How many chapters does philippians have

Each of the eight lines in each section starts with a Hebrew letter in the alphabet. The entire Hebrew alphabet outlines the chapter. It all points to Jesus Christ. The prophecies point to Him. The miracles He performed remind us that He is God. His teachings were amazing, and His control of nature was real. The entire Bible is about Him.

It is about our God. The Open Bible. New American Standard Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Menahem Mansoor.

Using the information on this site and its analysis of the NASB, there are , words in the Old Testament and , words in the New Testament, making a total of , words altogether. To offer you some more interesting facts and figures, according to this website , the longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm , and the middle and shortest chapter is Psalm The middle verse of the Bible is said to be, in some calculates and translations, Psalm , but this source , citing the KJV, suggests it is Psalm The middle verse of the Old Testament is [2 Chronicles ], and the middle verse of the New Testament is Acts When using the KJV, there are chapters and 23, verses in the Old Testament and chapters and 7, verses in the New Testament.

This gives a total of 31, verses, which is an average of And, talking about Psalm , did you know it is an acrostic Psalm with 22 sections with eight lines.

Each of the eight lines in each section starts with a Hebrew letter in the alphabet. Satan works to promote criticism and division, to nourish roots of bitterness. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who refuse to yield to Satan and instead seek the welfare of their fellow believers. They shall be called sons of God. How are we to attain to such as lofty goal as the above? Such an attitude is contrary to our sinful nature. Perhaps the surest sign of maturity in any person, Christian or not, is concern about the interests of others rather than our own interests.

There are people, including Christians, who are middle-aged or older who are far more involved with their own welfare than with the needs of others. I am not certain why there are young people who perceive the needs of those around them, and grandfathers and grandmothers who live in their own little world.

It must have to do with the way we are brought up. In any case, the mature Christian is a person who is very aware of the needs and problems of other people and spends time and effort on their behalf, praying constantly that others might be healed and grow stronger in the Lord. In our day it appears many verses of the Bible are being unsealed, we might say.

We understand God plans on doing a great work in all those who are willing to move on from the basics of salvation. We are to be coheirs with Christ of the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth. The victorious saints shall inherit all things. The Lord Himself did not consider His equality with God was something to be grasped; something to be vaunted.

We have a problem in our day. There are ministers of the Gospel who bring attention to themselves rather than to the Lord. The believers are more than willing to worship a gifted person. But God will not tolerate this. We should honor the elders who labor among us. But this is different from worshiping gifted speakers. The elders themselves, if they are godly, will not permit people to elevate them. To God be the glory!

If we humble ourselves, God exalts us. If we exalt ourselves, God will bring us down. Christ left the ivory palaces and was willing to be abased.

Now He sits on the highest throne of all, governing the entire universe. We have been called to sit with Him on His throne. But this is not an occasion for self-exaltation.

We must be willing to take the lowliest place. God will exalt us in His time and His way. It appears there are many thrones and many lords in the heavens.

There are angels of incredible magnificence and majesty. But there is a throne that is above all other thrones, and on that supreme throne sits a Man with nail prints in His hands. We are there in Him and with Him, provided we are abiding in Him. At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. One part of salvation is our justification by faith. This does not have to be worked out.

Christ accomplished this for us. All we have to do is receive it by faith. Another part of our salvation is that of change into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. This has to be worked out each day, as the Holy Spirit guides and enables us to turn aside from the sinful nature and embrace the Virtue of Christ.

Another part of our salvation is that of entrance into untroubled rest in the Father through Christ. This has to be worked out as we patiently remain in unpleasant circumstances and thus learn obedience to God.

Paul says we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This makes me know our preaching and teaching today are not in line with the Scriptures. Most of us do not present the terror of the Lord. I do not know why we do this, unless we are trying to be popular.

The very thought of the Judgment Seat of Christ should cause anyone to fear and tremble. Obviously if a person believes this he or she is not going to tremble with fear. The truth is, most American Christians have good reason to tremble at the thought of the Judgment Seat of Christ. Why is this? Because at the Judgment Seat of Christ, each one of us is going to receive the good we have done and the bad we have done.

Grace does not intervene at this point. This is a reaping of what we have sown. If we have been faithful, then we are going to receive faithfulness. If we have been morally pure, then we are going to receive moral purity. If we have been treacherous, then we are going to receive treachery. If we have engaged in moral filth, then this is what we are going to receive.

