Philippian Philanthropy

“And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for needs once and again” (Philippians 4:15-16).

Sometimes help comes from the most unexpected places. Somebody who would never imagine comes through in just the right way and at just the right time. Paul knows all about that. The Roman colonial seaport of Philippi may be in his rearview mirror, but the support of the local believers continues to drop in his lap. These brand new followers of Jesus aren’t exactly rolling in cash. Despite their poverty, they bankroll the apostle’s Good News road trip. Call it Philippian philanthropy. They give so much because they’ve been given so much. 

Paul begins by flipping back through the scrapbook and remembering those crazy days when he first rolled into Philippi. “And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the Gospel” (v15). This was during his second Mediterranean tour and the first time anyone in Europe ever hears about Jesus. Breaking news! The God of Israel is now throwing the doors open to His kingdom to the entire world, not just the Jewish people. Dr. Luke wrote all about how the time Jesus used the Gospel to turn Philippi upside down in his sequel we call the book of Acts (Acts 16:12-40).

Think about the Gospel Paul brought to Macedonia for just a minute. God makes salvation available to anyone and everyone by placing your trust in the resurrected Rabbi/Carpenter from the boondocks of Galilee. Jesus lived the perfect life of obedience to God’s commandments that we failed to live. He died the brutal death for our sin we should have died. He rose to jaw-dropping new life we don’t deserve. The risen Christ gives us what we could never ever dream of getting for ourselves. That’s the “beginning of the Gospel” and 2,000 years later, it hasn’t stopped. 

Yeah, it was a whole scene in Philippi. Conversions. Riots. Public flogging. A supernatural prison break. Even a bizarre confrontation between Paul and city officials where the apostle demanded public ceremony as his team left town. But Paul’s connection to the Philippian church didn’t end the day he packed up and hit the road. “When I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you” (v15). You see, the goofy little church in Philippi had Paul’s back like no other.

They give. They receive. By writing “giving (Gr. doseus) and receiving (Gr. lempseus)” (v15), the apostle uses financial terminology. He’s describing debit and credit. He’ll use that same language a little later in verse 17. Think QuickBooks. Picture a spreadsheet. Dave Ramsey would be proud. If the apostle was keeping a profit-and-loss statement for churches who provided financial support, he only had to keep one at this point. They do it out of gratitude. They do it out of love. Paul says this is the only kind of debt we should have. “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom 13:8). The fellowship at Philippi stood alone. Later, the Thessalonians and Bereans also gave significant cash to the cause (2Cor 11:8-9).

Their financial support continued to flow “even in Thessalonica” (v16). This was Paul’s next church-planting stop after leaving Philippi (Acts 17:1-10). Apparently things blew up after just three weeks of telling Thessalonian Jews that Jesus is indeed the Messiah they’ve been waiting for. Some believed, including many Gentiles as well as a significant number of powerful women. However numerous Thessalonian Jews didn’t buy what he was selling. Think Ferguson. Think Baltimore. As a result, the city erupted in mob violence and rioting with vigilante Jews going house to house, hunting down Jesus’ followers. Thessalonian believers were able to slip the apostle out of town one night down the road to Berea. 

During the those dangerous days in Thessalonica riots, the little Philippian church provided significant financial support to Paul. They “sent me help for my needs once and again” (v16). The money flowed from Philippi to their founding pastor not once, but twice. The apostle kept moving. The Gospel kept spreading. The money kept flowing. During his legendary stop in Athens and his amazing message on Mars Hill, the Philippians had his back. During his 18 months in Corinth, the Philippians had his back. And it’s not like they’re rolling in the cash. Their support for the apostle and his road trip was a huge sacrifice. In one of his letters to the Corinthians, he describes how the Macedonian churches’ poverty didn’t stop their generosity (2Cor 8:1-3). 

Macedonian tour stops include places like Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. Jesus uses Paul and his posse to plant churches in each of these cities. After that, the apostle headed south on the Grecian Peninsula to the Athens and eventually Corinth (Acts 17:6-18:18). While the names of the cities continue to change as the Gospel tsunami washes across the Mediterranean Rim, there’s one constant. God’s love and support for Paul through the Philippians. And nobody saw the philanthropy of the Philippians coming. 

