Status Updates From Paul's Letter to the Philip...

"...in Paul's hand conventions are never merely conventional. Eventually everything...is brought under the influence of Christ...To live is Christ; to die is to gain Christ; & for the sake of such 'gain'...all else is merely refuse. Thus, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the readers of this letter, & with those who use this commentary to help better understand it as the Word of Christ" (462),

"The uniqueness of this passage in the corpus comes into focus here. For in Philippi he did accept their material support once and again. This says something significant about his relationship with this church, and here it is hard not to see the hand of Luke (and Lydia?) at work. Thus he gladly acknowledges their gift, but even here one finds the demurrer" (448).

"Just as with 'being humbled' in v. 12, so 'everything' in this sentence should be understood more broadly as well, as long as it is understood within Paul's theological frame of reference...his singular focus on Christ,..already dictates what 'all things' means for him. To take this sentence out of that singular Christ-focused context of his life is to doom it to serve for lesser, more often selfish, things" (434).

"The most common response to such a culture is not discrimination, but rejection. This text suggests a better way, that one approach the marketplace, the arts, the media, the university, looking for what is 'true' and 'uplifting' and 'admirable'; but that one do so with a discriminating eye and heart, for which the Crucified One serves as the template" (421).

"Thanksgiving is an explicit acknowledgment of creatureliness and dependence, a recognition that everything comes as gift, the verbalization before God of his goodness and generosity. If prayer as petition indicates their utter dependence on and trust in God, petition 'accompanied by thanksgiving' puts both their prayer and their lives into proper theological perspective" (409).