Study From the Book of the Philipians,2

                Study From The Book of the Philippians, 2

Today is the second part of this series, “Study From the Book of the Philippians.” And as usual we pick up a couple of verses and lessons that can be applied in biblical counselling. As mentioned in the introduction, it was written by the apostle Paul while he was in his house-bound prison in Rome, along with the other three epistles. They all are known as prison-epistles.

In chapter one,t he apostle, expressed his thanks to the believers in Philippe. He then appreciated the efforts  of those who preached the gospel, even those who did that in a wrong motives. For the latter , as I believe” our sovereign  God would use even that wrong motives for the spreading of the gospel. He then coded his famous say “TO LIVE IS CHIST AND TO DIE IS GAIN.”  

He  ends his passage of the chapter by saying “ for you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”   (verse 29).

The structure of this chapter is as follows:

1. From verse 1 to 2: greeting  
2. From verse 3 to 11:thankfulness and prayer
3. From verse 12 to 18: Christ is preached
4. From verse 19 to 26: to live is Christ
5. From verse 27 to 30: striving and suffering for Christ.

Principle 1, verse 1:6- “...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ...”

Lesson 1: God is faithful to finish what He starts. Once we accept Christ as our Savoir, the work of sanctification begins. And it continues. There is always more to walking with God than what we have known, seen, learned or experience. In other words when God starts something good in our lives, He will not stop until it is finished for His glory and our benenfit.

Principle 2 , verse 1:21: “.. But I want you to know, brethren , that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance  of the gospel.”

Lesson 2: God has a delightful way of turning negatives to positives. He loves to take things that Satan means for our harm and use them instead for His glory and our benefit.23/6/2019