“Let your moderation [mildness] be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful [anxious] about nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Ver. 5, 6.) To prayer is added thanksgiving, because the Lord is entitled to it. The heart should not forget what a God we are making our requests to. In the confidence of this let us thank Him, even when we are spreading our wants before Him. But he had said before this, “Let your moderation be known unto all men.” Supposing there is somebody who has seen us a little off our balance in standing upon our right, real or imaginary, something which contradicted the gentleness of Christ, ought we not to feel humbled, and take an early opportunity to wipe off what may have given a false impression to that man's soul? God would have our readiness to yield, not resist, known, and this not sometimes or to some persons, but to all men. By moderation the apostle means that spirit of meekness which can only be where the will is not allowed to work powerfully for that which we desire. And what a reason why we need not be anxious to assert a thing, even when we are right! “The Lord is at hand.” Where there is the happy feeling in the soul that one is doing that which pleases God, there is generally the readiness of trust in the Lord that puts aside anxiety and leaves all in His hands. Besides, He is coming soon.
He will bring out everything that is according to Himself. He will bless every desire wherever there may have been a true testimony for Himself. He will give effect to it in that day. “The Lord is at hand.” He is not come yet, but you can go to Him now and lay all your requests before Him, assured that He is near, that He is coming. And what is the result? “The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Ver. 7.) When the heart commits to God all that would be a burden to it, the consequence is that His peace, the peace in which He moves and lives, guards us from the entrance of all that would harass. The sources of care are cast into the Lord's lap and the peace of God Himself, which surpasses every understanding, becomes our protection.
Wherever we have grace to commit to God what would have tried us (had we thought of it and kept it before our spirits), there is infallibly His own peace as the answer of God to it. The affections are at rest and the working of the mind that would otherwise forecast evil. Hence all is calmed down by the peace of God Himself.
Peace is viewed in more ways than one in Scripture. The peace of God here has nothing to do with the question of conscience. It shall keep the heart and mind. Where conscience is in question there is. but one way of finding peace. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Sins were there; and how was the moral nature and majesty of God to be vindicated about sin? Far from God, in all our ways at war with God, how could we have peace with Him? The only door through which we, poor enemies, pass out of the condition of war into peace with God is by believing the testimony He has given of His Son. But this is “peace with God,” not “the peace of God.” If I endeavor to get comfort for my conscience by spreading out my need before God, there is never full rest of conscience. The only means entitled to give rest to the conscience is faith in God's assurance that sin has been perfectly judged in the cross, and sins blotted out by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. By Christ all that believe are justified. If one's own state mingles for a single moment with this, it is a delusion on such a ground to reckon upon peace with God. But if I believe on Christ and what He has done, I can boldly say that Christ deserved that even my sins should be forgiven. Therefore I can add, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” The value is not in the faith, but in our Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot get the blessing without believing, but it is an answer to the worth of Christ in the sight of God. But, besides this settled peace which we have through the work of Christ, there is the practical peace of God, which has nothing to do with the remission of sins (which it assumes as a settled thing for a foundation), but of the circumstances through which the believer passes day by day. Paul was in prison, when he wrote to the Philippians, unable to build up the churches or to labor in the gospel. He might have been cast down in spirit; but he never was more happy in his life. How is this? Because instead of being anxious and troubled about the danger of the Church, and the afflictions of individuals, about souls that were perishing, instead of looking at them as connected with himself, he looked at them in connection with God. If God was in peace about these things, why should not he too? Thus the simple resource of spreading out all before God and casting it off himself into the bosom of his Father has for its effect that God's peace kept his heart and mind. Nor was it special to the apostle. He puts it before the saints as that which ought to be equally their portion. It is evident there is no room left for anxiety. God would not have His children burdened or troubled about circumstances. Till the Lord come, this is the blessed source of relief. God is here working and His peace keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, where we give Him His honor and our trust.
