Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Friends come and go, but a true friend sticks by you like family.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
PHI 4:10 Now, I have received much inner happiness by means of the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your concern or thinking for me;
Concern - pres-act-inf - phroneo = to care or to be concerned about others with objective thinking, or to be compassionate and caring for others.
1. They appreciated all the doctrine that Paul taught them.
JAM 3:1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment [evaluation at the Judgment Seat of Christ].
COL 1:28 And we proclaim Him, inculcating every believer and teaching every believer with all wisdom in order that we may present every person complete or mature in Christ.
2. The people you love, you think about.
“Have revived” - aor-act-ind - anethalete - a*neqavlete
Ana = again.
Thallo = to flourish or to thrive.
“To thrive again, grow again, recover activity, bloom again, revive; used of those whose condition and affairs are becoming more prosperous.”
PHI 4:10 you have revived your concern or thinking for me.
Dramatic aorist = states a present reality with the assertiveness of a past event.
Active voic
e - the Philippian congregation produces the action of the verb because they have advanced from the point of salvation and spiritual babyhood to spiritual adulthood manifested by their gracious giving and their compassion for others.
They have advanced to supergrace and at that point their capacity for love extended toward God in category one love, and toward the apostle Paul in category three love.
Friends come and friends go, but a true friend s+ticks by you like family, PRO 18:24.
It is a love based on a mutual soul rapport. Therefore, it is a two-way street.
PRO 17:17 Friends love through all kinds of weather,
As the apostle learned, one way to tell who your real friends are is when you are faced with some difficult times.
Job tells us that a true friend will be gracious and kind to you when you are going through a difficult time, JOB 6:14.
Wisdom -
“A friend cannot be known in prosperity: and an enemy cannot be hidden in adversity.”
Wisdom 6:14 “A faithful friend is a strong defense: And he that hath found such a one has found a treasure.”
JAM 2:15-16 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
He is not in a prison at this time in the Mamertime prison, a place like a dungeon with chains upon him. He is living in his own apartment with a Roman guard.
Epaphroditus, the pastor of the Philippian church, is the bearer of the offering.
All the spiritual advance of the Philippian congregation has come through three men, Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus, and these men have been right pastors in succession.
Epi + locative - relative pronoun hos - e*f= w/% = Greek idiom meaning indeed.
Imperf-act-ind - ephroneite - e*fronei’te = to think objectively about others, in contrast to doceo - to think subjectively.
Doceo = the hyper-sensitive person who uses all of his IQ perspicacity and intelligence in order to feel sorry for himself, to feel slighted, to be petty, to somehow think that people are not giving him the proper recognition or attention due.
The imperfect active indicative of phroneo means to think objectively about others.
De - dev = but - used to set up a contrast between a past concern with no opportunity to express it, in contrast to now a present concern with the opportunity to express it.
An impulsive giver is a self-centered person calling attention to himself.