Philippians: Complete Gospel

Sources: I. Howard Marshall et al., Exploring the New Testament: A Guide to the Letters and Revelation (IVP, 2002); Raymond E. Brown, The New Testament: an Introduction (Doubleday, 1997); Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 3d ed. (Oxford, 2004).

I. A Relational Faith
Background: Acts 16:11-40. Founded on Paul's second missionary journey.
Even the sunniest NT letter reveals myriad challenges to faithful Christian life, years in to Paul's ministry.

The Philippians are managing them, and supporting the apostles' mission, so Paul can lift them up.

For support meeting challenges and advancing, he offers Jesus, himself, and two caring assistants as examples and partners:

Christ's tri-une mind and love (2:1-6) address conflict (4:2).
Christ's humility (2:3) addresses self-serving leaders (2:21 and 3:18-19).
Christ's kenosis (2:7-8) and the Father's answer (2:9-11) address their persecution (1:28-29).
Paul's own kenotic career, our true circumcision (3:3-4), addresses circumcisers' trust in "the flesh" (3:2 and 3:18-19).
Paul's character is, now, Christ-shaped. Kenosis is infectious! So is resurrection (3:11-15).
His contentment (4:11-13) addresses illness (2:27) and poverty (4:12-15).
Their honorable servanthood (2:20, 2:29-30) addresses twisted, tempting surroundings (2:15).

So kenotic (Christ-shaped) relationships are 'the next level' that fosters "lives worthy of the gospel of Christ"

that carry healthy faith forward in anticipation of its completion and resurrection on "the day of Christ":
Christ's divine character and salvation (2:1-13) are fruit of fellowship with the Spirit (2:1, cf. Gal 5:25)
and suggest Paul will be reunited joyfully with them (1:25), his joy complete (2:2).

These letters reject legalism, moralism, and libertinism in favor of cooperation ("incarnating the gospel").
The heart of these letters isn't their advice, rules, nor conceptual vocabulary. It's their Christ, and our relatedness in him.

II. Word Studies: On Terminology
Certain words play key roles in a language, a culture, a corpus, and a text.

Key terms may still be infrequently used.
Other terms are much less important and even dispensable.

Word studies discover and explore the meanings and roles of key terms of a discourse (e.g., grace, gospel, justify, faith, flesh, peace, joy). Some pointers:

Word studies should pay close attention to contexts.
They should not import every meaning of a word into every use.
They should look for resemblances across authors.
They should not ignore differences between authors.
They should be aware of lines of influence (see "genre").
They should not ignore the evolution of usages over time.
They should choose terms that reflect the text's emphasis.