The Importance of Grammar in Scripture
The important subtleties of language in scripture and how they change meaning.
As often happens, I intend to start small but my study morphs into something larger. If you are enjoying this in email and your email cuts it off, feel free to click to the actual article page. Humbled by any and all who read.
I was listening to a message in Philippians 1 by Andrew Farley recently and yet again my understanding of a passage was flipped because of grammer. This time it was “grammatical numerics” and I wanted to explore, dig deeper, and share my findings.
Most often it is tense that changes the meaning but this time it was singular vs. plural - hence grammatical numerics. Tense is also important because if God promises something that is already completed in the past, then faith will take Him at His word that it is done. This means we should not keep asking Him to continue accomplishing what He has already done or act as if we still need to accomplish it ourselves. Similarly, if a message is going to a group of people, it may significantly change the meaning of the message vs. an audience of one. These are nuances that cannot be overlooked when we study scripture, yet they often are.
Great care should be taken we when studying scripture or reading/listening to teaching about scripture. A wrong understanding often takes a life of its own, being passed along as we just accept the top layer of the words and other people's meaning they have taught us. And often they are simply repeating “common knowledge” or traditions they have been taught without digging deeper. The point is to question everything - don't even take your own understanding at face value - confirm, repeat, confirm. It never hurts to make absolutely sure something you believe about scripture or God is absolutely true - especially when it involves the gospel - which should be our main focus.
True Repentance
Often when faced with evidence that should lead to a change of belief - or repentance - we struggle for various reasons. Most often we have simply believed something for so long it is hard to change. Sometimes it is subtle peer pressure - “Well, all these scholars, preachers, and teachers believe this way so how can I go against them?” we might think. It can also be worship of beliefs in the place of Christ: we are so afraid to believe the wrong thing that we are also afraid to repent. We trust how well we are believing over the indwelling Christ and His finished work.
Actually all of these make an idol out of “beliefs” and undermine the gospel. While believing truth is important, we are not saved because we believe perfectly. If that was the requirement, then no one is saved. Later in the book of Phillippians where I am focused on this article, even Paul discusses how he is still learning and growing. We are saved because Christ indwells us and we are new creations in Christ. We rest secure in that truth and it takes the pressure off of us to have perfect beliefs. Ironically, this freedom will actually become a freedom to repent or change our beliefs which will improve what we believe! And that is my point. It's OK to believe something incorrectly…otherwise we can never repent! Repentance itself is contingent on us having a wrong belief that we need to change. If you believed perfectly, you could never repent. However, this freedom does not negate the need to “study and prove” what we believe - it is the impetus for it!
There are many reasons why repentance is hard, but it is necessary to continue to grow in faith. Always consider new evidence or dig deeper to find it. Don’t automatically accept something new either; but, logically weigh and consider all concepts - both new and old. In Acts 17:11, scripture portrays those who do this in a positive light. The apostle Paul, already having a big reputation as a teacher, comes to Berea to teach the gospel. Yet, the Bereans did not just take even Paul's message at face value. They “examined the scriptures” to check it out and were commended for it. The Greek word used here means a “detailed forensic investigation”. This is no shallow enquiry that just takes someone’s word for it or reads only the surface language. This is every believer’s responsibility.
It is Critical to Know The Audience
Knowing the audience of a passage of scripture is a very important contextual consideration. As I mentioned, if a message is intended to address a group of people, and we interpret it for an individual, then the interpretation can get messed up. Or, if the audience is one group and we interpret it for another, then there is a risk of error. Often in Scripture there are messages for unbelievers vs. believers or messages for Jews vs. Gentiles. If we don't recognize and consider the audience, then we may easily get corrupt ideas from those passages. If we take a passage intended for Jews who were under the old covenant and apply it to Gentiles who only ever had the new covenant then the message will get mixed up and contaminated. This is a common thing unfortunately.
I will eventually do in depth articles on Christ’s “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7 to defend my stance, but clearly His audience was unregenerate, unbelieving, Jews not believers who would eventually become the new covenant body of Christ or the “Church”. This includes his disciples who were His physical followers; but, who had not been indwelled by the Holy Spirit; had not received His life yet; and thus, were still unregenerate.
While the disciples followed Christ on earth, they were not new creations, though most eventually would become one. This is not a popular view since many consider Christianity to be about what we do, not what has been done to us; but, it is the truth nonetheless and a necessary distinction. Being a follower of Christ as a teacher is not the same as being a “new creation in Christ”. As Christ told them, there was something better coming once He ascended. But it had not come yet, not until Pentecost. Again, recognition that the disciples were not “new creations in Christ” while they were following Christ on earth is important. Christ did give them some words about the future new covenant church but not everything Christ said was new covenant teaching. If it conflicts with later Apostolic guidance and clarity of the new covenant gospel then that is a clear sign.
Rightly Dividing Scripture
Taking teaching from scripture meant for unbelievers and applying it to believers, or vice versa, is extremely harmful. It will harm the believer’s faith, making them insecure in what Christ has done and God's promises. It often leads them to use self-effort to achieve rather than receive God's gifts. And it can make unbelievers overly confident in self-effort for salvation and santification. In both cases, the harm is extreme.
The sermon on the Mount is only one example; there are many in scripture. We can glean truth from every word in scripture; but, we still must divide and apply it properly based on context - especially the audience. Often the truth is: “While I can learn something from this passage, the first thing I must learn is this does not apply to me as a believer.” In the next section I will give some examples; but, as I have emphasized over and over, the best measure is does it line up with the good news that everything from God is a gift? Does it conflict with a new covenant gospel of grace promise?
