Kollel Emor

Kollel Emor

Philippians 3 & 4

If you have not read the introduction to Philippians from last week’s parashat, please do so.  Shaul was not a false prophet who taught against Torah.

Phi 3:1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in Adonai. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not tiresome, but for you it is safe.

Phi 3:2  Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

That is, circumcision according to the traditions and precedents of the Pharisees, which are additions to Torah and foster a climate where snubbingpeople  and exclusionof others  are normal attitudes – completely opposite of Elohim’s real will.  The Pharisees confuse people by referring to their teachings as “Torah” when they actually mean all their takanot and ma’asim – traditions and precedents of the so-called “oral law,” or Talmud.  When you’re talking to someone who practices Rabbinic (Orthodox) Judaism, which is the offspring of the Pharisees, and they say “law” or “Torah,” they mean the Talmud they wrote, not the real original written Torah of Elohim.

This is very important to understand, and if you don’t get this, you will never have a true understanding of Shaul’s writings and dealings with the Pharisees/Rabbis.  To the Orthodox Jew, there is no such thing as just the written Torah – the Torah to them is a mixture of the books of Moshe and the writings of the Talmud.  They have been taught this from childhood and actually believe that the two cannot be separated, and that both were given on Mt. Sinai.   They believe people who insist on sola scriptura – scripture alone – are heretics.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 3:3  For we are the circumcision, who worship Elohim in the Spirit, and rejoice in Messiah Yeshua, and have no confidence in the flesh;

Phi 3:4  though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more:

Phi 3:5  circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Yisra’el, of the tribe of Binyamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the Torah, a Parush;

Phi 3:6  concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the [oral] law, found blameless.

Herein lies the Pharisees hostility to Shaul and his new teachings that their supposed “authority” is no such thing at all and their traditions and precedents which add to Torah are in fact lawlessness.  There is no hate so great as for one who used to be a brother, and the Pharisees made every effort to undo the “damage” Shaul was doing to their sect, by going around behind him trying to impose their oral law back on people who had been liberated from it, and trying to impose it onto gentile converts who were ignorant of the lawlessness of their sect.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 3:7  However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Messiah.

Shaul had to give up his old friends and most of his family when he turned away from the Pharisee sect to embrace Torah True Messianic Judaism.  This is, in fact, the experience of many who leave Orthodox Judaism to become Torah True Messianics to this day.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 3:8  Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Messiah Yeshua, my Adonai, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Messiah

Phi 3:9  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own [their own, from their Talmud, now that he is no longer one of them], that which is of the [oral] law, but that which is through faith in Messiah, the righteousness which is from Elohim by faith;

Phi 3:10  that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;

Phi 3:11  if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

The Pharisees also taught resurrection, but they did not understand that the “last trump” of Yom Teruah also includes living believers.  That was a mystery not revealed to the prophets of the Tanakh.  The “first trump” is Shavu’ot, btw, and the “great trump” is Yom Kippur.  Not everything written by the Sages is “bad,” they certainly thought long and hard about the prophetic and spiritual significance of the moedim.  But their halacha must be understood to be voluntary interpretations and not “Torah” in the way they insist it is.

Some Christian sects  insist on never drinking wine ever, or never watching television or movies or listening to secular music [even classical!], or never wearing make-up, or having multiple wives, or snake-handling – when no such things are commanded!  Likewise, the Pharisees/Rabbis have also taken things too far and insist that their stringencies are for everybody all the time, making life burdensome when Elohim never meant it to be and separating themselves so much from the lost that they can never have contact with them to influence them to be saved.  This is not Elohim’s will for us.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 3:12  Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Messiah Yeshua.