The words of the New Testament cannot be altered in any manner. The only way by which we can escape receiving bad characteristics is by repenting now, turning away from that which is bad and embracing that which is good. It is not too late if we are alive now on the earth. If the watchman sounds the alarm, which I am attempting to do, the people will be saved from the enemy.

We American Christians need to be awakened today. We have been lulled to sleep by the traditional preaching, which is a mixture of Gnosticism and humanism. We have not been reminded God is a consuming fire. Hopefully God in the near future will intervene in American Christianity and warn us concerning the Judgment Seat of Christ.

If He does, we then will work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Salvation is of the Lord! I am not certain any of us comprehend fully the extent to which Divine election and intervention operate. As people accustomed to democratic thinking, we are not comfortable with the idea that God is a potter, so to speak, and fashions His pots according to His own fancy.

We all have an equal opportunity to be great in the Kingdom. And do you know, this is true. God is not holding anyone back. If we observe and teach the laws of the Kingdom of God, we will be esteemed highly in the Kingdom. So it is not a case of passivity. God is not holding anyone back nor is He causing anyone to sin. We sin when we are drawn away by our own lusts. As far as a place of honor in the Kingdom is concerned, it is up to us to press into the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we are too busy to press into Christ, or are unconcerned, whose fault is that? Yet, there are enough scriptural passages, such as the above verse, that make us realize it is God who is working in us to will and to act according to His good purposes.

God brings to Christ whom He will. Christ chooses whom He will. God has ordained that specific people will sit on either side of Christ in His Kingdom. Those whom God foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. These are Bible concepts.

When you think of it, since God is the One who creates people, He can decide what He wants each person to be. That point cannot be argued. If mothers are free to deprive a human being of life, why should we think it strange that God can form people according to His own will?

So it is absolutely true that we can choose to press into Christ. God will not stop us. And even in the case of those who have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, they have to labor to make their calling and election certain.

But I have a hunch that when God shows us the whole picture, we will see that salvation is of the Lord. God did what He desired among the inhabitants of the earth. Yet no one will be able to say in the Day of Judgment that he wanted to do what was right and God prevented him from doing so. Why not? Because they have been taught they are without fault, blameless and pure, by imputation. Any effort they made toward faultlessness, blamelessness, or purity, would be legalism; works; Pharisaism.

It cannot be said the Christian churches of our day shine like stars in the universe. Imputed faultlessness, blamelessness, or purity, do not shine. They cannot be seen. These are legal states. For there to be a shining, there has to be actual faultlessness, actual blamelessness, actual purity.

In order to illustrate the strength of the bias operating in Christian thinking we may note the following translation of the sixty-second chapter of the Book of Isaiah. This is from a popular Evangelical edition, and the illogic of the translation can be seen at a glance. And the nations shall see your righteousness and vindication—your rightness and justice [not your own, but His ascribed to you]—and all kings shall behold your salvation and glory and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

I do not profess to be a Hebrew scholar. Someone may wish to correct me on this, but I do not believe the actual Hebrew language supports this translation. To impute or ascribe a virtue to a person is to say the virtue is true of him whether it is or not. We say that when we place our faith in Christ, God imputes righteousness to us. This means we may not be behaving righteously, but God says we are righteous nevertheless. Needless to say, other people cannot see with their eyes this kind of righteousness.

This is not the light that is supposed to shine from us. We are not right in our behavior. We are not just in our behavior. How can kings behold our salvation when we are lying, murdering, and stealing? If we say we really are truthful, peaceful, and honest by imputation, will the kings accept this? Will they not say we are deceived?

How is it that a translator, who without doubt is devout and totally sincere, as well as being intellectually capable enough to translate the entire Scriptures, not perceive what he is suggesting by altering the root meaning of the passage is illogical? Not only is such thinking illogical, but I believe it is responsible for the moral wreckage that exists in the Christian churches.

Are the rulers of countries like China and Japan convinced that Christians are people of absolute integrity and moral purity? Or are they not rather somewhat cynical because of the behavior of Christian people? How about in the United States. How does the populace regard Christian people? Are Christians noted for being blameless and pure? We should be. We are saying we are not new creatures except by imputation.

We are announcing that we are no different from anyone else in our behavior, so do not expect godliness from us. If there has been a greater deception in the history of the world, than is true of current Christian teaching concerning righteousness, I am not aware of it.

