How to Read the Bible Seminar this Saturday Morning Philippians text with structure

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1. Bill Newsome
   Sep 19, 2013 @ 10:23:55

   St. Randy, live forever!

   As your faithful “paralegal” of sorts, (besides 1 Cor. 13), the following is submitted for your consideration and/or incorporation:

   1. The love of God for us: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.” 1 John 4:9.      1.1. As we’ve seen in Philippians, this love was manifested in an act of obedience: “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Phil. 2:8. I think sometimes we get the idea that Jesus “wanted” to go to the cross; if He wanted to go to the cross, that would not be “obedience” – “obedience” has the sense of doing something we do whether we want to do it or not in response to the command of an authority. “Obedience” was foreign to Jesus, and He actually “learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” Hebrews 5:8.

   2. The love of us for God: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. J. Vernon McGee has a nice “opposite” take on this verse – “if you don’t love Me, then just forget ’em!” 

   2.1. We see this played in a specific way in John 21:15 – 17, when King Jesus asks Peter three times “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” If that question is posed to me – “Bill Newsome, do you love Me?” – my honest answers are (a) “not near as much as I should, Lord”; and (b) “Thou knowest better than me, Lord;” and (c) “Give me a command and then we’ll both know Lord.”

   2.2. In this same John 21 passage, King Jesus has set up the classic “if/then” or “since/then” axiom: “since/if you say you love Me, then feed My lambs; tend My sheep; feed My sheep.” Again, it’s obedience manifested and serving each other. See Phil. 2:3 – 4. It’s nice to tell God and sing to Him that we love Him, but God’s from Missouri – He says “show Me.”

   Hope this helped; if not, at least the price was right!

   Yours in Him,

   Saint Billy

   PS: love you man!

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How to Read the Bible Seminar this Saturday Morning Philippians text with structure