Notes on Phil. 4
The whole of this epistle brings before us, in a remarkable way, the superiority of the saint to everything around him. A person walking in the Spirit is superior to everything, whether it be the flesh, the world, persecutions, cares-everything.
If you look through the epistle, you will find that whatever it was, the mind of the apostle was above it. Be it life or death, he renounces himself—has one single object in view-viz., Christ-" to win Christ." All the rest he passes by. I do not find anything about sins, the flesh, 'or forgiveness. He will not have his own righteousness; his object is Christ. What has struck me, particularly of late, in this epistle is the saint's entire superiority to everything while passing through this world in the power of the Spirit of God.
It is sweet to see the way in which the Lord gives Himself to us as the source of our joy and the object with which we can occupy ourselves. There can be no rising above the cares of the way, unless there is a positive joy to satisfy the heart. Jesus gives Himself to us as this; not only as the source, but as the constant spring of joy to our hearts. For it would be uncertain, unless He were always there and a sure fountain of joy. It is not only that we are saved by Him-that He has given us glory with Himself at the end; but the love that was in Himself has gone out of Him into us, in the full perfect exercise of all that He is for us above. So the apostle speaks of the " Love of Christ that passeth knowledge." It is beyond all thought; still we can know it. It is blessed as regards the Lord Jesus to understand that He Himself has given to us all the love He can, to make us happy.
He becomes a man—gives Himself up to death; but wondrous as this is, it is not all. He gives us Himself The love which is in Him goes out from Him and into us. We get an analogous truth in John 17, " The love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them." This love dwelling in us, we have the power to apprehend the Father's love towards Jesus Himself. The love of Jesus is not only set on us, but flows out to us; in different degrees it may be, but still it is that we " may know the love OF Christ-that is, the love that is in Him-divine and passing knowledge-but which flows down to fill the heart. There is no straitening in the heart of God. There was straitening in the heart of Christ until His death, as He said, " How am I straitened." His heart could not flow out till atonement was made; now it can. There is no hindrance, because He is our life. He is our righteousness too, but that is immediately connected with the life of Christ in us. We " live by the faith of the Son of God." I have capacity, inasmuch as Christ is my life, to understand the love of Christ. The better I know Him, the more I can rejoice in Him; not in salvation, but in the Lord.
All Paul's trouble brought out more distinctly what it was to "rejoice in the Lord." It is more felt in trial and difficulty than if there were none, though it is the same love always. The first thing is to get Himself; that is the secret of our life. He does not speak of glory or anything else. It is " to win CHRIST." It was Himself that his heart was set on -in the midst of all, and without anything else. Jesus was his joy-his heart could rest there-could find its home and be satisfied. As the light of the sun excludes every other light, so, when Christ is before the heart, it is Himself that sets everything else aside. There may be many exercises for which we should thank Him; but when the Lord fills the heart, it is constant joy. Our spirituality is tried by the measure in which there is fixedness and constancy. Jesus Himself, in whom the love is perfect and infinite, is the blessing as well as the Blesser. The apostle at once feels it must be joy. Think of what you have got in Him now, that you may seek to know Him better. The first time the heart feels it is loved, there is joy-wondrous joy often; and the first feeling expresses itself in a peculiar way; but it may be far deeper afterward. In the case of the apostle it was anything but " first love." It was a joy entirely independent of circumstances. What he would have us do is, to rejoice in Christ Himself as if there were nothing else in the world besides.
The next thing I would notice is verse 5, " Let your moderation be known to all." This is a relative thought. The first thing is Christ Himself. Now, He says you can bear other things. The heart has got its center in Christ, and therefore it passes through circumstances lightly, meekly, yieldingly. But there is another thing-" the Lord is at hand." He is the spring of all my delights, whether I think of His glory or humiliation. " He is- at hand," and that satisfies the soul. Other things have lost their character: all the rest is as nothing. The mind is possessed with Christ, and that is the state of the soul.
