By This Conquer

By Andrew Borland

From the outline on page 8, the relative positions of the genuine Pauline epistles may be readily ascertained, and such a scheme, as is now generally accepted, goes far to show us the unfolding of the Apostolic faith and the progressiveness of the Divine revelation as vouchsafed to the great apostle to the Gentiles. Our immediate purpose is to devote attention to group three, viz., The Prison Epistles, and more particularly to the Epistle to the Philippians. These letters, written during the first confinement of the apostle for “two whole years” in his own hired house, “with a soldier that kept him” (see Acts 28. 30), are amongst the precious things that smell of prison damp. The storm of controversy was for the moment past, his activities in the broader sense were curtailed, and the beloved apostle and devoted servant was granted a respite from travel with welcomed leisure to reflect. God, through him, has graciously enriched the Church, and in so doing gave to His choice vessel a vaster field of influence through the perpetuation and multiplication of his voice. It is often so, for
God gives “the best to those who leave the choice to Him.” May we learn the beautiful and necessary lesson!

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Ritchie
• Release date: Sep 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781909803107

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By This Conquer

STUDIES IN THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS

Andrew Borland

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40 Beansburn, Kilmarnock, Scotland

EPUB ISBN: 9781909803107

Also Available in print–ISBN: 9781907731822

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Copyright © 2013 by John Ritchie Ltd. 40 Beansburn, Kilmarnock, Scotland

www.ritchiechristianmedia.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievable system, or transmitted in any form or by any other means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise - without prior permission of the copyright owner.

Contents

Foreword

Chapter I - Pauline Epistles - Introductory

Chapter II - Spiritual Designations

Chapter III - The Apostle's Self-revelation

Chapter IV - An Ambassador In Bonds

Chapter V - General Lessons From Chapter I

Chapter VI - The Mind Of Christ Jesus

Chapter VII - Our Glorious Lord

Chapter VIII - The Humanity Of Christ

Chapter IX - The Glory That Followed

Chapter X - The Kenosis Theory

Chapter XI - The Consequent Teaching

Chapter XII - The Saints' Consecration (vv. 12-16)

Chapter XIII - The Convincing Testimony

Chapter XIV - Introductory

Chapter XV - Danger-sources And The Ministry

Chapter XVI - A Great Confession

Chapter XVII - An Apostolic Description Of True Christianity

Chapter XVIII - A Bond-Slave Of Jesus

Chapter XIX - The Heavenly Arithmetician

Chapter XX - The Christian Theologian

Chapter XXI - The Christian Athlete

Chapter XXII - Three Types Of Mind

Chapter XXIII - Citizens Of Heaven

Chapter XXIV - Introductory Considerations

Chapter XXV - A Strategic Appeal

Chapter XXVI - Peace. Perfect Peace.

Chapter XXVII - The God Of Peace

Chapter XXVIII - Doxology

Chapter XXIX - Salutations

Chapter XXX - Two Rolls Of Honour

Conclusion

FOREWORD.

THE reader of the following pages will find little or nothing new: to provide something new was not the intention of the writer. That task may be left for more scholarly and more original thinkers. But these chapters are being sent forth with the hope that they may add a little to the testimony concerning Jesus Christ, and may stimulate others to a reverent study of the Scriptures and a devoted service to our Lord.

Written as the chapters originally were as a series for a monthly magazine, they often lack that co-hesion which is evident in work done with greater regularity: but the faults are the writer’s own. For these he begs the forgiveness of those who read.

May the love of Christ constrain us to live to conquer through the power of His example and the indwelling of His Spirit.

1, Muir Drive,

Irvine,

Ayrshire.

4/10/30.

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Chapter I.

PAULINE EPISTLES—Introductory.

FROM the outline on page 8, the relative positions of the genuine Pauline epistles may be readily ascertained, and such a scheme, as is now generally accepted, goes far to show us the unfolding of the Apostolic faith and the progressiveness of the Divine revelation as vouchsafed to the great apostle to the Gentiles. Our immediate purpose is to devote attention to group three, viz., The Prison Epistles, and more particularly to the Epistle to the Philippians. These letters, written during the first confinement of the apostle for two whole years in his own hired house, with a soldier that kept him (see Acts 28. 30), are amongst the precious things that smell of prison damp. The storm of controversy was for the moment past, his activities in the broader sense were curtailed, and the beloved apostle and devoted servant was granted a respite from travel with welcomed leisure to reflect. God, through him, has graciously enriched the Church, and in so doing gave to His choice vessel a vaster field of influence through the perpetuation and multiplication of his voice. It is often so, for

God gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him. May we learn the beautiful and necessary lesson!

