Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Philippians 1:19-20 in the ESV is as follows:

... for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

In Paul's Letter To The Philippians (Fee, Gordon D. Paul's Letter to the Philippians. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1995), Fee paraphrases the section:

This whole affair will turn out to my ultimate salvation and present vindication, when, through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Christ my earnest expectation and hope are realized at my trial and not only am I not brought to shame but in a very open (or bold) way Christ is magnified in every way-whether I am given 'life' or sentenced to death. (132)

I enjoyed this paraphrase by Fee because it brought what Paul was saying into a more 'real' light for me. Sometimes, I think because of the wording, passages in the Bible come across as grandiose statements instead of what I believe they were; heartfelt words of the authors. In this case, Fee's paraphrase helped me to see that this was not just rhetoric for Paul; he desperately cared about the gospel and about Christ being magnified. He was not just 'tub-thumping' for his readers.

1 comment:

  1. "Heartfelt." I couldn't agree with you more. Many times I could not get through a passage until I applied an understanding of the fact that these men were very passionate about there Christ, calling, and people they were called to minister to. This is one of the main reasons I love John Piper so much. He reminds me we can and should be enthralled with Christ.

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