🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞
This reading is preceded by the one I wrote
about here:
09042023.html
This reading concludes the Epistle to the Philippians.
Philippians IV, 10 – ‘εμου’ – ‘emou’ – ‘me’.
Philippians IV, 11 – ‘εμαθον’ – ‘emathon’ – learned
– from
‘μανιανω’ – ‘manthano’ – ‘to learn’. ‘ειμι’ – ‘eimi’ – (I) ‘am’. It is
used for emphasis.
Philippians IV:20 – ‘ημων’ – ‘emon’ – ‘us’ (our).
Philippians IV:21 – ‘εμοι’ – ‘emoi’ – ‘me’ ((with) me).
The apostle Paul writes in a few sentences that the Philippians were the only church in Macedonia to send him gifts to support his mission, that he is grateful to them and prays for God’s blessing on them. At the same time, Paul writes that he rejoices not in the gifts he has received, but in the fact that this offering of the Philippians is their glory in Christ. Paul himself says that he can live and continue his mission without this valuable help, because as an apostle in Christ he is accustomed to living in various conditions, favourable or unfavourable, thanking God for what He provides through Paul’s work and the help of people, but rejoicing in this Gospel participation in Christ’s work for the salvation of people and the cognition of the truth.
The words of verse 13 (with an addition that is not in all manuscripts, but is obvious) are very famous.
I note that Paul is not afraid to praise the Philippians for their special charity to the glory of God, but he does not make it a special merit. It is good to glorify God, but it can be dangerous to see this glorification as merit because of the temptation of arrogance.
There is also a lesson here about being satisfied with what God
gives. It is often thought that being satisfied with what we have means
not striving for more, not striving for growth and development. This is
a misunderstanding. Satisfaction means that there is no internal (or
also external) protest that this is not enough!
, this is not enough
for me!
, etc., but it is open to receiving more and moving forward and
upwards. It’s good what we have, AND we will move on!
. Without
satisfaction in this sense, happiness is impossible; it is itself to
some extent happiness. We also need to remember that God is in this
sense All-Satisfied, the Holy Trinity has no need for anything outside
of Themselves.
The letter concludes with greetings and blessings and a wish for grace in the Lord.
The first part of the reading is well written about
in relation to the parallel passage in Matthew (Matthew XI, 25-27), see
the links:
28062023.html
16052023.html
The second part of the reading is also discussed in the parallel
passage in Matthew (Matthew XIII, 16), which is referred to here:
10072023.html
To the apostle James, the Lord’s brother by the flesh:
For a frequent reading from the Apostle, see
the link:
28072023.html
For readings from the Gospel, see here:
23052023.html
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!
Source:
23102023.html