But the Epistle to the Philippians occupies a unique position even in its own group, as the following will indicate:

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It is mainly practical, and is chiefly concerned not with the communication of some mystery given by revelation to the apostle, as in Ephesians and Colossians, but with the simple, insistent, and emphatic exposition of the Christian’s bearing in a wicked and perverse generation. It is not controversial and doctrine, as such, is introduced only twice, and that, notwithstanding the importance and the grandeur of the first of the two passages, only in an incidental way (chap. 2. 2-11 and chap. 3. 2-3). Naturally, in an epistle of this scope, there are recurrent reminiscences and positive allusions to the apostle’s visits to Philippi, and the heart beats with a deep emotional feeling towards the first fruits of the Gospel preaching in Europe. The long centuries that separate us from those primitive Christians do not deter us from visiting in spirit their enthusiastic community, or from witnessing with bated breath their joy at the reception and reading by their longed-for Epaphroditus of the letter that betokened the undiminished interest that their respected brother in prison had for his converts at Philippi. It was penned to the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi.

What memories awoke in the apostle’s mind, as with leisurely reflection, he lived over again the days of joy amidst much affliction! To that city he had been directed (driven almost) by a series of Divine interferences and by a special unforgettable vision. Troas and Macedonia were inalienably linked together in the apostle’s mind. And what events! No man of Macedonia to meet him; no hearty welcome for the gladdening evangel of Christ, but on of the modern reception for the great preacher, the common experience of the earliest evangelists—a row! Conflicts innumerable were his—with his own desires and plans, with subtle and disguised evil, with brutal cruelty, with untoward circumstances. In them all by the grace of God he had triumphed, and had had great joy, proving once again the faithful, unswerving care of his Lord, and showing that in all these things we are more than conquerors. Philippi was the place of impact of the Gospel on the Roman world, and the Gospel of Christ carried the day. It has ever been so, in spite of all that looks so contrary. There were now saints in Philippi, a colony of heaven.

Who were they? where did they meet? what were their characteristics? We feel to-day as if we were again in the Macedonian city, visiting the usual meeting place of the brethren—the home of Lydia, the Asiatic seller of purple. Round her gathered the converts from the first mission, and such as were subsequently delivered from heathenism through the light- shining of the saints in the city (Phil. 2.). There behold, made gentle by the touch of heavenly grace, the keeper of the prison, and with him his household, all with vivid recollection of the night of the earthquake, in company with Euodia and Syntyche, beloved in the Lord, fellow-labourers with the apostle and whose names are in the Book of Life. Clement is there, and many an unnamed brother with unforgettable memory of that first farewell with the servant of Christ on his release from prison. Epaphroditus has come. Brave-hearted man! nigh unto death for Christ and the Gospel’s sake, he has returned from Rome bearing with him the precious parchment, a letter of thanks and encouragement penned from the heart of his beloved brother Paul, full of joy, full of peace. The blessed words are read amidst silent approval. He remembers them; he prays for them; he thanks them. They are overjoyed, encouraged, stimulated, humbled.

Chapter II.

SPIRITUAL DESIGNATIONS.

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.—Phil. 1. 1.

THE opening words of the Epistle are not only strangely arresting in their variety, they are also richly suggestive in their content—servants, saints, bishops, deacons. With what confidence and assurance did the apostle address the Christians in the Roman Colony as saints, and did so without a vestige of flattery on his side, and presumably without creating any pretentiousness on their part! With all the complexity of our modern thought-life and the precision of our enlightened scholarship, we are yet apt to degrade to a meaningless misapplication or vague indefiniteness those terms which in Apostolic times admitted of no such ambiguity. There were saints in Philippi; simple, sincere, first century Christians but a few years since rescued from paganism, to whom the designation was not foreign. The term was not then, as is often the practice now, reserved for a few who, by outstanding isolation from others, merited some such distinction, but was the property of each.

Words are crystallised poems, possessing hidden beauties that await the reverent exploration of the diligent reader. Lustre after lustre radiates from such gem-pictures as this is, as its meaning flashes forth, and the eye of the mind becomes aware of increasing wonders in an expression all too readily assuming the aspect of the commonplace. To those who read those words for the first time, what message they conveyed and what meaning they contained! They had been separated unto God, and, while the world weltered in its shameless sins around, they were His saints called out and unto His glory by the Gospel, to the accomplishment of His will and the furtherance of His work. As in their pagan worship they had had vessels consecrated unto a specific end, so now they, in the great plan of their God, were vessels set apart for the Lord for the display of His wisdom. They were saints because they were in Christ Jesus. Union with Christ and unction by the Holy Spirit were for them sufficient guarantee that God had called them unto His honour as His property and for His use. They were eternally secure on the promise of God, and the abidingness of the work of Christ. To the call of the Gospel they had responded, and their acceptance of Christ had brought them into a sphere where God could go on perfecting that which He had begun. And this is none the less true to-day; but how slowly do we believe the wealth of its meaning!

