“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me…”
We now turn from Paul’s prayer for the Philippians to Paul’s attitude about being jailed. Philippians 1:12-24. His attitude is connected closely with how he viewed God’s sovereign hand on his situation. The Philippian church was deeply concerned about Paul. They loved him. Under God, they owed their salvation to him. When Paul left Philippi for the last time they lost track of him. Paul had gone back to Jerusalem. He was arrested and spent two years in jail in Caesarea. He was shipped to Rome and imprisoned there where finally the Philippians found him.In this section Paul is assuring the Philippian church. He is alleviating their fears to calm their concern for him.
“But I want you to know”
Invariably the very thing God wants us to know is the thing about which we are most ignorant. Here Paul puts it in the positive–”I want you to know.” Hebrews 11:3 says “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God…” That is a difficult concept to grasp for a nonchristian. They can understand: “by brains we understand;” “by education we understand”; “by intuition we understand”. The Christian, however, understands that faith is crucial to understand divine things. Especially, when it comes to coming to grips with the adversity we face, faith is foundational to coping with the pain.
“that the things which happened to me”
Paul was in danger of death and this put great pressure on his confidence in God’s plan for his life. Very shortly he may be dead. Yet he makes a clear appraisal of his situation from God’s viewpoint.
In the New King James Version the words “which happened” are in italics which means that these words are not in the original text. Nothing just happened to Paul. Nothing just happens to us. There are no “rotten breaks” or “bad luck” for the Christian. Everything that comes into the life of the child of God comes by divine design. Our lives are divinely ordered. Good health, poor health; prosperity, poverty; all of these God mixes into our lives with a clear blueprint in his mind. All of the specifications are in God’s plan for your life.
There is no accident, no luck, no coincident with the believer. Paul left Philippi the last time in Acts 20. In Acts 28 he is in prison at Rome where he wrote the book of Philippians. These are the “things which happened to me.” Some mighty ugly things happened to him. He lay in prison in Caesarea without a fair trial. During that time he could not do his missionary work freely. From a human viewpoint it appeared that his time there was wasted. Again, at Rome he is again in jail. God had a definite plan in all this as we will see in the ensuing verses.
Principle:
God is sovereignly in control of very thing that happens to us. God wants us to “know” this principle for sure.
Application:
Do you “know” that God’s hand is sovereignly working in your life? Do you believe that God has a divine design behind every situation, event, blessing and burden you face?
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