A study in Philippians - Greeting and Introduction

I do rejoice - do you rejoice?

The all-inclusive greeting

Philippians 1:1 (NIV) Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Note the warmth of Paul's greeting, look back at the start of his other letters and in most of them he asserts his apostleship

• Galatians 1:1 (NIV) Paul, an apostle-sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father,
  
• 2 Corinthians 1:1 (NIV) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
  
• Romans 1:1 (NIV)Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle In this lovely letter Paul just introduces himself as Paul a servant of Jesus Christ.

Saints... not the stain glass window type but the meaning of the original Greek word is the same as holy that is it is different from other things, it also has the meaning of set apart.

• The priests were holy unto God (Leviticus 21:6) set apart from others as they had a special job to do.
• The tithe was set apart from the rest it was holy to God (Leviticus 27:30, 32) the tithe was different because it could not be used to buy food.
• The Jews were a holy nation (Exodus 19:6). They were holy unto the Lord. They were different from all the other nations, for they had a special place in the purpose of God. But the refused to play the part which God had for them. They even rejected His Son and crucified Him.
  

Paul is saying that as Christians are to be saint to be different from everyone else, they are consecrated to God because of their special relationship to Jesus Christ.... each one of us saints!

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2 (NIV)

When Paul puts these two words together he is doing something very wonderful. He is taking the normal greetings of two nations and moulding them into one. Grace is the greeting which Greek letters would start and Peace the greeting which the Jews met each other with.

Charis - Grace is lovely word; the basic ideas in it are joy and pleasure, brightness and beauty. With Jesus life becomes lovely because man is no longer the victim of Gods law but the child of his love.

Eirene - Peace is a comprehensive word. It never means a negative peace, never simply the absence of trouble. It means the total well-being, everything that makes for your highest good. Peace is always to do with relationships, a person's relationship to themselves, to others and to God. It's always peace that is born of reconciliation.

So when Paul is prays for grace and peace on his people he is praying that they should have the joy of knowing God as Father and the peace of being reconciled to God, to mankind, and to themselves, and that grace and peace can only come through Jesus Christ.

Philippi

When Paul chose a place to preach the gospel he did it with the eye of a strategist. He chose a place that was important and was the key point for the whole area. The city was founded by Philip the Father of Alexander the Great there are a range of hills which divide Europe and Asia and just at Philipp the hills dip into a pass so the city commands the road from Europe to Asia.

In the Roman times it was a Roman Colony. Wherever they were these Colonies were little fragments of Rome. The citizens were proud to be Roman, they spoke the Roman langue, wore Roman dress, Roman customs were observed. Luke captures this pride as he writes in Acts 16:20 (NIV)"These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.

"Paul wrote our citizenship is in heaven (3:20) Just as a Roman citizen does not forget, in any environment that he was Roman so Christians must never forget, in any society that they are Christians.

Paul and Philippi

It was on his second missionary journey, about A.D. 52, that Paul first came to Philippi. Urged on by the vision of the man of Macedonia with his appeal to come over and help.The story of Paul's stay in Philipp is told in Acts 16 and it's an interesting story. It centres around three people: - Lydia, seller of purple; the demented slave-girl, and the Roman jailer.

All three of them were from different nations. The whole Empire was being gathered into the Christian church.

Not only did they come from different nationalities they also came from different grades in society.

• Lydia was a dealer in purple, one of the most costly substances in the ancient world and was the equivalent of a merchant prince.
  
• The girl was a slave and therefore in the eyes of the law not a person at all.
  
• The jailer was a Roman citizen from a sturdy Roman middle class family. In these three the top bottom and middle of society are all represented.
  

No chapter in the Bible shows so well the all-embracing faith which Jesus brought to mankind.

True Friendship

There had grown up between Paul and the Philippian church a bond of friendship that was closer than any other church. One of Pauls pride boasts was that he took from no-one, he was not a burden to the churches he visited and if needed he even worked to pay his way. As far as we know it was from the Philippians alone that he agreed to accept a gift. Soon after he left and he went to Thessalonica and the church sent him a gift and more than once! When he was in Corinth he was not a burden to the church because the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what he needed (2Cor 11:9).

The Letter

Paul wrote this letter while he was in prison in Roman and there are four main reasons why he wrote this letter.

1. It's a letter of thanks. The years have passed since his visit and it's now AD63/64, some ten years after his first visit, and once again the Philippians have sent him a gift (4:10-11)
2. It has to do with Epaphroditus he was not only was he carrying the gift but he also was going to stay with Paul and become his personal servant. He became sick and Paul sent him home knowing that they would be worried about him. Paul worried that they would think he had just quit so he wrote a moving testimonial for him. (2:29-30).
3. It's a letter of encouragement to the church in the trials they were going through (1:28-30)
4. It's is an appeal for unity. We see the selfless humility of Jesus (2:1-11). There were two women quarrelling and were endangering the peace (4:2) and there were false teachers who were seeking to lure the Philippians from the true path (3:2)

The Lovely Letter

For many of us Philippians is the loveliest letter Paul wrote. It has been called by two titles The Epistle of Excellent Things and so indeed it is; and it has been called The Epistle of Joy.

Again and again the words joy and rejoice recur. "Rejoice" Paul writes "again I say rejoice" even in prison directing the hearts of his friends - and ours - to the joy that no man can take from us.

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