The Philippians give because God has given so much to them. Our incredibly giving God has placed them under the waterfall of His grace and they know it. He gave us His Son (Jn 3:16). His Son gave us His life (1Jn 3:16). He gave us His Spirit (Jn 14:16-18, 26; 15:26; 1Jn 4:13). God is remaking us in His image. There is no great Giver in the history of the universe. He’s making each one of us into overflowing givers too. 

The Philippians get that. How about you? Stop and think for just a moment just how amazingly generous God has been to you. As the old hymn says, “Count your blessings, name them one by one.” Do a little accounting of God’s goodness in your life. Family. Job. Health. Home. Church. I don’t know about you, but it sure seems like I’ve been on the receiving end of the firehose of His grace. I can’t help but give because I’ve been given SO much! That’s what it means to be a giver. I’m to be generous with my money. I’m to be generous with my time. I’m to be generous with my talents. And if you knew me a few years back, you would have never seen that coming. Talk about help from an unexpected source.

A Big Steaming Pile

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

I treasured my collection of music. We’re talking rock from the 70s and 80s. Couldn’t get enough of it. Bought everything I could find from the Beatles, Eagles, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Styx, and anybody else who appeared on the Midnight Special. This timeless music would be around forever! There was just one little problem. I bought it all on 8-track tapes. What? Never heard of this fabulous method of recording and playback? Consider yourself blessed a thousand times over. Just about the time I was at the peak of assembling my musical stash, 8-track PLAYERS disappeared. Poof. Thanks to the invention of CDs, my entire collection was worthless. I had no way of rocking the house once my 8-track deck went to the big electronic dumpster in the sky. I thought this was a great investment in my entertainment future. Big mistake. My treasured collection of 8-track gold was nothing more than a big steaming pile.

What in the world do my misguided musical purchases have to do with Paul’s letter to the Philippian church? I’m so very glad you asked. The apostle goes out of his way to let his readers know he made a massive mistake. Earlier in his life, he invested in things he truly believed mattered over the long haul. He built an incredibly impressive religious resume! The former Pharisee had quite a pile of accomplishments and awards. That all changed the day the resurrected Jesus supernaturally mugged him outside Damascus. Suddenly Paul realized his credentials and achievements were a lot like my 8-track collection. A. Big. Steaming. Pile. 

The apostle desperately wants his Philippian friends to not make the same mistake. Following Jesus is about a deepening and growing relationship with our Savior. It is NOT about trying to earn God’s favor by filling up the trophy case. It’s NOT about turning our lives into one big self-salvation project. That’s exactly the spiritual snake oil a team of false teachers was spreading among local churches at the time. They were duping folks into believing a counterfeit gospel that Jesus may get you into God’s kingdom but it’s up to us to stay in. According to these knuckleheads, that happens when we follow a long and complicated list of religious rules and regulations. From his prison cell in Rome, Paul pleads with the people not to fall for this garbage. 

His warning is also for you and me, 2,000 years later. There are plenty of these goobers still around today peddling not-so-good news. We trust in Jesus and what He’s done. Christ lived the perfect life I’ve failed to live. He died the death for my sin I should have died. He rose to new life I certainly don’t deserve. I depend on His spotless resume, not mine. But my trust in Him doesn’t stop there. I deepen my relationship with Jesus through my obedience to Him. He’s not just my Savior but my Lord. He’s not just my Rescuer but my Leader. I follow out of my overflowing gratitude not because He’s given me some sort of divine to-do list. Our relationship grows through my obedience. That’s when I truly understand the mind-blowing value of knowing Jesus compared to everything else. Compared to Him, it’s all a big steaming pile.