But even this is not all, for there are other things which claim or test us besides anxieties and cares. There is our ordinary Christian life: what can strengthen us in it? Here is the word, the apostolic counsel (ver. 8), “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.” There may not be many bright spots, but there are some; am I not to think of them? This is what I am called upon to do—to be quick of discernment, seeing not what is bad but what is good. I may have to judge what is evil, but what God looks for is that the spirit should be occupied with the good. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest [rather, venerable, or noble], whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Our consciences can answer whether these are the things we are most apt to think about. If we are swift to hear not of these things but all that is painful, while slow to hear whatever is of God, the consequence is, instead of having the God of peace as our companion, we have ourselves and others hindered by evil thoughts and communications. For that which the soul wants is that which is good. We are not exhorted to be learned in the iniquity of world or church, but “wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil.” God has given those whom He qualifies to judge evil, spiritual men, who can take it up as a duty to Him, and with sorrow and love towards those concerned; but these God employs, among other purposes, for the sake of keeping His saints in general out of the need of such tasks. It is happy that we are not called upon to be searching and prying into evil, seeing and hearing its details; but that, while the Lord may graciously interfere to guard us from being mistaken, our proper wisdom is growing in what is according to God. Why, ordinarily, should a simple child of God occupy himself, for instance, with a bad book or a false teacher? It is enough for us if we have good ground to know that a thing is mischievous, and all we have then to do is to avoid it. If, on the contrary, I know of something good, it has a claim on love and respect; it is not only for myself but for others. We are never right if we shut up our hearts from the sympathy of Christ with the members of His body or the workings of His Spirit here below. If there were even a poor Roman Catholic priest, who knew and brought out the truth of God more plainly than others, let us not say,” can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” but, come and see if anything come with adequate evidence of having God's stamp upon it. Let us not limit Him who is above all circumstances; even if there be that which is most distressing, let us thank God that His gracious power refuses to be bound by any limits of man. It is of great importance that we should have largeness of heart to think of all that is good, wherever it may be.
“Those things which ye both learned, and received, and heard, and saw in me, do.” (Ver. 9.) If ever there was a man with a large heart, it was the Apostle Paul. And yet no servant of God had a deeper view of evil, and a more intense abhorrence of it. Here the Spirit directs them by what they had seen in his own spirit and ways. It is not matter of doctrine but his practical life. This goes farther than supplanting anxiety by the safeguard of God's own peace; it is the practical power of positive good. What is the effect upon the heart? “The God of peace shall be with you.” “The God of peace” is far more than even “the peace of God.” It is Himself the source; it is the enjoyment of His own blessed presence in this way. There is relief in having the “peace of God” as the guard of our hearts and minds; there is power in having “the God of peace” with us. Want we anything? Impossible. “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.” They had shown love to the Apostle Paul at a previous time, as we find afterward (ver. 15) where he contrasts “the beginning of the gospel” with “the last.”
The Philippians had been favored of God and had shown their love to the apostle in their early days. He had not forgotten it. It would appear that he rarely received from the saints of God, perhaps because he met with but few even among them that could have been trusted. It would have wrought evil by reason of their want of spiritual feeling. They might have thought something of it, or the gospel might have suffered in their minds or with others through it. But the Philippians were sufficiently simple and spiritual; and we know what delicate feelings the power of the Spirit can produce. They, accordingly, had the privilege of ministering to his wants. This the apostle alludes to, and with exceeding sweetness of feeling on his part. He felt that the word, “at the last,” might be construed into a kind of reproach, as if they had forgotten him for a long time. He hastens to add therefore, “wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.” (Ver. 10.) On the other hand, he guards them against supposing he wanted more from them. “Not that I speak in respect of want.” (Ver. 11.) In the corrupt heart of man, the very expression of gratitude may be an oblique hint that further favors would not be amiss. The apostle cuts off all thought of this by the words, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” This is not indigenous to human nature. Even Paul may not always have known it: he had learned it. “I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound.” (Ver. 12.) His experience had known betimes what it was to be in absolute want, as be knew what it was to have want of nothing. “Everywhere and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer. I can do all things through him [the true, reading] who strengtheneth me.” A wonderful thing for a man in prison to say, one who apparently was in most abject circumstances, and in no small danger—unable to do anything, men would say. But faith speaks according to God, and the man who can do nothing in the judgment of his fellows, is the very one who could say he had strength for all things in Him that strengthened him. (Ver. 13.)
