PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

Philippians
This “law of the kingdom” perhaps provides structure to Paul’s letter to the Philippians,
with one example after another of its embodiment:
1:12-26: Paul is shown to “suffer” and to expect “deliverance”
1:27-30: Philippians are urged to “suffer” as they live in accordance with the “gospel of
Christ”
2:1-11: Jesus is presented as the paradigm of one who willingly accepts “death on a cross”
before being “exalted”
2:12-18: Paul is depicted as being “poured out” as a libation in the hope that he might
boast “on the day of Christ”
2:19-24: Timothy is presented briefly as an exemplar of one who is not self-interested but
rather serves Christ “in the work of the gospel”
2:25-30: Epaphroditus is commended for his willingness to come “close to death” for the
sake of Christ
3:1-16: Paul is shown to have suffered the “loss of all things” in order to “share in Christ’s
sufferings”, and one day “the resurrection of the dead”
3:17-4:1: Philippians are urged to become “imitators” of Paul rather than enemies of “the
cross of Christ”
It would seem possible that here, the identification of believers with the death and
resurrection of Christ – Moo’s Pauline “law of the kingdom” – has combined with the
Greco-Roman moralistic commonplace of Exemplary Argumentation to produce a
particular expression of kerygmatic rhetoric.
Rollin A. Ramsaran comments on the converging conclusions of a variety of approaches
to the study of the arrangement of Philippians:
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