Family Bible Study

Paul seems to feel more confident about the maturity of the Philippians than he seems in other epistles. He doesn’t have much rebuke for them, and he doesn’t spend much time talking about the basics.

In chapter 3 he elaborates on what he seemed to consider a mature way of following Christ. He speaks of himself, saying he has not obtained perfection, but he presses on “to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (3:12).

Then he mentions that “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things” (3:15a). He seems to be expecting a certain level of maturity from the Philippians; even skipping right by a chance to correct the immature ones: “And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained” (3:15b-16).

So, then Philippians can perhaps be seen as an overview of what mature believers should continually pull out of the Gospel. From Paul’s exhortations to continually live a life worthy of the Gospel (1:27-30), and imitate Christ’s attitudes and actions (2:1-18), and finally to remain firm in the true Gospel (Chapter 3). Those are things we all need to continually renew our minds with.