HOW DO YOU KNOW--Week 14
In Philippians 2.6 Paul wrote--althought He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped...


How do we understand this?

If someone from another planet came to one of us, and we said, 'Jesus forgives you your sins', how would they understand it? Would they say, what is sin? Would they say, so what? Would they say, what advantage is it that some man died for me? Why should I care?

This brings up the question we have posed, how do we understand even the simplest statement about God?

Some of us will want knowledge. We will want God to come to us through propositions and creeds, but does God come to us that way? Some of us will have a religious imagination, trying to imagine how it must have been centuries ago, when a man is crucified. But what of those of us who do not have a religious imagination? Are we being left out? Some of us will want to go to church because we think it's a good thing to do, it's good behavior.

So we will have to come asking, how do we understand God? Is there anything in us that enables us to understand Him? We might not be very religious, we might not have any interior qualities, we might be just a bystander in life.
Is there an answer in this particular passage in Philippians 2? When Jesus humbled Himself--becoming obedient to the point of death...he was highly exalted by God the Father. In Phil. 2.12 Paul then makes his application to all of us when he says--just as you have always obeyed...work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Notice that the word 'obey' is in both passages.

This seems to indicate that Paul does not say go back into the OT to try to relate to Passover, but go on to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That requires the Holy Spirirt in someone's life.
I think any soul would benefit by reading the OT about Passover and the sacrifices of the Law, but evidently it is the Holy Spirit by which we understand God in our lives. Paul does say--it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, Phil. 2.13.

This means it is about how we listen to God the Spirit.

Normally an author will say, listening to God is prayer.

But then Paul says three things. First--do all things without grumbling or disputing, 2.14. Second--hold fast to the Word of Life, 2.16. Third--rejoice, 2.18.
Paul says to do all things without grumbling so that we would prove ourselves to be blameless in the midst of our own generation. That might indicate God wants His Holy Spirit to be seen in us by others. We hold fast to the Word of Life so that when Christ returns we might glory in His appearing since we did not fail Him. We can study to show ourselves approved. His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path. That means it lights the way God has us go. And we should rejoice even if we are being--poured out--as a drink offering. God will use us for His purposes, we are to rejoice in that, whatever His purposes come to be.

Paul has not mentioned the Holy Spirit specifically but he has shown us how to exhibit the Spirit in our life.