Don't apply evangelistic passages meant for unbelievers to believers.
Just as we should not today, the Apostles never assumed even in a local “church” that everyone was a new creation in Christ. Some were there to discover, many were there socially just of be part of a group, and a few were there to disrupt. In 1 John 2:19, John speaks of those who “went out from among us”. He means people who participated as “Christians” but were not really new creations in Christ. Just like Christ, the Apostles were well aware of their audience and the need to be evangelistic as well as encourage the true saints in new covenant truth.
For example - an easy one. Romans 10:13 - “for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” BSB Unlike many other evangelistic passages, I have not heard this disputed as being for unbelievers or evangelistic. Yet, it is in an epistle written to a new covenant church! This is often the excuse used to claim evangelistic passage are for believers. But I digress. Obviously this is not for believers and few, if any, dispute this. Thus, it makes it a good contrast as an example for my point.
My point is what if we did believe this instruction was for believers? Do believers need to daily (or more often) call on the name of the Lord to become believers again? As new creations in Christ; children of God; do we get aborted frequently and have to be re-created again? Nonsense. If you apply this verse to believers it will harm their faith in what Christ has already done. If you have genuinely - from the heart - called on Christ by faith, then you are saved forever. God does not abort His children. However, why not apply the same logic to other passages in scripture also intended as evangelistic towards unbelievers?
Many (including some of my dear friends) who will agree with the application of Romans 10:13 as an evangelical verse will vehemently disagree about other evangelical passages, including many in the Sermon on the Mount. Here is a quick example: Matthew 5:22b - “But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.” BSB This is one of 3+ times that Christ threatens hell or forbids entrance into His Kingdom for some type of sin in this sermon. Which is, of course, absolutely true for unregenerate Jews who are trusting in their ability to keep the Law of Moses for entrance into the Kingdom or salvation. However, is this true of believers? Will a genuine child of God go to hell if they call someone a fool? If not, then how could this instruction be for believers? The only logically correct answer is: it is not. Believers are not the direct audience of Christ for many of His statements in the SOTM. We must divide old covenant teaching from new covenant teaching - even in Christ’s teaching.
Shall we sin so grace can abound? God forbid.
Another red herring that is used is that if this is not for believers, then they are free to run around calling everyone a fool and being deliberately offensive. To some degree this is true - Paul called some folks fools in his epistles! However, it is beside the point! The point is: if we do this will we go to hell as believers? Is Paul in hell? The answer is absolutely not; so, no one can get away from this statement by applying it to believers.
Christ’s point for Jews under the old covenant Law was that they are hypocrites because they say they keep the Law yet still hate other people and call them fools. Thus, their destination is hell, not the Kingdom. Christ is trying to shame or scare Jews who are putting their trust in their Law keeping into putting their trust in Him instead. He is not trying to shame or scare believers into behaving better. Christ would never undermine His own good news in that way.
As He would eventually teach Paul “the Law is not of faith”. Believers learn how to behave through faith not fear. As John says in 1 John 4:18, someone who fears punishment from God has a limited understanding of God's love. Thus fear of God's punishment will prevent us from bearing Spirit fruit. Christ would never teach believers to fear the punishment of hell.
When we continue to insist this passage is for believers then we are simply being ignorant; including my dear friends. But despite this, and the many books written that disagree with my take, the evidence is unrefutable - Christ is not saying Christians who call people fools are going to hell - thus this passage is not for believers. Yet, so many simply cannot see it as they are blinded by traditional views and refuse to repent.
As I will demonstrate shortly, the traditional view is wrong and damages the gospel. It is how this view damages the gospel that bothers me - I am sad so many cannot see this potential. Scripture is always the enemy's most potent weapon against gospel truth. Even the words of Christ are twisted to damage faith. And many teachers and preachers (and dear friends) unwittingly further the enemy cause. Let me attempt to logically demonstrate.
God is always a perfect promise keeper - period. New covenant gospel promises trump everything else in scripture - period.
One of God’s singular new covenant gospel promises to believers is we are at permanent peace with Him and won't be punished for our sins. This is Gospel 101 (Romans 5:1-5; Hebrews 8:12, 10:10-18 and many other places). Yes, there are built-in consequences for sinning - reaping what you sow clearly applies to believers (Galatians 6:7-8). But that is God's loving warning for believers - not His threat against them. God will never punish us for sin since that would break His promise. He does not go against His word.
The offer on the table is to save us from those consequences by helping us choose better as new creations; not deliberately cause the consequences for us. God does not have to punish us for sin; sin is it's own punishment. If many believers could see this, perhaps they would choose to sin less! It is certainly a better motivation that being afraid of God's punishment! God certainly does not promise to take the consequences away if we are stupid and choose poorly. But we have the Holy Spirit and a new heart that is available to guide us into truth and good choices of we don't quench them. When you walk by the Spirit you won't have to worry about reaping the corruption that comes from walking by the flesh.
However; for a believer; living in fear of God's punishment is not fear of God - it is a lack of faith because it diminishes Christ’s finished work and God's promises. It is the opposite of reverence for God because it disagrees with His word. Fearing God’s punishment for our stumbles calls God a liar and is already walking by the flesh and by sight. It is not walking by faith. The first step of walking by the Spirit is believing and trusting God's new covenant gospel promises. However, if a believer thinks they are in danger of hell (God's punishment) if they slip up and call someone a fool, will this help or harm their faith in this foundational new covenant promise of God?
