Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

dynasphere" during the church age. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.) Paul uses a Greek military term for a General
arranging his regiments in orderly array before himself on the battlefield or for close inspection. (K.
Wuest) Jesus Christ is the present joy and the everlasting hope. His unsearchable riches of personal
grace and glory are the constant ambition and ever-rising standard of the believer’s spiritual
progress. (H. Moule) “Energia” represents power in effective action of which the resurrection of
Christ is the supreme demonstration. Paul is making it clear that the power required to change the
bodies of believers is adequately provided for in the greater assurance that He is able to subject not
only the intractable elements in the believer’s make-up, but all things, the entire universe, unto
Himself. (R. Martin)
It is the body that is the vehicle through which God manifests Himself in His holiness and
righteousness, through which God is glorified. These Christians had been led to believe that what
they did didn’t matter because they had been saved. Paul says it does matter because the body has
been redeemed as well as the soul, and the body must not be used as an instrument of sin. We are to
“present our bodies a living sacrifice.” Because Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the body, it matters
what use you make of this body. The tabernacle and the temple in the OT were considered sacred
because God chose to dwell there. Our physical bodies are God’s dwelling place. They are,
therefore, sacred, set apart to God. What is acceptable in the marketplace has no place in this temple
... Any practice or habit that a believer has that in any way destroys this temple is meddling with
God’s property and has no place in the life of a believer. You are not your own. You are bought with
a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. As believers we have a responsibility to maintain
sound physical health to the limit of our ability. This body should not be weakened by obesity or
indolence or lack of exercise. That is misuse of the body. That should give an individual an entirely
new attitude towards himself. We are not our own. Our bodies are not our own. They are God’s.
When Paul exhorts, “stand fast in the Lord,” he is saying, “Let the Spirit of God teach you this truth
that I have communicated to you – that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the body, and you are
responsible to Him for its upkeep and use.” (J. Pentecost)
Conformity is not simply a superficial and outward change of form, but a complete change of inward
nature and quality. Paul referred to his continuous conformity to Christ’s death that took place in the
day-to-day events of his life ... His resurrection is the guarantee of their resurrection, and His
resurrected body is the prototype and paradigm of theirs. So in place of earthly bodies characterized
by frailty, physical decay, weakness, and mortality, believers will have bodies that are suitable to the
life of heaven, and thus imperishable, spiritual, glorious, and powerful. Once he experiences a
resurrection transformation, man will know perennial rejuvenation, since he will have a perfect
vehicle for God’s deathless Spirit, a body that is invariably responsive to his transformed
personality. (P. O’Brien) The bodies of believers alive at the time of the rapture of the church will be
glorified. The bodies of believers who die before Christ’s coming and the rapture will be raised from
the dead and be made immortal and incorruptible. Believers are promised new bodies not subject to
disease or death. The limitations of this temporal, earthly body will also be eliminated in the new
body that is suited for eternity. The resurrection change will happen because God decreed that it will
occur. (R. Gromacki)