They extend mercy to others – they don’t
give them the “punishments” they deserve.
They are kind.
They are humble, meek and longsuffering.
They make allowances for others – give
them the benefit of the doubt – they “assume good intent” from others.
They forgive others – before it is asked.
They beg forgiveness, before it is
demanded.
And sometimes they sin (i.e. quarrel),
but they repent.
The charity they have covers a multitude
of their sins (see 1 Peter 4:8).
Philemon
Background on Philemon: Sent from Paul in
prison in Rome to Philemon, a wealthy Christian living in Colossae. It was written to ask forgiveness for the
runaway slave, Onesimus. Approximately
61 AD.
READ Philemon 1:10-12
What
does Paul mean by saying Onesimus is “begotten” by Paul in his bonds?
Onesimus must have escaped from his
bondage and stowed away to Rome where he met Paul and was baptized.
How
was Onesimus unprofitable to Philemon?
Philemon was his slave owner.
He had paid for him but Onesimus ran away.
Philemon lost money (profit) on his
initial investment and in the rest of the value he would have gained from
Onesimus’ free work contributions.
READ Philemon 1:13-18
Why
is Paul sending Onesimus home to Colossae and Philemon?
Paul is saying that he felt that maybe he
wasn’t going to send Onesimus home, as he was like a son to him and was very
helpful to Paul in prison/house arrest in Rome.
But Paul feels guilty as Onesimus is
still a runaway slave – of his friend, Philemon, too.
But really it’s so that Philemon can
forgive Onesimus and the former slave can be reconciled with his former master
and the Church there in Colossae.
This story is a twist on the Parable of
the Prodigal Son.
READ Philemon 1:19-21
What
does Paul mean that Philemon owes Paul “thine own self”?
Paul must have baptized Philemon and
taught him the gospel.
Why
is Paul writing the letter?
While he seems hopeful that Philemon will
be up to the task of forgiving and embracing Onesimus when he returns, there is
a tinge of doubt.
The dig about Philemon owing Paul his
“own self” makes it a nice piece of emotional blackmail.
As an interesting side note, the bishop
of this region in 120 AD was a man named Onesimus – possibly a son or perhaps
the man himself...so it seems that Philemon took Paul’s advice.
How
might Philemon had reacted if his runaway slave had just returned on his
doorstep one day without any letter or backstory?
It might have been a real test of his
conversion to Christ if he didn’t know anything – that Onesimus had converted,
that he’d come back willingly and contrite, seeking forgiveness like the
prodigal son.
This is the kind of test that the Lord
can sometimes use to prove our hearts.
It’s the kind that if we knew the backstory or had a “Paul” to write us
a short letter to give us the gospel perspective, that we might react
differently than without those things.
But the Lord wants to know our unadulterated hearts – we must cry unto
Him to soften them now.
