Outwardly Focused (11/12/24)

What Paul says at the outset here may come across as a bit defensive.  Perhaps it was.  Perhaps there were those in Philippi who thought Paul was in it for the money, even if he never made explicit request for it.  But I find it hard to believe.  Who would accept such an accusation?  They had witnessed his selflessness.  They had provided, as they had provided, without there ever having been any request for it.  Even Lydia, at the outset of the ministry in that city, had not been asked to provide.  She volunteered her home as a base of operations for these missionaries.  And in Thessalonica, it is clear that Paul not only made no request for support, but went out of his way to avoid any necessity of such an action.

All that being said, I think we must look at this as a teachable moment, rather than an apostolic defense.  I don’t see anything to suggest that Philippi was in any great danger of becoming a ministry that was in it for the money, but as a profitable commercial center, I suppose thinking in terms of balance sheets and profits would come naturally.  So, a gentle reminder that this is not world-system activity is in order.  Don’t be giving just to get.  No, and don’t be giving with some idea of showing God how good you are.

Yet, there is also this to consider.  Paul has moved away from the accounting language of the preceding verses.  It may not be entirely evident in translation, for we do have this mention of increases to their account.  But it’s not the same as that debit and credit account that was noted back in verse 15.  This is different.  Here, we’re actually looking at logos, which we would normally apply to orderly discourse, doctrine, or reason.  But it will also bear this sense of accounting, though we would usually think of it more as that accounting that might come in a ship’s log entry, or perhaps a performance review. 

This will help correct any misconception we have about the business of giving and receiving.  It’s not that we give our tithe in hopes of receiving some hundred-fold return.  That’s garbage thinking.  That’s got nothing of the kingdom in it, and everything of fleshly selfishness.  Even the NLT falls into something of this mindset in its translation of verse 17.  They write, “Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness.”  I’m sorry, but this isn’t about rewards.  It’s about reviews.  There may come a reward in light of the review, but that’s out of sight yet.  This is a performance review.  It’s a reckoning of how one has pursued the duties assigned him.  It is, if you will, the precursor to hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  So, keep that in the forefront of your mind as you look at this ‘matter of giving and receiving.’  It’s not about you receiving because you gave.  It’s about the faithful performance of your duty.  It’s about loving God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and yes, all your possessions.

Look clearly.  Paul is still fully content.  Had he received nothing from them, yet he would still be fully content.  His contentment is not circumstantial in its basis, but fully resting on faith in God.  His contentment is in that which he urges on the Philippians in verse 19.  “My God will supply.”  Like Abraham walking his son Isaac to the place of sacrifice, and asked by his son, “Where is the offering?”  Paul could confidently assure that, “My God will supply.”  If it was not through the Philippians, it would be through other means.  And it might not be a matter of comfortable living and luxury.  But his needs would be met in full.

So, where does that leave us?  It leaves us here: Their giving of this gift was an honorable deed, a good work.  And as an honorable deed, it deserves to be honored.  We get into this place of false humility, or false piety, which in this case amounts to the same thing.  If we are on the giving end, we somehow think it right to refuse all recognition, as if somehow being recognized for what we have done would spoil the doing.  I get it.  We have that instruction not to let the left hand know what the right is doing when we are giving to the Lord.  We don’t act to be seen.  We don’t do our good deeds to show off our goodness.  We do it simply because it is good.  But this same false piety can affect us when we are the receiving end.  Perhaps we fear we might pump up pride in our benefactor if we acknowledge what they have done.  But no.  You have done a good thing, and God is pleased.  I don’t need to lessen that by pointing out that what they have given was what they had from Him in the first place.  They know that.  And if they don’t, God can surely remind them.  But to acknowledge in another that God has used them?  This is only right and just.  After all, don’t we all need the acknowledgement and appreciation of what we do for others?  We don’t act with that in mind, yet if it is constantly absent, then I dare say we will soon decide it’s not worth it to act.  Who will wish to serve when service goes unappreciated?

