Classic Christianity – Attitudes for Life – 10-26-26
~ Philippians 1:6 — “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Bob George begins by reflecting on Paul’s conversion and long period in Tarsus, presenting it as a time when God reshaped Paul’s legalistic outlook. He connects Paul’s experience to the idea that spiritual growth takes time: salvation is by grace, and God—not other believers—is responsible for completing the work He begins in a person.
Turning to Philippians, George highlights Paul’s confidence in God’s ongoing work and his prayer that believers grow in love, knowledge, and insight. He describes discernment as important for recognizing what is good and wise, and points to Paul’s warning about people who use flattery or cause divisions. Bob argues that Scripture should guide judgments about right and wrong.
The message then considers how hardship can serve a larger purpose. Paul’s imprisonment, Bob says, helped advance the gospel and encouraged other believers to speak with greater courage. He uses this to contrast living for a cause greater than oneself with focusing mainly on personal comfort or recognition.
Bob also discusses the different motives people may have for preaching Christ. He draws a distinction between flawed motives and teaching he considers contrary to the gospel. He closes with Paul’s perspective that life is an opportunity to serve Christ, while death means being with Christ.
Here are the main Scripture passages quoted, cited, or alluded to in the radio program. Some references are clear; others are likely alluded to rather than exact citations.
Clearly discussed or cited:
- Philippians 1:1–11 — Paul’s greeting, gratitude for the believers, confidence that God will complete His work, and prayer for their love, insight, and discernment.
- Philippians 1:12–18 — Paul’s imprisonment advancing the gospel, and people preaching Christ from different motives.
- Philippians 1:19–23 — Paul’s hope and his perspective that living means serving Christ and dying means being with Christ.
- Romans 16:17–19 — Warning about divisive people, smooth talk, flattery, and being wise about good and innocent about evil.
- Philippians 4:4–7 — Rejoicing, praying with thanksgiving, and receiving God’s peace in difficult circumstances.
Likely alluded to:
Proverbs 26:28; Proverbs 29:5 — Possible references behind the warning about flattering speech; though doesn’t specify a particular proverb.
Philippians 3:4–8 — Paul’s former legalistic credentials and his considering them loss compared with knowing Christ.
Acts 9:23–30; Acts 11:25–26 — Paul’s escape from Damascus and later being brought from Tarsus by Barnabas. The specific eighteen-year period mentioned in the talk is not stated directly in these passages.
2 Corinthians 11:32–33 — Paul’s escape from Damascus in a basket.
Genesis 2:16–17; Genesis 3:1–6 — The command about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the account of Adam and Eve eating from it.
2 Corinthians 6:14 — The reference to not being “equally yoked.”
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Pray to God:
Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”
Bible Study Booklets
Announcer 0:13
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
Bob George 0:29
Last number of weeks we’ve gone through the Book of Acts and went through last week the final conversion of the Apostle Paul, and so I felt it was appropriate after learning of how God touched his life, and how he was led over the wall to free himself from the people who were wanting to lovingly kill him for what he was teaching, and how for about 18 years Paul went back to his hometown of Tarsus before Barnabas went to retrieve him, 18 years, and you say, “Well, what in the world was God doing with Paul for all those years?” And I think it was pounding legalism out of him that Paul was a legalist of legalists. He said, as far as legalistic form was concerned, that he was without equal, and yet ultimately, after those years of training, Paul was able to say that I consider all of these things as done compared to that of knowing Christ. And so that took time for God to deal in our hearts, in in our individual hearts, because this is an example of what God has to do with us, especially those of us that were raised in legalistic homes and legalistic churches, of how long many times it takes for God to pound that legalism out of you, to recognize the truth that it’s all grace and none of the law that saves us or keeps us saved.
So we’re going to turn to the book of Philippians today. Philippi is a city up in the northeastern part of Mesopotamia, which is in Greece, and it was the first European church that Paul founded on his second missionary journey, it was the home of Luke, the physician, who, after Paul founded this church in about 19 or 1951, in well, he was old in 51 A.D. That he pastored that church for around six years. Following that, he probably practiced his medical profession there, and as many of you know, as we know, that he was an amanuensis of the apostle Paul. At many times, he would be the one who would be writing down what Paul had dictated to him, along with, incidentally, Timothy, which is acknowledged in the salutation in this book of Philippians, so a little bit of history there on this city of Philippi.
