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PAUL’S LETTER TO THE CHURCH AT PHILIPPI.
Philippi was the place where Paul and Silas had been imprisoned and beaten. The church they planted there included their jailer and others who knew how much they had suffered to bring them the Good News. It seemed to have produced a very faithful and caring church, one which repeatedly sent Paul gifts.
Around AD 58-61 Paul was imprisoned (house arrest) in Rome after he had appealed to Caesar. While he was waiting for Caesar's verdict on him, the church at Philippi sent Epaphroditus with a gift for Paul.
This is his letter of thanks.
1.1 - 8 GREETINGS - YOU ARE VERY DEAR TO ME.
From Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ, to all God’s special people in Philippi with those who oversee the church and those who serve.
Charis, Shalom, (Greek and Hebrew greetings) from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every time I remember you I thank God for you and pray for you all. The memories are happy ones because of the way you shared with me in the task of spreading the Good News, from the first day I met you right up to the present.
Of this I am confident - that God who began a good work in you will carry it through to completion in the Day of Jesus Christ - His final triumph.
It is just as well I think like this about you all because you are very much in my heart - you who have shared with me the things that matter to me most - God’s Grace, The Good News, its proof and confirmation, my imprisonment for it. God knows how much I long for you all, sharing Christ’s feelings for you.
1.9 MY PRAYER
I pray for you. I pray that your love may be increasingly a discerning, knowing, perceptive, understanding kind of love; that you may recognise excellence and approve it. When the day of Christ arrives I want you to be found pure; with nothing in you that could trip anyone up. I want your lives to be full of fruit like an orchard at harvest - good fruit which comes from Jesus Christ and brings God glory and praise.
1.12 - 18 MY IMPRISONMENT.
I want you to realise, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me - my imprisonment here in Rome - has helped spread the Good News. Throughout the Praetorium and beyond it is known that I am suffering imprisonment for Christ’s sake. This is encouraging many brothers to speak out boldly.
There are some, I am sorry to say, who preach Christ with wrong motives - envy and strife - but others preach Him out of goodwill. The first use the preaching of Christ as a weapon against their opponents in argument, a means of scoring points or getting their own way. Do they think they can make my imprisonment worse!
The others preach from love, knowing I am here to defend and prove the Good News.
So what! Christ is proclaimed - whether in truth or sham, and in this I rejoice and intend to go on rejoicing.
1.19 - 26 LIFE OR DEATH.
I am facing possible execution and yet I know that by your prayers and by the plentiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this situation I am in will turn out right. I am not expecting to be ashamed but bold. I am expecting that now as always in me - in my body whether living or dying - Christ will be shown to be great.
For me, Life equals Christ. For me death will be gain.
If I am to go on living, that will mean more opportunity to work and see the fruit of my labour. On the other hand, I would like to go to be with Christ which is far better. I am caught between the two. But I know I need to stay alive for your sake.
In fact I am convinced that I shall not be executed this time but released to come to you again, and go on adding to your faith and joy in Christ Jesus.
1.27 - 30 A WORTHY LIFESTYLE.
Meanwhile - make sure your lifestyle is worthy of the Good News of Christ - whether I come to you or not, I want to hear it reported that you are standing firm, united in spirit and soul, striving together for the Good News and the Faith.
Don’t be scared of the opposition - actually they are scared of you because what God is demonstrating in your lives means destruction to them as well as salvation to you.
You are given the privilege, not only of faith in Christ but of suffering for Him. You share the same struggle, the same conflict, that you saw in me (when Silas and I were whipped and put in the stocks in Philippi) - and in which, as you hear, I am still involved.
2:1 - 4 UNITY & HUMILITY.
Right then, if Christ really is alongside encouraging you, if your love has any real care in it, if spiritual fellowship or even human compassion mean anything at all to you - stay together. Let’s have unity of mind, soul, love and purpose.
Quit squabbling. Don’t stand on dignity or pull rank on each other. Have the humility to put each other above yourselves and pay attention to each other’s interests before your own.
2:5 - 11 CHRIST WAS NO STATUS-SEEKER.
Know the mind of Christ Jesus and make it your own. He was no status-seeker, He had it all already. Equality with God would have been no promotion, but He did not cling to it. He emptied Himself, chose servanthood for Godhood, took on manhood and was found to be human.
He went further, took a humble role and carried His obedience right through to death - even the death of a condemned criminal nailed to a cross.
So God has raised Him up to the highest place; given Him a name above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven, on Earth and beneath it. And every tongue shall acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
2.12 - 18 SALVATION DEMONSTRATED IN ACTION.
So dear friends, you used to obey me when I was with you, now all the more in my absence - get to work on this salvation of yours - demonstrate it and live up to it - an awesome responsibility that should make you fear and tremble. Remember it is God who energises you both to desire and to achieve what pleases Him.
Cut out all moaning, whining, whinging and fussing - so that you may be examples of uncorrupted innocence in a twisted and corrupt generation. As God’s children you are to be the lights that shine in this world, the people who keep God’s life-giving word and truth available.
When the day of Christ comes I want to be able to look back and say with confidence that my life’s work was not wasted. And if I am going to be executed after all I want to rejoice with you all that I am a sacrifice offered up for the sake of your faith (as you would rejoice with me if it were the other way round.)
