Context Matters: Rejoice in the Lord, Don’t be Anxious, the Peace of God, Whatever is True

Perhaps you’ve been told to rejoice in the Lord. And again I will say, rejoice! And maybe you know you shouldn’t be anxious about anything, but should let your requests be made known to God. And you know that the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. And finally, you know that you should think about whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, and about any excellence or anything worthy of praise.

I’m willing to wager you’ve heard each of these statements, and that each of them is meaningful to you on its own. But could there be anything more to these inspirational statements than that they just happen to exist side-by-side near the end of Paul’s letter to the Philippians?

Context matters. If we learn to read the Bible for what it is—and not as a collection of independently assembled proverbial sayings—we’ll discover that some of our most familiar passages don’t actually mean what we’ve always assumed.

Some Vulnerable Honesty

I’m about to propose a way of reading Philippians 4 that I have never heard anywhere else. I’ve never heard a sermon like this. I’ve never seen it in a commentary. I have yet to experience people outside my circles who put these ideas into practice in quite this way.

So perhaps I’m truly on to something, and we all need to remove our blinders on this passage. Or perhaps I’m being foolhardy.

While I believe OIA Bible study is the best method we can use to read the Scriptures, I also firmly believe that outrageously innovative Bible interpretation is not something to aim for. If nobody’s ever seen what I see, I should proceed with great caution. That doesn’t mean I’m wrong (any more than my innovation proves I’m right). But it means I need to tread softly and ensure I’m firmly grounded in studious observation and interpretation of the text, and not in my preconceived notions.

If I fail to do that, please feel free to call it out. And if you can point me to anyone else who has explained Phil 4 in this way, I would be delighted to hear of it.

That Said…

Paul nears the end of his letter to the Philippians. He’s worked through the glorious truths of when and how to build unity, and when not to build unity. He’s painted a compelling picture of the humility and exaltation of Christ, and of how our Christ compels us to follow him in humiliation so we can share in his exaltation.

But at the end, Paul hits on some highly practical matters.

First, there is an explosive conflict between two prominent women in the church (Phil 4:2). It’s so big that Paul’s gotten wind of it and he recruits a friend, his “true companion” to help resolve it (Phil 4:3).

Then we get a set of seemingly random but beautifully memorable memory verses (Phil 4:4-9).

Then Paul moves on to his closing thanksgiving for their financial support of his ministry (Phil 4:10-20).

Finally, he concludes his letter in his usual way (Phil 4:21-23).

So what are we to make of the instructions in Phil 4:4-9?

The Usual Approach

Normally, people read these verses as a series of scattershot principles to keep in mind about the Christian life. And this could be the case. Paul does this very thing in other epistles (Rom 16:16-20, 1 Cor 16:1-18, etc.). And other letter writers appear to do a similar thing (Hebrews 13, portions of James).

Also, one foundation of this approach is the assumption that “peace” in Phil 4:7 and Phil 4:9 is a psychological state. The “peace of God” which guards your heart and mind is something similar to contentment or security in one’s faith. This certainly fits with where Paul goes in Phil 4:10-20. And the word “peace” demonstrably has this meaning in other letters of Paul’s (Rom 14:17, Rom 15:13, possibly 1 Cor 1:3, 2 Cor 1:2, Gal 6:16, etc.).

And frankly, each verse in Phil 4:4-9 stands very well on its own. Each one makes perfect sense as a discrete instruction, listed in a series of reminders.

But What If…?

But what if that conflict between Euodia and Syntyche was so explosive that nobody knew what to do about it? I’m sure Paul was not the first person to try to help them. Neither of them are accused of selfish self-interest in preaching the gospel (Phil 1:15). Neither of them is named an evildoer, a mutilator of the flesh (Phil 3:2), an enemy of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18), or one who ought to be looked out for, avoided, or destroyed by God.

No, they are “fellow workers.” Their names are in the book of life. They have labored side by side with Paul in the ministry of the gospel. They’ve been a part of the team. Perhaps they’ve even been leaders of teams themselves. They just have so completely misunderstood and miscommunicated with one another that they can no longer agree in the Lord (Phil 4:2-3).

Perhaps you’ve seen conflict this explosive. So strong and confusing that nobody knows what to do. There is no clear right side or wrong side, and yet the church is still being ripped apart. Both sides have a true perspective, but the perspectives just keep missing each other. And everybody suffers as a result.

Martin Pettitt (2008), Creative Commons

Now imagine that you are Paul’s “true companion,” whom he asks to help resolve this thing. How would you feel about that? Perhaps you’d be glad he didn’t name you so you could slink under the pew and pretend to be home sick that day! What would you do?

1. You could start by rejoicing in the Lord (Phil 4:4). Conflict always presents an opportunity to grow more like Christ. It will be better at the end than it was before the conflict broke out.
2. Again, you need to be reminded a second time, so you can remind everyone else: Rejoice in the Lord (Phil 4:4).
3. Then perhaps you could encourage each disputant to let the other side see how reasonable they can be. They should each show a willingness to listen and consider. They should both be open to understanding the other before trying to make themselves understood. They should be able to clearly distinguish the facts of the matter from their interpretations of those facts (Phil 4:5). “You hate me” is not a reasonable thing to tell someone. But, “When you said XYZ, I felt like you hated me. Is that what you meant?” is a perfectly reasonable thing to say.
4. All should be reminded often that the Lord is at hand (Phil 4:5). There is no excuse for caricaturing the other perspective or resorting to personal attacks. God sees, he is present, and he is aware. And he will not allow you to go undefended forever.
5. Explosive conflict tends to make us anxious. We don’t know what to do about it. But we can always pray. And when we pray, we are free as God’s children to ask him for deep resolution. We must make these requests with a spirit of thankfulness for the opportunities provided by the conflict (Phil 4:6).
6. And wonder of wonders: From a worldly point of view, we should have no reason ever to expect that warring factions could agree and come back together. But God’s peace—perhaps not a psychological state of well-being, but simply the absence of infighting—surpasses all such understanding. But that doesn’t matter, because we have every reason to believe God’s peace can and will guard hearts and minds so we can speak and act in measured, kind, and sacrificial ways (Phil 4:7).
7. And finally: Everyone who’s ever been in a conflict knows how the conflict shades your attitude toward your opponent. When I have concluded that someone is my enemy, they can no longer do anything right. Everything they do gets interpreted as hostile, selfish, ungodly, insincere, or aggressive. We must not do this. Instead, we are obligated to go out of our way to find something—anything!—about them that is good and praiseworthy. We must think about these things, and not about our hurt or offended feelings (Phil 4:8). It’s amazing how much this simple practice can do to lower the temperature in a heated conflict.

We can have hope that these things will work because Paul has modeled these very principles all throughout the letter (Phil 4:9). Just go back to his description of his opponents in chapter 1. How kind and gracious he is, refusing to attack or label them as hostiles! He is willing to focus on their godly motives, even while they’re causing him tremendous pain through their rivalry. At least “Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (Phil 1:18). Such is the attitude of one who has been brought under the reign of the God of peace (Phil 4:9).

Perhaps these verses are independently composed proverbial sayings. Perhaps.

But should it surprise us that we have such a hard time resolving conflicts between Christians if, perhaps, we have failed to recognize when the Lord provides for us a manual for peace?

Context matters.

For further explanation of this contextual flow of thought in Phil 4:2-9, see this post I wrote for the Gospel Coalition.