“I count everything as loss” (v8), says Paul. He picks up on the image of the profit-and-loss statement he started in the previous verse. Once Christ became part of the equation, He flipped the ledger of his life on its head. Profits became losses. Losses became profits. The apostle continues and says when all the calculations were complete, he suddenly realized everything in his life outside of his relationship with Jesus was a big fat zero. The word “count” in the ESV is the Greek verb hegomai, which is actually an accounting term. It means to figure, calculate, or reckon. Whether you use a computer, calculator, abacus, or number two pencil, you’ll get the same result. There’s not one single thing that measures up to a relationship with the radical Rabbi/Carpenter from Nazareth. Nothing.

That doesn’t mean God doesn’t shower us with some awesome blessings. Family. Friends. A home. A job. But when we stack them up next to Jesus, they’re worthless. That’s because God’s greatest blessing to us is God Himself. It’s about the Giver and not about His gifts. He wants us to see His gracious fingerprints on everything in our lives. Everything from a beautiful sunrise to a great ribeye is a gift from the ultimate Giver. They’re to be enjoyed. But don’t make the mistake of worshiping His blessings. They pale in comparison to Christ. Nothing measures up to a relationship with Jesus. 

Just how valuable is this friendship? According to Paul, it’s of “surpassing worth” (v8). He drops a cool word in the original language (Gr. hupercho) which literally means have something that’s over the top! The value of a friendship with Jesus is far and away better than anything else in our lives. It doesn’t mean the other stuff is worthless. Quite the contrary. The apostle is simply raising the price of his relationship with Christ. In comparison to all of the other things he values highly, what he has in Jesus makes them seem pointless. His relationship with Jesus is over the top! 

“Knowing Christ Jesus” (v8) is not knowing ABOUT Him. We’re not to simply acquire facts about the Son of God. It’s never a bad idea to gather important info about the people you love. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Likes. Dislikes. Where are they from? What do they do? But those facts allow you to dive deeper into the relationship (otherwise, you’re just some sort of weird, creepy stalker). Paul calls us to something so much better than a fact-finding mission or a Google search on our Savior. It’s the difference between reading someone’s autobiography and actually becoming their friend. Let’s get to know Jesus personally and intimately and not just build a dossier of intel. 

You might think this idea of a personal friendship with God is something your weird, Bible-thumping neighbors made up. Interestingly, the Bible is full of the importance of the privilege of this relationship. Seven hundred years before Jesus, God spoke through Isaiah about our desperate need for a relationship with His Son. “By His knowledge shall the Righteous One, My Servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities” (Is 53:11). One hundred years after that, Yahweh used His spokesman Jeremiah to warn folks to stop bragging about what they have done and start bragging about a relationship with God. “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD” (Jer 9:23-24).

That theme keeps rolling in the New Testament. Rocky, the crew chief of the apostles, prayed that we each have a relationship with the heavenly Father and His Son which puts us under the waterfall of God’s goodness. “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord” (2Pet 1:3). The Apostle John wanted the world to know his best Friend came on His mission not just to rescue us from our sin but to open the door for a relationship. “The Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ” (1Jn 5:20). Jesus and talked to His Dad about how a relational connection with them is THE definition of everlasting and abundant life. “And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (Jn 17:3). Yeah, a personal friendship with God through Jesus is kind of a big deal. 

Jesus is a total game changer for Paul. “I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish” (v8). Christ caused him to reevaluate everything in his life. When he did, a funny thing happened. The apostle realized everything else is “rubbish” (v8). Here’s the deal. Bible translators don’t know what to do with the word in the original Greek text. It’s skubalon. Some other versions say “garbage” (NLT) or “refuse” (YLT). Here’s a place where the good ol’ King Jimmy nails it: “dung.” It’s the only time the term shows up in Scripture. We’re talking manure. Feces. Poop. You might roll your nose at the though of such a disgusting term being in the Bible. But it’s important to use strong words when talking about strong ideas. What Paul thought was priceless eventually turned out to be a big steaming pile compared to a relationship with Jesus. Kind of like my 8-track collection.

Profit and Loss

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7).

In business, all that matters is the bottom line. For CEOs, CFOs, presidents, the board of directors, and stockholders, it’s all about the Benjamins. Profit and loss. You might think all this talk of capitalism and cash sounds crass when it comes to following Christ. But Paul goes all Fortune 500 to describe his relationship with Jesus. “But whatever gain I had, I coined as loss for the sake of Christ” (v7). That’s because His grace is a game changer. Our Savior transforms our portfolio. Suddenly all of the items we considered assets junk compared to Jesus. 