Remember God's promise of no condemnation and punishment for any sin committed by a believer - past, present, or future.
If a scripture passage promises “Hell” or any other punishment for sin from God directly, it cannot be for believers. Both cannot be true: if we are at peace with God and forgiven forever because of the One sacrifice then He then cannot punish us. We must use God's gospel promises to help judge meaning - God never goes against His own word or promises. We cannot allow poor scripture interpretations to scuttle God's promises in our mind. If a passage appears to be doing this, then it is a clear sign we are understanding it incorrectly and need to reconsider context like audience.
Christ would never go against His own future promises enacted through the new covenant when He died, was buried, resurrected, and ascended. He would never proclaim that a believer who calls someone a fool would be going to hell, and then later promise that no sin would be punished for believers. So, either Christ lied in the SOTM and didn't really mean that calling someone a fool would bring hellfire; or, He lied in all of the new testament promises that say believers will not go to hell or be punished for their sins. Or, stay with me now, maybe, just maybe, that statement in the SOTM is not for believers. Hmm. Seems like the latter to me; I'm not inclined to call the author and finisher of my faith a liar. The perfect Creator of everything does not lie. Yet, those who say this passage is for believers cannot have it both ways.
A passage that threatens hell for sinning cannot ever be for the church or believers. If it was, it would invalidate a key new covenant gospel promise of God. I realize this is hard to believe and many teach differently; but I will stick to believing God's promises not human ponderings. I will take God's clear word over human interpretations. If we are “in Christ” then we have peace and forgiveness with God forever - period - no wiggle room. And if Christ Himself is saying something different before His own death and resurrection - then He is not saying it about believers. He would not contradict His own word. This is just a singular example of how context gets twisted by tradition and can cause much harm and disagreement. But I would love for someone to disarm my logic. Feel free to do so in the comments.
Again, I will do a much deeper dive into the SOTM at some point. I wanted to finish this section by declaring that this view does not diminish the impact of the SOTM in the least. Putting it into proper context does not diminish it - it makes it more valuable. Nor does it diminish the value of good behavior for believers. It simply avoids teaching the old covenant motivation for good behavior and thus avoid diminishing a believer’s faith in what Christ accomplished for them under the new covenant. My other point for this section was to demonstrate how audience context is extremely important to meaning.
Philippians 1: Audience Context is Key
Now, back to Philippians 1. I have always seen this passage as for an individual, particularly verse 6, but I was wrong. Upon further study, I have had to repent of my view. This article is now my public display of repentance! Paul uses a plural word when referencing his audience and thus he is writing a group, not an individual. Given that, and other contextual clues, I believe it changes the meaning significantly. Let me quote the passage with context and let's study this out.
Philippians 1:3-11 - “3-I thank my God every time I remember you. 4-In every prayer for all of you, I always pray with joy, 5-because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6-being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7-It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart. For in my chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partners in grace with me. 8-God is my witness how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9-And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10-so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11-filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” BSB
The “Partnership in the Gospel”
Ok, so the first thing to note here is Paul is writing a group of believers - a local “church” - and he is commending them for their “partnership in the gospel”. This is a vital context for what follows - both in this chapter and the rest of the letter. Paul is grateful for this group of believer’s work of partnering in the gospel and prays that it will continue. Essentially, as a group, they have been positively moving forward the expression of God's good news without watering it down or harming it by mixing in bad news.
In the Greek, this is the same word used for “fellowship”. Essentially, Paul is saying this is a group of believers who are properly living as believers by faith and performing their Kingdom mission within the fellowship of God. In the New testament, the word fellowship is used the same way Tolkien used “fellowship of the ring” in his “Lord of the Ring” books. It is a group bonded in a common mission. Paul further clarifies the context by using this word. All believers are in God's “fellowship” once we become His children. It is simply another word that describes being in the family of God and inheriting the family goals or mission.
This is certainly not how we think of it today: a meal or social event. This fellowship is much more permanent and created by God Himself. Certainly the lesser kind of “fellowship” occurs within God's family, but don't confuse the two types. The fellowship of God - being permanently fused with Him - is a far greater concept than some kind of meal or shallow conversation. It is His permanent creation and promise - not some occasional activity we participate in either with God or others. It is an identity: a permanent family or team. This is sometimes another important grammatical consideration - a verb or noun. The act of fellowshipping (verb) is quite a different concept from the existence of a group (noun) created and bound together by God. But further elucidation on this topic requires a new article, sigh. So many topics; so little time.
What does this partnership look or act like?
In verse 7, Paul further confirms what this “partnership” looks like externally. “For in my chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partners in grace with me.” (BSB - emphasis mine). They are confirming and defending the good news in mental and spiritual alignment with Paul. They are properly establishing gospel truth. This is the only “work” in context for this passage. And I would venture to suggest it is the only church “work” that matters.
I wish I had more time to discuss the Greek words. The confirmation or establishment of the gospel is a covenantal word. It is like ratifying the covenant. Paul is saying that this work is establishing God's new covenant promises so that the hearers understand them and it helps their faith in them. The defense word is also very covenant based. It is a “reasoned argument with proof” portraying and defending the ideas within the new covenant and arguing against the ideas that water it down or harm it. This is the mission of God's children on earth.
