What does the world actually think of Christians, and what should it think? Recent bad press, like the storming of Capitol Hill by self-described Christian nationalists, sharpens Paul’s call for a gentleness the watching world can see.

Continuing from last week, press further into how God upholds and governs even sinful acts without being their author. This second half of the lesson works through the harder edges of the doctrine.

Our strength is directly tied to our joy, as Nehemiah 8:10 puts it. Consider Paul’s command to the Philippians to rejoice even while facing real hardship, and what that kind of joy actually looks like.

God is in control of everything, not just nature but sin itself, without being its author. Picking up where last week’s lesson on providence over creation left off, this works through how the confession holds these two truths together.

A united church is a resilient church, and unity is the weapon Christians need most when facing persecution and temptation. Paul’s appeal to two women in conflict at Philippi is a case study in what real unity costs.

The shortest paragraph in the confession so far, on miracles, still carries real weight. Consider what it means that God ordinarily works through means, yet remains free to work without, above, or against them.

Paul has been modelling Christian maturity in his own life, and now gives the Philippians practical direction for the walk itself. Trace his contrast between two kinds of walk, two kinds of guide, and two kinds of citizenship.

Having established that God sustains and governs all things, consider the harder question of how that actually works without turning God into the author of sin or reducing us to puppets. The confession’s careful distinctions map out the mechanics of providence.

The gospel of free grace is always flanked by two opposite errors: thinking we can save ourselves, or concluding that grace makes effort pointless. Paul’s own example of straining forward toward the goal shows how grace and striving fit together.

The confession’s treatment of providence is a doctrine too easily neglected, especially for anyone shaped by post-Enlightenment assumptions about a world that runs on its own steam. Consider why Christians need to recover a robust doctrine of God sustaining and governing his creation.