2.19 - 30 MY COLLEAGUES.
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, and get some encouraging news of you. I have no one else with such a genuine care for your affairs, all the others are too interested in their own affairs to put Jesus Christ first, but Timothy has proved himself, as you know he was like a son to me when we served together in the Gospel; so once I know how it will turn out for me, I will send him to you. I still trust that I shall come to you myself before long.
I did, of course, send Epaphroditus to you - there are no reservations about him, he is my brother and colleague and comrade whom you sent to me and he helped me in my time of need, but he wanted to get back to you especially as he knew you had heard of his illness. Yes, he nearly died, but God had mercy on him and on me. Losing him would have been one sorrow too many, but I was happy to send him back to you. He can cheer us both up.
Welcome him, then, joyfully in the Lord and honour him as one who nearly gave his life in the service of Christ by coming here to do for me, on your behalf, what you could not do yourselves.
3:1 - 3 DANGER, FACTIONS.
Right, let’s move on, and keep rejoicing in the Lord.
The next thing I wanted to say I have said before, but it’s no trouble to say it again and safer for you to hear it twice than to forget it.
Watch out, the hounds are after you, workers of evil. Who are they? Why those who want to recruit you into their faction and cut you off from others in the process. You are gentiles, they want you to become Jewish proselytes and be circumcised. But the true Jews are those who serve God in spirit, have confidence in Jesus Christ and not in human flesh.
3:4 - 14 WHAT I LOST - AND GAINED.
If anyone can claim to have status, accomplishment or natural advantages to rely on, I can claim more. A thoroughbred Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised at eight days old, a true elite Hebrew, and as for keeping the legal observances - I was a Pharisee, that says it all. My total dedication and zeal was demonstrated by the way I persecuted the church. So far as strict legalistic observance was concerned, I was blameless.
Oh yes, I had it all, but I threw it all away. Everything I used to value so much, I now consider worthless compared with the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have actually lost all I had, for Him. But I treat it all as rubbish so that I may gain Christ.
I want to be found in Him without any of my own rightness which came from keeping the rules. No, I want the rightness which is given by God to those who trust Christ.
And I want to know Him - to go on knowing Him better - to discover the power of His resurrection - to share with Him in His suffering. Let me die with Him if only I can reach His resurrection from the dead. I have not arrived yet, I am far from complete, but I am going for it.
Oh, let me take hold of that same purpose for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me. My brothers and sisters, I know I have not taken hold of it yet. Just one thing - forgetting the past and stretching forward to what is ahead, I am running flat out to reach the finishing tape - the prize - the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
3:15 - 21 CITIZENS OF HEAVEN.
Think like this, you who are mature. The others, God will teach, but let us all live by what He has taught us so far. My brothers and sisters, follow me together, taking note of others who do the same; but as I told you before I tell you now with tears, there are many who go the other way. They are enemies of Christ’s cross, heading for destruction, their attention focussed on earthly matters, glorying in shame and making gods of their stomachs.
Our citizenship is in Heaven. We are looking out for our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who will come from our home country. He will change our humble Mark-one human bodies into glorious Mark-two human bodies like His own, using his power to bring everything under His control.
4.1 - 5 UNITED, JOYFUL AND REASONABLE.
Stand firm in the Lord, you are my dearly loved brothers and sisters, you are my joy and crown and I long for your presence. Please Euodia, and please Syntyche, make up your differences; and you my loyal colleague, help them do it. They worked with me in spreading the Good News along with Clement and the rest of the team - I forget all the names but they are in the Book of Life.
Always rejoice in the Lord - I’ll say that again - rejoice.
Let people find you reasonable and approachable, unthreatening and gentle because the Lord is right there where you are.
4:6 - 7 THE PEACE OF GOD.
Don’t go to pieces when everything seems to come at you from all directions - the way to handle such situations is to let God know your requests by determined concentrated focussed prayer, and thanking Him all the time. Then God’s peace which passes understanding will be a garrison surrounding your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
4:8-9 WITH WHAT TO FILL YOUR MINDS.
Fill your minds with what is true, worthy of respect, righteous, pure, beautiful and honoured - if things are upright and praiseworthy, these are the things to apply your minds to. Do what you learned, received, heard and saw in me. The God of peace shall be with you.
4:10 - 20 THANK YOU FOR YOUR GIFT.
I was delighted to know that you thought of me again (not that you were not thinking of me all along but had no chance to express it before).
I am not speaking of my own need here, I have learned to be content in all circumstances and been initiated into the arts of having plenty and having nothing. With Christ as my strength I can do anything.
But you did well to take your share when I was under pressure. I well remember, back in in the early days when I left Macedonia, you at Philippi were the only church to share with me in giving and receiving. When I went on the Thessalonica you sent me gifts for my needs time and again.
It is not the gift itself that I value, but what it tells me about you. You are producing good fruit.
I have everything. I am full and flowing over since I received your gift, brought to me by Epaphroditus. It is like a cloud of incense going up to God and it pleases Him. My God will meet all you need, as befits His vast wealth in glory in Christ Jesus. Glory to God the Father through timeless ages.
4:21 - 23 CLOSING GREETINGS.
Greetings to all saints (God’s special people - yes, that’s what you are). The brothers and sisters with me sent greetings, especially those of Caesar’s household.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Paul.