All this talk of profit-and-loss statements really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise if you’ve been reading along in the apostle’s letter to his friends back in Philippi. He just got through sharing his religious resume (Phil 3:5-6). The man from Tarsus has some impressive qualifications. Top of his class. One of Israel’s up-and-comers. Number one draft pick. He was so devoted to Judaism he hunted and murdered followers of that radical Rabbi/Carpenter from Nazareth. But the dude we once knew as Saul soon realized his resume was big steaming pile when he met Jesus face to face. Everything he’d spent his life accumulating was suddenly worthless. His profits instantaneously shifted over the loss column. Yeah, Christ has a huge impact on our bottom line.

Paul starts his evaluation of his P&L statement with earnings. “But whatever gain I had” (v7). He uses an accounting term (Gr. kerdos), which means profit, advantage, or earnings. There is a strong sense of working hard to obtain something. All those bullet points on his resume came with a cost. The former Pharisee busted his tail to pile them up. Hours of study. Years of obedience. He had hoped to pile up enough profit to buy himself into God’s kingdom. He dedicated his life to legalism and self-salvation. Let’s face it, if anybody could pull this off, it was this young Hebrew superstar. But there’s just one little problem. You can’t do it. Not then. Not now. Not ever. Not through church attendance. Not by reading your Bible. Not by devoting your life to Habitat for Humanity. Not by helping old ladies across the street. Most of us have spent a lot of time and effort believing we can pile up enough profits by being a good person that God would have to accept us. Not so much.

The entrepreneurial tentmaker from Tarsus continues the assessment of his financial statement. Suddenly all of the profits “I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (v7). Here’s another business term, “counted” (Gr. hegeomai). It describes how an accounted sharpens their pencil and really looks closely at the ledger. The term means to figure, reckon, consider, be of the opinion, regard, or hold a view. Jesus’ kid brother James writes, “Count (Gr. hegeomai) it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3). Paul has gone down the list of the profit column. Like a top CPA, he’s looked hard at each item listed. He’s done the cost-benefit analysis. The apostle has run the numbers and they suddenly don’t add up.

We’re shocked to see the bottom line is a “loss for the sake of Christ” (v7). Paul goes back to his business vocab once again with the word “loss” (Gr. zemia). This means disadvantage, damage, forfeiture, or a worse situation than before. It also carries the undeniable implication of hardship or suffering. Back during his cruise from hell for his hearing in Rome, the apostle tried to tell the captain and crew of the ship of the suffering they were facing. “I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss (Gr. zemia), not only of cargo and the ship, but also our lives” (Acts 27:10). We might believe with every fiber of our being we know what we’re doing. But without a relationship with Jesus, we’re going to crash on the rocks and lose everything. Paul makes it clear all I work to gain as a blessing will actually turn out to be a hardship when it comes to following Jesus. It’s going to hurt when God pulls all the stuff I’ve thought was of value out of my hands. It hurts because I have to them go and have to lay them down.

Christ made the point of false profit to His posse over and over again. “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Lk 14:33). It’s not about our stuff. It’s all about following Jesus. The Lord even went so far as to say it was a complete waste of time to be rich enough to own the planet and everything on it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Mt 16:26). It’s all Monopoly money compared to what’s really valuable. “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all he has and buys the field” (Mt 13:44-45). That’s something that even Moses realized almost 1,400 years before Jesus showed up. “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward” (Heb 11:25).

So just what does Jesus use to turn our profit-and-loss statement upside down? What incredible blessing does He give us? Money? Power? A big house? How ‘bout Creflo Dollar’s jet? I’m not saying God won’t financially bless you or me. But that’s not what leverages our ledger. Jesus is the blessing! He is the the reward! What Christ gives is SO much better that anything we can grab on our own! Himself!! His grace is a game changer. Our Savior transforms our portfolio. Suddenly all of the items we considered assets junk compared to Jesus.