The Philippian audience is a group of people united in the work of establishing and defending the truth of the new covenant gospel message. This is a perfect synopsis of the true mission of the body of Christ or Church: establishing and defending the good news of God's new covenant promises. Any other works that are done either flow from this mission to further it or are a distraction from or destruction to this mission. Every church teaching and activity can be judged by this mission statement. Of course, in order to properly judge, you must know what the good news is and God’s new covenant promises within it promise! Paul will get to this later.
A person or group of people can fill their days with tasks and busy-ness trying to please God and get into His good graces, much like the older brother in the story of the prodigal son. But if the end result, either in their own minds or others, has not “established and defended” the gospel or good news of God's grace, then it was worthless or possibly harmful. Ultimately this is Paul's point, but let's continue.
Begun this Good Work? What is the Work in view?
This ultimate church mission of establishing and defending the gospel sets a valuable context for verse 6. Literally until right before I started this article I thought the work Christ is “finishing” here was “salvation” or when we were born again. This is sort of a legitimate idea as certainly Christ giving us His life and enlivening us as new creations was a good work and He was the one who did it! And it is a work that continues to work; so, in one sense that was a “beginning”.
However, a careful consideration of this specific passage negates this interpretation. It is true that Christ did a good work in us and our maturity is valuable; but, it is not what this passage is referencing. I was wrong 😔 . Thus, this article is my confession of my repentance!
NOTE: every commentary I read about this passage espoused this traditional view so I had lots of company before. However, please consider my evidence to the contrary taken from the passage context and grammar. I have had to repent of that meaning. I will be proving my previous point that even broad agreement or really ancient agreement doesn't always make an interpretation truth. Telling the same lie for a really long time or from many voices doesn't turn it into truth.
The work in Philippians 1 is establishing and defending the gospel by a group - not the growth or sanctification of an individual.
First, I have already demonstrated that Paul's context for the word “work” here is “establishing and defending the gospel” - not growth or sanctification. And further, every use of the word “you” in the entire passage is plural, not singular. This cannot be a reference to “the work” in a single individual. Further, the word “in” also means “among” in the Greek. Paul is referencing the overall work of this Philippian church of partnering with Him to establish and defend the gospel and how Christ will continue to work among them to finish this work or mission as a group.
Yes, there is a work Christ did “in us” as individuals - but that is not what Paul is referencing here. This is the work or mission of the church and a subset of God's children who are coming together to accomplish it. And Paul is encouraging them that Christ will always be among them to help finish this mission. This is what he has been praying for: their partnership in the Gospel to flourish.
This focus on the “group mission” of the body of Christ completely changed the meaning of this passage for me. And the true meaning is much better and fits better with the gospel. Ironically, my previous belief about this passage actually went against Paul's point in the passage: making sure that nothing contaminates the gospel message. As I will get into, my previous belief could lead to some very anti-gospel places.
The Day of Christ?
Paul emphasizes the phrase the “day of Christ” in this passage. From other context we know this is when Christ will return and bring about His final physical Kingdom - completing what is currently only a spiritual Kingdom for believers on earth. This is another context that I wrongly associated with an individual. Basically, my idea was that Christ was completing our growth until He returns or we die. However, I have already been wary of this idea as it seems to indicate that we must have a specific level of growth before we can get into Heaven. It subtly leans towards a works salvation or sanctification which is anti-gospel. But I simply never took the time to study this out to confirm or deny my wariness.
First, Paul doesn't say “when we die”, he says the “day of Christ”. So, for the millions of Christians who have died before the day of Christ, were they properly completed? Are they still being completed? Is the Catholic idea of purgatory true? (The answer is no, but you see where this can go). This interpretation makes no sense.
Thus, my previous understanding doesn't work, even at a purely logical level. I had not properly studied and/or thought it through (reasoned it through with proof as Paul says in this passage). I had simply accepted face value what others taught about this passage. I did exactly what I am warning against in this article and Paul warns against in Phillippians. Don't do what I did!! Study, study, dig deeper, and study more. And if you haven't done the studying, don’t blindly take up a belief. And certainly don't argue or repeat it! Take great care with your spiritual gospel food you mentally consume.
Paul believed the “day of Christ” was imminent.
In all of Paul's writings you can absolutely see a firm conviction that the “day of Christ” would happen in his lifetime or certainly within a close generation. Thus, this statement actually strengthens my current point. He is saying that “on the day of Christ the work will be finished”. This is true. At that point, the gospel will be fully established, for better or worse, depending on if one believes it or rejects it. But, it is an absolute fact that on the “day of Christ” this mission or work of the church will be done. This makes far more sense than some level of maturity an individual believer must achieve before Christ returns.
Given more consideration, that is truly an anti-gospel idea. Yes, we are growing in grace and knowledge of Christ - yet, our status with God is not based on our maturity level. Being more mature helps in many ways, but it does not improve our status with God. And I firmly believe we will continue to grow in grace and knowledge of God into eternity even after the “day of Christ”! God is simply immense enough to require an eternity to truly know Him. God desires our maturity here on earth because He loves us and wants the best life for us - but the idea of a maturity measuring stick, especially for Heaven, is anathema to the gospel. Again, I confess I believed something harmful. It happens to the best of us. Always approach scripture with humility.
The Mission of the Universal Church
Since Paul is convinced the day of Christ will happen soon, he is speaking that way directly to the Philippian church. He believed the gospel mission would truly be finished for them soon! However, certainly this applies universally to the Body of Christ, the one “Church”. Our mission is to establish and defend the gospel, but there will be a time when that is no longer needed.
