PAULS MOST PERSONAL LETTER

 

                             

                                            

Hannah Moore an outstanding witness for the gospel in the 19^th century England, sometimes felt discouraged about the quality of her spiritual penmanship. Although she organized schools for the un-evangelized poor and wrote many tracts and hymns, she had a low opinion of her effectiveness. This was her self –appraisal “God is sometimes pleased to work with the most unworthy instrument; I suppose to take away every shadow of doubt that it is his own doing. It always gives me the idea of a great author writing with a very bad pen.” We need not be discouraged; God the great author is able to use even scratchy pens to communicate his message to the people around. (Vernom grounds)

Philippians is Paul’s most tender epistle. To understand the epistle, we need to know about the background of the church that it was written to and the circumstances surrounding its writing. On his second missionary journey (Acts 16), Paul saw a man of Macedonia in a vision appealing to him to go there and help them. Paul with his companions Luke, Silas and Timothy went to Philippi a city in eastern Macedonia in response to the vision. The city was named after King Philip, the father of Alexander the great.

During his missionary journeys, whenever Paul entered a city he would look for the Jew’s  worship center –a synagogue. At Philippi he could not find a synagogue an indication that there were very few Jews. Only ten Jewish men were required to start a synagogue.  After a few days, Paul and his companions went to the riverside, where a small group of Jewish women met for prayer.

As Paul spoke about Jesus as the Messiah, the Lord opened the heart of a woman named Lydia to respond in faith. She was a businesswoman from Thyatira who sold purple fabrics. She was the first convert in Europe. She and all her household believed and were baptized. She apparently had a large enough house to accommodate the four evangelists; she invited them to stay in her house. We read of the young church meeting in her house later (Acts16:40).

A demon-possessed slave-girl who brought her owners much income through her ability to tell fortunes followed Paul and his companions  crying out, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17). This went on for many days, but finally Paul grew annoyed and cast the demon out of the girl. This slave-owners who lost their source of income dragged Paul and Silas before the authorities, had them beaten and thrown into jail, where their feet were fastened into the stocks.

Where was God in all this? He had seemingly led these men to Philippi in a distinct way. Had He left them? Had Paul misinterpreted the vision? No, as the timely, powerful earthquake showed, they had not missed God’s will, he had signaled them to go there and he was still in control!  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God when suddenly a great earthquake shook the foundations of the prison.

The earthquake led to the dramatic conversion of the jailer and his household (16:34). Paul and Silas were released from jail. After a brief visit to Lydia’s house where the believers were, he left the city. Paul left a small, but powerful young church at Philippi; this was the first church in Europe. Possibly Luke was left behind to nurture the young church. From that point Luke the author of the book of Acts uses “they” instead of “we” in recording the rest of Paul’s journey.

It’s to this church that Paul wrote the Philippians letter that we find in the Bible. The setting for the writing of Philippians was about 10-12 years after the church began. During those years, Paul had re-visited Philippi at least twice during his third missionary journey, once at the beginning (2Cor.8:1-5) and again near the end (Acts 20:6). Paul mentions several people by name in the letter indicating that despite the passage of the years, he still remembered them. The members of that Church had remained near and dear to his heart.

Paul wrote the Philippians letter from the prison described at the end of Acts (Acts 28:30-31), as he waited for his court appearance before Caesar. He was in his own rented quarters and  not in the dungeon as he was when he wrote 2 Timothy his final epistle. Though he was chained constantly to a Roman guard, he was free to preach to all those who visited him. However, he was not able earn money for his upkeep through making tents (Acts 18:1-4, 20:33-35).

When the Philippians heard of Paul’s situation , they sent a gift in care of one of their faithful members, Epaphroditus (Phil 4:10).  Philippians is a thank you note that Paul gave Epaphroditus to take back to them.  Paul’s primary purpose in writing this letter was to express his joy and gratitude to them for their gift. However he used the opportunity to tell them about his circumstances at Rome and how his service to God was progressing.

Paul was concerned about the challenges the church was experiencing. He wrote to exhort them to stay united, to stand firm through persecution and to rejoice in the Lord regardless of circumstances. The church at Philippi was almost free from those errors which the churches in the day had. Philippians is one of Paul’s most personal letters, full of tender feelings for these people.

Unlike in his other letters Paul does not call himself an apostle; he does not need to assert his authority to them. Philippians is not a theological discussion, it is a letter written to people who are dear to him. Paul associated Timothy with himself in the greetings because he was a co-laborer not because he was a co-author. Timothy had accompanied him when the church at Philippi was founded, Timothy had visited it at his request (Acts 19:22) and had again accompanied Paul on a later visit (Acts 20:4); so the Philippians were very familiar with him.

Paul referred to himself as a bond-servant of Christ. A bond-servant described a slave who was freed but chose to remain a servant instead. He willing committed himself to serve a master he loved and respected. A bond-servant was absolutely sold out to his master’s will and totally devoted to him. He was willing to do whatever his master wanted him to do and to go wherever he led him. He was ready to serve his master to the end. This is the picture that Paul wanted to paint in their mind about his relation to the Lord.

Paul included the entire church in his greetings “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons (1:1). The title saint means “set apart”, saints serve a higher purpose on earth than the unbelievers. They are set apart to serve Gods purpose on earth. Paul calls then “saints in Christ”, they live in Christ for the purpose of glorifying him.  A Christian is always and everywhere conscious of the surrounding presence of Christ.

 Paul includes the phrase “who are in Philippi” to remind these saints that they live in two spheres at the same time: “in Christ” and “in Philippi. It is important to note the order Paul gives here: first in Christ, second in their city. Too many times as Christians we reverse the order. Our position in Christ should drastically affect how we live in our city. If we focus only on being “in Christ” then it will be easy to fall into a pious, self-absorbed approach to spirituality. And if we only concentrate on being “in Philippi” then we may easily become absorbed into our culture. We will be salt that loses its savor, we shall merely reflect the conditions around us rather than altering them.

Paul list starts with the ordinary saints; yes lest we think that one group is more precious to God than the other.  Again the leaders are first and foremost saints. Paul acknowledges “the elders and deacons.” The church at Philippi had grown, it had leaders in place. There was a distinction between elders and deacons in the early church. Elders were overseers responsible for the overall spiritual leadership of the church.

Paul directed Titus to appoint elders in every town (Titus 1:5, 7).  Peter appealed to elders to be shepherds of Gods flock, serving as overseers willingly as God wants them to be, eager to serve, being examples of the flock (1 Peter 5:2).  Deacons, on the other hand, are responsible for the physical and material needs of the church (Acts 6:1-15). The verse also reveals a plurality of elders and deacons in the church. All these leaders are necessary for a church to become vibrant and to play its role successfully.While this team of leaders is responsible to lead the church, they are to do so as servant leaders.