The Philippians Shared with Paul - PH87-02
Advanced Bible Doctrine - Philippians 4:14-19

Strangely enough, this is the least esteemed, and thus the least financed. Of all the things that will make people happy, this is the key – the knowledge of what God thinks. No matter what else you have in life, on a material plane, or on a psychological level, until you possess the full mind of Christ, you will never really be happy. You will have an up-and-down, fleeting, momentary period from time to time of personal satisfaction, but that deep-seated inner happiness of which the Scripture speaks will be completely foreign to you. So without the divine point of God's word guiding the minds of people, there can be no happiness for humanity. Yet the communicating of the Word of God is what receives the least finances of everything that the human race spends its money on.

You and I know that, as Christians, we've been made responsible by the great commission for communicating God's viewpoint to humanity through the teaching of Bible doctrine. Believers, therefore, must provide the money to fulfill this mission – this mission of teaching all nations God's views, from salvation on through full maturity in the Christian life. The communicators of Bible doctrine cannot always expect (they find from experience) to be well-financed in performing their part in fulfilling the mission of the Christian community – communicating God's viewpoint. Sooner or later, the communicators of the Word of God realize that they often have to function on too little, and, sadly enough, too late. For the average church operation, it is inherently a shoestring operation. The thing that is least financed in the lives of believers is the communicating of the Word of God, and the fulfilling of their mission of making doctrine known to humanity.

However, though communicators know that they are often called upon to operate on a shoestring, they also know that they must be content in whatever financial state they find themselves, and they have to keep going on. They have to keep pursuing the fulfillment of the mission that God has placed upon us. So it's important that the communicator keeps operating. It is important that the people of God get their priorities straight as to what's important when it comes to material things.

Contentment

Consequently, Paul was able to keep on serving the Lord under all conditions. He said that was because, "The Lord Jesus Christ makes me strong enough to do this. I don't care what the job is that I have to do, He enables me to do it. So sometimes, even when God's people are careless about financing God's work, the Lord enables me to come through and to perform on a shoestring under adverse conditions, which puts a drain on me and makes the job harder. But we get it done." Why? Because Paul had learned the precious quality of contentment.

H. G. Spafford

At that moment, a piece of debris struck her on the head and knocked her unconscious. Miracle of miracles – sometime later, she regained consciousness and found herself floating on a piece of debris. She was picked up and taken to Wales. From Wales, she sent a telegram back to her husband in the United States. The telegram contained just two words: "Saved alone." Mr. Spafford, who had heard of the collision and was waiting for word, received it in this very heartbreaking manner: four daughters dead; and, his wife saved alone.

It is Well with my Soul

"When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like see billows roll,
Whatever my lot thou has taught me to say,
It is well. It is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul. It is well.
It is well with my soul."

The significant words I want you to notice in that first verse are the three words, "Whatever my lot." Now, that's exactly what the apostle Paul was talking about here in Philippians, as he has reiterated to us that whatever state he was in, and whatever lot he was in, God has taught him to say, "It is well. It is well with my soul."

It's easy enough for you and me to sit in Bible class, and to be inspired by the example of the apostle Paul, and to hear these tremendous words of Christian virtue, encouragement, and idealism that should be ours relative to material things. It is easy enough for us to catch the vision and say, "That's the way I should be. In feast or famine, or in poverty or prosperity, I'm stable. I keep going. My devotion to the Lord and my service is unmitigated." It is well enough for us to catch that kind of a vision. It is something else to be struck with something as Mr. Spafford was, and then be able, at the very sight of the tragedy, to sit down and express what the apostle Paul has taught us is the will of God for us. That is happiness. No one but a man with a spiritual maturity of inner happiness could have written words such as these, and could have understood that, after all that is a cause for tears on a human level, all is well with our soul. That is contentment. Any human being who does not have that is nothing. That's why the apostle Paul says, "Godliness with contentment is great gain." A spiritual maturity structure in your soul with contentment makes you a king. That is the pinnacle of human experience.