So let’s begin with chapter one, verse one. This comes, this letter comes from Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers or bishops and deacons, grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you. I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Now, guys, that is a very, very important passage of Scripture for each and every one of us to have this confidence. And and he uses that word confidence so that you and I will have confidence. He talks about the fact I’m being convinced of something. I am confident of something, and what he is saying here is, God wants you and me to be confident in the fact and the truth that the one who began this work in us will complete it. He didn’t just begin it and then leave you alone. You weren’t born and then say adios. That he has committed to completing the work that he began in you and in me. Now again, is God through with any of us yet? Is he? Is a work still in process? Then I ask myself sometimes, why are we so unbelievably critical of one another, when the scriptures clearly state that number one, God isn’t through with us yet, and number two, it’s His responsibility to complete the work that He began in you. So again, if you’re not quite as far along as I would like for you to be, tough because I’m not the one to judge you. That is God’s business, and for me to criticize you is to criticize the God who says it’s my business to complete the work I begin in you.
So, in essence, what we’re saying is, God, you’re not doing a very good job with old Charlie, or with my wife, or with my husband, or with my kids. The issue is that if you are in Christ Jesus, and if indeed Christ Jesus is alive, living in you, then you have a promise from God that He is going to complete the work that He began in you. You didn’t start the work. I didn’t start the work. I didn’t save myself. Christ Jesus saved me, and that same Jesus that saved me is the same Jesus who says, “I’ll complete the work in you, if you let me.” So it’s a marvelous passage of Scripture. I want you to be confident of this: that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Now he says, “It’s right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart. For whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. Paul at this particular time was in prison when he wrote this letter. God can testify how I long for all of you with affection of Christ Jesus, and this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus, to the glory and praise of His name.
There’s about five points in this passage in Philippians in the first few chapters that Paul wants us to pull out of these passages. First of all, he wants us to be discerning. Discernment is a gift that God gives to us if we’ll use it. Discerning good from evil, discerning right from wrong, discerning whether you’re dealing with a person who is sincere or whether they’re not sincere, discerning with people that you hang around with or don’t hang around with, discerning of the fact of when God says, as an example, don’t be unequally yoked with one another, being discerning that you’re not yoked with somebody, and therefore need to be cautious. Discernment is something that God gives us and wants us to use on the 16th chapter of Romans, there’s a there’s a warning here that deals with discernment in regard to flattering lips. It tells us in the scriptures, through Proverbs and through the different areas of Scripture, to be very very cautious of flattering lips.
In this 16th chapter of Romans, beginning in verse 17, I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching that you have learned, keep away from them. There’s discernment. Keep away from people who are causing divisions and putting obstacles in the way of what you have been taught. Such people are not serving our Lord Jesus, but their own appetites. By look at this guy, smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Naive people. Have you ever met a naive person? Have you ever been naive? You know, I think Christians are probably the most subject to that of any group that I know of just being naive, because there is a tendency for Christians to trust everybody and to hope the best, which we’re told to do, and therefore many times are very subject to being conned, and being conned by smooth talk, and by flattery. You got to be careful of smooth talkers, and you got to be very, very careful of flatterers. And the scriptures warn us about that constantly. I’ve seen men and women, I’ve seen guys, I’ve seen older gentlemen get absolutely conned through the flattering lips of a woman who is not interested in him at all but his money, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the results of it. You have to be careful of flattering lips. It warns us: be discerning of people with flattering lips. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you. But I want you to be wise about what? What is good, and innocent, and what is evil.
My friends, at the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ultimately ate from the tree of the knowledge of what? Good and evil, God had said to Adam, “Of all of the trees in this garden, you can eat of any of them.” You know that’s like people saying, “Wonder what God wants me to eat today. Wonder what God want Job want.” He doesn’t care. He said, “I’ve given you all these things. You got freedom to do all except one, you do not have the freedom to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The very day that you, as man, start determining on your own what is right and wrong and good and evil, that’s the day that I will depart from you because you have no need for me. I, God alone, can determine right from wrong and good from evil. There is no situational ethics with God. Right is right and wrong is wrong, and God wants us to be discerning in the things of good, and what is innocent, and what is evil.