Notwithstanding the eternal truth of the unchallengeable assertion, they were still in Philippi, in the place where the reality of the great spiritual transaction would be put to the test. Local circumstances do not alter themselves for the saint, but the saint may so live in Christ Jesus a life of persistent and consistent holiness in triumph where he formerly sustained defeat, that he demonstrates beyond denial the veracity of his claim that he is a new creature. Saints best prove their worth where the test is most prolonged and most severe, that is, where they are most intimately and widely known, and where to live in Philippi means to live under the scrutiny of those who can judge most decidedly whether or not the change has been wrought through Christ.

Moreover, Philippi was the place of temptation. One’s native environment bristles with points of contact with the world that is most fascinating because so well known. To the Philippians there was the wild, passionate call of the games, the appeal of which had been formerly irresistible. The call was as clamant as ever, and even more consciously so than before, for now they were aware of the conflict of voices and the menace of the world. To the surging desire within they must not submit, but even in the midst of the echoing noises that broke again and again on the air of their city, they must turn aside to find in Christ a truer and a dearer joy. Saints will ever discover in their Lord a more precious treasure as each successive wave of tempting is mounted and the voice of the charmer is silenced by a deliberate refusal to grant the ear and a conscious embracing of a pathway of separation that tends to His glory. Only thus, and always thus, in His name, is victory assured.

Further, their native city was the first sphere of their testimony. Moral squalor and spiritual darkness abounded there, and it was their duty as luminaries in the night to hold forth the word of life to such as in the city needed its guidance. For it is the incomparable glory of the Gospel of Christ that it cannot be hid; it compels beauty in the life and causes burning on the lip. Philippi was in the first century, and modern cities now are, better and brighter for the fearless witness borne to truth and saintliness in Christ in the midst of monster evil that lifts its ugly head in unabashed wickedness.

But saints must be saintly; not only have they believed the Gospel, they must behave the Gospel. Consequently, throughout the letter the Apostle insists that conduct worthy of the Evangel must characterise those who call themselves by that name, for, having been made holy, it is incumbent upon them that they keep themselves holy. It must ever be so. The God who has called them is a holy God. The Christ who is their pattern is holy. The Spirit who indwells them is the Holy Spirit. The calling wherewith they are called is a holy calling. The name by which they are designated is holy brethren. The Scriptures they read are Holy Scriptures. The city for which they are destined is the Holy City. And this holiness of life and character is attainable when in the conquest of ourselves, admitting defeat in every effort prompted by the flesh, we realise that victory is achieved, as in conscious weakness, moment by moment we resign ourselves to the will of the Lord and sing as we overcome—

Every virtue we possess,

Every victory won,

And every thought of holiness,

Are Thine alone.

For each sinful thought, for each selfish desire, for each recurrent hesitancy in witness, there is grace according with and adequate to our need; and our safety lies in appropriation.

The apostle designates himself a servant of Jesus Christ, and associates with himself the younger man Timothy, who had accompanied him to Philippi, but evidently, on account of his youth and inexperience, had not participated as actively as Paul and Silas in the proclamation of the truth, and, consequently, had escaped the imprisonment. To the saints there must have been an echo of the days of disturbance when the two indefatigable workers were tried and unfairly condemned for being servants of the most High God; and now, as their minds travelled with Epaphroditus back to Rome, they saw in prison and in bonds the man who had shown them the way of salvation, still an ambassador and servant of Jesus Christ. His circumstances have changed, his opportunities are restricted, the sphere of his activities is largely circumscribed, his immediate access to men is greatly impeded, but he remains a bond-slave. serving as assiduously, devotedly, and unremittingly His Master and Lord, Christ.

With God all service ranks alike; with Him there is no first or last. The great endeavour and end in life is to do His will. Paul in prison and bound is as much a servant as when he discoursed on the Areopagus; Dorcas plying her needle earns the praise of God as worthily as does Apollos with his burning eloquence; the Philippians with their love gift, Epaphroditus who carried it, and the women whose names are written in the book of life, are no less servants than the apostle himself. And this is as true in modern times: Carey translating the Bible is no more a servant of Christ than Carey performing his divinely allotted tasks on his cobbler’s bench; Milton uncomplainingly bearing his blindness serves his God as much and as well as when his heart inspired pours out its majestic harmonies; for it is always true,

Who best bear His mild yoke they serve Him best.

Service is the outcome of the recognition of personal obligation. The master passion of the writer, the consuming zeal of the messenger, and the evident ambition of the recipients of the letter, was to serve Christ in a sense of indebtedness to Him, their great Benefactor, and to repay, in devoted attachment and all-absorbing labour, the wealth of love displayed by God in the gift of His Son, and in the unspeakable grace of our Lord in the sacrifice of Himself. The more intimate