Our nation is heading toward Divine judgment because of the immoral conduct of its citizens—Christians and non-Christians alike. If we are to shine like stars in the universe, we had better have more righteousness than that which merely is ascribed to us! What is the Word of Life? Is it not that Jesus Christ came to forgive our sins, and then to transform us through His Presence until we are filled with the Life of God? If we, as so many are doing, tell people that believing in Christ is a free trip to Heaven, are we holding out the Word of Life?

Are we not rather holding out the unscriptural traditions of our religion? If they do not deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus each day, how then will they attain to eternal life? In fact, we are not telling people the truth. We are not holding out the Word of Life but the dead doctrines of our religion. Paul is picturing the sacrifice and service coming from the faith of the believers in Philippi as an offering to God, with Paul being the accompanying drink offering.

Paul was willing to suffer and die in order that Christ might be pleased and the believers benefited. In fact, Paul was rejoicing over his opportunity to serve God and the believers and wanted them to be glad and rejoice with him. We who are older are supposed to entrust to younger men and women on occasion that which God has given to us.

Timothy was a person whom Paul trusted implicitly, being assured of his faithfulness. As soon as a Christian meets the criteria of his particular group his attention is turned toward his interests in the world.

There do not seem to be many who have a heart to press forward. They forget that the staves were never removed from the Ark of the Covenant, signifying that God is always moving forward and wants us to move forward with Him. This reminds us of the Jews who had made the long trip from Babylon in order to restore the Temple, and then forgot what they were doing. What peace it must have given the Apostle Paul to realize there was someone who would faithfully carry forward his work after he died!

Paul was facing a trial before Caesar, as I have mentioned previously. No doubt he had to pray constantly to keep fear from taking hold of him. But he does not burden the believers with his problems. He maintains a cheerful confidence that he will be released and can return to be with the saints in Philippi. Apparently Paul was released, probably in A.

We do not know much about Epaphroditus except that he was a faithful helper of the Gospel work. Epaphroditus represents those millions of unknown believers who have put their shoulder to the work.

But God knows each one of them and they have their treasures in Heaven. There was a revival of Divine healing during the twentieth century. Also, we both have experienced Divine healing. Paul does not seem to regard the illness of Epaphroditus as something that must be dealt with because it is not supposed to happen. Paul apparently treats this sickness as one more tribulation to be endured.

We always ought to pray for healing to take place. We should anoint the sick with oil and pray over them, as the Bible commands. We should lay hands on the sick. We should pray for the gifts of healing. We should take nothing for granted but do all the Bible commands. The Bible tells us we were healed by the wounds of Christ; and our healing includes body, soul, and spirit.

Divine healing may be thought of in two ways. As the Lord Jesus and His Apostles ministered, miraculous healing occurred as a sign. The miracle of healing made people know the word that was being preached was from God.

The second way is that Divine healing occurs in our life as we follow Christ closely. I have had two special healings in my life. A long-standing nearsightedness was instantly corrected, and arthritis in my right knee was instantly healed. In neither case was special prayer made.

I did not pray for my eyes, because I wore bifocal glasses that corrected the vision. When the Lord healed my knee, I was getting ready to go to the hospital. Incidentally, neither taking medicine nor going to the doctor will prevent the Lord from healing you. The Lord is not against doctors or medicine. My wife, Audrey, had a congenital thyroid problem.

She was prayed for by an evangelist. The next time she took her medicine she had a reaction. So she went to the doctor, who pronounced her healed. The three healings I have mentioned took place many years ago, and they are still in effect.

In other words, we are in health and prosper as our soul prospers. When we please the Lord He heals us. Until we are healed, it is wise to thank the Lord each day for the blessings we have received, and then to remind Him we still are sick. Or to keep us weak so His strength prevails. Christ did this in the case of Paul. But we never are to take this for granted.

Paul prayed three times that He might be delivered. Finally the Lord spoke to Him. Se we are not to make a fetish out of Divine healing. Paul stated in the Book of Galatians that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is the new creation. We need to apply this principle to every aspect of the Christian religion. All that we say and do in our religious activity is for the purpose of bringing forth people who practice righteousness, who are holy in thought and deed, and who obey God fervently.

Divine healing is not an end in itself. Sometimes people are wonderfully healed, but then return to the world and live in moral filth. So our goal is not to heal everyone. Our goal is to follow the Holy Spirit as He makes us a new creation and helps us lead others to become a new creation of righteous living. Yes, Epaphroditus is ill.