So, we have a simple lesson from this:  Give honor where honor is due.  If you have been blessed, acknowledge the blessing.  Consider this.  Our prayers are to be prayers of thanksgiving.  Yes, we may present our needs before God, pour out our hearts before God, admit our fears and concerns to Him.  But there is this undergirding framework of thanksgiving.  Thank God that you have Him to pray to.  Thank God that He listens.  Thank God because you know He cares and will indeed answer, and that according to your true needs, rather than your rather poorly informed ideas.  And that same ‘attitude of gratitude’ as so many have called it should permeate our interactions one with another.  If you have been blessed by a brother or sister, let them know it!  If you are being acknowledged for how you have blessed another, let them see that you receive it.  Then both of you can have further cause to praise God and thank Him.  I know how it feels, especially as I go about the days of this mission trip.  When I see one of my brothers here really responding to the teaching we are providing, coming to me with joyful appreciation for what they are being given, yes, I am gladdened to have been appreciated.  But it is more than that.  I am glad because I see what God is doing through me.  I am glad to have been granted to be part of this, and to see that I have done my part to some profit.  These appreciations by my brothers here come as a down-payment, if you will, on that, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Perhaps let that be your own response when next you find yourself receiving appreciation for doing the work God assigned you.  And perhaps, knowing how you profit by hearing those appreciations, offer your own appreciation of that which your brother is doing for our God and king.

Sacrificial Giving (11/14/24)

I have labelled this part of my study, ‘Sacrificial Giving,’ but let me make clear from the outset that I am not talking about giving until it hurts, or giving everything away for some vow of poverty, or anything of that sort.  It’s not a question of quantity, but of motive.  When we give, why do we give?  Do we give because some emotional appeal has played upon our feelings?  Do we give because our pastor has made some call for giving, and we feel the peer pressure of others giving, and therefore feel it needful to do so ourselves?  Or, is it in fact an act of true and heartfelt worship, a holy desire to love God with all that we have?  Perhaps it’s even a means by which to lessen the hold our material wealth can come to have on us.  And I don’t think that’s a bad thing, should that be the case.

What I want us to see is the description Paul applies to this offering that has been sent for his use.  It is a ‘fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.’  It’s not about his needs being met, though they have been, and more.  It’s not about them getting some hundredfold return on their invested seed-offering.  It has often been observed that you can’t outgive God, but that’s not the point.  No.  It’s a thank offering, if you will, an expression of holy gratitude to a holy God who has so blessed them as to make known to them the rich word of Life, of Hope, of peace with God.

Honestly, if you have this, you, like Paul, should be fully content and in need of nothing.  Hear him in this passage.  I’ll draw from the Phillips translation.  “Now I have everything I want – in fact I am rich.”  Pause there.  Look back across what he has been telling us.  If this rich gift had already come his way, if this was in fact farewell rather than the expectant hope of a good resolution to his case, I have no doubt but that he would say the same thing.  As it happens, he has received their supply.  More, he has received the companionship and assistance of Epaphroditus.  And so, he continues, “Yes, I am quite content, thanks to your gifts.”  Because your gifts have not been given in some ungodly expectation.  Your gifts have not been given with false expectations or false motives.  They have been given in pure desire to offer to God something in return for the rich gift of salvation, and so, to see that same rich gift made known to others.

And Paul says to them, “God receives your gift.  He is well-pleased.”  Yes, Paul is the immediate beneficiary, but it’s God who receives, just as, though the Philippians were the means, God gave.  He also speaks of this gift as acceptable.  The sense is that this was just what God willed to see done.  The giving that is done apart from the will and the purpose of God cannot be described as acceptable.  It becomes something of a strange fire, though one hopes without quite so dire a result.  But if the act of worship is not an act of obedience to the will of God, if the good work we would do is but some urging of our own vain imagination, why should He be well-pleased?  Why should He accept it at all?  And to be sure, if our prime motive in giving is in hopes of receiving, we have so thoroughly misunderstood God as to have greater cause to expect rejection than reward.