When the world comes into collision with a Christian, when it criminates, robs, and imprisons him, when the Christian is evidently as happy as before, and speaks of his riches as much as before, the world cannot but feel it has come into contact with a power that is entirely above its own. Whenever it is not so, we have failed. What the world should find in us under all circumstances, is the expression of Christ and His strength. It is not merely when the trial comes that we should go to the Lord and spread out our failure before Him; we ought to be with Him before it. If we wait for the trial, we shall not stand. In our Lord's case you will find that where there was victory in the power of faith, our Lord went through the suffering before it came. He went through it with God, yet no one felt trial as He. This therefore does not make the suffering less, but the contrary. Take the garden of Gethsemane as an instance. Who but our Lord ever sweated drops of blood in the prospect of death? Hence others may have entered into it in some little degree; and the measure has always been the power of the Spirit of God giving them to feel what is contrary to God in this world: for in this world whoever loves most suffers most. But here was one who had suffered much, who knew rejection as few men ever knew it, who had found the world's enmity as it is the lot of not many to prove. And yet this man, under these circumstances, says he has strength for all things through Him who strengthened him. Be assured that a blessed strengthener is near every one who leans upon Him. Paul does not speak here of apostolic privilege, but as a saint, a ground on which he can link himself with us, that we may learn to walk in the same path which he was treading himself. Having freely owned their love (in verses 14-16), having shown that it was because he desired fruit that might abound to their account in verse 17, he closes all with this: “I have all and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.” (Ver. 18.) And marvelous to say, he is a giver himself. At any rate he counts upon One who would give everything that was needed in full supply. “But my God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Ver. 19.)
What language from a man who had been just in want, and whose want had been supplied by these saints! Now he turns round and says, “My God shall supply all your need.” The God whose love and care and resources he had proved through all his Christian career— “my God,” he says, “shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” He is supplying the saints now according to all the wealth of His resources even in glory in Christ. There the shadow of a want will be unknown; but God is acting according to the same riches now. Therefore the apostle breaks forth in praise to God forthwith. “Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever, Amen.” (Ver. 20.) There is a notable change in the phraseology. He says first, “My God shall supply all your need,” and then “to our God and Father.” When it is a question of experimental knowledge and confidence he could not say “our God,” because they might not have the same measure of acquaintance with His love as he had who had proved and learned so profoundly and variedly what God was. But when he ascribes unto the ages of ages glory to God the Father, he cannot but join them fully with himself. “Now unto our God and Father be glory,” &c. His heart goes out to all believers. “Salute every saint in Christ Jesus.” (Ver. 21.) What a joy for those in Philippi to hear of brethren in unexpected quarters! The apostle had gone to Rome to be tried before Caesar. Now, it appears, there were those of the imperial household who send special salutation through the apostle to the Philippians. “The brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household.” (Ver. 21, 22.)
The heart gets wonderful relief in seeing the things that are lovely and of good report, and calculated to give our hearts confidence in the darkest day. Whatever the great trial of the present time (and never were there subtler snares or more imminent danger), there is no less grace in God, no less blessing to man in view of all. Let us not forget the word, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” (Ver. 4.) This epistle was not written as looking back upon the day of Pentecost, but for a time when the apostle was cut off from helping the churches, and when the saints were warned that they must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. But the trial is yet sharper for the spirit, if not bodily, for those who would walk with the Lord now. Let us not doubt His love, but be sure that God is equal to all circumstances. If God has cast our lot in these days, let us not doubt His goodness, but know that we may have as deep and even deeper joy because the joy is less in saints, less in circumstances, and more exclusively in Christ. It was sin that hindered the Church's blessedness in these ways and others; but since God has cast our lot when and where we are now, may we eschew the unbelieving wish to exchange this time for any other. It is a question very simply of faith in God. He loves us and He cares for us. May our hearts answer to the perfections of His grace. While feeling the sorrow of the saints, of the gospel, of the Church more deeply, as all affects the glory of God, let us leave room in our hearts to count upon a known, tried God, who ever will be God, superior to all difficulties, foes, snares, and sorrows. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” (Ver. 23.)