Discipleship is great, but Paul encourages the Philippians to take ownership of their own walk with Jesus, even when Paul is not there. When we take ownership, we are walking with Jesus and his Spirit and then, we are to do the same as Paul, by walking with others, and pointing them to Jesus, that they would do the same. That way, we are participating in building Gods kingdom, here on earth. Is that not a beautiful way to see what gods will is in our life?
The Battle belongs to the Lord
3–5 This was the Lord’s appeal. With tenderness and emotion, the divine Plaintiff recalled His many gracious acts toward them, almost to the point of assuming the tone of a defendant. Noting their trek from bondage in Egypt to their own homeland, God had provided leadership (v. 4), reversed the attempts of Balaam to curse the people (v. 5a; cf. Nu 22–24), and miraculously parted the Jordan River (v. 5b) so they could cross over from Shittim, located E of the Jordan, to Gilgal on the W side near Jericho. God had faithfully kept all His promises to them. † 6:6, 7 Micah, as though speaking on behalf of the people, asked rhetorically how, in light of God’s faithfulness toward them, they could continue their hypocrisy by being outwardly religious but inwardly sinful. † 6:8 Micah’s terse response ( v. 8) indicated they should have known the answer to the rhetorical question. Spiritual blindness had led them to offer everything except the one thing He wanted—a spiritual commitment of the heart from which right behavior would ensue (cf. Dt 10:12–19; Mt 22:37–39). This theme is often represented in the OT (cf. 1Sa 15:22; Is 1:11–20; Jer 7:21–23; Hos 6:6; Am 5:15).
In this book, Nahum portrays the downfall of Nineveh and Assyria as an image of how God will confront and bring down all violent human empires.
from John MacArthur study Bible
3:4 Paul … Apollos. Factionalism was the divisive product of carnality. Cf. 1:11–13. †
3:5–7 What then is Apollos … Paul? A humble, but accurate assessment of the roles that ministers play. the Lord gave … God who causes the growth. It is the Lord alone who can give the faith to the spiritually ignorant and dead. Salvation is God’s work of grace to whom He chooses to give it (see notes on Ro 9:15–19; Eph 2:8, 9).
3:8 are one. All the human instruments God uses to produce salvation life are equally considered and rewarded for their willingness to be used by God. But all the glory goes to Him, who alone saves. Because of that, the silly favoritism of v. 4; 1:12 is condemned. See notes on Mt 20:1–16.
3:9 we. Paul, Apollos, Peter, and all ministers are equal workers in the field, but the spiritual life from that field is entirely by God’s grace and power. God’s building. Paul shifts the imagery from agricultural to construction (vv. 10–17). †
3:10 master builder … foundation. The Gr. word is the root for architect, but contained the idea of builder as well as designer. Paul’s specialty was designing and building spiritual foundations (cf. Ro 15:20). He was used by God to establish the groundwork for churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece. Others (e.g., Timothy, Apollos) built the churches up from his foundations. That God used him in that way was all of grace (cf. v. 7; 15:20; Ro 15:18; Eph 3:7, 8; Col 1:29). each man. This primarily refers to evangelists and pastor-teachers.
3:11 no … foundation other than. Paul did not design the foundation, he only laid it down by preaching Christ. Cf. 1Pe 2:6–8.
Living Waters 