The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though an host pitched against me, mine heart should not be afraid: though war be raised against me, I will trust in this.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will require, even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to visit the Lord's Temple.
For in the time of trouble the Lord shall hide me in the Tabernacle: in the secret place of the pavilion, and set me up upon a rock.
I should have fainted, except I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Hope in the Lord: be strong, and he shall comfort thine heart, and trust in the Lord.
Geneva Bible, 1560
Philippians 3:17-4:1
3:17Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
4:1Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
Philippi and Philippians
Philippi was a long-time Roman colony on the east-west road between Byzantium and Rome, so like the apostle Paul himself, the people Paul addressed in this letter were Roman citizens yet still colonials. They received a lot of freedom and privilege in return for loyalty to the Roman empire; with their pride and affluence, most of them would have considered Paul's suggestion of humility degrading.
First Church Philippi may have serendipitously started the way Acts 16 tells the story:
Paul and his ministry sidekick Timothy went to Philippi in Macedonia, then down to the river on the sabbath hoping to find an ad hoc synagogue, because if there was no local synagogue, Jews would gather at the river to form a minyan or at least to pray together. They found Purveyor of Purple Cloth Lydia by the riverbank, and eventually baptized Lydia and her entire family. Anti-imperial heavenly citizenship begins with baptism; the Holy Spirit creates the church out of the assembly of the baptized! So Paul was their founding pastor and probably a kind of mission developer. Philippi was the first church on European soil.
Paul wrote this captivity (imprisonment) letter either from Ephesus around 52-56, or more probably from Rome around 61-62. Captivity letter? Other prisoners whose writing helped change lives include Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela. Can you think of less famous persons whose witness and testimony has helped change others during incarceration?
Today's Second Reading
The letter or epistle to the church at Philippi is one of the apostle Paul's seven undisputed letters. In that time and place, attaching a famous person's name to your writing was a common practice that honored them and that would get the actual writer more readers and more credibility. Scholars have determined Paul did not write several NT books that bear his name because they contain grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, and theology that's not his.
Philippians is The Epistle of Joy and reveals Paul captured by and captive to Jesus Christ! The words for grace and joy in Greek come from the same root, so you could say to have joy means to recognize and embody grace.
χάρις = grace
χαράς = joy
Vocabulary Notes
3:17 is an example of paranaesis, a type of exhortation that's not quite teaching or instruction. "Join in imitating" literally is coming together, "sym"-mimesis in a joint effort. Think of sympathy, feeling together.
Paul says, "Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me … the example you have in us." Almost none of us twenty-first century Westerners ever would consider advising someone to act like us or become like us, though in the early church and in the Greco-Roman world in general, it wasn't quite so shockingly arrogant.
Moreover, there's a mimetic perspective in theology and in cultural anthropology that perceives (many if not most) humans as people who tend to imitate (mimic, echo, replicate) behaviors they see, rather than independently thinking out behaviors and responses as well as anyone can. I'd add we tend to be sponges that easily absorb ideas and trends.
I don't know about my readers' culinary tastes, but the upsurge in kale over the past decade proves that most people are more mimetic/imitative than they are thoughtful. "Don't get me wrong," I enjoy kale cooked into soups and stews, but raw, even finely shredded?!
3:17 those who live according to the example (example = a pattern or a type = a strike that leaves an imprint. Typography. Typewriter. Jesus is the archetype that made an imprint on Paul's life, therefore Paul feels justified asking us to imitate him. "you have in us" = Paul and his followers.
3:17, 18 – "live" is walk, go about—peripatetic
3:20 citizenship – politeuma, note the "poli" root, as in politics, or polity: a thing about the people.
3:21 all things subject to himself, Jesus Christ. That's absolutely everything: people, planets, plants, politics, structures, institutions, etc.
"Our Citizenship is in Heaven"
Paul tells the Roman citizens in the assembly at Philippi their real citizenship is in the earthbound reality of God's Kingdom of Heaven. Think about the process for US citizenship. What is the process for heavenly citizenship? It starts with the Holy Spirit and with baptism, and then we enjoy the benefits and claim the responsibilities of Jesus' lordship, of our heavenly citizenship.
What does it mean to be a colonial? Roman? Spanish? British Empires? How about us and empire? Have we been (to what extent have all of us been) colonized by global conglomerates/multinationals that function as cultural, consumer, and economic empires—ExxonMobil, Apple, BP, Samsung, GE, Philips? Our baptismal identity supersedes our citizenship in the USA, UK, or any other country; our baptismal loyalty to Jesus Christ comes before our allegiance to any entity, organization, or corporation.
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