Paul's joy over the Philippian gift was a joy that was apart from his own circumstances. He wanted to make it clear that he was not happy because of the money itself – of the gift per se. But he was happy because it provided the donors with eternal rewards in heaven. It was not the monetary value to himself.

This is the same issue that faces you and me today. All of humanity spends huge sums of money to pursue happiness in one way or another. You and I do it in many things we buy in order to make ourselves happy. But the issue of primary investment is God's work. How much do we put into that which really can make humanity happy? That's why it's so tremendous when these people send money through the mail for the audio tapes. These are people who have recognized in some small degree, perhaps, that the investment that they could make with that same money to many social causes and to many government projects will never have the value in human happiness as that money that they send to us to reproduce tapes in order to get the Word of God without charge to human beings everywhere. The difference and the effect that that will have in bringing human happiness is no comparison. They recognize that they could squander their money on one side. Instead, they really invested where happiness counts.

The issue faces you and me as believers. Some of you will never be able to rise to this. There are Christians everywhere who simply cannot rise to recognizing that investing money in God's work is investing money in maximum happiness for themselves; for their family; for others; and, for eternal happiness. Some people are going to be happier in eternity than others. I don't care how many hotshot preachers at how many big hotshot Bible churches try to talk you out of that. The only reason they're doing it is because they get a little uncomfortable, as you shall see as we get into this today, by the fact that the apostle Paul makes no bones about it.

I'll put it to you in 20th century language. The apostle Paul says, "If you people want to have a maximum enjoyment of heaven, you better get some points up on the board." The way you get points on the board is with your divine good production, and the maximum divine good production in the sight of God is putting money into His work. That's what keeps it all going. Every believer who understands that, gets with it. Some never do, and they dribble out their little penny-ante stuff to God for all of their lives. And when they get to heaven, they will not have the capacity to enjoy what heaven offers. That's what we're talking about. It is building capacity through finances.

So I think it's very significant that here's a book written to tell us how to be happy. We're coming down to the end of it. This is the last thought we're going to have when we leave this book. We've only got a few verses to go, and what do we have? A major emphasis upon our material possessions – a major emphasis upon our money. There must be some connection between money and happiness. Have you ever heard somebody tell you that money won't make you happy? I know what you say. You'd like to try anyhow. Or you'd like to be miserable with money better than you like it being miserable without money (whatever way you put it). But there is a connection between happiness and money. It may not be the way the world understands it. People get it mixed up. But there is obviously a connection between happiness and money.

That's why the apostle Paul comes down so hard here at the end of this book. So I hope if I can teach you this, you can get an understanding of what it is that he's talking about, and why he's coming down so hard on this. The time will come when you're up there in heaven with the Lord, and you'll look back on this service and this series of studies, and you'll breathe a great sigh of relief over the fact that you, in the providence of God, and in the faithfulness of your own positive volition, had the good fortune to be here at these services, and had the capacity to say, "Yes" to what you heard.

The Philippians Shared with Paul

Then he explains how he knows how to be content in whatever situation he's in. In verse 13, he says, "Furthermore, whatever I need, Jesus Christ enables me to have and to do. But," he says, "on the other hand" ("in any case," or "however"). And he's going to change the subject again and change the emphasis, because immediately he recognizes that what he said in verse 11-13 might be misunderstood by some very faithful Christian stewards. So he wants to make it clear that he's not disparaging the gift of these Philippian Christians. Paul's happiness over their giving was not because he had a material need which they met. He would be content with or without it. But that did not mean that their gift was not important. That's what this word "plen" indicates.

He says, "However, in any case, I don't want you to misunderstand me when I talk about my capacity to be content with or without your money. Paul's mastery of the details of life, while enabling him to be content, did not mean that he did not need the gifts of God's people to do his work. So this word "plen" says, "But wait a minute. I don't want you to misunderstand me. I don't want you to think that I don't need your funds to do God's work, just because I know how to get along without them." Paul actually welcomes the offerings from the Philippians believers, and he's grateful to the Lord for the money.

