Philippians 1:1 – Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (NLT)

In today’s passage we have the opening verses of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, a city named after the father of Alexander the Great.  Paul first visited Philippi in 52 AD.  Luke, the author of Acts and the Gospel of Luke, was a traveling companion of Paul during his first visit to Philippi, and in Acts 16 he records their meeting with Lydia.  Lydia was a successful business woman who became instrumental in the establishment of the church in Philippi.  At the time that he Paul wrote this letter, the Church in Philippi was growing steadily.  It was probably a fairly wealthy Church for its time.  They had been called upon by Paul on several occasions to help in ministry in other areas, and to help Paul, as well.

Paul wrote this letter while imprisoned in Rome, not long before the end of his life. Vast changes had swept through the Church by this time. Christianity was no longer associated with Judaism.  Consider how radical this was in the life of Paul. He began as a Pharisee in the Jewish faith, now he was the elder statesman of a Gentile religious movement. It is important for us to recognize these radical changes in the Church and in Paul’s life so that we may better understand the depth of his words in this passage. 

In verse five Paul speaks about their partnership in the Gospel from the first day until the present.  Much had changed from that first day, yet these people had remained faithful.  I suppose we have all seen some changes in the Church in our lifetime, maybe some good and some not so good.  We are called, however, to remain faithful like the Philippians.  We, too, are in partnership with the Philippians, Paul, and all of those who have come before us. We partner with them in living out the gospel, confident that the one who began this work in us will see it to completion (verse 6).  In this endeavor, we should pray for one another as Paul prayed for the Christians in Philippi: that our love may abound more and more as we grow in insight; that we will be able to discern what is best; and that we would be filled with the fruit of righteousness (verses 9-10).

Today, let us remember that together we are partners in this calling! 

Posted by Ramón Torres