Philippians 4:4–7 – Do Not Be Anxious

Last year the Christadelphians and several Bible Students in Belgium had a lot of worries and tried to get more and better contact with different believers in the Low Countries. They wanted the different communities sharing ideas and working more together.

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From all up the North (Riga) there was real sabotage which ignited also opposition from the United Kingdom and Australian bases, making the Belgian Christadelphians even more isolated.

We only now came acroos this interesting writing by Phillip J. Long which also looks at the writing of the apostle Paul which we also took as our guide in this difficult time of making church.

Often we as simple humans forget the role of the guiding or directing hand of the Most High in His time period. We so often want to hurry up things, not taking into account that it is perhaps not according to God His Plan or time scheme.

Often we worry too much about worldly matters, getting enough people at the meeting, being able to pay the bills, getting the publications ready in time, etc. instead of letting it come like it comes…

The difficulties we encounter today or nothing compared to the difficulties of the first followers of Christ. In our civilised industrialist democratic countries we are not imprisoned for our beliefs and do not have to worry to be executed for our faith, yet we are so often afraid about what others might think and how others react. We should learn more from the examples of the apostles, like Paul who rejoiced in his circumstances, modelling the kind of attitude not only he desires from the congregation, but which Christ would like to see as the ignition key for a trusting Christian congregation.

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You may read also:

1. A rebellious movement founded on a fake?
2. Are you religious, spiritual, or do you belong to a religion, having a faith or interfaith
3. Inculturation today calling for a different attitude
4. Problems attracting and maintaining worshippers
5. Others that hinder the message
6. Vision blurred by cumulative burden of divisions
7. Church has to grow through witness, not by proselytism
8. Let us not forget it was God who chose us
9. Faith because of the questions
10. Fear of failure, and fear of the unknown
11. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
12. Aim High: Examples of Godly Characters to follow
13. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
14. Being Christian, following Jesus Christ
15. Parts of the body of Christ
16. What part of the Body am I?
17. The Church, Body of Christ and remnant Israel synonymous
18. Being Missional
19. Flowing out from a genuine spiritual “heart”
20. Our openness to being approachable
21. Words in the world
22. Looking from different perspectives
23. Belonging to or being judged by
24. Jerusalem and a son’s kingdom
25. Anti-church movements and Humanism
26. Quibbling siblings united or allied children of an organisation or a church
27. No reconciliation possible between CBM and Duncan Heaster from Carelinks
28. Delay in publications because attack from outside
29. A man from the North wanting to have control in Belgium
30. Our openness to being approachable
31. Let us not fret or worry about next season
32. Fearing the right person
33. God’s Time is Best
34. Together tasting a great promise
35. Change of name
36. New Name a fact
37. To whom do we want to be enslaved
38. Are you being swept along by the world
39. Encouraging one another
40. A participation in the body of Christ
41. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear…
42. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
43. Not words of any organisation should bind you, but…
44. Gods hope and our hope
45. Fixing our attention

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Reading Acts

While the following commands from Paul seem unrelated to the theme of unity, Frank Thielman argues they ought to be read in the context of persecution (Philippians, NIVAC, 217-9). While this is not an Empire-wide systematic persecution of believers, we have already seen several times in the letter than the church at Philippi was a small community of believers who are in many ways “different” from the Roman culture around them. The existence of a group of people who “have the mind of Christ” is enough to be suspicious, and suspicion easily gives way to gossip, wild accusations and pressure to conform. This sort of social pressure can be difficult to accept and a source of great fear for the church. Paul’s series of short exhortations in these verses are therefore designed to give comfort and encouragement to endure.

First, Paul encourages the church to set aside worry…

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