That mission has and will continue throughout generations until the “day of Christ”. Christ began this “work” or mission at His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension and He will continue to empower it using the body of Christ until He returns. Every new creation joins this mission by default. And once He returns it will be completed. This particular mission will end. To continue my Lord of the Rings analogy, the ring will have been destroyed.
Until then, Christ is certainly “among us” helping to continue this mission and help it succeed. “Where two or three are gathered together Christ is among them” (Matthew 18:20). Paul's admonition continues to be true and reminds us of our priorities as the entire body of Christ.
If anything we are doing or teaching as a group does not as a result establish and defend the gospel then we should not be doing it. The enemy loves to get us busy with churchy looking business that is at best a distraction from the true mission or at worst helps destroy it. Or, many in church barely understand what the good news really is, including many teachers, so how can they establish and defend it? Thus, when inadequate substitutes become the norm many don't recognize the difference. Often the gospel substitutes or mixtures seem so legitimate and become so entrenched it causes the pure gospel to seem suspect in some way!
Should the Message or the Messenger be “Pure and Blameless”?
Philippians 1:9-11 - “9-And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10-so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11-filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” BSB
Verses 9-11, if applied to an individual, could certainly lead to some anti-Gospel places. This is clearly a “work” focused passage and it has “purity of the work” in focus, not the purity of an individual believer participating in the work. There are many places where God promises that Christ has already purified us as new creations. He has cleansed us - it is a finished work. Because we are new creations, we are pure and “Heaven ready”. There is no work we do that continues to purify us or prep us for Heaven. Thinking Paul is giving us an individual “purity test” in this passage is primarily where this could go to anti-gospel places. It would break God's promise that Christ’s work has purified us.
1 Peter 1:22 is an example:
“Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.” BSB
“Obedience to the truth” is another way the Apostles reference “faith in Christ for salvation”. Peter is saying that because we accepted Christ, He made us new creations which purified us on the inside. We are the new purified self. This gave us a pure heart from which the love of Christ can be reflected. We think and act on what Christ already did within us. We don't think or act in order to accomplish anything new. Without this gift of a pure heart, we have no solid place from which to love others deeply.
We choose to let Christ purify us.
It is interesting how Peter phrases this. Obviously we did not do our own purifying - only Christ can do that. However, Peter gives credence to our choice in obeying the truth of the gospel. We opened the door to Christ. We accepted Him by faith. We participated in the “obedience of faith” which resulted in Christ purifying us. The Apostles are never shy to portray that our choices matter. They have no concern that God giving us this power of choice affects His sovereignty at all (it doesn't). It is the “Divine puppet master” view that is a weak view of God's sovereignty, but I again digress. My point is that Peter makes our participation in this very clear.
Note that we continue to have choices even after we choose to obey the gospel. We can quench the Spirit and not reflect the love Christ gifted us in our hearts. We can walk by the flesh and not choose to love or try to love from our own power instead of our new hearts. I mean, you must believe you have a new heart as a first step before you will ever use it to love! Peter, like Paul, establishes our purity and our new pure heart as the foundation or basis for choosing to love. Without that foundation, or faith in it, we cannot properly love no matter how hard we try.
You must be pure in your identity or being before you can act pure. However, certainly scripture emphasizes our choice to live out our internal purity by making wise choices and learning to walk by the Spirit. I am not denying that fact. It is why I write! Yet so often in teaching and preaching the “acting pure” is emphasized to the detriment of the foundational truth that we are already pure. This faithless belief becomes cognitive dissonance - you are dirty in reality but you must still act pure somehow or God will smite you! Truly putting heavy burdens on believers with no solution to the burden.
Paul is certainly not doing that in Philippians nor is he implying some kind of entrance test of how pure our works are for heaven. That is anathema to the gospel. Chris's work of making us new creations fully purifies us and makes us “Heaven ready”. Beyond receiving this gift of life there is no further actions required by us. We will desire to do good works; but they are no longer mandated or required to be in some kind of perfect state for the day of Christ. Context is key. Don't use, or let others use, Philippians 1 to diminish faith in your gift of purity caused and gifted by Christ when you became a new creation.
Love Requires Knowledge and Insight
I don't want to skip verse 9 as it is valuable. Much like Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul emphasizes the need to grow in the love of Christ. However, in both places, he emphasizes “knowledge” as a key component of this growth. The world often emphasizes love as an “emotion” so this is a key difference! Consider how knowledge is portrayed in regards to how we love:
We must know God's promises through the gospel and how those truly portray His love of us as His children. Part of this knowledge is knowing and believing He has given us a new heart filled with His love. Faith in God's promises is walking by the Spirit and the only way to bear fruit.
We must recognize “love” as an intellectual willful choice based on the knowledge in #1. Certainly, there is the supernatural component of Christ's life and love involved, but that is accessed through the “renewing of the mind” which allows Christ’s power to transform or mature our attitudes and actions. (Romans 12:2) As we set our mind so goes our trust in Christ’s life to empower our daily life. How can you rely on something you don't know, understand, or believe? How have you learned Christ?
The knowledge and trust of Christ’s love for us empowers our own.
Because we are loved by Christ and we possess His love in our hearts, we can always choose love, even when our “feelings” don't match up. Since the world often defines love by feelings, then how well they love follows their feelings. This is a trap. Even as believers, our feelings, based in our fallen body, are all over the place. They are influenced by a myriad of things, many outside our control. Our feelings are not always based in truth. Even something as simple as a single meal can impact emotions and how we feel. Love cannot be based on this shifting foundation.