He says, "In any case (however), you have done." The work "done" in Greek is "poieo." The word refers to the Philippians giving a money gift to the apostle Paul for his ministry. What they did was that they mounted a specific campaign back in Philippi among the Christians to raise this money. They announced it in the various houses where the churches were meeting. The various pastor-teachers in each church house announced and promoted the fact that the apostle Paul is in prison: "He does not have access to even exercise his trade to earn money. He needs finances which we're able to give him, and that's what we're going to try to do. So we're going to gather these funds for that purpose."

It's in the aorist tense which in the Greek indicates a particular project viewed as a whole. This is the project of raising the funds. It's a point action. It's active, indicating that the Philippians themselves did this. They themselves raised these funds. It's indicative. It's a statement of fact. The apostle Paul said, "When you collected that money, you did well." The word "well" is the Greek word "kalos." What "kalos" means here is "rightly" or "correctly." You did the right thing in raising this money for Paul's ministry. That's all it means. It means, "You did raise the money. You did promote a campaign to help finance God's work in Rome, and that was the right thing to do. You should have done it. It was a good thing." You can follow the same word in such passages as James 2:8, James 2:19, 3 John 6, and Acts 10:33. All of these use the same word "kalos" in the sense that it is the right thing to do.

So for Christians to finance the communicator of Bible doctrine from salvation on to the communication of super grace spiritual maturity information is the right thing to do. Every Christian does the right thing when he makes it possible for God's word to be taught. Paul was independent of dependence on human provision, but he was not an ingrate for the provision that God's people brought in order to enable him to do the work. So the word "however," or "in any case," at the beginning of this verse means, "I do want to make it clear that you have done the right thing when you sent this gift. I don't want you to misunderstand my remarks to suggest that this was not a right thing that you did."

What was the right thing they did? Well, they did share. The word "share" is the rather long Greek word "sugkoinoneo." "Sugkoinoneo" comes from two words. The first part comes from the preposition "sun" which means "with," and "koinoneo" means "to share." So it means "to share with" or "to participate in." Paul said, "You did the right thing. You did well when you shared your money with me to enable me to communicate divine viewpoint here in Rome." The aorist tense for this word indicates that he's looking at the point when each Christian in Philippi gave his gift. They actually came at some point in time and they put money into the pot.

It is active. The Philippians did their own giving under grace principles. This was a church which was well-versed in doctrine. They understood the doctrine of grace giving. There were no pressures. While somebody got up and announced the need of Paul; that his missionary enterprise should be supported; and, that the church was going to seek to do that, nobody was appealed to on a one-on-one basis to make some kind of a declaration or some kind of a commitment. No one was put under pressure of giving. What they did was as unto the Lord, and was between them and the Lord. But they did do it actively out of the exercise of their own volition.

The grammatical form is a participle which indicates that we have a principle stated. We also have something else. You may remember that when you have in the Greek grammar this aorist tense in the participle form (an aorist participle), it tells us something about the order of action. That is, the main verb says that they did well. But this aorist participle tells us that before God could say, "Well done, you good and faithful servant," they had to do this. They had to share. It was because they were ready to share with Paul in the ministry of the Word of God in Rome that they did well. It's significant in the Greek that this is put in this form in order to make it clear to us that you do not share in the Word of God until you have forked over your money. That's what it means. God is not going to come to you and say, "Well done, you good and faithful servant," when you hung onto the money that he gave you as a steward (as a depository – as a temporary channel) for conveying funds to his work.

You might say, "Well, something must be wrong. When I get through paying my bills; when I get through paying my accounts; and, when I get through chewing away at my indebtedness, I don't have anything to give to church." Something is wrong alright. You betcha something's wrong. But I'll tell you one thing that is not wrong. We are not wrong in the biblical principle that God gives to every believer so much money that He intends for that believer to simply hand over to the Lord's work.