But that’s not the case here.  These have given with godly motive, to godly purpose under godly, even inspired direction.  And so, God is pleased to accept that gift.  It’s not about how much they gave.  I have always thought it rather egalitarian that God calls not for some fixed-value contribution from His people, but a percentage.  Whether you still practice tithing or not, the fairness of it should be evident.  So, too, with the sacrificial system more generally.  If you cannot afford a goat, or a lamb, or what have you, go get a pigeon.  It’s not about the size of your offering.  It’s not about the costliness of your gift.  It’s not an opportunity for you to walk about in your vanity and say to one and all, “See how much I have given our God?”  You have given Him nothing.  What have you got that He did not give you in the first place?  No!  Far be it from us to be giving into this or that ministry so as to see our name on a plaque, or rolling by in some list of credits or what not.  We give because we love the Lord, and we desire to see His purposes proceed, His servants supplied, and His children redeemed, nothing more.  It’s not about the size, but about the willingness.  It’s not about the sacrifice, it’s about the joyful participation in what God is doing.  It is a joy to be serving our Lord, and that joy is what God receives as a pleasing sacrifice.

This is, I have to say, a bit of what I am experiencing with these weeks in Africa.  We could whine about the difficulties, and there are plenty.  We could complain of the expense.  Or we could laud those coming to the conference for their sacrifices in coming here, doing so in such a way that they become prideful and boastful of how much they’ve done.  Far be it from us!  No, it’s about seeing God’s workers made more effective, about using our gifts to build up the body of Christ, and about being built up in our own turn.  Glory to God.

God's Provision (11/15/24)

In our giving, we provide, but more, far more, by our giving, God provides.  And God, being God, provides perfectly.  This is where Paul is taking us in verse 19.  “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  My God.  He Who provides for me.  He will supply your needs.  And let me stress, it is your needs He will supply, not your wish list.  These may align, and praise God if they do.  But it’s your needs that are in view, both those needs that pertain to the mundane matters of continued life this side of the grave, and those needs pertaining to the work you have been given to do in Christ, the purpose that has been granted you, the thing you were designed to do.

How will He do this?  By means.  Those means may include gifts of support such as came to Paul.  They may include the tithes and offerings given into the ministry by the church membership.  They may include something as uninteresting as the pay you receive from your employment, and the fact that there are goods in the store you can procure with those funds.  We don’t even give that a thought most days in the West, but having just spent some time in Malawi, I have encountered a time and place where neither part of that equation is guaranteed.  There are so few jobs, that employment is doubtful, and even if you should have a good paying job, it’s not at all certain that the goods you need are going to be available for purchase.  Now I am in Zambia, and as things stand currently, no amount of money is going to suffice to ensure you have power in your house, power to refrigerate and keep your food, power to engage fans or air conditioners to render the temperature livable, power to permit lights in the dimness of morning or evening.  But the truth of God holds:  My God shall supply all your needs.  Paul could proclaim this with assurance because it was true.  He could proclaim it with conviction because he had lived this truth, seen it repeatedly in his own life.  Where else does this potent contentment of his come from?  I know my God.  I know His provision.  I know His faithfulness.  I need not fret.  I need not be anxious.