If how we love is based on this, then it will be up and down and all around. (Visible hint: the divorce rate for church goers matches everyone else). This is directly related to an ignorance of the new covenant gospel. As believers, we have a foundation in Christ and His new covenant promises that can overcome this obstacle. Love can absolutely be an intellectual choice based in gospel truth. We can love based on our knowledge and insight of the gospel and all that it means.
This is what Paul is praying for here. That their love would abound based on gospel truth and not their emotions. That their choices would more and more be loving choices; not because they feel like being loving; but, because they know they are loved by Christ and choose to benefit others based on this truth - whether they feel “loving” or not. This mindset is crucial.
Getting back to “pure and blameless”.
Phillipians 1:10-11 - “10-so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11-filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” BSB
Phillipians 1:10 - “that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,” NKJV
Ok, let's dig in. If you peruse the various translations of verse 10, you will find that some say that “you” may be “pure and blameless” or “sincere and without offense” and others leave out the “you” entirely. Unfortunately, both of these are wrong. The Greek word “ēte” is used here and it doesn't mean “you” but we can't leave it out either. The plural word “hymas” Paul uses at the beginning of the verse does mean “you”, so if he meant to tie “pure and blameless” to the group, he would have used that word again, not “ēte”.
Why does this matter? The word “ēte” is contextual and vague - it essential means a state of being or that which is happening as part of the state of being. It is most often translated “is” and “are”. In this context, Paul is referencing the same work or mission that he has been focused on - the existential mission of the church. It is this church mission of defending and establishing the gospel that is in focus to be “pure and blameless”, NOT the believers executing the mission. Paul wants them to test and prove what is the “best” belief and gospel message so that the message itself will be pure and blameless. The work or message being pure as an entity in itself is what Paul is getting at here - not the individuals giving it. As we covered, the individuals are already pure, and that is not in context here.
Even if you disagree with this point, the “you” in question is again plural. This is not an individual “purity of work” qualification for the day of Christ; it is a mission qualification for the body of Christ. Paul does not want the message of the gospel to be corrupted in any way the entire time the mission is in place (until the day of Christ). His focus is the group mission, not an individual’s attitude and actions. His goal is gospel message purity until the message is no longer needed.
The church as an entity IS in focus for an action in this passage - the action of testing and proving what is best in presenting and defending the gospel message. They are responsible for what they are teaching so that it is not compromised by a mixture of other corrupting messages. This is an important charge by Paul and is his primary focus in this passage and letter. This is the main guidance that should be taken from this passage. It a a charge to maintain the purity of the new covenant gospel without leaven or compromise.
Pure - An In Depth Look
Further evidence of this comes by inspecting the translation of this phrase. Clearly the NKJV changes it significantly. It says “sincere and without offense”. This is logical in the context of defending and establishing the gospel, but does not fit as well in regards to an individual’s purity. But let's check out the Greek ourselves.
Unlike the word “katharois” which is used many times in the NT and is also translated “pure” or “clean”; the Greek word “eilikrineis” translated “pure” here is only used twice in the New Testament. The word “katharois” is exclusively used to describe an individual - like having a “pure heart” - not “eilikrineis”. The 1 Peter 1:22 passage I just referenced uses “katharois” in reference to the “pure” heart. Thus, even by word choice, Paul is not indicating that this is an individual who needs to purify themselves for the day of Christ.
In the Greek, this word means “uncontaminated” or “unmixed”. Certainly “pure” works but only if the context is the gospel message, not an individual. Because purity is also used to describe the state of being of individual believers, using this translation can be confusing. It would be better to translate it as “uncontaminated”. The gospel message we establish and defend should be uncontaminated by mixing in Law or anything else that waters it down. Legalism or licentiousness, both of the flesh, will never mix with the gospel of grace. They are like oil and water. They are both bad news that contaminate the good news.
Blameless - An In Depth Look
This Greek word “aproskopos” means “free from hurt or harm thus not causing offense”. Now the word offense or offend is often used to mean that we don't emotionally upset people but that is not the context here. Again, the context is the mission and message of the church. A mixed message that waters down the gospel always hurts the hearers whether they are believers or unbelievers. This harm is causing “an offense” against the hearers. In this context, causing harm and offending are synonymous. Not harming their feelings; but harming their spirituality; harming their souls. All false teaching should be offensive to our ears and it certainly can harm or be an offense to the hearer.
Again, it is the church’s message that should not cause harm. If the message is always the pure gospel without diluting or mixing in error, then it will not cause harm. If we mix law or any other cursed worldly philosophies with the gospel, then it will harm. And this is what Paul is advocating against. His words are not focused on an individual’s daily behavior and achieving some level of purity in thought and action. This is focused on keeping the main mission of the body of Christ pure and undiluted as we defend and establish the gospel in our sphere of influence; and the same for the full body of Christ into the greater world.
Of course, our attitudes and actions do go hand in hand with the mission. If you have an uncontaminated gospel message and you believe and trust it, then your attitudes and actions will follow. Paul gets at this in my next section. Let's dive right in!
How to keep the mission and message pure?
“test and prove what is best…filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ” BSB Paul surrounds his message of keeping the Gospel message pure with direct guidance on how to accomplish this. First, and this ties into my opening statement, we study and prove our gospel message before we defend and establish it. One interesting thing about this Greek word “dokimázō” is that it is only ever used in the positive sense. Meaning, you are not trying to prove whether a message is bad, only whether it is good. We are to portray the goodness of the gospel which should be easy because by definition it is good news. The light of a genuine message of good news will vividly contrast with the darkness in the other messages.