This is important to understand – just being dunked in water and declaring you “believe” in Yeshua is not enough to obtain status as the Bride of Messiah.  You must be righteous, which means you must not pretend that grace is license for sin.  Grace is not license for sin (Romans 6), and sin is, by definition, the transgression of the real written Torah (I John 3).  And righteousness is, also, defined as obedience to Elohim’s real written law.   Yeshua, as YHWH Incarnate, told us this long before He walked the earth in the flesh in the first century CE:

Deu 6:24  YHWH commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear YHWH our Elohim, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day.   Deu 6:25  It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this mitzvah before YHWH our Elohim, as he has commanded us.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 3:13  Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,

Phi 3:14  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of Elohim in Messiah Yeshua.

Phi 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, Elohim will also reveal that to you.

Phi 3:16  Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

Phi 3:17  Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

As we have seen and will continue to see, especially in the book of Acts, those who accused Shaul of teaching against the written Torah and observance of the written Torah were called “false witnesses,” and Shaul took an oath and a nazarite vow to prove he did no such thing.  We should then press onward in our quest to learn and observe the written Torah, and teach it to others.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 3:18  For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Messiah,

Phi 3:19  whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

Phi 3:20  For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, Adonai Yeshua the Messiah;

Phi 3:21  who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

Shaul wants his followers to qualify for the Parousia at Yom Teruah, that seems clear.  In order to do so, one must be a Torah Observant believer in Yeshua HaMashiach.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 4:1 Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand firm in Adonai, my beloved.

Phi 4:2  I exhort Evodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to think the same way in Adonai.

Phi 4:3  Yes, I beg you also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

The early believers had no problems with women working in ministries, presumably as long as they were not in positions of authority over male believers and kept their heads covered in mixed gender groups that prayed and worshipped.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 4:4  Rejoice in Adonai always! Again I will say, Rejoice!

Phi 4:5  Let your gentleness be known to all men. Adonai is at hand.

Phi 4:6  In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to Elohim.

As Yeshua told us, Elohim already knows what you need – but prayer is what Elohim desires from us, to be in communication with us, as friends and family.

Mat 6:24  “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both Elohim and Mammon.   Mat 6:25  Therefore, I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?   Mat 6:26  See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?   Mat 6:27  “Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?   Mat 6:28  Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin,   Mat 6:29  yet I tell you that even Shlomo in all his glory was not dressed like one of these.   Mat 6:30  But if Elohim so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?   Mat 6:31  “Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?‘   Mat 6:32  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.   Mat 6:33  But seek first Elohim’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.   Mat 6:34  Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 4:7  And the shalom of Elohim, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Messiah Yeshua.

Phi 4:8  Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things.

Phi 4:9  The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the Elohim of shalom will be with you.

Shaul had a “day job” and then taught in the Synagogues on Shabbat, and after sundown went to the homes of believers to fellowship and teach more.  Shaul obeyed the written Torah and taught it to believers.  Shaul was not afraid to associate with people out in the world, and witness to them about Yeshua and teach them Torah, also.  This is our example.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 4:10  But I rejoice in Adonai greatly, that now at length you have revived your thought for me; in which you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity.

Phi 4:11  Not that I speak in respect to lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it.

Hasatan has worked hard to make sure the world is never content, that people always think they need more and better and bigger.  It’s just not so.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 4:12  I know how to be humbled, and I know also how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

Phi 4:13  I can do all things through Messiah, who strengthens me.

As can we – even unto death.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 4:14  However you did well that you shared in my affliction.

Phi 4:15  You yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the Good News, when I departed from Macedonia, no assembly shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only.

Phi 4:16  For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need.

Phi 4:17  Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account.

Phi 4:18  But I have all things, and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to Elohim.

Interesting choice of words for someone who supposedly taught against the sacrifices.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 4:19  My Elohim will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Messiah Yeshua.

Every Need, not every want.

Philippians, continued:

Phi 4:20  Now to our Elohim and Father be the glory forever and ever! Amein.

Phi 4:21  Greet every holy one in Messiah Yeshua. The brothers who are with me greet you.

Phi 4:22  All the holy ones greet you, especially those who are of Caesar’s household.

Phi 4:23  The grace of Adonai Yeshua the Messiah be with you all. Amein.

Next week:  Parashat BeHar.