Hear it again as he writes to the church in Corinth.  “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so as to be always sufficient and abundantly supplied for every good deed” (2Co 9:8).  This supply isn’t without purpose, and that purpose isn’t simply our comfort and ease.  It’s about being able to do good, and doing good is, by its nature, a matter done for somebody else.  It cannot be otherwise.  A good deed done for oneself is just self-serving, selfishness.  There is little enough of godliness in it.  Even your most heathen neighbor does as much.  But a good deed turns outward, it directs our focus outward, to see where God would have us moving so as to be the means of His supply to another.  And knowing that He provides for our needs also directs our focus outward.  It moves us beyond worrying about our provisions, our mortgage, our car payment, college tuition for our children, or whatever other expenses we’ve got to deal with.  It moves us beyond just doing the minimum to get along at our jobs, and trains us to recognize that even that job is something God has provided, and that our doing of that job is not merely slaving away for our employer, but a task given us to by our Lord and for our Lord.  If this is His chosen means to provide for me, ought I not to apply myself the more gladly and the more diligently to that work?  Is it any less holy to apply myself to my mundane employment than to be busy with the work of the church?  No.  By serving my God in my workplace, I am provided with the means to give rich supply to the work of the church, as well as to be sufficient for the needs of my family.

It is as simple as this.  God supplies our needs.  And if God supplies our needs, then whatever our situation, whatever our station in life, we are all of dependent upon God.  We all have need of His provision, apart from which we would not even have the breath in our lungs.  All of us.  Rich, poor, black, white, married, single, it makes no difference.  There is nobody who can truly say they don’t need God.  There are, sadly, many who refuse to acknowledge the fact, and that even more sadly includes many who are in the church, many even in the pulpit.  But realities on the ground do not alter the truth.  Recognized or not, we all depend on God for everything.  Everything.

This is very much where I am in my own turn this morning.  I do not lack for funds.  I do not lack for preparedness when it comes to the program we have for the day ahead.  I can return to my notes as prepared, and proceed stolidly ahead.  And yet.  And yet, I am not at all certain that is the direction in which I am called to travel today.  There are other messages burning in my thoughts, other directions things could go.  The question is whether I am a fit vessel to deliver this alternate message, whether it is in fact what God would have done today, and whether, should that be the case, I am fit to deliver that message in love.  To that end, I would look at the last thought I have here, before I jump in the shower.  I noticed a shift of focus, to some degree, between verse 19 and verse 20.  That first verse, as we have seen, begins with ‘my God.’  But now we immediately see it switch to our God.  My God will supply… to our God be the glory.

What’s happening here?  Paul is again emphasizing the equality of man in the sight of God.  His provision for Paul is no different than His provision for them.  My God provides.  Our God is glorious.  Now, obviously these are not two separate gods, but one God.  He is indicating that God is no respecter of persons.  That doesn’t mean or require that his provision for you looks like his provision for me.  It doesn’t mean everybody gets just as much.  Neither does it demand that what each receives is perfectly in keeping with his earnings.  We’re not dealing in wages here, nor even in justice.  It’s simply provision according to need.  Your need may be greater, and so, His provision to you may be greater.  He may, on the other hand, see that for you, a season of need is beneficial, teaching you to more fully depend on Him, and so, your provision may be just enough.  But God knows your needs.  He knows better than you do what you need.  Your ideas are too clouded by desire.  But whichever of us is in view, and however that provision may look, it is sufficient for the good work God has given to you to do.  It is sufficient for the good work that He is doing in you.  And it is good.  For God is good.

We have but to recognize that it is God who provides, not our giving, not our labors.  It is God, as well, who is doing this good deed through us.  Thus, we give God the glory both for having received the means, and for being a part of that good work for which the means were given.  God works through us, through you, through me.  And it is good.  This sinful man is able to do something holy, something made worthy of God by the participation of God.  I can claim no credit.  I can only give God the glory for doing this, for granting me a part in this.  This is true each and every day.  It is as true when I go to work and plow ahead on whatever tasks are there to be done, as it is here in the mission field, seeking to equip the men and women of God here to do the work of God in their various countries.

Lord, equip me.  Keep me clear on the direction You wish to take things, open to what You want to say to this people in this time and place.  If I need to abandon my expected program in favor of something else, guide me.  If the call is to continue the course, then calm me.  Whatever the case, Lord, Thy will be done, and may all the glory be given unto Your name.  Amen.  So be it.