In our study of any portion of Scripture, we should first of all look at
the address on the envelope. Of course you would say that the recipients
were at the city of Philippi. That is true. But there is more to it then
merely their earthly residence. They are a people whose
citizenship is in heaven (3:20). That immediately sets them apart.
They are not of the administration of promise, for all connected with it
have a part in the promise made to Abraham and that had to do with a land
in this earth as we know it, heaven not being their hope.
Up till the end of Acts, Paul was preaching the kingdom and he expected to
be living when the King came to take up His kingdom (
1 Thes 4:15 & 1 Cor 15: 51). But in
Ph'p 1:23 Paul has a desire to depart, that is, a return to the dust.
The kingdom is no longer in view. So he is resigned to the fact that he must
die some day.
From the beginning of his ministry till the end of Acts Paul had spiritual
gifts, one of them being the gift of healing (
Acts 28:36;8,9). But we know that Philippians is this side of
Acts 28:28 because of the account of the sickness of Epaphraditus
(2:25-30). Paul could no longer
heal the sick.
However you may take it or read it, the high calling of
3:14 cannot possibly have to do with the administration of promise
and its kingdom. This is something over and beyond a kingdom here.
Paul spent the early years of his ministry in a
administration in which the Jew was first. In that time Paul had much
of which he could boast (3:4-6).
But with the change of
administration, Paul no longer had whereof he could boast. He counts
all such things as loss in the
administration of the mystery.
Now with the address problem settled, we find that we are to work out our
salvation with fear and trembling (2:12
). Notice that it says work out, not work for. This salvation is by grace
through faith (Eph 2:8-10). Also
we can see that it is not the salvation which was of the Jews (
John 4:22), but the salvation that was sent to the Gentiles (
Acts 28:28). In his first 7 epistles Paul wrote of a salvation which
was of the Jews for at that time they had every advantage, including the
oracles of God and the service (Rom 9:
3-5). He went to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile. At that time
the Gentile believer partook of the blessings of Israel. So we can conclude
that the salvation that we are to work out today is that which was sent to
Gentiles.
You might find a title for this book in
3:14, The Prize of the High Calling
. We do not know what this prize might be. It is not described. Overcomers
in the kingdom calling will rule over the nations with Christ (
Rev 2:26,27), and that here on the earth. There is a hint in
2 Tim 2:11,12 that there may be a similar situation in the
administration of the mystery, that there may be a ruling with Him.
Although Philippians and Hebrews are in two different
administrations, they have a common theme; On to Perfection. See the
chart on this comparative study in The Testimony of the Lord's Prisoner,
page 194, by Charles H. Welch.