In passing through circumstances it needs power. "Be careful for NOTHING:" (verse 6:) the world, Church, or circumstances-" nothing." Is it as if he were indifferent to it? No. Is it seeking to know what the will of God is? No; but " make your requests known to him." Is God, then, so near, so bending, so condescending? Tell them to Him. He wants to have your heart discharged and to be occupied with Himself. " With prayer and supplication"-there must be earnestness; and " with thanksgiving," because you know you are heard. Go to Him. Do not be caring, reflecting, pondering, exercising your own mind,' but " let your requests be made known."
And what is the consequence? " the peace of God will keep your heart;" not the peace with God, but the peace of God, that in which He dwells-peace which passeth understanding, just as we read of the " love of Christ which passeth knowledge." The love is divine, and the peace here is divine-He dwells in it. Nothing is a care to Him. He knows the end from the beginning, sees all things. Although the contrast is not needed, there is more apprehension of this peace in trial than anywhere else. All the mercies I get I can understand. Very well; but when I get into cares, I get a peace which passeth all understanding. He tells us to " rejoice in the Lord," and just as Christ's love is a source of ineffable joy, so that peace in which God dwells flows into the heart that casts its care on Him.
He traces all our path: He " withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous." We come to Him as a child to its father, with Everything, and the confidence of this is its beauty. All we ask for may not be wise, but He only gives us what is for our good. Just as we see in Paul, he asks for the thorn to be removed; but the Lord tells him He cannot remove it. It is for good to him and he is made to rejoice in it. This is the proper joy, constant and blessed, in which the soul delights; and it keeps the heart out of activity of will. But where did he learn it? Where you have to learn it every day. I know what He has been to me from the first. Very ignorant I may have been, but He was always the very thing my soul wanted. Paul had known Him thus, till He had made Him so happy in Himself that he did not know which to choose-whether to live or die. If left here, it was serving Christ. If he went away, it was to be with Christ himself. If He had not thus found Christ all through the way, he could not speak of Him at the close as he does here. It is for you to find your faith every day in this way resting on Him, that you may say at the end, " I know in whom I have believed." Is that what we are learning, young or old?
The first great thing is to rejoice in the Lord. When a person finds Christ his portion, his joy and blessing for Christ's own sake, he finds Him such when trial comes. We are all of us defective in this. We may be sincere in following Christ, but there is something else in the heart. He has not such possession of the soul that other things cannot get in. Whatever circumstances may be, if the heart be fixed on Christ for His own sake, I shall find Him what I want for my own concerns. This is the happy Christian. Christ has given Himself to be rejoiced in. I look at Christ as the one to find my delight in. He is the one in whom the Father delights, and He says, " I want you in fellowship with me." God draws us by this love into the enjoyment which He enjoys. He who is the joy of God takes His joy in us and brings us into this joy. We learn this love in seeing Christ in all our circumstances on the earth; not merely in giving Himself on the cross, but brought home in detail to our hearts. We cannot get into any circumstances into which Christ has not been; and His love, while infinite in itself, has adapted itself to us, and besides gone through all the circumstances in which we may want Him. See how the apostle expresses the experience of this: ver. 19, "My God." The God of the poor prisoner? Yes. He can say, " I know him to be faithful." I have known Him to the end. I undertake to answer for Him for you.
How little we believe in the love of God, in His care, His interest for us. If we only thought of Christ giving Himself for us, of His soul being wrapt up in us, we should know better what it is to live for Him.
First of all we are to rejoice in the Lord Himself. Christ personally is the object in which the heart is to rest and to find its present joy and blessing. How far are your hearts living Christ? how far rejoicing in the Lord always? Do you think the apostle was telling the Philippians what could not be realized? How far is Christ your daily source and subject of joy? " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." That is the secret of the way in which Christ makes the heart happy. Remember, the source is in Him, dwelling in Himself. May the Lord give you so to think of, dwell on, live on, Christ, that all the rest may be only circumstances. It is Himself He has given us, and in a way that meets us where we are. The Lord give us to know it 1 All the rest will vanish-that abides; and it is joy, and sweetness, and comfort in all the circumstances through which we have to pass. It gives its own portion and its own preciousness, and all else is but the passage through which we have to pass, in going to " the rest which remaineth " for God's people.