We live in a day today where everything is watered down. We rename things, so therefore we can redefine things. God calls homosexuality sin. We call it alternate lifestyle, or we call it gay. I’d like to know what is gay about being homosexual. But that’s what we have done, and then we’re called bigots because we stand up and say what God said is truth. And folks, I want to tell you something: if you want to run for sheriff, don’t become a Christian, because what if you’re going to become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? You’re going to be about as popular as a Titanic thinking out in the world, because your philosophy and your understanding of truth, and your understanding of what is good, and your understanding of what is innocent, and your understanding of what is evil is totally contrary to the thinking of the world. And so, don’t ever expect to go out and to be popular in the world with your thinking, because you’re not going to be if you’re thinking with God’s thoughts and using His discernment. We have to call truth truth. We have to call things what God calls them. My friends, if you didn’t have, if we did not have the plumb line of the Word of God to teach us what is right and wrong, and what is innocent and what is evil. What would we have, guys? What would we have except our own thinking? And that’s what’s going on today.
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Bob George 14:15
Look what has taken place in our own country in America. It has just gone down and down and down. Why? By watering down what is good and what is evil. You go into a country like Amsterdam, and I say that because that was probably the worst country that I’ve ever been in, as far as morality is concerned. That you have legalized prostitution, you have legalized drugs, you have everything goes, which would be okay if man wasn’t sinful. But if we’re going to believe what the Bible says that man is sinful, then my friends, if you don’t have laws to curtail the sinful behavior of man, you’re going to have Amsterdam on your hands. And that’s exactly what has gone on in this country as well. Is we water down the rules and regulations in order to be tolerant and not to hurt anyone’s feelings, and therefore we have absolutely walked away from what is truth, and what is good, and what is innocent, what is evil. Walked away from truth on that, and our discernment is gone. It’s a tragedy, but it’s true. So it says, stay away from smooth talk and flattering lips. Now, does a flattering lip mean that you never say something nice to somebody? Is that what that means? No, that isn’t what it means. But you can tell when someone is blowing smoke, can’t you? When they’re just saying things to flatter you, no meaning to it, not particularly even believing it, just to flatter you. Don’t do it, and be on alert of people who do, it warns us against people of flattering lips.
So discernment. I want you to be able to discern what is best, and and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Interestingly enough, Philippians, the the church in Philippi, which was pastored by Luke, Doctor Luke, was known as probably one of the most purest and blameless churches of all of them that was ever mentioned in the Bible, this was Paul’s first church that he opened up, as I mentioned in Europe, and it was it was obviously was made up of people who had very sincere hearts for Christ, and so he says, “Now this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. Now, next he says, “I want I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.” In other words, don’t feel sorry for me for being in chains, because these being in chains is helping the gospel to get out. Guys, this is something that I think that we all have to grab a hold of in our lives: to be involved in something that is bigger than you and me. To be involved in something that is more important than me. Many times we live strictly for me, myself, and I, the big three, and we live for that instead of realizing that there are causes that are far greater than just us. The ministry of People to People is more important than me, or Bob, or Bob, or Richard Bob, or any of the rest of them. It’s more important. There’s something more important than just us. We have to realize that the cause of Christ is one of the most important things that you and I will ever be involved in. When you came to Christ Jesus, we’re born again, and God said, “I’m going to make you a representative here on this earth, to be a part of my body, to go out into the world and represent me.” Is the highest calling that man could ask for? Do you realize that you, as born-again people sitting in this room today, have been given an assignment far greater than the president of the United States or the president of any country? Your job is more important in the sight of God than theirs. To be a child of the living God, living on this earth, named as a part of the body of Christ, is a privilege beyond comprehension. And what he is saying to us is, there’s things that are more important. Paul is saying than myself.
