Special post

The book of Philippians is one of the smaller books in the Bible that can we can use as a life source alone. In this book, the apostle Paul is writing to the church of Philippi. He has been traveling and sharing the gospel of Christ and going through the sufferings and persecutions of Jesus Christ as well. He is writing this letter from a jail cell. He does not know whether or he will get out alive and yet he writes some words of wisdom this church he has come to love. In this post I am not going to talk so much about the metaphors (sorry to disappoint) but I am going to talk more on my own interpretation and how I have applied to my own life. I think that out of all the texts we have read, I have enjoyed readings that came from the bible the most. As I said before, I feel like the Paul’s letter to the Philippians is most relevant to how we should live our lives today. One of first things that Paul writes about in his letter is how the prison guards have all come to know Jesus Christ through him. He emphasizes that even his imprisonment is not in vain. His circumstances were for the defense of the gospel. I feel like the central theme of the this letter is every circumstance we go through is not in vain and God always has a purpose for it.  One of the things I do want to touch on is when Paul states “For to me, to live as Christ and to die is gain.” I think a lot of people skip over this statement because it can be hard understand. In our society, we typically do not look at dying as something good or gaining anything. The simple interpretation of that quote is that if we live as Jesus lived, we will surly have eternity with him when we die. That in itself is a gain because the things of this earth or only temporary but heaven is eternal. I hope that makes sense. I think people over think some things in the Bible, but in reality, there is a lot that is self explanatory. However, this could bring up the question, what if someone does not live as Christ, but he or she was still saved, would it be a benefit to die? Just a thought.

When I was an intern at my church, we had to go through a boot camp type thing in which we were running, doing push-ups, repeating Bible verses to the leaders, and other team building stuff. One of the quotes we had to repeat over and over again is “You must have the same attitude as Christ Jesus had.” Well, what does that mean to have the attitude of Christ? One would think that everyone should have the same attitude since everyone is on the same page, right?  The fact is, is that people have different interpretations of what that actually means because people often take the words of Jesus is different way.  To have the attitude of Christ means to value what Jesus values. If we want to know what Jesus valued, read the Sermon on the Mount. Since Christ gave himeself for us, we should give ourselves for others. One of the things that Paul says that always catches my attention when he talks about the value of knowing Christ. He says that what he thought was important, has now been a loss because of Christ. He also says that he considers everything to be a loss compared to the value of know Christ. We can look at this verse is a couple different ways. I am not sure if Paul meant this as something  physical or if he just meant spiritually. Maybe it was a combination of both. If you go back to the book of Mark, Jesus is asking the rich man to sell all his stuff. Of course that story alone, teaches us that the value of know Christ is much greater than physical stuff. So when I read this in Paul’s letter, I interpret it as anything in my own life that I consider important, whether that be friends, a job, my image; all those things should be considered worthless compared to having God. If we jump a few paragraphs, Paul encourages the church of Philippi to not worry about anything but to pray about everything. In these economic times, worrying is America’s middle name, but Paul tells us otherwise. This is one of literal statements in his letter, but again we take it as a metaphor. Again, to not worry about anything and pray about everything is definitely literal. But do we actually pray about everything? Do we pray about what type of car we should get, what to do in a certain situation? Most people would say no. I only know one person in my life that I can say she truly prays about everything. Paul says that if we do this, “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” To have a peace that is beyond our human understanding is an extraordinary thing. When we say that we have a peace that we cannot understand, it is true evidence that God working in our lives. As I said at the beginning this letter itself could be a source for life, but I think it all depends on how we take the words of Paul and apply it to  our lives.

angle man with wings

When I first started read the man with enormous wings, it was a little hard for me to catch on. As I began to understand it more I saw that it was kind of magic and spiritual story. There is actually a lot of symbolism in the story. It starts off with Pelayo having a dream that he finds an old man, homeless with unusually large wings. After talking to his wife, they had the thought that the old man was an angel that came to take their sick child to heaven. They keep the old man in a chicken coop and find that the old man with wings is drawing in a crowd. Soon there were so many people that came for healings and what not, that the wife began to charge people for admission. Its interesting how the angel was so beat up and unattractive, yet so many people still flocked to him. The spiritual signifcance I see in this is Isaiah 53 when Isaish prophesies over the suffering servant. “ one of things it talks about in that chapter is how the suffering servant was not attractive to many. Then when we jump to the new testament, large crowds are constantly surrounding Jesus, not for his looks but for his miraculous healing power. People flock this “angel” partly on faith but also to see him perform miracles. Once they hear the story about the spider woman, the people devote their attention to the spider woman. Although the story is not less strange, the dirty old man who is supposedly an angel cannot match the appeal of a spider woman. I think a lot of our lives look that way. When we experience something that is satisfying, we tend to give our attention to that thing, whatever it may be. But like how the people lost interest in the old man, we lose interest in once we see something that looks better. When jesus walked earth, people were amazed by is healings and miracles but as soon as jesus started being real with people and telling them the way to live, they quickly lost interest and left. My thoughts are kind of jumbled but that’s what it made me think when I read this.

Philippians take 2

Yeah I was definitely one of those people who did not see all the metaphors. I think the bible is so full of metaphors and Christians speak metaphorically all the time, that if we were to try and look for metaphors in the bible it would be difficult for us to find them. I have read the book of Philippians a good number of times and always overlooked the metaphors. When we had to read it class and find all the metaphorical interpretations I was stumped. But after going over it in class, I was surprised that I didn’t see it before. One of my favorite quotes is “for to me, to live as Christ and to die is gain.” I believe that that is a literal statement. If we live on earth in the image of Christ, we gain much more when we die because we will be with God for eternity. I think that the Christian culture has turned scriptures like these into metaphors. So it’s almost like a reversed metaphor. A lot people interpret statements like that into “dyeing to self.” We have all heard that phrase before. But in that time when Jesus talked about losing a life, you will save it and when Paul talks about dying is gain, it was definitely literal. I just think it’s interesting at how we have interpreted it to be a metaphor. Another phrase that can be easy to miss is “God in you” or “God in your heart.” Again, we hear it so often that we forget that its not talking about our physical heart but our soul or inner being or the core of our emotions. The fact that Paul is in jail writing this letter is amazing to me. He is telling us not to worry and be content all while he awaits his fate.