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i usually focus on quantity: how much can i read each day. now i’m focusing on quality: how much Truth and insight can i glean from just a few verses. -Aly at The Mommy Diaries
I love this! This is our hope, that you will learn how to dwell on each verse, each word; looking and digging to find the great treasures in scripture. This study will be different than most of the other studies that you have been a part of. We certainly want to learn from Philippians, but we also want each of you to learn better how to study the Bible on your own. Instead of us simply regurgitating what we’ve learned from Philippians, we want you to find the life-changing truths from Philippians for yourself! The study guide is geared towards that end.
If you are just finding out about the study, you can read more about it here and here. Anyone is welcome to jump in any time! If you haven’t downloaded the study guide, go ahead and head over to Inspired to Action and print it out.
If you were able to follow the study guide plan this week, you should have read this passage at least eight times throughout the week. I like to think of it as putting on different glasses as you read, each time looking for something different. You may not find any “answers” to each question throughout the week, and that is fine. We are training ourselves to look for certain key elements that most passages of scripture will have.
Here are some of the truths I found in my study of Philippians 1:1-11:
What I learned about Paul
- Servant. He refers to Timothy and himself as “servants of Christ Jesus.” 1:1 The greek word Paul used here is doulos: “devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests.” This certainly is echoed throughout the book of Philippians, how Paul considered himself a servant of Christ who follows the example of the ultimate servant, Jesus.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant… Philippians 2:4-7a
- Thankful. “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine” 1:3-4
- Prayerful. “always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy…And it is my prayer that…” 1:4, 9
- Joyful. “…making my prayer with joy…“1:4 Philippians is known for the book of joy for a reason. Over and over again Paul speaks of his own joy for God’s people and His purposes. Paul later encourages the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice! (*clap* *clap*) 4:4
- Confident in God. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring in to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” 1:6 Yet another theme we will see in Philippians- Paul’s confidence in the Lord and His purposes.
- Affectionate. “For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus” 1:8
- Imprisoned. “…in my imprisonment” 1:7 Paul wrote Philippians, from house arrest in Rome. (See Acts 28:14-31)
What I learned about God
- Source of grace. “Grace to you…from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” 1:3
- Source of peace. “peace from God our Father” This is a theme that we will see more of in Philippians! “And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” 4:7 See also 4:9.
- God is our Father. 1:3
- Jesus is our Lord. 1:3
- Whom we give thanks. 1:3
- Began a good work in us. 1:6
- Will complete this good work. 1:6
- He knows our yearnings. “For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all…” 1:8 God knew Paul’s yearning for the Philippians. He knows our hearts as well. This is the first time I have noticed this truth!
- Jesus is the source of righteousness. “the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.”
What did you learn?
This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the truths to be found in Philippians 1:1-11 What insights did you see? Any promises? What did you learn about your identity in Christ? What is the Lord leading you to do as a result of what you have learned?
How did you like the study guide? Do you have any questions about the passage or study guide? Did you write a post about your study this week? Leave it in the comments!
We look forward to hearing from you!
I struggled this week, mainly because I’ve just started #hellomornings (for the 2nd time, i admit!) and because I have been working on memorizing Philippians – I found it easy to skim read instead of delving deep and chewing over His words. But partnership in the gospel stood out for me – because I so often focus on MY efforts in sharing His love that I forget that I am part of a body, each part with purpose and ability. I need to live more as a functioning member of a body, not an individual representative!
I had started studying Philippians on my own last week, so I was happy to find this study to help me along! I like your method!
I really hang on to this: “…he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” That gives me so much comfort when I feel I am being “worked on.”
Me, too! An amazing comfort that HE is the one working in me. I don’t have to “try harder” to become “better” Christ has already secured my righteousness!!
Thanks for leading this study. I was already studying Philippians so I decided to backtrack and use your guide as well.
Here is my post:
http://hideandseekadventures.blogspot.com/2011/05/verse-by-verse-word-by-word.html
Rusheika
Thanks for sharing this, Rusheika. Great post.
I found the study guide really helpful! The main thing I learned from this week is that I don’t need to try to do “be good” to please God. He is the one doing the work, he will complete it. What he wants me to do is to come to Christ. To me this means knowing Christ and surrendering everything to him, not trying to do it myself.
When I look back over the last year and a half of my life, I see the truth in this. In January of 2010 I decided to start reading my Bible every day, not following any particular plan, just reading some every day. Coming to Christ in that way has led to so many blessings in my life that I would never have imagined and certainly couldn’t have created on my own.
Isn’t it a joy to read His word?! I love the relationship we can have through walking with Him, and His word is such a big part of that!
I am only on Day 3 of this week’s passage so far — but I had a question.
Paul said that he prays for our love to abound in knowledge and depth of insight — do you know what this means? How is love connected to knowledge and insight? I’ve been really trying to make the connection and can’t seem to figure it out. :)
Great question, Crystal!
All of 1:9-11 is one long sentence, so we want to be sure to take verse nine in the context of the whole sentence. When I encounter a long sentence like this, I like to write it all out, and try to sort it out a bit. I did it for you here: http://bit.ly/jPDuEI so you can see it in action. Doing this “diagramming” helps to see what the main points of the passage are.