Verse 13. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard, and to everyone else, that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. In other words, they saw the example of the apostle Paul, here he is in chains, and what rejoicing, which we see later. Rejoice, and again I say rejoice. Be anxious for nothing, but in all things with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. And then the peace of God that passes all understanding will quiet your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. These are words coming out of the mouth of the apostle Paul while he’s in chains. Most people be sitting there complaining. You know, got prisoners today sitting over there complaining their food isn’t good enough. My goodness, if you’re a prisoner, y’all be lucky if you get any food. But the issue is that’s the way we are today. I’m number one. I’m the most important, and there’s no cause greater than me. It’s a self-centered philosophy that has permeated the lives of people today. To Paul, the very opposite. Everyone says it’s a good thing I’m in chains because of my chains. Most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word more courageously and fearlessly.
It is true. It’s going to bring some reality here, some discernment. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. You’re going to see that he’s saying here that you’re going to have people who are going to be preaching Christ with a different motive than what God gave them. Their motive is out of envy. Their motive could be out of rivalry. Their motive could be self-gratification. There’s all kinds of motives that a person could have for preaching the gospel. He said others will be preaching out of good will. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I’m in chains. Well, what does it matter? Now this is a different thing. What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached, and because of this, I rejoice. Guys, this is tough. That’s tough for me. He’s saying here, I don’t care whether someone’s preaching out of selfish ambition, or what their motivation is. Christ is being preached, and if Christ is being preached, it’s all I care about. I’m going to rejoice.
Are you going to rejoice with all the teaching going on today? You know, again, it comes discernment. If the gospel is being preached, then what’s it matter what the motive of a man is? If the gospel is being preached, now it doesn’t say anything about not gospel. It doesn’t say anything about the preaching of things that add to the gospel or subtract from the gospel. It isn’t talking about people who are walking around blowing on people and knocking them down. That’s not in the scriptures. People sometimes will write to me, criticizing me for being critical of those people, and I say, “What do you want me to be? You want to want me to elect him sheriff? What do you want to do with people like that? Do you just stand back and say, ‘Hey, that’s okay. It’s not preaching the gospel, guys. That’s not the gospel.’ Now, a man that’s preaching the gospel, it’s not for me to judge his motives. As a matter of fact, judging is not judging the actions of someone. Judging is judging the motive of somebody, and that’s where it says, “Don’t judge people because you don’t know what the motive is.” And I think that’s what Paul is saying here. I don’t know what their motive is, but regardless, if the gospel is being preached, that’s okay, but let’s not confuse that with where error is being taught. Open, flagrant error. Because if we as ministers cannot identify error and point out error, what in the world good are we? And if you’re going to point out error in teaching, you have to be able to substantiate what you’re saying out of this word, not out of your tradition, not out of my bias, but out of the word of God.
So, guys, if anyone thinks that this role of your role, my role of going out and communicating truth to people is easy. Again, you got another thing to think about because it’s not easy, and there are many, many times that you go into situations where you have to wonder: Am I doing this in love or aren’t I? Because in a. Final analysis: If we’re not functioning in love, we’re not functioning in the way that God called us to, are we? So he said these people are trying to stir up problems for him. He said, “I don’t care if Christ is preached, then I’m going to rejoice.”
Now he’s talking about trusting Christ in trials and tribulation, talking about having discernment. Now he’s going to talk about trusting Christ in regard to your attitude toward your life and death. Yes, I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage, so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For me to live is Christ. For me to die is gain. The attitude of death. When we as Christians know that when we breathe our last breath and we leave this body of ours, because this body of ours is not us. Isn’t it amazing? We look at it. Hey, that’s old Jim. Yeah, but there’s someone inside of Jim. That that’s Jim’s house that we’re looking at. As bad as it looks, that’s that’s his house. And we all have different looking houses, and some of them are pretty bad disarray. But that’s our that’s the house we live in. The real you is underneath the skin. The real you is what when you go to a funeral and you see a body there, they’re not there. And so Paul is saying for me to live is I get to live in this body of mine, I get to go and proclaim Christ, but for me to die, I get to go be with Christ. And so he’s saying for me to live is Christ, for me to die is gain.
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