This is often how scripture portrays a proper mindset - it focuses on the good as the inverse of the bad. Examples: “Think on that which is good and acceptable” (Phil. 4:8). “Change your minds about God and by default you will change your mind about sin” (Acts 20:21). “Prove your gospel message is pure and you won't teach a harmful bad message” (current passage we are discussing). “Walk by the Spirit and you won't walk by the flesh” (Gal. 5:21). “You are children of the light thus you are not part of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). “You are now children of light thus walk as if this is true” (Ephesians 5:8).
Religion wants to focus on all the bad you are doing to try and guilt, shame, or frighten you into doing the opposite. The gospel is only good news: it focuses on Christ's work and the new covenant promises flowing from that. It focuses on the fact that you are good by nature and this is your gifted foundation for good works. God's new covenant plan for believer behavior is this: if you know, believe, and trust that Christ has created you in Him and you are now pure, perfect, and good; then your choices, attitudes, and actions will mirror this foundational truth. And that leads directly into the next point.
Fruit of Righteousness
One key thing to point out immediately is Paul does not say to be “filled with righteousness”. He says be filled with the FRUIT of righteousness. This is a distinction with a major difference. Religion will tell you to act righteous in order to be righteous. It will tell you that choosing righteous looking actions leads to being righteous in identity. Legalism turns the gospel message around and corrupts it. Paul's choice of words here is deliberate - he wants there to be no confusion about a believer’s identity of righteousness.
Again, the gospel is the opposite of legalistic religion. Christ already made you the righteousness of God by nature; now, you just need to allow or let the fruit of that righteousness fill you and empower your works. You don't do the works to gain righteousness; you do the works because you are righteous. This fruit of righteousness is the same as the fruit of the Spirit; it is just a different way of saying it. Of course, the point with this fruit is you don't cause or create it. You are a branch on the tree of Christ. He causes and creates the fruit; you simply bear it. God has to make this easy for us; otherwise we fail. When we make it harder than it is (cough, religion) we begin to go off the right track. Legalism makes Christianity hard on purpose and it always fails. This is by the design of the enemy to trick and trap us.
Paul demonstrates this by the phrase “comes through Jesus Christ”. Both the gift of righteousness (at salvation) and the fruit of this gifted righteousness come from Christ. My whole point is: our only responsibility is to choose to bear it (and this is certainly often hard enough for us.) This ties in with knowledge. Because we can't rely on feelings, we need to test and prove the pure gospel message in our own minds long before we try to teach or live it. As we do this we will bear fruit. As we begin to bear fruit, this feeds into our daily lives and ministry, whether that ministry is directly teaching or not.
Foundational is the understanding and belief that we are righteous by nature. We are not becoming righteous by acting righteously. We act righteously because we are righteous. Only by knowledge of and trust in this truth can we bear genuine fruit. If you think God is demanding righteous attitudes and actions in order to become more pure or even to please Him then your motivation is not a gospel one. Faith in our perfect purity gifted by Christ is essential to walk by the Spirit and live well.
Don't stray from the main mission of the body of Christ: establish and defend the pure new covenant gospel of grace.
In many ways, the Apostles and Christ Himself established that the mission of work of the body of Christ or church is to establish and defend the pure new covenant gospel of grace - just as Paul directly states in this passage. And in just as many ways or more, actual churches and teachers stray from this onto many other things, not necessarily all “bad”. From trivial distractions like building plans, how to dress, or music styles; to harmful beliefs that minimize, water down, or oppose the pure gospel; we humans often act both blindly and deliberately in ways that at best distract from the mission and at worst do great harm to the mission. As I have already mentioned, Paul is encouraging us to avoid this. Truly seeing and understanding his message in Philippians will help with this.
Rather than describing an individual believer’s growth in Philippians 1 as I have thought for many years, Paul is actually encouraging and establishing the proper mindset for maintaining and continuing this mission - both for a smaller group of believers and the entire body of Christ still alive on this earth. The encouraging thing is that he is convinced that Christ will continue to use the church to fulfill this mission - despite all of the legalistic or licentious doctrines of demons that still prevail in our churches. Little did Paul know that this would continue for over 2000 years beyond his own life. But he was right - and it will continue for another 2000 or until the day of Christ when He returns and the mission will no longer be necessary.
Until then, the church; and yes of course, the individual believers that compose the church; must keep this mission in focus. And for this, Philippians 1 is invaluable instruction if you interpret it properly. Yet, out of this context it could be harmful. If you use it for individual “Christian growth”, as opposed to the proper growth of the overall mission of the church to spread the gospel, then it can lead to error. Error like “we need to purify ourselves by good works for when Christ comes”. That is not a good meaning at all and it weakens faith in God's promises. It uses Paul’s own words fighting against gospel contamination to contaminate the gospel. He would be aghast to think his words were interpreted that way.
Quick Review
Paul's makes several confident assertions in this passage:
Christ will continue empowering and moving forward the Kingdom work or mission of establishing and defending the new covenant gospel of grace by using the church - until the mission is completed upon His return.
We are all partners with other believers in this mission, especially those in our immediate circle of influence. This mission is completed in diverse ways using diverse believer desires and gifts. The different roles are not always some religiously defined “ministry” like teaching or preaching, though they can be. No matter our role, keep the true mission in focus.
Knowledge of and trust in the massive love of Christ is the foundation for testing and proving the best way to carry out this mission. It is key to keeping the mission’s core gospel message pure and uncorrupted by mixing. A mixed message will cause harm to those it is intended to help. Both legalism and licentiousness ignore or misunderstand this love. God loves us enough to fully forgive our stumbles for eternity; but He also loves us enough to gift us power through His life to overcome and lessen our stumbling by faith.
