Bible Study Guide for Sunday, October 1, Year A

• Exodus 17:1-7
• Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16
• Philippians 2:1-13
• Matthew 21:23-32

 

            The letter to the Philippians that we read in this week’s New Testament reading comes with some interesting background. As our selection starts the second chapter in the book, the first chapter has set the scene for who was writing (Saints Paul and Timothy) and the situation that they were in: jail. Paul had been jailed for preaching the Gospel, although the letter doesn’t make clear which of the multiple times Paul was imprisoned this was. He begins the first chapter by declaring that his imprisonment is in fact a good thing for the cause of the Gospel and the nascent church, something that may not have been apparent to his original audience. The people around him in prison gained confidence from his own confidence that “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil 1:20). Paul’s fellow Christians and even the palace guard became braver thanks to his bravery and preached the Gospel to those around them.

            Despite this happy confidence, Paul was also thinking of the very real dangers he faced in prison. He debated whether he would prefer to die, and be with Jesus right away, or to live, and continue to do God’s work in the world. He knew that his being on earth provided encouragement to the Christian communities he was guiding and instructed them that “whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27). He encouraged his audience to stick together, telling them that “it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him” (Phil 1:29), the same suffering that Paul himself was going through. This suggests that suffering for Christ is a regular part of being His follower, not an anomaly, and perhaps even a gift to be granted.

            I’m recapping all this info from a chapter that wasn’t even in our readings for this week because I found it gave me a lot more resonance for the verses we do read. It made me read the first verse (“If there is any encouragement … any consolation … any compassion and sympathy …”) with some real uncertainty. Is there encouragement and consolation to be had in Christ? The jails of the Roman Empire weren’t known as compassionate and comfortable lodgings. He was in a painful situation where his life was at risk, surrounded by at best a few people sympathetic to him, writing to other people who may have been less immediately at risk, but were still fearful for their lives because of the religion they all professed. He was asking them to be humble and loving, to look out for each other instead of saving their own skin, to “regard others as better than yourselves”. Most of us find that pretty difficult to do with our fellow church members in our lives today. I can’t imagine how much harder it would be as a first-century Christian. Yet his faith in Christ was such that he believed his beloved friends would obey him and live with each other in concord and love.

            This extra context of Paul’s jail experience also adds resonance to the poetic verses that make up the center of today’s reading. While Paul and his audience are regular humans, being persecuted for their faith, the contrast between Jesus’s godly origins and shameful death is even starker. Jesus utterly emptied Himself of pride or a sense of prominence and submitted Himself to the depths of pain, loneliness, and desolation. And because Jesus as God came down from Heaven to the absolute depths of humanity, God then raised Him up to the most exalted status. This self-emptying is the model of behavior for the Philippians and our model for ourselves. It also demands our worship and praise to God for such a model and such a savior.

            So, then, how are we to apply Paul’s instructions? Paul says that we are to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling.” At first that struck me as intimidating and a bit odd. Wasn’t Paul just telling his audience to stick together, be of the same mind, work together – and now I’m on my own to figure out my own salvation? But then Paul provides the answer: it is God at work within us. God working within us is how we work out our salvation. It’s not that we just let God do all the work, but He enables us to do His work and follow His will, and through those things we – all of us – find our salvation. - Lindy Noecker

 

• If you converted to Christianity, did the concept or idea of salvation play a part in your conversion? If you’re a lifelong Christian, how has your thinking about salvation changed over the years – or maybe you just don’t think about the concept much?
• How do you relate the experience of suffering to your Christian faith or your understanding of Jesus?
• If you or someone close to you has had the experience of being in jail/prison, did that experience resonate with your Christian faith at all? How so?