Review: Study of Philippians

For those of you who missed these few weeks, shame on you. *pause* Kidding kidding. There weren’t many that came but each of us learnt a whole lot of stuff as Beatrice conducted the study for each chapter that went on for 4 weeks. Because of the amazing stuff we’ve learnt, this is a summary or an overall report about the book of Philippians. There’s just so much to learn that some of us think that we should share it with ALL the CF-ers. What’s more important, our theme verse is a part of this! If you have 10-15 minutes to spare, do read through the 4 chapters of Philippians and I pray that God will speak to you in His own special and personal way. It’s a very easy book to understand unlike Shakespeare, so do give this a shot!.

We first started with viewing the letter as a whole. Beatrice told us to read certain passages of the bible and to pick out the important events that took place in Philippi and the characteristics of Paul. We read the book once through and had an open discussion. An important tip while reading; read the letter as if it were to you, in a personal manner.

For the next 3 weeks, we dissected chapters 1-4. Right from the beginning, we learnt that Paul was a personal person. He writes his letter saying that he prays for EACH of the members of the Philippian church. Wouldn’t you want to be remembered by your loved ones in their prayers? Paul was that sort of guy. The members of the church were equally important to him. He always referred to them as brothers, partners, yokefellows and dear friends. They were the reason he wrote the letters, they were the reason he chose to live. If you read the later part of chapter 1, Paul actually had a dilemma between going to be with the Lord and staying alive. He chose the latter because he knew his job and sacrifice for the Philippian church was not over. All the struggles and tribulations he faced were shared with the Philippians in this chapter.

Throughout the letter, Paul kept repeating the word “Rejoice!”. Mind you, he was in prison when he was writing this. Even so, Paul wrote words of encouragement to the people he loved and long for. He told them to stand firm and press on, to keep on running a race as if to reach the prize up ahead. At that time, the church of Philippi was in a mess, full of complaining and anxious members, pride, disunity and feelings of hopelessness.

One thing you will notice if you read Philippians is that Paul used many examples. He talked about Timothy, who placed others before him as an example of humility; Epaphroditus, who took care of Paul’s needs although the church was worried about him being a burden to Paul when he fell sick. Paul’s own life and personal experiences and revelations were also used as examples to follow in addition to the primary example of Christ Himself.

In Chapter 3, Paul talks about confidence in the flesh versus confidence in God. He wrote to his people about not putting their pride and confidence on earthly things. Using himself as an example, Paul portrays the type of trust one should have in God instead of earthly achievements. He himself was a religious leader legalistically faultless and a renowned person in the Jewish society. Yet he considered them all irrelevant for the sake of Christ. Sounds applicable don’t you think? It doesn’t really matter where or how u serve in church or how well you do it because in the end, it is all about the grace of God which redeems us and not our achievements and actions.

At the end of the study, each of us came up with our own title for this book if it were not called Philippians. It was a good journey that we all had. We threw out questions, were skeptical over certain issues, and had differing points of view and debates over the principles, context and lessons in this book. At the end of it all, the main lesson that we all took home from this letter was about standing firm in the Lord and pressing on no matter what the circumstances. Beatrice did a wonderful job trying to answer all our questions and explaining concepts in a modern and easy-to-grasp manner whilst providing historical background and meanings of words to better help us understand the book. As she answered all our questions, I’m sure she will answer yours as well. Feel free to approach her for any insights and questions you have as you explore the book of Philippians for yourself.

CF-ers!!! Stand firm and press on!

By: Lynette Tan and Victor Goh