THE THINGS THAT ARE MORE EXCELLENT
John Gaskin
The apostle was anxious that the saints in Philippi should be occupied with the things that are more excellent and to use their spiritual judgment so as to approve of such things. The whole epistle was written to this end and in it the excellent things are brought out.
Paul is concerned as to the glad tidings. It seems that the prison circumstances in which he was were giving him an opportunity to announce the glad tidings to members of the Imperial guard themselves, which he was quick to grasp, and that his imprisonment was encouraging the brethren to preach the word of God fearlessly and for which he is set as a defence. As the apostle thinks of the saints as in the fellowship of the Spirit, he desires that we should know what it is to esteem each other as more excellent than ourselves, regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others also. In this way we would have a more exalted view of the saints as those for whom He was prepared to go into death.
Paul can recount the things that as a Jew he could boast in in the flesh, but all these things he could count loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. As an athlete he was stretching out towards the calling on high in Christ Jesus. Finally he is engaged with the things that are more excellent, whatsoever things are true, are noble, whatsoever things are just, pure and amiable, things of good report, virtue and praise, think on these things.
In Hebrews the writer speaks of a name more excellent than that of angels. It is a name which Christ inherits, the name of the Son. It is uniquely His - the person of the Son, the effulgence of God's glory and the expression of His substance; no one else but He could sustain all those divine glories. Mr McCallum's hymn beautifully expresses it as he says:
Thou art the Son, O Lord.
It involved His coming down from glory and being in manhood's form, "Sonship in conscious nature". Mr Darby speaks of Him thus as the "Man of Sorrows".
In Chapter 8 the writer speaks of a more excellent ministry, that of the new covenant. He speaks of Christ as the mediator of a better covenant, no longer demanding but in grace supplying from God's side. In 1 Corinthians 16 Paul is engaged in what love can do. He speaks of a way of more surpassing excellence. He recounts seventeen matters that love does and finally says that love never fails. It is indeed a way of more surpassing excellence, a way the Lord Jesus was prepared to go for us when He went through the terrible suffering of the cross that we might be redeemed through His blood.
May we be able to approve the things that are more excellent and to enjoy all these more excellent things which resulted from the precious work of our Lord Jesus and for His glory.
ABERDEEN
September 1998