This is a fact of life. We seek God on his behalf, hoping God will cause us to rejoice by raising him up. But the work of the Kingdom proceeds. Let us take this attitude toward Divine healing, knowing that physical healing has been paid for by the wounds of Christ. Anxiety is true of us mortals. All of us are much the same.

Whether we are great in the Kingdom of God or least in the Kingdom of God, or even not a believer, we all suffer many of the same things. I think sometimes Evangelists oversell the Gospel. They tend to give the idea that once we place our faith in Christ, our problems as well as the devil will vanish. The truth is, Christians have the same problems as everyone else.

The difference is, the Christian can go to God with confidence and receive peace and a solution to the problem. The Christian, if he is wise, will use problems as a motivation to draw closer to the Lord in prayer. I wonder if Epaphroditus placed himself in danger by seeking to help Paul while Paul was in prison. He was worthy of honor. Can you imagine Paul, in prison, waiting to be brought before Caesar, exhorting the believers to rejoice in the Lord? Some of the Jewish teachers were insisting that the Christians be circumcised, and perhaps keep other parts of the Law of Moses although circumcision originated with Abraham.

Such single emphasis is not healthy. It reminds us of the Pharisees who haggled over tithing herbs but neglected judgment, mercy, and faith. If we do this, keeping our eyes on the Lord, I believe some of the lesser ideas will more or less take care of themselves. God is not as interested in our doctrine as we might think. God is concerned with our love for Him, and our behavior. Imagine Paul, raised as a Pharisee, coming around to the viewpoint that circumcision was nothing more than a mutilation of the flesh!

Even the Law pointed out that the important circumcision was the circumcision of the heart. True circumcision is that of worshiping by the Spirit of God, glorying in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in the circumcision of the flesh. If anyone had earned confidence in the flesh it was Paul, because he had been as diligent in keeping the Law of Moses as he was now, after being converted, in preaching Christ.

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; As for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. When you consider the background of the Apostle Paul, it is amazing that he could come out so vehemently against the Law of Moses.

Such a reversal was not due, I believe, to any philosophical decision. Paul did not compare the value of the Law and the value of the Gospel of Christ, and then decide the Gospel was superior. Rather, Paul was assaulted from Heaven—blinded in fact—commanded to be an apostle, before he had had a chance to believe in Christ. We may think God cannot reach down and save whomever He wishes, but He can.

It is as I said previously. God is God. We Americans have a difficult time letting God be God, because of our democratic background. We would attempt to vote God out of office.

We would get a lawyer and sue God if He did something that seemed unjust to us. Why did God choose Paul? Why did God take Paul into Arabia and teach him the truths found in his epistles? No other writer comes close to Paul in describing the way the new covenant operates, the transition from the Law of Moses to grace, the Body of Christ, the Wife of the Lamb, the destruction of the sinful nature, the need to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

God took Paul and taught him. Then God enabled Paul to preach to the Gentiles. After that, God set Paul down in the midst of the Jews with the predictable result. Did you ever notice that advances in the Kingdom of God do not come out of committees but out of one man? We like to get people together and plan some enterprise. Perhaps that is the best way at times. They might have been uncomfortable sitting on a committee.

God takes a man and makes him a witness of God. After that, God takes the man to Himself. And so we see Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. God can take anyone and do what He wishes with that individual. So there is no room for boasting, is there?

God predestined, intervened, and Paul responded with all his might. He had come to the level of understanding that viewed the whole world as loss, compared with the value of Christ. Such is a true perception of relative value, and we come to it if we persevere long enough.

One of the most remarkable statements in the entire Bible. All other relationships! All circumstances! All things are expendable if we wish to gain Christ! How long do we have to live before we come to this conclusion? Such is not the case. Salvation begins when we place our faith in Christ and then pursue the rugged pathway that leads finally to salvation and eternal life.

Salvation is not a ticket to Heaven. Salvation is the program of recreating a human being until he or she is in the image of God. Here was the Apostle Paul, after missionary journeys of unparalleled fruitfulness, seeking to gain Christ. What are you going to do with this? It tells us that our whole life is to be one of laying hold on Christ. It means to become part of Christ. It is living by His body and blood as He lives by the Father.

It may be true that when we first encounter Christ He is a teacher, robed in white, wearing sandals, who is telling us how to be saved; how to please God. After we have served Christ for fifty years, if we actually have followed Him as a disciple instead of sitting passively in church, Christ has become the entire universe.