Knowledge (beliefs) or mindsets (the way we think) must continually be tested and proved by scripture and logic using a deep forensic investigation of truth. This is critical to properly know the love and new covenant promises of God so we do not mix the message and harm ourselves and others. Uncorrupted gospel knowledge is critical to be able to teach and live properly.
Recognize that believers already are the “righteousness of Christ” but that we are responsible to allow ourselves to be filled with it’s fruit and thus bear it. Yet, it all comes from Christ. We do not produce anything, we depend on Him both initially for the gift of a righteous identity, and for fruit that comes from that. It is the attitude of dependence by faith that fills us and allows us to bear fruit. This starts with recognizing and trusting the reality of our identity.
One final note: God’s fruit is all attitudes: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, contentment, etc. There are actions that flow from these attitudes; but, in scripture the attitudes are the fruit, not the actions. The actions flowing from the fruit are great and necessary; but, they are not really the main attraction. As we focus on being filled with the fruit this will lead to proper attitudes and actions by default. But the focus must be on the fruit.
In scripture the pattern is always:
Set your mind on gospel truth by knowing and believing God's new covenant promises without contamination
Trust God's new covenant promises in Christ thus trusting Christ and His work - this is faith
Hence you bear spirit attitude fruit by resting in Christ’s finished work
These attitudes result in many actions and activities. The fruit of God's love means you give up your own rights in order to forgive others just as Christ gave up many of His “rights” as God in order to die on a cross to forgive you. This is but one of many reactions to Spirit fruit. The results are limitless and often cannot be measured. They just happen.
Conclusion
I hope this has been as informative and a blessing to you as it was to me. While certainly maturity is key for an individual believer; however it is simply not what Paul is getting at directly in Philippians 1. He is commending them as a group for their past partnership in the gospel and he is encouraging them that Christ will continue to empower that work until it is complete. The rest of the epistle will have this overall mission in context as Paul does a deep dive into how to best prepare for the mission. Even though he commends them initially, he still sees the need to remind them of the best way to keep the message pure.
His goal with this instruction is that they continue to wisely partner with the gospel without mixing in beliefs that harm it and would cause their message to harm themselves and others. Ironic, is it not, that some often use his words out of context to try and “growth shame” believers. That is not even the context and is actually one of the mixed messages that can harm. God does not have some expected growth chart on the wall in heaven for us and then judges us if we don't match up. Every believer is Heaven ready as soon as they become a new creation or child of God.
However, what a great reminder of the Kingdom mission of establishing and defending the pure good news of the new covenant gospel of grace. With so much error out there, this is not an easy mission. But it is a fulfilling one. When you see the results of the pure message both in your own life and others - it is it's own reward. As Paul will say later in Phillippians, seeing people living by grace is like having a golden crown on his head.
No Other Message Compares
Nothing compares to this good news. The legalistic and licentious messages out there totally fall short. Only the life of Christ satisfies - and it is only ever accessible as a gift - both for salvation and for walking after you have been saved. Both legalism and licentiousness spurn the gift. Legalism tries to live right without it and licentiousness doesn't recognize the power of the gift to satisfy. Each one seeks the fruit of the gift without living from it.
The prodigal sons in Christ’s parable demonstrate these two extremes quite well Yes, plural, they were both wrong! The older brother represents legalism and the younger licentiousness. Yet neither understood or trusted their Father's love. One thought he could earn it and the other thought he would never meet the standard to earn it. Both attitudes are not of faith. God's love is unconditionally freely given - you cannot earn or dis-earn it. You can only receive or reject it. Ironically it was the licentious son who finally saw clearly enough to receive the Father's love; the final state of the legalistic son is not made clear by Christ. While both are bad and fleshly, I maintain that legalism is a greater obstacle to understanding and trusting Christ than licentiousness. Again, ironic how focused the legalists are on constantly pointing out licentiousness. Hmm.
God’s Love is Everything
Further, Philippians 1 is a spectacular reminder of God's love. It helps us see love as more than an emotion - it is a mental willful choice made from knowing truth. God's attributes all merge into His being. He is Love because He has perfect knowledge. His perfect knowledge makes Him Love. This is an imperfect human based description of God; but, my point is that we will always love the way we see ourselves loved by Christ. He always chooses love because He knows His own identity perfectly - He fully trusts the Father's love - always has and always will. We are learning our identity, but we now have the opportunity to make the same choices. Paul is clear that the amount we know and experience Christ's love will determine how much we reflect it. It is a direct correlation.
May we mentally bathe in Christ's love more and more so that everything we think and do will reflect well on Christ and the gospel and continue to move this mission forward. This is something that happens in everyday life; it is not just a special “ministry”. Those are only roles in the mission. The mission is to know Christ and live from Him so that whatever role we play in establishing and defending the gospel, it moves it forward and does not harm it or those in need of its help. It is better to speak the pure message to one person than an impure message to thousands. One ounce of truth is better than a hundred pounds of error.
And that is of primary importance - knowing, experiencing, and reflecting the pure good news of God's grace. May you continue to walk well in this grace. Thank you for your time to read. May you continue to walk well in God's truth. And I pray I have contributed to that in some small way by portraying truth and the gospel in an uncorrupted way. If so, then I am partnering with Paul and all of you in this mission. And that is my only goal! It is a spectacular mission.