I agree with you that it would have been a much more convenient arrangement if that money was just deducted from our paycheck, and an angel just brought it to us every week. That would seem to be a good arrangement. But that isn't God's viewpoint. God says, "That would violate your volition, and therefore I'm going to give it to you." Now, that makes it pretty tough. It's going to be really hard to stand in heaven someday, and realize that when we get to these rewards, and we get to the hay, wood, and stubble, that part of that hay, wood, and stubble is going to be a pile of money that God said, "I'm giving this to you to give to my work." Instead, you used it for yourself. That's on the records, too. That's part of the hay, wood, and stubble. Or God gave you enough that you could have given a volume that you refused to give. Paul said, "You did the right thing, because you did share and you did participate with me in this ministry." In the ministry of what? How did they do well? First because they gave. Then, God said, "You did well."

This was not a lot of credit to them. Paul isn't praising these Philippians, because after all, where did the money come from? It was the grace of God which gave it to them. It was God's grace that gave them the money. Because they were grace-oriented Christians, and well-trained in the Word of God, and positive to it, it was easy for them to give out of grace. There are certain Christians who have reached the super grace level of their maturity who find an identifying mark that helps them to peg themselves at super grace. Do you know what it is? It's that they're just itching to give to God's work. It is a thing in which they find great delight – that they have finances to give to God's work. They're that eager to give. This is a sign of super grace level of a Christian life. You not only have the mind to give, but you also do it.

It is possible that a person can be at super grace and have a mind to give, and that's what God blesses, and yet not have the funds to give. You may be, as Paul sometimes was, in a poverty state. But you will find that what God says he blessed is the willing attitude of mind to give whether you've got the money or not. Then if you follow through with the funds, if you have it, it's monumental blessing forever in heaven. If you don't follow through with what He has given you to give, then it is monumental loss.

So the apostle Paul says that they did a right thing by having a share in what he calls his affliction ("thlipsis"). This word is translated sometimes in the Bible very rightly as "tribulation." The great period that's going to come upon the earth in the great tribulation is going to be a time of great "thlipsis." It's a time of great pressure. That's what this word means. It is something that burdens the mind from outside of a person. It's not a pressure that comes from inside because a person, say, is under a status of unconfessed sins. The mental pressures on Paul from circumstances or from people who were antagonistic to divine viewpoint, let alone the pressures of his restricted conditions in that prison in Rome were monumental and terrific. The apostle Paul said, "I'm serving the Lord, but I'm not serving Him in an easy condition. I'm serving him under great pressures. When you sent your gift, you joined me. You became fellow partakers with me in the pressure of this enterprise.

What pressure is he talking about? He's talking about the pressures of the angelic warfare. That's what he's talking about. The apostle Paul was deep in the pressures of the angelic warfare. When they shared their money, what were they doing? They were buying the guns. They were buying the ammunition. They were buying all the provisions that are needed. They were buying the clothing. They were buying the food. They were buying the shelters that a soldier needs to do the job. So they joined with him in that enterprise in the same way that the United States government says, "Buy government bonds" in times of war, particularly, "and have a share with the men on the battlefield." Buy government bonds and you will have a share with them in winning the war that we're in. Without it, they could not win. So the Philippians shared in Paul's tribulation, and in Paul's battle with Satan's angelic demons. They shared with him in this battle – a true fellowship of believers.

So verse 14 says this: "However, so you don't misunderstand me on the basis of what I have just said, you have done rightly by sharing with me in my tribulation through your gift of money. These gifts have not been solicited by Paul. They are motivated by the spiritual maturity within the Philippians themselves. This act of giving revealed that these people were at a super grace level. We find from 2 Corinthians that these people even gave when times were hard. That was one of the great things that Paul admired about them. They gave out of their poverty, not just when they were flush. Their giving was willing apart from human stimulation. Nobody had to get up and make a big deal in the Philippian church just to get them to give this money to Paul. They just had to be given the information that had come back to them as to what the situation was and what the need was. The preacher didn't have to get up there and tell a lot of heart-caring stories, and do a little weeping, and quiver his voice, and get people all souped up emotionally so they would do something with their money for God.

