Philippians - Lesson 14

I. Paul's Situation & Theology

As we look at the story of Paul, as he describes who he is, his background in chapter 3, his current situation in chapter 1, being imprisoned, and his theology that permeates this letter of reassuring the Philippians of their firm foundation in Christ's death and resurrection that establishes their salvation, and also inviting them into a daily walk, a journey with God, becoming ever more familiar, an ever deeper relationship with God. And so we think about what it means to receive this gift of salvation from God through Christ's work and experienced in the Holy Spirit.

II. Language of Grace & Gift

As we think about that, one of the newer conversations that scholars are having is taking a deeper look at the language of grace, which is the same word as the word gift. So it can be translated as grace or gift in the biblical text, depending on the context. And John Barclay talks about gift, especially gift as we see it in Paul. And I think it will be—this will be helpful to fill out the conversation that we have within the study of Paul, especially the study of Philippians.

III. Cultural Expectations of Gift Giving

So here are some of the ideas that Paul would have lived with in his culture, both the Gentile and the Jewish culture of the day.

First, the one who gives a gift should give it wisely. Usually, that means that the gift is given to someone who will benefit from the gift. The gift is given to someone who the gift giver thinks will further their own goals as well. So people in Paul's day would have thought to give a gift without considering the relative worth of the person who receives the gift, well, that's just—at the very least, that's imprudent.

Secondly, and this is kind of implied in what I just said, the recipient of the gift is worthy of it in some way. So the gift might exceed all kinds of expectations and the recipient might never be able to take full advantage of the gift. But the assumption is in some way that recipient deserved the attention of the person who gave the gift.

Now it's clear, and they distinguish in Paul's day between someone receiving a gift and someone earning wages. You earn wages because you work for them, but a gift is something you don't work for. Nevertheless, you should be in some way worthy. It makes sense that you were given this gift.

And it's very important, thirdly, that the recipient of the gift should be grateful. They should honor the gift giver. They may not be able to pay them back and the gift or give them an even greater gift, but they should honor the one who gave the gift.

IV. Barclay's Six Perfections of Gift

And Barclay talks about six different ways that gift giving is understood in the ancient world in its most perfect or complete sense. Six perfections of the gift is how he will describe it.

First of all, a gift can be understood—a perfection of a gift can be understood as superabundance, the large scale of the gift. In this case, both Gentiles and Jews will talk about God, or in the case of the Gentiles, the deities gives gifts on this superabundant scale, the gift of nature, right? That provides food and water.

Another way of thinking about the gift, the perfection of the gift, Barclay talks about it as singularity. And by that, he means that the gift giver might have a very concentrated focus or attitude. So a Jewish writer by the name of Philo talks about God's singularity, although he doesn't use that term. This is Barclay's classification of what he sees happening in the first century. So Philo talks about God giving only the good. That's a singular focus. God gives only the good. God does not give evil. That's what Philo the Jew says.

A third perfection is that a gift is unconstrained. That means it's not in response to a prior event. The gods give that way or the Jews would talk about God giving in that way because the deity or the one true God, they are not beholden to humans. They're unconstrained.

There's also the matter of unconditionality. That's a fourth perfection of the gift. The Essenes, we find some of their writings in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes in their discussions of God's grace, talk about its incongruity, its unconditionality. Their Psalms will talk about how humans are immoral sinners and then God's grace is so great. It's incongruous with the condition of the one who receives it.

A fifth perfection of grace, of the gift, is that it must be efficacious. It must do what the gift giver wanted it to do.

And then sixth, reciprocity, the circularity of the gift, this pattern of exchange. Most ancient writers will talk about how a gift, giving a gift starts a relationship. And this particular gift is where I think we want to—we want to think about this in relation to how Paul thinks about God's grace and this gift that we have of salvation in Christ.

V. Application to Paul's Theology

Overall, we would say the perfect gift of salvation in Christ is superabundant, right? It's unconstrained. It's given spontaneously. It's not based on our condition, right? It's unconditioned. This would have surprised people. God disregards their condition, their social worth, their worthiness in any way.

But that's—people would say, "But why would someone give a gift to someone who's not worthy?" You won't be able to take advantage of it. Oh, maybe God knows that they will turn out well. And so because he knows that he's going to give him a gift. Nope. Paul is convinced that God's gift that's given is unconditioned. It's not based on the worth of the person receiving it, not the worth they had, not the worth that they might enjoy right now and not the worth that God knows that they're—no, it's not conditioned on the individual. And both the Jew and the Gentile in Paul's day would have scratched their head a little bit at that. God does not consider the social worth of the person. God shows no favoritism.

But something that might surprise us today that would not have surprised them in the ancient world is the concept of reciprocity. When God gives the gift of eternal life in Christ, that starts a relationship. You know, Paul talking about walking in godliness, being blameless and pure, being holy, all of that language fits into this idea that when God gives a gift, he expects a relationship. Those relate—those that response of faithfulness, that response of trust, that response of holy actions, these good works that God prepares for us to do and strengthens us to do, that's not earning salvation. Earning is wages. Ancient world knows about wages. This is a gift. But the gift begins a relationship, reciprocity. I mean, we don't give anything to God. God has no needs. And yet God wants relationship.

The unconditionality of the gift of Christ by God to any and all. That's surprising in the ancient world. That shocks them. Maybe we're too comfortable with that today. We say God will, you know, accepts anyone. And that's true. But let's not lose the mystery and the greatness of that truth. Certainly Paul's hearers would have been stunned. But let's also remember that aspect of reciprocity. You could call it circularity, this reciprocal relationship that begins with this gift of salvation in Christ through his death and resurrection. But it doesn't stop. It begins. And this gift will continue to transform the one who receives the gift and continue to deepen the relationship with the gift giver.