Philippians 4:1 _(with 1 Timothy 6:12)_ From the soul's supreme object comes her supreme inspiration. I. We do not ask you to stand fast in anything that is partial, limited, or temporary. "Stand fast in the Lord." "Lay hold on eternal life," which is nowhere save in the eternal unity of powers, w... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:3 One Spirit and One Body. I. This measureless body, spread out before our eyes in vast outline, so varied, so glorious, so wonderful, is convincement enough of the wealth and grandeur of the Spirit whose body it is, whose manifestation it is. It is God revealing Himself to the eyes... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:4 Christian Cheerfulness. I. We can hardly appreciate the full instruction to be drawn from these words unless we remember St. Paul's condition when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians. He was a prisoner at Rome, and his life hung on the caprice of the insane tyrant who then occu... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:4 A Life of Prayer a Life of Peace. St. Paul in these words bids the Christians of Philippi to carry all their sorrows and fears to the throne of Christ. He specially bids them remember the nearness of our Lord and the freedom we may use in speaking to Him; and in so doing he has tau... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:5 The Great Expectation. I. It has been the expectation of the coming of the Lord which ever since the time of the Apostles has always been the inspiration of the Christian world. The noblest souls always have believed that humanity was capable of containing, and was sure sooner or l... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:5 I. It is not easy to determine in which of two senses the former clause is to be taken. The Lord is near in position, and the Lord is near in approach. In either sense we can connect the doctrine and the precept. If the Lord is soon coming, how idle must be all anxiety about things s... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:6 I. "Let your requests be made known unto God." (1) Requests. All creatures are dependent. The act of breathing seems the emblem at once of the creature's continual need and the Creator's abundant supply. With us there is emptiness: with Him there is fulness; and, as in the case of br... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:6 The Peace of God and what Hinders it. The Apostle speaks of certain things which hinder the ideal peace, and the practical thing for us is to understand these hindrances and remove them. I. The evil that he would prohibit is care over-anxiety about the things of life. The care cond... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:7 The Peace of God. Let us consider the two ideas suggested by the statement that this peace is the peace of God, and that it passeth all understanding; that is, we propose looking at its nature and its greatness, its Divine source, and its incomprehensible character. I. The nature o... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:8 When the Apostle wrote these words, he was filled with the best of all loves. These grand words were almost the last outpouring of the fulness of the Apostle's love. Everybody knows them; everybody admires them; everybody is conscious of an undefined pleasure in them. I. Observe tha... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:11 The Secret of Happiness. I. When St. Paul speaks of being _content,_he uses in the original a word which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. But this word, so rare with St. Paul, was in common use with all the schools of ancient Greece. Perhaps it would have been rendered mo... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:12 All men have owned that the knowledge which Paul claimed is not an easy one to win or keep. To know how to be poor! Plenty of people there are who are set down to the hard lesson. Plenty of people yes, all people in different degrees and different ways are led into some disappointm... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:13 I. The context shows that it is more of bearing than of doing that St. Paul speaks. He has been initiated, he says, into the great mystery of contentment. He knows how to reconcile himself to every extreme, how to conduct himself in plenty and in hunger, in abundance and in need. It... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:17 I. In a certain sense all almsgiving abounds to the account of the giver, all almsgiving, I mean, which is worthy of the name. I may be glad of the gift given, but I cannot call it almsgiving of a Christian kind unless there be two things in it: disinterestedness and self-denial. We... [ Continue Reading ]
Philippians 4:22 The Spirit of Christianity. I. The words of the text suggest to us that the Gospel is a spiritually restoring power. It makes men, sinful men, saints; it is a power to raise, ennoble, and make morally strong, a power which the world needs and must experience before prosperity shall... [ Continue Reading ]