He holds the galaxies in His hands. He controls the ant on the ground as well as the stars in their orbits. Let us not think we have gained Christ when we first acknowledge that He is our rightful Lord and has presented His blood to God as a sin offering. Let us not think we have gained Christ when we are able to express our burdens and our worship in other tongues. Nothing else is needed. I do not have to behave righteously.

Christ has done it all for me. Did you notice that Paul is comparing faith in Christ with the Law of Moses, not with our efforts to be decent? Paul is saying he no longer claims the righteousness that came to him because of his life as a Law-keeping Pharisee, as he mentioned a few verses earlier.

What do we do with this statement? It does not fit current preaching, as far as I know. At least I never heard anyone refer to it. If Paul, with his attitude, had not as yet attained to the resurrection from the dead, what about the rest of us? The Lord Jesus Christ stated that all who are in the graves would hear His voice and come forth. Why then was the Apostle Paul striving to attain to something that is going to take place whether or not he seeks to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings?

We might venture that Paul was striving to escape the resurrection to condemnation and participate in the resurrection to life. But there is a problem here. If Paul, in this chapter, is presenting the behavior that will qualify us for the resurrection to eternal life, then very few people will rise to live, as Jesus said. And what about those who never have heard of Christ?

Billions of people would then be resurrected to condemnation. Maybe five thousand would be raised to life. As I read the Book of Revelation I notice there are two resurrections separated by a thousand years. Also there are two appearances of the Bride separated by a thousand years.

I have come to the conclusion that the first resurrection as well as the first appearance of the Bride of the Lamb is for the believers who, like the Apostle Paul, have laid aside all else that they may gain Christ. The second resurrection is the general resurrection from the dead. I think it is this second resurrection that Jesus was referring to when He spoke of rising to live or rising to be condemned. This makes perfect sense to me. No books are opened at the first resurrection.

The first resurrection is for the blessed and holy royal priesthood. It is taught commonly that the first resurrection is for all the saved and the second resurrection is for the lost. This position does not fit the Scripture. Would we claim everyone who announces his or her faith in Jesus qualifies as a blessed and holy royal priest?

Jesus said only a remnant of the believers in Smyrna would walk with Him in the white robes of the priesthood. Are all the other believers lost? Will everyone except those who have made a profession of faith in Christ be thrown into the Lake of Fire and tormented forever? When describing the second resurrection, the Book of Revelation states that all people will be judged according to their works. This is the great mass of mankind, because those who are raised in the first resurrection obviously are an elite remnant.

Then it states that only those whose names are not found in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. Also, what Jesus said about some rising to live and some to be condemned fits the description of the second resurrection. To read that all are judged according to their works at the second resurrection , and that those whose names are not found in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, and to conclude from this that everyone at the second resurrection is thrown into the Lake of Fire, reveals that the reader is applying a previously conceived model so the text will mean what he wants it to mean.

He is not letting the Scripture speak its own truth. If you read for the first time the above passage, would you conclude that everyone was thrown into the Lake of Fire?

Yet that is what is preached! By showing that not all who profess Christ will be raised from the dead and rise to meet Him in the air when He appears. This position agrees with the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation. The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation divide the Christian people into two groups. There are those who overcome. Then there are those who do not overcome. Also, our experience as Christians suggests the overcomers are a remnant.

To overcome means to gain victory over sin so we are living an obedient life before God, carrying our cross after the Lord Jesus. How many Christian of your acquaintance are doing this?

Yet, the promises we associate with being a Christians, such as ruling with Christ; walking with Him in the white robes of the royal priesthood; are reserved for the victorious saints.

We are suggesting that it may indeed be true that only the victorious saints will be raised from the dead when the Lord appears.

The remainder of the believers will have to wait until the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age before they regain their bodies. By the way, this division of the Church into a militant remnant and the remainder of the elect fits several major types of the Old Testament, such as the reign of David over Judah, and eventually over all Israel. Since I have written a good deal in other writings about these types, I will not go into them now, except to remind the reader that the account of Gideon may be one of the clearest of the Old Testament types of the great battle of the last days.

We are to live like Paul if we hope to be ready for Jesus when He comes. We need to press forward until we know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, if we hope to attain to the resurrection which is out from among the rest of mankind. So we see that Paul was pressing forward toward perfection—perfection meaning he was qualified to participate in the out-resurrection Greek term found in Philippians Christ Jesus has laid hold on each of us for a place in His Kingdom.

We are not to compare ourselves with anyone else, great or small.