He is praying, ultimately, that they would glorify God. To glorify God they must be pure and blameless/filled with the fruit of righteousness. In order to be pure/have fruit they must be able to approve what is excellent. In order to approve what is excellent, he prays for abounding love.
This brings us back to verse 9 so we need to take a deeper look at this word love.
Another helpful tool is to look at the Greek. A good site for this is blueletterbible.org. Here is the Greek word used in this passage: http://bit.ly/kCxyeU which is agape. This is the same type of love used when the love of Christ is used. A sacrificial, other-centered love.
Yet another tool, when I am still not making a connection, is to look up the verse in different translations. This is a great site, to see a bunch of translations at once: http://bit.ly/jniA7W. The NLT is helpful.
At this point, if I am still not “getting it” I will look it up in a commentary. I found this in the Matthew Henry commentary (which you can find at biblestudytools.com):
“That they might be a knowing and judicious people: that love might abound in knowledge and in all judgment. It is not a blind love that will recommend us to God, but a love grounded upon knowledge and judgment. We must love God because of his infinite excellence and loveliness, and love our brethren because of what we see of the image of God upon them. Strong passions, without knowledge and a settled judgment, will not make us complete in the will of God, and sometimes do more hurt than good. The Jews had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, and were transported by it to violence and rage, Rom. 10:2; Jn. 16:2.”
I think that as our love grows in knowledge of God, we are able to discern better the things that are of God in our own life and in others. This helps us “approve what is excellent”, which helps us in our efforts to become more like Christ and trust God to be “filled with the fruit of righteousness”.
I hope this helps! Feel free to ask more questions!
I am enjoying the study, Katie. While I don’t have much to add to conversation here, I like your response to Crystal’s question. This is inspiring and motivating me to get into God’s Word more! Thank you!
Such a great question. I would take it from this perspective…typically we think of love as an emotion and led by what we feel. I think Paul’s prayer is that the Philippians love would not just be led by what they feel but what they know and understand. For example, you may “love” a song based on how it makes you feel but then when you learn the lyrics or hear the song writer’s inspiration you fall more in love with the song. With God the more we learn, study, dwell on His Word the more deeply we fall in love with Him. The next verse says “so that you may discern…”. In order to make wise choices we must be motivated by true love and devotion to God so that we may bring Him all the glory. If our love is just based on feelings we may still make selfish choices as those feelings fade. this entire exercise studying Gods word is doing exactly what Paul is praying for! Our knowledge and depth of insight is growing and we are falling more in love with our Lord!
Sorry so late, I just started the Bible study today.. I was doing Blogging through the Bible Study. I found your study so relax and easy to follow.. Downloaded the schedule and on Monday I will be right along with yall. Thank you so much for the Study.. God Bless and have a terrific evening
Yay, Olga! Glad you are joining us and have caught up already. Looking forward to studying with you!
Some things that stood out to me:
Paul REALLY loved these people. Who do I really love this way? Do I let them know like Paul did?
That’s one of my take-aways from this week:
Be more thankful of others who bring me joy in ministry and properly discern HOW to bless with them encouragement like Paul did the Philippians.
And to pray for them to continue growing (as well as me) in making right choices, remaining pure, and bearing and fruit.
I also love the thought that it is GOD who finishes what he starts! That way HE gets the glory and we don’t rise up in pride to fight over it.
I really loved the study guide, Katie. It put me in the text every day, but seeking out different things each time.
I used today to “fly through” Philippians 1:1-11 so I could catch up and get a feel for the study. Looking forward to doing it day by day next week….thank you so much for sharing this study…I can see that I will be getting tools to help me study the Word on my own….and I’m craving that!!!
I love this study. I haven’t done one like this before, so I really appreciate you all putting it together. I am already committed to another study that our church is doing for small groups, and my blog (which is devotional), but I am trying to do this one too.
This week was particularly busy being out of town half of the week so I wasn’t able to study out the part about Paul. Thank you for posting about that; I wrote it out in my journal.
Verses 9-11 of chapter 1 are so rich! I especially love verse 11! It’s like my new favorite verse. Really enjoying soaking in it. :)
Oh, so excited! I’m starting late but already enjoying myself immensely!! With 5 kiddos, the end of the school year, but I completely feel like this is going to add to my day and help me keep the peace through the rest of my day.
Now I’m off to share it with a girlfriend so she can join us too.
Have a blessedly beautiful week everyone!!
Thank you so much for the responses Katie & Heather! That really puts it in perspective.
I love this: “I like to think of it as putting on different glasses as you read.” It makes such a difference to come at the text from multiple angles. I too am enjoying this study. have been studying and/or memorizing Philippians for almost a year now and I still am making new discoveries!
So I have a question, and maybe I didn’t read the instructions carefully, so forgive me if I missed it. I began the Philippians study yesterday (getting so much out of it already!) and was wondering after 5 days, where do I get the study questions? Were these just samples for me so I can come up with others for the following weeks or are they somewhere else? Thank you so much for all the time you have put into this, it is a true blessing!
Hi Rebekah, there are no study questions, like a “typical” devotional. The study guide is simply 1-Read, 2-Truths, 3-Promises, 4-Commands, 5-Apply. You can certainly follow any “rabbit trails” the Lord leads you to, with word studies, commentaries, etc. But the study guide is plain and simple. (We plan to add to this study guide, with ways to go even deeper, which will be in our e-book coming out in the fall.) Let me know if you have any more questions!