Today, I am reading and commenting on  Philippians 1-4.

Paul’s letter to the Philippians contains some important ideas about how we should live our lives and what our attitudes should be.  He begins by telling us not to be concerned about why someone preaches the Gospel.  We should put our faith in the power of God.  We should rejoice when people preach about Christ, whether they do so with noble intentions or out of selfish ambition.  The Holy Spirit can and will use the words which they speak to reach those whom God has chosen.  The Spirit will even use those who misrepresent the Gospel.  So, while elsewhere Paul condemns those who lead people astray, here he reminds us that the Holy Spirit can use even the little bit of Truth that those who preach with false motives convey to bring people to know the Lord.

Having established that no matter what the motives of the speaker or the listener the Holy Spirit will use whatever bit of God’s Truth is conveyed to enter into people’s lives, he goes on talk about how we ought to approach such things.  He writes that those who serve God should be torn between continuing in this life and the death of our mortal bodies.  As long as we live, God has tasks for us to accomplish, but a much better life waits for us when we leave these mortal bodies.  The result of this means that we should neither fear death, nor should we seek it out.  The next point I want to make shows us what our attitude towards death should be.  We should humbly value others above ourselves.  So, while dying would be better for us, as long as we live we can serve others in some way.  No matter how we may suffer in this life, as long as we have life God has a purpose for us.  Let us seek to carry it out  by putting the interests of others ahead of our own without grumbling or arguing.

There is so much more in this passage, but I will stop here.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.