Anytime you hear a preacher doing that, it should turn you off, and you should rebel immediately against that kind of manipulation of your emotions, knowing that that is not a godly man who is doing that, but that's a carnal technique. When you have an understanding of grace giving, you don't have to be appealed to in that emotional way. And if you don't have the capacity for grace giving, then keep your money. I better say that to you right now, too. If you have not learned the doctrine of grace giving, then you better just hang on to your money, because I'll tell you one thing: it's not going to do you any good relative to rewards, so you might as well squander it on yourself. You're going to have to pay for it even more farther down the line. But until you learn how to give under the grace principle, then God is not asking you to do anything. It is characteristic of super grace believers to give without having to be pressured to do it. Super grace Christians are actually the best stewards in the body of Christ. They are the ones who most of all share the communicator's battle in the leadership of the angelic warfare.

So the apostle Paul says, "You did the right thing in joining with me in this battle."

Only the Philippians Shared

The Greek Bible has the word "you:" "Now you Philippians." The word "you" in the Greek is separate. The personal pronouns are separate. Usually in Greek, it's not a separate word. It's just part of the ending on the verb. So we would say, "And you yourselves, Philippians, know something." "You yourselves, Philippians know also." The word "also" is the Greek word "kai," and it is simply adding the fact that they know something as he knows something. Paul is saying, "And you know just as well as I know." This will come as no surprise to you. "How you acted in the past." "Now you yourselves, Philippians, know (by information which has been given to you) as well as I do, that in the beginning." The word "beginning" is the Greek word "arche."

This marks the point when the apostle Paul began the gospel ministry in Europe. You remember that he came over to Europe from Asia Minor as the result of a vision that he had of a man from Macedonia in the vision which God sent (as God used to speak in visions in the early part of the Christian era). The man was appealing to Paul to come over and help them. So the gospel and the knowledge of the Word of God was taken by the apostle Paul into Europe. So when he uses this word, "arche", he's talking about that beginning as the result of that appeal.

The Gospel

So this is a very precious word to us. It tells us what the grace of God, out of no reason that we deserved it, did for us. The apostle Paul brought this good news of salvation to Europe on his second missionary tour, in the early preaching of the gospel (we would say). This is ten years prior to the time he's writing in Rome. He's sitting in Rome, and his mind is going ten years back. He says, "I remember it so well, getting on that boat over there in Asia Minor, and crossing that strip of sea over into Europe and coming into Macedonia into the city of Philippi. The first thing they did was threw me in jail." They had that tremendous earthquake that freed him, and the Philippian jailer was saved. Lydia was saved down at the riverside. The whole gospel and the knowledge of the Word of God exploded into Europe. Paul almost puts his pen down, and he reminisces in his mind for a while. That happened ten years ago. He said, "And I want to remind you, as I think about it, that ten years ago you Philippians were right there."

"Ten years ago, you know that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed." The Greek word for "departed" is "exerchomai." "Exerchomai" simply means "to leave a place." Paul left the Roman province of Macedonia under certain pressure. This is aorist tense because it's the point in the past when he moved on from Macedonia and came down to the next Roman province just below Macedonia, which is Achaia, in which were the famed cities such as Corinth and Athens. Paul did the traveling. That's why it's active. He said, "When I traveled away from Macedonia." It is indicative – a statement of fact. "When," or "at the time" is the Greek word "hote." I went away from Macedonia. Macedonia was the province of the Roman Empire that contained the famed cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. The apostle Paul, ten years prior, had landed; went into Philippi; founded a church; moved on to Thessalonica; got into all kinds of resistance there; and, had to flee to the next city, Berea.

There he met a group of people who were positive to the Word of God; who were receptive to researching the Scriptures; and, who would give him a hearing and say, "Now let's see if what you say matches our Bible" (the Old Testament that they had at the time). Paul commended the Bereans because they received the Word of God willingly, and they searched the Scriptures daily to see if the things he told them were so. Paul says, "That was a great bunch in Berea, a commendable group, far better than that gang I just left in Thessalonica that were ready to ride me out of town on a rail.

