Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

Some of them may be famous and have a loyal following, but they obtained their fame and
reknown (Latin: glory) by exhibiting a complete lack of integrity. They may look good on the
outside, but inside they are a complete disgrace to Christianity. They reject Bible doctrine and
worship their emotional experiences (Latin: confusion). They live by a false set of norms and
standards, because they have been in a state of apostasy so long that they are no longer able to
distinguish truth from error. They follow any number of panaceas that are opposed to God, such
as psychology, philosophy, charismania, mysticism, socialism and the welfare state. Down to the
last miserable moment of their lives on earth, they continued to hold human viewpoint opinions
(Durative Present tense) instead of divine viewpoint thinking. Their entire worldview is anti-
Christian, even though they claim to be spiritual giants.
REVELANT OPINIONS
Destruction in Scripture does not refer to annihilation ... it has to do with separation from God. This
word conveys the idea of a continued existence in a state of separation from the Creator. (J.D.
Pentecost) By means of show and various artifices, profligate pastors frequently dazzle the eyes of
the simple for a time, in such a manner that they are preferred even to the most eminent servants of
Christ, but the glory with which they are now puffed up will be exchanged for ignominy. (J. Calvin)
The warning is not against particular sins, but against the underlying sin of pandering to self. They
exalt things and practices which they ought to be ashamed. They give themselves to indulgence, then
they justify themselves in doing so and say that this is a proper and allowable way of life ... The
point of spiritual collapse was where people know, grasp truth, reason, and make up the mind. The
rebellion of the mind from God is the fundamental state of the sinner. (J. Stott)
The sin unto death is the final punishment of the reversionistic believer before he arrives in eternity.
Instead of crossing the golden bridge of dying grace, which is reserved for supergrace and ultrasupergrace
believers, the reversionist transfers from time to eternity under agonizing, miserable
conditions – to use the military idiom, “a low crawl over ground glass.” The sin unto death is
administered only after prolonged and unchecked reversionism, after failure to respond to warning
and intensive discipline. This ultimate destruction is confined to time and in no way implies the loss
of eternal salvation. Dying can be the most sublime or the most ghastly experience in the life of the
believer. The period of dying might be a few seconds or several years, it might be painful or not, but
whichever it is, the supergrace or ultra-supergrace believer will enjoy it immensely, experiencing the
most profound relationship with God, while the reversionist will experience maximum soul or
physical suffering or both. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.)
There was the teacher who would assert a premature and delusive personal perfection, proclaiming
himself so close to Christ that he had already reached the goal. And there was the teacher who would
reason so upon the perfectness of the atoning merits as to disclaim the need of seeking with all his
soul a personal conformity to the Lord of the atonement. Such a man would conceivably affirm for
himself an experience of intense spiritual insight, a communion with God profound and direct, an
exaltation into a celestial atmosphere of consciousness; while yet, and on his own avowed theory, he
was living a life in which sin was allowed to reign in his mortal body … Such theories were largely