The summer I turned
fifteen, I attended my first nation-wide church youth conference. Thousands of Mennonite youth converged. The worship services included some music I
knew, and some I didn’t. Our theme song
for the week – probably because Phil. 1:3-6 was our theme Scripture, but I’m
not sure of that – was a musical setting of Phil. 1:6. Maybe you know it:
I’m confident of this
very thing: (echo)
That he (echo)who has begun (echo)
a good work (echo)
in you (echo)
He shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (sing all together, 4 times)
I
looked for this song online, so I could give credit to the composer, etc. But it’s a little tricky to find a song with
a title like “Phil. 1:6” – or, maybe, “I’m confident of this very thing” –
especially when there are other musical settings out there of the same Bible
verse. For example, Steve Green’s song
“He Who Began a Good Work in You.” (For
a more complete list of the music I found, see the “Hymn alert” at the bottom
of this blog post.) To the best of my
knowledge, the above song is anonymous and in the public domain.
The
message of Philippians 1:6 is important.
It’s the basis for the familiar saying, “Have patience. God isn’t
finished with me yet.” Another
musical reference: when I was growing
up, I used to listen to a Gaither record that contained the song, “He’s still
working on me.” The chorus lyrics are:
He’s still working on
me,to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars,
the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be,
‘Cause He’s still working on me.
So,
what is this good work that God has begun in me but has not yet brought to
completion? That answer will be
different for each of us. What are my
spiritual gifts? What do I care
passionately about? What is my
personality type, and how does that interact with my spiritual gifts and my
passions? These questions, by the way,
come from a book called What You Do Best
in the Body of Christ, by Bruce Bugbee.
The church I belong to studied this book a year or so ago: I thought about those questions then, but I
would like to put some more thought into them at some point.
Browsing
through the book, and reviewing the descriptions of spiritual gifts like
“teaching” and “creative communication,” I can think of ways I am using
those. One thing I feel pretty strongly
about – passionate, you might say – is Scripture memory. Partly because what you store in your heart
is more likely to be accessible to you if you don’t have a Bible handy or if
you start losing your eyesight or ability to physically hold a book. And partly because Scripture that is told, rather than read, engages much more fully with the listener. I’m leading a workshop on biblical
storytelling the first weekend in November:
I’m looking forward to it. (First
time I’ve led a workshop on such a thing, so any prayers for me will be
appreciated!)
And
“creative communication” – “the divine enablement to communicate God’s truth
through a variety of art forms” – you’ve surely noticed, by now, that music
comes to my mind quite readily. I
preached yesterday (2 Tim. 3:14-4:5): it
was going to be a regular sermon. But
late Thursday evening, I got the idea of comparing God’s presence in our lives
to the ever-constant, ever-present repeating bass line of Pachelbel’s Canon in
D. I could have just stood up in the
pulpit and told people to listen for God’s leading in their lives. But I think they’ll remember the message
better – certainly in a different way – because I asked them to listen for that
bass theme (relabeled "the God-theme") as our pianist played sections of the Pachelbel piece.
Enough
about me. What about you?
Philippians 1:3-6 as a whole
Now,
regarding the actual memorization of this entire chunk of Scripture. (You
may have surmised, correctly, that always staying on schedule, when missing the deadline is not catastrophic, is
not my strongest point…probably because I commit to as much as I think [or
hope] I can do, and then things sometimes converge to make one week intensely
busy.)
1:3 I thank my God every time I remember you,
4
constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel
from the (very) first day until now,
6 being confident of this,
that the One who began a good work among you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
I
like “your partnership in the gospel” (NIV, New Jerusalem…) better than “your
sharing in the gospel” (NRSV).
Partnership gives more ownership, perhaps more equality; it seems to
imply that the Philippians were not just on the receiving end of the Good News,
but also worked alongside Paul in telling it to others…
Last question: what phrasing should I choose for verse 6? I could always use the exact lyrics of the
song I know so well. If I’m memorizing
this just for myself, that will give the content of the verse well enough. But if at some point I tell this Scripture to
other people, I’m not sure I want to use the phrase “He will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ.” (In the song,
God’s continuing action is signified
by singing the phrase four times…but I don’t want to do that if I’m saying this
verse aloud.) Look at the shades of
expression in different Bible translations:
NRSV: 6 I am confident of this, that the
one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of
Jesus Christ.
NIV/TNIV: 6 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.
NJB: 6 I am quite confident that the
One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of
Jesus Christ comes.
NLT: 6 And I am sure that God, who
began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally
finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.
I
like saying “the one” or “the One” rather than “he”: it’s not cumbersome, and it’s probably more
reflective of the Greek than the traditional “he.” (But will I be able to get it to roll off my
tongue, when I’m so used to saying “he”?)
I’m also OK with following the lead of the New Living Translation here,
and specifying “God,” since we know that’s who we’re talking about.
I
strongly prefer “among” rather than “in.” I learned “in,” so the same difficulty in
changing my memory might apply; but “among” has the connotation of
community. God has begun a good work
among the Christians in Philippi. And
God will carry that to completion. “In,”
at least to 21st-century Western ears, implies that God is working
within an individual. “Within” (New
Living) gives that impression even more strongly. And if you look back at all my above
reflections, they show that Western bias.
But the culture in Philippi was not based on the individual, but on the
community. I really think I need to
train myself to say “among.” And we
might all want to reflect on how “among” leads to meanings in this verse that we
may have neglected.
Moving
toward completion… Of
the four translations I looked at: I
like them all. I like the shade of
meaning expressed in NRSV…but really, I like them all. And in this instance, the NIV looks a little
more similar to the Greek than the NRSV – most noticeably, in the use of
“Christ Jesus” rather than “Jesus Christ.”
Since I may want to pay attention to when Paul says “Christ” first and
when he says “Jesus” first, during this entire letter, I’m going to choose the
NIV phrasing.
So, how long until I have this whole
paragraph memorized? I haven’t really
been working on it the last half of this past week. (And it’s really already time to be looking
at verses 8-9.) The basic structure, for
my purposes, is:
I thank my God for youhow
why
song
I already know the thanking-God verse; and
I’m pretty close on the how. Why
shouldn’t take too long, IF I actually copy this onto an index card I can have
with me when I’m waiting for school to let out.
Then it’s just a matter of how picky I want to be about phrasing of
verse 6.
So stay tuned: hopefully we’ll look at verses 7-8 later this
week.
Hymn alerts: · Phil. 1:6 “I’m Confident of This Very Thing” (sometimes simply called “Phil. 1:6”), camp-type song; probably anonymous and in the public domain.
· “He Who Began a Good Work in You,” Steve Green.
· “He’s Still Working on Me” – I thought this was by the Gaithers, but I guess words and music are by Joel Hemphill.
· Brentwood Kids Music has a “Phil. 1:6” song on the CD/DVD Crazy Praize, Vol. 1. But it’s not the same tune I was thinking of for the first song I mentioned.
· There’s a Bible memory program (Fighter Verses) that includes a CD of songs: word-for-word Bible verses set to music. Phil. 1:6 is on the CD Fighter Verse Songs, Set 1, but I don’t know the tune. (http://fighterverses.com)
Hymnary.org
suggests quite a few hymns for Phil. 1:6.
(Most are thematic connections, some more direct than others.) Two that caught my eye (partly because I know
and love them) are:
·
Lord
of Our Growing Years· I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry
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