Scripture:
Philippians 4.4-9
Translation: 4Be happy in the Lord all the time! I’ll say it
again, be happy! 5Your graciousness had better be known to all
humans. The Lord is near! 6Worry about nothing, rather in everything
by prayer and asking with thanksgiving your requests had better be made known
to God. 7And the peace of God that surpasses every mind will guard
your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus. 8Finally, brothers and
sisters, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever
things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are pleasing,
whatever things are commendable, if something is a virtue or if something is a
praise, think about these things. 9And what things you learned and
received and heard and saw in me, practice these things! And the God of peace
will be with you!
Interpretation
1.
Structure
a.
Grammatical
i.
Vv.4-7
1.
2pl impv.
2.
3sg impv.
3.
3sg indic.
4.
2pl impv.
5.
3sg impv.
6.
3sg indic./future
ii.
Vv.8-9
1.
List + ταυτα λογιζεσθε = 2pl impv.
2. List + ταυτα πρασσετε
= 2pl impv.
3. 3sg indic./future
b. Content
i.
Vv.4-5
1. Rejoice
2. Graciousness
3. The Lord
ii.
Vv.6-7
1. Don’t worry
2. Prayer
3. God and Jesus
iii.
Vv.8-9
1. Virtues
2. Think
3. Forms of learning
4. Practice
5. God
c. Rhetorical
i.
Repeated command to rejoice
ii.
Command to be known for
being gracious
iii.
Basis/motivation for i. and
ii.
iv.
Command to worry about
nothing
v.
Command to pray instead of
worry
vi.
Basis/motivation for/result
of iv. and v.
vii.
List of virtues
viii.
Command to think about
things that fall under the category of vii.
ix.
List of the ways Paul
taught the readers
x.
Command to practice the
things that fall under the category of ix.
xi.
Motivation/result of vii-x
2.
Themes
a.
Peace
b.
Prayer
c.
Emotions
d.
Virtues
e.
Teaching/learning
f.
Commands
g.
Cause/effect, if/then
h.
Doing
i.
Thinking/mind
j.
Knowing
3.
Doctrines
a.
Jesus is coming soon, He is
close
b.
Jesus is close to us, He is
with us
c.
Prayer helps us when our
emotions are out of control
d.
God is the source of all
true peace
e.
Peace is connected with
proper thinking and proper living
f.
The presence of God is
experienced when we are thinking the way He thinks and living the way He has
told us to live
g.
Existential peace as well
as interpersonal peace is connected to focusing on the coming of Christ and the
presence of God, as well as through prayer
h.
Prayer is for every
situation, time, or opportunity
i.
Christians should seek to
be known for something, that is Christians should seek to have a certain
reputation that is backed up and generated by lifestyles that cultivation a
particular kind of reputation
j.
All prayer should be
offered with thanksgiving, thankfulness both for the fact that God listens to
our prayers, but also for the fact that He answers our prayers, the
thanksgiving especially seems to imply a faith that God will answer our prayers
k.
Teaching is achieved not
only through formal instruction, but informal
Applications
1.
The temptation that many of
us face as we go back to school and start new experiences either in college, or
high school, or middle school, or even post college will be to be scared or
nervous or worried about what could happen, what it will be like, or whatever,
but the proper response is not to give into those fears and worry, but to
direct our mental activity towards God and all that He is. The best response to
worry about the new school year, and the best proactive step to take to avoid
fear, nervousness, and worry is to pray. Prayer does not just get you answers,
it gets you closer to God, and since God is the God of Peace, the closer you
are to Him the closer you are to true and lasting peace. Yes, it does give us
peace and gratitude to know that God will answer when we pray, we know that He
will give us peace and help with what is coming to us in the new school year,
but it also is one way how we connect with God and deepen our relationship with
Him, how we experience Him,
2.
We should put our energy
not into worry and fear, but into being happy and celebrating all the time, and
to being gracious to others
3.
There are thinks that you
should be thinking about and things you shouldn’t. think on things worth
thinking about, but there are also things that you should be doing, do things
that God has told us to do
4.
We will experience God
being with us when we thinking about Godly things and live the Christian life,
that’s why we feel wrong when we are not thinking about what we should be and
when we are doing things God has told us not to do. What we are thinking about
and what we are doing has an affect on whether we experience God close to us,
if we are thinking about what is good and doing what is good, then we are
guaranteed to have God with us, this is true whether we feel Him or not
5.
While surely there is a
great focus on what we experience, these statements by Paul also constitute
truths we need to hold on to even if we are not feeling them to be true at one
time or another. If you are thinking Godly things and doing Godly things, that
God will be with you, He is with you, but Paul mostly here is talking about
what we will experience.
6.
Also, it might be wise to
think about whether we as a community are helping each other thinking Godly
things and do Godly things
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