Now Paul, thinking back on all this, says, "You remember that time when I left Macedonia finally, after having been through Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. Then I moved on to the next province, Achaia, the province down below." He's been moving through one city after another. He moves into Achaia. That's his point here. He says, "You remember ten years ago when I left Macedonia itself. I left the province and went down to the next province of Achaia. No church shared with me as concerning giving and receiving, but you only."

Now here's an interesting word. When Paul says, "No church," boy, he means nobody. The Greek word is "oudeis." We can actually break that up into three words because that's what it is. It's a triple compound word. It's made up, first of all, of "ou" which is the negative. You know that that's the strongest negative in Greek. It's made up of "de" which means "even," and then it's made up of "heis" which means "one." The letter "e" overlaps here on these last two words. So the translation literally is, "Not even one." He couldn't have said it more strongly. He says, "Would you believe it? And I want to remember, as I think back ten years ago, your Philippian church is full of people walking around with fully developed spiritual maturity structures, and you're pouring these large gifts of finances that are making churches like these bums at Corinth have an opportunity to hear the Word of God in the midst of their negative responses. And I wouldn't take any money from the Corinthians anyhow," Paul pointed out, "but I am glad that I received the help from you."

He looks back and he remembers that way back at the beginning, "There was something special about you, Philippians. You were positive to the Word of God, and you immediately reflected what positive people do. Their money is at God's disposal." It's the most ennobling quality that rises in the human heart. It's the most ennobling spiritual quality that develops in a believer. That's why the apostle Paul knows that happiness is directly contingent upon what your attitude is toward your money, and what your performance is with it.

So he said, "When I left Macedonia, not one church." The Greek word for church is "ekklesia" – the local church organizations. "Shared" is the Greek word "koinoneo," the word for "going into partnership with." "Not one church went into partnership with me." That is aorist tense, meaning that at no point in time did other churches help Paul financially ten years prior. It is active. Church organizations did not get with it. It is indicative. It's a statement of fact. "None of them shared with me" (Paul, the communicator). "None of them went into partnership with me." Concerning what?

The word "concerning" is a little tricky. Let's explain it. It's made up, first of all, of the little Greek preposition "eis." It means a relationship. We would say, "In regard to" or "In the matter of." The other word that goes with it is "logos," which is strange because most of you recognize the word "logos" as the word "word" – something made up of letters. But first of all, the idea of "logos" in Greek means an idea or a concept. That's why John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the word (the 'logos'). And the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (naming Jesus Christ as God), meaning that Jesus Christ was a visible representation of the concept of infinite deity. So a word is, first of all, an idea, and then it has some concrete expression. First of all, it's something abstract. Then it is expressed in some realistic way that you can see and that you can grasp.

Usually this word "logos" refers to the external part, but here refers to the internal part, and it means a mental evaluation. Or we would use the word "account." What happens here is that the apostle Paul uses words that were common to the business world of ancient times. And this is pure business language. It is one of the most fantastic areas of Scripture. Where Paul is talking about money, he says, "Now I'm going to talk about it in business terms." He introduces really a technical term which was used in the ancient world for the accounting of funds. Here it's the accounting of money between the Philippians and himself.

So he says, "And none of them shared with me in regard to the account of giving," which is the Greek word "dosis." That means what the Philippians gave to Paul in offerings (their expenditures). "And" connects to "receiving," which is the "lampsis." "Lampsis" is what Paul received in offering from the Philippians. So here are the expenditures, and here are the receipts. And the word "logos" speaks of an account of expenditures and receipts. Paul says, "None of them (none of those churches), not even one of them, entered into an account of expenditures and receipts. None of them concerned themselves in regard to giving me finances for God's work, and to my receiving what I needed to do the job. Not one of them, but you only." He says it was only the Philippians. No church at the beginning of Paul's missionary work in Europe helped finance his ministry except the Philippians. And Paul says, "That is a very great honor, and it tells us a great deal about your spiritual attitude. You went into business with me relative to the Lord's work, and he uses regular New Testament world business language to describe it.

So verse 15 says, "And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that in the early preaching of the gospel, at the time I departed from Macedonia, not even one church went into partnership with me in regard to an account of expenditures and receipts, except you alone.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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