This is the lesson I taught in Sunday School last week. I will be going through Philippians whenever I teach this class, Lord willing.
The epistle to the Philippians has very little to no controversy as to date, origin or authorship. It is universally accepted by reasonable scholars that the letter was written by the Apostle Paul during his imprisonment in Rome between 59 and 61 AD. Acts chapter 16 gives us the account of the establishment of the church at Philippi, a city located in East Macedonia in modern day Greece, by Paul and Silas during Paul’s second missionary journey in approximately 49 AD. Paul visited the city at least two more times, in 56 and 57 AD.
During Paul’s imprisonment in Rome, the Philippian church sent Paul a gift delivered by Epaphroditus, a member of the church. When Paul received the gift he sent what is essentially a thank-you note back with Epaphroditus to the church, and we have that letter in the Epistle to the Philippians.
Philipians 1:1-6
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul addresses the church at Philippi in a friendly, familiar fashion. The church there had not questioned his authority as others in Galatia or Corinth had, so there was no need for him to belabor the point of his calling.
He greets the church as saints in Christ Jesus, as he does in all his letters to bodies of believers. We shouldn’t overlook the implications of this word “saint”. A saint is one who is called out or set apart. All people who have repented and put their trust in Christ are called out of the world and set apart for God. There is no special status of saint as the Roman Catholic Church would say, but rather all believers everywhere and at all times are saints.
Paul also addresses the overseers and deacons. Overseer can also be translated as bishop, however, in Acts 20 Paul calls the elders, overseers. In addition to this, the pastoral epistles give the qualifications for elders and bishops, and they are virtually indistinguishable, so they may be used interchangeably. Paul uses the plural of bishop and deacon in this passage, so we may assume that there is a plurality of overseers and deacons present at Philippi. A deacon is simply a servant of the church, and may be involved in financial distribution and other mercy ministries within the body, whereas an elder or bishop is in an authoritative role of ruling, teaching, and exhorting the body.
Paul ends his greeting with his typical “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. First, we see that the grace and peace we have as believers comes from God and not from the bringer of the message. While Paul had done many things for the Philippians, including bringing them the Gospel, the grace and peace they have is a gift of God brought by the means of Gospel proclamation.
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
The apostle begins with thanksgiving to God, letting the Philippians know that he has great joy because of them and that he prays for them constantly. The joy that Paul has is a direct result of their perseverance in the faith from the day he brought the Gospel message to them until now. He speaks of this perseverance in terms of a partnership with him, and we must, as believers, see one another as partners in Gospel ministry rather that those folks we run into on Sunday morning. It should bring us great joy that we have other believers to walk in this sinful world alongside. Prayer for one another should never be seen as a burden, but as a joyful privilege, that God has provided brothers and sisters for us to lean on and to support. We should take pleasure in the triumphs of the brethren, and mourn with each other in times of loss. If we partake of the Gospel, we have a great many brothers and sisters with whom we should share our lives with, not just the doughnuts in the lobby.
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
This is why Paul thanks God for the perseverance of the Philippian believers. It is not Paul that began the good work in them, nor was it the Philippians that will bring it to completion. This is a promise that we can hang our hat on! God Himself began the work in us and He WILL see it completed. Paul leaves no room for man’s decisions in this equation. Paul can have a joyful resolution that all of those who trusted in Christ and repented of their sins will continue trusting and repenting until the day of our Lord. This concept is not new to Pauline writing, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Romans 8:31-35
We can see now that the partnership in the Gospel is an eternal, God initiated, God sustained, thing. We should fall to our knees daily and praise God for beginning this good work in us and our brothers and sisters, as well as being faithful to complete it.
